cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Bond lengths in oxygen and halogen compounds of d and f elements

Abstract The variation of the bond length D with the bond strength s in oxygen and halogen compounds of 3d, 4d, 5d-4f and 6d-5f elements is discussed. The functional form D(s) = D(1) (1—Alns) = D(1) —Bins is adopted and the parameters D(1) and A (or B) are given for a great many bonds.
TCT-31 Impact of Hospital vs. Home call for Fellows and Cath Lab Team on Door to Balloon Times

For patients presenting with ST segment elevation myocardial infarction (STEMI), door-to-balloon (or first device) time (D2B) is effected by multiple patient and system-based factors. We hypothesized that fellow and/or catheterization (cath) team in-hospital call would result in decreased D2B time
Growth of embryonic chick tibiae in ovo and in vitro: a scanning electron microscope study.

The study describes the ultrastructure of the mineralized portion of chick tibiae from 10 days in ovo to 2 days post-hatch. At 10 days a single mineralized cylinder surrounds the diaphysis. On its outer surface columnar trabeculae join to form ridges parallel to the long axis of the bone. These ridges are covered by another cylinder and form the haversian canals. At 11 days vascular invasion of the marrow cavity occurs and resorption of the endosteal surface begins. This type of periosteal deposition and endosteal resorption is repeated during and subsequent to embryonic development.
Publication trends of doctoral students in three fields from 1965–1995

This study investigates the publication rates of successful doctoral students in the fields of analytical chemistry, experimental psychology, and American literature. Publication rates were calculated for a sample of those receiving doctorates every fifth year between 1965 and 1995. An analysis of the data revealed that there were differences in publication rates of the doctoral students that mirrored differences between the fields as a whole. The data also show that the decline in solo authorship observed in many fields is present in this population as well. Participation rates (percent that had at least one publication) for chemistry and literature showed initial increases followed by plateaus since the early 1980s, while the participation rate in psychology has remained between 40 and 60 percent over the course of the study.
Automated proofs of equality problems in Overbeek's competition

This paper reports the detailed computer proofs of nine equality problems in Overbeek's competition obtained by Herky, a completion-based theorem prover developed by the author. Advanced techniques implemented in Herky made it a high-performance theorem prover for equational reasoning. Herky is able to prove the first nine of the ten equality problems in the competition (the tenth is an open problem). These equality problems are likely to serve as good exercises for theorem provers based on different approaches, and the proofs of these problems may help people to solve them using their own theorem provers.
Novel prebiotic systems: nucleotide oligomerization in surfactant entrapped water pools.

Oligomerization of 5′-TMP in water pools entrapped by dodecyl-ammonium chloride surfactant aggregates in benzene: hexane in the presence of dicyanodiimide at temperatures ranging from 21°–72° resulted in the formation of linear and cyclic oligonucleotides containing up to pentamers. Effects of temperature, time and surfactants have been examined. Rate constants for the formation of oligomers have been determined at five different temperatures. These data afforded values of ΔH‡ = 11.8 ± 1.9 Kcal mole−1, ΔS‡=−53α 6 e.u. and ΔG‡ = 27.4α 4.0 Kcal mole−1. Prebiotic significance of these results are discussed.
A test of the independence of subsets of instrumental variables and regressors

Abstract A Wald statistic is presented to test for the independence of subsets of regressors and instrumental variables and the disturbance in a regression equation. The test does not require that the equation be identified under maintained conditions.
A note on the distribution types of financial ratios in the commercial banking industry

Abstract Bedingfield, Reckers and Stagliano (1985) have shown that financial ratios in the commercial banking industry are not generally normally distributed. This paper uses separate systems proposed by Karl Pearson [see Elderton and Johnson (1969) and Johnson (1949)] to determine the distributional forms for eleven financial ratios for each year 1976–1983. Some potential applications to regulatory surveillance in commercial banking are discussed.
A new synthesis of n-blocked dihydrouracil and dihydroorotic acid derivatives using lithium tri-sec-butyl borohydride as reducing agent

Abstract 1,3-Di-N-substituted uracil and its derivatives have been reduced with lithium-tri- sec -butyl borohydride to the corresponding 5,6-dihydro compounds in excellent yields. Alkylation of 5-position of uracil is also very conveniently accomplished.
Platelet-Rich Plasma Nonoperative Injection Therapy—A Review of Indications and Evidence

Platelet-rich plasma (PRP) is an autologous platelet concentrate that takes advantage of the high concentrations of growth factors contained within platelet granules. PRP is used to augment surgical repair and for local injection to treat tendon, ligament, and muscle injury. In vitro evidence shows that growth factors released by platelets have positive effects on cell recruitment and proliferation, and clinical evidence has shown benefit for several applications. The studies for PRP use in injection therapy include several prospective randomized trials; however, most of these studies have significant limitations. This has resulted in significant debate regarding the use of PRP. Despite the limited evidence, the relative safety and autologous nature of PRP make it an appealing option for patients and physicians. Orthopaedic surgeons considering using PRP injections must be apprised of the current literature and its limitations to make an informed decision along with the patient.
Research Issues Related to Development of Medications for Treatment of Cocaine Addiction

Draft guidelines for the study of medications for treatment of drug addiction have been developed by the Food and Drug Administration's (FDA's) Center for Drug Evaluation and Research, Division of Anesthetic, Critical Care and Addiction Drug Products. These guidelines are intended to provide a common basis for planning, evaluating and interpreting clinical studies and facilitating development of new and effective drugs for the treatment of dependence. For each class of abusable substances, certain clinical situations stand out as targets for intervention, while others may seem less relevant. The focus of clinical research needs to be tailored to the clinically relevant situations for each drug of abuse. In general, the pharmacotherapies being considered for treatment of abuse and dependence disorders are used to achieve one or more of six major objectives: 1. Reduction in the risk of addiction; 2. Reduction in high-risk behavior; 3. Reduction in morbidity and mortality from addiction; 4. Reduction in drug use and/or induction of abstinence; 5. Relief of symptoms of withdrawal; and 6. Relapse prevention; along with rehabilitation and restoration of functioning. General requirements for outcome measures include measuring drug use, abstinence, withdrawal, and relapse. For all outcomes, both the validity and the meaningfulness must be established. Although considerable neurobiological knowledge relative to cocaine has been acquired, investigation of applicable medications based on these data is still under development. Many studies to date have focused on modifying dopamine function. Because dopamine plays a critical biologic role in motivation, reward and locomotion, modification of its activity may potentially contribute to serious adverse effects. An optimal strategy might require the use of several medications that have different mechanisms of action, or several medications targeted at different aspects of the problem (e.g., relapse craving, etc.). The agonist approach is believed to be potentially problematic because of effects on cardiovascular function and temperature regulation. A substitution model (comparable to methadone for heroin dependence) has not been proposed. The antagonist model is hampered by the fact that reinforcing effects are mediated through dopamine, which, if blocked, might produce a sufficient anhedonic state that compliance with the treatment regimen might be unlikely. Unlike opiates and alcohol, the withdrawal syndrome from cocaine and other stimulants is subtle and usually is not seen as requiring medication intervention.
Wind power ramps: Detection and statistics

Ramps events are a significant source of uncertainty in wind power generation. Developing statistical models from historical data for wind power ramps is important for designing intelligent distribution and market mechanisms for a future electric grid. This requires robust detection schemes for identifying wind ramps in data. In this paper, use an optimal detection technique for identifying wind ramps for large time series. The technique relies on defining a family of scoring functions associated with any rule for defining ramps on an interval of the time series. A dynamic programming recursion is then used to find all such ramp events. Identified wind ramps are used to perform an extensive statistical analysis on the process, characterizing ramping duration and rates as well as other key features needed for developing future models.
Purification of the third component of canine complement.

A rapid, simple procedure has been developed for the purification of the third component (C3) of canine complement. Dog plasma was initially fractionated by precipitation with 4% (w/v) polyethylene glycol (PEG) 4000. The supernatant was depleted of plasminogen using a Sepharose 4B-lysine column, and the effluent was again fractionated with PEG 4000 at 16% (w/v). The precipitate was resuspended and passed over a DEAE-Sephacel column. The fractions containing hemolytically active C3 were pooled, concentrated, and passed over a CM-Sepharose CL-6B column to yield the final purified product. Rabbit anti-whole dog serum identified only one protein in the purified material on immunoelectrophoresis. When injected into a rabbit, the purified product raised an antisera which reacted with only one protein in both whole dog serum and the purified product. Analysis by SDS-PAGE revealed a single band of MW 179,000 +/- 7,000 (+/- 1 S.D.) daltons which, upon reduction with 2-mercaptoethanol, resulted in 2 bands of 114,000 +/- 6,000 daltons and 65,000 +/- 3,500 daltons. Final recovery was 18% with respect to C3 antigen and 9% with respect to C3 hemolytic activity.
A Multiplet Analysis of Fe K-Edge 1s → 3d Pre-Edge Features of Iron Complexes

X-ray absorption Fe−K edge data on ferrous and ferric model complexes have been studied to establish a detailed understanding of the 1s → 3d pre-edge feature and its sensitivity to the electronic structure of the iron site. The energy position and splitting, and intensity distribution, of the pre-edge feature were found to vary systematically with spin state, oxidation state, geometry, and bridging ligation (for binuclear complexes). A methodology for interpreting the energy splitting and intensity distribution of the 1s → 3d pre-edge features was developed for high-spin ferrous and ferric complexes in octahedral, tetrahedral, and square pyramidal environments and low-spin ferrous and ferric complexes in octahedral environments. In each case, the allowable many-electron excited states were determined using ligand field theory. The energies of the excited states were calculated and compared to the energy splitting in the 1s → 3d pre-edge features. The relative intensities of electric quadrupole transitions...
Formation of Subgap States in Carbon Nanotubes Due to a Local Transverse Electric Field

We introduce two simple models to study the effect of a spatially localized transverse electric field on the low-energy electronic structure of semiconducting carbon nanotubes. Starting from the Dirac Hamiltonian for the low-energy states of a carbon nanotube, we use scattering theory to show that an arbitrarily weak field leads to the formation of localized electronic states inside the free nanotube band gap. We study the binding energy of these subgap states as a function of the range and strength of the electrostatic potential. When the range of the potential is held constant and the strength is varied, the binding energy shows crossover behavior: the states lie close to the free nanotube band edge until the potential exceeds a threshold value, after which the binding energy increases rapidly. When the potential strength is held constant and the range is varied, we find resonant behavior: the binding energy passes through a maximum as the range of the potential is increased. Large electric fields confined to a small region of the nanotube are required to create localized states far from the band edge.
Photosynthesis-irradiance relationships for three species of submersed macrophytes in the tidal freshwater Hudson River

Net photosynthesis under a range of natural light intensities was determined for three common macrophytes of the tidal freshwater Hudson River:Vallisneria americana Michx.,Potamogeton perfoliatus L., andMyriophyllum spicatum L. Light-saturated net photosynthetic rates did not differ among species, nor were there differences among species in the light intensity at which respiration balanced photosynthesis. The initial slope (α) of the photosynthesis-irradiance (P-I) curve was greater forV. americana than the other two species. As a result, maximum photosynthetic rates were reached inV. americana at significantly lower irradiances than those required to saturate photosynthesis inP. perfoliatus andM. spicatum. This characteristic would give this species a competitive advantage under conditions in which growth is limited by light availability. Macrophyte biomass distribution showed no clear correlation with depth.V. americana was the most abundant of the three species, both in frequency of occurrence and absolute biomass. The low irradiance required for the saturation of photosynthesis inV. americana may contribute to its predominance in the turbid Hudson River.
Investigation of the degradation of commercial polyoxymethylene copolymer in water service applications

Abstract An investigation has been carried out on the influence of degradation on various properties of commercial polyoxymethylene (POM) copolymer fittings in chlorinated cold water service lines. Scanning electron microscope (SEM) was used to document interior bulk morphological changes and typical defects. The various types of irregular cracks and pits were observed at the innerface of the samples. DSC and intrinsic viscosity determination were carried out for investigation of crystallinity and molecular weight changes. It was seen that the crystallinity of the POM increases at a much higher rate at the inner surface layers than the outer layer in the used samples. The FT-IR spectra of the new and used samples indicate the extent of degradation of the samples.
Diagnosticity, confidence, and the need for information

Recent research has suggested that people prefer to use the most diagnostic available information as the basis for their choices and decisions, and are most confident in those decisions when information is highly diagnostic. However, the effect of information diagnosticity on the need for additional information has yet to be investigated; that is, in an optional stopping task, will the amount of information requested depend upon information diagnosticity? Three models of the role of diagnosticity in information use were examined; expected value, a confidence criterion, and information cost. Subjects attempted to categorize stimuli with the aid of information of varying costs and diagnosticity levels. They requested more information when it was obtained at a low cost. More importantly, across cost conditions, subjects consistently requested greater amounts of information when that information was of a low diagnosticity. These data seem most consistent with use of a confidence criterion that is adjusted for information costs.
Packet aggregation based back-pressure scheduling in multi-hop wireless networks

The back-pressure based scheduling policy originally proposed by Tassiulas et al. in [1] has shown the potential of solving many fairness and network utilization related problems of wireless multi-hop networks. Recently, the scheduling policy has been adapted in random medium access protocols such as CSMA/CA using prioritization of MAC layer transmissions. Here, MAC priorities are used to provide differentiated services to nodes depending on their queue backlogs. Even though these schemes work well in experiments to emulate back-pressure scheduling, they perform poorly with realistic Internet-type traffic where there is a large variation in packet sizes. In this paper, we propose packet aggregation based back-pressure scheduling which aggressively increases the rates at which back-logged queues are served. Different from other aggregation schemes, the presented scheme utilizes the back-pressure principles for determining when and how much aggregation is performed. We show that this results into increased service rates of back-logged queues which in turn results into high network throughput and utilization. We verify our scheme using simulations and testbed experiments, and show that it achieves significant performance improvements as compared to the original scheme.
Representation of States in a Field Theory with Canonical Variables

We investigate the properties of a functional representation of states for a self-coupled scalar field theory. The assumption is made that all states can be generated by applying functionals of the field at a fixed time ($t=0$) to the vacuum state. It is shown that for the class of models considered the Hamiltonian is uniquely determined by the vacuum functional. The calculation of scalar products between states leads to functional integrals. The measure in this integration over function space is also determined by the vacuum state. Two methods for the evaluation of the functional integrals are discussed. The first one reduces the problem in some simple cases to the solution of an eigenvalue problem for a Hilbert-Schmidt kernel plus a finite number of ordinary integrations. The other one gives a perturbation series.
Multifunctional Synthetic Poly(l-Glutamic Acid)–Based Cancer Therapeutic and Imaging Agents

Modern polymer chemistry has led to the generation of a number of biocompatible synthetic polymers that have been increasingly studied as efficient carriers for drugs and imaging agents. Synthetic biocompatible polymers have been used to improve the efficacy of both small-molecular-weight therapeutics and imaging agents. Furthermore, multiple targeted anticancer agents and/or imaging reporters can be attached to a single polymer chain, allowing multifunctional and/or multimodality therapy and molecular imaging. Having both an anticancer drug and an imaging reporter in a single polymer chain allows noninvasive real-time visualization of the pharmacokinetics of polymeric drug delivery systems, which can uncover and explain the complicated mechanisms of in vivo drug delivery and their correlation to pharmacodynamics. This review examines the use of the synthetic biocompatible polymer poly(Lglutamic acid) (PG) as an efficient carrier of cancer therapeutics and imaging agents. This review summarizes and updates our recent research on the use of PG as a platform for drug delivery and molecular imaging, including recent clinical findings with respect to PGpaclitaxel (PG-TXL), the combination of PG-TXL with radiotherapy, mechanisms of action of PG-TXL, and noninvasive visualization of in vivo delivery of polymeric conjugates with contrast-enhanced magnetic resonance imaging, optical imaging, and multimodality imaging.
Acute cognitive and behavioral effects of systemic corticosteroids in children treated for inflammatory bowel disease

Systemic corticosteroids are a mainstay of treatment for many pediatric medical conditions. Although their impact on the central nervous system has been well-studied in animal models and adults, less is known about such effects in pediatric populations. The current study investigated acute effects of corticosteroids on memory, executive functions, emotion, and behavior in children and adolescents with inflammatory bowel disease (IBD). Patients 8-17 years with IBD (Crohn's disease, CD; ulcerative colitis, UC) on high-dose prednisone (n = 33) and IBD patients in remission off steroids (n = 33) completed standardized neuropsychological tests and behavior rating scales. In the IBD sample as a whole, few steroid effects were found for laboratory cognitive measures, but steroid-treated patients were rated as exhibiting more problems with emotional, and to a lesser extent with cognitive function in daily life. Steroid effects, assessed by laboratory measures and questionnaires, were more prevalent in CD than UC patients; UC patients on steroids sometimes performed better than controls. Sleep disruption also predicted some outcomes, diminishing somewhat the magnitude of the steroid effects. Corticosteroid therapy can have acute effects on cognition, emotion, and behavior in chronically ill children; the clinical and long-term significance of these effects require further investigation.
Maternal Teaching Strategies in Four Cultural Communities: Implications for Early Childhood Teachers.

This article examines maternal everyday teaching strategies in Chinese, American, Hutterite, and Native American cultural communities. It moves beyond a theoretical framework based on distancing by suggesting that effective adult teaching strategies are contextually and culturally determined. The authors urge early childhood educators to make efforts to understand the complexity of a child's home learning environment and to maximize the learning potential of every child by taking advantage of his/her funds of knowledge in early childhood education settings.
Characterizing three-dimensional hydraulic conductivity distributions using qualitative and quantitative geologic borehole data: Application to a field site

Hydraulic properties of aquifers vary spatially as a result of the complex geologic processes through which they are formed and altered. Spatial variability of the hydraulic properties leads to spatially variable pore water velocities, which can significantly influence contaminant transport in the subsurface. The focus of this paper is the characterization of three-dimensional hydraulic conductivity distributions using qualitative and quantitative geologic borehole data. The authors illustrate an approach that entails a three-step procedure, where lithologic information reported in the borehole logs is first classified into texture classes. Representative hydraulic conductivity values are then calculated for each texture class using a correlation relating measured lithologic and hydraulic data from core samples. The generalized kernel estimator method, which can take full advantage of the characteristics of borehole log data and is applicable to statistically nonstationary systems, is used thereafter to generate the three-dimensional distributions of hydraulic conductivity. An application using borehole data from a trichloroethene (TCE)-contaminated Superfund site in Tucson, Arizona, is presented and used to test the proposed methodology. The simulated hydraulic conductivity distributions appear reasonable and the simulated permeability distributions for several cross sections agree well with the hydrogeologic cross-sectional maps. The use of mean permeability indicators for differentiating zonesmore » of high and low permeability is also investigated.« less
Steroid hormone receptor homologs in development.

Summary The steroid/thyroid receptor superfamily are llganddependent transcription factors which consist of distinct functional domains required for transcriptional control of a network of genes. Members of this superfamily are beginning to be studied for their contribution to embryogenesis. Two human receptors for the vertebrate morphogen retinoic acid have been isolated and further characterized on model promoters. Moreover, the presence of homologs of these receptors in Drosophila reveals that members of this superfamily predate the divergence of the vertebrates and invertebrates. One locus is knirpsrelated (knrl), whose product is closely related to that of the gap segmentation gene knirps (knf). knrl is one of the most diverged steroid receptor-like molecules and displays a spatially restricted blastoderm pattern.
Subtle EGG Sign of Acute Infarction: Prominent Reciprocal ST Depression with Minimal Primary ST Elevation

In most cases of acute transmural infarction, the reciprocal ST segment depressions observed in contralateral leads are less marked than the primary ST segment elevations. Two unusual cases are presented where reciprocal ST depressions were the predominant findings due to the orientation of the injury current vector. Failure to recognize this pattern may impede the diagnosis and localization of acute infarction. Furthermore, these cases illustrate the principle that "hyperacute" T waves may only appear as a slight, relative increase in T wave positivity rather than as a marked absolute increase in T wave amplitude.
Models for Type Ia supernovae and cosmology

We give an overview of the current understanding of Type Ia supernovae relevant for their use as cosmological distance indicators. We present the physical basis to understand their homogeneity of the observed light curves and spectra and the observed correlations. This provides a robust method to determine the Hubble constant, 67 ± 8 (2σ)km M pc−1 sec−1, independently from primary distance indicators. We discuss the uncertainties and tests which include SNe Ia based distance determinations prior to δ-Ceph measurements for the host galaxies. Based on detailed models, we study the small variations from homogeneities and their observable consequences. In combination with future data, this underlines the suitability and promises the refinements needed to determine accurate relative distances within 2 to 3% and to use SNe Ia for high precision cosmology.
Classification response times in probabilistic rule- based category structures: Contrasting exemplar- retrieval and decision-boundary models

Experiments were conducted to contrast the predictions from exemplar models and rule-based decisionboundary models of perceptual classification. Observers classified multidimensional stimuli into categories that could be described in terms of easily verbalized logical rules. The critical manipulation was that some pairs of stimuli received probabilistic feedback, whereas other control pairs received deterministic feedback. Despite the probabilistic feedback, the probabilistic pairs and the deterministic pairs were the same distance from idealobserver, rule-based decision boundaries. Across two experiments with varying category structures, observers classified the probabilistic pairs with slower response times (RTs) and lower accuracies than the comparison deterministic pairs. The effects were relatively long term, extending into test blocks in which all feedback was withheld. The results were as predicted by exemplar models, but challenged models that posit that RT is a function solely of the distance of a stimulus from rule-based boundaries. The studies add considerable generality to previous ones and suggest that, even in domains involving rule-based category structures, exemplar-retrieval processes play a significant role. Supplemental materials related to this article may be downloaded from http:// mc.psychonomic-journals.org/content/supplemental.
Headship and Household Composition Among Blacks, Hispanics, and Other Whites

Differences in the prevalance of extended living arrangements are examined among black, Hispanic, and non-Hispanic white female-headed and husbandlwife households to evaluate the relative merit of the cultural equivalent and cultural variant explanations of extended structure. Results based on logit analyses indicate that the greater prevalence of extended household structure among Hispanics and blacks is related both to cultural circumstances that lead to extended family structure, and the attempt of households to cope with economic hardship. For each of three measures of extended structure, female headship-frequently associated with economic disadvantage-is significantly related to a higher incidence of extended structure. This may also indicate a greater incentive to find surrogate replacements for absent spouses. Persisting differentials among minority households compared to non-Hispanic whites suggest that the cultural variant explanation of extended household structure deserves closer scrutiny to distinguish clearly processual components from structural components in the analysis of family organization among racial and ethnic groups. One of the most dramatic changes in the composition of family households since the mid-sixties is the pronounced increase in the number of families headed by single women. By 1979, 17 percent of all families with children were headed by women, compared to 10 percent in 1970 (U.S. Bureau of the Census, b). This increase, coupled with the precarious economic situation of such households, has attracted the interest of social scientists and policy analysts. Recent social science research has sought to identify and
Teacher Evaluation Instruments for Merit Pay Decisions Is Their Use Justifiable

The purpose of this research was to investigate how effective representative teacher evaluation instruments are for determining eligibility of public school teachers for merit pay. Elementary school principals'ratings of teachers they considered deserving and not deserving of merit pay were analyzed. Findings suggest that rating instruments may be useful for making initial decisions about who should be eligible for further consideration.
Creatures of fiction, objects of myth

Many who think that some abstracta are artefacts are fictional creationists, asserting that fictional characters are brought about by our activities. Kripke (1973), Salmon (1998, 2002), and Braun (2005) further embrace mythical creationism, claiming that certain entities that figure in false theories, such as phlogiston or Vulcan, are likewise abstracta produced by our intentional activities. I here argue that one may not reasonably take the metaphysical route travelled by the mythical creationist. Even if one holds that fictional characters are artefact one ought not further hold that mythical objects are, too.
Unique Gene Expression Profile Based on Pathologic Response in Epithelial Ovarian Cancer

Purpose We investigated whether tumor tissue obtained at diagnosis expresses a specific gene profile that is predictive of findings at second-look surgery in patients with epithelial ovarian cancer (EOC). Patients and Methods Tumor tissue obtained at the time of diagnosis was profiled with oligonucleotide microarrays. Class prediction analysis was performed in a training set of 24 patients who had undergone a second-look procedure. The resultant predictive signature was then tested on an independent validation set comprised of 36 patients. Results A 93-gene signature referred to as the Chemotherapy Response Profile (CRP) was identified through its association with pathologic complete response. When applied to a separate validation set, the CRP distinguished between patients with unfavorable versus favorable overall survival (median 41 months v not yet reached, respectively, log-rank P = .007), with a median follow-up of 52 months. The signature maintained independent prognostic value in multivariate analy...
How to Design a Biosensor

Amperometric sensors for continuous glucose monitoring could prevent acute and chronic complications of diabetes, but research is needed to improve accuracy and stability. In designing sensors, interference from non-glucose analytes can be minimized by use of filtration membranes or electron transfer mediators that allow polarization at low potentials. If oxygen is required for the enzymatic reaction with glucose, then the outer permselective membrane must have substantial oxygen permeability. For this reason, during development of permselective membranes, permeability studies (such as performed by Tipnis and colleagues in this issue) can be used to measure transport of glucose and oxygen and optimize membrane structure. Tipnis and colleagues present a novel biosensor based with separate layers for glucose-oxygen permselectivity, enzymatic conversion, and avoidance of interference. They also address sensor stability, in part by comparing sensor function during ascending vs descending glucose levels. By measuring the difference, they were able to minimize this aspect of instability (hysterisis), which assisted them in selecting a promising permselective membrane based on iron and humic acid.
Pathology of combined hepatocellular‐cholangiocarcinoma

Combined hepatocellular-cholangiocarcinoma is a rare primary neoplasm in the liver. It has gained increasing recognition recently, which in part may be due to more extensive sampling of the explants and surgical resection specimens, the diagnostic challenges encountered in the clinical practice, and the yet to be determined clinical outcome, but partly may be attributed to its intriguing histogenesis/cells of origin. This review aims to update combined hepatocellular-cholangiocarcinoma with an emphasis on the pathological diagnosis, including the differential diagnosis and its diagnostic pitfalls, the possible cell of origin of this neoplasm, and its clinical outcome.
Electromagnetic Radiation Behavior of Low-Voltage Arcing Fault

A feasibility study of utilizing radiated electromagnetic energy from spark/arc source as a means of detecting arcing faults is conducted using two types of simple antenna, stick and loop. From the investigation, it is concluded that arc/spark of low voltage can be detected by portable antennas with frequency bands of low amplitude modulation and megahertz as an alternative method to the conventional arcing detection methods and their apparatus. In addition, each of the first two phases of arc process, initial glow-like discharge and transient arc development, is distinguished by the respective inception time and radiation spectral content of the captured signals by the antennas.
Communication in the Heart: the Role of the Innate Immune System in Coordinating Cellular Responses to Ischemic Injury

Ischemic cardiac injury is the leading cause of heart failure and mortality in the USA and is a major expense to health-care systems. Once the heart is injured, a highly dynamic and coordinated immune response is initiated, which is dependent on both resident and recruited leukocytes. The goal of the inflammatory response is to remove ischemic and necrotic material and to promote infarct healing. If this system is perturbed, the myocardium heals poorly, leading to significant left ventricular dysfunction. Understanding how inflammatory cells coordinate and interact with each other is required prior to designing therapeutic interventions that target pathological processes at play and leave untouched those processes that are protective. This review will discuss the intercellular cross talk between cells of the innate immune system following myocardial ischemic injury and how that response is coordinated over time.
Intraoperative Wavefront Aberrometry in Cataract Surgery

Intraoperative wavefront aberrometry is a relatively new technology that aims to improve refractive outcomes following cataract surgery by optimizing the spherical power of the intraocular lens implant or calculating the appropriate axis and power of toric lenses during cataract surgery in an aphakic state. This article reviews the literature on intraoperative wavefront aberrometry and provides a critical assessment of the benefits and shortcomings of that technology.
Untangling mixed information to calibrate resource utilization in virtual machines

Server virtualization brings benefits in autonomic resource management, but also leads to new challenges. The challenge the paper addresses is on profiling physical resource utilization information of VMs when consolidated on a single server. Profiling is very difficult due to dynamic mapping relationships of resource activities between the virtual layer and the physical layer. The problem is further exacerbated by cross-resource utilization causality relationships due to virtualization overhead and resource utilization multiplexing across different VMs. We formulate profiling as a source separation problem as studied in digital signal processing, and design a directed factor graph (DFG) to model the multivariate dependence relationships among different resources (CPU, memory, disk, network) across virtual and physical layers. A benchmark based methodology is designed to build a DFG based model for the VM information calibration problem. A run-time calibration mechanism is proposed based on the DFG based model and further enhanced with a robust remodeling method based on guided regression. The proposed methodology outputs estimates of physical resource utilization on individual VMs and physical server aggregate resource utilization. We present a case study using the Xen-virtualization platform and evaluate the methodology for different consolidation scenarios with diverse applications including RUBiS, IOzone, SysBench, and Netperf. The results show that the DFG calibration significantly improves the accuracy of the resource utilization information collected within guest VMs as it reduces relative errors in CPU utilization from 44.8% down to 3.9% for CPU-intensive applications and relative errors in disk write rate from 391.5% down to 10.6% for IO-intensive applications, strongly arguing for the effectiveness of the proposed DFG calibration methodology.
Real-Time Measurement of Thin Film Thickness During Plasma Processing

An in situ single point two-color laser interferometer is used to monitor in real-time the thickness of thin transparent films during processing. The instantaneous change of film thickness is determined by comparing the measured laser reflection interference to that calculated by a model. The etch or deposition rates of the film are determined within 1–2 seconds. The film thickness is also determined in real-time from the phase difference of the reflected laser intensity between the two laser colors. Use of two-color laser interferometry improves the accuracy of the calculated etch or growth rates of the film considerably. Moreover, the two colors provide a clear distinction between film etching and deposition, which may often occur during the same process, and can not be determined by a single color interferometer. The uniformity of the film's etch or deposition rates across the substrate is monitored by an in situ full-wafer image interferometer. The combined use of these two sensors provide instantaneous information of the film thickness, etch or growth rates, as well as time averaged uniformity of the process rates. This diagnostic setup is very useful for process development and monitoring, which is also suitable for manufacturing environment, and can be used for real-time process control.
Localization for mobile robot teams using maximum likelihood estimation

This paper describes a method for localizing the members of a mobile robot team, using only the robots themselves as landmarks, that is, we describe a method whereby each robot can determine the relative range, bearing and orientation of every other robot in the team, without the use of GPS, external landmarks, or instrumentation of the environment. Our method assumes that each robot is able to measure the relative pose of nearby robots, together with changes in its own pose. Using a combination of maximum likelihood estimation and numerical optimization, we can subsequently infer the relative pose of every robot in the team. This paper describes the basic formalism, its practical implementation, and presents experimental results obtained using a team of four mobile robots.
The Quest for Legitimacy and the Withering Away of Utopia

The question of legitimacy of Soviet-type systems of Central and Eastern Europe has been highly controversialfor many decades, yet it has been largely neglected in scholarly analyses. Employing a comparative historical approach, this article examines the differences that existed between the Visegrdd countries, on one side, and the Balkan countries, on the other, with regard to the legitimacy of their Communist rules. Among the latter, Ifocus primarily on the cases ofAlbania and theformer Yugoslavia as deviants from the more general pattern of the Soviet-bloc countries. I propose to assess three propositions: (1) not all Communist governments in Central and Eastern Europe had the same level of legitimacy at inception; (2) elements of legitimacy werefound in all Communist states, irrespective of the way in which the Communistparties acquired power; (3) the legitimacy of Communist rule did not erode in all countries at once but in differentphases.
A Linear-Time Complex-Valued Eigenvalue Solver for Full-Wave Analysis of Large-Scale On-Chip Interconnect Structures

This paper proposes a linear-time complex-valued eigenvalue solver for solving large-scale on-chip interconnect problems. The fast eigenvalue solution is achieved by eigenvalue clustering, fast system reduction with negligible computational cost, and fast linear-time solution of the reduced system. Numerical and experimental results are presented to demonstrate the accuracy and efficiency of the proposed method.
Renormalization of Higher Derivative Quantum Gravity

Gravitational actions which include terms quadratic in the curvature tensor are renormalizable. The necessary Slavnov identities are derived from Becchi-Rouet-Stora (BRS) transformations of the gravitational and Faddeev-Popov ghost fields. In general, non-gauge-invariant divergences do arise, but they may be absorbed by nonlinear renormalizations of the gravitational and ghost fields (and of the BRS transformations). Fortunately, these artifactual divergences may be eliminated by letting the coefficient of the harmonic gauge-fixing term tend to infinity, thus considerably simplifying the renormalization procedure. Coupling to other renormalizable fields may then be handled in a straightforward manner.
Fuel efficiency assessment with Data Envelopment Analysis

Military air forces have a significant demand for fuel, but increasing costs force them to use their fuel as efficiently as possible. We investigated the suitability of Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) to measure C-17 airlift fuel efficiency for the United States Air Mobility Command (AMC). Airlift missions constitute the decision-making units in our study. Seven respective inputs and outputs were used and three different DEA models were contrasted. The results show that DEA provides an effective ability to identify fuel usage inefficiencies. A slack-based DEA measure proved superior at differentiating inefficiencies to an established index in use by AMC planners.
Normal-Mode Instabilities of a Time-Dependent Coastal Upwelling Jet

The linear stability of a nearly time-periodic, nonlinear, coastal upwelling–downwelling circulation, over alongshore-uniform topography, driven by a time-periodic wind stress is investigated using numerical methods. The near-periodic alongshore-uniform basic flow is obtained by forcing a primitive equation numerical model of coastal ocean circulation with periodic wind stress. Disturbance growth on this nearperiodic flow is explored in linear and nonlinear model simulations. Numerous growing normal modes are found in the linear analyses at alongshore scales between 4 and 24 km. These modes vary in cross-shore structure and timing of maximum disturbance growth rate. One group of modes, in the 6.5–8.5-km alongshore-scale range, bears strong resemblance to the ensemble average disturbance structures observed in perturbed nonlinear model simulations. These modes are of a mixed type, exhibiting both strong baroclinic and barotropic energy exchange mechanisms, with maximum disturbance growth occurring during the transition from upwelling favorable to downwelling favorable winds. Nonlinear disturbance growth is characterized by similar structures at these same scales, but with significant exchange of energy between disturbances at different alongshore scales, such that overall disturbance energy accumulates at the longest (domain) scales, and gradually propagates offshore mainly in the pycnocline over numerous forcing cycles.
Proteolytic Processing of Dentin Sialophosphoprotein (DSPP) Is Essential to Dentinogenesis

DSPP, which plays a crucial role in dentin formation, is processed into the NH2-terminal and COOH-terminal fragments. We believe that the proteolytic processing of DSPP is an essential activation step for its biological function in biomineralization. We tested this hypothesis by analyzing transgenic mice expressing the mutant D452A-DSPP in the Dspp-knock-out (Dspp-KO) background (referred to as “Dspp-KO/D452A-Tg” mice). We employed multipronged approaches to characterize the dentin of the Dspp-KO/D452A-Tg mice, in comparison with Dspp-KO mice and mice expressing the normal DSPP transgene in the Dspp-KO background (named Dspp-KO/normal-Tg mice). Our analyses showed that 90% of the D452A-DSPP in the dentin of Dspp-KO/D452A-Tg mice was not cleaved, indicating that D452A substitution effectively blocked the proteolytic processing of DSPP in vivo. While the expression of the normal DSPP fully rescued the dentin defects of the Dspp-KO mice, expressing the D452A-DSPP failed to do so. These results indicate that the proteolytic processing of DSPP is an activation step essential to its biological function in dentinogenesis.
Perceptions of a Glass Ceiling: A Cross-Cultural Analysis of Mexican and American Employees

This study asks employees in the United States and Mexico if they believe there is workplace discrimination based on gender, age, or ethnicity. As members of international organizations, the United States and Mexico have agreed to strive for the elimination of employment discrimination. Hypotheses based on Hofstede’s Power Distance Index (PDI) predicted cultural differences in the two countries would result in a higher perception of workplace discrimination from employees in the United States than those in Mexico. The results support the hypotheses; directions are offered for future research.
Job Autonomy and Counterproductive Behaviors in Chinese Accountants: The Role of Job-Related Attitudes

ABSTRACT Counterproductive behaviors are of concern for all organizations. In addition to explicit financial costs, these behaviors can be detrimental to interpersonal and intraorganizational dynamics and morale, and they can generate negative reputational effects. The accounting literature has long maintained that job autonomy is critical in allowing accountants to apply accounting standards. Prior accounting literature calls for research investigating job autonomy and accounting professionalism. This study answers that call for research. We employ structural equation modeling to evaluate a sample of experienced Chinese accountants from a variety of industries and find a direct, positive, and deleterious effect between job autonomy and counterproductive behaviors. However, this effect is compensated for and reversed by a set of indirect and advantageous effects exerted through the influence of job satisfaction and perceived organizational support.