cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Public Health Significance of Molds and Mycotoxins in Fermented Dairy Products

Abstract Mold growth on cheese and other fermented dairy products is a common and recurring problem. Potential mycotoxin contamination is serious since some molds can grow and produce mycotoxins at temperatures as low as −2 to 10°C. Work can be divided into: 1) incidence, types, and mycotoxin-producing potential of molds in fermented dairy products, 2) experimental mycotoxin production on cheese under conditions of storage and aging of cheese, 3) natural occurrence of mycotoxins in commercial samples of cheese, and 4) potential toxicity of Penicillium roqueforti and its significance in blue veined cheeses. Molds most common on cheese and fermented dairy products are Penicillium species. Mycotoxins produced by these organisms are penicillic acid, patulin, ochratoxin A, and citrinin. Percentages of molds in cheese capable of producing some commonly studied mycotoxins ranged from 1.8% to 12.4%. Cheese is an excellent substrate for mold growth but a poor substrate for mycotoxin production. Several natural occurrences of mycotoxins in cheese include small and variable amounts of patulin, penicillic acid, sterigmatocystin (600µg/kg), penitrem A, and mycophenolic acid. Penicillium roqueforti is capable of producing toxic alkaloids and other compounds. The significance of these substances for human health is unclear. The decision to trim or to discard moldy cheese can be aided by considering the risk versus benefit based on storage history (temperature), extent of mold growth, appearance of mold (color), and size of cheese.
Bandwidth-induced reversal of asymmetry in optical-double-resonance amplitudes

Optical-double-resonance measurements using ionization detection have been carried out in the $3{S}_{\frac{1}{2}}\ensuremath{-}3{P}_{\frac{1}{2}}\ensuremath{-}4D$ atomic-sodium system. Asymmetries observed in production of $4D$ atoms from the two components of the Stark-split $3{P}_{\frac{1}{2}}$ state are found to be controlled by the far, very weak wings of the 17-MHz full-width-at-half-maximum laser line which is used to drive the $3{S}_{\frac{1}{2}}\ensuremath{-}3{P}_{\frac{1}{2}}$ transition at detunings in the range 0-70 GHz. Suppression of the wings with a Fabry-Perot filter causes a pronounced reversal of the asymmetry.
The AC module: An overview and update on self-contained modular PV systems

The concept of attaching a small complete inverter designed for grid interconnection to each photovoltaic (PV) module of an array has been pursued for about 20 years. National Grid began supporting development of this novel concept in 1992, designating the complete system as an “AC Module” (ACM). Technical success was achieved around ten years ago, but commercial success has been achieved only within the last two years. Now there are a number of companies (to be described) with products in the final stages of development, undergoing independent laboratory certification testing or on the market. There are numerous advantages to employing AC Modules in PV systems from. 2 to several kW, in comparison to a typical PV array comprised of two or more series strings of standard PV modules with dc output, all feeding one grid-connected inverter. These advantages will be discussed. A final comment is that the term “microinverter” has been used increasingly in recent years, but the combination of a microinverter with a commercial PV module is in essence an AC Module.
Use of prophylactic postoperative antibiotics during surgical drain presence following mastectomy.

Background National guidelines recommend one dose of perioperative antibiotics for breast surgery and discourage postoperative continuation. However, reported skin and soft tissue infection (SSI) rates after mastectomy range from 1–26 %, higher than expected for clean cases. Utility of routine or selective postoperative antibiotic use for duration of drain presence following mastectomy remains uncertain.
Gas Holdup in a Fiber Suspension

This paper investigates the effects of fiber mass fraction and length on gas holdup and flow regime transition. The experiments are performed using three different Rayon fiber lengths (3, 6, and 12 mm) over a range of superficial gas velocities (U g ≤18 cm/s) and a range of fiber mass fractions (0≤C≤1.8%) in a 15.24 cm diameter bubble column, in which air is continuously bubbled through a fixed volume of a fiber suspension. Experimental results show that increasing the fiber mass fraction tends to decrease the overall gas holdup when the fiber mass fraction is less than a certain value, which depends on fiber length. Fiber length influences the gas holdup when C≤1.4%, and increasing fiber length reduces the overall gas holdup. Homogeneous, transitional, and heterogeneous flow conditions are observed at low fiber mass fractions, but when C≥0.6%, purely heterogeneous flow conditions are observed. The flow regime transition is not significantly affected by fiber length.
Pyrolysis-gas chromatography with linearly programmed temperature packed and open tubular columns. the thermal degradation of polyolefins

The advantages of the use of programmed temperature open tubular columns for the separation of the pyrolysis products of polymers is again demonstrated, using polyethylene samples. It is also shown that the combination of pyrolysis-gas chromatography with subsequent hydrogenation of the thermal breakdown products using open tubular columns for separation can successfully be used in the identification of the unsaturated components formed during pyrolysis.
Evidence that a behavioral augmentation following repeated amphetamine administration does not involve peripheral mechanisms.

Abstract Repeated administration of amphetamine (AMPH) to rats results in an augmentation of the drug-induced locomotion and stereotypy. The studies reported below were directed at examining the potential role for some dispositional and peripheral sympathomimetic factors in mediating the enhanced stereotypy response. These included three factors associated with repeated AMPH administration: (1) the possible accumulation of AMPH in a peripheral mobilizable pool; (2) repeated sympathetic activation; and (3) AMPH metabolite induced depletion of peripheral stores of norepinephrine. The approach utilized was to selectively reduce or mimic the peripheral actions of AMPH through the use of non-pharmacological or pharmacological manipulations which are relatively lacking in AMPH-like central stimulant effects. The results indicate that these factors cannot account for the augmentation of the behavioral response to AMPH and suggest that these behavioral alterations reflect changes in the responsiveness of brain mechanisms which mediate the behavioral effects of the drug.
Study of Two-Stage Tightening of Threaded Fasteners Using Various Tool Speed Combinations

This paper investigates the effect of various tool speed combinations on the torque-tension relationship in a two-stage torque control process for the tightening of threaded fasteners. The tightening speed has a considerable affect on the thread and bearing friction coefficients. Hence, the amount of clamp load generated by a specified level of the tightening torque is significantly influenced by the tool speed combinations in many high volume applications. In two-stage processes, the fastener is first tightened to an intermediate torque level beyond which the tool speed is changed but the tightening is continued until the full target torque is reached. The effect of tightening speed combinations (for stages one and two) on the torque-tension relationship is investigated. Data on the coefficients of thread and bearing friction as well as the Nut Factor K is investigated. The findings of this study are helpful in predicting the clamp load generated in bolted joints, which enhance its reliability and safety. Additionally, the study provides helpful data that may be utilized for developing reliable assembly strategies in mass production applications such as the automotive industry.Copyright © 2007 by ASME
Alkaline elution studies of hematoporphyrin-derivative photosensitized DNA damage and repair in Chinese hamster ovary cells.

We have used alkaline elution to study DNA damage produced by the photosensitizer hematoporphyrin derivative (HPD) in cultured Chinese hamster cells. Dosimetry was performed by measuring fluence and calculating photon absorption by intracellular HPD. HPD photosensitization causes DNA strand breakage. These breaks are repaired by the cell, although their fractional rate of repair is smaller than that for X-ray induced strand breaks at equivalent levels of strand breakage. The combined DNA polymerase inhibitors cytosine arabinoside and hydroxyurea suppress the repair of HPD-photosensitized breaks more strongly than they suppress repair of X-ray induced breaks. Addition of novobiocin to the aforementioned inhibitors causes almost total suppression of photosensitized break repair. A nucleotide excision repair system with inhibitor susceptibility similar to that of the system which removes pyrimidine dimers thus does not act upon HPD-photosensitized damage. The repair rate and inhibitor sensitivity findings together suggest biologically important differences in the chemical nature of X-ray induced and HPD-photosensitized strand breaks. In addition to strand breaks, HPD photosensitization produces covalent DNA-protein crosslinks, some of which persist through at least 90 min incubation, but which are repaired within 180 min.
The Use of Radioactive Phosphorus (32P) in the Diagnosis of Ocular Tumors

The radioactive phosphorus (32P) uptake test used in ocular tumor evaluation in 408 cases achieved an overall percentage error rate of 3.6%. This compared favorably with the clinical error rate of 19.2% overall. The least accuracy was obtained in cases with ciliary body lesions.
Causal networks in the rat barrel cortex provide a signature of stimulus encoding

Identifying stimulus-dependent cortical circuits is a fundamental goal in systems neuroscience. Graph-theoretic techniques provide an elegant tool to infer such circuitry. Recently, we have proposed to use Dynamic Bayesian Networks (DBN) as an efficient graphical model that explains the observed spike train data in local cortical circuits. A unique advantage of DBNs over other metrics of neuronal connectivity (such as crosscorrelograms) is its ability to explain the temporally precise activity of an observed neuron taking into account the activity of the entire observed population. We recorded simultaneously the ensemble neural activity using 32-channel microelectrode arrays from Layer V of the primary somatosensory (barrel) cortex in 3 anesthetized rats. An average population size of 20±7 single units/rat was identified. Responses were recorded during stimulation of individual whiskers (3 whiskers/rat). Each whisker was horizontally deflected with a displacement of 80 μm for 100 ms at 1 Hz frequency. Spike trains within 100 ms of stimulus onset were analyzed using DBN. To rule out the existence of spurious connections inferred by co-modulation of firing rates, a jittered version of the spike trains was formed in which each spike was randomly jittered in a uniform interval of [-5,5] ms. Common connections inferred in the original and jittered data were eliminated. Results demonstrate that stable stimulus-driven network states were obtained, with 22% of the inferred connections appearing in more than 35% of the trials. To examine the validity of these results, we computed the correlation between the response latency of each neuron and the number of inferred pre-synaptic/post-synaptic connections for each stimulated whisker. In a causal network context, we hypothesized that pre-synaptic neurons that fire before other post-synaptic neurons in the observed population should have shorter response latency reminiscent of a “signaling mechanism” to other neurons about stimulus presence. Therefore, these neurons were expected to have more post-synaptic connections than their large response latency counterparts. Correlation between the response latency and the number of post-synaptic (pre-synaptic) connections was -0.63 (+0.61) consistent with our hypothesis. Finally, we used 90% of the trials to obtain a template network model for each whisker stimulated. We then decoded the spike trains in the remaining 10% of the trials to determine the corresponding whisker identity. A decoding accuracy of 97% was obtained indicating that the obtained causal networks are stimulus-dependent in which the population acts cooperatively rather than independently to encode the underlying stimulus.
Librarian Participation in the Online Classroom

SUMMARY As distance education courses increasingly move to the online environment, librarians are discovering new challenges and opportunities for reaching distant students. Collaboration with faculty is essential in reaching students who may never enter the library building. One such method of collaboration is librarian participation in online courses through “lurking” in Blackboard and Desire2Learn classrooms and monitoring discussion threads devoted to library research. Advantages such as improved access to students, course content, and assessment data are discussed, as are disadvantages, such as time commitment, varying expectations, and privacy issues. Considerations for librarians interested in “lurking” are outlined.
Comparison of micromixer with conventional static mixer for use in fast compeititive reactions

The product distribution of fast-competitive reactions is a function of the speed at which the mixing of the two reactants occurs. Micro-fluidic mixers (micromixers) are touted as one area that micro-fluidic devices have fundamental advantages over traditional chemical processing equipment. Micromixers must demonstrate a significant advantage over the best current processing equipment if micromixers are to be implemented in current applications by the very conservative chemical industry. In this study, the mixing performance of a small diameter mixing tee was compared to the mixing performance of a commercial static mixer. In both studies, the hydrolysis of dimethoxypropane was measured quantitatively using gas chromatography. To date, a 177 micron mixing tee and 254 micron mixing tee have been tested and compared with a 1/4 inch and 1/8 inch commercial static mixer. At constant Reynolds numbers, the 254 micron micro-mixer is superior to the 1/4 inch static mixer and the 177 micron micro-mixer is superior to the 1/8 inch static mixer. Reynolds numbers of only 1180 and 410 have been obtained for the 254 micron and 177 micron mixing tee to date. Changes are being implemented to allow operation of higher Reynolds numbers with even smaller diameter mixing tees fabricated from silicon.© (2001) COPYRIGHT SPIE--The International Society for Optical Engineering. Downloading of the abstract is permitted for personal use only.
Photon echoes using double-resonance optical pulses

A theory of photon echoes using double-resonance optical pulses (PEDROP) is presented. Two double-resonance pulses, separated by a time interval T, are used to cause transitions among three states of an atom. Each double-resonance pulse consists of two simultaneously applied laser pulses that drive coupled transitions in the atom. It is shown that for time t > T, six photon echoes are produced (three on each of the coupled transitions) at five distinct times. Moreover, a nonradiating macroscopic coherence is also produced between states of the same parity. With the use of an interrogation pulse to monitor this coherence, three additional photon echoes can be produced on either of the coupled transitions. A Doppler phase diagram is constructed that enables one easily to predict the times and conditions of echo formation. PEDROP combines features of both two-photon and trilevel echoes but offers advantages over these methods for studying relaxation phenomena.
Seventeenth-Century English Newsbooks

French discusses the genre of the English Newsbook from the seventeenth century and the holdings of such books in the Rutgers library.Â He characterizes them as "frankly unreliable but frequently charming or spicy or even rowdy gossip."
Postconcussive Impairment Differences Across a Multifaceted Concussion Assessment Protocol

Objective To examine the proportion of athletes with concussion and with impairment disagreements across various clinical concussion assessment measures. Design Quasi-experimental repeated measures design. Setting Clinical research laboratory. Participants A sample of 100 collegiate-aged athletes participated in the study (mean [SD] age, 18.5 ± 1.1 years; mean [SD] height, 180.6 ± 9.9 cm; mean [SD] weight, 84.1 ± 20.6 kg). Methods or Interventions Participants completed preseason baseline and postconcussive injury assessments on a clinical assessment battery, including a 17-item graded symptom checklist, a computerized neurocognitive assessment, and a balance performance assessment. Main Outcome Measurements Symptom severity total score, 8 cognitive domain scores from the Automated Neuropsychological Assessment Metrics, and the composite balance score obtained from the Sensory Organization Test served as outcome measures for the study. McNemar tests of paired proportions were then used to analyze impairment disagreements (where one measure identified impairments not identified by the other) between the study outcome measures. The α level was set to .05 a priori. Results We observed significant disagreements between symptom severity total scores, and all other measures used in the study in which symptom severity total scores identified more impairments than all other measures. In addition, we observed significant disagreements for half of the clinical measures used in the study, with disagreement proportions that ranged from 22%-52%. Conclusions Our study underscores the importance of using a multifaceted approach for management of concussion that includes assessment of symptom severity, cognitive function, and balance. Use of this multifaceted approach also can aid clinicians in understanding other comorbidities that may complicate the management of concussion.
Norepinephrine-induced contractions of the rat aorta in the absence of extracellular calcium-III. Effects of cyclic nucleotides

The rat aorta responds biphasically to norepinephrine (NE) in calcium-free medium. The dissociable phasic and tonic components of the contraction are mediated through alpha-adrenoreceptor activation and mobilization of intracellular calcium. Dibutyryl-cAMP, papaverine (which inhibits cAMP phosphodiesterase and increases cAMP levels), bromo-cGMP, and sodium nitroprusside (which stimulates guanylate cyclase and increases cGMP levels) inhibited in a concentration-dependent manner the biphasic aortic contractions induced by NE in calcium-free medium. The log IC50 values of each of these smooth muscle relaxants for inhibition of the biphasic response to NE in calcium-free medium were very close to those required for inhibition of the contractions induced by NE or KCl in presence of extracellular calcium. The present findings indicate that the phasic and tonic components of NE-induced aortic contractions in calcium-free medium are subject to similar intracellular regulatory mechanisms by cyclic nucleotides at a step subsequent to alpha-adrenoreceptor occupancy by NE, since dibutyryl-cAMP and bromo-cGMP inhibited the tonic component of NE-induced contraction noncompetitively.
Diagenetic calcite from the Chazyan Group (Vermont): an example of aragonite alteration in a greenhouse ocean

Abstract Marine diagenetic calcite with both a calcitic (low-to-intermediate Mg) and aragonitic origin was examined from the middle Ordovician buildups of the Chazyan Group in Vermont. All marine phases have elevated Sr (up to 1800 ppm) compared with that observed from marine precipitates in other middle Ordovician units. Stromatoporoids (labechiids), which were originally aragonitic, have higher Sr values than phases with an original calcite mineralogy (trilobites, marine cement). Additional evidence supporting precursor mineralogy interpretations includes elevated Mg values (up to 3.6 mole% MgCO 3 ) and the presence of microdolomite in interpreted calcitic phases. Originally aragonitic precipitates have lower Mg values and most significantly lack microdolomite. This study demonstrates the presence of elevated Sr values in marine precipitates that formed during a period when calcite, not aragonite, was the dominant physiochemically precipitated calcium carbonate mineralogy that formed from sea water. Elevated Sr is attributable to at least a partially open system diagenetic stabilization of biogenic aragonite.
Access to care for autism-related services.

This paper identifies family characteristics associated with use of autism-related services. A telephone or in-person survey was completed during 2003–2005 by 383 North Carolina families with a child 11 years old or younger with ASD. Access to care is limited for racial and ethnic minority families, with low parental education, living in nonmetropolitan areas, and not following a major treatment approach. Service use is more likely when parents have higher stress. Families use a broad array of services; the mix varies with child ASD diagnosis and age group. Disparities in service use associated with race, residence and education point to the need to develop policy, practice and family-level interventions that can address barriers to services for children with ASD.
Parry in Paris: Structuralism, Historical Linguistics, and the Oral Theory

Abstract This paper investigates the origins of the Oral Theory as formulated by Milman Parry in Paris during the late 1920s by reexamining the scholarship on which it rests. Parry's Oral Theory compared the texts of oral performances in Yugoslavia with the Homeric texts in order to shed light on the presumed oral origins of the latter. His work integrated the work of the linguist and Indo-Europeanist Antoine Meillet, the linguist and scholar of oral poetics Matthias Murko, and the anthropologists Lucien Leevy-Bruhl and Marcel Jousse.
Comparison of the ramp versus standard exercise protocols.

To compare the hemodynamic and gas exchange responses of ramp treadmill and cycle ergometer tests with standard exercise protocols used clinically, 10 patients with chronic heart failure, 10 with coronary artery disease who were asymptomatic during exercise, 11 with coronary artery disease who were limited by angina during exercise and 10 age-matched normal subjects performed maximal exercise using six different exercise protocols. Gas exchange data were collected continuously during each of the following protocols, performed on separate days in randomized order: Bruce, Balke and an individualized ramp treadmill; 25 W/stage, 50 W/stage and an individualized ramp cycle ergometer test. Maximal oxygen uptake was 16% greater on the treadmill protocols combined (21.4 ± 8 ml/kg per min) versus the cycle ergometer protocols combined (18.1 ± 7 ml/kg per min) ( Normal subjects demonstrated a greater slope (0.71 ± 4.2) than did patients with chronic heart failure (0.53 ± 2.8), coronary artery disease (0.51 ± 2.6) and angina (0.53 ± 3.1) ( 1 metabolic equivalent (MET) for the Bruce treadmill and 50 W/stage cycle ergometer) and least for the tests with the smallest increments between stages (ramp tests and 25 W/stage cycle ergometer). These findings suggest that the exercise protocol, even when the same mode is used, can result in marked variations in maximal oxygen uptake and the dynamics of gas exchange during exercise testing.
Significant Advances in Scanning Electron Microscopes (1965–2007)

Publisher Summary This chapter discusses the significant advances in scanning electron microscopes (SEM). The chapter mentions the successful pioneering use of a custom-built SEM by the Pulp and Paper Research Institute of Canada. At the same time the laboratory of Charles Oatley at Cambridge University continued to research various aspects of the SEM, including a demonstration of better than 10-nm resolving power to establish a clear order of magnitude improvement over the resolution of the light microscope. Both the Cambridge Instrument Company and JEOL introduced commercial SEMs in 1965 and 1966, respectively. Numerous significant improvements, such as new sources, detectors and lens arrangements, and new imaging configurations, have been invented and incorporated since then. Only innovations that have directly affected the SEM per se are discussed. In addition, the development of the scanning transmission electron microscope (STEM) is discussed in brief in terms of its impact on the SEM. One advantage of the scanning approach to building up the image is that the information used as the video signal need not be focused. One of the biggest applications for the SEM is the study of semiconductor structures, devices, and circuits. The advantages of viewing hydrated or even living samples in the SEM are obvious. In one early experiment, it was found that certain creatures, such as the Tribolium flour beetle secreted enough moisture to stay alive for about 30 minutes.
Perceived access to contraception among adolescents with diabetes: barriers to preventing pregnancy complications.

PurposeThe purpose of this study was to assess beliefs, perceived access to, and practices regarding contraception among adolescent women with type 1 diabetes.MethodsEighty-nine females with type 1 diabetes between the ages of 13 and 19 years, who were recruited from 2 endocrinology practices as part of a larger study, completed a battery of questionnaires designed to assess variables relevant to discussions of sexuality, preconception counseling, contraception, and pregnancy. In addition, items were designed to explore adolescents’ relationship with their health care provider and comfort requesting birth control. Baseline data were analyzed using descriptive statistics.ResultsHalf of the sexually active adolescents in this sample reported having had sex without birth control at a time they were trying to avoid pregnancy. A third (36%) of subjects felt that women with diabetes have very limited choices of birth control, and 43% incorrectly believe that all birth control methods are less effective when use...
Construction of limited diffraction beams with Bessel bases

Limited diffraction beams have a large depth of field. They could have applications in medical imaging, tissue characterization, Doppler velocity estimation, nondestructive evaluation (NDE) of materials, as well as other physics related areas such as electromagnetics and optics. In this paper, a method is developed that uses limited diffraction beams discovered previously, such as, Bessel beams and X waves, as basis functions to construct new limited diffraction beams that may have practical usefulness. The method is implemented with linear matrix operations. Results show that the method is powerful and can obtain limited diffraction beams that are not intuitive to get directly from solving the wave equation.
Older adults' perceptions of feeling safe in an intensive care unit.

lasiter s. (2011) Older adults’ perceptions of feeling safe in an intensive care unit. Journal of Advanced Nursing67(12), 2649–2657. Abstract Aim. This paper is a report of a study of older adults’ perceptions of feeling safe in an intensive care unit. Background. Significant ageing of the world population is expected. Correspondingly, there is a growing global urgency for healthcare systems to prepare for the increased number of older adults who will require intensive care. Although patients have recounted situations in which feeling safe was essential to their experience, there is little empirical evidence about feeling safe for older adults in intensive care. Method. In 2008, 10 older adults who suffered unexpected critical health events and who were admitted to intensive care units were recruited for this grounded theory study. Participants were interviewed after transferring to an intermediate care unit and again after discharge. They were asked to reflect upon and discuss their experiences of feeling safe in intensive care. Findings. Participants’ actual and expected interaction with intensive care nurses was essential to their perceptions of feeling safe. Four main categories were identified as requisite to interaction with nurses: proximity, oversight, predictability and initiative. A substantive grounded theory of feeling safe for older adults in intensive care is presented. Conclusion. Nurses must present themselves as accessible so patients perceive that they can initiate interaction with a qualified nurse. Patients must also see that nurses are monitoring them and believe that the nurses will help them if they experience a critical health event while in the intensive care unit.
Making Deals in Strange Places

Any business negotiation, whether domestic or international, must treat a host of difficult commercial issues—price, product quality, size of capital contribution, delivery dates—depending on the nature of the transaction in question.
Changes in Britain's Health Care: An American Attempts to Revisit 'From the London Post'

NEARLY 50 years after its enactment, the National Health Service (NHS) in Great Britain is in abrupt and profound change. Four recent, major initiatives are inextricably interrelated. First, the general practitioner (GP) has become a fundholder, adding to his or her roles as caregiver and gatekeeper the additional and intrinsically contradictory roles of purchaser, actuary, accountant, and entrepreneur. Second, there is to be mandatory reduction of work hours of physicians in training to 56 hours or less per week. Third, shortening of specialist training is planned to bring British training into equivalency with that of the European community. Fourth, the former financial-administrative units and educational units (regions) are to be eliminated and replaced by fewer, presumably more efficient, units (trusts). Many British professionals consider these changes profoundly antithetical to the ethos of the NHS. Full implementation will have serious and unpredictable consequences for the delivery of health care and for
Characterization of surface acoustic wave optomechanical oscillators

We describe and experimentally demonstrate an optomechanical oscillator where light drives a surface mechanical mode of a spherical resonator, using a combination of photoelastic scattering and optical electrostriction. These oscillators are shown to have discretely-selectable frequencies ranging from 50 MHz to 1.5 GHz on a single silica microsphere device. We also report on initial measurements of phase noise and continuous frequency tuning of these oscillators.
Design and Implementation of Active Decoupling Capacitor Circuits for Power Supply Regulation in Digital ICs

Control of on-chip power supply noise has become a major challenge for continuous scaling of CMOS technology. Conventional passive decoupling capacitors (decaps) exhibit significant area and leakage penalties. To improve the efficiency of power supply regulation, this paper proposes a distributed active decap circuit for use in digital integrated circuits (ICs). The proposed design uses an operational amplifier to boost the performance of conventional decaps. Simulations proved its enhanced decoupling effect in comparison with passive decaps. The proposed active decap also shows advantages in providing additional damping to the on-chip resonant noise. To verify the performance from the proposed circuit, a 0.18-mu m test chip with on-chip noise generators and sensors has been fabricated. Measurements show a 4-11times boost in decap value over conventional passive decaps for frequencies up to 1 GHz with a total area saving of 40%. Local supply noise distribution and decap gating capability were also examined from the test chip.
The Context Problem

In the minute investigation of old oil canvases, modern art restorers use a technique called rigatino to fill in where flecks of paint are damaged or missing. These fine hatch marks, made with thin paint, signal to later scholars and restorers what constitutes the restorer's work while fully maintaining the distinctiveness and integrity of the original artist's brush strokes. In other words, restorers have devised a straightforward method to indicate the exact positions of evidentiary lacunae and to mark the impositions of their own hand amidst the work of old masters. Unlike the superscripts of footnotes amidst a printed text, rigatino blends with the original picture, though upon close investigation it is always distinct.
Phase relations and precipitation in Al–Mg–Si alloys with Cu additions

Abstract Application prospects in automotive industry have led to extensive studies on 6xxx alloys in recent years. These alloys often contain Cu in varying amounts. This leads to the formation of the quaternary Al–Mg–Si–Cu family of alloys that may exist either as a 6xxx or a 2xxx alloy. These alloys have distinctive properties in part due to the occurrence of a phase, designated as Q, which is stable only as a quaternary compound with variously reported stoichiometry. In this paper we first review the equilibrium phase field of various Al–Mg–Si–Cu alloys, noting the many important commercial alloys that contain the Q phase as an equilibrium one. We review the metallographic and crystallographic aspects of the Q phase. One of the important precursors of the Q phase is the Q′ phase, and its crystallography and microstructural features are presented and discussed. Various other competing metastable phases in both ternary and quaternary systems are presented and an attempt is made to systematize their occurrence with respect to overall alloy composition. The metastable precursor phase Q′ has the same crystal system and similar composition as Q. Recent literature indicates that a phase with the same crystal system, orientation relations and lath morphology as Q′ is also found in ternary Al–Mg–Si alloys with Si contents in excess of the balanced composition. This phase is metastable and is replaced by the equilibrium β phase. Finally, all of these alloys have been reported to be strengthened primarily by β″ phase during artificial aging such as during paint bake (∼180 °C). The source of such strengthening in quaternary alloys is critically analyzed in light of conflicting reports on the ubiquity of β″ phase and studies on the role of the Q′ and other likely metastable phases.
PID autotuner design using machine learning

A method using machine learning to automatically produce controller tuning algorithms is described. The method constitutes a decision tree which selects from a set of tuning rules the rule which is best able to improve controller characteristics. The decision tree is constructed using a training set of example systems. Evaluations of the resulting tuning algorithm are performed using a large independently generated set of example systems. >
Parkinsonism and Epilepsy

Clinical observations indicate that parkinsonians do not, or only exceptionally, exhibit epileptic phenomena and vice versa (Scholz, 1957; Klee, 1975). Yakovlev reported (1928) that when epileptic patients develop parkinsonism, the epilepsy pari passu disappears. The exact neurophysiological mechanisms underlying these pathological conditions are poorly understood. Yet, it is apparent, that both of these diseases dominantly involve the sensorimotor system. Thus the question appears to be of more than heuristic importance as to why these two disease states are mutu ally exclusive. Whereas epilepsy readily lends itself to experimental approaches in the domain of electrophysiology, parkinsonism does not, because only its morphological and biochemical features but not its clinical symptomatology can be reproduced in experimental animals. The normal integration of sensorimotor activities, and the electrophysiological consequences of caudatal and nigral damage (established sites of pathology in parkinsonism) to such integrative processes, have extensively been explored in felines and subhuman primates (Fvigyesi, 1975a, 1975b); these studies yielded data which, when extrapolated to parkinsonism, suggested the nature of elementary processes which underlie, at least some symptoms of, parkinsonism (Frigyesi, 1971; Frigyesi, et al., 1974).
A difference in structure between ecosystems in strongly stratified waters and in those that are only weakly stratified

The ratio of respiration to maximal photosynthesis in small diatoms is low so they can survive in weakly stratified water. In contrast, the same ratio for dinoflagellates is three times as high and they need waters that are strongly stratified. Some successional phenomena may be explicable in this way. The great fisheries depend on spring or autumn outbursts in temperate waters and on upwelh'ng areas in regions, equatorward of 40° latitude. It is suggested that they are linked to the small diatoms, in traditional food chains, in weakly stratified waters.
HUMORAL HYPOTHALAMIC CONTROL OF ANTERIOR PITUITARY: A STUDY WITH COMBINED TISSUECULTURES

The current concepts of hypothalamo-pituitary relationships are based on the results of numerous in vivo experiments (Harris, 1951; Fortier, 1951; McCann, 1953; Hume, 1949; Benoit and Assenmacher, 1953). The possibility of investigating this problem by simple in vitro techniques was particularly challenging in view of a number of findings which suggested the necessity of some hypothalamic factor, so far overlooked, for the release of pituitary hormones in vitro. Indeed, conflicting results are to be found in the literature regarding possible secretion of hormones by the various endocrines in tissue cultures. If we consider the anterior lobe of the pituitary, it has been reported as able to produce gonadotrophins (Rosenberg, 1954), or growth hormone (Gaillard, 1948; Martinovitch, 1953) whereas other investigators concluded that it could not secrete gonadotrophins (Cutting and Lewis, 1938) or any hormone whatever (Anderson and Haymaker, 1935). It appears from a study of this literature that, whenever hormon...
JCrasher: an automatic robustness tester for Java

JCrasher is an automatic robustness testing tool for Java code. JCrasher examines the type information of a set of Java classes and constructs code fragments that will create instances of different types to test the behavior of public methods under random data. JCrasher attempts to detect bugs by causing the program under test to 'crash', that is, to throw an undeclared runtime exception. Although in general the random testing approach has many limitations, it also has the advantage of being completely automatic: no supervision is required except for off-line inspection of the test cases that have caused a crash. Compared to other similar commercial and research tools, JCrasher offers several novelties: it transitively analyzes methods, determines the size of each tested method's parameter-space and selects parameter combinations and therefore test cases at random, taking into account the time allocated for testing; it defines heuristics for determining whether a Java exception should be considered as a program bug or whether the JCrasher supplied inputs have violated the code's preconditions; it includes support for efficiently undoing all the state changes introduced by previous tests; it produces test files for JUnit, a popular Java testing tool; and it can be integrated in the Eclipse IDE.
Estimating class-specific parametric models using finite mixtures: an application to a hedonic model of wine prices

Hedonic price models are commonly used in the study of markets for various goods, most notably those for wine, art, and jewelry. These models were developed to estimate implicit prices of product attributes within a given product class, where in the case of some goods, such as wine, substantial product differentiation exists. To address this issue, recent research on wine prices employs local polynomial regression clustering (LPRC) for estimating regression models under class uncertainty. This study demonstrates that a superior empirical approach – estimation of a mixture model – is applicable to a hedonic model of wine prices, provided only that the dependent variable in the model is rescaled. The present study also catalogues several of the advantages over LPRC modeling of estimating mixture models.
All Together Now: Disentangling Semantics and Pragmatics with "Together" in Child and Adult Language.

The way in which an event is packaged linguistically can be informative about the number of participants in the event and the nature of their participation. At times, however, a sentence is ambiguous, and pragmatic information weighs in to favor one interpretation over another. Whereas adults may readily know how to pick up on such cues to meaning, children - who are generally naive to such pragmatic nuances - may diverge and access a broader range of interpretations, or one disfavored by adults. A number of cases come to us from a now well-established body of research on scalar implicatures and scopal ambiguity. Here, we complement this previous work with a previously uninvestigated example of the semantic-pragmatic divide in language development arising from the interpretation of sentences with pluralities and together. Sentences such as Two boys lifted a block (together) allow for either a Collective or a Distributive interpretation (one pushing event vs. two spatiotemporally coordinated events). We show experimentally that children allow both interpretations in sentences with together, whereas adults rule out the Distributive interpretation without further contextual motivation. However, children appear to be guided by their semantics in the readings they access, since they do not allow readings that are semantically barred. We argue that they are unaware of the pragmatic information adults have at their fingertips, such as the conversational implicatures arising from the presence of a modifier, the probability of its occurrence being used to signal a particular interpretation among a set of alternatives, and knowledge of the possible lexical alternatives.
Dirty Wars: The World Is A Battlefield, by Scahill, Jeremy

The story that unfolds in this exhaustively researched study is both familiar and disturbing, for it outlines the development and implementation of a military strategy conducted in the shadowy zone...
Polysorbates 20 and 80 Degradation by Group XV Lysosomal Phospholipase A2 Isomer X1 in Monoclonal Antibody Formulations

Decreases in polysorbate (PS80) content were observed while evaluating the long-term storage stability of Chinese hamster ovary-derived, purified monoclonal antibodies. It was determined that polysorbate had been enzymatically degraded; therefore, studies were performed to identify and characterize the protein(s) responsible. Polysorbate degrading activity was enriched from Chinese hamster ovary media leading to the identification of group XV lysosomal phospholipase A2 isomer X1 (LPLA2) by shotgun proteomics. Recombinant LPLA2 was over expressed, purified, and functional integrity confirmed against a diheptanoyl phosphatidylcholine substrate. Incubation of recombinantly produced LPLA2 with PS20 and PS80 resulted in hydrolysis of PS20 and PS80 monoester but a much slower rate was observed for higher-order PS80. Endogenous LPLA2 was detected and quantitated at less than 1 ppm in 3 formulated antibodies while LPLA2 was not detected (or less than 0.1 ppm) in a fourth formulated antibody. Furthermore, antibodies with detectable quantities of endogenous LPLA2 demonstrated polysorbate hydrolysis while in contrast the antibody without detectable LPLA2 did not show polysorbate hydrolysis. Comparison of polysorbate degradation products generated from the formulated antibody and samples of polysorbate incubated with recombinant LPLA2 resulted in similar elution profiles by liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry. These results suggest that LPLA2 may play a key role in polysorbate degradation in some antibody preparations.
Échantillonnage espace-temps et échantillonnage déterminé selon les répondants des populations difficiles à joindre

L’echantillonnage espace-temps (TSS en anglais, parfois egalement appelee echantillonnage lieux-moments ou TLS en anglais) et l’echantillonnage determine selon les repondants (en anglais RDS ou ech...
Characterization of an 80-kDa phosphoprotein involved in parietal cell stimulation.

When isolated rabbit gastric glands were stimulated with histamine plus isobutylmethylxanthine, a redistribution of H+-K+-ATPase, from microsomes to a low-speed pellet, occurred in association with...
ABCs of quality assurance

There has been an apparent shift in emphasis v/ichin important regulatory and accrediting organizations from quality assurance to what might be termed as a more culturally oriented goal of continuous quality improvement. This article reviews the appreciation and application of the principles of quality assurance.
Philosophy after Scepticism

I have argued that naturalized epistemology is not inconsistent with radical scepticism; so passages from Hume that appear to assert a form of naturalized epistemology do not function as defeaters for my sceptical interpretation. This result goes a long way towards re-establishing some of the plausibility of the traditional Hume-as-sceptic reading. But perhaps that most difficult defeater remains. For antiscepticism is rampant not just among naturalized epistemologists: as a whole philosophers harbour intense antisceptical attitudes. Bryan Frances describes the situation thus: … the notion of scepticism elicits strange behaviour in philosophers, especially epistemologists. Many philosophers, even contemporary ones who should know better, sometimes assert that no one is really a sceptic. Philosophers are pretty much professionally forbidden from being radical sceptics even though we aren’t forbidden from believing any of many other comparably outlandish claims. (Frances 2005, vii)1 If an antisceptical consensus has such a stranglehold on the profession, to the extent that philosophers are “forbidden” from being radical sceptics, then surely philosophers would assume that they possess very good reasons for this proscription.
Contract and Jurisdictional Freedom

This Article provides empirical and theoretical support for the proposition that permitting actors to contract for the law that applies to their transaction would improve state rules and regulations by reducing interest group incentives to promote inefficient laws. In general, competition between lawmaking bodies limits the extent to which they can impose costs on those who have little influence on the lawmaking process because they reside outside of the jurisdiction. Enforcing bargains over applicable law is particularly effective in promoting jurisdictional competition because it significantly lowers exit costs and thereby increases jurisdictional competition as compared with a rule that forces individuals and firms physically to relocate to a particular jurisdiction in order to be subject to its laws. Although jurisdictions seek to block easy exit from their laws by imposing legal constraints on the enforceability of choice-of-law contracts, we show that a multi-stage process of jurisdictional competition tends to erode these constraints. Given our analysis, theory and data indicating that law is inefficient may be incomplete because they examine only jurisdictions' initial attempts to externalize costs rather than the ultimate outcome of jurisdictional competition. We support our conclusion by analyzing the competition effects on contractual choice of law in three areas -- corporate law, unincorporated firms, and franchise regulation. In addition to its general implications for jurisdictional competition, our analysis has specific implications for the appropriate mode of analyzing the efficiency of state law and of a federal system.
Balancing Dendrite Morphogenesis and Neuronal Migration during Cortical Development.

Precisely controlled dendrite morphogenesis ensures proper neural circuit assembly and neural network integrity during development. In the cerebral cortex, dendrite morphogenesis usually starts after neuronal migration is complete. Insufficient dendritic branching has been observed in a variety of