cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Development of a low motion-noise humanoid neck: Statics analysis and experimental validation

This paper presents our recently developed humanoid neck system that can effectively mimic motion of human neck with very low motion noises. The feature of low motion noises allows our system to work like a real human head/neck. Thus the level of acoustic noises from wearable equipments, such as donning respirators or chemical-resistant jackets, induced by human head motion can be simulated and investigated using such a system. The objective of this investigation is to facilitate using head-worn communication devices for the person who wears the protective equipment/uniform that usually produces communication-noise when the head/neck moves. Our low motion-noise humanoid neck system is based on the spring structure, which can generate 1 Degree of Freedom (DOF) jaw movement and 3DOF neck movement. To guarantee the low-noise feature, no noise-makers like gear and electro-driven parts are embedded in the head/neck structure. Instead, the motions are driven by seven cables, and the actuators pulling the cables are sealed in a sound insulation box. Furthermore, statics analysis of the system has been processed completely. Experimental results validate the analysis, and clearly show that the head/neck system can greatly mimic the motions of human head with an A-weighted noise level of 30 dB or below
Private Property Rights: The Development of Takings in the United States

Constraints upon the uses of private property in the United States have increased very far beyond the doctrines of Grotius, Locke, Blackstone, and the framers of the Constitution. In the 19th century, both public nuisance limitations and eminent domain takings were applied to particular holdings, with the latter requiring compensation under the Fifth Amendment. The New Deal of the 1930s and the envirommental movement of the 1960s radically changed the relationship of government to private property. Sweeping economic reforms and the exercise of broad regulatory powers by public agencies for a clean environment and biological diversity led to a wholesale "taking" of private property without compensation. Recent cases of the Supreme Court involving wetlands and coastal property reveal the tensions that exist between sovereign power for the public good and the protection of individual property as a bulwark against arbitrary government.
Variations in surface activity of the sun and solar-type stars

Twenty-five-year records of relative Caii H and K emission fluxes of lower Main-Sequence stars have been measured at Mount Wilson Observatory and reveal surface activity in most of the older G- and K-type dwarf stars that is similar to the aperiodical activity cycle of the contemporary Sun (i.e., the cyclic and the occasional episode of reduced activity in the past few centuries). We find an inverse relationship between the amplitude of the activity cycle and the length of the cycle for the ensemble of those solar-type stars. We also find a similar relationship using the 250-year sunspot record (Cycles 1 to 21). The similarity between the two inverse relationships for the solar-type stars observed for 25 years and the Sun for a longer interval of time may suggest one common underlying physical mechanism that is responsible for the variations in surface activity ranging from decades to centuries.
The twilight envelope: a user-centered approach to describing roadway illumination at night

Visual recognition functions, such as acuity and contrast sensitivity, deteriorate rapidly over the declining luminances found during civil twilight. Thus civil twilight, a critical part of the transition between daylight and darkness, represents lighting conditions that may be useful to describe artificial illumination. Automotive headlamps project a three-dimensional beam that ranges from illumination levels comparable to daylight at the vehicle to the dark limit of civil twilight (3.3 1x) at some distance ahead. This twilight envelope is characterized as a distance beyond which foveal visual functions are severely impaired, and thus it provides a general, functional description of the useful extent of the headlamp beam. This user-centered approach to describing illumination is useful for characterizing visibility when driving at night or in other artificially lit environments. This paper discusses the twilight envelope approach and its application to intervehicle variations in headlamp systems. Actual or potential applications of this research include user-centered description of artificial illumination and driver/pedestrian safety education.
Mass Conservation in the Immersed Boundary Method

The immersed boundary approach for the modeling of complex geometries in incompressible flows is examined critically from the perspective of satisfying boundary conditions and mass conservation. The system of discretized equations for mass and momentum can be inconsistent if the real velocities are used in defining the forcing terms used to satisfy the boundary conditions. As a result, the velocity is generally not divergence free and the pressure at locations in the vicinity of the immersed boundary is not physical. However, the use of the pseudo velocities in defining the forcing (as frequently done when the governing equations are solved using a fractional step or projection method) combined with the use of the specified velocity on the immersed boundary is shown to result in a consistent set of equations which allows a divergence free velocity but, depending on the time step used to obtain a steady state solution, is shown to have an undesirable effect of allowing significant permeability of the immersed boundary. An improvement is shown if the pressure gradient is integrated in time using the Crank-Nicholson scheme instead of the backward Euler scheme. However, even with this improvement a significant reduction in the time step and hence increase in computational expense is still required for sufficient satisfaction of the boundary conditions.Copyright © 2005 by ASME
Continuous Saccharification of Corn Starch in a Membrane Reactor. Part I: Conversion, Capacity and Productivity

Effects of enzyme concentration, substrate concentration and residence time on substrate conversion, reactor capacity and productivity were evaluated. As enzyme concentration increased from 1 to 6 g/L, substrate conversion also increased. Substrate conversion was essentially unchanged at enzyme concentrations greater than 6 g/L. Reactor capacity was significantly affected by both substrate and enzyme concentration. As residence time increased, substrate conversion increased 15–22%. Productivities of the continuous reactor were 10 to 20 times greater than those obtained in a batch reactor. The continuous membrane reactor was capable of producing a highly pure glucose syrup at low residence times. Due to the high levels of substrate conversion, minimal operational problems were experienced.
Identifying the best market prospects for US agricultural exports

Market prospects for US agricultural exports through 1994 were predicted using econometric models which estimated US export growth rate as a function of the countries' trade-related and macroeconomic variables. The models used include an approximation of the predictive model proposed by the FAS in 1990 (MFAS) and one which reflects the authors' view that additional variables need consideration (SR). The SR model turned out to be the better-fitting specification and predicted the top markets to be Mexico, Hong Kong, Guyana, Canada, Japan, Turkey, France, Thailand, South Korea, and Costa Rica. © 1993 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
The higher oxides of nitrogen: Inhalation toxicology

The higher oxides of nitrogen (NO, NO/sub 2/, and higher valence) are highly reactive compounds encountered in a variety of occupational exposures and are principal constituents of photochemical air pollution. Their chemical properties result in direct oxidation, free radical formation, nitrosation, nitrite ion release, and paramagnetic interactions with heme. NO is formed from the oxidation of atmospheric N/sub 2/ in the internal combustion engine and is converted to NO/sub 2/, the compound of greater toxicity. Inhalation of NO/sub 2/ in high concentrations may result in a triphasic sequence of acute bronchospasm, delayed pulmonary edema, and late bronchiolitis obliterans. Low concentrations appear to induce pulmonary fibrosis with chronic exposure and to inhibit pulmonary defense mechanisms, particularly macrophage function and ciliary motility. Animal and human population studies suggest that the greatest risk from low-dose long-term exposure is reduced host resistance to viral and bacterial respiratory tract infections. The present national ambient air quality standard does not provide a large safety margin for this latter effect and should be reviewed.
Diffusion-collision model algorithms for protein folding kinetics.

The diffusion–collision model (DCM) of protein folding is described qualitatively and quantitatively. The input parameters required to perform a calculation are explained, and the output data are outlined. Three examples are given of calculating DCM folding kinetics: the Engrailed Homeodomain (a three-helix bundle with three helical microdomains, pdb code 1ENH), protein G (with three microdomains having a β-hairpin-α-helix-β-hairpin motif, pdb code 1PGA), and apomyoglobin (with eight helices and seven strong microdomain–microdomain pairings). © 2004 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Comput Chem 25: 1101–1107, 2004
Adjustment of Children Facing the Death of a Parent Due to Cancer

ABSTRACT Objective To compare predeath and postdeath levels of depression and anxiety reported by a sample of children who lost a parent to cancer ("study children") with the levels reported by children in a community sample who did not experience such a loss. Method Tscores for depressive symptomatology (Children's Depression Inventory) and state and trait anxiety (State-Trait Anxiety Inventory) were compared. Both samples were weighted to control for multiple participants from the same family. Weights for children in the community sample were further adjusted to match the distribution of the two samples with regard to gender, age, and number of children in the household. Comparisons were made using t tests and χ 2 tests. Results Whereas study children reported significantly higher levels of depression and anxiety in the predeath period, levels of symptomatology reported for both measures postdeath were similar in both samples. Discussion The data suggest that while many children experiencing the loss of a parent to cancer report elevated levels of depression and anxiety predeath, by 7 to 12 months postdeath their reports of depression and anxiety are comparable with those of similarly situated children in the community who did not experience such a loss.
Which Way Did You Say That Bicycle Went

In this paper, we provide a method for constructing such ambiguous tire tracks, where one cannot determine from the shape of the tracks which direction the bicycle was traveling. The pair of tracks in FIGURE 1 is in fact an example of such a pair of ambiguous tracks. Our method to produce these involves only a slight variation of the solution method for the original problem [8]. Our method for constructing ambiguous tire tracks starts with the construction of a special initial back-tire track segment. From this initial back-tire track segment, we can construct a front-tire track segment (which will be longer) by pushing the bicycle forward in both possible directions of motion along the back-tire track. The next step is to extend the back-tire track by pushing the bicycle backwards along the newly created front-tire track in both possible directions. This physical construction can be continued iteratively until either the front-tire track or the back-tire track develops a singularity. To see a demonstration of this mathematical construction, the interested reader can view animations at the author's website [5].
Involvement of a Polyproline Helix-like Structure in the Interaction of 7B2 with Prohormone Convertase 2*

The neuroendocrine protein 7B2 is known to be involved in the biosynthesis and activity of prohormone convertase 2 (PC2). Previous studies have demonstrated that while the carboxyl-terminal portion of 7B2 (residues 155-186) regulates the enzymatic activity of PC2, the amino terminus of the molecule (residues 1-151) is required for maturation of proPC2. In this study we employed four different experimental approaches (co-immunoprecipitation with proPC2, facilitation of pro-PC2 maturation, acquisition of enzymatic activity, and thermal protection assays) to identify structural elements of 7B2 important for bioactivity. Inspection of the sequence of 7B2 indicated potential involvement of a polyproline helix-like (PPII) structure, with similarities to those present within SH3 domain ligands, in the interaction of 7B2 with proPC2. Site-directed point mutagenesis of this proline-rich region confirmed the involvement of this area. Replacement of prolines in positions critical to helix formation (Pro90, Pro91, Pro93, and Pro95) either severely impaired or totally abolished 7B2 bioactivity, as gauged by the four assays described. In addition, constructs longer than residues 1-121 were still functional, whereas those shorter than residues 1-109 were not. Computer-assisted analysis predicts the presence of an α-helix structure between residues 107 and 123. We conclude that both the proline-rich region and the α-helix contribute to 7B2 activity. Polyproline-containing peptides have been shown to be involved in cytoplasmic protein-protein interactions; our results suggest that the polyproline helix motif may also be used to mediate protein-protein interactions within the secretory pathway.
Well-posedness of continuum models for weakly ionized plasmas

Continuum fluid models of weakly ionized plasmas are useful in the design and control of plasma-assisted deposition and etching processes. The equations in these models are numerically stiff. Their stiffness is affected by the imposed boundary conditions. In this work, a DC discharge model is studied and the effect of the boundary conditions on the model solution is investigated. It is established, both analytically and numerically, that depending on the choice of boundary conditions the model may range from being ill-posed to being solvable with standard software. It is also established that excessive truncation error maybe present in numerical simulations which appear to qualitatively capture plasma structure. Accurate numerical simulations of the considered model, with alternate boundary conditions, are shown to capture many characteristics of a DC discharge, albeit at lower values of applied voltage than those reported in the literature. Finally, model shortcomings are discussed. >
A niche for every cell, for every function.

A cute or chronic blood loss reduces the numbers of red blood cells (RBCs) in the circulation, reducing oxygen delivery and producing tissue hypoxia. One of the first cellular responses to hypoxia is increased production of reactive oxygen species (ROS) by mitochondria. With evolution, organisms
Deep Vein Thrombosis and Stress Ulcer Prophylaxis in the Intensive Care Unit

Deep vein thrombosis (DVT) and stress gastric ulcers can be serious complications in patients admitted to the intensive care unit. This review discusses the risk factors associated with the development of DVT and stress-related mucosal disease (SRMD), evaluates the available literature on current options for DVT and stress ulcer prophylaxis, and examines the associated adverse effects and optimal duration of therapy.
Jeepneys: Values in the Streets

Cross-cultural psychological studies mostly focus on differences between countries. This study uniquely focuses on intracultural variations of values based on descriptors of artifact data, jeepneys (public transportation vehicles), and on interviews with jeepney drivers. The sample consisted of 200 jeepneys and their drivers in Manila and Davao, northern and southern regions of the Philippines, respectively. Results indicated that Manila jeepneys featured more decorations and accessories concerned with religion, identity, and Western commercialism, while Davao jeepneys featured more political and civic themes. In interviews about their problems and wishes, Manila drivers expressed more financial and road-related problems and wishes that centered on family and happiness, whereas Davao drivers expressed more family and other people-related problems and wishes dealing with finances and work. Results are discussed focusing on inter-and intracultural variation.
Improving Secrecy Rate via Spectrum Leasing for Friendly Jamming

Cooperative jamming paradigm in secure communications enlists network nodes to transmit noise or structured codewords, in order to impair the eavesdropper's ability to decode messages to be kept confidential from it. Such an approach can significantly help in facilitating secure communication between legitimate parties but, by definition, assumes dedicated and/or altruistic nodes willing to act as cooperative jammers. In this paper, it is demonstrated that cooperative jamming leads to meaningful secrecy rate improvements even when this assumption is removed. A distributed mechanism is developed that motivates jamming participation of otherwise non-cooperative terminals, by compensating them with an opportunity to use the fraction of legitimate parties' spectrum for their own data traffic. With the goal of maximizing their data transmission rate priced by the invested power, cooperative jammers provide the jamming/transmitting power that is generally proportional to the amount of leased bandwidth. The fully decentralized framework is facilitated through a game-theoretic model, with the legitimate parties as the spectrum owners acting as the game leader, and the set of assisting jammers constituting the follower. To facilitate the behavior of non-cooperative and competitive multiple jammers, auctioning and power control mechanisms are applied for a follower sub-game in a two-layer leader-follower game framework.
The roce-bush router: a case for routing-centric dimensional decomposition for low-latency 3D noC routers

As 3D System-On-Chips (SoCs) come ever closer to becoming the standard for high performance ICs, 3D Networks on Chips (NoCs) have emerged as a key component in meeting performance constraints and ensuring power-efficiency. Among the proposed 3D router architectures, dimensionally-decomposed routers are widely accepted as an efficient solution to deal with the increased port count and the accompanying exponential power and area increases. All decompositions proposed thus far have however been dimensionally static, that is, they have set in stone a particular bias among the three dimensions. This paper presents a novel router with a routing-centric decomposition and virtual channel buffer sharing called the Roce-Bush router. To our knowledge, this is the first work that integrates routing-awareness in the context of dimensional decomposition and buffer resource allocation for NoC routers. Experimental results involving RTL level implementations of our router and synthesis at 45nm show that compared to a dimensional-agnostic decomposed router, the Roce-Bush router can achieve up to 14% better performance and 5% lower power.
Short-Term Memory for Colors and Color Names in the Absence of Vocalization

In a previous experiment, Allen found no release from proactive inhibition using the Brown-Peterson procedure in a group who were shifted from recalling colors to recalling the names of colors. The lack of release suggests that colors and color names are encoded in similar ways. It was argued that the similarity of encoding might have been caused by the procedure of requiring the subjects to say out loud the names of the colors at the time of stimulus presentation and recall. In the present experiment, a procedure was devised that eliminated the need for verbalization of the colors. The same pattern of results was obtained, namely, release from proactive inhibition in the group shifted from recalling color names to colors but not in the group shifted in the opposite direction. It was concluded that if subjects encode colors as a verbal label, then this encoding strategy is not caused by the procedure of requiring the subjects to verbalize the colors.
STIMULUS-SPECIFIC AND RESPONSE-SPECIFIC HABITUATION IN COURTING STICKLEBACK: DEVELOPMENTAL AND FUNCTIONAL CONSIDERATIONS

Male threespine stickleback, Gasterosteus aculeatus , from a marine population on Long Island, New York were presented simultaneously with two dummies, one simulating a normally distended ('thinner') gravid female and the other a highly distended ('fatter') one. Males initially courted the dummies much as they do real females, but showed stimulus-specific and response-specific habituation to the dummies. Males initially courted the fatter dummy slightly more than the thinner one but showed clear signs of habituation toward the thinner dummy after about 4 min while courtship to the fatter one continued throughout the 1 hr presentation period. Thus, within 12 min males were directing a much greater proportion of courtship to the fatter dummy, and this difference increased over time. Males also attacked both dummies and, in contrast to their courtship response, divided biting equally between the two dummies. Moreover, bite rates to the thinner and the fatter dummy doubled within the first 12 min and then fluctuated around that level for the remainder of the trial. The stimulusspecific and response-specific nature of habituation may be adaptive for male mating success because it leads the male to focus courtship on the preferred female and to direct attack against the fish presenting a greater threat to the nest but a lower potential reproductive payoff.
Statistical Problems Encountered in Using Trigonometric Parallaxes

The importance of understanding the properties of a data sample which is to be used for calibrating luminosities can hardly be over-emphasized. In an earlier paper (Lutz 1983) I pointed out the methods for dealing with two well-defined cases. In this paper I will elaborate further on the same topic.
Blocking in incomplete split plot designs

SUMMARY An incomplete split plot design with whole plots arranged in a completely randomized design was proposed by Robinson (1967). In this note, designs in which the whole plots are arranged in blocks, are considered. A method of construction and estimates of treatment effects are given. Robinson (1967) discussed certain incomplete split plot designs for factorial experiments with a factor A1 on whole plots and a factor A2 on subplots. In these designs the number of subplots per whole plot is less than the number of levels of A2. For each level of A1, the allocation of levels of A2 is balanced with respect to whole plots in the sense that, if whole plots are thought of as blocks, the allocation produces a balanced incomplete block design. The same balanced incomplete block design is used for each level of A1. Robinson (1967) did not consider grouping whole plots into blocks. However, the incomplete split plot design for the treatment combinations of two factors A1 and A2 at v1 and v2 levels, respectively, consists of whole plots made up of k2 < v2 subplots, with each level of the factor A1 applied to b2 whole plots and the v2 levels of the factor A2 arranged in a balanced incomplete block design within each level of A1 by considering the whole plots as blocks. On any level of A1, each level of A2 occurs r2 times and each pair of levels of A2 occurs in the same whole plot A' times. The design may be considered to be repeated r, times. If the whole plots are arranged in blocks, the between whole plot error may be reduced. A procedure, based on designs for confounding in asymmetrical factorial experiments as described by Nair & Rao (1948), is suggested for generating these designs. Neglecting the whole plots, we see that the block designs derived by this procedure are partially balanced incomplete block designs with three associate classes in a rectangular association scheme and they give a generalization of the direct product designs of Vartak (1955, 1959). Rees (1969) considered incomplete split plot designs where the blocks were direct product designs.
The family of genes encoding odorant receptors in the channel catfish

The anatomical and numerical simplicity of the fish olfactory system has led us to examine the family of olfactory receptors expressed in the catfish. We have identified a family of genes encoding seven transmembrane domain receptors that share considerable homology with the odorant receptors of the rat. The size of the catfish receptor repertoire appears to be far smaller than in mammals. Analysis of the nucleotide sequences suggests that these receptor genes have undergone positive Darwinian selection to generate enhanced diversity within the putative odorant-binding domains. Individual receptor clones anneal with 0.5%-2% of the olfactory neurons, suggesting that a single cell expresses only a small subset of distinct odorant receptors. Each cell, therefore, possesses a unique identity defined by the receptors it expresses. These data suggest that the brain may discriminate among odors by determining which neurons have been activated.
Learning from My Success and from Others' Failure: Evidence from Minimally Invasive Cardiac Surgery

Learning from past experience is central to an organization's adaptation and survival. A key dimension of prior experience is whether an outcome was successful or unsuccessful. Although empirical studies have investigated the effects of success and failure in organizational learning, to date, the phenomenon has received little attention at the individual level. Drawing on attribution theory in psychology, we investigate how individuals learn from their own past experiences with both failure and success and from the experiences of others. For our empirical analyses, we use 10 years of data from 71 cardiothoracic surgeons who completed more than 6,500 procedures using a new technology for cardiac surgery. We find that individuals learn more from their own successes than from their own failures, but they learn more from the failures of others than from others' successes. We also find that individuals' prior successes and others' failures can help individuals overcome their inability to learn from their own f...
A Note on Response Time Minimization for Planar MSM Photodetectors

The finger sizing of interdigitated Schottky-barrier metal-semiconductor-metal photodetectors (MSM-PD) is discussed in this paper. We observe that a wide variety of design objectives and constraints have a special form, i.e., they are (either approximately or exactly) posynomial functions of the design variables. Therefore an MSM-PD geometry with fast response speed can be determined by solving a special form of optimization problem called posynomial programming, for which very efficient global optimization methods have been developed. Our method, therefore, yields automated finger sizing of MSM-PD, directly from specifications.
MICROWAVE PROCESSING OF SILICON NITRIDE FOR ADVANCED GAS TURBINE APPLICATIONS

Results from previous studies on microwave processing of silicon nitride-based ceramics are reviewed to ascertain the application of this technology to advanced gas turbine (AGT) materials. Areas of microwave processing that have been examined in the past are (1) sintering of powder compacts; (2) heat treatment of dense materials; and (3) nitridation of Si for reactionbonded silicon nitride. The sintering of Si[sub 3]N[sub 4] powder compacts showed improved densification and enhanced grain growth. However, the high additive levels required to produce crack-free parts generally limit these materials to low temperature applications. Improved high-temperature creep resistance has been observed for microwave heat-treated materials and therefore has application to materials used in highly demanding service conditions. In contrast to Si[sub 3]N[sub 4], Si couples well in the microwave and sintered reaction-bonded silicon nitride materials have been fabricated in a one-step process with cost-effective raw materials. However, these materials are also limited to lower temperature applications, under about 1000[degrees]C.
Possible association of ischemic stroke with phentermine.

Some commonly used anorexiants, including methamphetamine and phenylpropanolamine, have been associated with stroke. Because phentermine is an anorexiant with a chemical structure similar to that of amphetamines, similar side effects might be expected.Two patients using phentermine (one was also using phendimetrazine) developed ischemic cerebrovascular disease. One suffered a cerebral infarct with angiographic evidence of vasculopathy involving multiple vascular beds. The other patient developed headache and a hemisensory disturbance of 7 days' duration.Phentermine, and possibly phendimetrazine, should be considered an anorexiant and sympathomimetic drug that can be associated with ischemic cerebrovascular disease.
Penetration of Iron and Some Organic Substances Through Isolated Cuticular Membranes

Cuticular membranes were isolated enzymically from tomato fruits and from the dorsal and ventral surfaces of the leaves of Euonymus japonicus. Penetration of Fe from FeSO(4) and FeEDDHA (ferric ethylenediamine di(o-hydroxyphenylacetate) in the absence and presence of urea through the isolated cuticular membranes was studied. Fe from FeSO(4) penetrated more rapidly through the cuticles than Fe from FeEDDHA. Urea reduced the penetration of Fe from FeSO(4) and FeEDDHA. Binding of Fe on the inner surfaces of tomato fruit cuticles was also reduced by EDDHA.The results on the rates of penetration of (14)C-labeled organic substances suggest a possible relationship with their molecular weights. Permeability coefficients for these solutes have been derived for the 3 types of cuticles, using Fick's equation. The penetration rates of all substances through stomatous cuticles far exceeded those through astomatous cutioles.
Innovations in Road Finance: Examining the Growth in Electronic Tolling

This research examines the policy objectives, technical approaches, and political reactions associated with the current upsurge in electronic road pricing (ERP). The authors recently examined more than 90 implemented or proposed ERP projects around the globe, falling into four general categories: (a) facility congestion tolls, (b) cordon congestion tolls, (c) automated weight-distance truck tolls, and (d) distance-based user fees spanning entire road networks. Findings suggest that political and structural liabilities associated with traditional finance mechanisms—most notably motor fuel taxes—have motivated jurisdictions to explore alternatives such as local option sales taxes, public-private partnerships, and ERP. A compelling advantage of ERP is that it provides decision makers with what appears to be an effective tool for combating traffic congestion and automotive emissions. Meanwhile, many of the underlying technologies to support ERP have matured in recent years, enabling the rapid proliferation of experimentation and implementation in this arena.
The Shape of LVH in Hypertension: What Does it Tell Us?∗

Increased LV mass (actually weight) as well as the pattern of that increase has long been associated with adverse outcomes in patients with hypertension. Over one-half century ago, it was suggested that left ventricular hypertrophy (LVH) was a physiological adaptation to increased workload [(1,2)][1
THE SOCIALLY DESIRABLE SIZE OF COPYRIGHT FEES

Licensing of copyrighted material can contribute to welfare. But what fee is socially desirable fee? The owner's marginal cost of licensing is often near zero, but P = MC =0 is arguably neither equitable nor an effi- cient incentive for further creative activity. Here two fee-setting approaches are described, assuming copyright rules are pre-established and determine the holder's earnings, absent licensing. One approach is Ramsey pricing, theoreti- cally second best and able to preserve the copyholder's earnings. The second is 'parity pricing', as derived in the price-regulation literature, which can ensure effective free entry into commercial use of the licensed material.
THE EFFECTS OF REGULAR INHALATION OF DISODIUM CROMOGLYCATE (DSCG) AND SALBUTAMOL IN SEVERE AND INTRACTABLE ASTHMA PATIENTS

Although it has been difficult to control severe and intractable asthma patients, even adults, using conventional therapy, a new treatment featuring regular use of DSCG and salbutamol inhalation produced an improvement in the clinical symptoms and the quality of life for almost all patients with asthma.When the clinical symptoms for 3 months before regular use were compared with those for three months after use, asthma attack scores for severe and intractable patients decreased from 22.8 to 10.2, and from 71.7 to 17.4, respectively.Frequency of emergency room visits decreased from 12.3 to 3.1 times in 12 severe patients and from 27.3 to 1.1 times in 7 intractable patients. Mean dosage of corticosteroid (prednisolone) for intractable patients decreased from 460.7mg (range 150 to 945mg) to 74.2mg (range 0 to 415mg).It is concluded that the regular use of DSCG and a β2 agonist not only prevented asthmatic attacks, but also induced an improvement in intractable patients by prolonging bronchodilatation, inhibiting the effect against bronchial inflammation and reducing bronchial hypersensitivity.
Four decades of irrationality: U.S.-Soviet relations

The confrontationist view that has dominated U.S. policy toward the Soviet Union is based upon assumptions that were questionable to start with, and are increasingly inapplicable to the Soviet Union as it has changed over the years.
Laser-Chemical 3-D Micromachining

Three-dimensional parts are machined in silicon using laser-induced chlorine etching reactions. Structures are created directly from solid-modeling computer-aided-design/computer-aided-manufacturing software. Removal rates exceeding 2 × 104 and 105μm3/s, several orders of magnitude faster than electrodischarge machining methods, are achieved at 1-μm, and 15-μm x-y resolution, respectively. Laser-induced metallization of resulting structures as well as replication through compression molding have been demonstrated.
Oligosaccharides released from milk glycoproteins are selective growth substrates for infant-associated bifidobacteria

ABSTRACT Milk, in addition to nourishing the neonate, provides a range of complex glycans whose construction ensures a specific enrichment of key members of the gut microbiota in the nursing infant, a consortium known as the milk-oriented microbiome. Milk glycoproteins are thought to function similarly, as specific growth substrates for bifidobacteria common to the breast-fed infant gut. Recently, a cell wall-associated endo-β-N-acetylglucosaminidase (EndoBI-1) found in various infant-borne bifidobacteria was shown to remove a range of intact N-linked glycans. We hypothesized that these released oligosaccharide structures can serve as a sole source for the selective growth of bifidobacteria. We demonstrated that EndoBI-1 released N-glycans from concentrated bovine colostrum at the pilot scale. EndoBI-1-released N-glycans supported the rapid growth of Bifidobacterium longum subsp. infantis (B. infantis), a species that grows well on human milk oligosaccharides, but did not support growth of Bifidobacterium animalis subsp. lactis (B. lactis), a species which does not. Conversely, B. infantis ATCC 15697 did not grow on the deglycosylated milk protein fraction, clearly demonstrating that the glycan portion of milk glycoproteins provided the key substrate for growth. Mass spectrometry-based profiling revealed that B. infantis consumed 73% of neutral and 92% of sialylated N-glycans, while B. lactis degraded only 11% of neutral and virtually no ( IMPORTANCE It has been previously shown that glycoproteins serve as growth substrates for bifidobacteria. However, which part of a glycoprotein (glycans or polypeptides) is responsible for this function was not known. In this study, we used a novel enzyme to cleave conjugated N-glycans from milk glycoproteins and tested their consumption by various bifidobacteria. The results showed that the glycans selectively stimulated the growth of B. infantis, which is a key infant gut microbe. The selectivity of consumption of individual N-glycans was determined using advanced mass spectrometry (nano-liquid chromatography chip–quadrupole time of flight mass spectrometry [nano-LC-Chip-Q-TOF MS]) to reveal that B. infantis can consume the range of glycan structures released from whey protein concentrate.
Data Analysis of The Third National Retrospective Sampling Death Survey II:Death Actuality and Epidemic Trend of Malignant Tumor in Hubei Province Population

Objective To investigate the death actuality and epidemic trend of malignant tumor in Hubei province population.Methods The data of the third national retrospective sampling death survey and the first national retrospective sampling death survey was compared and analysed to change the trend of malignant tumor mortality in Hubei province population.Results The crude mortality of malignant tumor increased from 68.3/105 in 1971~1973 to 129.0/105 in 2004~2005.The mortality of malignant tumors was higher in the male than in the female with a ratio of 1.81.The top five malignant tumors causing death were liver cancer,lung cancer,stomach cancer,esophageal cancer and colorectal cancer.Conclusion The cancer mortality increased in the past thirty years.The mortalities significantly increased and decreased for cancers of lung and cervix,respectively.Liver cancer,lung cancer,stomach cancer,esophageal cancer and colorectal cancer are the common causes of cancer death in our province.
Studying the Mechanism of Hybrid Nanoparticle Photoresists: Effect of Particle Size on Photopatterning

Hf-based hybrid photoresist materials with three different organic ligands were prepared by a sol–gel-based method, and their patterning mechanism was investigated in detail. All hybrid nanoparticle resists are patternable using UV exposure. Their particle sizes show a dramatic increase from the initial 3–4 nm to submicron size after exposure, with no apparent inorganic content or thermal property change detected. XPS results showed that the mass percentage of the carboxylic group in the structure of nanoparticles decreased with increasing exposure duration. The particle coarsening sensitivities of those hybrid nanoparticles are consistent with their EUV performance. The current work provides an understanding for the development mechanism and future guidance for the design and processing of high performance resist materials for large-scale microelectronics device fabrication.
Intersecting Identities and Support for Same-sex Marriage in the United States

This article examines how intersecting identities influence beliefs about the legality of same-sex marriage focusing on how religious, political, and sexual identities intersect with ethnicity and gender. Support for same-sex marriage has shifted considerably in the last decade. However, changes in attitudes toward same-sex marriage have not been uniform. Religious and political identities have provided a foundation for support or opposition to marriage rights, and sectarian Protestants and fundamentalist Christians and people who identify as political conservatives or with the Republican Party have opposed marriage equality. Ethnic identities intersect with religious and political identities as well as with sexual and gender identities and family factors to structure support for marriage. Using data from the 2006–2014 General Social Surveys, I examine how commitments to conservative Christianity and the Republican Party have influenced attitudes toward same-sex marriage, and how ethnicity intersects with...
LOWER LIMB LENGTHENING FOR DISPROPORTIONATE SHORT STATURE: WHAT ARE THE EFFECTS ON PHYSICAL FUNCTION AND QUALITY OF LIFE?

Purpose To examine the effect of limb lengthening on the quality of life of people who have disproportionate short stature (DSS). Method Thirteen previous patients, completed the SF-36, the Derriford Appearance Scale and participated in face to face semi structured interviews to establish the impact on their physical and social functioning, their present situation including employment, education, housing and leisure activities and their thoughts about whether they felt the treatment had been worthwhile. To increase understanding about the patient and family experience of limb lengthening, participants were asked about their memories of the procedure and the treatment period. Results Much was learned about key areas such as pain control, pin site cleaning and physiotherapy. The importance of the role of families in supporting the patient through the treatment was strongly emphasised and how this was sometimes at the expense of siblings. Conclusions Overall all participants were able to find some benefit to the procedure but they had mixed feelings about the outcome. There was evidence of benefit to some physical capabilities and confidence levels but there were areas where the situation was similar to those with DSS who had not had surgery e.g. bodily pain. It is acknowledged that this study has some methodological weaknesses which reduce the strength of the findings.
Fiscal Federalism and Optimal Income Taxes

This paper studies how local policies?specifically, taxes on income with redistributive goals?affect the migration decisions of individuals and, in turn, how these migration decisions affect local and economy-wide tax and redistribution policies. The author develops a model of optimal taxation for a federal system of governments in the tradition of Mirrlees (1971), where taxes can be fully nonlinear but informational asymmetries prevent the equalization of well being across workers due to informational rents. This article extends the large literature on federalism and tax competition by obtaining optimal tax formulas for the federal and state governments. The literature has mainly focused on inefficiencies that arise due to fiscal externalities when governments have access to restricted instruments (for example, allowing only linear taxes). Contrary to previous results in that literature, the author shows here that state governments will provide redistribution through taxes and that, in a symmetric equilibrium, the overall tax schedule that combines the actions of both the federal and state governments is the same as that of a unitary government. This implies that, under the conditions analyzed in the model, there is no reason to restrict income redistribution objectives to the federal government only, as commonly prescribed in the literature.
New Horizons in Nephrology: Update in Onco-Nephrology:

Onco-Nephrology, which embodies the unique connection that exists for kidney disease and cancer in clinical medicine, continues to grow by leaps and bounds. The increasing interest in the subfield ...
The drivers of regulatory networking: policy learning between homophily and convergence

The literature on transnational regulatory networks identified interdependence as their main rationale, downplaying domestic factors. Typically, relevant contributions use the word “network” only metaphorically. Yet, informal ties between regulators constitute networked structures of collaboration, which can be measured and explained. Regulators choose their frequent, regular network partners. What explains those choices? This article develops an Exponential Random Graph Model of the network of European national energy regulators to identify the drivers of informal regulatory networking. The results show that regulators tend to network with peers who regulate similarly organised market structures. Geography and European policy frameworks also play a role. Overall, the British regulator is significantly more active and influential than its peers, and a divide emerges between regulators from EU-15 and others. Therefore, formal frameworks of cooperation (i.e. a European Agency) were probably necessary to foster regulatory coordination across the EU.
Constructed Mutants of Simian Virus 40

Genetic analysis of cells and viruses is based on mutants with specific physiological defects. Classically, such mutants have been generated by random mutagenesis followed by selection of a desired phenotype, an approach resembling spontaneous mutation and selection. Recent advances in nucleic acid biochemistry have led to a new, more active method of genetic analysis whereby viral genomes with defined alterations at preselected sites are constructed in vitro and mutant viruses are subsequently cloned from the progeny of such modified genomes. By this means, one can perturb specific sites in a DNA molecule, within a coding sequence or a regulatory element, and determine the effect on function of the genome or its products without the necessity of phenotype selection. In most instances, site specificity is based on the recognition and cleavage of DNA sequences by restriction endonucleases, and alterations of the genome are carried out by enzymatic and/or chemical modifications at or near restriction sites. Thus, once a detailed cleavage map of a given DNA molecule is available, and especially if the nucleotide sequence is known, mutants can be isolated with specific base changes, deletions, substitutions or rearrangements in any part of the molecule.
The Logic of Uncertainty and Geometry of the Worlds

The classical logic is built in an axiomatic way without containing any uncertainty. Over the years, many attempts have been made to extend the classical logic framework to incorporate uncertainties. This work has produced different and apparently conflicting definitions of uncertainties. Previously we have argued that an extended modal logic framework can provide a unifying formal language for many formalizations of uncertainty such as probability, approximate probability, evidence theory, fuzzy sets, and rough sets.
MEASUREMENT OF SPECIFIC DIFFUSING CAPACITY (DL/VA) IN CRITICALLY ILL PATIENTS

The idea of measuring the specific diffusing capacity of the lungs for carbon monoxide (DL/VA) as an index of the condition of the “alveolar-capillary membrane” was introduced in 1915 by M. Kroghl. She showed that during short periods of breath-holding with the glottis open the removal of CO from alveolar gas by the hemoglobin was a first order reaction and proposed that the time constant of the exponential decay of alveolar CO during breath-holding be used as a measure of the size of the “alveolar capillary membrane”. This time constant $$=\frac{1}{t}~~.1n{{\frac{{{F}_{{{A}_{CO}}}}}{{{F}_{{{A}_{CO}}^{\prime \prime }}}}}^{\prime }}~\frac{1}{B-47}~~where~t~~is~the$$ period of breath-holding,\({{F}_{{{A}_{CO}}}}^{\prime }\)is the alveolar CO concentration at the beginning of the period of breath-holding,\({{F}_{{{A}_{CO}}}}^{\prime }\)is the alveolar CO concentration at the end of the breath-holding period and B is barometric pressure. The term specific diffusing capacity (DL/VA) was introduced by Ayers et al in 19752. It is directly proportional to Krogh’s time constant i.e. $${{F}_{{{A}_{CO}}}}^{\prime }$$ But the use of DL/VA or Krogh’s time constant in this manner assumes that the time required for CO to combine chemically with hemoglobin is negligible compared to the time required for CO to diffuse across the alveolar-capillary membrane. In 1957 it was shown that the rates of the two processes, diffusion and chemical combination with hemoglobin are of the same order of magnitude3. Consequently DL/VA is only an index of the condition of the membrane, not an actual measurement.