cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Anti‐Discrimination Versus Anti‐Poverty: Does Affirmative Action Hurt the Poor?

Scholars have implied that affirmative action is associated with deteriorating conditions for the poor. However, few have attempted to demonstrate any association between affirmative action and poverty empirically. The author relied upon data from the Current Population Survey (CPS) 1975-1999 and a generalized least squares model to test the relationship between the percent of Blacks who qualify as poor in a given year and several measures of affirmative action. The author finds a mixed but largely null relationship between Black poverty and affirmative action and concludes that affirmative action programs have little impact on Black poverty levels.
Isothiazolidinone Inhibitors of Ptp1B Containing Imidazoles and Imidazolines

The structure-based design and synthesis of isothiazolidinone (IZD) inhibitors of PTP1B containing imidazoles and imidazolines and their modification to interact with the B site of PTP1B are described here. The X-ray crystal structures of 3I and 4I complexed with PTP1B were solved and revealed the inhibitors are interacting extensively with the B site of the enzyme.
A full-parameter unidirectional metamaterial cloak for microwaves

Invisibility is a notion that has long captivated the popular imagination. However, in 2006, invisibility became a practical matter for the scientific community as well, with the suggestion that artificially structured metamaterials could enable a new electromagnetic design paradigm, now termed transformation optics. Since the advent of transformation optics and subsequent initial demonstration of the microwave cloak, the field has grown rapidly. However, the complexity of the transformation optics material prescription has continually forced researchers to make simplifying approximations to achieve even a subset of the desired functionality. These approximations place profound limitations on the performance of transformation optics devices in general, and cloaks especially. Here, we design and experimentally characterize a two-dimensional, unidirectional cloak that makes no approximations to the underlying transformation optics formulation, yet is capable of reducing the scattering of an object ten wavelengths in size. We demonstrate that this approximation-free design regains the performance characteristics promised by transformation optics.
Sulfation of cellulose with sulfur-trioxide-dimethyl sulfoxide

Abstract Sulfur trioxide reacts with dimethyl sulfoxide to produce a stable solid complex. With this complex, cellulose can be sulfated to degrees of substitution of 1.3–2.0 in 15–30 minutes at 15–25 °.
Changes in anthropometric measurements, body composition, blood pressure, lipid profile, and testosterone in patients participating in a low-energy dietary intervention

Abstract Objective The purpose of this study was to describe changes in anthropometric measurements, body composition, blood pressure, lipid profile, and testosterone following a low–energy-density dietary intervention plus regimented supplementation program. Methods The study design was a pre-post intervention design without a control group. Normal participants were recruited from the faculty, staff, students, and community members from a chiropractic college to participate in a 21-day weight loss program. All participants (n = 49; 36 women, 13 men; 31 ± 10.3 years of age) received freshly prepared mostly vegan meals (breakfast, lunch, and dinner) that included 1200 to 1400 daily calories (5020.8 to 5857.6 J) for the women and 1600 to 1800 (6694.4 to 7531.2 J) daily calories for the men. Nutritional supplements containing enzymes that were intended to facilitate digestion, reduce cholesterol levels, increase metabolic rate, and mediate inflammatory processes were consumed 30 minutes before each meal. The regimented supplementation program included once-daily supplementation with a green drink that contained alfalfa, wheatgrass, apple cider vinegar, and fulvic acid throughout the study period. A cleanse supplementation containing magnesium, chia, flaxseed, lemon, camu camu, cat's claw, bentonite clay, tumeric, pau d'arco, chanca piedra, stevia, zeolite clay, slippery elm, garlic, ginger, peppermint, aloe, citrus bioflavonoids, and fulvic acid was added before each meal during week 2. During week 3, the cleanse supplementation was replaced with probiotic and prebiotic supplementation. Results Multiple paired t tests detected clinically meaningful reductions in weight (−8.7 ± 5.54 lb) (−3.9 ± 2.5 kg), total cholesterol (−30.0 ± 29.77 mg/dL), and low-density lipoprotein cholesterol (−21.0 ± 25.20 mg/dL) ( P P Conclusions Weight loss and improvements in total cholesterol and low-density lipoprotein cholesterol levels occurred after a low–energy-density dietary intervention plus regimented supplementation program.
Genomic Aberrations in an African American Colorectal Cancer Cohort Reveals a MSI-Specific Profile and Chromosome X Amplification in Male Patients

Objective DNA aberrations that cause colorectal cancer (CRC) occur in multiple steps that involve microsatellite instability (MSI) and chromosomal instability (CIN). Herein, we studied CRCs from AA patients for their CIN and MSI status.
Cyclooxygenase-2 and thromboxane synthase in non-endocrine and endocrine tumors: a review.

Prostaglandins (PG) are members of a large group of hormonally active fatty acids derived from free fatty acids. They are formed from arachidonic acid—the major PG precursor. Cyclooxygenase (COX)-1 and -2 are the rate-limiting steps in PG synthesis. COX-2 is overexpressed in many human non-endocrine and endocrine tumors including colon, breast, prostate, brain, thyroid, and pituitary. COX-2 has an important role in angiogenesis and tumor growth. Thromboxane synthase (TS) catalyzes the synthesis of thromboxane A2 (TXA2), which is derived from arachidonic acid and prostaglandin H2 and is a vasoconstrictor and inducer of platelet aggregation. TXA2 stimulates tumor growth and spread of some tumors and TS appears to have a critical role in tumorigenesis in some organ systems. In this review, we examine the role of COX-2 and TS in various non-endocrine tumors, especially colon, breast, prostate, and brain as well as in endocrine tumors. The accumulating evidence points to an increasingly important role of COX-2 and TS in tumor progression and metastasis.
New horizons: explosive detection in soil extracts with a fiber-optic biosensor.

Contamination of soils with the explosives TNT and RDX is a worldwide problem that has resulted from inadequate disposal methods. Many of these contamination sites are currently being characterized or are undergoing remediation. The ability to obtain real-time, on-site results would save remediation time, reduce cost, and provide for efficient use of labor during cleanup. The NRL fiber-optic biosensor, which has been demonstrated for the on-site detection of explosives in ground water, has expanded its horizons to include detection in soil extracts. Soil samples from several sites in the United States were analyzed for TNT and RDX. The explosives were removed from the soil with a 3-min acetone extraction. The extract was mixed with buffer containing a fluorescent explosive analog and exposed to the antibody-coated optical probes. In the presence of either TNT or RDX, a decrease in the fluorescence signal, proportional to the explosive concentration, was observed. In less than 20 min, analysis on four optical probes was completed. Extract results from the fiber-optic biosensor were compared to those from U.S. EPA SW 846 Method 8330 (reverse-phase high-performance chromatography). Detection limits of 0.5 mg/kg (0.1 mg/l) of TNT and RDX in soil acetone extracts were obtained. © 2000 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.* Field Analyt Chem Technol 4: 239–245, 2000
The infrared spectrum and potential function of nitrosyl chloride

Abstract The infrared spectra of ClN15O and ClN14O have been examined with a prism spectrometer. The data obtained are sufficient to yield all of the anharmonic constants, Xij, and the harmonic frequencies. The potential field has been found to be adequately described by using a van der Waals repulsion term between the chlorine and oxygen atoms, or by assuming that the only interaction is one due to change in orbital hybridization, which couples the bending with the NCl stretch. For the first case the force constants are: KNO = 14.12, KNCl = 1.70 millidynes/A and Kγ = 0.827 × 10−11 ergs/radian2. The van der Waals constant A = 0.014 millidynes/A. For the second case the principal constants are only slightly different.
Design of DC-DC switched-capacitor voltage multiplier driven by DC energy transducer

This paper proposes a model to help designers maximize output power in systems that contain a DC energy transducer and a DC-DC multiplier charge pump by identifying initial circuit and device parameter estimates for SPICE simulations. This model also enables designers to use simple equations to estimate the sensitivity of the DC transducer's characteristic parameters, like short circuit current and output impedance, on the charge pump's output power.
Adults’ attitudes about gender nonconformity in childhood

This study examined attitudes about outcomes associated with childhood gender nonconformity. Participants were 518 undergraduate students (337 female; 181 male) at a midwestern university in the U.S. Participants were presented with 1 of 10 vignettes describing a target child (male or female) who varied in gendered traits, interests, and behaviors (strongly masculine, moderately masculine, neutral, moderately feminine or strongly feminine). They completed a 50-item questionnaire including demographics, predicted outcomes for the target (e.g., masculinity and femininity in adulthood, pressure to change, psychological adjustment in childhood and adulthood, and sexual orientation), and the Attitudes toward Women Scale (Spence et al., 1973). Participants thought masculine and feminine targets would be masculine and feminine in adulthood, respectively: thus, stability was expected for both sexes. Feminine targets, boys or girls, were thought to be more likely to display internalizing (e.g., anxiety, depression) behaviors and masculine targets more likely to display externalizing (e.g., aggression, conduct disorders) behaviors in both childhood and adulthood. Gender-nonconforming children were expected to experience more pressure to change their behavior and less likely to be exclusively heterosexual adults, the latter particularly so for strongly feminine boys. There were few significant effects of participant sex and no effects of attitudes about gender on any of these measures. These findings add to the literature by demonstrating that degrees of masculinity and femininity as well as of gender nonconformity are expected to be associated with predictable outcomes in a linear fashion in both sexes, with only a few differences between expectations for boys and girls.
Restricting oxygen supply to the prospective dorsal side does not reverse axis polarity in embryos of Xenopus laevis.

During the first cell cycle, the prospective dorsal side of the embryo of Xenopus laevis becomes enriched in mitochondria relative to the ventral side. This differential distribution of mitochondria persists throughout early development, but it is not known if it is of functional significance, since there do not appear to be dorsal-ventral differences in metabolic rate. However, the unilateral anaerobiosis experiments of Landstrom and Lovtrup do suggest a role for energy metabolism in determining axis polarity. These experiments apparently show that restricting oxygen supply to the prospective dorsal side causes a reversal of dorsal-ventral axis polarity. We have reinvestigated this point using cell-marking techniques. We find that although gastrulation is initiated at the open end of the tube, the polarity of neural plate development is unaffected. Thus, definitive dorsal-ventral polarity is not affected by the experimental treatment, and it is unlikely that gradients of energy metabolism have a role in specifying axis polarity in X. laevis.
Reduced isotope fractionation by denitrification under conditions relevant to the ocean

Abstract Experiments with two well-studied denitrifiers and one recently isolated marine suboxic zone denitrifier show that the cellular-level denitrification N isotope effect ( 15 e ) is typically lower than the canonical value of ∼25‰ under many conditions prevalent in the ocean. Across all three strains, 15 e is 10–15‰ at cellular nitrate reduction rates that are more representative of the environment than the very high rates under which we and previous investigators measure 15 e to be 20–30‰. A sharp decrease in 15 e is also observed in individual nitrate drawdown assays as the extracellular nitrate concentrations approach 2–35 μM and nitrate uptake becomes the rate-limiting step. On an apparently strain-specific basis, lower values of 15 e are observed under diverse conditions common in the natural environment: less reduced carbon sources, small inputs of oxygen, nutrient availability, agitation, and age of starter culture (i.e., initiation of assays with cells that had recently depleted a large previous nitrate amendment or were more recently in the exponential growth (“bloom”) phase). A conserved oxygen-to-nitrogen isotope relationship across the experiments for all three denitrifiers ( 18 e / 15 e = 0.93 ± 0.06 (1SD)) supports the interpretation that fractionation is imparted solely by the internal respiratory nitrate reductase, with the amplitude of 15 e varying with the proportional importance of cellular nitrate efflux relative to uptake. Aspects of the 15 e variation are unexpected; nevertheless, the occurrence of lower 15 e is robust. It is uncertain if our lower 15 e estimates apply to oceanic water column denitrification because field studies have generally yielded 15 e wc between 20–30‰, more similar to previous culture estimates and our estimates at high cell specific nitrate reduction rates. If denitrification in the ocean’s major suboxic zones does have an 15 e of ∼10–15‰, it would remove an apparent imbalance between global ocean N inputs and outputs previously suggested by fixed N isotope budgeting.
Adult human mylohyoid muscle fibers express slow-tonic, α-cardiac, and developmental myosin heavy-chain isoforms

Some adult cranial muscles have been reported to contain unusual myosin heavy-chain (MHC) isoforms (i.e., slow-tonic, α-cardiac, embryonic, and neonatal), which exhibit distinct contractile properties. In this study, adult human mylohyoid (MH) muscles obtained from autopsies were investigated to detect the unusual MHC isoforms. For comparison, the biceps brachii and masseter muscles of the same subjects were also examined. Serial cross-sections from the muscles studied were incubated with a panel of isoform-specific anti-MHC monoclonal antibodies that distinguish major and unusual MHC isoforms. On average, the slow type I and fast type II MHC-containing fibers in the MH muscle accounted for 54% and 46% of the fibers, respectively. In contrast to limb and trunk muscles, the adult human MH muscle was characterized by a large proportion of hybrid fibers (85%) and a small percentage of pure fibers (15%; P < 0.01). Of the fast fiber types, the proportion of the type IIa MHC-containing fibers (92%) was much greater than that of the type IIx MHC-containing fibers (8%; P < 0.01). Our data demonstrated that the adult human MH fibers expressed the unusual MHC isoforms that were also identified in the masseter, but not in the biceps brachii. These isoforms were demonstrated by immunocytochemistry and confirmed by electrophoretic immunoblotting. Fiber-to-fiber comparisons showed that the unusual MHC isoforms were coexpressed with the major MHC isoforms (i.e., MHCI, IIa, and IIx), thus forming various major/unusual (or m/u) MHC hybrid fiber types. Interestingly, the unusual MHC isoforms were expressed in a fiber type-specific manner. The slow-tonic and α-cardiac MHC isoforms were coexpressed predominantly with slow type I MHC isoform, whereas the developmental MHC isoforms (i.e., embryonic and neonatal) coexisted primarily with fast type IIa MHC isoform. There were no MH fibers that expressed exclusively unusual MHC isoforms. Approximately 81% of the slow type I MHC-containing fibers expressed slow-tonic and α-cardiac MHC isoforms, whereas 80% of the fast type IIa MHC-containing fibers expressed neonatal MHC isoform. The m/u hybrid fibers (82% of the total fiber population) were found to constitute the predominant fiber types in the adult human MH muscle. At least seven m/u MHC hybrid fiber types were identified in the adult human MH muscle. The most common m/u hybrid fiber types were found to be the MHCI/slow-tonic/α-cardiac and MHCIIa/neonatal, which accounted for 39% and 33% of the total fiber population, respectively. The multiplicity of MHC isoforms in the adult MH fibers is believed to be related to embryonic origin, innervation pattern, and unique functional requirements. © 2004 Wiley-Liss, Inc.
New Technical Developments In Fiber Optic Wired Cities

Optical fiber communication systems are discussed from the viewpoint of practical application in the field of analog video transmission systems. Transmission characteristics of optical fiber CATV systems are described from practical experiences at Higashi Ikoma two-way optical fiber CATV field trials. Some techniques to achieve high performance of such transmission characteristics are described. Some new devices such as optical directional couplers and optical switches are examined. Video transmission experiments of multiplexing two optical signals were performed using two LED's with different wavelengths.© (1979) COPYRIGHT SPIE--The International Society for Optical Engineering. Downloading of the abstract is permitted for personal use only.
One‐Year Changes in Symptoms of Depression and Weight in Overweight/Obese Individuals With Type 2 Diabetes in the Look AHEAD Study

Depressed individuals are frequently excluded from weight loss trials because of fears that weight reduction may precipitate mood disorders, as well as concerns that depressed participants will not lose weight satisfactorily. The present study examined participants in the Look AHEAD study to determine whether moderate weight loss would be associated with incident symptoms of depression and suicidal ideation, and whether symptoms of depression at baseline would limit weight loss at 1 year. Overweight/obese adults with type 2 diabetes (n = 5,145) were randomly assigned to an Intensive Lifestyle Intervention (ILI) or a usual care group, Diabetes Support and Education (DSE). Of these, 5,129 participants completed the Beck Depression Inventory (BDI) and had their weight measured at baseline and 1 year. Potentially significant symptoms of depression were defined by a BDI score ≥10. Participants in ILI lost 8.6 ± 6.9% of initial weight at 1 year, compared to 0.7 ± 4.8% for DSE (P < 0.001, effect size = 1.33), and had a reduction of 1.4 ± 4.7 points on the BDI, compared to 0.4 ± 4.5 for DSE (P < 0.001, effect size = 0.23). At 1 year, the incidence of potentially significant symptoms of depression was significantly lower in the ILI than DSE group (6.3% vs. 9.6%) (relative risk (RR) = 0.66, 95% confidence interval (CI) = 0.5, 0.8; P < 0.001). In the ILI group, participants with and without symptoms of depression lost 7.8 ± 6.7% and 8.7 ± 6.9%, respectively, a difference not considered clinically meaningful. Intentional weight loss was not associated with the precipitation of symptoms of depression, but instead appeared to protect against this occurrence. Mild (or greater) symptoms of depression at baseline did not prevent overweight/obese individuals with type 2 diabetes from achieving significant weight loss.
SMILAS: sensor based map generation for indoor location aware systems

The increasing availability of handheld and other kinds of mobile devices has increased the interest in creating location aware systems many of which require a map interface. Map generation of an area; be it outdoor or indoor is a tedious process. A considerable number of research proposals in this area propose using complex mobile systems that create a 2D map of the indoor environment. This might be a cost effective solution in an industrial or large business setting, but such systems cannot be used in a home setting for simple context aware applications. In this paper, we are proposing a minimal configuration system (SMILAS) for indoor map generation using handheld devices like smart phones. The proposed system can be used by any smart-home/context-aware application that needs context for indoor positioning and navigation - the context in this case being the position of the user in an indoor setting. The map generated by SMILAS has a reasonable error margin that can be tolerated by most of the context aware applications. We present the limitations of the current system and also suggest various improvements that would improve the accuracy of the map generated.
Spin and parity of the 6. 699 MeV level in /sup 17/F

$^{16}\mathrm{O}$($\stackrel{\ensuremath{\rightarrow}}{p}$,$p$)$^{16}\mathrm{O}$ measurements near ${E}_{p}=6.482$ MeV and phase shift analysis of the data permits an unambiguous ${J}^{\ensuremath{\pi}}=\frac{5}{{2}^{+}}$ assignment to the narrow level at ${E}_{x}(^{17}\mathrm{F})=6.699$ MeV that was previously listed as $\frac{3}{{2}^{\ensuremath{-}}}$. The level parameters suggest correspondence to a predicted 5p-4h state at ${E}_{x}=5.91$ MeV in $A=17$ nuclei.
Evaluation of 0.05% levocabastine versus 4% sodium cromolyn in the allergen challenge model.

Abstract Purpose: This study was conducted to evaluate the efficacy of 0.05% levocabastine compared with 4% Cromolyn for treating allergic conjunctivitis induced by ocular allergen challenge. Methods: Subjects who met all entry criteria and reacted positively to ocular allergen challenge at two previous visits (n = 50) received placebo in one eye and Cromolyn in the fellow eye, four times daily for 2 weeks. On day 18, subjects received the final dose of Cromolyn in the pretreated eye and one drop of levocabastine in the fellow eye. Subjects were challenged and evaluated after 3, 5, and 10 minutes. Four hours after drug administration, subjects were rechallenged and evaluated after 3, 5, and 10 minutes. Results: Levocabastine was significantly more effective than Cromolyn in inhibiting itching, hyperemia, eyelid swelling, chemosis, and tearing after the initial challenge and 4-hour rechallenge ( P Conclusion: These results suggest that levocabastine is superior to Cromolyn for treating allergen-induced conjunctivitis and has a duration of action of at least 4 hours.
An investigation of thermal stability and microhardness of electrodeposited nanocrystalline nickel-21% iron alloys

Abstract The thermal stability of an electrodeposited nickel-21% iron alloy with an average grain size of approximately 14 nm was investigated. Samples were annealed for 90 mins in the temperature range of 373–773 K. The results of this study showed that grain growth started after annealing at and above 400 K. Two regimes of grain growth were identified. It is suggested that the low temperature regime (below 575 K) is accommodated mainly by the grain boundary diffusion, while the high temperature regime is assisted by the lattice diffusion. The microhardness results also confirm the presence of these two regimes. The position of the (111) XRD peaks indicated a sudden decrease in the lattice parameter after annealing at 773 K, which is attributed to the loss of connectivity of the nanosize grains. The variation of hardness with grain size followed the Hall-Petch relationship.
Dual-Fuel Combustion Turbine Provides Reliable Power to U.S. Navy Submarine Base New London in Groton, Connecticut

In keeping with a long-standing tradition of running Base utilities as a business, the U.S. Navy Submarine Base New London installed a dual-fuel combustion turbine with a heat recovery boiler. The 5-megawatt (MW) gas- and oil-fired combustion turbine sits within the Lower Base area, just off the shores of the Thames River. The U.S. Navy owns, operates, and maintains the combined heat and power (CHP) plant, which provides power to the Navy?s nuclear submarines when they are in port and to the Navy?s training facilities at the Submarine Base. Heat recovered from the turbine is used to produce steam for use in Base housing, medical facilities, and laundries. In FY00, the Navy estimates that it will save over $500,000 per year as a result of the combined heat and power unit.
Contributions of the social context to the development of adolescent substance use: a multivariate latent growth modeling approach

This article demonstrates a latent growth curve methodology for analyzing longitudinal data of adolescent substance use. Hypotheses concerning the form of growth in alcohol, cigarette, and marijuana use, and covariates influencing the form of growth, were tested. Participants were male and female adolescents (n = 664) assessed at three time points. A common trajectory existed across the developmental period with significant increases in all three substances. Second-order multivariate extensions of the basic latent growth modeling framework suggested that associations among the individual differences parameters, representing growth or change in the various substance use behaviors, could be adequately modeled by a higher-order substance use construct. Inept parental monitoring, parent-child conflict, peer deviance, academic failure, gender, and age, were significant predictors of initial levels and the trajectory of substance use.
Influence of nonconservative differencing on transonic streamline shapes

A computer program recently developed by South and Brandt (1976) which contained the Murman (1973) conservative finite-difference scheme is easily modified to use the Garabedian and Korn (1971) nonconservative finite difference scheme. This program solves the transonic small disturbance equation for only symmetric flow, but incorporates several iterative solution techniques. Results are presented for the case where the equally spaced computational grid extended to infinity in both the streamwise and normal directions. Streamline shapes are obtained along several grid lines by a streamwise integration of the normal component of the perturbation velocity. Comparison cases are run for a 10% thick parabolic arc airfoil at zero incidence for freestream Mach numbers of 0, 0.70, 0.84, and 0.95. It is shown that the use of a nonconservative finite-difference scheme in transonic flow calculations destroys the global mass balance when shocks are present. This lack of mass balance may prove to be more crucial in the case of an unconfined external flow.
Haemoglobin-producing tissues of larvae and pupae of Chironomus thummi (Diptera)

Abstract Biochemical and immunocytochemical studies were performed to study the haemoglobin-synthesizing activity of the pupae of the insect Chironomus thummi. The electrophoretic pattern of haemoglobins in pupal haemolymph is identical to that of 4th-instar larvae. [3H]δ-aminolevulinic acid was specifically incorporated into haemoglobins in larval and pupal fat body organ cultures. In both cases, incorporated label comigrated with 4th-instar haemolymph haemoglobin markers on native polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis, indicating that the same haemoglobins are synthesized by both larval and pupal stages. Variations in proportions of specific labelled haemoglobin peaks between larval and pupal stages were noted, and may reflect different haemoglobin requirements for the two stages. A direct immunogold conjugate, specific for Chironomus haemoglobin, was localized specifically in rough endoplasmic reticulum of fat body cells of both larvae and pupae, and was absent from other fat body organelles and tissues examined, indicating that, like larval fat body, pupal fat body is a major site of haemoglobin production. The immune label was also seen over crystals in cells of the hindgut of early pupae, which suggests that these crystals are a site of initial haemoglobin deposition for haemoglobin clearance during metamorphosis.
Large-scale scientific application programs in chemistry and physics on an experimental parallel computer system

We present and discuss an experimental distributed system consisting of two IBM 4341s, an IBM 4381, and ten FPS-164 attached processors, configured to allow parallel execution of a single large-scale calculation on multiple processors. A number of our application programs have been converted to run on this system, and the strategy for this conversion is outlined in sufficient detail to facilitate the development of tests using other scientific and engineering computer application programs. Our tests, though limited to certain biochemical and physicochemical problems, demonstrate the versatility, flexibility, and accessibility of this system, and we find performance comparable to that of today's supercomputers, which suggests that our approach can provide a practical answer to many large-scale computer applications.
Precipitation in non-stoichiometric magnesium aluminate spinel

Abstract Precipitation, in non-stoichiometric magnesium aluminate spinel (MgO: 3·5Al2O3) single crystals was studied by transmission electron microscopy. For crystals annealed at 850°C for various times, the following three-stage sequence of precipitation was confirmed: Stage I Stage II Stage III Pro-precipitate I Supersaturated (G.P. zones?) Intermediate phases Equilibrium solid solution Pre-precipitate II Type I and Type II α-Al2O3 phase (G.P. precipitates?) The phases forming in stages I, II and III are believed to be coherent, semi-coherent and incoherent, respectively. The mechanical properties of crystals aged to stage I or II are much better than the supersaturated single-phase crystals or the over-aged crystals represented by state III.
Automatic multithreading and multiprocessing of C programs for IXP

Effective compilation of packet processing applications onto the Intel IXP network processors requires, among other things, the automatic use of multiple threads on one or more processing elements, and the automatic introduction of synchronization as required to correctly enforce dependences between such threads. We describe the program transformation that is used in the Intel Auto-partitioning C Compiler for IXP to automatically multithread/multi-process a program for the IXP. This transformation consists of steps that introduce inter-thread signaling to enforce dependences, optimize the placement of such signaling, reduce the number of signals in use to the number available in hardware, and transform the initialization code for correct execution in the multithreaded version. Experimental results show that our method provides impressive speedup for six PPSes (Packet Processing Stages) in the widely used NPF IP forwarding benchmarks. For most packet processing stages, our algorithms can achieve almost linear performance improvement after automatic multi-threading transformation. The automatic multi-processing transformation help further boost the speedup of two PPSes.
Complex analysis of a recurrent pleomorphic hyalinizing angiectatic tumor of soft parts

Summary Pleomorphic hyalinizing angiectatic tumor of soft parts is a recently recognized, low-grade mesenchymal neoplasm of uncertain lineage. It is characterized by clusters of ectatic, fibrin-lined, thin-walled vessels surrounded by pleomorphic but mitotically inert spindled cells with frequent intranuclear inclusions and a variable inflammatory component. Here, we report a case of recurrent pleomorphic hyalinizing angiectatic tumor in a 37-year-old white woman. Touch imprint cytologic analysis revealed oval and spindled cells with fine chromatin, occasional prominent intranuclear inclusions, and intracytoplasmic pigment. The histologic features of the cells constituting the bulk of tumor were those characteristic of a putative precursor lesion ("early pleomorphic hyalinizing angiectatic tumor") as well as another recently described entity known as hemosiderotic fibrohistiocytic lipomatous lesion. Cytogenetic analysis revealed 2 unbalanced translocations involving chromosomes 1 and 3 and chromosomes 1 and 10, with a karyotype of 45,XX,der(1)t(1;3)(p31;q12),-3,der(10)t(1;10)(p31;q25)[11]/46,XX[4], thus suggesting that this disease is neoplastic. The controversies in classification of these lesions are also discussed.
Photosynthetic downregulation in the conifer Metasequoia glyptostroboides growing under continuous light: the significance of carbohydrate sinks and paleoecophysiological implications

During the Eocene (ca. 45 Ma) a temperate climate at high northern latitudes provided an environment unlike any that currently exists on Earth. The growing season was characterized by long (up to 4...
Anal Pap smears: Should we be doing them?

Purpose: To identify the need to perform anal Papanicolau (Pap) smears for diagnosing histologic changes associated with human papilloma virus (HPV) infection in order to provide early intervention for the prevention of anal cancer. To offer the primary care provider information, based on evidence-based research, about identifying the high-risk patient using risk factors, instructions on performing the anal Pap smear, interpreting the results, and initiating treatment interventions and/or referrals for care. Additionally, the possibility of an HPV vaccine for men will be discussed. Data Sources: Evidence-based literature, theoretical framework, and peer-reviewed articles. Conclusions: Performing anal Pap smears is a valuable tool to detect cytologic changes associated with some strains of HPV infection. For persons participating in receptive anal intercourse, this diagnostic procedure provides the opportunity for early detection to guide appropriate follow-up and interventions. Implications for practice: Appropriate screening can be incorporated easily into a primary care practice. High-risk groups that would benefit from this screening include men who have sex with men, HIV-infected men and women, immunocompromised men and women, women with a history of cervical or vulvar cancer (or high-grade cervical lesions), and women participating in receptive anal intercourse.
Frictional and hydrologic properties of a major splay fault system, Nankai subduction zone

[1] We report on laboratory experiments examining the frictional and hydrologic properties of fault gouge and wall rock along a borehole transect that crosses a major out-of-sequence thrust splay fault within the Nankai accretionary complex. At 25 MPa effective normal stress, the fault zone material is frictionally weak (μ ≤ 0.44) and exhibits low permeability after shearing (k < 5.5 × 10−20 m2). Fault zone samples are weaker and less permeable than the surrounding wall rocks, consistent with their slightly higher clay abundance. All samples exhibit velocity-strengthening frictional behavior over most of the experimental conditions we explored, consistent with aseismic slip at shallow depths. The fault and wall rock both exhibit prominent minima in the friction rate parameter (a − b) for sliding velocities of 1–10 μm/s (∼0.1–1.0 m/day), comparable to rates for slow slip events. This suggests that the frictional properties of fault zone material play a central role in governing the mode of slip on subduction megathrusts.
A finite element procedure for large deflection analysis of plates with initial deflections

The concepts of the matrix displacement approach to finite element structural analysis are extended to analyze the large deflection behavior of plates with initial deflections. The initial deflections are considered to be of the order of magnitude of the plate thickness. The large deflection phenomena are accounted for by considering the influence of the element membrane forces due to initial deflection and large bending on element flexure stiffness matrices. The effects of element membrane forces due to initial deflection and large bending are characterized in the nonlinear stiffness formulations by the zero, first, and second order incremental stiffness matrices. Representations of the nonlinear effects are formulated for a conforming rectangular plate finite element. The formulations are appropriate for both the iterative and incremental approaches. Large deflection behaviors are predicted for rectangular plates with different length-width ratios and various boundary conditions. Comparisons with some available alternative analytic solutions are provided. Examples are performed by a piecewise linear incremental approach. A reduction scheme which removes certain degrees of freedom from the problem statement is incorporated into the numerical procedure.
Managing risk and ‘giving back’: Aspiration among working-class Latino youth in Silicon Valley

This article focuses on the formation of aspirations among low-income, ‘at-risk’ Latino youth attending a state and privately funded Biotechnology Academy within a public high school in San Jose, California. I identify a pattern of aspiration among Academy youth that contradicts the goal of individual advancement in the regional information economy stressed in the Academy: the desire to give back to a ‘community’ or to the nation via public service, especially that focused on the monitoring of ‘at-risk’ communities or military service. I link this pattern of aspiration to a school environment that promoted students’ internalization of an ‘at-risk’ status and encouraged their assumption of personal responsibility for that status. I also seek to demonstrate the ways in which an urban politics of surveillance and experiences of social and economic marginalization outside of school articulated with daily school experiences of surveillance and discipline to produce unanticipated ways of assuming responsibility...
Properties and discrimination of chaotic maps

Properties, discrimination, and practical applications of chaotic maps of the unit interval are considered. Emphasis is placed on a specific class of piecewise linear, one-dimensional maps, members of which give rise to finite-state Markov chains. Properties of maps in this class are presented; these properties suggest the value of these maps for generating random variables and processes. Algorithms are introduced for discriminating among these maps based on noisy observations, and preliminary experimental results are presented which illustrate the behavior of these algorithms. The use of these maps and discrimination algorithms for communication applications is considered. >
Thermal-aware floorplanning using genetic algorithms

In this work, we present a genetic algorithm based thermal-aware floorplanning framework that aims at reducing hot spots and distributing temperature evenly across a chip while optimizing the traditional design metric, chip area. The floorplanning problem is formulated as a genetic algorithm problem, and a tool called HotSpot is used to calculate floorplanning temperature based on the power dissipation, the physical dimension, and the location of modules. Area and/or temperature optimizations guide the genetic algorithm to generate the final fittest solution. The experimental results using MCNC benchmarks and a face detection chip show that our combined area and thermal optimization technique decreases the peak temperature sufficiently while providing floorplans that are as compact as the traditional area-oriented techniques.
NinjaMail: the design of a high-performance clustered, distributed e-mail system

In today's Internet era, electronic mail is replacing telephony and postal mail as the primary means of communication for hundreds of millions of individuals. Free e-mail services, such as Microsoft's Hotmail and Yahoo's Yahoo Mail, each have tens of millions of subscribers. However, these and other current e-mail systems unfortunately are nor capable of handling the scale of Internet e-mail use, while still providing reliable, high performance and feature-rich services to users. This limitation is the result both of suboptimal use of cluster computing resources, and of highly variable performance of wide-area connections over the Internet. This paper presents NinjaMail, a novel geographically distributed, cluster-based e-mail system built on top of UC Berkeley's Ninja cluster architecture and OceanStore wide-area data storage architecture. NinjaMail is unique in that it uses a collection of clusters distributed through the wide-area to provide users with highly available, scalable and feature-rich services via a wide variety of access methods.
Dynamic memory management for programmable devices

The paper presents the design and implementation of a novel dynamic memory-management scheme for ESP---a language for programmable devices. The firmware for programmable devices has to be fast and reliable. To support high performance, ESP provides an explicit memory-management interface that can be implemented efficiently. To ensure reliability, ESP uses a model checker to verify memory safety.The VMMC firmware is used as a case study to evaluate the effectiveness of this memory-management scheme. We find that the Spin model checker is able to exhaustively verify memory safety of the firmware; the largest process took 67.6 seconds and used 34.45 Mbytes of memory to verify. We also find that the runtime overhead to maintain the reference counts is small; the additional overhead accounts for 7.35% of the total message processing cost (in the worst case) over a malloc/free interface.
The reverse transient behavior of semiconductor junction diodes

The reverse transient behavior of junction diodes after a rectangular pulse of forward current is analyzed and the results verified experimentally. Based on the simplified planar diode model and the diffusion equation, equations are obtained to determine the reverse recovery current and voltage as functions of carrier lifetime and circuit parameters. The transient behavior of both the open circuit and the closed circuit conditions are shown to be described by some set of equations, and the presently unrelated explanations are unified. The relation between the charge stored by forward current and the charge recovered by reverse current is then derived. These equations are confirmed with an accuracy of 5 per cent or better by experimental data from germinium and silicon alloyed diodes. Several applications on measurements of diode material properties and on circuit applications (diode amplifiers, modulators, etc.) are suggested.
The Two “Logics” of Community Development: Neighborhoods, Markets, and Community Development Corporations

Two Community Development Corporations (CDCs) in Oakland, California, anchor the following analysis. These legally homogenous organizations have implemented similar “low-income” redevelopment proje...
Can biological tests assist prediction of suicide in mood disorders

Predicting suicide is difficult due to its low base-rate and the limited specificity of clinical predictors. Prospective biological studies suggest that dysfunctions in the serotonergic system and hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis have some predictive power for completed suicide in mood disorders. A prediction model that incorporates biological testing to increase specificity and sensitivity of prediction of suicide is of potential clinical value. Meta-analyses of prospective biological studies of suicide and cerebrospinal fluid 5-hydroxyindoleacetic acid (CSF 5-HIAA) and suicide and the dexamethasone suppression test (DST) in mood disorders using the penalized quasi-likelihood (PQL) and bootstrap method yield odds ratios for prediction of suicide of 4.48 and 4.65 respectively. Two combinatory prediction models, the first requiring positive results on more than one test, and the second requiring a positive result on either one of two tests, were tested to assess their sensitivity, specificity, and predictive power using biological data from published and unpublished studies. The prediction model that requires both DST and CSF 5-HIAA tests to be positive results in 37.5% sensitivity, 88% specificity, and has a positive predictive value of 23%. The prediction model that requires either DST or CSF 5-HIAA tests to be positive results in 87.5% sensitivity, 28% specificity, and has a positive predictive value of 10%. Thus, models attempting to predict a lethal outcome that is uncommon perform very differently making model choice of major importance. Further work on refining biological predictors and integration with clinical predictors is needed to optimize a model to predict suicide in the clinic.
Effects of Dose Selection and Sample Size on the Precision of Lethal Dose Estimates in Dose–Mortality Regression

As a guide to experimental design for bioassays, the effects of total sample size and dose selection on the precision of LD50 and LD90 estimates were determined by Monte Carlo simulations with the logit model. A sample size of 120 appears to be the minimum necessary for reliable estimation. For increased precision, sample sizes of 240 or more are required. A computer procedure was used to search for the percentage of mortality resulting in minimum predicted 95% confidence interval lengths for the LD50 and LD90 in dose-response experiments with three to eight doses, equal numbers of test subjects at each dose, and total sample sizes of 120, 240, 480, and 720. Regardless of the number of doses, the most precise LD50 estimates were obtained when responses when evenly distributed between 25 and 75%. Precise LD90 estimates, however, required one or two responses ≤10% and the majority between 75 and 95%.
Can America Stay on Top

The United States has long enjoyed a unique position of economic supremacy. Not only is it far and away the most populous of the advanced market economies; for most of the past century it has also had substantially higher per capita income than any other major nation. As a result, the only puzzle about the Pax Americana that took shape in the 1940s is that it took so long in coming: at the time the United States actually took on the mantle of world leadership, it had about as much purchasing power as all other market economies combined. By the early 1990s, however, almost everyone believed that the age of U.S. supremacy was nearing its end. U.S. GDP per capita was no longer exceptional when measured at current exchange rates, although when measured at purchasing power parity instead the United States still led its rivals in real output per head. Perhaps more significant, other advanced countries had clearly overtaken U.S. productivity in some industries, and surpassed the United States in some technologies. The rapid growth of Asian developing countries further suggested that the balance of world economic power might be shifting away from the original advanced nations; probably nobody now alive will see China come anywhere close to U.S. income per capita, but all it has to do is reach one-fifth of the U.S. level to become the world’s largest economy in absolute terms. While prophets of “declinism” like Kennedy (1989) and Thurow (1992) did not entirely dominate the discourse—Nye (1992), for example, argued that despite its gradual relative economic decline the United States retained the resources to remain the world’s political leader for decades to come— circa 1992 few people would have dared to suggest that a second “American century” might be in prospect. At the millennium, however, such suggestions are indeed being made (for
On Deriving Good LDPC Convolutional Codes from QC LDPC Block Codes

In this paper we study the iterative decoding behavior of time-invariant and time-varying LDPC convolutional codes derived by unwrapping QC LDPC block codes. In particular, for a time-varying LDPC convolutional code, we show that the minimum pseudo-weight of the convolutional code is at least as large as the minimum pseudo-weight of the underlying QC code. We also prove that the unwrapped convolutional codes have fewer short cycles than the QC codes. These results taken together lead to improved BER performance in the low-to-moderate SNR region, where the decoding behavior is influenced by the complete pseudo-codeword spectra and by the Tanner graph cycle histogram, with the time-varying convolutional codes outperforming both the underlying QC block codes and their time-invariant convolutional counterparts.