cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Low frequency electromagnetic radiation from sprite streamers

Summary form only given. Sprites are mesospheric discharges that carry significant electrical currents and produce electromagnetic radiation observed typically in the extremely low (ELF) to very low (VLF) frequency bands [Cummer et al., 1998]. Recently, Low-Frequency (LF) radio observations of sprite-producing lightning discharges have shown the existence of consecutive broadband pulses exhibiting EM radiation that spans in the LF range, and it has been suggested that this LF radiation may stem from non-luminous relativistic electron beams above thunderstorms [Fullekrug et al., 2010]. In this letter, we present the first theoretical estimates of the electromagnetic radiation produced by individual sprite streamers using simulation results from a plasma fluid model. It is demonstrated that the spectral content of the radiation produced by sprite streamers is a function of the air density N and the lightning-induced quasi-static ambient electric field E in the regions of space where the sprite streamers are propagating. We demonstrate that the exponential growth of the current in sprite streamers at 75 km would be preferentially associated with electromagnetic radiation in the frequency range from 0 and up to ~3 kHz, whereas the growth of the streamer current at 40 km could produce radiation with frequencies up to ~300 kHz, consistently with the scaling of atmospheric air density [Kosar et al., 2012]. We further conjecture that the periodic branching of streamers may lead to a radiation spectrum enhancement in the VLF to low frequency (LF) range. The present study shows that sprite streamers could be responsible for at least part of the LF radiation associated with sprite-producing lightning discharges and detected recently by Fullekrug et al. [2010].
Synthesis, in vitro and in vivo cytotoxicity of 6,7-diaryl-2,3,8,8a-tetrahydroindolizin-5(1H)-ones.

A 6,7-diaryl-2,3,8,8a-tetrahydroindolizin-5(1H)-one library was constructed and tested against the colon cancer cell line HCT-116 as an initial screen for cytotoxic properties. Of this library, the parent compound, in which the southern aromatic ring remains unsubstituted, and the northern aromatic ring carries a 4-methoxy group, exhibited the most potent cytotoxicity with an IC50 value of 0.39 μM and displayed promising activity in vivo in the NCI’s mouse hollow fiber assay.
Social acceptance of RFID as a biometric security method

The acceptance of biometric security controls in documentation, travel, and employment may soon be facing a strong test as those controls are further expanded through radio frequency identification (RFID). Global security advocates are working aggressively toward broadening the scope of tracking to the individual human level through implanted chips. An anticipated solution is to implant a small means of identification within humans that would hold a unique identification number and possibly other pertinent information. The integration of technology such REID with biometric methods enhances the accuracy and security of biometric identification, and also provides easily accessible data on an REID-enabled object that can be accessed by user
A history of discrete event simulation programming languages

The history of simulation programming languages is organized as a progression in periods of similar developments. The five periods, spanning 1955-1986, are labeled: The Period Search (1955-1960); The Advent (1961-1965); The Formative Period (1966-1970); The Expansional Period (1971-1978), and The Period of Consolidation and Regeneration (1979-1986). The focus is on recognizing the people and places that have made important contributions in addition to the nature of the contribution. A balance between comprehensive and in-depth treatment has been reached by providing more detailed description of those languages which have or have had major use. Over 30 languages are mentioned, and numerous variations are described in the major contributors. A concluding summary notes the concepts and techniques either originating with simulation programming languages or given significant visibility by them.
Slot-Mode Optomechanical Crystals: A Versatile Platform for Multimode Optomechanics

Cavity optomechanical systems are being studied for their potential in areas such as metrology, communications, and quantum information science. For a number of recently proposed applications in which multiple optical and mechanical modes interact, an outstanding challenge is to develop multimode architectures that allow flexibility in the optical and mechanical sub-system designs while maintaining the strong interactions that have been demonstrated in single-mode systems. To that end, we demonstrate slot-mode optomechanical crystals, devices in which photonic and phononic crystal nanobeams separated by a narrow slot are coupled via optomechanical interactions. These nanobeam pairs are patterned to confine a mechanical breathing mode at the center of one beam and a low-loss optical mode in the slot between the beams. This architecture affords great design flexibility towards multimode optomechanics, as well as substantial optomechanical coupling rates. We show this by producing slot-mode devices in stoichiometric Si3N4, with optical modes in the 980 nm band coupled to mechanical modes at 3.4 GHz, 1.8 GHz, and 400 MHz. We exploit the Si3N4 tensile stress to achieve slot widths down to 24 nm, which leads to enhanced optomechanical coupling, sufficient for the observation of optomechanical self-oscillations at all studied frequencies. We then develop multimode optomechanical systems with triple-beam geometries, in which two optical modes couple to a single mechanical mode, and two mechanical modes couple to a single optical mode. Taken together, these results demonstrate great flexibility in the design of multimode chip-scale optomechanical systems with large optomechanical coupling.
Integrated risk and multi-objective optimization of energy systems

Developing risk aware energy planning model considering storages as energy traders.Providing optimal risk strategy for each storage.Robust, simple, and verifiable framework for understanding and measuring risk scenarios for energy systems. This paper presents a risk aware energy planning model with storages as decision makers. The amount of energy bought from generators, stored in storages, and sold to users is set by storages. The paper also provides the optimal risk strategy for each storage considering energy cost, environmental impact, and failure rate as social welfare functions. A robust, simple, and verifiable framework for understanding and measuring risk scenarios for energy systems is introduced. Multiple-objective approach for integrating risk with social welfare functions is also discussed. Application of presented framework in energy industry is discussed by examples.
Rethinking the logic and techniques of primary tip rhinoplasty: A perspective of the evolution of surgery of the nasal Tip

The surgical logic and approach to primary rhinoplasty is rapidly changing. Destructive tip-shaping techniques, which sacrifice structural integrity of the alar cartilages, compromise tip support and projection and increase risks of secondary deformities. Routine use of tip grafts in primary rhinoplasty when normal anatomic structures could produce the same or better result introduces unnecessary variables that the surgeon cannot control and that increase the reoperation rate. Nondestructive techniques of shaping and repositioning the nasal tip preserve the structural integrity of the alar cartilages and can correct more than 95% of all tip deformities in primary rhinoplasty. This article is a personal perspective of the evolution of surgery of the nasal tip-how we got to where we are, and where we go from here.
Long-term stability of hand-held dynamometric measurements in children who have myelomeningocele.

The long-term stability of hand-held dynamometric measurements was assessed in 30 muscle groups of 12 children with myelomeningocele, before and after a 23-day interval. Measurements from a majority of the muscle groups had excellent stability, based on statistical indicators of association (Pearson Product-Moment Correlation Coefficients, r =.76-.98) and agreement (intraclass correlation coefficients, ICC = .75-.99). Muscle groups with lower long-term stability were the right and left wrist extensors and flexors, the left hip adductors and extensors, the left knee flexors, and the right and left knee extensors. Upper-extremity muscle groups had higher long-term stability than did lower-extremity muscle groups. The results indicate that the dynamometric measurements were highly reliable when the test-retest interval was 23 days. Other researchers have previously shown high reliability for these measurements over shorter periods of time. Improved reliability might be obtained by supporting the lower extremity during hip extension tests; padding the dynamometer end pieces, especially when testing over bony prominences; and using a smaller, digital dynamometer. The hand-held dynamometer appears to warrant use and further investigation with pediatric populations.
Variational Inference for Structured NLP Models

Historically, key breakthroughs in structured NLP models, such as chain CRFs or PCFGs, have relied on imposing careful constraints on the locality of features in order to permit efficient dynamic programming for computing expectations or finding the highest-scoring structures. However, as modern structured models become more complex and seek to incorporate longer-range features, it is more and more often the case that performing exact inference is impossible (or at least impractical) and it is necessary to resort to some sort of approximation technique, such as beam search, pruning, or sampling. In the NLP community, one increasingly popular approach is the use of variational methods for computing approximate distributions. The goal of the tutorial is to provide an introduction to variational methods for approximate inference, particularly mean field approximation and belief propagation. The intuition behind the mathematical derivation of variational methods is fairly simple: instead of trying to directly compute the distribution of interest, first consider some efficiently computable approximation of the original inference problem, then find the solution of the approximate inference problem that minimizes the distance to the true distribution. Though the full derivations can be somewhat tedious, the resulting procedures are quite straightforward, and typically consist of an iterative process of individually updating specific components of the model, conditioned on the rest. Although we will provide some theoretical background, the main goal of the tutorial is to provide a concrete procedural guide to using these approximate inference techniques, illustrated with detailed walkthroughs of examples from recent NLP literature. Once both variational inference procedures have been described in detail, we’ll provide a summary comparison of the two, along with some intuition about which approach is appropriate when. We’ll also provide a guide to further exploration of the topic, briefly discussing other variational techniques, such as expectation propagation and convex relaxations, but concentrating mainly on providing pointers to additional resources for those who wish to learn more.
On augmented Kohn–Sham potential for energy as a simple sum of orbital energies

ABSTRACTWe have recently observed that the ground-state energy may be obtained directly as a simple sum of augmented Kohn–Sham orbital energies, where it was ascertained that the corresponding one-body shifted Kohn–Sham effective potential has appealing features. With this in mind, eigenvalue and virial constraints are deduced for approximating this potential.
Exploring the conceptual compatibility of transformative learning theory in accounts of Christian spiritual renewal at Wheaton College in 1995

This research explored the conceptual compatibility of Transformative Learning Theory (TLT) in accounts of spiritual renewal at Wheaton College in 1995. TLT was applied using quadrants of experienc...
A Pseudo-Approximation for the Genus of Hamiltonian Graphs

The genus of a graph is a very basic parameter in topological graph theory, that has been the subject of extensive study. Perhaps surprisingly, despite its importance, the problem of approximating the genus of a graph is very poorly understood. It has been shown to be NPcomplete by Thomassen [Tho89], and the best known upper bound for general graphs is an O(n)-approximation that follows by Euler’s characteristic.
Gene expression inference with deep learning

Motivation: Large-scale gene expression profiling has been widely used to characterize cellular states in response to various disease conditions, genetic perturbations, etc. Although the cost of whole-genome expression profiles has been dropping steadily, generating a compendium of expression profiling over thousands of samples is still very expensive. Recognizing that gene expressions are often highly correlated, researchers from the NIH LINCS program have developed a cost-effective strategy of profiling only ∼1000 carefully selected landmark genes and relying on computational methods to infer the expression of remaining target genes. However, the computational approach adopted by the LINCS program is currently based on linear regression (LR), limiting its accuracy since it does not capture complex nonlinear relationship between expressions of genes. Results: We present a deep learning method (abbreviated as D-GEX) to infer the expression of target genes from the expression of landmark genes. We used the microarray-based Gene Expression Omnibus dataset, consisting of 111K expression profiles, to train our model and compare its performance to those from other methods. In terms of mean absolute error averaged across all genes, deep learning significantly outperforms LR with 15.33% relative improvement. A gene-wise comparative analysis shows that deep learning achieves lower error than LR in 99.97% of the target genes. We also tested the performance of our learned model on an independent RNA-Seq-based GTEx dataset, which consists of 2921 expression profiles. Deep learning still outperforms LR with 6.57% relative improvement, and achieves lower error in 81.31% of the target genes. Availability and implementation: D-GEX is available at https://github.com/uci-cbcl/D-GEX. Contact: ude.icu.sci@xhx Supplementary information: Supplementary data are available at Bioinformatics online.
Techniques for the Fabrication of Ultra-thin Metallic Foils

The general procedures and equipment used for the fabrication of ultrathin metallic foils are outlined. Such foils are an essential part of a variety of nuclear parameter measurements. Specific tec...
Randomized Circulant and Gaussian Pre-processing

Circulant matrices have been extensively applied in Symbolic and Numerical Computations, but we study their new application, namely, to randomized pre-processing that supports Gaussian elimination with no pivoting, hereafter referred to as GENP. We prove that, with a probability close to 1, GENP proceeds with no divisions by 0 if the input matrix is pre-processed with a random circulant multiplier. This yields 4-fold acceleration in the cases of both general and structured input matrices versus pre-processing with the pair of random triangular Toeplitz multipliers, which has been the user's favorite since 1991. In that part of our paper, we assume computations with infinite precision, but in other parts with double precision, in the presence of rounding errors. In this case, GENP fails without pre-processing unless all square leading blocks of the input matrix are well-conditioned, but empirically GENP produces accurate output consistently if a well-conditioned input matrix is pre-processed with random circulant multipliers. We also support formally the latter empirical observation if we allow standard Gaussian random input and hence the average non-singular and well-conditioned input as well, but we prove that GENP fails numerically with a probability close to 1 in the case of some specific input matrix pre-processed with such multipliers. We also prove that even for the worst case well-conditioned input, GENP runs into numerical problems only with a probability close to 0, if a nonsingular and well-conditioned input matrix is multiplied by a standard Gaussian random matrix. All our results for GENP can be readily extended to the highly important block Gaussian elimination.
Capital flows and central banking : the Indian experience

Because of the steady liberalization of the capital account since the early 1990s and increased financial integration of the Indian economy, capital flows to India have moved in tandem with broad global trends. This paper looks at the extent to which India’s monetary policy has been affected by the ebbs and flows of the capital it receives. For ease of narration, the paper divides the post-liberalization period since the early 1990s into three phases--early 1990s to early 2000s, a period of increasing but still modest capital flows; early 2000s to 2007-08, a period of capital flow surge when inflows increased rapidly; and a period of sudden stops and volatility, starting in 2008-09, when capital flows reversed in the post-Lehman Brothers collapse, and again during the tapering tantrum of 2013. The paper shows that although ordinarily domestic policy imperatives, such as price stability and growth, have taken precedence over issues related to exchange rate or capital flows in policy rate setting, some accommodation in money supply is evident during the surge and stop episodes. The broad policy mix to handle large increases or reversals of capital flows has included reserve management, liquidity management, and capital flow measures.
Multi-hop clustering based on neighborhood benchmark in mobile ad-hoc networks

Large-scale mobile ad-hoc networks require flexible and stable clustered network structure for efficient data collection and dissemination. In this paper, a scheme is presented to construct multi-hop clusters with balanced sizes, based on the neighborhood benchmark (NB) which quantifies the connectivity and link stability of mobile nodes. By exploiting autonomous clusterhead selection and a specialized handshake process with the clusterheads, the nodes with highest NB scores are selected as clusterheads and all the clusters constructed are connected. The deviation of cluster sizes is kept small using a partial probability-based approach. Our scheme generates highly stable multi-hop clusters with low overhead, and provides the flexibility of controlling the cluster radius adaptively for various network applications.
Feature representation and compression for content-based retrieval

In semantic content-based image/video browsing and navigation systems, efficient mechanisms to represent and manage a large collection of digital images/videos are needed. Traditional keyword-based indexing describes the content of multimedia data through annotations such as text or keywords extracted manually by the user from a controlled vocabulary. This textual indexing technique lacks the flexibility of satisfying various kinds of queries requested by database users and also requires huge amount of work for updating the information. Current content-based retrieval systems often extract a set of features such as color, texture, shape motion, speed, and position from the raw multimedia data automatically and store them as content descriptors. This content-based metadata differs from text-based metadata in that it supports wider varieties of queries and can be extracted automatically, thus providing a promising approach for efficient database access and management. When the raw data volume grows very large, explicitly extracting the content-information and storing it as metadata along with the images will improve querying performance since metadata requires much less storage than the raw image data and thus will be easier to manipulate. In this paper we maintain that storing metadata together with images will enable effective information management and efficient remote query. We also show, using a texture classification example, that this side information can be compressed while guaranteeing that the desired query accuracy is satisfied. We argue that the compact representation of the image contents not only reduces significantly the storage and transmission rate requirement, but also facilitates certain types of queries. Algorithms are developed for optimized compression of this texture feature metadata given that the goal is to maximize the classification performance for a given rate budget.
Variation in regional diet and mandibular morphology in prehistoric Japanese hunter–gatherer–fishers

Abstract Previous research has identified a relationship between mandibular morphology and diet (e.g., coarse or tough diets result in more robust mandibles). Prehistoric Japan is an excellent place to explore the significance of this relationship in shaping mandibular morphology due to the pronounced regional dietary variation. South/West Honshu Jōmon engaged in broad spectrum foraging, Northeastern Honshu Jōmon were fisher–gatherers, Hokkaido Jōmon were maritime (sea mammal) foragers. We test the hypothesis that diet variation across temporal and spatial zones will be reflected in mandibular morphological traits. Metric measurements were utilized to test for regional differences with both archaeological time period and biological sex as covariants. ANOVA results for region with time period as a covariate indicates all variables except corpus height and breadth are significantly different among regions but for the time period covariate, only corpus breadth and dimensions of ascending ramus are significant. ANOVA for region with biological sex as a covariate indicates all variables except corpus height are significantly different. Biological sex as a covariate demonstrates significant p-values for chin height, bicondylar breadth and minimum ascending ramus breadth. Generally, North Hokkaido and Southwest Hokkaido, exhibit the largest mandibular ascending rami and tallest anterior mandibles, whereas Northeast and South/West Honshu have smaller mandibles. Multivariate analysis indicates a separation between North and Southwest Hokkaido and South/West Honshu, whereas Northeast Honshu partially overlaps these dietary zones. Differences in mandibular morphology are better explained by regional diets than by temporal trends and biological sex.
Intermolecular Photocatalytic C–H Functionalization of Electron-Rich Heterocycles with Tertiary Alkyl Halides

The coupling of tertiary alkyl halides with electron-rich arenes is promoted by visible-light photoredox catalysis. Tris[2-phenylpyridinato-C 2,N]iridium(III) [Ir(ppy)3] was the optimal catalyst, enabling direct reduction of the halide from the excited state, and thereby eliminating the requirement for a stoichiometric electron donor. High yields were obtained when the aromatic component was used in excess, although equimolar amounts afforded only slightly diminished yields. The reaction tolerates a number of functional groups, including allyl, ester, amide, or carbamate. The efficiency of this reaction has been improved through demonstration of scale-up in flow, and a new substituted Ir(ppy)3 derivative was isolated and characterized.
Silicon Quantum Wires Oxidation and Transport Studies

Fabricating well controlled nanostructures and obtaining precise structural, electrical, and optical information from them are essential for understanding die intrinsic properties of silicon (Si) nanostructures, which in turn is important for exploring the potential of quantum confinement induced light emission from crystalline Si. A combination of high resolution electron beam lithography, anisotropic reactive ion etching (RIE), and thermal oxidation has been successfully applied to obtain sub-5 nm Si columnar structures [1]. A transmission electron microscopy (TEM) technique has also been used to characterize die precise structural dimensions of these columns [1]. To obtain the electrical and optical information, a process based on polyimide planarization was developed to establish electrical contacts to these nanostructures. The same process is also applicable for fabricating device structures to study electrically pumped optical response. Preliminary transport studies have confirmed current conduction through die Si nano-pillars and yielded an estimate of die conductivity.
Infectious diseases and social change.

It is a happy privilege, extended annually to the President of the Infectious Diseases Society of America, to address this meeting at its opening session. My distinguished predecessors have each dealt with pertinent concerns, predictions, perceptions, and historical developments in the field of infectious diseases. The standards of the past throw a heavy burden on the present speaker, and not the least is the certain knowledge that the only time the whale gets harpooned is when he comes up to spout. However, I am led to spout, despite the hazards, by the same concerns that beset us all. We are experiencing with much pain an almost revolutionary restructuring of the programs of support for medical care, medical investigation, and medical education. We find ourselves puzzled, frustrated, and often so angry that we are occasionally led to the brink over which some of our young people have fallen, in which we are tempted to use obscenity because we fear that rationality has failed. We resent the abrupt manipulations of our good intentions when all that we have asked for is to be able to continue our good works in an atmosphere that will put to effective social use the fruits of our earnest efforts.
Stereoselective ketone reduction by a carbonyl reductase from Sporobolomyces salmonicolor. Substrate specificity, enantioselectivity and enzyme-substrate docking studies

In our effort to search for effective carbonyl reductases, the activity and enantioselectivity of a carbonyl reductase from Sporobolomyces salmonicolor have been evaluated toward the reduction of a variety of ketones. This carbonyl reductase (SSCR) reduces a broad spectrum of ketones including aliphatic and aromatic ketones, as well as α- and β-ketoesters. Among these substrates, SSCR shows highest activity for the reduction of α-ketoesters. Aromatic α-ketoesters are reduced to (S)-α-hydroxy esters, while (R)-enantiomers are obtained from the reduction of aliphatic counterparts. This interesting observation is consistent with enzyme-substrate docking studies, which show that hydride transfer occurs at the different faces of carbonyl group for aromatic and aliphatic α-ketoesters. It is worthy to note that sterically bulky ketone substrates, such as 2′-methoxyacetophenone, 1-adamantyl methyl ketone, ethyl 4,4-dimethyl-3-oxopentanoate and ethyl 3,3-dimethyl-2-oxobutanoate, are reduced to the corresponding alcohols with excellent optical purity. Thus, SSCR possesses an unusually broad substrate specificity and is especially useful for the reduction of ketones with sterically bulky substituents.
Recent Advances and New Trends in Nanotechnology and 3D Integration for Semiconductor Industry

“There's Plenty of Room at the Bottom” is the title of Richard Feynman's lecture on December 29th, 1959 to the American Physical Society at California Institute of Technology (Caltech) and is generally considered to be the very first speech about nanotechnology. Some important milestones of nanotechnology will be briefly mentioned and the emphasis is placed on the applications and outlooks of nanotechnology in electronics. “Computing Machines in the Future” is the title of the Nishina Memorial Lecture at Gakushuin University in Tokyo given by the 1965 Nobel Physics Laureate, Richard Feynman on August 9th, 1985. During the lecture, Feynman not only told us to go for 3D integration, but also taught us how to do it! In this study, 3D integration will be the focus and the emphasis is placed on 3D IC integration and their recent advances and new trends. 3D Si integration will be briefly discussed.
Catalytic, enantioselective sulfenylation of ketone-derived enoxysilanes.

A catalytic, enantioselective, Lewis base-catalyzed α-sulfenylation of silyl enol ethers has been developed. To avoid acidic hydrolysis of the silyl enol ether substrates, a sulfenylating agent that did not require additional Bronsted acid activation, namely N-phenylthiosaccharin, was developed. Three classes of Lewis bases—tertiary amines, sulfides, and selenophosphoramides—were identified as active catalysts for the α-sulfenylation reaction. Among a wide variety of chiral Lewis bases in all three classes, only chiral selenophosphoramides afforded α-phenylthio ketones in generally high yield and with good enantioselectivity. The selectivity of the reaction does not depend on the size of the silyl group but is highly sensitive to the double bond geometry and the bulk of the substituents on the double bond. The most selective substrates are those containing a geminal bulky substituent on the enoxysilane. Computational analysis revealed that the enantioselectivity arises from an intriguing interplay among s...
The Effect of Age and Size on Reputation of Business Ethics Journals

Business ethics journals have appeared on a few ranked lists that are specific to this niche discipline. As with more traditional academic disciplines, these rankings are used for academic rewards such as faculty tenure and promotion, along with department and school ratings. Journal ranking has been subject to considerable criticism even as its administrative use persists. Among the criticisms are that journal quality is a poor proxy for article quality, citation rate is an imperfect reflection of article influence, and bias may be introduced into rankings by visibility characteristics such as journal age, size, circulation, and experience of the rater with a journal. This research note studies the effect of journal age and size on the rankings of business ethics journals compiled by Beets, Lewis, and Brower, by Albrecht, Thompson, Hoopes, and Rodrigo, and by Serenko and Bontis. Significant correlation was found for journal age with the administratively derived Beets et al. ranking. No significant correl...
Power-normalized cepstral coefficients (PNCC) for robust speech recognition

This paper presents a new feature extraction algorithm called power normalized Cepstral coefficients (PNCC) that is motivated by auditory processing. Major new features of PNCC processing include the use of a power-law nonlinearity that replaces the traditional log nonlinearity used in MFCC coefficients, a noise-suppression algorithm based on asymmetric filtering that suppresses background excitation, and a module that accomplishes temporal masking. We also propose the use of medium-time power analysis in which environmental parameters are estimated over a longer duration than is commonly used for speech, as well as frequency smoothing. Experimental results demonstrate that PNCC processing provides substantial improvements in recognition accuracy compared to MFCC and PLP processing for speech in the presence of various types of additive noise and in reverberant environments, with only slightly greater computational cost than conventional MFCC processing, and without degrading the recognition accuracy that is observed while training and testing using clean speech. PNCC processing also provides better recognition accuracy in noisy environments than techniques such as vector Taylor series (VTS) and the ETSI advanced front end (AFE) while requiring much less computation. We describe an implementation of PNCC using "online processing" that does not require future knowledge of the input.
Chemistry and biology of monoterpene indole alkaloid biosynthesis

Covering: up to 2006 Monoterpene indole alkaloids exhibit a diverse array of structures and biological activities. The biosynthetic pathways for several representative terpene indole alkaloids are described in detail.
2-METHYLARENO[d]-3-AZATELLUROPHENES

Abstract 2-6-Dimethylbenzo[d]-3-azatellurophene(22%), 2-methyl-6-tert-butylbenzo[d]-3-azatellurophene (11%), 2-methyl-6-chlorobenzo[d]-3-azatellurophene (31%) and 2-methylnaphtho[2,1-d]-3- azatellurophene (13%) were prepared from 4-methylaniline, 4-tert-butylaniline, and 2-aminonaphthalene, respectively. The yields given in parentheses are overall yields based on the arylamine. For example, equimolar amounts of mercury acetate and 4-aminotoluene were refluxed in methanol for 12 hours. Lithium chloride was added to the mixture to produce 2-amino-5-methylphenyl mercury chloride. Acetylation with excess acetic anhydride gave 2-acetamido-5-methylphenyl mercury chloride in nearly quantitative yield based on aminotoluene. The aryl mercury chloride produced 2-acetamido-5-methylphenyl tellurium trichloride in 40% yield when refluxed with an equimolar amount of tellurium tetrachloride in acetic acid. Reduction with excess sodium sulfide gave bis(2-acetamido-5-methylphenyl) ditelluride in 94% yield, which was isola...
Ultra-Shallow P+/N Junctions Formed by SiF4 Preamorphization and BF3 Implantation Using Plasma Immersion Ion Implantation

Sub-100 nm P+/N junctions are fabricated by implanting wafers in the plasma immersion ion implantation system (PIII). Ions from SiF4 and BF3 plasmas are implanted at energies from 4-6 keV and 2 keV, respectively. The amorphous region formed by SiF4 im-plantion is shown to be effective in slowing B diffusion during a 10 sec, 1060°C rapid thermal anneal step. Channeling and transmission electron microscopy studies show the recrys-tallized amorphous region is comparable in quality to an unprocessed Si wafer, and the implantation and annealing sequence has no detrimental effects on the physical or electrical characteristics of fabricated devices. Diodes have forward ideality factors of 1.05 to 1.06 and reverse leakage as low as 2 nA/cm2 in the diode bulk at -5 V applied bias.
The Jackie (and Jill) Robinson Effect: Why Do Congresswomen Outperform Congressmen?

If voters are biased against female candidates, only the most talented, hardest working female candidates will succeed in the electoral process. Furthermore, if women perceive there to be sex discrimination in the electoral process, or if they underestimate their qualifications for office, then only the most qualified, politically ambitious females will emerge as candidates. We argue that when either or both forms of sex-based selection are present, the women who are elected to office will perform better, on average, than their male counterparts. We test this central implication of our theory by studying the relative success of men and women in delivering federal spending to their districts and in sponsoring legislation. Analyzing changes within districts over time, we find that congresswomen secure roughly 9% more spending from federal discretionary programs than congressmen. Women also sponsor and cosponsor significantly more bills than their male colleagues.
Risk Profiles of Youth Single, Dual, and Poly Tobacco Users

INTRODUCTION Given widespread availability and uptake of myriad tobacco products among youth, a comprehensive tobacco control agenda necessitates an in-depth exploration of the phenomenon of concurrent tobacco use. METHODS Multinomial logistic regression generated distinct concurrent tobacco use risk profiles of single, dual, and poly use, defined as use of only one, only two, and any three or more tobacco products in the last 30 days, from the 2012 National Youth Tobacco Survey (n = 24 658). RESULTS Among youth using tobacco in the past 30 days (n = 5030), the majority were poly tobacco product users (55.9%, n = 2813), followed by single (28.4%, n = 1406), and dual users (16.1%, n = 811). Multivariable models showed higher levels of nicotine dependence among poly users compared to single (relative risk ratio [RRR] = 3.14, P < .001) and dual users (RRR = 2.48, P < .001). Poly users were less likely to express quit intent compared to single (RRR = 0.68, P < .01) or dual users (RRR = 0.77, P < .05). Tobacco harm perceptions were more likely among dual users relative to single product users (RRR = 1.54, P < .05); poly users were less likely to perceive harm (RRR = 0.56, P < .001). Racial and gender differences also emerged. CONCLUSION As the number of tobacco products increased, nicotine dependence and perceived tobacco use among peers increased, whereas quit intentions decreased. Dual users had greater tobacco harm perceptions than poly and single users and higher prevalence of electronic cigarette use. Results suggest that poly use may be driven by addiction whereas dual use may be motivated by intentions to quit. Focused risk assessments may inform tailored interventions for distinct types of tobacco users. IMPLICATIONS This study provides an in-depth look at the risks for concurrent tobacco use among youth by creating unique risk profiles for single, dual and poly use. Results from this study can inform tailored interventions for distinct types of tobacco users.
Palladium-catalyzed cross-coupling of H-phosphinate esters with chloroarenes.

The palladium-catalyzed cross-coupling reaction between H-phosphinate esters and chloroarenes or chloroheteroarenes is described. This reaction is the first general metal-catalyzed phosphorus–carbon bond-forming reaction between a phosphorus nucleophile and chloroarenes.
Peritoneal fluid in human acute pancreatitis blocks hepatic mitochondrial respiration

Peritoneal fluid may be the source of multi-system failure during the initial stages of acute pancreatitis. The toxicity of human pancreatic ascitic fluid (HPAF) collected under sterile conditions from 12 patients with acute pancreatitis was investigated with the use of an in vitro preparation of mitochondria. Hepatocyte mitochondria from Sprague-Dawley rats were prepared by standard techniques. Mitochondrial oxidative activity was determined in glutamate-malate medium, with micromodification of the YSI Model 53 (Yellow Springs, Ohio) oxygen electrode system. The oxygen uptake of 150 to 200 microliter samples of mitochondria suspension (20 to 25 mg/ml) was monitored for 3 minutes, after which 3 microliter of 0.1 M adenosine diphosphate (ADP) was added to the chamber to induce state 3 respiration. Two minutes after the oxygen trace returned to state 4 respirations, 20, 40, or 80 microliter of the HPAF sample was introduced into the reaction vessel and the oxygen measurement continued for an additional 3 minutes. After this, 3 microliter of 0.1 M ADP again was added to the reaction chamber and the oxygen measurement continued. Control runs were made with reconstituted pooled human serum used in place of the HPAF samples. A significant (p less than 0.05) increase in state 4 respiration occurred in all 12 samples of HPAF. Addition of ADP showed a significant decline (p less than 0.05) in respiratory control ratio in all specimens. A dose-response curve was observed in 8 of 12 HPAF samples tested.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)
A Wallis Product on Clovers

The m-clover is the plane curve defined by the polar equation . In this article we extend a well-known derivation of the Wallis product to derive a generalized Wallis product for arc lengths of m-c...
Understanding the Formation of Salt-Inclusion Phases: An Enhanced Flux Growth Method for the Targeted Synthesis of Salt-Inclusion Cesium Halide Uranyl Silicates

Salt-inclusion compounds (SICs) are known for their structural diversity and their potential applications, including luminescence and radioactive waste storage forms. Currently, the majority of salt-inclusion phases are grown serendipitously and the targeted growth of SICs has met with only moderate success. We report an enhanced flux growth method for the targeted growth of SICs. Specifically, the use of (1) metal halide reagents and (2) reactions with small surface area to volume ratios are found to favor the growth of salt-inclusion compounds over pure oxides and thus enable a more targeted synthetic route for their preparation. The Cs–X–U–Si–O (X = F, Cl) pentanary phase space is used as a model system to demonstrate the generality of this enhanced flux method approach. Single crystals of four new salt-inclusion uranyl silicates, [Cs3F][(UO2)(Si4O10)], [Cs2Cs5F][(UO2)2(Si6O17)], [Cs9Cs6Cl][(UO2)7(Si6O17)2(Si4O12)], and [Cs2Cs5F][(UO2)3(Si2O7)2], were grown using this enhanced flux growth method. A det...
Ontogeny of EEG sleep from neonatal through infancy periods.

Publisher Summary This chapter presents the computer-assisted analysis tools that extend the abilities to examine physiologic relationships between cerebral and noncerebral measures. The chapter also explores their associations with selected outcome measures. Serial neonatal and infant electroencephalographic/polysomnographic studies document the ontogeny of cerebral and noncerebral physiologic behavior based on visual inspection or computer analyses. Electroencephalographic (EEG) patterns and other physiologic relationships serve as templates for normal brain maturation and help distinguish intrauterine from extrauterine development. Such strategies will ultimately improve the diagnostic skills for the care of the high-risk fetus, neonates, and infants. EEG sleep studies remain the only bedside neurodiagnostic procedure that provides a continuous record of cerebral function over long periods of time. While other advanced methods of anatomical or functional inquiry—such as volumetric and functional magnetic resonance imaging—report brief snapshots of cerebral anatomy and function, neurophysiologic studies provide a time- and frequency-dependent functional perspective into brain ontogeny. Sleep ontogenesis in neonates and infants can document expected patterns of brain maturation to anticipate better deviations from the biologically programed processes under stressful and/or pathological conditions.
Reactions to Research Participation in Victims of Childhood Sexual Abuse: A Comparison of Court-Substantiated and Retrospectively Self-Reported Cases:

We examined whether adults with a documented or self-reported history of childhood sexual abuse (CSA) report more emotional reactions and negative responses to research participation and whether psychiatric symptoms play a moderating role in their reactions. Using a prospective cohort design, individuals with documented histories of CSA and non-abused matched controls were followed up and interviewed in adulthood (n = 460). Reactions to research participation were measured with a brief questionnaire. Concurrent symptoms of depression, anxiety, and PTSD were assessed via standardized measures. Results showed that those with a history of CSA, documented or self-reported, experienced similar reactions compared to controls. Psychiatric symptoms predicted stronger emotional reactions and more negative responses, but also greater personal benefit, regardless of CSA history.
Dual role of CFTR in cAMP-stimulated HCO3- secretion across murine duodenum.

The role of the cystic fibrosis transmembrane conductance regulator (CFTR) in cAMP-stimulated HCO 3 − secretion across the murine duodenum was investigated. Serosal-to-mucosal flux of HCO 3 − (J s→...
Congruences between word length statistics for the finitary alternating and symmetric groups

Bacher and de la Harpe ( arxiv:1603.07943 , 2016) study conjugacy growth series of infinite permutation groups and their relationships with p(n), the partition function, and $$p(n)_\mathbf{e }$$ , a generalized partition function. They prove identities for the conjugacy growth series of the finitary symmetric group and the finitary alternating group. The group theory due to Bacher and de la Harpe ( arxiv:1603.07943 , 2016) also motivates an investigation into congruence relationships between the finitary symmetric group and the finitary alternating group. Using the Ramanujan congruences for the partition function p(n) and Atkin’s generalization to the k-colored partition function $$p_{k}(n)$$ , we prove the existence of congruence relations between these two series modulo arbitrary powers of 5 and 7, which we systematically describe. Furthermore, we prove that such relationships exist modulo powers of all primes $$\ell \ge 5$$ .
Perioperative Complications Associated With Posterolateral Spine Fusions: A Study of Elderly Medicare Beneficiaries.

STUDY DESIGN A retrospective database review. OBJECTIVE The aim of this study was to compare the occurrence of complications in patients treated with one to two-level, three to seven-level, and more than eight level fusions. SUMMARY OF BACKGROUND DATA Elderly patients constitute a rapidly growing demographic with an increasing need for spinal procedures. Complication rates for spinal surgery in elderly patients range from 37% to 80% with major complications occurring in 12% to 21% of patients. METHODS The PearlDiver database (2005-2012) was utilized to compare perioperative complication rates in patients aged 65 years and older undergoing posterolateral fusion of one to two (n = 90,527); three to seven (n = 23,827), and more than eight (n = 2758) thoracolumbar levels. Cohorts were matched by demographics and comorbidities. Ninety-day medical and surgical complication and mortality rates were determined. RESULTS In the full, unmatched cohort, the major complication rate was 15.9%, with matched cohorts of one to two, three to seven, and eight-level fusions associated with major complication rates of 12.5%, 20.5%, and 35.4%, respectively. Patients treated with 8+ level fusions had 3.8 and 2.1 times greater odds of developing a major complication than patients treated with 1 to 2 and 3 to 7-level fusions, respectively (P < 0.0001). Patients treated with more than eight-level fusions had 3.9 and 10.8 times increased odds of experiencing mortality than those treated with three to seven-level and one to two-level fusions, respectively. CONCLUSION Elderly patients treated with spine fusions spanning more than eight levels experience significantly increased complication rates when compared with patients treated with fusions of shorter length. LEVEL OF EVIDENCE 3.
A Metallacycle Fragmentation Strategy for Vinyl Transfer from Enol Carboxylates to Secondary Alcohol C–H Bonds via Osmium- or Ruthenium-Catalyzed Transfer Hydrogenation

A strategy for catalytic vinyl transfer from enol carboxylates to activated secondary alcohol C–H bonds is described. Using XPhos-modified ruthenium(0) or osmium(0) complexes, enol carboxylate–carbonyl oxidative coupling forms transient β-acyloxy-oxametallacycles, which eliminate carboxylate to deliver allylic ruthenium(II) or osmium(II) alkoxides. Reduction of the metal(II) salt via hydrogen transfer from the secondary alcohol reactant releases the product of carbinol C–H vinylation and regenerates ketone and zero-valent catalyst.
Memory management in a PIM-based architecture

The DIVA (Data Intensive Architecture) system incorporates Processing-In-Memory (PIM) chips as smart-memory coprocessors to a host microprocessor. It exploits the inherently high on-chip memory bandwidth and additionally provides a separate memory-to-memory high-bandwidth interconnect across the system. By design, the DIVA system architecture targets a broad range of applications, including those with irregular data access patterns. At the same time, DIVA supports familiar programming paradigms from parallel computing and offers an evolutionary migration path for application development. The DIVA project is constructing a demonstration system using a conventional superscalar host processor with a main memory composed of VLSI PIM chips in place of standard DRAMs, This system has a novel mix of operating-system challenges, combining aspects of conventional dumb memory management and both shared- and distributed-memory multiprocessor operations. This paper describes our solutions to the memory-management problems posed by this multifaceted environment.