cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Partial characterization of the 30 kD Ig-binding protein from Pseudomonas maltophilia.

Abstract We have previously demonstrated that Pseudomonas maltophilia (ATCC 13637) possess a 30 kDa cell wall protein which binds various subclasses of IgG's and IgA by their Fc region. The protein was solubilized by papain and purified by affinity chromatography on cyanogen bromide activated sepharose beads conjugated with human IgG. The eluent was electrophoresed on a 12% polyacrylamide gel under denaturing conditions, and the immunoactive bands identified by Western blot analysis, a second gel was stained with Coomassie blue. The affinity purified eluent was electrophoresed on a one-dimensional 15% polyacrylamide gel and stained with Coomassie blue. The protein band of interst was cut. The protein band was then digested in situ with Staphylococcus aureus V-8 protease. The peptide bands were separated by electrophoresis on a second one dimensional 15% polyacrylamide gel and then electroblotted onto a polyvinylidine difluoride membrane. The bands were visualized by staining with Coomassie blue, cut out, and sequenced using an automated gas phase sequencer. Minimal amino acid composition was determined in a similar fashion. We have thus obtained partial N-terminal amino acid sequence data from the above method.
Monodromy and the Tate Conjecture: Picard numbers and Mordell-Weil ranks in families

We use results of Deligne on l-adic monodromy and equidistribution, combined with elementary facts about the eigenvalues of elements in the orthogonal group, to give upper bounds for the average “middle Picard number” in various equicharacteristic families of even dimensional hypersurfaces, cf. 6.11, 6.12, 6.14, 7.6, 8.12. We also give upper bounds for the average Mordell-Weil rank of the Jacobian of the generic fibre in various equicharacteristic families of surfaces fibred over ℙ1, cf. 9.7, 9.8. If the relevant Tate Conjecture holds, each upper bound we find for an average is in fact equal to that average.
A macaque model for pulmonary hypertension associated with HIV: Part III: Large animal models of pulmonary hypertension and pulmonary embolism for drug discovery today: disease models

Pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH) is more frequent in chronically HIV-infected patients. There is no animal model to study PAH associated with HIV. Non-human primates infected with SIV (simian homolog of HIV), or with chimeric virions (SIV/HIV, or SHIV), closely recapitulate HIV infection, immunodeficiency, and pulmonary arteriopathy seen in humans with PAH. Here we discuss the pros, cons, and promises in the emerging field focused on long-term complications of HIV infection.
The Difficulty with “The Difficulties of Persuasion” (“Shuinan” 說難)

This chapter considers the place of “The Difficulties of Persuasion” (“Shuinan” 說難) both within the Han Feizi corpus and in early Chinese intellectual history generally. In contrast to those who have read it as evidence of the amorality or even the immorality of the Han Feizi author(s), I argue that the “Difficulties of Persuasion” should be read as Sima Qian 司馬遷 read the text in the early Western Han, i.e. as advice by a righteous persuader for righteous persuaders. In addition to considering the place of “persuasion” (shui 說) in the Han Feizi corpus, I also compare the text’s advice to persuaders with other writings on persuasion known from early China and ancient Greece.
The Ethics of Policing: A Feminist Proposal

This chapter uses a feminist lens to articulate the central problems facing policing today: (a) a decayed sense of trust in law enforcement, (b) the cultural influence of toxic or hegemonic masculinity, and (c) policing practices that perpetuate racial, gender, and social oppression. A normative model of feminist policing based in care ethics, called the community protector model, is proposed as the solution to these problems. Feminist care ethical policing values actions of caring justice—not just law and order—and identifies care and concern for others as the most rational basis for law enforcement. Finally, this model is applied to the issues in policing today, and the chapter shows how it can be used to create new protocols, change cultural gender norms, improve communication, replace authoritarian structures with community-based, interactive and educational ones, decrease discriminatory policing practices, and build soft power in law enforcement as a resource for engaging with citizens.
Mild cognitive impairment in long-term brain tumor survivors following brain irradiation

There is no accepted classification of cognitive impairment in cancer survivors. We assess the extent of mild cognitive impairment (MCI) syndrome in brain tumor survivors using criteria adapted from the National Institute on Aging and the Alzheimer’s Association (NIA-AA). We retrospectively reviewed the cognitive data of brain tumor survivors post-radiation therapy (RT) enrolled from 2008 to 2011 in a randomized trial of donepezil versus placebo for cognitive impairment. One hundred and ninety eight adult survivors with primary or metastatic brain tumors who were ≥ 6 months post RT were recruited at 24 sites in the United States. Cognitive function was assessed at baseline, 12 and 24 weeks post-randomization. For this analysis, we used baseline data to identify MCI and possible dementia using adapted NIA-AA criteria. Cases were subtyped into four groups: amnestic MCI-single domain (aMCI-sd), amnestic MCI-multiple domain (aMCI-md), non-amnestic MCI-single domain (naMCI-sd), and non-amnestic MCI-multiple domain (naMCI-md). One hundred and thirty one of 197 evaluable patients (66%) met criteria for MCI. Of these, 13% were classified as aMCI-sd, 58% as aMCI-md, 19% as naMCI-sd, and 10% as naMCI-md. Patients with poorer performance status, less education, lower household income and those not working outside the home were more likely to be classified as MCI. Two-thirds of post-RT brain tumor survivors met NIA-AA criteria for MCI. This taxonomy may be useful when applied to brain tumor survivors because it defines cognitive phenotypes that may be differentially associated with course, treatment response, and risk factor profiles.
Reconstructing the Shape and Motion of Unknown Objects with Active Tactile Sensors

We present a method to simultaneously reconstruct the shape and motion of an unknown smooth convex object. The object is manipulated by planar palms covered with tactile elements. The shape and dynamics of the object can be expressed as a function of the sensor values and the motion of the palms. We present a brief review of previous results for the planar case. In this paper we show that the 3D case is fundamentally different from the planar case, due to increased tangent dimensionality. The main contribution of this paper is a shape-dynamics analysis in 3D, and the synthesis of shape approximation methods via reconstructed contact point curves.
Epoetin Alfa Reduces the Need for Red Blood Cell Transfusions and Does Not Affect Remission Rate or Survival When Given to Patients with Hematologic Malignancies Receiving Hyper-CVAD Therapy.

Background : Recent reports suggest that the use of erythropoietic stimulating agents (ESA) may adversely affect survival when used in the management of patients with certain solid tumors. Anemia is common in patients with acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL), lymphoblastic lymphoma (LL), and Burkitt’s lymphoma (BL). The use of erythropoietin (EPO) in this group of patients may be beneficial; however, the impact of EPO on the survival of patients with hematologic malignancies is unknown. Objective : To evaluate the effects of EPO on rate of transfusions, survival and remission rates in patients with ALL, LL and BL treated with Hyper-CVAD. Methods : We evaluated 109 pts with newly diagnosed acute lymphocytic leukemia (ALL), lymphoblastic lymphoma (LL), and Burkitt’s lymphoma (BL) who participated in a randomized trail comparing EPO (40,000 units SQ weekly within 14 days of starting chemotherapy) vs. standard of care. Both arms received blood transfusions as per institutional guidelines. Results : From September 2003 to July 2008, 109 pts were included in the study, 5 patients were excluded from the survival analysis because they did not receive study drug (1) or for violation of the study (4), randomized to no EPO but received EPO. The median age of patients was 41 years (range: 15–84), the majority had ALL (82 pts, 79%). Median baseline Hgb was 8.8 g/dl (range 6–12.6). There was no difference in the complete remission rate or survival between the 2 groups (Table 1). Seventy-six patients (38 in each arm) who remained in the study for at least 5 months were evaluable for number of transfusions during that period of time. Patients randomized to EPO received significantly less number of transfusions than patients that did not receive EPO [N=, 16 units (range 6–32) versus 19 units (range 11–40)], p = 0.026 (Mann-Whitney U test). Five patients (deep vein thrombosis = 3; pulmonary embolism =1; and CVA = 1) in the EPO group and 2 patients (deep vein thrombosis =2) in the NO EPO group developed possible related adverse events over 6 months of evaluation (p= 0.285) Conclusions : The use of EPO appears not to have a negative impact on remission rate or survival in patients with ALL, LL or BL receiving HyperCVAD treatment, while EPO significantly decreased the number of transfusions required. There was no significant increase in the risk of thrombotic events associated with EPO.
Specific Symptom Profiles are Associated with Distinct Changes in Amygdala Connectivity in Youth

Abstract Complex clinical presentations are common in youth seeking mental health treatment, complicating attempts to identify specific biological underpinnings to guide precision psychiatry. We defined four classes of such youth based on their symptom profiles and identified unique patterns of amygdala functional connectivity in each class. Subjects were 215 youth who varied along major symptom dimensions commonly associated with pediatric affective psychopathology: depression, irritability, anxiety, and attention-deficit/hyperactivity (ADHD). We used latent profile analysis to identify classes of symptom patterns. Functional MRI data were obtained while subjects completed a gender identification task of face-emotions that varied in emotion type and intensity. We used generalized psychophysiological interaction analysis to examine associations between the probability of being in each symptom class and amygdala functional connectivity. The likelihood of being in the class with high parent-reported irritability and ADHD symptoms was associated with amygdala connectivity to the insula and superior temporal gyrus while processing high-intensity angry and fearful faces; to the precuneus while processing intensity across emotions; and to the ventrolateral prefrontal cortex across all task conditions. The likelihood of being in the class with high anxious and depressive symptoms was negatively associated with amygdala-thalamic connectivity across task conditions. This is the first study to identify distinct associations between symptom profile classes and amygdala connectivity in a transdiagnostic sample of youth. These neural correlates provide external validity to latent classes derived from symptom clusters. This is an essential first step toward identifying the biological basis of common transdiagnostic symptom presentations in youth.
A Channel-Aware Combinatorial Approach to Design High Performance Spatially-Coupled Codes

Because of their capacity-approaching performance and their complexity/latency advantages, spatially-coupled (SC) codes are among the most attractive error-correcting codes for use in modern dense data storage systems. SC codes are constructed by partitioning an underlying block code and coupling the partitioned components. Here, we focus on circulant-based SC codes. Recently, the optimal overlap (OO), circulant power optimizer (CPO) approach was introduced to construct high performance SC codes for additive white Gaussian noise (AWGN) and Flash channels. The OO stage operates on the protograph of the SC code to derive the optimal partitioning that minimizes the number of graphical objects that undermine the performance of SC codes under iterative decoding. Then, the CPO optimizes the circulant powers to further reduce this number. Since the nature of detrimental objects in the graph of a code critically depends on the characteristics of the channel of interest, extending the OO-CPO approach to construct SC codes for channels with intrinsic memory is not a straightforward task. In this paper, we tackle one relevant extension; we construct high performance SC codes for practical 1-D magnetic recording channels, i.e., partial-response (PR) channels. Via combinatorial techniques, we carefully build and solve the optimization problem of the OO partitioning, focusing on the objects of interest in the case of PR channels. Then, we customize the CPO to further reduce the number of these objects in the graph of the code. SC codes designed using the proposed OO-CPO approach for PR channels outperform prior state-of-the-art SC codes by up to around 3 orders of magnitude in frame error rate (FER) and 1.1 dB in signal-to-noise ratio (SNR). More intriguingly, our SC codes outperform structured block codes of the same length and rate by up to around 1.8 orders of magnitude in FER and 0.4 dB in SNR. The performance advantage of SC codes designed using the devised OO-CPO approach over block codes of the same parameters is not only pronounced in the error floor region, but also in the waterfall region.
Do patients who smoke tobacco have success with primary arthroscopic rotator cuff repair? A comparison with nonsmokers.

Background It is recommended that patients cease smoking before rotator cuff repair. However, not all patients want to or are able to successfully cease smoking. This raises the question if these patients should be advised to pursue surgical intervention or if surgery should be contraindicated until patients successfully cease smoking. Methods A retrospective analysis of patients undergoing rotator cuff repair was performed to examine the effects of smoking tobacco on patient-determined outcomes (Western Ontario Rotator Cuff Index [WORC], American Shoulder and Elbow Surgeons score [ASES], Simple Shoulder Test [SST], and Single Assessment Numeric Evaluation [SANE]). Patients who smoked tobacco at the time of surgery were compared with patients who were not smoking to determine if differences in (1) severity of preoperative and postoperative symptoms and (2) the postoperative improvements were statistically significant. Results Thirty-one patients were smokers and 205 were nonsmokers. Preoperative scores were worse for smokers compared with nonsmokers: WORC (32 vs. 43; P = .0002), ASES (32 vs. 43; P = .001), SST (3.5 vs. 4.6; P = .04), and SANE (34 vs. 38; P = .35). Postoperative scores were worse for smokers compared with nonsmokers: WORC (79 vs. 89; P = .001), ASES (82 vs. 89; P = .04), SST (9.0 vs. 10.2; P = .02), and SANE (84 vs. 89; P = .09). There were no significant differences in change in scores over time or percentage of patients achieving the minimal clinically important difference of the score between groups. Conclusions From examining the patients' subjective patient-determined outcome scores, it does not appear that rotator cuff repair should be strictly contraindicated in active smokers. Postoperative improvements in smokers were similar to nonsmokers. Smokers have lower baseline preoperative and postoperative outcome scores compared with nonsmokers.
Chapter 59 – Undercut Cortex

Undercut cortex is a model of chronic posttraumatic epilepsy. The model is created by surgically cutting through the gray matter of a cortical region and the underneath white matter (undercut), so that the lesioned cortex is largely isolated from its neighboring cortex and subcortical structures. After a latency of at least 2 weeks following this initial lesion, epileptiform discharges can be recorded from brain slices in vitro, and electrical and behavior seizures can be observed in vivo in rodents, as well as cats, and monkeys. The model is efficient to prepare and highly reliable and reproducible, and mimics some key features of penetrating traumatic brain injury. In this chapter, we present an improved technique, using a simple custom-made surgical device for preparing this model in mice and rats, and discuss the application of this model in studying the mechanisms and prevention of posttraumatic epileptogenesis.
On Various Non-Linear Rod Theories for the Dynamic Analysis of Multi-Body Systems, Part I: Formulations

Abstract The intention of the paper is to review and compare existing formulations for flexible beams under large overall motion with reference to both the inertial frame approach and to the floating frame approach. These two choices of writing the equations of motion are presented with relevance to the dynamics of flexible bodies in planar motion. For the inertial frame approach, non-linear partial differential equations based on two finite strain rod models are reviewed. For the floating frame approach, linear and non-linear partial differential equations based on the finite strain rod model, the Euler-Bernoulli beam model with the von Karman geometric constraint, the consistent second order theory, the Green-Lagrange theory, and the Kane-Ryan-Banerjee approach are derived and compared. In Part II the numerical simulation of the theoretical developments is presented, which includes the numerical comparison of the various non-linear formulations.
Identifying areas of wetland and wind turbine overlap in the south-central Great Plains of North America

The North American Great Plains contains > 80,000 wetlands (playas) that are habitat resources for birds. This region has also undergone recent expansion of wind energy development. Areas of overlap between playas and wind energy structures are potential wildlife hazards. We identified areas where conservation values of playas may be compromised by proximity to wind turbines. We mapped where playas co-occur with wind-energy structures in a 902,765 km2 area encompassing portions of six U.S. states. At a smaller focal level (59 ~458 km2 Christmas Bird Count [CBC] circles), we developed a habitat quality index based on playa area, density, and inundation frequency, and spatially associated values with locations of wind turbines; we then examined CBC data for three focal species from 1984-2015. Over 38% of playas were within 8 km of at least one structure, and 1.3% were within 100 m; ~90% of turbines/structures were within 8 km of a playa (2.7% within 100 m). Six CBC circles had high-quality habitat overlapping with high density of wind turbines. Another seven were high quality with few structures, representing valuable areas for future conservation efforts. However, lack of consistent time-series data constrained our ability to detect effects of wind-energy infrastructure installation on birds. Mapping high-quality habitat areas coincident with wind turbines is a way of identifying overlapping areas of wildlife habitat and sources of mortality without relying on population surveys that may be problematic or lacking altogether. Establishment of innovative protocols will be critical for detecting effects of wind-energy installation, a growing economic sector.
A Robust Spearman Correlation Coefficient Permutation Test

In this work, we show that Spearman's correlation coefficient test about $H_0:\rho_s=0$ found in most statistical software packages is theoretically incorrect and performs poorly when bivariate normality assumptions are not met or the sample size is small. The historical works about these tests make an unverifiable assumption that the approximate bivariate normality of original data justifies using classic approximations. In general, there is common misconception that the tests about $\rho_s=0$ are robust to deviations from bivariate normality. In fact, we found under certain scenarios violation of the bivariate normality assumption has severe effects on type I error control for the most commonly utilized tests. To address this issue, we developed a robust permutation test for testing the general hypothesis $H_0: \rho_s=0$. The proposed test is based on an appropriately studentized statistic. We will show that the test is theoretically asymptotically valid in the general setting when two paired variables are uncorrelated but dependent. This desired property was demonstrated across a range of distributional assumptions and sample sizes in simulation studies, where the proposed test exhibits robust type I error control across a variety of settings, even when the sample size is small. We demonstrated the application of this test in real world examples of transcriptomic data of the TCGA breast cancer patients and a data set of PSA levels and age.
Empire and belonging in the Eurasian borderlands

Empire and Belonging in the Eurasian Borderlands is a festschrift in honor of the prolific historian and theorist of nationalism, Ronald Grigor Suny. The collection both reflects the geographic and...
Rhet-Ops: Rhetoric and Information Warfare: edited by Jim Ridolfo and William Hart-Davidson, U of Pittsburgh P, 2019, 272 pp., $40.00 (hardcover). ISBN: 9780822945895

The famous Chinese military theorist Sunzi wrote in his treatise The Art of War that “[a]ll warfare is based on deception” (3). Sunzi’s assertion still resonates over two millennia later. At minimu...
Managerial commitment to the status quo and corporate divestiture: Can power motivate openness to change?

Abstract CEOs' commitment to the status quo (CSQ) is a prominent psychological factor leading to their resistance to organizational change. In this study we focus on the moderating role of managerial power, a central element in strategic choice, in the relationship between CEOs' CSQ and corporate divestiture activity. Drawing from the resource dependence perspective of power, we identify multiple aspects of power (structural, ownership, prestige/social, and expert power) that reduce CEOs' resistance to corporate change arising from CSQ. This study contributes to the strategic leadership and organizational change literatures by underscoring the importance of considering how different power bases shape the decision making of top managers who may have tendencies to hold onto firm assets when the situation warrants change. With a better understanding of how various power bases may uniquely influence strategic outcomes in the presence of managerial psychological bias, we can more accurately assess the impact of power on firms' strategic actions.
Agro-AI Education: Artificial Intelligence for Future Farmers

The importance of sustainable and efficient food production has driven the need for applying increasingly advanced approaches in farming and agriculture. To keep up with this need, farmers and future farmers need to be trained in the ways of precision agriculture. With the widespread use of artificial intelligence across all industries, it is not surprising to find AI at the heart of precision agriculture. While AI has brought a lot of promise, it has also brought a lot of dread, due to the lack of understanding about what it is and what it can do. To help farmers buy into applying AI, a new educational program is needed. To this end, we have developed a simple active learning system to illustrate AI, particularly, machine learning. We present an overview of the system and discuss how it can contribute to future farmers' understanding of how AI works.
Life’s a Peach: The Convergence of Sexuality and Class in Guadagnino’s Call Me by Your Name

Call Me by Your Name (2017) became famous for its “peach scene,” though the orchard around the Perlmans’ villa where this fruit thrives could not have grown on its own. Distinctions of class and a parasitism by the most affluent of their workers cultivate the paradise where director Luca Guadagnino sets the blossoming romance between Elio and Oliver. Apricots are a clear metaphor for desire here, yet their prolificacy is only possible through the invisibility and silent intervention of other food items, from peas to latkes to frozen chicken. Critics have pointed out the beauty of the Italian setting and its use as a temporary escape from heteronormative surveillance, as well as the way domestic workers flow in and out of scenes almost wordlessly. What these critics have missed is the connection these occurrences have in explaining how the working class have built (but do not benefit from) this heaven on Earth, where the young male lovers may permit their bodies to act without restraint. While queer and class theories inform this discussion, my primary vehicle for interpretation will be food, both for its prominent place in the movie and for the ways it parallels the class structure at the villa. I find the film quietly reflects on the levels of economic privilege and exploitation needed to experience the paradise it depicts, with the usurpation of food in many scenes helping to remind the audience of the stepping-stones Guadagnino asserts are required to access this more subversive space.
How J M Keynes Could Have Ended the Eighteen Year Old F P Ramsey’s Academic Career Before It Started: On Keynes’s Easy, Possible Paragraph by Paragraph Intellectual Decimation, Obliteration and Annihilation of Ramsey’s Very, Very Poor Three Page Cambridge Magazine ’Article of Jan., 1922

J M Keynes could not respond to Ramsey’s 1922 Cambridge Magazine “article” because Keynes’s response would have required him to methodically show that every paragraph of Ramsey’s 3 page note didn’t make any sense at all due to the large numbers of errors of commission and omission. Ramsey not only didn’t get anything correct or right about Keynes's analysis in chapters I, II and III of the A Treatise on Probability. There is nothing contained in the three page review by Ramsey of the A Treatise on Probability that is correct. The real mystery is not Keynes’s so called "mysterious" non numerical probabilities, which are interval valued, imprecise probabilities. The real mystery is how literally thousands of academic economists and philosophers could have taken such a poorly written paper by an 18 year old teenager seriously for 100 years.
Identifying, Measuring and Contesting Algorithmically Curated Misinformation

This research examines the role of algorithms driving the online platforms in surfacing misinformation. Specifically, my dissertation work explores how can we ethically develop scalable audit pipelines to identify, measure and contest algorithmically curated misinformation. I first design experiments to audit and measure online platforms for misinformation across user features, user actions and high impact events. Next, I propose a workflow that combines human and AI capabilities to scale misinformation annotations using a value sensitive design approach. Lastly, I propose to explore how users would like to contest problematic algorithmic outputs and how can online platforms design for algorithmic contestability in scenarios where algorithms expose users to problematic content.
Trying Terrorism: Joint Criminal Enterprise, Material Support, and the Paradox of International Criminal Law

Introduction 440 I. The International Law Foundation of Military Commission Jurisdiction 447 A. Domestic Authority for Military Commissions 447 B. The Courts’ Search for International Law 449 1. Foreign Law 450 2. Treaty Law 451 3. War Crimes Tribunals 453 II. International Criminal Liability 455 A. The ICTY and the Development of JCE 455 B. The Rome Statute and the ICC’s Control Theory of Liability 462 III. JCE and Material Support: A Mistaken Analogy 465 A. The MCA and Material Support for Terrorism 465 B. The CMCR’s Problematic Analysis 469 IV. ICTY Jurisprudence & Public International Law 473 A. Sources of Public International Law 473 B. Tribunal Precedent: An Intercircuit Debate 475 1. The Second Circuit 476 2. The D.C. Circuit 478 3. The Fourth Circuit 479 C. The ICTY’s Persuasive Authority 480 1. Authority of the ICTY As Institution 481 2. The Persuasive Authority of the ICTY’s JCE Analysis 483 3. Implicit Limitations: Prosecutorial Discretion and the Object and Purpose of ICL 486
High-performance thread migration on clusters of SMPs

Thread migration is established as a mechanism for achieving dynamic load sharing and data locality. However, migration has not been used with fine-grained parallelism on workstation clusters due to the relatively high overheads associated with thread and messaging packages. This paper describes a portable, high performance thread migration system, implemented with user level threads and active messages. The thread system supports an extensible event mechanism which permits an efficient interface between the thread and active message system. Migration is supported by user level primitives; applications may implement different migration policies on top of the migration interface provided. The system runs on a cluster of SMPs and the performance obtained is orders of magnitude better than other reported measurements.
Variable load factor guidance for low-altitude fly-to-point maneuvers of a jet fighter aircraft

This paper describes the formulation andnumerical investigation of a variable load factor guidance algorithm(variable n-guidance) that allows an aircraft pilotto approximate minimum-time low-altitude quasi-level fly-to-pointmaneuvers of a jet fighter aircraft. The maneuvers studied consistof flight to a point at a radial distance of 50 kft from thestarting point, with the final position vector oriented at 45,90, 135, 180 deg from the initial course and with the requirementthat the initial and final altitudes be the same.
The structure and context of social interactions and the spread of HIV

This study addresses a number of questions associated with the spread of HIV that can be investigated with the use of mathematical models. These include: 1) how to model the patterns of contact among individuals in different risk groups, 2) the effects on the risk of transmission of the social context present at the time of a sexual interaction, and 3) ways to incorporate IV drug use into sexual transmission models. A migration matrix model for disease spread in a subdivided population, originally developed by Sattenspiel (1987) for the spread of hepatitis A in day care centers, is briefly described. The utility of this model for investigating the effects of varying the patterns of contact, the effects of social context, and the multiple modes of transmission of HIV is discussed. The limitations of the model and its applications to diseases other than AIDS and to problems outside the realm of mathematical epidemiology are also described.
Coping with Risk : The Effects of Shocks on Reproductive Health and Transactional Sex in Rural Tanzania

Transactional sex is believed to be an important risk-coping mechanism for women in Sub-Saharan Africa and a leading contributor to the HIV/AIDS epidemic. This paper uses data from a panel of women in rural Tanzania whose primary occupation is agriculture. The analysis finds that following a negative shock (such as food insecurity), unmarried women are about three times more likely to have been paid for sex. Regardless of marital status, after a shock women have more unprotected sex and are 36 percent more likely to have a sexually transmitted infection. These empirical findings support the claims that transactional sex is not confined to commercial sex workers and that frequently experienced shocks, such as food insecurity, may lead women to engage in transactional sex as a risk-coping behavior.
AnswerBus question answering system

AnswerBus is an open-domain question answering system based on sentence level Web information retrieval. It accepts users' natural-language questions in English, German, French, Spanish, Italian and Portuguese and provides answers in English. Five search engines and directories are used to retrieve Web pages that are relevant to user questions. From the Web pages, AnswerBus extracts sentences that are determined to contain answers. Its current rate of correct answers to TREC-8's 200 questions is 70.5% with the average response time to the questions being seven seconds. The performance of AnswerBus in terms of accuracy and response time is better than other similar systems.
Sherrington, Charles Scott

British neurophysiologist Sir Charles Scott Sherrington (1857–1952) shared a Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for his multifaceted discoveries in the functioning of nervous system. His classic book The Integrative Action of the Nervous System (1906) covered topics from control of motor functions by the cerebral cortex to the relationship of peripheral reflexes and from composition of motor nerves to the mechanisms of transmission of nerve impulse across neurons. Being a philosopher and poet, Sherrington was a quintessential wordsmith: he coined such enduring words and phrases as ‘synapse,’ ‘reciprocal innervations,’ and ‘decerebrate rigidity.’
The interaction of radio frequency and lambda DNA

With the prevalence of wireless radio frequency (RF) devices, interest is growing to more fully understand the effect of RF on biological tissue. This research explores how ?DNA interacts with RF energy. By sweeping a radio frequency range from 1 GHz to 8.5 GHz we hope to observe if specific frequencies show significantly elevated RF energy-?DNA interaction (e.g. either absorbed and/or reflected). Our procedure is as follows: 1) Set up RF equipment (horn antennas and network analyzer), 2) vary frequency from 1- 8.5GHz at a RF power level of 0 dBm, 3) vary same frequency sweep with buffer in the cell culture wells, and next with DNA and buffer in the cell-culture wells, and 4) the frequency sweep was repeated 100 times with a duration of 1.0 second per sweep. The results indicate regions of RF- ?DNA interaction around 3 and 3.5 GHz.
Detecting the Temporal Context of Queries

Business intelligence and reporting tools rely on a database that accurately mirrors the state of the world. Yet, even if the schema and queries are constructed in exacting detail, assumptions about the data made during extraction, transformation, and schema and query creation of the reporting database may be (accidentally) ignored by end users, or may change as the database evolves over time. As these assumptions are typically implicit (e.g., assuming that a sales record relation is append-only), it can be hard to even detect that a mistaken assumption has been made. In this paper, we argue that such errors are consequences of unintended contextual dependence, i.e., query outputs dependent on a variable characteristic of the database. We characterize contextual dependence, and explore several strategies for efficiently detecting and quantifying the effects of contextual dependence on query outputs. We present and evaluate our findings in the context of a concrete case study: Detecting temporal dependence using a database management system with versioning capabilities.
Contracting in the Presence of Insurance: The Case of Bioenergy Crop Production

This paper investigates the interaction of crop insurance and contracts in improving the risk management of farmers who produce bioenergy crops. Numerical simulation is conducted for 1,919 U.S. counties east of the 100th Meridian that have yield data for corn and for at least one bioenergy crop yield of miscanthus and switchgrass. County-level yield data, both on low quality land and high quality land, are simulated by using DayCent model, and Copula approach is used to estimate a joint yield-price distribution for each county. We model a representative farmers’ optimal choice problem of whether to use their land to grow conventional crops or to use their land for production of bioenergy crops under one of three different contract choices offered by the biorefinery. The terms of these contracts are determined in such a manner that they jointly maximize the net benefits of the refinery and farmers. We do this joint optimization in two scenarios: ‘With insurance’ and ‘Without insurance’ for bioenergy crops to see how presence of crop insurance for bioenergy crops will affect the optimal contract design and will affect land allocation under a certain contract type. (This abstract was borrowed from another version of this item.)
Preparation of psoralen-derivatized oligodeoxyribonucleoside methylphosphonates.

Publisher Summary This chapter describes the preparation of 4'-{[N-(aminoethyl)amino]methyl}-4,5',8-trimethylpsoralen [(ae)AMT]-derivatized oligodeoxyribonucleoside methylphosphonates and the general procedures for cross-linking the oligomers to complementary nucleic acids. Oligodeoxyribonucleoside methylphosphonates are nonionic nucleic acid analogs, which contain nuclease-resistant methylphosphonate linkages in place of the negatively charged phosphodiester internucleotide bonds found in naturally occurring nucleic acids. Oligonucleoside methylphosphonates form duplex hybrids with complementary nucleic acids via standard Watson–Crick base-pairing interactions. The formation of these hybrids is reversible, and their stability is dependent on the length and base composition of the oligomer. Duplex formation can be rendered irreversible by derivatizing oligonucleoside methylphosphonates with the photoreactive, cross-linking group, (ae)AMT. On irradiation with long-wavelength ultraviolet light, the psoralen functionality undergoes a 2+2 cycloaddition reaction with an appropriately placed pyrimidine residue in the target strand, thus cross-linking the oligomer to its target. Psoralen derivatized oligonucleoside methylphosphonates have been shown to cross-link in a sequence-specific manner to single-stranded DNA and to mRNA in vitro . These oligomers are taken up intact by mammalian cells and have been shown to have light dependent antiviral activity in cultured cells infected with herpes simplex virus type-1.
Toward Autonomous Free-Climbing Robots

The goal of this research is to enable multi-limbed robots to climb vertical rock using techniques similar to those developed by human climbers. This paper first considers a planar three-limbed robot, then a 3-D four-limbed robot modeled after a real hardware system. It describes a fast planner based on an efficient test of the quasi-static equilibrium of these robots to compute one-step climbing moves. The planner is demonstrated in simulation for both robots.
Understanding Wage Inequality: Ben-Porath Meets Skill-Biased Technical Change

In this paper we present a tractable general equilibrium overlapping-generations model of human capital accumulation which is consistent with several features of the evolution of the U.S. wage distribution from 1970 to 2000. The key feature of the model, and the only source of heterogeneity, is that individuals differ in their ability to accumulate human capital. To highlight the working of the model, we abstract from all kinds of idiosyncratic uncertainty, and thus, wage inequality results only from differences in human capital accumulation. We examine the response of this model to skill-biased technical change (SBTC) both theoretically and quantitatively. First, we theoretically show that in response to SBTC, the model generates behavior consistent with the U.S. data including (i) a rise in total wage inequality, (ii) an initial fall in the education (skill) premium followed by a strong recovery, leading to a higher premium in the long-run, (iii) the fact that most of this fall and rise takes place among younger workers, (iv) a rise in within-group inequality, (v) an increase in educational attainment, (vi) stagnation in median wage growth (and a slowdown in aggregate labor productivity), and (vii) a rise in consumption inequality that is much smaller
Identifying and Reducing Overlap in Farm Program Support

The current debate surrounding the 2012 Farm Act stresses cutting costs while maintaining, or even strengthening, farmers’ “safety net.” One way to cut costs is to reduce or eliminate potential overlap of farm program payments. Using simulations, we explore the interaction between the Average Crop Revenue Election (ACRE) program and a revenue assurance (RA) crop insurance program for corn, soybean, and wheat farmers in IL, MN, and SD. Additionally, we examine whether receiving benefits from multiple programs (an RA program, the Supplemental Revenue (SURE) program, and an ad hoc disaster assistance program) distorts farmers’ business decisions. We find overlap between ACRE and crop insurance, which could lead to budgetary savings if these two programs were to be integrated. Moreover, despite policymakers explicitly incorporating insurance indemnities into SURE payment calculations, access to both programs can alter behavior. Finally, in a counter-factual analysis, we show that removing ad hoc payments from the SURE would likely alter farm behavior.
Comments to USDA on Rural Microentrepreneur Assistance Program

Comments to USDA Rural Development Agency regarding the development of administrative rules for the Rural Microentrepreneur Assistance Program authorized by the 2008 Farm Bill as submitted during USDA Listening MeetingRoom 107-A Whitten Building, U. S. Department of Agriculture, 12th and Jefferson Drive SW, Washington D.C. on January 26, 2009.
Using extensible heterogeneous database transformers

Transforming a heterogeneous data model to another heterogeneous data model involves mapping of structural information and data layout. For performing the transformation processes this paper presents a flexible and extensible approach for heterogeneous database transformation using XML. Basics steps involved are forward transformation and reverse transformation. Between these two steps lie two XML documents; one representing the database structure; the other representing the database data. The XML documents define tags for representing an arbitrary database thus making the representation independent of the source and target database management systems. The advantage of having standard XML representations for the database model is that it can be easily extended to support new database models with a maximum of two transformers per database management system.
Phoolproof phishing prevention

Phishing, or web spoofing, is a growing problem: the Anti-Phishing Working Group (APWG) received almost 14,000 unique phishing reports in August 2005, a 56% jump over the number of reports in December 2004 [3]. For financial institutions, phishing is a particularly insidious problem, since trust forms the foundation for customer relationships, and phishing attacks undermine confidence in an institution. Phishing attacks succeed by exploiting a user's inability to distinguish legitimate sites from spoofed sites. Most prior research focuses on assisting the user in making this distinction; however, users must make the right security decision every time. Unfortunately, humans are ill-suited for performing the security checks necessary for secure site identification, and a single mistake may result in a total compromise of the user's online account. Fundamentally, users should be authenticated using information that they cannot readily reveal to malicious parties. Placing less reliance on the user during the authentication process will enhance security and eliminate many forms of fraud. We propose using a trusted device to perform mutual authentication that eliminates reliance on perfect user behavior, thwarts Man-in-the-Middle attacks after setup, and protects a user's account even in the presence of keyloggers and most forms of spyware.We demonstrate the practicality of our system with a prototype implementation.
Topologically induced local P and CP violation in QCD x QED

Abstract The existence of topological solutions and axial anomaly open a possibility of P and CP violation in QCD. For a reason that has not yet been established conclusively, this possibility is not realized in strong interactions – the experimental data indicate that a global P and CP violation in QCD is absent. Nevertheless, the fluctuations of topological charge in QCD vacuum, although not observable directly, are expected to play an important role in the breaking of U A ( 1 ) symmetry and in the mass spectrum and other properties of hadrons. Moreover, in the presence of very intense external electromagnetic fields topological solutions of QCD can induce local P - and CP -odd effects in the SU c ( 3 ) × U em ( 1 ) gauge theory that can be observed in experiment directly. Here I show how these local parity-violating phenomena can be described by using the Maxwell–Chern–Simons, or axion, electrodynamics as an effective theory. Local P - and CP -violation in hot QCD matter can be observed in experiment through the “chiral magnetic effect” – the separation of electric charge along the axis of magnetic field. Very recently, STAR Collaboration presented an observation of the electric charge asymmetry with respect to reaction plane in relativistic heavy ion collisions at RHIC.
Predicting video-conferencing conversation outcomes based on modeling facial expression synchronization

Effective video-conferencing conversations are heavily influenced by each speaker's facial expression. In this study, we propose a novel probabilistic model to represent interactional synchrony of conversation partners' facial expressions in video-conferencing communication. In particular, we use a hidden Markov model (HMM) to capture temporal properties of each speaker's facial expression sequence. Based on the assumption of mutual influence between conversation partners, we couple their HMMs as two interacting processes. Furthermore, we summarize the multiple coupled HMMs with a stochastic process prior to discover a set of facial synchronization templates shared among the multiple conversation pairs. We validate the model, by utilizing the exhibition of these facial synchronization templates to predict the outcomes of video-conferencing conversations. The dataset includes 75 video-conferencing conversations from 150 Amazon Mechanical Turkers in the context of a new recruit negotiation. The results show that our proposed model achieves higher accuracy in predicting negotiation winners than support vector machine and canonical HMMs. Further analysis indicates that some synchronized nonverbal templates contribute more in predicting the negotiation outcomes.
ECONOMIC IMPACT ESTIMATION USING BOOTSTRAP SAMPLES OBTAINED FROM INTERNET AND INTERCEPT SURVEY DATA

One of the challenges in estimating economic impacts of recreational activity and natural resource use is collecting survey data when the underlying population is not perfectly known. We combine bootstrapping techniques with input output analysis to estimate impacts from recreational activity at a barrier island in Louisiana. Per capita expenditure point estimates are bootstrapped and the 1,000 bootstrapped samples are shocked into an input output model to develop confidence intervals of economic impacts between the two surveys. Results show that for many sectors of the economy, confidence intervals do not overlap between survey modes. These results suggest that researchers using multiple survey modes should think carefully about how both the mode and potential underlying differences in population may affect economic impact results.
Uh-60a Airloads Wind Tunnel Data Update

Updated information on the status of the UH-60A Airloads wind tunnel test data, including recent work performed by NASA.
Some Recent Research Directions in the Computably Enumerable Sets

As suggested by the title, this paper is a survey of recent results and questions on the collection of computably enumerable sets under inclusion. This is not a broad survey but one focused on the author’s and a few others’ current research.