cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
STUDIES ON LIVER AND KIDNEY DRUG AND LAURIC ACID MONOOXYGENASES IN BOTH MICROSOMAL AND RECONSTITUTED SYSTEMS.

Publisher Summary This chapter presents the studies on liver and kidney drug, and lauric acid monooxygenases in microsomal and reconstituted systems. The liver microsomal monooxygenase system metabolizes a broad spectrum of substrates, including xenobiotics, steroids, and fatty acids. However, the kidney microsomal monooxygenase system, while containing the same components as the liver system, metabolizes fatty acids at a higher specific activity than any other known substrate. The chapter describes a comparative study of the reductases and cytochromes P-450 of pig liver and kidney microsomes that was carried out to elucidate the differences in substrate specificity between the two organs. In this study, the purified kidney cytochrome P-450 from untreated pigs was found to be immunochemically distinct from the purified liver cytochrome P-450 from phenobarbital (PB)–induced pigs. In addition, differences between these purified cytochromes P-450 were found in benzphetamine demethylation and laurate hydroxylation activities measured in reconstituted systems. The two cytochromes P-450 that were isolated from liver microsomes of PB-induced pigs and from kidney microsomes of untreated pigs show no immunochemical cross-reactivity. They exhibit distinct substrate specificities that are affected neither by lipid milieu nor by the source of nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide phosphate-oxidase (NADPH)–cytochrome P-450 reductase.
Regional diversity and inclusive growth in Indian cities

This paper examines the employment growth of Indian districts from 2000 to 2010 in the manufacturing and services sectors. Specialization and diversity metrics that combine industries in both sectors are calculated and related to subsequent job growth. The analysis finds robust and consistent evidence that the diversity of industries in the district across the two sectors links to subsequent job growth. Somewhat surprisingly, this link finds its strongest expression outside typical stories about the role of diversity. For example, the growth is strongest in rural areas of districts and in districts with low population density. Diversity correlates with disproportionately higher employment growth in the informal sector and plays a role in generating employment in the district's smaller industries. These findings point toward the "inclusive" nature of diversity-driven growth and highlight a potentially important agenda item for policy makers concerned with inclusive development.
Research Evidence and Other Information Sources

Much of the aggregated information about mHealth is available in grey and trade literature, suggesting a lack of robust information to inform clinical, investment, and policy decisions. In truth, a great deal of valuable information is available. The challenge often lies in knowing where the information is located and in assessing the credibility of the information for decision support. Consumers are indeed challenged by a lack of comprehensive, organized directories and evaluative criteria in choosing apps for personal use. Additionally, providers are similarly challenged in recommending this same type of apps. For apps associated with medical devices, the required FDA approval removes much of the uncertainty. Rigorous, theory-based, and controlled research is essential to inform clinical, policy, and regulatory decisions. However, such research is time- and resource-intensive and involves considerable lag time between the investigation and subsequent publication of findings and recommendations. This type of research is not required for the types of information needed by consumers and app developers, and is not appropriate at all stages of an investigative process. For some questions time sensitivity is more important than statistically validated information. Answers to these types of questions often are found in digital media and other publications of limited circulation. Information consumers must first articulate the intended use of the information, then identify credible sources for accessing the needed information, and apply appropriate criteria for making their decision.
On the departure process of a leaky bucket system with long-range dependent input traffic

Due to the strong experimental evidence that the traffic to be offered to future broadband networks will display long-range dependence, it is important to study the possible implications that such traffic may have for the design and performance of these networks. In particular, an important question is whether the offered traffic preserves its long-range dependent nature after passing through a policing mechanism at the interface of the network. One of the proposed solutions for flow control in the context of the emerging ATM standard is the so-called leaky bucket scheme. In this paper we consider a leaky bucket system with long-range dependent input traffic. We adopt the following popular model for long-range dependent traffic: Time is discrete. At each unit time a random number of sessions is initiated, having the distribution of a Poisson random variable with mean \lambda. Each of these sessions has a random duration \tau, where the integer random variable \tau has finite mean, infinite variance, and a regularly varying tail, i.e., P(\tau > k) \sim k^{-\alpha}L(k), where 1<\alpha<2 and L(\cdot) is a slowly varying function. Once a session is initiated, it generates one cell at each unit of time until its termination. We examine the departure process of the leaky bucket policing mechanism driven by such an arrival process, and show that it too is long-range dependent for any token buffer size and any – finite or infinite – cell buffer size. Moreover, upper and lower bounds for the covariance sequence of the output process are established. The above results demonstrate that long-range dependence cannot be removed by the kinds of flow control schemes that are currently being envisioned for broadband networks.
Photophysical properties of C60

A number of important photophysical properties of C{sub 60} have been determined, including its lowest triplet-state energy (near 33 kcal/mol), lifetime, and triplet-triplet absorption spectrum. The triplet state is formed in near quantitative yield and produces a very high yield of singlet oxygen by energy transfer. C{sub 60} does not react with singlet molecular oxygen and quenches it only slowly by an unknown mechanism. These results are discussed in terms of the unusual geometry of this molecule.
Long-Term Trends in Public Finances in the G-7 Economies

Todayâs record public debt levels in most advanced economies are not only a direct fall-out from the global crisis. Public debt had ratcheted up over many decades before, when it had been used, in most of the G-7 countries, as the ultimate shock absorberârising in bad times but not declining much in good times. Alongside, primary spending increased, particularly during 1965â85, reflecting predominantly a surge in health care and pension spending. Looking ahead, advanced economies will face the formidable challenge of reducing debt ratios at a time when ageing-related spending, in particular often underestimated pressures from health care systems, will put additional pressure on public finances. Addressing these fiscal challenges will require growth-friendly structural reforms, a fiscal strategy involving gradual but steady fiscal adjustment, stronger fiscal institutions, expenditure and revenue reforms, and an appropriate degree of burden sharing across all stakeholders.
Selective Protection of Secondary Amines as the N-Phenyltriazenes. Application to Aminoglycoside Antibiotics.

Selective protection of secondary amines as triazenes in the presence of multiple primary amines is demonstrated, with subsequent protection of the primary amines as either azides or carbamates in the same pot. Aminoglycoside antibiotic examples reveal broad functional group compatibility. The triazene group is removed with trifluoroacetic acid and, because of the low barrier to rotation, affords sharp 1H NMR spectra at room temperature.
Ubiquitin at Fox Chase

My interest in protein breakdown as a research problem began in 1955. In 1963, when we relocated from Yale to the Institute for Cancer Research of Fox Chase, Philadelphia, nothing new was being reported. Here, I review how we get the ubiquitin proteasome system all together.
Using partial global plans to coordinate distributed problem solvers

Communicating problem solvers can cooperate in various ways, such as negotiating over task assignments, exchanging partial solutions to converge on global results, and planning interactions that help each other perform their tasks better. We introduce a new framework that supports different styles of cooperation by using partial global plana to specify effective, coordinated actions for groups of problem solvers. In this framework, problem solvers summarise their local plans into node-plant that they selectively exchange to dynamically model network activity and to develop partial global plans. However, because network and problem characteristics can change and communication channels have delays and limited capacity, problem solvers' models and partial global plans may be incomplete, out-of-date, and inconsistent. Our mechanisms allow problem solvers to agree on consistent partial global plans when possible, and to locally form partial global plans that lead to satisfactory cooperation even in rapidly changing environments where complete agreement is impossible. In this paper, we describe the mechanisms, knowledge representations, and algorithms that we have developed for generating and maintaining partial global plans in a distributed system. We use experiments to illustrate how these mechanisms improve and promote cooperation in a variety of styles.
Interference Channel With an Out-of-Band Relay

A Gaussian interference channel (IC) with a relay is considered. The relay is assumed to operate over an orthogonal band with respect to the underlying IC, and the overall system is referred to as IC with an out-of-band relay (IC-OBR). The system can be seen as operating over two parallel interference-limited channels: The first is a standard Gaussian IC and the second is a Gaussian relay channel characterized by two sources and destinations communicating through the relay without direct links. We refer to the second parallel channel as OBR Channel (OBRC). The main aim of this work is to identify conditions under which optimal operation, in terms of the capacity region of the IC-OBR, entails either signal relaying and/or interference forwarding by the relay, with either a separable or nonseparable use of the two parallel channels, IC, and OBRC. Here, “separable” refers to transmission of independent information over the two constituent channels. For a basic model in which the OBRC consists of four orthogonal channels from sources to relay and from relay to destinations (IC-OBR Type-I), a condition is identified under which signal relaying and separable operation is optimal. This condition entails the presence of a relay-to-destinations capacity bottleneck on the OBRC and holds irrespective of the IC. When this condition is not satisfied, various scenarios, which depend on the IC channel gains, are identified in which interference forwarding and nonseparable operation are necessary to achieve optimal performance. In these scenarios, the system exploits the “excess capacity” on the OBRC via interference forwarding to drive the IC-OBR system in specific interference regimes (strong or mixed). The analysis is then turned to a more complex IC-OBR, in which the OBRC consists of only two orthogonal channels, one from sources to relay and one from relay to destinations (IC-OBR Type-II). For this channel, some capacity resuls are derived that parallel the conclusions for IC-OBR Type-I and point to the additional analytical challenges.
Hamdan v. United States: A Death Knell for Military Commissions?

In October 2012, a panel of the D.C. Circuit dealt a blow to the United States’ postSeptember 11, 2001 decade-long experiment with military commissions as a forum for trying Guantanamo Bay detainees. Specifically, the court concluded that prior to the 2006 statutory reforms, military commission jurisdiction was limited to violations of internationally-recognized war crimes; that providing material support to terrorism was not an internationally-recognized war crime; and that the military commission conviction of Salim Hamdan for material support charges based on pre-2006 conduct was therefore invalid. Three months later, a panel of the D.C. Circuit reached the same conclusion with respect to conspiracy and solicitation charges, and vacated the conviction and life sentence of Guantanamo Bay detainee Ali Hamza Ahmad al Bahlul. That case is now on appeal to an en banc (full court) panel of the D.C. Circuit. This article analyses the D.C. Circuit’s ruling in Hamdan’s case, explaining why the ultimate holding is the right one, even though some of the reasoning is flawed, and why the ruling should be upheld on appeal. It also highlights the many unresolved questions and the implications for the future of military commissions at Guantanamo Bay. As the article explains, the D.C. Circuit’s rulings are a major victory for the rule of law and a major defeat for commissions.
MUSE CSP: an extension to the constraint satisfaction problem

This paper describes an extension to the constraint satisfaction problem (CSP) called MUSE CSP (MUltiply SEgmented Constraint Satisfaction Problem). This extension is especially useful for those problems which segment into multiple sets of partially shared variables. Such problems arise naturally in signal processing applications including computer vision, speech processing, and handwriting recognition. For these applications, it is often difficult to segment the data in only one way given the low-level information utilized by the segmentation algorithms. MUSE CSP can be used to compactly represent several similar instances of the constraint satisfaction problem. If multiple instances of a CSP have some common variables which have the same domains and constraints, then they can be combined into a single instance of a MUSE CSP, reducing the work required to apply the constraints. We introduce the concepts of MUSE node consistency, MUSE arc consistency, and MUSE path consistency. We then demonstrate how MUSE CSP can be used to compactly represent lexically ambiguous sentences and the multiple sentence hypotheses that are often generated by speech recognition algorithms so that grammar constraints can be used to provide parses for all syntactically correct sentences. Algorithms for MUSE arc and path consistency are provided. Finally, we discuss how to create a MUSE CSP from a set of CSPs which are labeled to indicate when the same variable is shared by more than a single CSP.
In situ soil moisture coupled with extreme temperatures: A study based on the Oklahoma Mesonet

The relationship between the observed (in situ) soil moisture and the percent hot days (%HD) in Oklahoma is examined using quantile regression. Consistent with results from previous modeling studies and observational studies using precipitation deficits as proxy, soil moisture is found to most strongly impact air temperature in the upper quantile of the %HD distribution. The utility of soil moisture for forecasting extreme heat events in Oklahoma is also assessed. Our results show that %HD can be predicted with reasonable skill using soil moisture anomalies from the previous month. These soil moisture-based forecasts of extreme temperature events can be used to support public health and water resource planning and mitigation activities in the Southern Great Plain region of the United States.
On the rapid prototyping and design of a wireless communication system on a chip

Summary form only given. The evolutionary convergence of computing, integrated circuit technology, and advances in wireless communications has led to an explosive growth of personal communication devices and services (PCS). In fact, the dramatic "Moores Law" shrinkage of IC devices, itself, has led to an unprecedented ability to place increasingly complex systems on a chip (SoC).
The effects of gravity on the circadian timing system

The physiological system responsible for the temporal coordination of an organism is the circadian timing system (CTS). This system provides two forms of temporal coordination. First, the CTS provides for synchronization of the organism with the 24 hour period of the external environment. This synchronization of the organism with the environment is termed entrainment. Second, this system also provides for internal coordination of the various physiological, behavioral, and biochemical events within the organism. When either of these two temporal relationships are disturbed, various dysfunctions can be manifest within the organism. Homeostatic capacity of other physiological systems may be reduced. Performance is decreased and sleep disorders, mental health impairment (e.g., depression), jet lag syndrome, and shift work maladaptation frequently occur. Over the last several years, several studies have evaluated the potential influence of gravity on this physiological control system by examining changes in rhythmic characteristics of organisms exposed to altered gravitational environments. The altered gravitational environments have included the microgravity of spaceflight as well as hyperdynamic fields produced via centrifugation.
The importance of diversity to public health.

David Satcher, MD, PhD I have always considered veterinary medicine to be an important part of public health, and during my career I have had the opportunity to work with many outstanding veterinarians who have contributed much to public health practice. But I think there are ways we can work together to improve health in this country. As the former U.S. Surgeon General, I talked about the need for a balanced health system—a system that balances health promotion, disease prevention, early detection, and universal access. It is the collective efforts of a society that create the environmental conditions in which people can be healthy. There are many implications in that definition for our health-care system, veterinary medicine, and the collective efforts to create good environmental conditions, including the social environment. Only 2% of today’s veterinary school students are black and 5% or fewer are Hispanic. I think we need to create the kind of environment in which people who are training to be veterinarians, or learning to be public health leaders, learn in a racially and ethnically diverse environment so they know how to handle diversity in our society. I believe there are three critical reasons why diversity is important. For one, our children may not be getting the opportunity to develop their skills and their talents. For another, diversity is an integral part of our environment. Diversity, or the lack of it, defines our environment. If only 2% of today’s veterinary students are black, it means that many veterinary students will never get to know a black student. I think one of the ways that people learn cultural diversity is by getting to know people from different racial/ethnic backgrounds. They get to know their life history. They get to know what makes them tick. They get to know their strengths and weaknesses. Finally, diversity can help eliminate health disparities. This is one of the two goals provided in Healthy People 2010 that is composed of a set of health objectives for the nation. Clearly, one of the critical issues in eliminating disparities is diversity in the health professions and in all areas of public health, including veterinary health. There is a critical need for more diversity to focus on universal problems, to get providers in communities where they are needed, and to create a system that supports those needs. Diversity is important because it defines the parameters of opportunities for our children; it enriches the lives of our future professionals; and because if we are going to achieve the goal of eliminating disparities in health, we’ll need a diverse group of health professionals to accomplish it.
Analysis of Variance: Cell Means Approach†

The two forms of the cell means model are described: the unrestricted model and the restricted model. Computational procedures are presented for a completely randomized design, randomized block design, and completely randomized factorial design. Computational procedures also are presented for a completely randomized analysis of covariance (ANCOVA) design. The relative merits of the cell means model and the classical analysis of variance (ANOVA) model approaches to analysis of variance are discussed. Keywords: unrestricted cell means model; restricted cell means model; classical analysis of variance model
Using convolution to mine obscure periodic patterns in one pass

The mining of periodic patterns in time series databases is an interesting data mining problem that can be envisioned as a tool for forecasting and predicting the future behavior of time series data. Existing periodic patterns mining algorithms either assume that the periodic rate (or simply the period) is user-specified, or try to detect potential values for the period in a separate phase. The former assumption is a considerable disadvantage, especially in time series databases where the period is not known a priori. The latter approach results in a multi-pass algorithm, which on the other hand is to be avoided in online environments (e.g., data streams). In this paper, we develop an algorithm that mines periodic patterns in time series databases with unknown or obscure periods such that discovering the period is part of the mining process. Based on convolution, our algorithm requires only one pass over a time series of length n, with O(n log n) time complexity.
Environment and Trade in Developing Economies: A Primer for the World Bank's Global Economic Prospects 2001

The author argues that imposing trade sanctions is not the best strategy for eliminating environmental degradation in developing economies. Countries have different priorities that, in large part, reflect different levels of development. In particular, developing countries may perceive a sharp trade-off between development goals and sensible, though perhaps elusive, environmental goals. However, because poverty is often a key factor in environmental degradation, it is important that developing countries retain access to the international trading system, even if their domestic environmental policies are not those that are preferred by richer countries. Alternative mechanisms already in place, such as the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), should be the preferred forum in which to discuss the environmental goals of developing economies.
Computation and complexity in economic behavior and organization

Acknowledgements 1. Introduction 2. F networks 3. Networks of real-valued functions 4. Applications to economics 5. Applications to games 6. Lower bounds and approximations 7. Organizations Appendices Bibliography Index.
Representation of Clinical Practice Guidelines For Computer-Based Implementations

Representation of clinical practice guidelines is a critical issue for computer-based guideline development, implementation and evaluation. We studied eight types of computer-based guideline representation models. Typical primitives for these models include decisions, actions, patient states and execution states. Temporal constraints and nesting are important aspects of guideline structure representation. Integration of guidelines with electronic medical records can be facilitated by the introduction of formal models of patient data. Patient states and execution states are closely related to one another. Data collection, decision, patient state and intervention are four basic steps in a guideline's logic flow.
The Theory of the Cost-of-Living Index

Summary In this paper I summarize the theory of the “cost-of-living index” and the closely related theory of the “preference field quality index”. The first section is devoted to notation and preliminary background, and the second summarizes the theory of the cost-of-living index. The next two sections discuss upper and lower bounds for the index, and the preference orderings for which these bounds are attained. In Section 5 I examine the effect on the index of the choice of a base indifference curve. Section 6 examines the form of the cost-of-living index corresponding to various specific preference orderings. In Sections 7 and 8 I examine the preference field quantity index, a quantity index which is conceptually similar to the cost-of-living index. I show that it is equal to the expenditure index deflated by the cost-of-living index if and only if the preference ordering is homothetic to the origin. In Section 9 I discuss the use of price indexes in empirical demand analysis and argue that the cost-of-living index is inappropriate for this purpose.
Predicting 3d people from 2d pictures

We propose a hierarchical process for inferring the 3D pose of a person from monocular images. First we infer a learned view-based 2D body model from a single image using non-parametric belief propagation. This approach integrates information from bottom-up body-part proposal processes and deals with self-occlusion to compute distributions over limb poses. Then, we exploit a learned Mixture of Experts model to infer a distribution of 3D poses conditioned on 2D poses. This approach is more general than recent work on inferring 3D pose directly from silhouettes since the 2D body model provides a richer representation that includes the 2D joint angles and the poses of limbs that may be unobserved in the silhouette. We demonstrate the method in a laboratory setting where we evaluate the accuracy of the 3D poses against ground truth data. We also estimate 3D body pose in a monocular image sequence. The resulting 3D estimates are sufficiently accurate to serve as proposals for the Bayesian inference of 3D human motion over time
Large-sample learning of bayesian networks is NP-hard

In this paper, we provide new complexity results for algorithms that learn discretevariable Bayesian networks from data. Our results apply whenever the learning algorithm uses a scoring criterion that favors the simplest model able to represent the generative distribution exactly. Our results therefore hold whenever the learning algorithm uses a consistent scoring criterion and is applied to a sufficiently large dataset. We show that identifying high-scoring structures is NP-hard, even when we are given an independence oracle, an inference oracle, and/or an information oracle. Our negative results also apply when learning discrete-variable Bayesian networks in which each node has at most k parents, for all k ≥ 3.
Achieving Anonymity in Mobile Ad Hoc Networks Using Fuzzy Position Information

Traditionally the anonymity of an entity of interest can be achieved by hiding it among a group of other entities with similar characteristics, i.e., an anonymity set. In mobile ad hoc networks, generating and maintaining such an anonymity set for any ad hoc node are challenging because of the node mobility and consequently of the dynamic network topology. In this paper, we address the problem of the destination anonymity. We propose protocols that use fuzzy destination position to generate a geographic area called anonymity zone (AZ). A packet for a destination is delivered to all the nodes in the AZ, which, consequently, make up the anonymity set. The size of the anonymity set may decrease because nodes are mobile, yet the corresponding management on anonymity set is simple. We design techniques to further improve node anonymity. We use extensive simulation to study the node anonymity and routing performance, and to determine the parameters that most impact the anonymity level that can be achieved by our protocol.
Natural language understanding for soft information fusion

Tractor is a system for understanding English messages within the context of hard and soft information fusion for situation assessment. Tractor processes a message through syntactic processors, and represents the result in a formal knowledge representation language. The result is a hybrid syntactic-semantic knowledge base that is mostly syntactic. Tractor then adds relevant ontological and geographic information. Finally, it applies hand-crafted syntax-semantics mapping rules to convert the syntactic information into semantic information, although the final result is still a hybrid syntactic-semantic knowledge base. This paper presents the various stages of Tractor's natural language understanding process, with particular emphasis on discussions of the representation used and of the syntax-semantics mapping rules.
El festival de máscaras de Hatillo: un carnaval puertorriqueño de Navidad

El Festival de Mascaras de Hatillo, Puerto Rico, se ha celebrado, cada 28 de diciembre, desde el siglo XIX. Su origen y significado son temas controversiales, pero la tradicion, probablemente, se origina en las islas Canarias. Los elementos mas representativos del festival son las mascaras de cedazo pintado para simular rostros y los trajes cubiertos en rizos que, con diferentes colores, forman figuras navidenas, historicas o modernas. El festival, inicialmente una festividad familiar, ha crecido exponencialmente y es organizado por la municipalidad de Hatillo. Los participantes se organizan en grupos o comparsas y compiten por el premio al mejor diseno en tres categorias: tradicional, religiosa y folclorica. Originalmente, los participantes eran solo hombres, pero se aproxima que las mujeres comenzaron a participar durante la decada de 1980. La existencia del festival genera un espiritu de comunidad y hermandad mediante las transgresiones sociales que la estructura de carnaval permite.Palabras claves: Puerto Rico, festival, Navidad, traje, mascaras.
Maximum likelihood inference in weakly identified dynamic stochastic general equilibrium models

This paper examines the issue of weak identification in maximum likelihood, motivated by problems with estimation and inference in a multidimensional dynamic stochastic general equilibrium model.We show that two forms of the classical score (Lagrange multiplier) test for a simple hypothesis concerning the full parameter vector are robust to weak identification. We also suggest a test for a composite hypothesis regarding a subvector of parameters. The suggested subset test is shown to be asymptotically exact when the nuisance parameter is strongly identified. We pay particular attention to the question of how to estimate Fisher information and we make extensive use of martingale theory.
Pharmacokinetics of mycophenolate mofetil and intravenous ganciclovir alone and in combination in renal transplant recipients.

Study Objectives. To evaluate the pharmacokinetics of mycophenolic acid and its glucuronide metabolite alone and in the presence of ganciclovir, and to determine the pharmacokinetics of ganciclovir alone and in combination with mycophenolate mofetil. Design. Randomized, open-label, three-way crossover study. Patients. Twelve kidney transplant recipients. Interventions. Mycophenolate mofetil 1500 mg orally and ganciclovir 5 mg/kg intravenously were each given alone and in combination with at least a 1-week washout period between treatment arms. Measurements and Main Results. Blood samples were obtained to measure mycophenolic acid and ganciclovir by high-performance liquid chromatography. Mean (± SD) oral plasma clearance for mycophenolic acid alone and with ganciclovir was 3.11 ± 0.72 and 3.19 ± 0.72 ml/min/kg (p=0.64). The overall disposition of the major metabolite, MPA-glucuronide, was unchanged, with approximately 70% of the administered dose eliminated as the glucuronide conjugate for both arms of the study. Mean ganciclovir serum clearance was 1.80 ± 0.58 ml/min/kg for ganciclovir and 1.70 ± 0.55 ml/min/kg for ganciclovir plus mycophenolate mofetil (p=0.11; 10 patients). Renal clearance of ganciclovir was decreased when the drugs were administered in combination, 1.43 ± 0.54 (ganciclovir) and 1.26 ± 0.44 (both drugs) ml/min/kg (p=0.02; 10 patients). Conclusion. The single-dose pharmacokinetics of mycophenolic acid and its glucuronide metabolite were unchanged by the addition of ganciclovir. Total serum clearance of ganciclovir was unchanged by the addition of mycophenolate mofetil, however, renal clearance was slightly decreased.
Exploiting Similarity of Subqueries for Complex Query Optimization

Query optimizers in current database management systems (DBMS) often face problems such as intolerably long optimization time and/or poor optimization results when optimizing complex queries. To tackle this challenge, we present a new similarity-based optimization technique in this paper. The key idea is to identify groups of similar subqueries that often appear in a complex query and share the optimization result within each group in the query. An efficient algorithm to identify similar queries in a given query and optimize the query based on similarity is presented. Our experimental results demonstrate that the proposed technique is quite promising in optimizing complex queries in a DBMS.
A Stormy Day on an Open Field: Asymmetry and Convergence in the Global Economy

Too often, the word ‘openness’ has been used to embrace the entire scope of policies and outcomes that characterise a healthy economy. But this makes ‘openness’ unachievable from a policy point of view. Here, I use the word to refer narrowly to an open policy stance, the opposite of protectionism. Defined this way, ‘openness’ does not, unfortunately, guarantee growth, and in some circumstances it makes poverty reduction more difficult.
Ignition and Flame Studies for an Accelerating Transonic Mixing Layer

Numerical solutions have been obtained for a diffusion e ame in the two-dimensional, laminar, steady, viscous, multicomponent, compressible mixing layer in the presence of a pressure gradient by using the boundary-layer approximationsand solvingthe x-momentum,energy,and speciesconservation equations. Thenumericalsolutions have been validated against similarity solutions and then are extended to cases where no similarity solution exists. The numerical solutions are used to study the ignition process and the e ame structure in an accelerating transonic mixing layer. It is shown how ignition length depends on initial temperature, initial pressure, initial velocity, viscosity, and pressure gradient. Ignition is found to occur on the high-temperature-air side. Oxidation kinetics and transport are both controlling in the upstream ignition region. Farther downstream, transport is controlling in the fully established e ame. The boundary-layer approximation is found to be valid everywhere including the upstream ignition region.
CHAPTER 5 – RNA Isolation Strategies

Efficient methodologies have been empirically derived to accommodate the expedient isolation of RNA. In general, these methods yield cytoplasmic RNA, nuclear RNA, or mixtures of both, commonly known as cellular RNA. Protocols for the isolation of RNA begin with cellular lysis mediated by buffers that typically fall into one of two categories: (1) those consisting of harsh chaotropic agents, including one of the guanidinium salts, sodium dodecyl sulfate (SDS), N -laurylsarcosine (sarcosyl), urea, phenol, or chloroform, which disrupt the plasma membrane and subcellular organelles and which simultaneously inactivate ribonuclease (RNase) and those that gently solubilize the plasma membrane while maintaining nuclear integrity, such as hypotonic Nonidet P-401 (NP-40) lysis buffers; and (2) intact nuclei, other organelles, and cellular debris are then removed from the lysate by differential centrifugation. The reliability of this approach is often dependent on the inclusion of nuclease inhibitors in the lysis buffer and on careful attention to the handling and storage of RNA so purified. A seemingly endless list of permutations on a few fundamental RNA extraction techniques exist; for example, some techniques support isolation of poly(A)+ material directly from a cellular lysate without prior purification of total RNA.
Aid Volatility: Is It a Problem in Tuvalu?

Empirical evidence on aid volatility shows that it adversely impacts recipient countries. This study seeks to find if aid volatility matters in Tuvalu—a small aid recipient country in the Pacific. The study finds that, with a coefficient of variation of 0.49, aid volatility in Tuvalu is significant. It is also found that project aid is more volatile than aid that goes to budget support and routine programs such as scholarships. Aid volatility results in incomplete projects, high transaction costs, ‘Dutch disease’ and fiscal planning problems. To manage the adverse impacts of aid volatility, Tuvalu needs to strengthen its Consolidated Investment Fund to buffer for any disruptions in aid disbursements, provide a sound policy and institutional climate, target aid to budget support and programs instead of specific projects, and implement large infrastructure projects in phases.
The public sector in the Caribbean : issues and reform options

The public sector's performance in the Caribbean varies, in reducing poverty and in creating an enabling environment for growth. Barbados and the Bahamas have been the high performers, Guyana and the Dominican Republic have been sluggish, and the other Caribbean countries fall in between. In the Caribbean region, the public sector is now the predominant provider of tertiary education and health services (university education and hospital-based curative care), which mainly benefit the nonpoor. Attempts must be made to recover costs from high-income users and use that revenue to improve the quality and quantity (as appropriate) of basic services. Lessons from experience suggest that most Caribbean countries need to encourage the private sector to participate more in providing infrastructure and need to provide a better regulatory framework. The good news: this is already taking place in many countries.
Efficiency and equity implications of oil windfalls in Brazil

Large oil reserves off the coast of Brazil may substantially increase the country’s oil revenue in the future. A natural resource "curse" could be the consequence if an appropriate share of the oil revenue is not invested. This issue is addressed in this paper for Brazil both theoretically and empirically by focusing on (i) the efficient allocation of oil revenue between investment and consumption; and (ii) because it may be efficient to consume a certain share of the oil revenue, the distributional implications across generations of higher public consumption. The main finding is that, if the Pre-Salt oil revenue brings the aggregate oil revenue in Brazil above 10 percent of gross domestic product, there will be scope for consuming a certain share of it while still maintaining efficiency. But unless oil revenue reaches 10 percent or more of gross domestic product, then all of it should be invested in order for the economy to approach the efficient investment level. If oil revenue as a share of gross domestic product was 10 percent, then the achievable growth in gross domestic product could reach 9.0 percent. The distributional implications are positive for all generations, but vary across generations depending on how much of the oil revenue is invested. As a result, transfer policies could be adjusted to ensure equality in its distribution.
Constraining influence diagram structure by generative planning: an application to the optimization of oil spill response

This paper works through the optimization of a real world planning problem, with a combination of a generative planning tool and an influence diagram solver. The problem is taken from an existing application in the domain of oil spill emergency response. The planning agent manages constraints that order sets of feasible equipment employment actions. This is mapped at an intermediate level of abstraction onto an influence diagram. In addition, the planner can apply a surveillance operator that determines observability of the state--the unknown trajectory of the oil. The uncertain world state and the objective function properties are part of the influence diagram structure, but not represented in the planning agent domain. By exploiting this structure under the constraints generated by the planning agent, the influence diagram solution complexity simplifies considerably, and an optimum solution to the employment problem based on the objective function is found. Finding this optimum is equivalent to the simultaneous evaluation of a range of plans. This result is an example of bounded optimality, within the limitations of this hybrid generative planner and influence diagram architecture.
The Effects of Cocaine and Marijuana Use on Marriage and Marital Stability

This article examines the relationship between illicit drug use and marital status. Using data from the National Longitudinal Survey of Labor Market Experiences, the article presents both cross-sectional and longitudinal estimates of the effect of marijuana and cocaine use on marital status, the length of time until first marriage, and the duration of first marriage. The results indicate that among non-Black young adults, drug users are more likely to be unmarried due to a delay in the age at first marriage, and shorter marriage durations. In contrast, drug use has no effect on marital choices of Black young adults.
Respiratory effects on cardiac functions measured by impedance cardiography under voluntary cardio-respiratory synchronization (VCRS)

The respiratory variations of stroke volume (SV), R-R interval and ventricle filling time were studied in supine and sitting conditions. The tests were performed under VCRS on ten male subjects. Impedance cardiography (ZCG) was used with band electrodes to measure SV. SV increased during inspiration and decreased during expiration. The data indicate that SV measured by ZCG is more related to the blood volume change of the right heart than the left heart. The results to suggest that respiration first affects the right heart filling process, which affects the right heart filling process, which consequently influences the R-R interval and SV. >
A structurally and temporally extended Bayesian belief network model: definitions, properties, and modeling techniques

We developed the language of Modifiable Temporal Belief Networks (MTBNs) as a structural and temporal extension of Bayesian Belief Networks (BNs) to facilitate normative temporal and causal modeling under uncertainty. In this paper we present definitions of the model, its components, and its fundamental properties. We also discuss how to represent various types of temporal knowledge, with an emphasis on hybrid temporal-explicit time modeling, dynamic structures, avoiding causal temporal inconsistencies, and dealing with models that involve simultaneously actions (decisions) and causal and non-causal associations. We examine the relationships among BNs, Modifiable Belief Networks, and MTBNs with a single temporal granularity, and suggest areas of application suitable to each one of them.
Adaptive Techniques for Time Delay Estimation and Tracking

Abstract This paper discusses the problem of adaptive time delay estimation in the specific case where the recorded input signals are sinusoids with additive noise. We consider two simple adaptive techniques which do not require transforms and are capable of tracking a nonstationary, time-varying delay. First a method which makes use of a two-pole, all-pass adaptive filter is introduced. An LMS-type of adaptive algorithm is derived, and the associated error surface is discussed. The performance of this adaptive structure is then compared to that of the “adaptive delay element” recently introduced by Etter. Simulation results are compared on the basis of delay estimate accuracy, rate of convergence, and the ability to track time-varying phase shifts.
Online Learning: Beyond Regret

We study online learnability of a wide class of problems, extending the results of Rakhlin et al. (2010a) to general notions of performance measure well beyond external regret. Our framework simultaneously captures such well-known notions as internal and general regret, learning with non-additive global cost functions, Blackwell’s approachability, calibration of forecasters, and more. We show that learnability in all these situations is due to control of the same three quantities: a martingale convergence term, a term describing the ability to perform well if future is known, and a generalization of sequential Rademacher complexity, studied in Rakhlin et al. (2010a). Since we directly study complexity of the problem instead of focusing on ecient algorithms, we are able to improve and extend many known results which have been previously derived via an algorithmic construction.
MATRIX MODELS AND 2D STRING THEORY

String theory in two-dimensional spacetime illuminates two main threads of recent development in string theory: (1)Open/closed string duality ,and (2) Tachyon condensation. In two dimensions, many aspects of these phenomena can be explored in a setting where exact calculations can be performed. These lectures review the basic aspects of this system.
Suggested principles of professional ethics for the online provision of mental health services.

The goal of this project was to suggest principles of professional ethics for the online provision of clinical mental health services that could guide clinicians who provide and patients who receive such services. A joint committee of the International Society for Mental Health Online (ISMHO) and the Psychiatric Society for Informatics (PSI) was formed. Discussion and development of these principles took place online. A set of principles was produced and endorsed by ISMHO on January 9, 2000, and by PSI on May 13, 2000. The principles involve informed consent (about the process, the clinician, the potential risks and benefits, safeguards, and alternatives), standard operating procedure (competence, legal requirements, the structure of the services, evaluation, multiple treatment providers, confidentiality, records, and existing guidelines), and emergencies (procedures and local backup). This project demonstrates that traditional principles of professional ethics can be extended to online services, that com...
Crony Capitalism in Egypt

The paper studies the nature and extent of Egyptian "crony" capi- talism by comparing the corporate performance and the stock market valu- ation of politically connected and unconnected firms, before and after the 2011 popular uprising that led to the end of President Mubarak rule. First, we identify politically connected firms and compare the corporate behavior of connected and unconnected large firms before 2011 in terms of their levels of debts, market share, and tax payment. Second, we conduct an event study around the events of 2011 and estimate the market valuation of political con- nections. Third, we attempt to decompose the extra value that the market attributes to political connections between a current profitability advantage, and future advantages that include higher growth opportunities and (implicit) bail-out guarantees.
Using Nonfinancial Information to Predict Financial Performance: The Case of the U.S. Airline Industry

To enhance traditional financial reporting, academics and policymakers have suggested that financial statement users be provided with nonfinancial performance information that may enhance users' ability to evaluate and predict financial performance. This study tests this proposition by examining whether timely nonfinancial performance information is a useful predictor of financial performance in the airline industry. From analysts' written pronouncements and financial press articles we identify a number of fundamental metrics, including customer satisfaction, purportedly used by analysts and investors to assess airline performance. We empirically examine these metrics and find that on-time performance, mishandled baggage, ticket oversales, and in-flight service are significantly associated with our proxy for customer satisfaction. Using an instrumental variable for customer satisfaction, we find that customer satisfaction, load factor, market share, and available ton miles are contemporaneously associated...