cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Bubble Penetration Through a Single Layer Sphere Bed

The stability criteria for a droplet passing through a tightly packed sphere monolayer are computed numerically. The Surface Evolver software is programmed to compute droplet shape and the corresponding stability properties under the influence of gravity. Sphere configurations from square to near hexagonal packing angles are considered. For a fixed volume and liquid contact angle, regions of stability are determined for a range of packing angles and Bond numbers. Furthermore due to the droplet forming contact lines with spheres, seven droplet topologies are compared to determine the lowest energy solution. This work compliments existing literature of a liquid infiltrating a sphere layer.
Numerical simulation of low NO_x optimization for a 330MW tangential boiler

For the problems that high NOx emission and severely slagging of a 330 MW tangential boiler, a solution was raised by using multi-air staged combustion technology of low NOx to optimize the boiler burner. Using FLUENT software, the combustion performance in boiler was simulated under rated condition of before and after modification. The results from calculation and experiment show that the reverse tangent of dense primary air has a certain influence in the boiler combustion, the phenomenon of the pulverized coal washing water wall and slagging was weakened; the ignition and stable combustion of the pulverized coal were strengthened, the concentration of CO and reducing atmosphere increased in primary combustion zone; which the reducing zone of NOx formed under the burning-out zone has the positive effect in reducing the NOx emission; it not only effectively reduced the maximum temperature by about 80℃ but also significantly reduced the NOx emission by about 47%.
Single-molecule conductance in atomically precise germanium wires.

While the electrical conductivity of bulk-scale group 14 materials such as diamond carbon, silicon, and germanium is well understood, there is a gap in knowledge regarding the conductivity of these materials at the nano and molecular scales. Filling this gap is important because integrated circuits have shrunk so far that their active regions, which rely so heavily on silicon and germanium, begin to resemble ornate molecules rather than extended solids. Here we unveil a new approach for synthesizing atomically discrete wires of germanium and present the first conductance measurements of molecular germanium using a scanning tunneling microscope-based break-junction (STM-BJ) technique. Our findings show that germanium and silicon wires are nearly identical in conductivity at the molecular scale, and that both are much more conductive than aliphatic carbon. We demonstrate that the strong donor ability of C–Ge σ-bonds can be used to raise the energy of the anchor lone pair and increase conductance. Furthermor...
Ending Dirty Energy Policy: Conclusion – Strategies for the Energy Future

I want to make somewhat of a startling assertion that, at present, we have no politics of climate change. In other words, we do not have a developed analysis of the political innovations that have to be made if our aspirations to limit global warming are to become real. Lord Anthony Giddens Today, we can echo Lord Giddens and say that the United States has no politics of energy transition, at least, no comprehensive politics most certainly at the federal level. Successfully achieving a transformative energy policy is as much about paradigm and systems change as it is about crafting new substantive provisions. Moving away from fossil fuels to a low-carbon energy strategy is quite simple to articulate. It is more difficult, however, to manage the change in a multibillion-dollar, century-old economic and political energy system that continues to influence the way we think about our energy needs. The government has not banned offshore drilling in deep waters. Consumers have not stopped buying SUVs. There is no federal plan for financing the smart grid. And, environmentalists have not stopped opposing wind and solar projects. All serve as examples of the reluctance to abandon old fuel habits to the benefit of fossil fuel incumbents. Systems change can occur if we accurately analyze the challenge and then apply the proper regulatory and market responses. Three themes emerge if we are to succeed. First, the endpoint is low-carbon energy, and it is not necessarily dependent on accepting either the science or the rhetoric of climate change.
The Migration of Coaches in Rugby Union

The geographical centre of North America is Rugby, North Dakota. In sporting terms though, in the US, rugby is very much on the periphery of a landscape dominated by what Markovits and Hellerman (2001) refer to as the big three (and a half) sports of baseball, basketball, [American] football (and [ice] hockey). If, as these authors attest, soccer is a potent symbol of American exceptionalism then rugby may also be viewed as a key symbol of difference although it is not so much the position of rugby that is important here but the hegemonic status of another code of football. Indeed the immensely popular sport of (American) football derives from rugby. Rugby in the US remains something of a minority activity and reflects the fact that America’s sports exceptionalism ‘is deeply rooted in other exceptionalisms that constitute essential features of modern American life’ (Markovits and Hellerman, 2001: p. 9).
High-Risk Medications in Hospitalized Elderly Adults: Are We Making It Easy to Do the Wrong Thing?

Objectives To examine dosages of high-risk medications administered to elderly adults who fall in the hospital and to determine whether electronic default doses are appropriate for elderly adults. Design Retrospective. Setting Large urban academic hospital. Participants Individuals aged 65 and older experiencing a fall. Measurements Prescribed daily dosages and use of high-risk medications (opiates, benzodiazepines, benzodiazepine-receptor agonists (BRAs), sleep medications, muscle relaxants, antipsychotics) administered within 24 hours before a fall were ascertained and compared with published recommended dosages for older adults and the hospital's electronic medical record (EMR) default doses for these drugs. Results Of 328 falls, 62% occurred in individuals administered at least one high-risk medication within the 24 hours before the fall, with 16% of the falls involving individuals receiving two, and another 16% in individuals receiving three or more. High-risk medications were often administered at higher-than-recommended geriatric daily doses, in particular benzodiazepines and BRAs, for which the dose was higher than recommended in 29 of 51 cases (57%). Hospital EMR default doses were higher than recommended for 41% (12/29) of medications examined. Conclusion High-risk medications were administered to older fallers. Doses administered and EMR default doses were often higher than recommended. Decreasing EMR default doses for individuals aged 65 and older and warnings about the cumulative numbers of high-risk medications prescribed per person may be simple interventions that could decrease inpatient falls.
Photoacoustic investigation of a neonatal skull phantom

There is a need for continued research into the diagnosis, prevention and cure of neonatal brain disease and disorders. These disorders lead to fatalities and developmental disorders in infants. Non-invasive imaging techniques are being researched for this purpose. However, the availability of neonatal skull samples for this work is very low. A phantom can be used to simulate the neonatal skull and brain to improve imaging techniques. This study selects a phantom of polyurethane and titanium dioxide and proves its value as a replacement for neonatal skull in research. The methods used for this proof are validation of choice against the literature, transmissivity and acoustic experimentation compared to existing literature, and finally photoacoustic evaluation of the final choice to show its usefulness as a neonatal skull phantom.
Lack of plasminogen activator inhibitor-1 effect in a transgenic mouse model of metastatic melanoma

Tumor cell invasion and metastasis is a complex, multistep process that is postulated to require degradation of extracellular matrix at several steps. Urokinase-type plasminogen activator (uPA) is expressed on the cell surface of B16 murine melanoma cells and is thought to contribute to the pericellular proteolysis necessary for tumor cell migration. In vitro modification of B16 melanoma cell surface uPA activity has been shown to alter the invasive and metastatic potential of these murine melanoma cells in vivo. Plasminogen activator inhibitor-1 (PAI-1), a rapid inhibitor of both uPA and tissue-type plasminogen activator (tPA) is the major physiologic regulator of plasminogen activator activity. To test the role of host PAI-1 in the invasive and metastatic capacity of B16 melanoma cells we analyzed local tumor growth and pulmonary metastasis in transgenic mice engineered to overexpress murine PAI-1 in multiple tissues including lung, and in mice completely deficient in PAI-1. No significant difference in the number of pulmonary metastases was observed after intravenous inoculation of tumor cells into PAI-1-overexpressing and PAI-1-deficient mice when compared with wild-type controls. Similarly, in a spontaneous metastasis model, PAI-1-overexpressing and PAI-1-deficient mice demonstrated no difference in primary tumor size or overall survival. These data demonstrate that wide variations of host PAI-1 expression, from complete absence to marked overexpression, does not significantly influence the metastatic potential of B16 melanoma cells in a murine model.
Effects of Delay of Extinction on Resistance to Extinction

The principal hypothesis of this study was that delaying the onset of extinction trials would decrease resistance to extinction and eliminate or greatly reduce the partial reinforcement extinction effect. Subjects were 137 Sprague-Dawley female rats, approximately 60 days old at the start of training. The task was standard bar-press training, with Noyes pellets as reinforcers. Subjects were randomly assigned to one of four reinforcement schedules (CRF, FR:4, FR:8, FR:12), and to one of three delay groups (1-day, 7-day, 31-day). The dependent variable was number of responses to extinction (no responses in 5 continuous min.). The results indicated that a long delay between acquisition and extinction trials is associated with a decreased resistance to extinction under several schedules of reinforcement. The partial reinforcement extinction effect was greatly reduced and differences among various FR schedules eliminated at the 31-day delay period.
The Apple Iphone (Abridged)

This case describes the introduction of the Apple iPhone, including subsequent price reductions and market share goals. The case includes publicly available data on iPhone production costs, channel margins, and marketing costs. It concludes with the July 2008 introduction of the second-generation 3G iPhone. Excerpt UVA-M-0851 Jul. 5, 2013 THE APPLE IPHONE (ABRIDGED) So we're going to enter a very competitive market, lot of players, we think we're going to have the best product in the world, and we're going to go for it and see if we can get 1% market share, 10 million units in 2008, and go from there. —Steve Jobs Computers were too expensive for individual ownership until the 1970s, when microprocessors began to be mass-produced, making it feasible for enthusiasts to purchase kits and assemble minicomputers at home. In 1976, college dropouts Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak founded Apple Computer to preassemble minicomputers for customers. As the mass market for preassembled personal computers began to grow, Tandy Corporation and others introduced competing products. The minicomputer market grew quickly enough that, by the early 1980s, it had attracted the attention of IBM, whose first PC, or personal computer, was targeted toward business users who were familiar with IBM and skeptical of upstarts. The company quickly dominated the market. . . .
Doubly Curved Membrane Shell Finite Element

The formulation and testing of a high-order doubly curved membrane shell finite element is presented. Specialized for application to shells of revolution, the element is defined by lines of principal curvature and allows a third-order mapping of the meridian. The in-plane displacement assumptions are complete bicubic. The functions are represented by products of one-dimensional first-order Hermite interpolation functions. The transverse displacement assumption is bilinear. Mixed displacement derivatives are condensed from the element stiffness matrix forming an element with 28 degrees-of-freedom. An eigenvalue analysis performed on the element stiffness matrix indicates that three rigid body modes are implicitly included. These three rigid body modes, the two in-plane translations and the rotation about the shell normal, are sufficient to produce excellent convergence characteristics in analyzing membrane shells, regardless of the shell's Gaussian curvature.
Neural Net Tutorial

When problems are complex and cannot be solved through conventional methods such as statistical or management science models, and when human expertise is not sufficient for efficiently finding high-quality solutions, we can consider the use of machine learning techniques. One such technique is the artificial neural network (neural net), which can be used for predictive modeling. This chapter provides a brief introduction to the topic of neural nets, along with a tutorial in which a working neural net is built and then used to make predictions.
Precision/Recall Trade-Off Analysis in Abnormal/Normal Heart Sound Classification

Heart sound analysis is a preliminary procedure performed by a physician and involves examining the heart beats to detect the symptoms of cardiovascular diseases (CVDs). With recent developments in clinical science and the availability of devices to capture heart beats, researchers are now exploring the possibility of a machine assisted heart sound analysis system that can augment the clinical expertise of the physician in early detection of CVD. In this paper, we study the application of machine learning algorithms in classifying abnormal/normal heart sounds based on the short (\(\le \)120 s) audio phonocardiogram (PCG) recordings. To this end, we use the largest public audio PCG dataset released as part of the 2016 PhysioNet/Cardiology in Computing Challenge. The data comes from different patients, most of who have had no previous history of cardiac disease and some with known cardiac diseases. In our study, we use these audio recordings to train three different classification algorithms and discuss the effects of class imbalance (normal vs. abnormal) on the precision-recall trade-off of the prediction task. Specifically, our goal is to find a suitable model that takes into account the inherent imbalance and optimize the precision-recall trade-off with a higher emphasis on increasing recall. Bagged random forest models with majority (normal) class under sampling gave us the best configuration resulting in average recall over 91% with nearly 64% average precision.
Too Little Too Late: Effect of Poor Access to Biologics for Patients with Rheumatoid Arthritis.

Biologic disease-modifying antirheumatic drugs (bDMARD), in particular anti-tumor necrosis factor (anti-TNF) medications, which were developed in the 1990s, have improved the radiographic and functional status of patients with rheumatoid arthritis (RA)1. It has been thought as a corollary that rates of joint replacement in patients with RA would decrease. Results in various national databases since the advent of biologic medications have been discrepant; for example, in a US cohort there was a decrease in arthroplasty in juvenile idiopathic arthritis, but not RA from 1991 to 20052, whereas in Ireland the arthroplasty rate was halved from 1995 to 20103. In Japan there was no change in the rate up to 2008, while in Sweden the hip arthroplasty rate decreased, but the knee rate did not4. Overall, however, the trend seems to be toward lower rates of arthroplasty in patients with RA. An article in this issue of The Journal , by Stamp, et al 5, provides an interesting analysis of the rates of joint replacement in New Zealand from 1999 to 2015 in both OA and RA since the advent of … Address correspondence to Dr. B.K. Johnson, Jacobi/NCB, Rheumatology, 1400 Pelham Parkway, South Building 1, Suite 306, New York, New York 10461, USA. E-mail: beverly.johnson06{at}gmail.com
Two simple and effective ensemble classifiers for Twitter sentiment analysis

This article presents two simple yet effective ensemble learners for Twitter data sentiment classification. These two learners are built upon four off-the-shelf classifiers, namely, Mallet's MaxEnt and Naive Bayes, SentiStrength, and Pattern from Textblob. Extensive evaluation of these algorithms on twelve Twitter datasets demonstrates that these two ensemble algorithms constantly deliver top classification accuracy, followed by MaxEnt and Naive Bayes. Moreover, both ensemble learners are embarrassingly parallel and can be easily extended to handle huge amount of Twitter data. This article also presents a potential solution to the problem of lacking sufficient training data. Specifically, to effectively classify the tweets associated with product A, one can use tweets associated with other products in the same category of product A to train a classification model. This suggests the homogeneity of tweets from similar products in the context of sentiment classification.
Rest Easy with Intravenous Iron for Dialysis Patients? High Dose IV Iron Safety.

Most in the nephrology community would agree on the necessity of intravenous iron to treat anemia for patients receiving dialysis. The cumulative average yearly blood loss is high among individuals receiving hemodialysis and leads to an estimated loss of over 2 g of iron per annum ([1][1]).
Quantifying vulnerability of Antarctic ice shelves to hydrofracture using microwave scattering properties

Abstract Recent ice shelf disintegrations on the Antarctic Peninsula and subsequent increases in ice sheet mass loss have highlighted the importance of tracking ice shelf stability with respect to surface melt ponding and hydrofracture. In this study, we use active microwave scatterometry in time-series to estimate melt season duration, and winter backscatter levels as a proxy for relative concentration of refrozen ice lenses in Antarctic ice shelf firn. We demonstrate a physical relationship between melt days and firn/ice backscatter using scatterometry and field data from Greenland, and apply the observed relationship to derive and map a vulnerability index for Antarctica's ice shelves. The index reveals that some remaining Antarctic Peninsula ice shelves have already reached a firn state that is vulnerable to hydrofracture. We also show that the progression of an ice shelf towards vulnerability is affected by many factors, such as surface mass balance, internal stresses, and ice shelf geometry.
Correction to: Is the Maker Movement Inclusive of ANYONE?: Three Accessibility Considerations to Invite Blind Makers to the Making World

The original version of this article unfortunately contained a mistake. Instead of replacing the word “snap” to “squish” in a specific sentence, all the “snap” words in the article were changed.
Constructing Culturally Sensitive Creative Interventions for Use with Grieving Children and Adolescents

ABSTRACTA family’s culture dictates not only the established traditions for mourning, but also the ways in which a person may internalize the experience of loss. In addition to viewing death within...
Moderate or severe valvular heart disease and outcomes in allogeneic stem cell transplantation

Abstract Background A Hematopoietic Cell Transplantation-Specific Comorbidity Index (HCT-CI) was previously developed showing that multiple comorbidities including moderate or greater valvular heart disease to be predictors of non-relapse mortality after allogeneic HCT. However, detailed description of the impact of valve disease on outcomes is lacking. Methods Among a large cohort of patients given allogeneic HCT between 2000 and 2017, we identified 21 patients with moderate or severe valvular disease. We also identified a cohort of 42 controls matched on age and HCT-CI score. The primary outcome was all-cause mortality, with censoring at two years of follow-up. Secondary outcomes included mortality without relapse, duration of index admission, number of readmissions, increase in creatinine and peak troponin. Results Non-myeloablative regimens were more common in the valve disease cohort compared to controls (86% vs 54% p = 0.012). Valvular disease was associated with increased all-cause mortality with adjusted hazard ratio of 2.17 (CI 1.08–4.34, p = 0.029) and for non-relapse mortality with adjusted hazard ratio of 2.53 (CI 1.16–5.52, p = 0.020). In the valve disease cohort, creatinine increased by 1.6 vs 0.9 mg/dL (p = 0.003) and peak troponin by 1.6 vs 0.3 ng/mL (p = 0.05) compared to controls. There was no difference in readmissions or length of stay when accounting for outpatient treatment. Conclusions Despite having similar pre-procedure risk factors and undergoing less aggressive chemotherapy regimens, patients with moderate valvular disease or greater, most of whom did not meet current guideline recommendations for repair, had worse non-relapse related outcomes with higher mortality, renal and myocardial injury.
Jitter-free, dual-wavelength, ultrashort-pulse, energetic fiber sources using soliton self-mode conversion

We demonstrate an energetic dual-wavelength ultrashort pulsed source by exploiting the inherent features of the newly discovered process of soliton self-mode conversion (SSMC) in a multimode fiber. The generated pulses are at wavelengths of 1205 nm and 1273 nm, respectively, and the pulse energies are approximately 30 nJ. The natural group-velocity-locking feature of SSMC ensures minimal relative timing jitter, hence highlighting the utility of exploiting the new degrees of freedom afforded by field of multimode nonlinear fiber optics. The relative timing jitter is evaluated by measuring the power fluctuations of generated sum-frequency signals. When compared to a conventional fiber based dual-wavelength source based on traditional frequency-shifted solitons, the relative timing jitter is found to be reduced by greater than 11 dB. Since this process is wavelength-agnostic within the transparency window of optical fibers, our source provides an attractive means of achieving integrated multi-color ultrashort pulse sources for a variety of applications.
Galaxy bias and σ8 from counts in cells from the SDSS main sample

The counts-in-cells (CIC) galaxy probability distribution depends on both the dark matter clustering amplitude $\sigma_8$ and the galaxy bias $b$. We present a theory for the CIC distribution based on a previous prescription of the underlying dark matter distribution and a linear volume transformation to redshift space. We show that, unlike the power spectrum, the CIC distribution breaks the degeneracy between $\sigma_8$ and $b$ on scales large enough that both bias and redshift distortions are still linear; thus we obtain a simultaneous fit for both parameters. We first validate the technique on the Millennium Simulation and then apply it to the SDSS Main Galaxy Sample. We find $\sigma_8 = 0.94^{+.11}_{-.10}$ and $b = 1.36^{+.14}_{-.11}$, consistent with previous complementary results from redshift distortions and from Planck.
Capacity-achieving Polar-based LDGM Codes.

In this paper, we study codes with sparse generator matrices. More specifically, low-density generator matrix (LDGM) codes with a certain constraint on the weight of all the columns in the generator matrix are considered. In this paper, it is first shown that when a binary-input memoryless symmetric (BMS) channel $W$ and a constant $s>0$ are given, there exists a polarization kernel such that the corresponding polar code is capacity-achieving and the column weights of the generator matrices are bounded from above by $N^s$. Then, a general construction based on a concatenation of polar codes and a rate-$1$ code, and a new column-splitting algorithm that guarantees a much sparser generator matrix is given. More specifically, for any BMS channel and any $\epsilon > 2\epsilon^*$, where $\epsilon^* \approx 0.085$, an existence of sequence of capacity-achieving codes with all the column wights of the generator matrix upper bounded by $(\log N)^{1+\epsilon}$ is shown. Furthermore, coding schemes for BEC and BMS channels, based on a second column-splitting algorithm are devised with low-complexity decoding that uses successive-cancellation. The second splitting algorithm allows for the use of a low-complexity decoder by preserving the reliability of the bit-channels observed by the source bits, and by increasing the code block length. In particular, for any BEC and any $\lambda >\lambda^* = 0.5+\epsilon^*$, the existence of a sequence of capacity-achieving codes where all the column wights of the generator matrix are bounded from above by $(\log N)^{2\lambda}$ and with decoding complexity $O(N\log \log N)$ is shown. The existence of similar capacity-achieving LDGM codes with low-complexity decoding is shown for any BMS channel, and for any $\lambda >\lambda^{\dagger} \approx 0.631$.
Do Gasoline Prices Respond Asymmetrically to Crude Oil Price Changes

Our empirical investigation confirms the common belief that retail gasoline prices react more quickly to increases in crude oil prices than to decreases. Nearly all of the response to a crude oil price increase shows up in the pump price within 4 weeks, while decreases are passed along gradually over 8 weeks. The asymmetry could indicate market power of some producers or distributors, or it could result from inventory adjustment costs. By analyzing price transmission at different points in the distribution chain we investigate these theories. We find that some asymmetry occurs at the level of the competitive spot market for gasoline, perhaps reflecting inventory costs. Wholesale gasoline prices, however, exhibit no asymmetry in responding to crude oil price changes, indicating that refiners who set wholesale prices are not the source of the asymmetry. The most significant asymmetry appears in the response of retail prices to wholesale price changes. We argue that this probably reflects short run market power among retail gasoline sellers.
The Testimony of the Hoofprints: Danish Legends about the Medieval Union Queen Margrethe

Barbro Klein’s “The Testimony of the Button” is still, fifty years after it appeared, a fundamental study of legends and legend scholarship. Inspired by Klein’s article, I analyze legends about “lord and lady” Margrethe (1353–1412), who reigned for decades as the effective ruler of the medieval union of Denmark, Norway, and Sweden. Proceeding through various groups of related legends, I show how these legends were adapted to Margrethe’s anomalous status as a female war leader, including their cross-fertilization with robber legends and the use of a ruse usually associated with male protagonists. This article ends by indicating the importance of place within history as articulated in legends.
White Matter Microstructure in the Young Adult Brain Varies with Neighborhood Disadvantage in Adolescence.

Abstract Neighborhood disadvantage and community violence are common in poor, urban communities and are risk factors for emotional dysfunction. Emotional processes are supported by neural circuitry that includes the prefrontal cortex (PFC), hippocampus, amygdala, and hypothalamus. These brain regions are connected by white matter pathways that include the cingulum bundle, uncinate fasciculus, stria terminalis, and fornix. Emotional function varies with the microstructure of these white matter pathways. However, it is not clear whether the microstructure of these pathways varies with risk factors for emotional dysfunction (e.g., neighborhood disadvantage and violence exposure). Therefore, determining the relationships between neighborhood disadvantage, violence exposure, and white matter microstructure may offer insight into the neural mechanisms by which adverse life experiences alter developing neural systems. The current study investigated the association that exposure to neighborhood disadvantage and violence have with the quantitative anisotropy (QA), a measure of the amount of directional water diffusion, of the cingulum bundle, uncinate fasciculus, stria terminalis, and fornix. Neighborhood disadvantage (Mage = 11.20) and violence exposure (MW1age = 11.20; MW2age = 13.05; MW3age = 16.20; MW4age = 19.25) were assessed during adolescence and participants returned for magnetic resonance imaging as young adults (N = 303; Mage = 20.25, SD = 1.55), during which diffusion weighted brain images were collected. The QA of the cingulum bundle, uncinate fasciculus, and stria terminalis/fornix varied negatively with neighborhood disadvantage such that the QA of these white matter tracts decreased as neighborhood disadvantage increased. Violence exposure was not related to QA in any tract (i.e., cingulum bundle, uncinate fasciculus, and stria terminalis/fornix) after correction for multiple comparisons. These results suggest that an adolescent’s neighborhood may play an important role in the microstructure (i.e., QA) of white matter pathways that connect brain regions that support emotional function.
Detecting and localizing keyboard accessibility failures in web applications

The keyboard is the most universally supported input method operable by people with disabilities. Yet, many popular websites lack keyboard accessible mechanism, which could cause failures that make the website unusable. In this paper, we present a novel approach for automatically detecting and localizing keyboard accessibility failures in web applications. Our extensive evaluation of our technique on real world web pages showed that our technique was able to detect keyboard failures in web applications with high precision and recall and was able to accurately identify the underlying elements in the web pages that led to the observed problems.
Applications of Multicriteria Methods to Operations Management

Most of the research in production/operations management has focussed on optimizing a single performance or evaluation measure. In this paper a framework is proposed for research on production problems when more than one performance measure is required for design and analysis. Several research directions in the areas of job shop scheduling, materials management, aggregate planning, automated manufacturing, and manufacturing strategy are discussed.
Modeling The CF 4 Laser

AbstractThe CO2- pumped CF4 laser is a potentially useful source of line -tunable infrared radia-tion in the region 605 -655 cm -1, and the spectroscopy of CF4 has been carried to the pointthat the laser frequencies that will result from any given pump line can be calculated tobetter than 0.01 cm 1. We now report quantitative intensity and line- broadening studies onCF4 and their application to modeling the laser gain. First, absorption measurements onisolated lines in the v2 + v4 pump band at a series of pressures yield an effective transi-tion dipole moment for this band of 0.010 Debye. At the same time the transition moment forthe (v2 + v4) - v2 laser band has been calculated and agrees well with the results of laserself -absorption measurements. Finally, linewidths determined as a function of pressureyield a pressure -broadening coefficient of ca. 10 MHz /torr, significantly greater than thatexpected from a hard -sphere gas- kinetic model. From these data the gain of the CF4 lasercan be calculated at various pressures and temperatures; the results are in reasonableagreement with measured values.IntroductionWhen v2 + v4 of CF4 at 1066 cm -1 is pumped by a 9.4 um CO2 laser, stimulated emissionoccurs for the (v2 + v4) - v2 transition and produces many discrete laser lines in the 605
Survey of Some Recent Stellar-Evolution Calculations

The stellar-evolution program developed by Sweigart (1973) was used to compute main sequence turnoff, red giant sequences, and horizontal branch sequences for many values of helium abundance and heavy-element abundance. The immediate aim has been to produce a self-consistent set of evolutionary sequences for wide ranges in the composition and mass. The long-term aim involves application to cluster HR diagrams and the integrated properties of galaxies. Turnoff sequences, red giant sequences, and horizontal branch sequences are discussed.
Discovering compact and highly discriminative features or combinations of drug activities using support vector machines

Nowadays, high throughput experimental techniques make it feasible to examine and collect massive data at the molecular level. These data, typically mapped to a very high dimensional feature space, carry rich information about functionalities of certain chemical or biological entities and can be used to infer valuable knowledge for the purposes of classification and prediction. Typically, a small number of features or feature combinations may play determinant roles in functional discrimination. The identification of such features or feature combinations is of great importance. In this paper, we study the problem of discovering compact and highly discriminative features or feature combinations from a rich feature collection. We employ the support vector machine as the classification means and aim at finding compact feature combinations. Comparing to previous methods on feature selection, which identify features solely based on their individual roles in the classification, our method is able to identify minimal feature combinations that ultimately have determinant roles in a systematic fashion. Experimental study on drug activity data shows that our method can discover descriptors that are not necessarily significant individually but are most significant collectively.
ERG phenotype of a dystrophin mutation in heterozygous female carriers of Duchenne muscular dystrophy

PURPOSE—Mutations in the dystrophin gene result in Duchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD). DMD is associated with an abnormal electroretinogram (ERG) if the mutation disrupts the translation of retinal dystrophin (Dp260). Our aim was to determine if incomplete ERG abnormalities would be associated with heterozygous carriers of dystrophin gene mutations. METHODS—Ganzfeld ERGs were obtained under scotopic and photopic testing conditions from a family which includes the heterozygous maternal grandmother, the heterozygous mother, and her children, two affected boys and dizygotic twin sibs, an unaffected male and heterozygous female. Southern blot analyses were done to characterise the dystrophin mutation. RESULTS—The dystrophin gene was found to contain a deletion encompassing exon 50. The ERGs in the two affected boys were abnormal, consistent with the DMD ERG phenotype. Serial ERGs of the heterozygous females were abnormal; however, they were less severely affected than the DMD boys. The ERG of the female sib showed a greater abnormality than her mother and maternal grandmother. The unaffected twin had a normal ERG. CONCLUSIONS—The ERG shows abnormalities associated with carrier status in this family with a single exon deletion. A large study of confirmed obligate carriers is planned to clarify further the value of the ERG in detecting female heterozygous carriers of dystrophin gene mutations. Keywords: muscular dystrophy; electroretinography; retina; dystrophin
Impact of Smoking Cessation Before Resection of Lung Cancer: A Society of Thoracic Surgeons General Thoracic Surgery Database Study

Background Smoking cessation is presumed to be beneficial before resection of lung cancer. The effect of smoking cessation on outcome was investigated. Methods From January 1999 to July 2007, in-hospital outcomes for 7990 primary resections for lung cancer in adults were reported to the Society of Thoracic Surgeons General Thoracic Surgery Database. Risk of hospital death and respiratory complications was assessed according to timing of smoking cessation, adjusted for clinical confounders. Results Hospital mortality was 1.4% (n = 109), but 1.5% in patients who had smoked (105 of 6965) vs 0.39% in those who had not (4 of 1025). Compared with the latter, risk-adjusted odds ratios were 3.5 (p = 0.03), 4.6 (p = 0.03), 2.6 (p = 0.7), and 2.5 (p = 0.11) for those whose timing of smoking cessation was categorized as current smoker, quit from 14 days to 1 month, 1 to 12 months, or more than 12 months preoperatively, respectively. Prevalence of major pulmonary complications was 5.7% (456 of 7965) overall, but 6.2% in patients who had smoked (429 of 6941) vs 2.5%% in those who had not (27 of 1024). Compared with the latter, risk-adjusted odds ratios were 1.80 (p = 0.03), 1.62 (p = 0.14), 1.51 (p = 0.20), and 1.29 (p = 0.3) for those whose timing of smoking cessation was categorized as above. Conclusions Risks of hospital death and pulmonary complications after lung cancer resection were increased by smoking and mitigated slowly by preoperative cessation. No optimal interval of smoking cessation was identifiable. Patients should be counseled to stop smoking irrespective of surgical timing.
Commodification of Transitioning Ethnic Enclaves

This literature review examines the changing roles of ethnic enclaves, the question of their authenticity, and their value as commodified spaces, giving special attention to Little Italy neighborhoods in the United States. Understanding the roles of ethnic enclaves requires some understanding about immigrants’ identities. For some theorists, immigrants become blended into society over the course of generations; for other theorists, descendants of immigrants sometimes retain their cultural heritage and traits, helping form a multicultural or pluralist society. In the traditional sense, ethnic enclaves consist of both ethnic residents and ethnic businesses (such as restaurants, shops, and grocers). One way that ethnic enclaves change is when the area experiences a demographic shift, and people from outside the ethnic group move their residences and businesses to the neighborhood, resulting in the area becoming diversified in people and businesses. A second way that an ethnic enclave changes is when the ethnic group shrinks, but the shops and other businesses remain, resulting in the area becoming diversified in residents but not businesses. This latter situation may encourage commodification of the neighborhood’s ethnic identity, where a municipality or business association seeks to preserve an enclave’s ethnic reputation for tourism purposes. This commodification has implications for many individuals and groups within the enclave as well as outside of it.
Collaboration transparency in the DISCIPLE framework

Sharing single-user software applications is a major goal of synchronous groupware particularly because the majority of applications continues to be developed for single users. We present a mechanism for sharing collaboration-transparent single-user applications in our DISCIPLE collaboration framework. DISCIPLE is the equivalent of a Web browser that allows sharing applets (Java components, both transparent and aware of collaboration). It allows users with no programming background to quickly assemble arbitrary collaborative applications. Even though the presented solutions are specific to Java, many apply to other platforms as well. We introduce a novel concept of resource servers to solve the problem of resource access in collaboration-transparent applications. We also discuss the limitations of the framework in particular and of sharing collaboration-transparent applications in general. The framework has been implemented and tested on a variety of applications. Preliminary experimental results are reported.
Lowbush Blueberry (Vaccinium angustifolium) with Irrigated and Rain-Fed Conditions

SUMMARY Growers desire a better understanding of the effect of irrigation on lowbush blueberry (Vaccinium angustifolium) crop yield and quality. A randomized block design of irrigated and rain-fed plots was established in a lowbush blueberry field near the coast of Maine. The irrigated plots averaged 43% higher yield than rain-fed plots for the 2000-2001 production cycle. Irrigated plots had the highest yield three weeks after the highest yield for the rain-fed plots. Rain-fed berries had greater firmness, higher Brix solids and lower moisture content than irrigated berries for three different harvest dates. Berry size distribution was not significantly different for treatments, but for different harvest dates the berry size distributions were significantly different.
Muscle surface membranes: preparative methods affect apparent chemical properties and neurotoxin binding.

Abstract Considerable disagreement exists between results reported by various authors for lipid composition and enzyme activity in purified muscle membrane fractions presumed to be sarcolemma, although an explanation for these discrepancies has not been presented. We have prepared muscle light surface membrane fractions of comparable density (1.050–1.120) by a low-salt sucrose method and by an LiBr-KCl extraction procedure and compared them for density profile, total lipid and cholesterol content, protein composition and ATPase activity. In addition, sodium channels characteristic of excitable membranes have been quantitated in each preparation using [3H]saxitoxin binding assays, and the density of acetylcholine receptors determined in fractions from control and denervated muscle using α-[125I]bungarotoxin. Although both fractions contain predominantly surface membrane, the LiBr fraction consistently shows the higher specific activity of p- nitrophenylphosphatase , higher free cholesterol content, and higher density of sodium channels and acetylcholine receptors. The density distribution of sodium channels appears uniform throughout both fractions. Quantitative differences were seen between sodium dodecyl sulfatepolyacrylamide gel electrophoresis patterns of membrane proteins from the two preparations although most bands are represented in both. A majority of the low-salt sucrose light membrane proteins were accessible in varying degrees to labelling with diazotized diiodosulfanylic acid in intact muscle. These results suggest that light surface membrane fractions may be mixtures of sarcolemma and T-tubular membranes. Using our preparative methods, the LiBr fraction may contain predominantly sarcolemma while low-salt sucrose light membranes may be enriched in T-tubular elements.
Fatigue crack growth behavior of Ti–6Al–4V alloy forging

Results of two test programs (TP-1 and TP-2) are presented here to investigate: (1) the transition from Regime I to Regime II fatigue-crack growth behavior in a room-temperature high-humidity environment (TP-1); and (2) elevated-temperature fatigue-crack growth behavior of Ti–6Al–4V alloy (TP-2). Constant-amplitude tests were conducted for both at several stress ratios (R=0.05, 0.4 and 0.7) to study the transition of structure-sensitive fatigue crack growth in TP-1, and several temperatures were studied at R=0.1 in TP-2. Middle-tension (MT) specimens were used for the former case, whereas compact-tension specimens were used for the latter. Conventionally forged Ti–6Al–4V alloy processed to a solution-treated and over-aged condition was used for both programs. Temperatures for the TP-2 were: room temperature, 175, 230, 290 and 345 °C. An increase in stress ratio and temperature lowered the transitional stress intensity factor range where Regime I shifts to Regime II (steady-state region). A higher stress ratio accelerated the fatigue crack growth rates. However, higher temperature up to 345 °C influenced the crack growth rates only marginally. An empirical correlation equation was developed and validated to predict the transitional stress intensity factor for a number of materials. Distinct transition and crack growth behaviors were recorded for each stress ratio and temperature for TP-1 and TP-2, respectively.
The prevalence of older couples with ADL limitations and factors associated with ADL help receipt.

Using the Andersen-Newman model, we investigated the prevalence of activities of daily living (ADLs) limitations in married couples, and couple characteristics associated with ADL help-receipt. In this sample of 3,235 couples age 65+ in the 2004 Health and Retirement Study, 74.3%, 22.1%, and 3.6% were couples in which neither partner, one partner, or both partners had limitations, respectively. Logistic regression results indicate that help-receipt was associated with certain health needs in the couple, but not with their predisposing characteristics or enabling resources. Social workers could target couples most in need of assistance by assessing both partners’ health problems.
Quantitative Electroencephalogram of Posterior Cortical Areas of Fluent and Stuttering Participants during Reading with Normal and Altered Auditory Feedback

In the left and right hemisphere, posterior quantitative electroencephalogram Beta band activity (13.5–25.5 Hz) of seven adult participants who stutter and seven age-matched normal controls was obtained while subjects read text under three experimental conditions of normal auditory feedback, delayed auditory feedback, and frequency-altered feedback. Data were obtained from surface electrodes affixed to the scalp using a commercial electrode cap. Electroencephalogram activity was amplified, band-pass analog-filtered, and then digitized. During nonaltered auditory feedback, stuttering participants displayed Beta band hyperreactivity, with the right temporal-parietal lobe region showing the greatest activity. Under conditions of delayed auditory feedback and frequency-altered auditory feedback, the stuttering participants displayed a decrease in stuttering behavior accompanied by a strong reduction in Beta activity for the posterior-temporal-parietal electrode sites, and the left hemisphere posterior sites e...
High-temperature differentiability of lattice Gibbs states by Dobrushin uniqueness techniques

We establish conditions for the differentiability, to any order, of the Gibbs states of classical lattice systems with arbitrary compact single-spin space and with interactions in the Dobrushin uniqueness region. The derivatives are expressed as series expansions and are shown to be continuous on the uniqueness region. We also provide a procedure for estimating the size of the derivatives. These results verify a conjecture of L. Gross and extend his results in “Absence of second-order phase transitions in the Dobrushin uniqueness region,”Journal of Statistical Physics25(1):57–72 (1981). The techniques of this paper are based on those employed by Gross.
Veterinary Parasitology: Developments in Immunology, Epidemiology and Control

1. Preface R. J. Martin 2. Simulating Dictoyocaulus viviparus infection in calves: the parasitic phase H. W. Ploeger and M. Eysker 3. Vaccine development and diagnostics of Dictoyocaulus viviparus J. B. McKeand 4. The immune response and the evaluation of acquired immunity against gastrointestinal nematodes in cattle: a review E. Claerebout and J. Vercruysse 5. Development of vaccines against gastrointestinal nematodes D. Knox 6. Immunological responses of sheep to Haemonchus contortus H. D. F. H. Schallig 7. Impact of nutrition on the pathophysiology of bovine trypanosomiasis P. H. Holmes, E. Katunguka-Rwakishaya, J. J. Benison, G. J. Wassink and J. J. Parkins 8. Electrophysiological investigation of anthelmintic resistance R. J. Martin 9. The development of anthelmintic resistance in sheep nematodes F. Jackson and R. L. Coop 10. Value of present diagnostic methods for gastrointestinal nematode infections in ruminants M. Eysker and H. W. Ploeger 11. Prospects for controlling animal parasitic nematodes by predacious micro fungi M. Larsen 12. Onchocerca ochengi infections in cattle as a model for human onchocerciasis: recent developments A. J. Trees, S. P. Graham, A. Renz, A. E. Bianco and V. Tanya.