cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
ANALYZING VULNERABILITIES OF CRITICAL INFRASTRUCTURES USING FLOWS AND CRITICAL VERTICES IN AND/OR GRAPHS

AND/OR graphs and minimum-cost solution graphs have been studied extensively in artificial intelligence (see, e.g., Nilsson [14]). Generally, the AND/OR graphs are used to model problem solving processes. The minimum-cost solution graph can be used to attack the problem with the least resource. However, in many cases we want to solve the problem within the shortest time period and we assume that we have as many concurrent resources as we need to run all concurrent processes. In this paper, we will study this problem and present an algorithm for finding the minimum-time-cost solution graph in an AND/OR graph. We will also study the following problems which often appear in industry when using AND/OR graphs to model manufacturing processes or to model problem solving processes: finding maximum (additive and non-additive) flows and critical vertices in an AND/OR graph. A detailed study of these problems provide insight into the vulnerability of complex systems such as cyber-infrastructures and energy infrastructures (these infrastructures could be modeled with AND/OR graphs). For an infrastructure modeled by an AND/OR graph, the protection of critical vertices should have highest priority since terrorists could defeat the whole infrastructure with the least effort by destroying these critical points. Though there are well known polynomial time algorithms for the corresponding problems in the traditional graph theory, we will show that generally it is NP-hard to find a non-additive maximum flow in an AND/OR graph, and it is both NP-hard and coNP-hard to find a set of critical vertices in an AND/OR graph. We will also present a polynomial time algorithm for finding a maximum additive flow in an AND/OR graph, and discuss the relative complexity of these problems.
Shame, Guilt, Narcissism, and Depression: Correlates and Sex Differences

This study examines the relationships between shame, guilt, narcissism, and depression and the gender differences connected with these states. We hypothesize that shame would be a more powerful contributor to narcissism and depression than guilt and that women would score higher in shame, higher in depression, and lower in narcissism than men. The Adapted Shame/Guilt Scale, the Narcissistic Personality Inventory, and the Self-Rating Depression Scale were administered to male and female undergraduates. The results show that shame plays an important role in both narcissism and depression, and that its role in depression is stronger than that of guilt. It was also concluded that men are more prone to narcissism and women to depression, and sex differences related to shame and guilt are linked to specific situations and self-images. Implications for treatment are also noted.
Evaluation of NRC-FCs1: Mapping the C-field using the Larmor frequency

An uncertainty evaluation of NRC's cesium fountain clock FCs1 is currently being performed. One task of this evaluation consists in quantifying the contribution to the frequency uncertainty, the second-order Zeeman shift. We report the results obtained from measurements of the C-field above the Ramsey cavity using the Larmor frequency as a probe. This technique is possible because a transverse C-field is used in NRC-FCs1 and alignment electrodes are available to produce an orthogonal excitation field. The non-uniformity of the C-field near the Ramsey cavity and the uncertainties in the measurements produce the largest contribution to the type-B uncertainty.
What's Wrong with Modern Capital Budgeting?

I argue that the mainstream approach to capital budgeting focuses excessively on the special case where diversifiable risks do not affect the contribution of a project to the value of the firm. This approach ignores the impact of a new project on a firm's total risk and therefore often leads to an inappropriate assessment of the value of the project. I present arguments for why total risk is often costly and discuss how taking total risk into account in capital budgeting is necessary to make capital budgeting and capital structure decisions consistent.
Synthesis of Polyoxydianiline Membranes onto Gold Electrodes An Electrochemical Study

Poly(4,4'-oxydianiline) (poly-ODA) films have been electrochemically deposited onto gold electrodes using cyclic voltammetry. These conducting, electrodeposited films have electrochemical and structural properties that are strongly dependent upon a number of parameters, including the nature of solvent, supporting electrolytes, and the scanning rates. The progress and mechanism of polymerization as well as the structural characteristics of these films were studied using cyclic voltammetry and Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy. A study of the influence of solvophobic interaction between anions and the hydrocarbon radical cation was conducted using a range of solvents having different electron-acceptor/donor properties. The conductivity of the poly-ODA film prepared using tetrahydrofuran was 3.7 X 10 - 5 S cm - 1 . A possible electropolymerization mechanism is proposed involving the diradical-dication coupling of 4,4'-oxydianiline monomers.
An algorithm for supporting fault tolerant objects in distributed object oriented operating systems

This paper presents a new algorithm for supporting fault tolerant objects in distributed object oriented systems. The fault tolerance provided by the algorithm is fully user transparent. The algorithm uses checkpointing and message logging scheme. However the novelty of this scheme is in identifying the checkpointing instances such that the checkpointing time will not affect the regular response time for the object requests. It also results in storing the minimum amount of object state (object address space). A simple message logging scheme that pairs the logging of response message and the next request message reduces the message logging time by half on an average compared to other similar logging schemes. The scheme exploits the general features and concepts associated with the notion of the objects and object interactions to its advantage. >
Nonproportional Hazards and Event History Analysis in International Relations

Event history models have become a dominant method of analysis in the study of international relations. Conventional event history models, however, retain the assumption that the effects of the covariates remain proportional to each other throughout the duration of the subject's phase. Nonproportional hazard (NPH) models are used, which allow for the effects of covariates to vary over time. These models are then applied to three previously established data sets on the duration of postwar peace, civil wars, and alliances. Results show that NPH analysis is a useful method for testing new hypotheses, as well as removing possible sources of bias from existing analyses.
An asymptotic solution of dipoles in a conducting medium

The radiation fields of dipoles immersed in a semi-infinite dissipative medium are investigated. A method suggested by Lighthill for asymptotic evaluation of Fourier integrals is suitably modified to obtain solutions valid for large distances both in air and in the conducting medium. The advantages of this method are in its simplicity and ease of application. The results agree closely with those obtained earlier by Banos and Wesley.
Establishment of gastric Campylobacter pylori infection in the neonatal gnotobiotic piglet.

Campylobacter pylori, a gram-negative microaerophilic bacterium, has been implicated in the genesis of human gastritis, dyspepsia, and gastroduodenal ulceration. Previous attempts to reproduce the diseases in conventional laboratory animal species have been unsuccessful. To determine if neonatal gnotobiotic piglets were susceptible to C. pylori, we orally challenged two litters (n = 17) with 10(9) CFU after pretreating them with cimetidine. Controls housed in separate units received nothing or peptone water alone. Piglets were examined 1, 2, 3, and 4 weeks after challenge. Colonization by the bacterium and inflammation of the gastric mucosa persisted throughout the study period. Organisms were revealed by Warthin-Starry silver stain to reside between the mucus layer and the gastric epithelium. Culturing of samples from sites along the gastrointestinal tract revealed that the bacterium colonized essentially only the gastric and proximal duodenal mucosae. Gross pathological changes were restricted to the stomachs of infected piglets and consisted of submucosal edema, increased gastric mucus production, and progressive development of mucosal lymphoid follicles. Microscopic lesions consisted of transient neutrophilic infiltrates followed by diffuse and follicular infiltrations of mononuclear leukocytes into the mucosa and submucosa. Alcian blue-periodic acid-Schiff stains suggested that the infection resulted in the depletion of mucopolysaccharide production by deep gastric glands. These data indicate that gnotobiotic piglets reproduce many of the features of diseases associated with C. pylori in humans. Images
The Many Faces and Factors of Orofacial Clefts

Orofacial clefts are congenital structural anomalies of the lip and/or palate that affect approximately 1/1000 live births. Their frequent occurrence as well as their extensive psychological, surgical, speech and dental involvement emphasize the importance of understanding the underlying causes. The etiology of orofacial clefts is complex, including multiple genetic and environmental factors. Rare forms, where they occur as one component of multiple congenital anomaly syndromes, have Mendelian or teratogenic origins; the non-syndromic forms of orofacial clefts are more common and are likely due to secondary gene-environment interactions. Recent advances in both molecular and quantitative approaches have begun to identify the genes responsible for the rare syndromic forms of cleft and have also identified both candidate genes and loci for the more common and complex non-syndromic variants. Animal models, in particular the mouse, have also contributed greatly to an understanding of these disorders. This review describes genes that are involved in orofacial clefts in humans and animal models and explores genetic approaches to identifying additional genes and gene-environment interactions that constitute the many factors of orofacial clefts.
Whites' Opposition to Affirmative Action: Rejection of Group-based Preferences as well as Rejection of Blacks

This study addresses whether whites' rejection of affirmative action reflects an opposition to group-based preferences per se, independent of their attitudes toward blacks. Analysis of 1996 General Social Survey data shows that whites' attitude toward preferential hiring and promotion of blacks is predicted by their attitude toward preferential hiring and promotion of women. This finding remains unchanged when controlling for racial and other attitudes, and it holds regardless of gender. The conclusion is that whites' rejection of racial preferences reflects both rejection of blacks and rejection of group-based preferences in general, regardless of the target group.
Neoplastic transformation of SV40-immortalized human urinary tract epithelial cells by in vitro exposure to 3-methylcholanthrene

Normal human urinary tract epithelial cells (HUC) were neoplastically transformed in vitro using a step-wise strategy. First, a partially transformed non-virus-producing cell line was obtained after infection of HUC with simian virus 40 (SV40). This cell line (SV-HUC-1) was demonstrated to be clonal in origin, as 100% of cells contained at least five of seven marker chromosomes. Marker chromosomes were formed by balanced translocations resulting in a 'pseudodiploid' cell line. SV-HUC-1 showed altered growth properties in vitro (e.g. anchorage independent growth) but failed to form tumors in athymic nude mice, even after 3 years in culture (80 passages). In the studies reported here, SV-HUC-1 at early passages (P15-P19) were exposed to 3-methylcholanthrene (MCA) in three separate experiments. After a six-week post-treatment period of cell culture, cells were inoculated s.c. into athymic nude mice. In all experiments, MCA-treated SV-HUC-1 formed carcinomas in mice usually with a latent period of 5-8 weeks. These carcinomas showed heterogeneity with respect to histopathologies and growth properties in the mice and karyotypes. All the tumors retained SV-HUC-1 chromosome markers, but each independent transformant was aneuploid and contained unique new marker chromosomes. Chromosomes usually altered in tumor cells included numbers 3, 5, 6, 9, 11 and 13. Mutations in the ras family of cellular proto-oncogenes resulting in altered mobility of the p21 protein product were not detected in six cell lines established from independently derived tumors. It is not yet known whether other cellular proto-oncogenes are activated in these tumorigenic transformants. Neither control SV-HUC-1 (which were not exposed to MCA), nor early passage HUC exposed to MCA formed tumors when inoculated into mice. Thus, the tumorigenic transformation of HUC resulted from the combined actions of SV40 and MCA.
Determination of Disulfide Bond Assignments andN-Glycosylation Sites of the Human Gastrointestinal Carcinoma Antigen GA733-2 (CO17-1A, EGP, KS1-4, KSA, and Ep-CAM)

The GA733-2 antigen is a cell surface glycoprotein highly expressed on most human gastrointestinal carcinoma and at a lower level on most normal epithelia. It is an unusual cell-cell adhesion protein that does not exhibit any obvious relationship to the four known classes of adhesion molecules. In this study, the disulfide-bonding pattern of the GA733-2 antigen was determined using matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionization mass spectrometry and N-terminal sequencing of purified tryptic peptides treated with 2-[2′-nitrophenylsulfonyl]-3-methyl-3-bromoindolenine or partially reduced and alkylated. Numbering GA733-2 cysteines sequentially from the N terminus, the first three disulfide linkages are Cys1–Cys4, Cys2–Cys6, and Cys3–Cys5, which is a novel pattern for a cysteine-rich domain instead of the expected epidermal growth factor-like disulfide structure. The next three disulfide linkages are Cys7–Cys8, Cys9–Cys10, and Cys11–Cys12, consistent with the recently determined disulfide pattern of the thyroglobulin type 1A domain of insulin-like growth factor-binding proteins 1 and 6. Analysis of glycosylation sites showed that GA733-2 antigen containedN-linked carbohydrate but that no O-linked carbohydrate groups were detected. Of the three potentialN-linked glycosylation sites, Asn175 was not glycosylated, whereas Asn88 was completely glycosylated, and Asn51 was partially glycosylated. These data show that the extracellular domain of the GA733-2 antigen consists of three distinct domains; a novel cysteine-rich N-terminal domain (GA733 type 1 motif), a cysteine-rich thyroglobulin type 1A domain (GA733 type 2 motif), and a unique nonglycosylated domain without cysteines (GA733 type 3 motif).
A tiered approach is more cost effective than traditional pharmacist-based review for classifying computer-detected signals as adverse drug events

Objective. To develop a cost-efficient method for identifying adverse drug events (ADEs) and medication errors (MEs) identified using outpatient electronic medical records within ambulatory settings.Design. Comparison of sensitivity and cost of "traditional" pharmacist based approach to identifying ADEs and MEs during a 4 month period with a tiered approach.Results. The proportion of computer generated signals analyzed identified as ADEs were similar using the two approaches while the number of MEs was nearly double with tiered reviews suggesting the same or better sensitivity. Traditional pharmacist review cost $68.70 to detect an ADE and tiered approach cost only $42.40.Conclusion. Tiered review of ADEs and MEs by personnel with increasing clinical capability is more cost-efficient than pharmacist review.
The Effect of Taurine on the Sulfate-S35 Retention by Chicks

Abstract Lowe and Roberts (1955) found that sulfate-S35 injected into the chick embryo was present as taurine S35 within 30 minutes of the injection, but none was present as cystine, methionine, or glutathione. Machlin et al. (1955) showed that a large portion of the sulfate-S35 administered to the 24-hour chick embryo was recovered as taurine in the day old chick. These workers suggested that the embryo was unable to use sulfate-S35 for cysteine synthesis which occurs in the growing chicken and the hen. Machlin (1955) fed sulfate-S35 to 2-week old chicks for one week and found 23% of the S35 in the carcass, of which 19% was as taurine-S35, with none as cysteine or methionine. Adult white rats were dosed with Na2S35O4 and subsequently sacrificed; a small quantity of the S35 was found as liver taurine, but none as cystine or methionine (Bostrom and Aqvist, 1952). The effect of 0.1 percent …
Watermarking layout topologies

Watermarking is a technique currently being developed to effectively protect intellectual property of various types. In this paper a formalization of the watermarking problem is presented in the context of IC physical design. A class of algorithms is proposed for implanting arbitrary codes in the inherent structure of layout topologies. Similarly, a method is given to reconstruct the original watermark for a given design. The concepts of robustness against forgery and theft tracking are analyzed in light of the proposed algorithms. Examples show the suitability of the approach.
Uneasy sanctuary: Homeless campers living on rural public lands*

An ethnographically informed, illustrated discussion based on research conducted by the author. From 1990 through August 1996 the author had informal discussions with over 300 homeless “non‐recreational” campers who were staying on public lands in the Pacific Northwest. The author applies an original preliminary grounded topology generated from these interviews to compare and contrast the ways in which homeless campers describe their lives and represent their personal choices regarding using public lands, and utilizes photographs to illustrate her research findings. The author has identified three major categories of homeless campers: “voluntarily nomadic, “ “economic refugees, “ and “separatists.”
Prostatic Fibrosis Is Associated With Lower Urinary Tract Symptoms

Purpose: Current therapies for male lower urinary tract symptoms secondary to prostate enlargement prevent hormonal effects on prostate growth and inhibit smooth muscle contraction to ease bladder neck and urethral pressure. However, lower urinary tract symptoms can be refractory to these therapies, suggesting that additional biological processes not addressed by them may also contribute to lower urinary tract symptoms. Aging associated fibrotic changes in tissue architecture contribute to dysfunction in multiple organ systems. Thus, we tested whether such changes potentially have a role in impaired urethral function and perhaps in male lower urinary tract symptoms.Materials and Methods: Periurethral tissues were obtained from a whole prostate ex vivo and from 28 consecutive men treated with radical prostatectomy. Lower urinary tract symptoms were assessed using the American Urological Association symptom index. Prostate tissues were subjected to mechanical testing to assess rigidity and stiffness. Fixed ...
Digital Calibration of Nonlinear Memory Errors in Sigma–Delta Modulators

A digital adaptive calibration technique to linearize sigma-delta (ΣΔ) modulators based on an output-referred distortion analysis of discrete-time integrators (DTIs) is presented. A sequential power series (a special form of Volterra series) is found sufficient to model the nonlinear memory errors in a DTI, which entails the application of adaptive polynomial transversal filtering for error correction of the modulator. Error-parameter identification is accomplished by correlating various moments of the digital output with a 1-bit pseudorandom noise, which is injected into the analog input of each DTI of the modulator. Simulations demonstrate the effectiveness of the technique in compensating the signal-dependent errors of first- and second-order ΣΔ modulators.
Pathological features of NASH.

Abstract Nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) is a term currently applied to accumulation of triglycerides in the liver which is observed microscopically as "macrovesicular" steatosis. The term applies to the full range of liver parenchymal injury from "simple steatosis" to "steatohepatitis" with or without fibrosis. This article discusses the full histopathologic spectrum of NAFLD. Additionally, the summary includes an historical overview as well as contemporary thoughts on the significance of the process(es). While largely focused on adult NAFLD, the manuscript also summarizes what has been reported to date for NAFLD in the pediatric population.
Correlations between quantitative fat-water magnetic resonance imaging and computed tomography in human subcutaneous white adipose tissue

Beyond estimation of depot volumes, quantitative analysis of adipose tissue properties could improve understanding of how adipose tissue correlates with metabolic risk factors. We investigated whether the fat signal fraction (FSF) derived from quantitative fat-water magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scans at 3.0 T correlates to CT Hounsfield units (HU) of the same tissue. These measures were acquired in the subcutaneous white adipose tissue (WAT) at the umbilical level of 21 healthy adult subjects. A moderate correlation exists between MRI- and CT-derived WAT values for all subjects, [Formula: see text], [Formula: see text], with a slope of [Formula: see text], (95% CI [Formula: see text]), indicating that a decrease of 1 HU equals a mean increase of 0.38% FSF. We demonstrate that FSF estimates obtained using quantitative fat-water MRI techniques correlate with CT HU values in subcutaneous WAT, and therefore, MRI-based FSF could be used as an alternative to CT HU for assessing metabolic risk factors.
Liberal studies in engineering – a design plan

We describe a plan to research and explore opportunities to establish an undergraduate, pre-professional degree program –Bachelor of Arts in Liberal Studies in Engineering – meant to attract students undecided about the choice of a major but who have sufficient interest to enroll in a program that keeps open the possibility that they might pursue a career in engineering. The program's core idea is to … take exemplary, substantive content of the traditional undergraduate engineering program – the engineering sciences, the laboratory tests, the design projects – and subject this to study from the perspectives of the humanities, arts, and social sciences as well as engineering. The method is to build on the content and form of instruction in today's engineering program but dramatically transform both content and form to achieve the goals of a liberal arts program while attending to the fundamentals of the traditional engineering course of study. To do this, ‘fundamentals' must necessarily be redefined.We il...
The Profession and Its Discontents

This paper, which draws on chapter two from my forthcoming book, In the Interests of Justice (Oxford University Press 2000), provides an overview of the sources of lawyer discontent. It begins by exploring the structure of practice, with an eye to differentiating causes of disaffection that are inherent in the nature of lawyers' role, and those over which lawyers individually or collectively have some control. Some discontent is an inevitable byproduct of practice, given the circumstances in which lawyers and their clients tangle with the law. Other difficulties reflect changes in the market for legal services, particularly the recent increases in size, competitiveness, commercialization, specialization, and time pressures. However, the paper suggests that lawyers have responded to those changes in ways that are often self-defeating, by attaching undue priority to profits at the expense of other values that could make for greater workplace satisfaction, such as public service, manageable working hours, and accommodation of work/family conflicts. The paper also notes the need for better responses to the racial and gender biases that contribute to lawyer discontent, and compromise the profession's commitment to equal opportunity.
Shrinking Cities and Changes in Neighborhood Stabilization Policies

How have cities fared during these challenging economic times? While the 1990s and early 2000 was a period of growth and stability for a number of cities, some continued to lose population and industry. The recent economic and housing downturn has exacerbated many of the issues faced by city managers and public officials in these areas and many have applied for funds through Neighborhood Stabilization Program (NSP1) established by the Housing and Economic Recovery Act of 2008. A second wave of Neighborhood Stabilization Program funds (NSP2) was provided through competitive grants through the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009. Using information from the US Census Bureau, I identify cities that can be considered shrinking cities between 1990 and 2000 based on population size and examine their strategies for neighborhood stabilization. Data from the Department of Housing and Urban Development and data provided by city officials to HUD about NSP1 and NSP2 funds allocation and earmarks are used to assess urban resilience and revitalization strategies that are being considered or employed. Preliminary findings indicate that cities that can be classified as central cities (they are the largest cities in their metropolitan areas) that have experienced significant population out-migration over time are more likely to consider aggressive policies that have broader reach, and cities that can be classified as satellite cities (cities that are not the largest cities in the metropolitan areas of which they are a part) that have had relative stability or experienced population growth are more likely to consider targeted policies that address specific communities and needs.
Determination of carbendazim residue in vegetables by high performance liquid chromatography

Objective To study and establish a method for determination of carbendazim residue in vegetables by solid phase extraction coupled with high performance liquid chromatography,and provide technical support for monitoring of food contaminants and harmful factors. Methods Carbendazim residue was extracted from vegetable sample with 1% acetic acid-acetonitrile solution,then the supernatant was cleaned up by PCX SPE. The eluent was dried and diluted by mobile phase,then determined by HPLC after filtration through 0. 45 μm filter membrane. The chromatographic column was Waters SunFireTMC18column( 250 mm × 4. 6 mm,5 μm),the mobile phase was acetonitrile-10 mmol / L ammonium acetate( 30: 70,V / V) solution, the flow rate was 1. 0 ml / min,the column temperature was set at 35 ℃,and photodiode array was used as a detector to collect signals at the detection wavelength of 286 nm,and the quantification was analyzed by external standard method. Results There was a linear relationship between peak area and concentration for carbendazim over the range of 0. 10 mg / L ~ 4. 0 mg / L, the correlation coefficient was 0. 9999,the detection limit was 0. 020 mg / kg,the average recoveries of the method ranged from 88% to 107%,the relative standard deviations ranged from 2. 0% to 5. 7%. Conclusion The pretreatment of this method was simple and rapid,the test results were accurate and reliable,and it was suitable for determination of carbendazim residue in vegetables with high selectivity and sensitivity.
Attitudes, Practices, and Training on Informed Consent for Transfusions and Procedures: A Survey of Medical Students and Physicians.

Objectives: While many studies have demonstrated problems with informed consent in current practice, there remains controversy on how to address this. The aim of this study was to evaluate the opinions, attitudes, practices, and training for informed consent. Methods: Medical students, residents, advanced practice providers, and attending physicians at an academic institution were invited to complete a survey on informed consent for transfusions and procedures through an electronic platform. Results: Most (94%, n = 304) respondents indicated previous training in informed consent, only 60% (n = 192) felt the training was adequate, and 35% (n = 92) indicated difficulties with informed consent. When asked what would aid in obtaining consent, 59% (n = 189) selected a written guideline, and 36% (n = 117) selected patient simulation. Conclusions: Only 60% of respondents felt their informed consent training was adequate. Multiple areas of difficulty in obtaining proper informed consent were identified that should be addressed with focused training or written guidelines.
Radiologic Considerations in the Adult Respiratory Distress Syndrome

ARDS is the clinical consequence of acute lung injury that results in increased-permeability edema. Distinct pathophysiologic stages are reflected in the radiographic evolution of the syndrome. Diffuse microatelectasis, proteinaceous edema fluid, and multifocal in situ pulmonary vascular occlusions characterize the acute stages of injury and result in the appearance of diffuse consolidations and occasional pleural effusions on the radiograph. In the chronic organizing stage of ARDS, the physiologic consequences of subsiding edema and tissue repair may be reflected by a transition to stable interstitial patterns. There is a high frequency of complications related to the decreased compliance of the injured lung that lead to interstitial emphysema and other barotraumatic complications. Survivors of ARDS exhibit various degrees of physiologic impairment and radiographic abnormality that may improve during the first year after survival. The relations between various indices of the severity of ARDS and the ultimate outcome are emerging. Debate continues about the specificity of the chest radiograph in distinguishing increased-permeability edema from hydrostatic edema. In fact, interstitial patterns and pleural effusions are observed in both. Nonetheless, the chest radiograph is a pivotal tool for monitoring patients at risk of serious morbidity from nosocomial lung infection, barotrauma, and the complications accompanying the use of invasive devices. It is hoped that as we develop a more uniform consensus on the clinical definition of ARDS and begin to classify patients according to specific clinical or physiologic observations, chest radiographic observation will acquire greater diagnostic and prognostic significance in these critically ill patients.
Discovering Mid-level Visual Connections in Space and Time

Finding recurring visual patterns in data underlies much of modern computer vision. The emerging subfield of visual category discovery/visual data mining proposes to cluster visual patterns that capture more complex appearance than low-level blobs, corners, or oriented bars, without requiring any semantic labels. In particular, mid-level visual elements have recently been proposed as a new type of visual primitive, and have been shown to be useful for various recognition tasks. The visual elements are discovered automatically from the data, and thus, have a flexible representation of being either a part, an object, a group of objects, etc. In this chapter, we explore what the mid-level visual representation brings to geo-spatial and longitudinal analyses. Specifically, we present a weakly supervised visual data mining approach that discovers connections between recurring mid-level visual elements in historic (temporal) and geographic (spatial) image collections, and attempts to capture the underlying visual style. In contrast to existing discovery methods that mine for patterns that remain visually consistent throughout the dataset, the goal is to discover visual elements whose appearance changes due to change in time or location, i.e., exhibit consistent stylistic variations across the label space (date or geo-location). To discover these elements, we first identify groups of patches that are style-sensitive. We then incrementally build correspondences to find the same element across the entire dataset. Finally, we train style-aware regressors that model each element’s range of stylistic differences. We apply our approach to date and geo-location prediction and show substantial improvement over several baselines that do not model visual style. We also demonstrate the method’s effectiveness on the related task of fine-grained classification.
Pharmacy Management, Leadership, Marketing, and Finance

Edited by Marie A. Chisholm-Burns, Pharm.D., M.P.H., FCCP, FASHP, Allison M. Vaillancourt, Ph.D., SPHR, and Marv Shepherd, Ph.D., M.S., Published by Jones & Bartlett Learning, 40 Tall Pine Drive, Sudbury, MA 01776, 2011. 560 p. Price $52.95. This textbook for pharmacy students enrolled in a
Data management education from the perspective of science educators

In order to better understand the current state of data management education in multiple fields of science, this study surveyed scientists, including information scientists, about their data management education practices, including at what levels they are teaching data management, which topics they covering, and what barriers they experience in teaching these topics. We found that a handful of scientists are teaching data management in undergraduate, graduate, and other types of courses, as well as outside of classroom settings. Commonly taught data management topics included quality control, protecting data, and management planning. However, few instructors felt they were covering data management topics thoroughly, and respondents cited barriers such as lack of time, lack of necessary expertise, and lack of information for teaching data management. We offer some potential explanations for the existing state of data management education and suggest areas for further research.
Tuning log Gabor filter bank using genetic algorithm based optimization

In an application of side-attack explosive hazard (SAEH) detection, one challenge is detecting occluded targets. Forward-looking ground penetrating radar (FLGPR) is a sensor that has the capability to handle this type of problem since this frequency can penetrate occlusion and detect the explosive. However, the explosive can be concealed by multiple types of objects along the side of the road, such as rocks, vegetation, trash, etc. In FLGPR imaging space, these clusters of occlusion come in many shapes and sizes. The log Gabor descriptor, which has the advantage of separating different types of textures, is a potential solution for the aforementioned issue. However, in order to fully utilize the log Gabor filter bank, there are many parameters that need to be handcrafted for each specific problem. Since the possibility of designing a filter bank is endless, brute-force search is not possible. An additional element to be considered is the size of the filter bank, since a large filter bank requires more computation time. In this paper, we propose the use of multi-objective optimization based on an evolutionary algorithm to streamline the process of designing a log Gabor filter bank. The objectives of the optimization are to design a filter bank that can separate the explosive hazards from false alarm hits while keeping the size of the filter bank to a minimum. The data we use to validate our proposed method was collected on arid lanes by a MIMO FLGPR system on board of the U.S. Army prototype vehicle. The experiments are designed to measure the improvement of the optimization over the manual tuning and to demonstrate the impact of the optimization’s parameters on the performance of the filter bank.
Truck Parking Utilization Analysis Using GPS Data

AbstractUnavailability of sufficient parking spaces during various periods at rest areas results in illegal and unsafe parking at on/off-ramps and other unauthorized areas, which may lead to traffi...
Transient Notch Activation Induces Long-Term Gene Expression Changes Leading to Sick Sinus Syndrome in Mice.

Rationale: Notch signaling programs cardiac conduction during development, and in the adult ventricle, injury-induced Notch reactivation initiates global transcriptional and epigenetic changes. Objective: To determine whether Notch reactivation may stably alter atrial ion channel gene expression and arrhythmia inducibility. Methods and Results: To model an injury response and determine the effects of Notch signaling on atrial electrophysiology, we transiently activate Notch signaling within adult myocardium using a doxycycline-inducible genetic system (iNICD). Significant heart rate slowing and frequent sinus pauses are observed in iNICD mice when compared with controls. iNICD mice have structurally normal atria and preserved sinus node architecture, but expression of key transcriptional regulators of sinus node and atrial conduction, including Nkx2-5, Tbx3 and Tbx5 are dysregulated. To determine whether the induced electrical changes are stable, we transiently activated Notch followed by a prolonged washout period and observed that, in addition to decreased heart rate, atrial conduction velocity is persistently slower than control. Consistent with conduction slowing, genes encoding molecular determinants of atrial conduction velocity, including Scn5a (Nav1.5) and Gja5 (connexin 40), are persistently down-regulated long after a transient Notch pulse. Consistent with the reduction in Scn5a transcript, Notch induces global changes in the atrial action potential, including a reduced dVm/dtmax. In addition, programmed electrical stimulation near the murine pulmonary vein demonstrates increased susceptibility to atrial arrhythmias in mice where Notch has been transiently activated. Taken together, these results suggest that transient Notch activation persistently alters ion channel gene expression and atrial electrophysiology, and predisposes to an arrhythmogenic substrate. Conclusions: Our data provide evidence that Notch signaling regulates transcription factor and ion channel gene expression within adult atrial myocardium. Notch reactivation induces electrical changes resulting in sinus bradycardia, sinus pauses and a susceptibility to atrial arrhythmias, which contribute to a phenotype resembling sick sinus syndrome.
Identifying women’s attitudes and barriers to participating in a proposed community-based conservation group in western Belize

With mounting research showing the many benefits of having women involved in community-based conservation (CBC) efforts, we wanted to identify and measure the attitudes and barriers to women participating in a CBC program in western Belize. We surveyed 500 women in communities surrounding the Vaca Forest Reserve to measure their interest in, attitudes toward, and possible barriers to participating in a CBC program. We assessed women’s intent to participate in CBC activities using the Theory of Planned Behavior to identify the attitudinal, normative, and behavioral control constructs that best predict their intentions to participate. Women indicated positive attitudes toward participating in a CBC program, while perceived behavioral controls had the largest influence on their intent to participate. Understanding the importance of and influence of these constructs on women’s participation will help us and other conservation scientists work with women to collaboratively design effective conservation programs.
Topological aspects of condensed matter physics: lecture notes of the Les Houches summer school: Volume 103, August 2014

Topological approaches to condensed matter physics are currently enjoying an explosion of activity. While the roots can be traced back to Dirac’s and Skyrme’s topological solutions applied to magne...
Sulfoalkyl Ether β-Cyclodextrin Derivatives: Synthesis and Characterizations

A series of sulfoalkyl ether β-cyclodextrin derivatives, including sulfoethyl, sulfopropyl and sulfobutyl ethyl β-cyclodextrins, have been synthesized and characterized. Each sulfoalkyl ether β-cyclodextrin is a mixture of various degrees of substitution and different positional isotherms. Elemental analysis, 1H NMR, MS, and Differential Scanning Calorimetry analysis were used to determine the average degree of substitution for each β-cyclodextrin derivative. The average degrees of substitution are 3.4, 1.6 and 2.5 for sulfoethyl, sulfopropyl and sulfobutyl ether β-cyclodextrin, respectively. The water solubility of these derivatives is substantially higher than that of β-cyclodextrin. 1H NMR indicates thatsulfoethyl ether β-cyclodextrin may have major substitution on the secondaryhydroxyl group while the major substitution in sulfopropyl and sulfobutyl etherβ-cyclodextrin could be on the primary hydroxyl group. MS spectra showthat no more than one substitution occurred on a single glucose unit.
On the Importance of Atomic Packing in Determining Dielectric Permittivities

Abstract : The role of the network structure in determining the dielectric constant of binary and ternary oxide insulators is outlined. Seemingly anomalous behavior observed in rare-earth sesquioxides, Ta(2)O(5)-TiO(2) mixed oxides, lanthanum aluminate and dilute Zr(x)Si(y)O(2) is discussed in terms of the atomic structure. Physical examination of the relevant properties of these materials should lead to an understanding of how to engineer the dielectric constant.
No need for private events in a science of behavior: response to commentaries.

At the outset of any discussion of private events in a science of behavior, we should recognize a few basic points. First, private means, by definition, unobservable by another. As scientists who study the behavior of organisms, we are almost always the other, apart from the subject of study. We cannot observe private events in the subject, by definition. Any private events we may speak of, then, are guessed at, inferred, hypothetical constructs. The guesses and inferences we might make are unverifiable and likely to be unreliable.
Learning to Design Circuits

Analog IC design relies on human experts to search for parameters that satisfy circuit specifications with their experience and intuitions, which is highly labor intensive, time consuming and suboptimal. Machine learning is a promising tool to automate this process. However, supervised learning is difficult for this task due to the low availability of training data: 1) Circuit simulation is slow, thus generating large-scale dataset is time-consuming; 2) Most circuit designs are propitiatory IPs within individual IC companies, making it expensive to collect large-scale datasets. We propose Learning to Design Circuits (L2DC) to leverage reinforcement learning that learns to efficiently generate new circuits data and to optimize circuits. We fix the schematic, and optimize the parameters of the transistors automatically by training an RL agent with no prior knowledge about optimizing circuits. After iteratively getting observations, generating a new set of transistor parameters, getting a reward, and adjusting the model, L2DC is able to optimize circuits. We evaluate L2DC on two transimpedance amplifiers. Trained for a day, our RL agent can achieve comparable or better performance than human experts trained for a quarter. It first learns to meet hard-constraints (eg. gain, bandwidth), and then learns to optimize good-to-have targets (eg. area, power). Compared with grid search-aided human design, L2DC can achieve $\mathbf{250}\boldsymbol{\times}$ higher sample efficiency with comparable performance. Under the same runtime constraint, the performance of L2DC is also better than Bayesian Optimization.
Predicting for Cardiac Events Following Allogeneic Hematopoietic Stem Cell Transplantation in Adults

Introduction Cardiovascular (CV) complications occur after hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (HCT). Risk factors for events are unclear making it difficult to determine optimal pre-transplant screening. Solid organ transplants programs calculate pre-transplant risk to determine indication for further cardiac testing. Based on this, we investigated whether several commonly used CV risk calculators predicted for CV events after HCT. Methods This was a prospective case control study at a single academic institution. CV risk was estimated using the Framingham General CVD Risk Score (2008), ACC/AHA Pooled Cohort Hard CVD Risk (ASCVD; 2013) calculator, and JBS3 QRISK Lifetime calculator. Results Forty-eight patients transplanted between 2012 and 2016 were analyzed. 27 (56%) were female. Ages ranged from 53-74 with a median of 64. Diseases transplanted were: AML (38%), MDS (31%), Non-Hodgkin's lymphoma (15%), and others 47% had high risk for CVD (score>2) by Framingham score. 67% had high risk by ASCVD calculator (10 year risk >7.5%). 70% had high risk by QRISK Lifetime calculator. 9%were low risk by Framingham score, but high risk by QRISK Lifetime calculator. Cardiac events evaluated included atherosclerotic events (myocardial infarction and stroke), atrial fibrillation (a-fib), and others (other arrhythmia, CHF, drop in LVEF, and cardiac arrest). 40% had any cardiac event. 15% had an atherosclerotic event (MI or CVA). 21% had a-fib. Framingham Risk, ASCVD and QRISK calculators did not predict for either atherosclerotic events or any cardiac events after HCT [Table 1]. Risk factors for a-fib specifically, were also evaluated: history of MI, diastolic or systolic dysfunction, CHF, valvular disease, tobacco use, diabetes, and hypertension. Only CHF was a predictor for a-fib (p=0.08). Conclusion CVD risk calculators commonly used in the general population and by solid organ transplant programs did not predict for CV events post-HCT here. However, this analysis was limited by small study size. Study in a larger population is being planned to allow incorporation of transplant related variables to develop a HCT-specific multivariate risk calculator to accurately predict post-HCT CV events.
Penguin Huddling inspired Distributed Boundary Movement for Group Survival in Multi-robot Systems using Gaussian Processes

Traditionally, research on mobile robot adaptability to damaging external stimuli has only focused on making individuals capable of surviving on their own, which is often very expensive and lacks robustness. In this paper, we present our initial work on an Emperor Penguin huddling-inspired group survival methodology for a multi-robot system exposed to a damaging directional external stimulus. Individuals on the stimuli side are able to relocate to the safest location on the leeward side of the group in turns without any communication requirements or prior knowledge of the group size or shape, for prolonged survival of the group as a whole. A distributed boundary movement method is proposed with Gaussian Processes machine learning that allows individuals to relocate to the robot health-loss-rate global minima around the group boundary only using stimuli measurements. Simulation results validate our proposed methodology of successfully relocating individuals. The robustness of the proposed method was tested under different formation sizes and shapes. In all cases, successful relocation was obtained. As an effect, significant improvement in survivability of the robot group as a whole was obtained.