cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
On Fungi, Future, and Feminism: An Ecofeminist Analysis of M. R. Carey's The Girl with All the Gifts

This paper examines M.R. Carey’s fascinating zombie novel, The Girl with All the Gifts. While scholars question whether or not a female-oriented apocalypse narrative can exist, as thegenre is essentially rooted in imbalanced gender dynamics of ancient texts, this paper uses an ecofeminist critique to posit that the zombie apocalypse represented by Carey is a challenge toward the patriarchal values running rampant in the genre. This ecofeminist critique, while superficially offering a comforting message about female empowerment, actually offers a serious warning in regards to the insidious patriarchal structures that facilitate apocalypses.
Hattori-Torsion-Freeness and Endomorphism Rings

This paper introduces the notions of \(K^r\)-faithfulness and quasi-flatness. They are used to discuss non-singularity and Hattori-torsion-freeness in the context of endomorphism rings. Several additional examples are given.
Price controls: on the one hand ... and on the other.

Controlling health care costs requires that limits be placed either on prices, quantities of services, or both. Prices are measurable and more easily controlled than is quantity and, consequently, health care cost containment has frequently focused on mechanisms for controlling prices. Regulatory approaches, however, may create market distortions and change access patterns. An alternative approach to controlling prices is to restructure the market for health services to encourage greater price competition among providers. Because this type of health reform has not previously been attempted, there is much more uncertainty about the outcome of market-oriented approaches than for direct regulatory control over prices.
Technical and Clinical Outcomes After Thrombectomy for the Various Segments of the Middle Cerebral Artery.

Background After showing the success of mechanical thrombectomy (MT) in treating large-vessel occlusion stroke, the target population has been expanded to include patients with smaller and more distal vessels including the M2 segment of the middle cerebral artery. We compared the procedural and clinical outcomes of patients undergoing MT using direct aspiration (ADAPT [A Direct Aspiration at first Pass Technique]) between superior or inferior divisions of M2 and M1. Methods We retrospectively reviewed a database of patients undergoing MT between June 2013 and July 2018 at our center for clinical and procedural variables. Patients with isolated M1 or M2 occlusions were included. M2 occlusions were classified into superior and inferior divisions. Functional outcomes were collected at 90 days. Results A total of 205 patients with M1, 65 with M2 superior division (middle cerebral artery M2 superior segment [M2S]), and 57 with inferior division (middle cerebral artery M2 inferior segment [M2I]) stroke were included. M1 and M2S patients had comparable National Institutes of Health Stroke Scale score at presentation, but higher than M2I (P Conclusions ADAPT is safe and effective in M2 stroke. The procedural success and efficacy of ADAPT in M2 stroke are influenced by the anatomic division with less favorable clinical and technical outcomes in the M2S division.
Integrating guidelines with continuous quality improvement: doing the right thing the right way to achieve the right goals.

Article-at-a-Glance Will guidelines reduce inappropriate care in clinical practice? Although expectations are high, it is likely that guidelines are insufficient. Clinical guidelines help physicians to “do the right thing,” but fail to address the corresponding issue of how to help organizations, departments, and health care workers do the right thing “in the right way.” Attention needs to be given to the context in which guidelines function and the process by which guidelines are adopted in health care organizations. Linking guidelines with the improvement of ongoing clinical and organizational processes is critical to ensure their intended effect.
Use of fuzzy set theory to extend Dhawan's journal selection model: ranking the biomedical informatics serials.

Abstract OBJECTIVE: Experts disagree on the parameters to use to identify the "best" serials within a scientific field. The author set out to develop an extension to Dhawan's journal selection model for ranking serials in any scientific field. METHODS: Comparison of three different instantiations of Dhawan's model were used to rank thirty-four biomedical informatics serials. RESULTS: The first instantiation of Dhawan's model identified seven serials and divided them into two groups. The second instantiation of Dhawan's model identified twelve serials and separated them into two groups. Using fuzzy set theory the new extended model produced a rank ordered list of the top twelve biomedical informatics serials. CONCLUSIONS: Use of fuzzy set theory to assign set membership and combine data in Dhawan's journal selection model allows one to: (1) eliminate the need to determine arbitrary cutoff points for inclusion of serials within each of Dhawan's evaluation criteria categories, (2) combine data from disparate sources, and (3) obtain a rank-ordered list of the biomedical informatics serials rather than simply identifying a set of the "top" serials. Such a ranked list provides librarians and researchers alike with the information necessary to help them make their biomedical informatics serial selection decisions based on objective, quantifiable data.
International graduate students in American higher education: Exploring academic and non-academic experiences of international graduate students in non-STEM fields

Abstract Despite some efforts to address the topics of graduate education and graduate students, there is a lack of empirical research on understanding international graduate students’ learning and educational and non-educational experiences in depth. Thus, this qualitative study explores academic and non-academic experiences of international graduate students in the US, especially in non-STEM fields. The findings show that the participants of this study focused on academic-centered relationship and interaction with their peers and faculty members to overcome their academic difficulties, while they were also facing non-academic challenges simultaneously such as time management, mental stress, and loneliness. However, the participants were able to pursue their degrees by having a clear goal and motivation of the graduate programs.
Functioning of Concerned Others When Adults Enter Treatment for an Alcohol Use Disorder.

Background Poor functioning among Concerned Others (COs; family and friends of an individual with an alcohol or other substance use disorder) is a significant public health problem. The purpose of this study was to inform interventions for COs by examining potential correlates of 3 aspects of functioning: quality of life, mental health, and knowledge of how to handle problems related to their drinker. Methods This study collected data from 277 COs when their friend or family member (their "drinker") was entering treatment for an alcohol use disorder. Potential correlates were the drinker's substance use severity, the CO-drinker relationship and communication, and COs' coping and perceived stigma related to involvement with their drinker. Results In a summary analysis, only stressors in the CO-drinker relationship (the drinker's criticism, disagreement, anger, and demands) were consistently associated with poorer functioning as indicated by COs' poorer quality of life and mental health. In contrast, only COs' use of approach coping was associated with COs' knowing how to handle problems related to the drinker. Conclusions Because reducing both relationship stressors and the link between stressors and poor functioning can be achieved through CO and drinker education and intervention, these findings inform how to effectively support COs' goals for better functioning.
Metabolic coordination of T cell quiescence and activation.

Naive T cells are actively maintained in a quiescent state that promotes their survival and persistence. On antigen stimulation, T cells exit quiescence to initiate clonal expansion and effector differentiation. Initial studies focused on the immune receptors and transcriptional regulators involved in T cell quiescence and activation, but recent findings highlight cell metabolism as a crucial regulator of these processes. Here we summarize these intrinsic metabolic programmes and also describe how cell-extrinsic factors, such as nutrients and regulatory T cells, directly and indirectly balance quiescence and activation programmes in conventional T cells. We propose that immunological cues and nutrients license and tune metabolic programmes and signalling networks that communicate in a bidirectional manner to promote quiescence exit. Understanding the programmes that regulate T cell quiescence will be key for developing novel approaches to modulate protective and pathological T cell responses in human diseases. Emerging studies highlight cell metabolism as a crucial regulator of T cell quiescence and activation. This Review describes how immunological cues and nutrients fine-tune metabolic programmes and signalling networks that together promote T cell quiescence exit.
Supporting Patients through the rehabilitation continuum of care: The NRH Pre-admission Coordinator

The National Rehabilitation Hospital (NRH) is a tertiary provider of rehabilitation. The Brain Injury Programme (BIP) provides in-patient specialist rehabilitation to people following an acquired brain injury. The national demand for this service far exceeds the number of beds and resources available. Because of a lengthy waiting list of patients with diverse and complex rehabilitation needs, the waiting time for admission has been extensive, i.e. waiting longer than 12 months. Patients have been admitted to the incorrect stream of rehabilitation or admitted inappropriately and there has been poorly coordinated continuity of care throughout the entire rehabilitation process. The absence of service provision for those waiting for admission has resulted in distressed families and referrers and a high percentage of delayed discharges in both the acute sector and the rehabilitation setting due to late collaboration with community and primary care services. In 2016, it was identified that a solution to the fragmented arrangement of services to patients with acquired brain injury was required. As a result, the Preadmission Service at NRH was established to optimise the transition of care from acute through to community settings including rehabilitation and discharge. The service aims to meet the standards set out by the National Waiting List Management Protocol 2014. The preadmission service collaborates directly with the patient and their family when appropriate, plus a wide range of clinicians and agencies. The preadmission service is improving patient outcome across several domains that can be described qualitatively and quantitatively. The effect is a reduction in waiting times for admission, the provision of effective intervention while waiting for admission and reducing the numbers of delayed discharges plus returns to the acute setting.
Multi-task Learning for Natural Language Generation in Task-Oriented Dialogue.

In task-oriented dialogues, Natural Language Generation (NLG) is the final yet crucial step to produce user-facing system utterances. The result of NLG is directly related to the perceived quality and usability of a dialogue system. While most existing systems provide semantically correct responses given goals to present, they struggle to match the variation and fluency in the human language. In this paper, we propose a novel multi-task learning framework, NLG-LM, for natural language generation. In addition to generating high-quality responses conveying the required information, it also explicitly targets for naturalness in generated responses via an unconditioned language model. This can significantly improve the learning of style and variation in human language. Empirical results show that this multi-task learning framework outperforms previous models across multiple datasets. For example, it improves the previous best BLEU score on the E2E-NLG dataset by 2.2%, and on the Laptop dataset by 6.1%.
HEIs and workforce development: Helping undergraduates acquire career-readiness attributes:

The transition from college to careers has remained relatively consistent for decades. This is no longer the case, as many factors are at play. It is essential that undergraduate students gain care...
The Long Legends: Transcription, Translation, and Commentary

The long legends on the Carta marina will be addressed sheet by sheet, and within each sheet, from left to right and top to bottom. The legends are numbered with a two-number system, the first indicating the sheet, and the second the number of the legend on that sheet. The commentary aims to identify the sources of the legends whenever possible, and remarks will also be offered on images associated with the legends when necessary.
Enhancing computing curricula through a robotics-based approach: poster session

The current computing curricula for the first two years is mostly comprised of foundation courses in mathematics and introductory computing courses that lack of the characteristics of real world applications, hands-on projects and teamwork. While a solid foundation in mathematics and computing concepts is critical for studying advanced computing courses, it makes computing majors less appealing and is one of the major obstacles in retaining and recruiting students in computing majors. In this poster, we present our robotics-based solution that incorporates tangible projects and team learning in computing curricula to promote recruitment and retention.
Current Standards for Organ Preservation in Locoregionally Advanced Non-nasopharyngeal Head and Neck Cancer and Evolving Strategies for Favorable-Risk and Platinum-Ineligible Populations

Standard-of-care treatment for the majority of patients with locoregionally advanced squamous cell carcinoma of the head and neck (SCCHN) is either upfront surgery followed by adjuvant treatment as indicated by intraoperative or pathologic findings or concurrent chemoradiation reserving surgical salvage for non-responsive disease. An attempt at upfront complete resection should be pursued if feasible in patients with oral cavity or paranasal sinus primary tumors. Given multimodality treatment paradigms, patients with locoregionally advanced SCCHN should be managed in a multidisciplinary setting. Modern radiation therapy, whether postoperative or definitive in intent, is based on target delineation guided by high-quality imaging, using an intensity-modulated radiation technique to spare organs at risk. In select groups of low-risk patients, most notably those with HPV-associated oropharyngeal SCC (OPSCC), several treatment deintensification approaches are currently under investigation. Major experimental strategies within this non-surgical organ preservation domain include reductions in the intensity of the chemotherapy or radiation therapy components of the chemoradiation program, use of induction chemotherapy, or imaging-based selection of patients eligible for deintensified radiation-based treatment. Of note, recent efforts to substitute cetuximab for cisplatin in low-risk HPV-associated OPSCC have demonstrated the inferiority of cetuximab to cisplatin in cisplatin-eligible patients, re-confirming cisplatin as the standard systemic therapy of choice in HNSCC. In patients who are not candidates for any type of cisplatin administration, carboplatin-based therapy or cetuximab remain options, and other non-cisplatin therapies are under investigation. Altered fractionation may be considered in patients who are not candidates for any type of systemic therapy. The role of immunotherapy in the management of locoregional SCCHN remains investigational.
fRNAkenseq: a fully powered-by-CyVerse cloud integrated RNA-sequencing analysis tool

Background Decreasing costs make RNA sequencing technologies increasingly affordable for biologists. However, many researchers who can now afford sequencing lack access to resources necessary for downstream analysis. This means that even as algorithms to process RNA-Seq data improve, many biologists still struggle to manage the sheer volume of data produced by next generation sequencing (NGS) technologies. Scalable bioinformatics tools that exploit multiple platforms are needed to democratize bioinformatics resources in the sequencing era. This is essential for equipping many research groups in the life sciences with the tools to process the increasingly unwieldy datasets they produce. Methods One strategy to address this challenge is to develop a modern generation of sequence analysis tools capable of seamless data sharing and communication. Such tools will provide interoperability through offerings of interlinked resources. Systems of interlinked, scalable resources, which often incorporate cloud data storage, are broadly referred to as cyberinfrastructure. Cyberinfrastructure integrated tools will help researchers to robustly analyze large scale datasets by efficiently sharing data burdens across a distributed architecture. Additionally, interoperability will allow emerging tools to cross-adapt features of existing tools. It is important that these tools are designed to be easy to use for biologists. Results We introduce fRNAkenseq, a powered-by-CyVerse RNA sequencing analysis tool that exhibits interoperability with other resources and meets the needs of biologists for comprehensive, easy to use RNA sequencing analysis. fRNAkenseq leverages a complex set of Application Programming Interfaces (APIs) associated with the NSF-funded cyberinfrastructure project, CyVerse, to execute FASTQ-to-differential expression RNA-Seq analyses. Integrating across bioinformatics platforms, fRNAkenseq also exploits cloud integration and cross-talk with another CyVerse associated tool, CoGe. fRNAkenseq offers novel features for the biologist such as more robust and comprehensive pipelines for enrichment than those currently available by default in a single tool, whether they are cloud-based or local installation. Importantly, cross-talk with CoGe allows fRNAkenseq users to execute RNA-Seq pipelines on an inventory of 47,000 archived genomes stored in CoGe or upload their own draft genome.
Examining Black adolescents’ perceptions of in-school racial discrimination: The role of teacher support on academic outcomes

Abstract In-school racial discrimination is a risk factor for Black adolescents, as it is negatively associated with their academic outcomes, including grades and persistence. Scholars have sought to identify protective factors that lessen the harmful effects of such discrimination. Protective factors consider personal, family and environmental contexts. This paper is guided by risk and resilience frameworks, which propose that protective factors help individuals achieve positive outcomes, even in the presence of risk. The present study investigates whether teacher support, an environmental protective factor, buffers the harmful effects of in-school racial discrimination on adolescents’ grades and academic persistence. This study used cross-sectional methodology in a sample of 364 Black seventh grade students (49% female, mean age = 12.5 years old, SD = 0.6) from three schools located in the suburbs of a Midwestern state. Findings indicated that there was a positive and direct association between teacher support and grades, and teacher support and academic persistence. In-school racial discrimination from teachers and peers were both negatively associated with academic persistence, but were unrelated to grades. These results also indicated that teacher support moderated the association between in-school racial discrimination from teachers and adolescents’ academic persistence. The current findings support previous research suggesting the importance of teacher support for academic success. Implications for social work practice, school interventions, and school policy are discussed.
Re-starting travel in the era of COVID-19: preparing anew.

Teaser: Travel, a major contributor to global economy, needs to adapt to the COVID-19 pandemic. Restarting business and travel share convergent considerations. Travel health preparation will require detailed assessment to specifically address COVID-19: the individual’s personal risk stratification, elements of travel, and policies imposed on each traveler and itinerary. Precise details of the trip will help to formulate beneficial recommendations.
Mock Strategic Plan

This chapter tries to synthesize the book’s material by simulating the information systems strategic plan for a fictitious hospital. Tri-City Children’s Hospital (TCH) is a 350-bed children’s hospital located in a major urban area. It is part of a large medical center and is affiliated with a medical school. For most of its existence, TCH was actually part of an adult critical-care hospital. Several years ago, it was decided that TCH should be set up as an independent entity, with its own separate employees, departments, buildings, and systems. For the past six years TCH has had an implicit strategy of separation and stabilization. It had to construct new buildings, recruit staff, acquire equipment and technology, and set up business policies and procedures. Now, all that has been completed, and TCH has started to develop a 5-year plan. The 1990s will be a time of great change for the United States in general and for hospitals in particular.
Multisystem inflammatory syndrome in children.

Purpose of review Here we summarize current knowledge about multisystem inflammatory syndrome in children (MIS-C), a presumed postinfectious inflammatory condition that has emerged as an important COVID-19-associated complication, to help clinicians identify and manage cases. Recent findings Clinical presentation of MIS-C is dominated by significant inflammation. Fever, gastrointestinal symptoms, cardiac dysfunction, and hypotension are common features. Kawasaki disease-like findings are common, but epidemiologic data and recent mechanistic studies suggest that distinct inflammatory pathways mediate Kawasaki disease and MIS-C. A broad diagnostic approach is recommended, given overlapping presentations between MIS-C and many other disease processes. Current management of MIS-C is highly variable, depending on illness severity, and can range from supportive care to aggressive immune modulation. A multidisciplinary approach with early involvement of multiple pediatric subspecialists is recommended for complicated cases. Summary Several studies have described the clinical manifestations of MIS-C, but definitive diagnosis remains challenging. Robust information about long-term outcomes awaits further study, as do immunologic data to refine diagnostic and therapeutic strategies.
Estimating the Impact of Extended Delay to Surgery for Stage I Non-small-cell Lung Cancer on Survival.

OBJECTIVE: The purpose of this study is to evaluate the impact of extended delay to surgery for stage I NSCLC. SUMMARY OF BACKGROUND DATA: During the COVID-19 pandemic, patients with NSCLC may experience delays in care, and some national guidelines recommend delays in surgery by >3âmonths for early NSCLC. METHODS: Using data from the National Lung Screening Trial, a multi-center randomized trial, and the National Cancer Data Base, a multi-institutional oncology registry, the impact of "early" versus "delayed" surgery (surgery received 0-30 vs 90-120âdays after diagnosis) for stage I lung adenocarcinoma and squamous cell carcinoma (SCC) was assessed using multivariable Cox regression analysis with penalized smoothing spline functions and propensity score-matched analyses. RESULTS: In Cox regression analysis of the National Lung Screening Trial (n = 452) and National Cancer Data Base (n = 80,086) cohorts, an increase in the hazard ratio was seen the longer surgery was delayed. In propensity score-matched analysis, no significant differences in survival were found between early and delayed surgery for stage IA1 adenocarcinoma and IA1-IA3 SCC (all P > 0.13). For stage IA2-IB adenocarcinoma and IB SCC, delayed surgery was associated with worse survival (all P < 0.004). CONCLUSIONS: The mortality risk associated with an extended delay to surgery differs across patient subgroups, and difficult decisions to delay care during the COVID-19 pandemic should take substage and histologic subtype into consideration.
Recognition and cleavage of the bacteriophage P1 packaging site (pac): II. Functional limits of pac and location of pac cleavage termini

Bacteriophage P1 initiates the processive packaging of its DNA at a unique site called pac. We show that a functional pac site is contained within a 161 base-pair segment of P1 EcoRI fragment 20. It extends from a position 71 base-pairs to a position 232 base-pairs from the EcoRI-22 proximal side of that fragment. The 3' and 5' pac termini are located centrally within that 161 base-pair region and are distributed over about a turn of the DNA helix. The DNA sequence of the terminus region is shown below, with the large arrows indicating the positions of termini that are frequently represented in the PI population and the small arrows indicating the positions of termini that are rarely represented in the P1 population. (Sequence: in text). Digestion of P1 virus DNA with EcoRI generates two major EcoRI-pac fragments, which differ in size by about five or six base-pairs. While the structure and position of the double-stranded pac ends of these fragments have not been determined precisely, the 5' termini at those ends probably correspond to the two major pac cleavage sites in the upper strand of the sequences shown above. The 161 base-pair pac site contains the hexanucleotide sequence 5'-TGATCAG-3' repeated four times at one end and three times at the other. Removal of just one of those elements from either the right or left ends of pac reduces pac cleavage by about tenfold. Moreover, the elements appear to be additive in their effect on pac cleavage, as removal of one and a half elements or all three elements from the right side of pac reduces pac cleavage 100-fold, and greater than 1000-fold, respectively.
Cats and calcium oxalate: strategies for managing lower and upper tract stone disease.

Practical relevance Calcium oxalate (CaOx) containing stones are among the most common of the urinary tract stones identified in cats.Risk factors Risk factors for CaOx stone formation include such things as breed, gender and diet; stress and obesity have also been hypothesized to be risk factors for this disease.Management approach A tailored, individual management strategy for preventing CaOx stone recurrence is important and should include addressing the diet, environment and any other comorbid conditions present. Increasing the cat's moisture intake is one of the key mechanisms for preventing recurrence.Clinical challenges CaOx ureterolithiasis has emerged as a difficult and sometimes life-threatening problem for cats. In those cats where stones are found incidentally, periodic monitoring may be required to assess for disease progression. Interventional procedures such as ureteral stent placements are now increasingly being performed for recurrent cases or those with larger stone burdens. Periodic rad...
Shame and Religious Prosociality

Religious-political entrepreneurs often claim that a more religiously-inspired society will promote ethical and community-minded behavior. Previous work has indeed demonstrated that people in religious contexts tend to exhibit more prosocial behavior than people in secular contexts. What explains this "religious advantage?'' I distinguish between two classes of motivations that may underlie this general finding: a "private'' motivation, such as a heightened regard for others' welfare or an awareness of divine observation, and a "community-based'' or public motivation, such as the fear of shaming or sanctioning by other people. I test these two mechanisms using a set of experiments in Indonesia in which I vary the anonymity of players and prime some subjects for religious identity. I find that the Islamic prime elicited strongly heightened generosity by Muslim men, but only when shaming is possible. The results lend support to the community-based view of religious ethics and show no evidence for a private motivation for the religious advantage.
Virtualization of heterogeneous machines

Lime is a new Java-compatible and object-oriented language designed to make programming of reconfigurable hardware significantly more accessible to skilled software developers. Lime programs may run either in software (via Java bytecodes) or in hardware (via behavioral and logic synthesis). This paper illustrates the salient synthesis-oriented features of the language using a photomosaic algorithm with inherent bit, pipeline, and data parallelism. The result is a virtual machine abstraction that extends across a heterogeneous architecture comprising a CPU, FPGA, and other computational structures.
Offshore oilfield development planning under uncertainty and fiscal considerations

The development planning of an offshore oil and gas field infrastructure involves critical investment and operating decisions at an early stage of the project that impact the overall project profitability. These strategic/tactical decisions need to be made considering sufficient reservoir details, fiscal contracts with the government and uncertainty in the field parameters to be useful in practice. However, it makes the optimization problem difficult to model and solve. With this motivation, the objective of this paper is to present a comprehensive review of a unified modeling framework and solution strategies to address the issues of complex fiscal rules and endogenous uncertainties in the development planning of offshore oil and gas field infrastructure that relies on our recent work in this area. In particular, the paper emphasizes the need to have as a basis an efficient deterministic model that can account for various alternatives in the decision making process for a multi-field site incorporating sufficient level of details, while being computationally tractable for large instances. Consequently, such a model can be effectively extended to include other complexities, for instance a production sharing agreement and endogenous uncertainties. Computational results on the deterministic as well as multistage stochastic instances of the problem are discussed.
Key considerations in pharmacotherapy for type 2 diabetes mellitus: a multiple target organ approach

Summary What is known and Objective: Type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) is a progressive multisystem disease, and less than half the population with T2DM has achieved the recommended glycosylated haemoglobin A1c goal. We aim to present key points to consider when selecting pharmacotherapy for the management of T2DM. The selection of pharmacotherapy is discussed within the context of the underlying pathophysiology of T2DM, currently available treatment options highlighting newer agents and current clinical guidelines. Comment: Combination therapy regimens that target the multiple organ systems involved in the pathophysiology of T2DM can be developed based on the mechanism of action (MOA) of each class of agents. We compare the pathophysiology of T2DM with the MOA of the currently available non-insulin therapeutic options. What is new and Conclusion: Combination therapy that efficiently and effectively targets multiorgan correction with the least risk for serious adverse events, such as hypoglycaemia and drug interactions, is needed when initial treatment fails to achieve the desired clinical outcomes. Newer agents, now incorporated in treatment guidelines, increase the range of options available to the clinician.
Teaching English to Children

* Chapters on the four skills with useful games and activities which children will enjoy as they learn these skills * Helpful ideas for ways to organise your lessons , create the right atmosphere and what to do when things go wrong
A low-voltage swing latch for reduced power dissipation in high-frequency microprocessors

We report A new low-swing latch (LSL) for low-power applications. Unlike the conventional transmission gate latch, the LSL allows reduced voltage on the clock inputs. Therefore the local clock buffer (LCB) can use reduced swing to save power while all other circuits are running at nominal voltage. We have implemented an accumulator loop experiment in an early version of IBM's 90 nm SOI technology on a testchip. The experiment consists of an adder and a decrementer surrounded by latches to mimic logic between pipeline stages. Side-by-side comparisons between the transmission gate latch and LSL are designed to illustrate the superior power-performance tradeoff of the LSL approach. Hardware measurements have shown 12% AC power saving in 90 nm technology.
Processing and Hardness of a AL2O3 ‐ MgAl2O4 Nanocomposite

A processing technique was used to fabricate dense, two-phase nanocomposite samples of alumina - 40 vol. % magnesium aluminate. The microstructure was found to be a bi-continuous mixture of the two phases. Hardness was measured over a broad load range and the indentation size effect measured for both Knoop and Vickers indentation. Samples had a load-independent Knoop hardness of 14.9 GPa at 19.6 N and a load-independent Vickers hardness of 17.8 GPa at 19.6 N. The Vickers hardness comes close to the reported hardness of very fine-grained aluminas. Scratch testing revealed the material exhibited localized plastic deformation.
An algorithm for component selection in performance optimized scheduling

The authors describe a novel algorithm that combines the hardware scheduling and component selection phases for high level synthesis. The algorithm improves on previous work in scheduling, by being able to simultaneously select components from a given library. This enlarges the design space, resulting in better optimized designs. Experimental results on the elliptic filter benchmark demonstrate that exploiting all available components in the library results in designs with smaller area compared to designs produced by scheduling with a single implementation for each component type. >
An Empirical Assist In Resolving The Classification Dilemma Of Workers As Either Employees Or Independent Contractors

The classification of workers as "employees" or "independent contractors" is important because the employer's legal responsibilities vary depending upon the nature of the working relationship. For federal tax purposes, the term "employee" is not clearly defined. However, the model developed in this study is able to correctly classify 96.6 percent of the judicial decisions (1980-2005) involving the status of a worker as either an employee or independent contractor. Also, t he model demonstrates stability over time and between judicial venues.
Formyltetrahydrofolate synthetase. The role of the sulfhydryl groups.

Formyltetrahydrofolate synthetase, a tetrameric protein, contains 23 half-cystine residues as determined by cysteic acid analysis and 24 free sulfhydryl groups as determined by four different methods thus indicating absence of disulfide bonds. All of the cysteine residues react with sulfhydryl reagents in the absence of denaturing agents. Titration of the enzyme with p-chloromercuribenzoate (CMB) caused a loss in activity which was a linear function of the amount of thiol groups reacted. A complete loss in activity occurred after 11 CMB molecules had reacted per mole of enzyme. The loss in activity was accompanied by the appearance of the monomeric form of the protein; however, the presence of tetramer which contained CMB was demonstrated by Sephadex G-200 chromatography of enzyme which had been partially inactivated with 14C-labeled CMB. The reaction of the enzyme with 5,5'-dithiobis(2-nitrobenzoic acid) (DTNB) was different from that with CMB. The relation between thiol groups reacted and loss in activity was not linear, and about 18 to 20 thiol groups had to react before a complete loss in activity occurred. Dissociation to the monomeric form did not occur until about 75% of the cysteine residues had reacted. Titration with HgCl2 showed that a linear decrease in activity occurred until complete inactivation was observed after 8 Hg2+ ions had been bound by the protein. Hg2+ could be bound to virtually all of the cysteine residues without causing dissociation of the enzyme. Reactivation by cysteine of enzyme inactivated by CMB or DTNB was variable and could be achieved only when the enzyme was still in the tetrameric form. Total reactivation of mercury enzyme was achieved with 2-mercaptoethanol or cysteine. The inactivation by CMB and DTNB was retarded by ATP and tetrahydrofolate and facilitated by MgATP. Formate and Mg2+ had no effect on the inactivation. It is concluded that the inactivation of formyltetrahydrofolate synthetase by sulfhydryl reagents results from conformational changes produced in the tetramer as well as from dissociation of the tetramer to the inactive monomer. The effects produced by the substrates probably result from conformational changes in the protein. There is no evidence which suggests that a sulfhydryl group or groups constitute part of the active site of the enzyme.
Development and Implementation of a High-Performance Sensor System for an Industrial Polymer Reactor

Because of increasingly stringent demands on product quality, process measurements of high precision, accuracy, and reliability are required in many processes where process variables are traditionally difficult to measure. In many applications, several different measurements of certain key process variables are available from various sources, including on-line analyzers, lab analyses, inferential measurements, and models of all types. Because these individual sensors often differ significantly in terms of their static and dynamic characteristics, precision, accuracy, sampling rate, measurement time delay, etc., in practice, only one of them is utilized for process monitoring and control purposes; the other sensor measurements are ignored. However, significantly improved estimates of the process variables can be obtained by utilizing all of the available sensor information simultaneously, i.e., by combining (fusing) these dissimilar measurements into a single estimate in a robust and fault-tolerant fashion. There is evidence that such sensor fusion operations are integral to the operation of biological control systems, and it is from one of these systems (the blood pressure control system) that we have drawn inspiration for developing the technique discussed in this article. A sensor fusion approach is developed using stochastic systems theory (in particular, Kalman filtering). The advantages of using multiple, redundant sensors, as well as the potential improvements achievable by combining delayed or multirate sensor information with that of a single nominal sensor, are then quantified. Robustness is achieved by augmenting the nominal technique with failure detection, classification, and compensation schemes, based on statistical hypothesis testing. The performance of the techniques is demonstrated on an actual plant application in which improved feed composition estimates are obtained for an industrial ethylene copolymerization reactor.
Ukrainian financial markets: an examination of calendar anomalies

Purpose – This study aims to examine the market returns of the Ukrainian stock and bond markets to determine whether they exhibit calendar anomalies including the January effect, weekend effect, and turn‐of‐the‐month (TOM) effect. Ukraine provides an opportunity to examine the efficiency of an emerging market, adding to the extensive body of research on calendar anomalies.Design/methodology/approach – Regression analysis is used to examine the relationship between January returns vs non‐January returns, Monday returns vs non‐Monday returns, and TOM returns vs non‐TOM returns. Non‐parametric t‐tests and Wilcoxon signed rank tests are also used to examine TOM returns vs the rest of the month returns.Findings – There is no evidence of a January effect or a weekend effect in the Ukrainian stock and bond markets. However, our results support a TOM effect in the Ukrainian stock market. The mean daily TOM return is 0.35 vs 0.24 per cent for the rest of the month. Additionally, in 63 per cent of the months, the m...
Characteristics of cryocooled racetrack magnet fabricated using REBCO coated conductor

Abstract In the last few years, REBCO coated conductors having a performance greater than a few hundred amperes per cm at 77 K have been developed for superconducting applications. Coils that use REBCO coated conductors are expected to have the high operating current ( I op ) against the critical current ( I c ) of the coil. In this paper we report the experimental results of a small cryocooled racetrack magnet (70 × 150 mm in inner diameter, 100 × 180 mm in outer diameter, 27 mm in height, 50 m (12.5 m × 4 coils) in total length) fabricated using a REBCO coated conductor, formed by IBAD/PLD method. We measured the critical current of the magnet from 50 K to 20 K under cryocooled conditions. The critical current was found to be 450 A at 20 K. The magnetic field of 0.54 T was generated at the center of the magnet. We also investigated the stability of the racetrack magnet, at the current of 382.5 A, and I op / I c ratio of approximately 85%, for 1 h at 20 K.
Analysis of Chaperone mRNA Expression in the Adult Mouse Brain by Meta Analysis of the Allen Brain Atlas

The pathology of many neurodegenerative diseases is characterized by the accumulation of misfolded and aggregated proteins in various cell types and regional substructures throughout the central and peripheral nervous systems. The accumulation of these aggregated proteins signals dysfunction of cellular protein homeostatic mechanisms such as the ubiquitin/proteasome system, autophagy, and the chaperone network. Although there are several published studies in which transcriptional profiling has been used to examine gene expression in various tissues, including tissues of neurodegenerative disease models, there has not been a report that focuses exclusively on expression of the chaperone network. In the present study, we used the Allen Brain Atlas online database to analyze chaperone expression levels. This database utilizes a quantitative in situ hybridization approach and provides data on 270 chaperone genes within many substructures of the adult mouse brain. We determined that 256 of these chaperone genes are expressed at some level. Surprisingly, relatively few genes, only 30, showed significant variations in levels of mRNA across different substructures of the brain. The greatest degree of variability was exhibited by genes of the DnaJ co-chaperone, Tetratricopeptide repeat, and the HSPH families. Our analysis provides a valuable resource towards determining how variations in chaperone gene expression may modulate the vulnerability of specific neuronal populations of mammalian brain.
Relation of Avian Egg Weight to Body Weight

JUST over 50 years ago Heinroth (1922) published the first extensive list of egg weights and adult body weights for 427 species of birds. Since then additional data have appeared and the most extensive list can now be found in Schonwetter's (1960-72) monumental description of bird eggs. With these as a major backlog, and data for the Fringillidae (Amadon 1943); the Sphenisciformes, Anseriformes, and Procellariiformes (Lack 1968); and Falconiformes (Mebs 1964), more than 800 egg weightbody weight correlates are now available. Our endeavor has been to describe the relationship between egg weight and body weight in mathematical terms that are amenable to further refinements when additional data became available. We have not been concerned with explaining the relationship as Lack (1968) has done in his elegant analysis, but have rather attempted to find out what common principles might emerge from this particular relationship. Our analytical approach is basically the same as suggested originally by Huxley (1923-24), namely to plot log (egg weight) against log (body weight) and to derive a regression equation that expresses egg weight, W, as a function of body weight, B, raised to a power: W = aBb. The additional data now available allow one to obtain individual regression equations for many orders and families. As Amadon (1943) had anticipated in his review of Huxley's analysis and as Lack (1968) has recently shown for many orders and families, each group of related birds has its characteristic proportionality constant, a. On the other hand, our analysis indicates that the power, b, is most likely the same for all groups, inamely 0.675. In addition, the relation of incubation time to body weight is derived (Rahn and Ar 1974); incubation time is shown to be proportional to body weight raised to the 0.166 power. Thus a 10-fold increase in body weight is in general associated with a 4.73-fold increase in egg weight and a 1.47-fold increase in incubation time.
Normal Arterial Blood Gases during Experimental Hypertriglyceridemia in the Rat

The possible effect of high concentrations of plasma triglycerides on arterial oxygen tension was investigated in rats by infusion of lymph chylomicrons or a soybean oil emulsion (Intralipid®). Mean triglyceride concentrations were raised from 130 to 1454 mg/100 ml without statistically significant change in arterial oxygen tension, oxygen saturation, carbon dioxide tension, or pH. The small reductions in arterial oxygen tension, content, or saturation observed in earlier studies may have been due to inadequate stabilization of the fat emulsion then available for intravenous use. The present data suggest that high concentrations of plasma triglycerides produced by infusion of chylomicrons or Intralipid do not affect arterial blood gases in the normal rat.
Oxygen, silicon, and Mn-Cr isotopes of fayalite in the Kaba oxidized CV3 chondrite: Constraints for its formation history

The iron-rich olivine end-member, fayalite, occurs in the matrix, chondrules, Ca-Al-rich inclusions (CAIs), silicate aggregates, and dark inclusions in the Kaba and Mokoia oxidized CV3 chondrites. In most occurrences, fayalite is associated with magnetite and troilite. To help constrain the origin of the fayalite (Fa98–100), we measured oxygen and silicon isotopic compositions and Mn-Cr systematics in fayalite from two petrographic settings of the Kaba meteorite. One setting consists of big fayalite laths embedded in the matrix and radiating from a core of fine-grained magnetite and sulfide, while the other setting consists of small fayalite-magnetite-sulfide assemblages within or at the surface of Type I barred or porphyritic olivine chondrules. Oxygen in the big fayalite laths and small chondrule fayalites falls on the terrestrial fractionation line, and is distinct from that in chondrule forsterites, which are enriched in 16O (Δ17O = ∼−4‰). Oxygen in the big fayalite laths may be isotopically heavier than that in chondrule fayalites. Silicon isotopes suggest that forsterite is ∼1‰/amu heavier than adjacent fayalite within Kaba chondrules. However, we were unable to confirm large silicon isotopic differences among fayalites reported previously. The Mn-Cr data for big Kaba fayalites give an initial 53Mn/55Mn ratio of (2.07 ± 0.17) × 10−6, consistent with literature results on Mokoia chondrule fayalites. The combined data suggest that fayalites in both petrographic settings formed at about the same time, ∼9.7 Ma after the formation of CAIs. Our data indicate that those fayalite-magnetite-troilite assemblages replacing metal inside and around chondrules formed by aqueous alteration on the meteorite parent body. The formation site and mechanism for the big fayalite laths is less clear, but the petrographic setting indicates that they did not form in situ. None of the models that have been suggested for formation of these fayalites is entirely satisfactory.