cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
On myocardial perfusion, metabolism, and viability

The majority of the examinations performed in nuclear cardiology laboratories are perfusion studies obtained for the evaluation of coronary disease. The number of studies performed for the assessment of myocardial viability is growing and will continue to grow as more sophisticated techniques for revascularization are introduced and the number of patients with complex coronary disease increases. Many laboratories are now being consulted to assist in the difficult decision of whether a patient should be referred for high-risk revascularization versus cardiac transplantation. The report by Fujiwara et al.1 in this issue of the Journal evaluates the relatively newly described phenomenon of reverse redistribution on sestamibi imaging compared with BMIPP imaging to identify myocardial stunning in postinfarct patients who received emergent PTCA. This article raises many interesting questions about the relative roles of perfusion agents and metabolic tracers in identifying myocardial viability and how the results of these tests should be interpreted. Myocardial viability is an intuitively simple concept that becomes distressingly amorphous when it has to be defined precisely for a clinical study. The term represents a broad spectrum of clinical states which frequently overlap. The term stunned myocardium refers to regions that have a transient decrease in contractility after an episode of prolonged ischemia. 2 The term hibernating myocardium refers to an area where there has been down-regulation of myocardial contractility in response to chronic ischemia. 3 Stunned myocardium generally improves over time without further intervention; hibernating myocardium requires the restoration of adequate blood flow to improve function. Many investigators have limited their definition of viable myocardium to stunned and hibernating myocardium by defining it as regions expected to show improved contractility after the passage of time or revascularization. For the purposes of this editorial, we will define viable myocardium to encompass all noninfarcted myocardium: stunned, hibernating, and transiently ischemic and normal myocardium. This broader defini-
Nanosecond time-resolved absorption studies of human oxyhemoglobin photolysis intermediates

The time-resolved spectra of photoproducts from ligand photodissociation of oxyhemoglobin are measured in the Soret spectral region for times from 10 ns to 320 microseconds after laser photolysis. Four processes are detected at a heme concentration of 80 microM: a 38-ns geminate recombination, a 137-ns tertiary relaxation, and two bimolecular processes for rebinding of molecular oxygen. The pseudo-first-order rate constants for rebinding to the alpha and beta subunits of hemoglobin are 3.2 x 10(4) s-1 (31 microseconds lifetime) and 9.4 x 10(4) s-1 (11 microseconds lifetime), respectively. The significance of kinetic measurements made at different heme concentrations is discussed in terms of the equilibrium compositions of hemoglobin tetramer and dimer mixtures. The rebinding rate constants for alpha and beta chains are observed to be about two times slower in the dimer than in the tetramer, a finding that appears to support the observation of quaternary enhancement in equilibrium ligand binding by hemoglobin tetramers.
Point: Hypotheses first

There is little to show for all the time and money invested in genomic studies of cancer, says Robert Weinberg — and the approach is undermining tried-and-tested ways of doing, and of building, science. This Opinion piece is part of a linked pair; see also Counterpoint: Data First by Todd Golub .
Towards a simple service compiler

Over the last 10-15 years, our industry has developed and deployed many large-scale Internet services, from e-commerce to social networking sites, all facing common challenges in performance, reliability, and scalability. To address these challenges, developers consistently draw from a relatively small repertoire of software architecture design patterns or best practices, such as replication, tiering, pre-computation, and caching. The application of these techniques across different services, however, varies significantly in both their design and implementation. There is, however, a good reason for this variation in implementation; their effectiveness depends heavily on the service's semantic requirements, its workloads, performance and other runtime and environmental characteristics. The implication is that taking advantage of today's best practices and design patterns requires that developers have a deep, end-to-end understanding of their service's functionality, workloads, and system infrastructure. Our insight is that most of this critical information is directly measurable, and, in this presentation, discuss our research towards building a system, analogous to a profile-driven optimizing compiler, that separates architectural decisions to support performance, reliability, and scalability from service functionality.
Messages from a middle power: participation by the Republic of Korea in regional environmental cooperation on transboundary air pollution issues

This paper addresses the question whether or not regional middle power states are capable of making a significant contribution to enhancing regional cooperation via regime creation processes. A combination of “nonregime” and the middle power analysis is applied to produce hypotheses about less-developed cases of regime creation in Northeast Asia. Among the attractions of such an approach are that (1) cases of failure to create international regimes as well as cases of success are important to understand the emergence of global governance institutions, and (2) the different roles of various state actors should be understood beyond hegemonic power. The explanatory power of this approach is illustrated by transboundary air pollution issues in Northeast Asia, chosen because the international relations literature has emphasized the development of European regional environmental cooperation and global environmental issues. The paper examines participation by the Republic of Korea (ROK) in both comprehensive and issue-specific environmental cooperative mechanisms to tackle transboundary air pollution. It concludes that the ROK as a middle power has played a promising role to initiate and lead some positive competition between member countries, but at the same time, it highlights challenges that need to be met for creating solid regional environmental cooperation.
Offering Early Success Experiences in Software Construction: Experiences Teaching Dynamic Website Development to High School Girls

In spite of comparable levels of computer access and use by males and females at home and school, women continue to be underrepresented in careers and education related to the computer and information sciences. In this paper, we describe outreach activities taking place within the wConnect project, a research effort aimed at building a developmental learning community of women in which members at different levels of sophistication support each other at different stages of their education and careers in computing and related fields. More specifically, we report on a series of hands-on workshops that were designed and delivered by undergraduate members of the community to high school girls. We describe the design and conduct of the workshop activities, the girls’ reactions, our own reflections and implications for future work.
The use and acquisition of artificial language: Some insights from psycholinguistics

Several observations of artificial language use are presented, suggesting an analogy in cognitive processing between artificial and natural language use. This article stresses the value psycholinguistics has for building a cognitive model of the artificial language user. An account for the presented observations of artificial language use is given in terms of psycholinguistics, for example, common ground, the principle of optimal design, referring as a collaborative process, generalization, and incremental parallel production. Implications of the analogy are also described and involve specific, testable predictions about user behavior, as well as tentative design recommendations for future artificial language interfaces that adapt to the cognitive processes underlying the user's artificial language use.
Is there a latent period for the surgical treatment of children with dense bilateral congenital cataracts

Background: It generally is accepted that cataract surgery during the first 6 weeks of life is associated with the best visual outcomes for children with dense unilateral congenital cataracts. The latent period for children with dense bilateral congenital cataracts has not been clearly defined. Methods: The best-corrected visual acuity (BCVA) at 4 to 6 years of age was collected retrospectively on a series of 43 children with dense bilateral congenital cataracts from 4 institutions. All of the children underwent a lensectomy, posterior capsulotomy, and anterior vitrectomy at 36 weeks of age or younger. Results: Cataract surgery was performed at a mean age of 11.5 weeks for the better-seeing eye. BCVA was assessed when the children were a mean of 5.3 years of age. The visual acuities of 26 (60%) were 20/40 or better, 12 (28%) were 20/50 to 20/80, and 5 (12%) were 20/100 or worse. There was a trend for worse BCVA with increasing age at the time of surgery (r = 0.28, P = 0.07). We noted that a BCVA of 20/100 or worse occurred only among eyes undergoing surgery when infants were older than 10 weeks (≤10 weeks: 0/21 = 0% vs. >10 weeks: 5/22 = 23%, P = 0.049). Children with preoperative nystagmus had worse visual outcomes; only 38% of children with preoperative nystagmus achieved a BCVA of 20/40 or better compared with 74% of children without preoperative nystagmus (P = 0.03). Conclusion: Previous reports have proposed that cataract surgery during the first 5 to 8 weeks of life is associated with better visual outcomes in children with dense bilateral congenital cataracts. Our results would suggest that good visual outcomes can be achieved beyond this age, but the incidence of poor visual outcomes increases if cataract surgery is delayed beyond 10 weeks of age. The absence of preoperative nystagmus is a better predictor of a good visual outcome than the age at surgery.
Image-based high dose rate brachytherapy for prostate cancer

The passage from conventional radiographic film-based to image-based high dose rate (HDR) brachytherapy for prostate cancer has significantly improved our ability to define the targets and organs at risk (OAR). Three-dimensional (3D) anatomical information are obtained from Computed Tomography (CT) or Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI), and cancer areas are validated using functional imaging with magnetic resonance spectroscopy imaging (MRSI). Together with inverse planning optimization, image-based HDR brachytherapy can deliver a highly conformal dose distribution to the target while sparing OAR. However, uncertainties inherent to the use of the new imaging modalities may impact on the dose distribution. In this work, we have selected the major uncertainties and studied their impact within the context of the clinical procedures of ultrasound guided HDR prostate brachytherapy delivered in two fractions. The feasibility of using functional imaging to guide the delivery of higher dose to dominant intraprostatic lesions (DIL) within the prostate was also investigated. The average cranio-caudal displacement of catheters between fractions was 2.7 mm and 5.4 mm for bony anatomy and gold seed marker measurement, respectively. Either increase or reduction of prostate volume was observed with an average of 7.8% and a maximum of 17% between fractions, resulting in minimal dose changes. The dose uncertainty due to the planning CT slice thickness showed a relative error of 1% on average for current 3 mm planning CT, independent of the transversal region of the prostate. A retrospective study taking advantage of MRI/MRSI for the dose escalation of the DIL demonstrated that high dose areas could be redistributed to boost the DIL by 120% without any additional dose delivered to OAR compared to a reference plan. On average, the rigid endorectal probe was shown to rotate the prostate anteriorly by 20°, to expand it in the antero–posterior direction by 1.2 mm, and compress it in lateral direction with 1.5 mm. Finally, MRI scans with and without the probe could be registered with a 2 mm precision using translation only. The use of 3D anatomical and functional information combined with inverse planned HDR brachytherapy is a precise procedure for the treatment of localized prostate cancer with potential for dose escalation.
Carotid endarterectomy: Who is the high-Risk patient?

The role of carotid endarterectomy in the prevention of stroke was validated by two randomized clinical trials, the North American Symptomatic Carotid Endarterectomy (NASCET) and the Asymptomatic Carotid Atherosclerosis Study (ACAS). However, these trials excluded patients at high risk for perioperative stroke and other morbidity, raising concerns for the applicability of the trial results to the general population. Some have also suggested these "high-risk" patients are better suited for carotid artery stenting with the belief that stenting has lower morbidity and mortality. In this article, we review many of the commonly accepted high-risk factors for carotid endarterectomy (CEA) and examine their outcomes. High-risk patients are more common than generally believed and their outcomes may be the same with carotid endarterectomy as it is with carotid stenting. Truly "high-risk" patients with shortened life expectancy are best served with no intervention.
DDoS mitigation in non-cooperative environments

Distributed denial of service (DDoS) attacks have plagued the Internet for many years. We propose a system to defend against DDoS attacks in a non-cooperative environment, where upstream intermediate networks need to be given an economic incentive in order for them to cooperate in the attack mitigation. Lack of such incentives is a root cause for the rare deployment of distributed DDoS mitigation schemes. Our system is based on game-theoretic principles that provably provide incentives to each participating AS (Autonomous Systems) to report its true defense costs to the victim, which computes and compensates the most cost-efficient (yet still effective) set of defenders ASs. We also present simulation results with real AS-level topologies to demonstrate the economic feasibility of our approach.
A new neural network algorithm to study myocardial reflected ultrasound for tissue characterization

It is pointed out that ultrasonic myocardial tissue characterization is a promising approach to diagnose myocardial infarction since the acoustic properties of myocardial tissue are altered by the disease. Echocardiographic images are digitized to study ultrasound backscatter for tissue characterization. Neural network analysis is a successful approach to tissue characterization. A structure consisting of a multilayer perceptron combined with the feedback algorithm ALOPEX is proposed. >
Study on effect of coupling agents on underfill material in flip chip packaging

Coupling agents are widely used in order to improve the adhesion property of underfill. In this study, three different silane coupling agents, two titanate coupling agents, and one zirconate coupling agent were added into an epoxy underfill material. Their effects on the flow behavior and curing profile of the epoxy underfill were studied with a rheometer and a differential scanning calorimeter, respectively. The thermal stability of the cured underfill material was studied with a thermogravimetric analyzer. A thermal mechanical analyzer and a dynamic mechanical analyzer were used to measure the coefficient of thermal expansion, the glass transition temperature (T/sub g/), and the storage modulus (E'). In addition, the adhesion of the underfill on benzocyclobutene passivated silicon die and polyimide passivated silicon die was measured through die shear test. The effects of aging in an 85/spl deg/C/85% relative humidity chamber were also studied through moisture absorption test and die shear test.
Congruency of Identity Style in Married Couples

According to Erik Erikson, identity is an important precursor to the satisfaction that one gains from intimate relationships during adulthood. Identity styles refer to the processes by which individuals construct and reconstruct their personal identity or sense of self. Berzonsky identified the following three identity styles (orientations): information orientation, characterized by exploration, evaluation, and use of self-relevant information; normative orientation, characterized by conformity to the expectations of significant others; and diffuse orientation, characterized by procrastination and avoidance. This study assessed the degree to which similarity in identity styles contributes to marital satisfaction among recently married couples (N = 84 couples). Analyses indicate that (a) men report greater marital satisfaction than women, (b) couples with similar identity styles report greater marital satisfaction than couples with dissimilar identity styles, and (c) women's reports of marital satisfaction...
Perceptions of organizational downsizing

This paper uses cognitive dissonance theory as a foundation for developing hypotheses about how past experience as a layoff agent influences respondents' perceptions of organizational downsizing. Consistent with many theoretical frameworks in organization studies, cognitive dissonance is conceptualized as an unmeasured construct that mediates between layoff agency and perceptions of organizational downsizing. Perceptions of organizational downsizing are operationalized along four different dimensions. The hypotheses about the effects of layoff agency on perceptions of organizational downsizing are tested with survey data, using controls for the respondent's past experience as a layoff victim and the respondent's ideological beliefs about business. The results show partial support for the hypotheses, indicating that layoff agents see downsizing as more inevitable and less of a breach of the implied contract between employer and employee than respondents without layoff agency experience. The results also reveal persistent effects of respondents' layoff victim experience and their ideological beliefs on their perceptions of downsizing.
Point vortex dynamics within a background vorticity patch

Recent experiments and simulations have observed that the interaction of strong vortices with a low vorticity background can strongly affect the dynamics of both vortices and background. This paper considers an idealized model of this interaction. The background is treated as a patch of uniform vorticity with a nearly circular shape. The strong vortices are treated as point vortices, and their total circulation λ is assumed to be small compared to that of the background. It is found that Kelvin waves on the boundary of the background patch can be driven to large amplitude by the strong vortices, eventually resulting in wave breaking and filamentation. A multiscale analysis finds that the wave-breaking time scales as λ−1 ln λ−1, in agreement with contour dynamics simulations.
The magnetic sentences industry game: A competitive in-class experience of business-level strategy

The Magnetic Sentences Industry Game is a high-energy in-class exercise designed to help students gain hands-on experience with setting, implementing, evaluating, and revising business-level strategy. Students compete in teams to create and market sentences using Magnetic Poetry (a product of Magnetic Poetry, Inc.). Revenues earned are highly dependent on the successful development and implementation of a cohesive business-level strategy. The game experience should create opportunities for the class to discuss a variety of strategic issues including external environment, internal environment, competitive dynamics, the advantages and disadvantages of various generic business-level strategies, organizational learning, and strategic groups.
The Ka-band propagation measurements campaign at JPL

OLYMPUS, the NASA sponsored, JPL-managed, Ka-band propagation measurement campaign carried out at Virginia Tech and many European sites, is discussed. The basic physics involved, the OLYMPUS experiment itself, and the advanced communications technology satellite (ACTS) program, the purpose of which is to demonstrate the feasibility of the Ka-band (20 and 30 GHz) spectrum for satellite communications, as well as to help maintain US leadership in satellite communications. are described. >
Validation of the firefighter WFI treadmill protocol for predicting VO2 max.

BACKGROUND The Wellness-Fitness Initiative submaximal treadmill exercise test (WFI-TM) is recommended by the US National Fire Protection Agency to assess aerobic capacity (VO2 max) in firefighters. However, predicting VO2 max from submaximal tests can result in errors leading to erroneous conclusions about fitness. AIMS To investigate the level of agreement between VO2 max predicted from the WFI-TM against its direct measurement using exhaled gas analysis. METHODS The WFI-TM was performed to volitional fatigue. Differences between estimated VO2 max (derived from the WFI-TM equation) and direct measurement (exhaled gas analysis) were compared by paired t-test and agreement was determined using Pearson Product-Moment correlation and Bland-Altman analysis. Statistical significance was set at P < 0.05. RESULTS Fifty-nine men performed the WFI-TM. Mean (standard deviation) values for estimated and measured VO2 max were 44.6 (3.4) and 43.6 (7.9) ml/kg/min, respectively (P < 0.01). The mean bias by which WFI-TM overestimated VO2 max was 0.9ml/kg/min with a 95% prediction interval of ±13.1. Prediction errors for 22% of subjects were within ±5%; 36% had errors greater than or equal to ±15% and 7% had greater than ±30% errors. The correlation between predicted and measured VO2 max was r = 0.55 (standard error of the estimate = 2.8ml/kg/min). CONCLUSIONS WFI-TM predicts VO2 max with 11% error. There is a tendency to overestimate aerobic capacity in less fit individuals and to underestimate it in more fit individuals leading to a clustering of values around 42ml/kg/min, a criterion used by some fire departments to assess fitness for duty.
Principles for conducting critical realist case study research in information systems

Critical realism is emerging as a viable philosophical paradigm for conducting social science research, and has been proposed as an alternative to the more prevalent paradigms of positivism and interpretivism. Few papers, however, have offered clear guidance for applying this philosophy to actual research methodologies. Under critical realism, a causal explanation for a given phenomenon is inferred by explicitly identifying the means by which structural entities and contextual conditions interact to generate a given set of events. Consistent with this view of causality, we propose a set of methodological principles for conducting and evaluating critical realism-based explanatory case study research within the information systems field. The principles are derived directly from the ontological and epistemological assumptions of critical realism. We demonstrate the utility of each of the principles through examples drawn from existing critical realist case studies. The article concludes by discussing the implications of critical realism based research for IS research and practice.
Relative status and interdependent effects in consumer behavior

Abstract The current consumer culture, which associates the meaning of life primarily through the consumption of material goods and services, has brought many transformations in U.S. society. The purpose of this study is to examine the relative status and interdependent effects associated with consumer behavior, as developed by economists Veblen, Duesenberry, Frank, and Schor. Using the 2005 Consumer Expenditure Survey, several linear regression models have been conducted on four expenditure items including clothing, entertainment, home furnishings, and automobiles. While controlling for several demographic variables, a consumer's relative expenditure ranking emerges as the strongest substantive factor in determining clothing consumption and number of automobiles owned.
Universal Reduction of T c in Strong Coupling Superconductors due to Anderson/Kondo Impurities

The first exact calculation of (∂Tc/∂c)c=0, the initial depression of the superconducting T c , due to a small concentration, c, of magnetic impurities is presented. N(0) (∂T c /∂c) c=0 can be expressed as the product of two functions —f(λο), and g(T K /T co ). I find that f decreases rapidly and monotonically with λο, indicating that magnetic impurities reduce T c most effectively in weak coupling superconductors. I also find that, in contrast to previous results, the maximum ∣ (∂T c /∂c)c=0 ∣ occurs when T co = T K , thus resolving a longstanding experimental puzzle.
Hallmarks for senescence in carcinogenesis: novel signaling players

Cellular senescence is a potent anti-cancer mechanism controlled by tumor suppressor genes, particularly p53 and pRb, which is characterized by the irreversible loss of proliferation. Senescence induced by DNA damage, oncogenic stimulation, or excessive mitogenic input, serves as a barrier that counteracts cancer progression. Emerging evidence in cellular and in in vivo models revealed the involvement of additional signaling players in senescence, including PML, CK2, Bcl-2, PI3K effectors such as Rheb, Rho small GTPases, and cytokines. Recent studies have also implicated protein kinase C (PKC) isozymes as modulators of senescence phenotypes and showed that phorbol esters, widely used PKC activators, can induce senescence in a number of cancer cells. These novel findings suggest a complex array of cross-talks between senescence pathways and may have significant implications in cancer therapy.
A Computer-Controlled Poppet-Valve Actuation System for Application on Research Engines

A computer-controlled valve actuation system for research engines is described. The system can be used for the complete real-time control of valve motion, including valve lift, dwell, valve overlap and valve timing. The valve actuator is a fast electro-hydraulic unit, incorporating a small hydraulic actuator and a high-performance servovalve. The actuator assembly mounts over the engine valve and replaces the existing camshaft and rocker arm. An analog position-feedback controller coupled to a laboratory minicomputer provides the system control. The closed-loop step response time is 3 milliseconds, with a 0.5 millisecond initial delay. The system currently operates at engine speeds less than 1000 rpm and with appropriate control software is expected to operate at engine speeds approaching 3000 rpm. The actuation system is suitable for a research environment and has many potential applications in piston engine research and development.
Selective Prescribing of Spasmolytics

BACKGROUND:Daily clinical practice often differs largely from the clinical trial setting, so extrapolation of outcomes from trial data, such as safety, effectiveness, and economic outcomes, can be deceptive. Prescribers may intend to treat a selected group of patients with new drugs; this practice could result in significant bias in assessing outcomes of these agents during their use in daily clinical practice.OBJECTIVE:To evaluate what type of patient received tolterodine compared with the spasmolytic drugs previously marketed (oxybutynin, flavoxate, emepronium).DESIGN:An observational, follow-up study.SETTING:Eighteen collaborating community pharmacies.PATIENTS:Aged ≥18 years, noninstitutionalized; initial therapy with tolterodine, oxybutynin, flavoxate, or emepronium.RESULTS:Tolterodine was often used as a second-line and even as a third-line treatment, and was prescribed to a “polluted” population in terms of concomitant psychotropic medication. Tolterodine users were 7.5 times more likely to have rec...
Evoking the permission schema: The impact of explicit negation and a violation-checking context

Cheng and Holyoak (1985) proposed that realistic reasoning in deontic contexts is based on pragmatic schemas such as those for assessing compliance with or violation of permission and obligation rules, and that the evocation of these schemas can facilitate performance in Wason's (1966) selection task. The inferential rules in such schemas are intermediate in generality between the content-independent rules proposed by logicians and specific cases stored in memory. In one test of their theory, Cheng and Holyoak demonstrated that facilitation could be obtained even for an abstract permission rule that is devoid of concrete thematic content. Jackson and Griggs (1990) argued on the basis of several experiments that such facilitation is not due to evocation of a permission schema, but, rather, results from a combination of presentation factors: the presence of explicit negatives in the statement of cases and the presence of a violation-checking context. Their conclusion calls into question both the generality of content effects in reasoning and the explanation of these effects. We note that Jackson and Griggs did not test whether the same combination of presentation factors would produce facilitation for an arbitrary rule that does not involve deontic concepts, as their proposal would predict. The present study tested this prediction. Moreover, we extended Jackson and Griggs' comparisons between performance with an abstract permission rule versus an arbitrary rule, introducing clarifications in the statement of each. No facilitation was observed for an arbitrary rule even when explicit negatives and a violation-checking context were used, whereas strong facilitation was found for the abstract permission rule under the same conditions. Performance on the arbitrary rule was not improved even when the instructions indicated that the rule was conditional rather than biconditional. In contrast, a small but reliable degree of facilitation was obtained for the abstract permission rule, with violation-checking content even in the absence of explicit negatives. The theory of pragmatic reasoning schemas can account for both the present findings and those reported by Jackson and Griggs.
BOTS (DIPTERA: OESTRIDAE) INFESTING A NEOTROPICAL FOREST RODENT, PROECHIMYS SEMISPINOSUS (RODENTIA: ECHIMYIDAE), IN PANAMA

Botfly larvae (Cuterebra sp.) infesting spiny rats (Proechimys semispinosus) in 8 small islands in the Panama Canal were studied. Rats were live trapped monthly on each island from January 1991 through February 2000 and visually examined for the presence of bots. Overall, bot prevalence was 4.6% and differed statistically among island rat populations. Rats were simultaneously infested by as many as 4 bots. Overall bot intensity was 1.3 bots per infested rat and did not differ among islands. Mean bot density across all islands was 0.0111 and was greater during the dry seasons than during the rainy seasons, but it did not differ among islands. Bots were found during all the 12 calendar months, suggesting a multivoltine reproductive schedule. Although bot activity varied seasonally, there was little synchrony of bot activity among islands. Bot density was related negatively to rainfall but was not related to host density, suggesting that drier ambient conditions may promote reproduction by adult bot flies in this system.
Beyond Sex Crimes: A Principled Approach to Admitting Evidence of Prior Bad Acts

Since the Federal Rules of Evidence were codified in 1975, few revisions have been as controversial as the rules allowing the use of prior “bad acts” of defendants in trials for sexually-based offenses. For nearly two centuries, such evidence had been banned under what we now know as Rule 404, which strictly prohibits “[e]vidence of other crimes, wrongs, or acts . . . to prove the character of a person in order to show action in conformity therewith.” But in 1995, Congress introduced Rules 413-415, which for the first time explicitly endorsed the use of prior acts of sexual assault and child molestation for the purpose of showing that the defendant, having committed such acts in the past, is more likely to have committed the crime in question. Although the rules are imperfect, they are here to stay, and more importantly, the next step for these rules may well be their expansion. Using the existing rules as a template for allowing character evidence in contexts beyond sex offenses will only exacerbate the rules’ current flaws, and therefore, the challenge facing federal rulemakers will be - not whether to repeal the rules entirely - but rather, how to expand these rules responsibly. That roadmap will be the subject of this Paper. The proposal offered here would require prosecutors desiring to use prior bad acts demonstrate, through the presentation of “qualified” and “compelling” research, that the defendant, having committed the particular prior acts, would be more likely to commit the crime in question. This presentation would occur prior to trial, typically through a Daubert-like motion or hearing, where expert testimony could be heard. On the one hand, this proposal would increase the burden on prosecutors to show that the particular prior acts should be admitted in the particular case - rather than relying on the existing categorical rules - but on the other hand, it would allow prosecutors to use character evidence in new ways so long as the burden is met. Courts would act as gatekeepers, and social science, rather than politics, will be allowed to guide the expansion in the use of propensity evidence.
Monthly load forecasting using kernel based gaussian process regression

Forecasting of electricity load for a month is crucial for power system planning and safe operation. Monthly demand is subject to various factors such as season and climate effects, thus making accurate load demand forecasts a challenging task. In this paper a data driven machine learning approach is applied on monthly load morphing. More particularly, kernel based Gaussian Process Regression (GPR) is adopted for forecasting the amount of load demand for each month in a year-ahead-horizon. The GPR model is equipped with a valid kernel function (four different kernels are tested) and is trained on a set of historical datasets that contain the recorded monthly demands of the prior four to the tested years. It is extensively benchmarked on a period of five years and its performance is measured using the Mean Average Percentage Error (MAPE). Furthermore, it is compared to the performance taken with simple linear regression model. Results demonstrate the superiority of the GPR forecasting over that of the linear regression, however, a dependence of GPR on selection of kernel is observed.
Summary and Questions

This book introduces basic (elementary) fuzzy statistics based on crisp (non-fuzzy) data. After the Introduction and an brief survey of fuzzy sets (Chapter 2) the book is in three parts: (1) fuzzy estimation in Chapters 3–11; (2) fuzzy hypothesis testing in Chapters 12–20; and (3) fuzzy linear regression in Chapters 21–27. The key to the development is fuzzy estimation.
Ethylene glycol toxicity.

Renal tubular oxalosis is a striking and regular phenomenon following the ingestion of ethylene glycol by a variety of mammals, including man. Doubt exists, however, regarding the relation of renal oxalate crystal formation to the mechanism of ethylene glycol toxicity. It has been proposed that the toxicity of ethylene glycol may be related either to a direct effect of the unaltered compound or to the production of toxic intermediaries in the course of degradation. The identification of glycolaldehyde, glycolic, and glyoxylic acid as probable intermediaries by Gessner and associates prompted the following experiment, in which the genesis of renal tubular oxalosis following the administration of these compounds was sought as an indicator of the validity of their place in the sequential degradation of ethylene glycol.
Autonomous Human-Robot Proxemics: A Robot-Centered Approach

Our approach enables the robot to execute proxemic behaviors that improve speech and gesture recognition for both the robot and the human, even in noisy and cluttered environments [5]. This work has been deployed on two different mobile robot platforms: (1) the PR22, and (2) the Bandit3 upper body humanoid atop an iRobot Ava4 mobile base. This demonstrates the portability of the approach.
A Multi-Variable Control for a Turbofan Engine Operating at Sea Level Static

Based on modern control theory, a multi-variable control is formulated for a two-spool turbofan engine operating at sea level static conditions. The proposed control yields idle to intermediate transients in 40 percent of the time required by the conventional controls in non-linear simulations while maintaining similar stall and temperature overshoot characteristics. The formulated control is simpler than earlier proposed multi-variable controls and yields acceptable performance during small thrust changes and decelerations.Copyright © 1976 by ASME
The Impact of Real-Time Continuous Glucose Monitoring in Patients 65 Years and Older

Background:Older adults with type 1 diabetes (T1D) or insulin-using type 2 diabetes (iT2D) are at high risk for severe hypoglycemic episodes. Real-time continuous glucose monitoring (RT-CGM) in thi...
Analysis and Modeling of Miles-in-Trail Restrictions in the National Airspace System

This paper presents an analysis of values and locations of Miles-in-Trail restrictions used within the National Airspace System over the last three years. Using specific severe weather avoidance routes, various locations are selected to implement the Miles-in-Trail restrictions to study their individual impact on the delay of flights and sector congestion in the airspace. The current traffic management operational infrastructure lacks the modeling of multiple restrictions with passback Miles-in-Trail values to upstream facilities. The model developed here allows implementation of multiple restriction locations for multiple merging streams of traffic. The model also permits speed control, vectoring or airborne holding, and passback of restrictions to upstream facilities. The simulation environment allows implementation of these restrictions, enabling a what-if capability in a rapid evaluation mode for Miles-in-Trail impact. Preliminary results are presented for delay of impacted flights due to implementation of three different playbook routes and Miles-in-Trail values at various locations with passbacks to upstream facilities. Results of sector congestion in the airspace for those cases are discussed as well. It was observed that for a particular playbook route implementation with Miles-in-Trail between 25 and 30 nmi applied at a reference fix resulted in low total delay and sector congestion. Overall, the model appears to be a good starting point for evaluation of passback restriction impact and, with operational feedback, could be used for advising passback values to upstream facilities.
VHF Narrowband Relay for LOS Extension

The Marine Corps has frequent requirements for beyond-line-of-sight communications for voice and narrowband data in challenging terrains that normally limit or truncate links. The Naval Research Laboratory has developed a two-channel narrowband VHF relay that supports narrowband communications using standard Marine Corps radios. This relay is lightweight and designed to be borne aloft at altitudes above 65, 000 ft., providing connectivity to nodes as far as 150 nmi from the relay payload. This paper documents the design and the operation of the balloon-borne VHF relay, dubbed "Surrogate TACSAT", and details results from testing conducted out of Yuma Proving Ground in March of 2014.
Estimating the average breast optical properties from transmission measurements despite intrinsic tissue heterogeneity: a Monte Carlo Simulation Study

To estimate the average optical properties of a heterogeneous medium, simulations show that multi-distance methods assuming homogeneous structure suffer from systematic modeling errors while single source-detector pair methods provides a more meaningful estimate.
Bone biomarkers as tools in osteoporosis management

Biochemical tests that can index bone turnover rate in the patient are increasingly being used in the study and management of osteoporosis. Markers of bone formation and resorption are reviewed here, including their molecular basis, relative strengths and weaknesses in clinical performance, and future potential. A bone mass measurement (e.g., by dual-energy x-ray absorptiometry) and a biochemical index of bone turnover provide different but complementary information that can aid in predicting risk of future bone loss and osteoporotic fracture. A specific and responsive bone resorption marker can also be used to monitor and establish the short-term effectiveness of an antiresorptive therapy in the patient. Bone-specific alkaline phosphatase (an osteoblast enzyme) and osteocalcin (a bone matrix protein) levels in serum are the best markers of bone formation. Collagen degradation products in urine, particularly cross-linked telopeptides and pyridinolines, have the highest specificity to bone resorption activity. The telopeptide markers (NTx and CTx) appear to be the most specific and responsive markers of systemic osteoclast activity.
Editorial: The new face of the Journal

The October issue of volume 39 is a watershed issue of the IEEE Journal of Oceanic Engineering, as it will be the last issue that will be provided as a printed magazine. Starting with volume 40 in January 2015, the JOURNAL will be published and distributed to members electronically. I would like to give you some background on the change, and some indications of what the new format will be. The initiative to eliminate the printed magazine of the JOURNAL has been under discussion at the Oceanic Engineering Society for many years. When I came on board as Editor-in-Chief, it was not my plan to make such a change. But in talking to our readers, authors, and associate editors at recent conferences and meetings, my thinking has changed dramatically. It is evident that most of the younger folks who use our JOURNAL (and many older ones like me) download digital copies of papers from IEEE Xplore when they want to use and read articles that have been published. It became clear to me that for most of the users, the printed version was redundant. The initiative to move away from the printed magazine was discussed again at the ADCOM meeting of the Oceanic Engineering Society in Taipei in April, and a motion was passed to move to a digital journal. Since then, I have been working with IEEE Publications to set this up. So, what does it mean for the readers, authors, and Associate Editors? The JOURNAL will still publish quarterly issues in each volume. Instead of getting a printed copy, members will get an e-mail message that lists the papers that have been published in the issue, with a link directly to each paper on IEEE Xplore. Many other IEEE publications and many other journals of other societies do this already, so we are not out on a limb. In talking to the folks at IEEE Publications, most of the other IEEE publications have made, or like us, are in the process of making the change. The benefit for readers is that they have access directly to the digital version of the paper, with features such as color figures embedded in the file. We will not have to ask authors to provide black and white versions of figures for the printed article, or continue to publish inferior versions of color figures translated to various shades of gray. For the Society, there is a saving in cost, although the financial benefit was not the primary reason to make the change.
Linear Stability Study of Hypersonic Boundary Layer Transition on Blunt Circular Cones

A linear stability analysis is conducted to investigate hypersonic flows over blunt circular cones with a Mach 5.5 free-stream. The flow conditions are chosen to be the same as those of Stetson’s boundary layer transition experiments performed in 1967. The transition reversal phenomenon with respect to the nose bluntness was first observed by Stetson in these experiments. Therefore, the purpose of this study is to investigate the effects of nose bluntness on the linear stability of the boundary layer. For the case that transition reversal was observed experimentally, the second mode N factor is found to be too small to trigger the transition at the location reported in the experiment. The results show no bluntness induced reversal effects based on the second mode growth. In addition, another case adapted to Stetson’s Mach 8 experiment in 1984 is studied to investigate the second mode characteristics under different flow conditions.
Bulk Metallic Glasses as Structural Materials: A Review

Bulk metallic glasses (BMGs) can exhibit excellent combinations of strength and fracture toughness that cannot be achieved by traditional metals, making them attractive for load bearing, mechanical engineering applications. Furthermore, recent research on BMGs has shown that many early perceived shortcomings, such as apparent brittleness or poor fatigue resistance, are not as big of a problem as once thought. The purpose of this paper is to review some of the unique mechanical characteristics of BMGs along with some of the strategies that may be used to improve or exploit their characteristics so that BMGs may be used as structural materials in engineering applications.
Metal–Organic Framework Nodes Support Single-Site Magnesium–Alkyl Catalysts for Hydroboration and Hydroamination Reactions

Here we present the first example of a single-site main group catalyst stabilized by a metal–organic framework (MOF) for organic transformations. The straightforward metalation of the secondary building units of a Zr-MOF with Me2Mg affords a highly active and reusable solid catalyst for hydroboration of carbonyls and imines and for hydroamination of aminopentenes. Impressively, the Mg-functionalized MOF displayed very high turnover numbers of up to 8.4 × 104 for ketone hydroboration and could be reused more than 10 times. MOFs can thus be used to develop novel main group solid catalysts for sustainable chemical synthesis.
Increased efficiency of dye-sensitized solar cells by addition of rare earth oxide microparticles into a titania acceptor

Abstract The addition of 400 micron scale rare-earth metal oxide particles to the TiO 2 nanoparticle acceptor layer of a dye-sensitized solar cell (DSSC) dramatically increases the efficiency of the solar cell by 10-30%. Oxidized neodymium powder, Nd 2 O 3 , combined with TiO 2 nanoparticles forms a composite photoanode containing a wide range of Nd 2 O 3 particle sizes. Based on absorbance measurements, the dye-uptake on the Nd 2 O 3 /TiO 2 anode increases substantially compared to both a standard anode and to one made from a mixture of large and small TiO 2 particles. Electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS) shows a similar electron lifetime, but increased electron transport diffusion coefficient through the Nd 2 O 3 /TiO 2 composite as compared to TiO 2 only. This shows that the Nd 2 O 3 /TiO 2 composite has a lower internal resistance for charge transport. This decrease in resistance, possibly due to the filling of trap states by the Nd 2 O 3 valence or f-states, and increased dye uptake results in improved efficiency by simple incorporation of Nd 2 O 3 powder.