cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Counting Exceptional Points for Rational Numbers Associated to the Fibonacci Sequence

If $$\alpha $$ is a non-zero algebraic number, we let $$m(\alpha )$$ denote the Mahler measure of the minimal polynomial of $$\alpha $$ over $$\mathbb Z$$ . A series of articles by Dubickas and Smyth, and later by the author, develop a modified version of the Mahler measure called the t-metric Mahler measure, denoted $$m_t(\alpha )$$ . For fixed $$\alpha \in \overline{\mathbb Q}$$ , the map $$t\mapsto m_t(\alpha )$$ is continuous, and moreover, is infinitely differentiable at all but finitely many points, called exceptional points for $$\alpha $$ . It remains open to determine whether there is a sequence of elements $$\alpha _n\in \overline{\mathbb Q}$$ such that the number of exceptional points for $$\alpha _n$$ tends to $$\infty $$ as $$n\rightarrow \infty $$ . We utilize a connection with the Fibonacci sequence to formulate a conjecture on the t-metric Mahler measures. If the conjecture is true, we prove that it is best possible and that it implies the existence of rational numbers with as many exceptional points as we like. Finally, with some computational assistance, we resolve various special cases of the conjecture that constitute improvements to earlier results.
Outcomes and feasibility of nipple-sparing mastectomy for node-positive breast cancer patients

Abstract Background While nipple-sparing mastectomy (NSM) is gaining acceptance for risk reduction and for treatment of early stage breast cancer, node-positive disease remains a relative contraindication. Our aim was to evaluate the use and outcomes of NSM in node-positive breast cancer patients. Methods We identified 240 cancers in 226 patients (14 bilateral) scheduled for NSM and operated on between 1/2009 and 6/2014. We compared outcomes for 58 node-positive vs 182 node-negative patients. Results Intraoperative conversion to skin-sparing mastectomy was similar for node-positive and node-negative patients, 10% and 7%, as was 1-year success of NSM, 84% and 90%, respectively. Five-year locoregional disease-free estimates were 82% (95% CI 68%–99%) for node-positive and 99% (95% CI 96%–100%) for node-negative patients, P = .004; however, there were no nipple-areolar recurrences among node-positive patients. Conclusions With careful consideration of biologic and anatomic risk factors for recurrence, these data suggest that NSM is a reasonable option for selected node-positive breast cancer patients.
OUTCOME OF PROXIMAL POLE SCAPHOID NONUNION TREATED WITH ANTEGRADE HEADLESS COMPRESSION SCREW AND BONE GRAFT

Scaphoid fractures accounts for approximately 15% of all fractures of hand and wrist. Proximal pole fractures represent 10–20% of scaphoid fractures. Non –operative treatment shows high incidence of non-union and avascular necrosis. Surgical intervention with bone graft is associated with better outcome. The aim of this study was to evaluate the radiological and functional outcome of management of proximal pole scaphoid non-union with internal fixation and bone grafting. We included 35 patients with proximal pole scaphoid non-union (2008–2015). All patients underwent antegrade headless compression screw fixation and bone grafting at King9s College Hospital, London (except one, who was fixed with Kirschner wire). 33 patients had bone graft from distal radius and two from iliac crest. Postoperatively patients were treated in plaster for 6–8 weeks, followed by splinting for 4–6 weeks and hand physiotherapy. All the patients were analysed at the final follow-up using DASH score and x-rays. Mean age of the patients was 28 years (20–61) in 32 men and 3 women. We lost three patients (9%) to follow up. At a mean follow up of 16 weeks (12–18) twenty three patients (66%) achieved radiological union. All patients but three (91%) achieved good functional outcome at mean follow up of 14 weeks (10–16). A good functional outcome can be achieved with surgical fixation and bone graft in proximal pole scaphoid fractures non-union. Pre-operative fragmentation of proximal pole dictates type of fixation (screw or k wire or no fixation). There was no difference in outcome whether graft was harvested from distal radius or iliac crest.
The water content of recurring slope lineae on Mars

Observations of recurring slope lineae (RSL) from the High-Resolution Imaging Science Experiment have been interpreted as present-day, seasonally variable liquid water flows; however, orbital spectroscopy has not confirmed the presence of liquid H2O, only hydrated salts. Thermal Emission Imaging System (THEMIS) temperature data and a numerical heat transfer model definitively constrain the amount of water associated with RSL. Surface temperature differences between RSL-bearing and dry RSL-free terrains are consistent with no water associated with RSL and, based on measurement uncertainties, limit the water content of RSL to at most 0.5–3 wt %. In addition, distinct high thermal inertia regolith signatures expected with crust-forming evaporitic salt deposits from cyclical briny water flows are not observed, indicating low water salinity (if any) and/or low enough volumes to prevent their formation. Alternatively, observed salts may be preexisting in soils at low abundances (i.e., near or below detection limits) and largely immobile. These RSL-rich surfaces experience ~100 K diurnal temperature oscillations, possible freeze/thaw cycles and/or complete evaporation on time scales that challenge their habitability potential. The unique surface temperature measurements provided by THEMIS are consistent with a dry RSL hypothesis or at least significantly limit the water content of Martian RSL.
Costa Rican gut fungi (Trichomycetes) infeting lotic insect larvae

Trichomycetes infecting freshwater Ephemeroptera and Diptera (Siinuliidae, Chironomidae) in various life zones oC Costa Rica were studied. Insect populations in 36 streams were sampled, a few repeatedly, at four different . perlods of time over seven years. Eleven new species of Harpellales are reported, plus six species known to occur also in n ontropical parts oi the world. Included are new species of Harpella and Pennella , a new monotypic genus ( Graminelloides) , and four new species of the previously monotypic genera Spartiella and Genistellospora . Seven new Smittium species, including three that are not named at this time, were cultured axenically. A new Amoebidium (Amoebidiales) was found in a stream polluted with organic matter. In the same polluted stream more species of dipteran larvae and a greater number of gut fungi were present than in stretclies of unpolluted water upstream. The overall diversity of Harpellales and their aquatic insect hosts in most Costa Rican streams appeared to be lower than what the author has found in many lotic habitats in more northem and southem regions of the world, and thus this order of fungi may be an exception to the 'latitudinal species diversity gradient' concept as it applies to many other tropical organisms. A key to all 23 Tric homycetes now known to be present in Costa Rica is provided
Full-Reference Video Quality Estimation for Videos With Different Spatial Resolutions

Full-reference (FR) video quality estimators (QEs) resize either the distorted input video or the reference video to compute the quality when these videos have different spatial resolutions. This resizing operation causes several limitations. Multiscale Image Quality Estimator (MIQE) overcomes those limitations for images, but it does not consider the temporal characteristics of video. In this paper, we develop an FR video QE that integrates MIQE with the motion information to estimate the quality of the distorted video without resampling the reference or the test videos. We also perform subjective tests to compare the proposed algorithm with the existing QEs. In these tests, the reference and the input videos are displayed at their native resolutions. The test results show that the proposed algorithm outperforms other QEs when the reference video and the input video have different spatial resolutions. We have also evaluated the performance of the approach using the Scalable Video Database.
Numerical simulation of a practical chemical vapor deposition reactor

ABSTRACTNumerical simulation was set up to study a rotating vertical impinging chemical vapor deposition (CVD) system for the fabrication of thin films. It has been becoming very costly for manufacturers to produce high potent thin films due to the excessive waste of materials and high energy costs. A numerical study can be used to model and optimize the CVD reactor to yield favorable operating conditions. A simple geometry consisting of a rotating susceptor and flow guide is considered. The study shows visually how the temperature changes as the carrier gases respond to the thermal transport, and the effects of rotation and buoyancy. Commercially available software is used, with modifications, and the results obtained are discussed in detail.
Time-independent wormholes

Prepared for submission to JHEP arXiv:1610.08069v1 [hep-th] 25 Oct 2016 Time-independent wormholes Zicao Fu, Donald Marolf, and Eric Mefford Department of Physics, University of California, Santa Barbara, CA 93106, USA E-mail: zicaofu@physics.ucsb.edu, marolf@physics.ucsb.edu, mefford@physics.ucsb.edu Abstract: We study two-sided static wormholes with an exact Killing symmetry that translates both mouths of the wormhole toward the future. This differs from the familiar Kruskal wormhole whose time translation is future-directed only in one asymp- totic region and is instead past-directed in the other. Our spacetimes are solutions to Einstein-Hilbert gravity sourced by scalar domain walls. Explicit examples are found in the thin wall approximation. More generally, we show that such spacetimes can arise in the presence of scalar fields with potentials that are C 1 but not C 2 and find examples numerically. However, solutions with an exact such Killing symmetry are forbidden when the scalar potential is smooth. Finally, we consider the mutual information of boundary regions associated with such wormholes in AdS/CFT. Although the interior of our solutions are unstable, we find that even mutual informations between opposite boundaries are already thermalized at any finite t in the sense that they agree with the t → ∞ limit of results from the familiar AdS-Kruskal solution.
Low-loss microdisk-based delay lines for narrowband optical filters

Over-coupled microdisk resonators with high intrinsic Qs are proposed as compact and low insertion-loss delay lines for narrowband optical filters. Design principles and preliminary experimental results are presented.
Chiral extrapolation of the sigma resonance

Abstract We analyze results on isoscalar ππ scattering from a N f = 2 + 1 lattice QCD calculation by the HadronSpectrum collaboration by re-summing the two-flavor chiral scattering amplitude of the next-to-leading order in the so-called inverse amplitude method. The lattice data can be well extrapolated to the physical pion mass. We also find that both I = 0 and I = 1 lattice data can be described simultaneously for pion masses up to M π = 236 MeV. Our analysis of the lattice data suggests that the f 0 ( 500 ) or σ resonance becomes a bound state at M π ≈ 320 MeV. A future lattice simulation at this pion mass can, therefore, be of large value for insight into properties of the isoscalar resonance.
Tensor switching networks

We present a novel neural network algorithm, the Tensor Switching (TS) network, which generalizes the Rectified Linear Unit (ReLU) nonlinearity to tensor-valued hidden units. The TS network copies its entire input vector to different locations in an expanded representation, with the location determined by its hidden unit activity. In this way, even a simple linear readout from the TS representation can implement a highly expressive deep-network-like function. The TS network hence avoids the vanishing gradient problem by construction, at the cost of larger representation size. We develop several methods to train the TS network, including equivalent kernels for infinitely wide and deep TS networks, a one-pass linear learning algorithm, and two backpropagation-inspired representation learning algorithms. Our experimental results demonstrate that the TS network is indeed more expressive and consistently learns faster than standard ReLU networks.
A generalized inverse for graphs with absorption

Abstract We consider weighted, directed graphs with a notion of absorption on the vertices, related to absorbing random walks on graphs. We define a generalized inverse of the graph Laplacian, called the absorption inverse, that reflects both the graph structure as well as the absorption rates on the vertices. Properties of this generalized inverse are presented, including a basic relationship between the absorption inverse and the group inverse of a related graph, a forest theorem for interpreting the entries of the absorption inverse, as well as relationships between the absorption inverse and the fundamental matrix of the absorbing random walk. Applications of the absorption inverse for describing the structure of graphs with absorption are given, including a directed distance metric, spectral partitioning algorithm, and centrality measure.
Novel functions of circulating Klotho

A significant portion of the key biological functions of αKlotho (αKL) and its cognate ligand Fibroblast growth factor-23 (FGF23) have been revealed through the study of rare diseases of mineral metabolism. These findings have far reaching implications for common disorders such as chronic kidney disease-mineral bone disorder (CKD-MBD). αKL's predominant effect on mineral homeostasis is through its actions in the kidney as a co-receptor for FGF23, however emerging data has shed light on its capacity to act as a circulating factor through the cleavage of the transmembrane form of αKL ('mKL') to produce 'cleaved KL' or 'cKL'. This review summarizes new findings from studies using extended delivery of cKL to mouse models with phenotypes reflecting those arising in CKD-MBD.
Alloying-Driven Phase Stability in Group-VB Transition Metals under Compression

The change in phase stability of Group-VB transition metals (V, Nb, and Ta) due to pressure and alloying is explored by means of first-principles electronic-structure calculations. It is shown that under compression stabilization or destabilization of the ground-state body-centered cubic (bcc) phase of the metal is mainly dictated by the band-structure energy. In the case of alloying the change in phase stability is defined by the interplay between the band-structure and Madelung energies. We show that band-structure effects determine phase stability when a particular Group-VB metal is alloyed with its nearest neighbors within the same d-transition series: the neighbor with less and more d electrons destabilize and stabilize the bcc phase, respectively. When V is alloyed with neighbors of a higher (4d- or 5d-) transition series, both electrostatic Madelung and band-structure energies stabilize the bcc phase. Utilizing the self-consistent ab initio lattice dynamics approach, we show that pressure-induced mechanical instability of bcc V, which results in formation of a rhombohedral (rh) phase at around 60-70 GPa at room temperatures, will prevail significant heating and compression. Furthermore, alloying with Cr decreases the temperature at which stabilization of the bcc phase occurs at elevated pressure.
Bayesian distributed lag interaction models to identify perinatal windows of vulnerability in children’s health

Epidemiological research supports an association between maternal exposure to air pollution during pregnancy and adverse children's health outcomes. Advances in exposure assessment and statistics allow for estimation of both critical windows of vulnerability and exposure effect heterogeneity. Simultaneous estimation of windows of vulnerability and effect heterogeneity can be accomplished by fitting a distributed lag model (DLM) stratified by subgroup. However, this can provide an incomplete picture of how effects vary across subgroups because it does not allow for subgroups to have the same window but different within-window effects or to have different windows but the same within-window effect. Because the timing of some developmental processes are common across subpopulations of infants while for others the timing differs across subgroups, both scenarios are important to consider when evaluating health risks of prenatal exposures. We propose a new approach that partitions the DLM into a constrained functional predictor that estimates windows of vulnerability and a scalar effect representing the within-window effect directly. The proposed method allows for heterogeneity in only the window, only the within-window effect, or both. In a simulation study we show that a model assuming a shared component across groups results in lower bias and mean squared error for the estimated windows and effects when that component is in fact constant across groups. We apply the proposed method to estimate windows of vulnerability in the association between prenatal exposures to fine particulate matter and each of birth weight and asthma incidence, and estimate how these associations vary by sex and maternal obesity status in a Boston-area prospective pre-birth cohort study.
Free-electron laser generation of VUV and X-ray radiation using a conditioned beam and ion-channel focusing

Abstract The use of ion-focusing and a conditioned beam greatly enhances FEL gain in the VUV and soft X-ray range. The equations governing FEL amplification are derived and results of a linear analysis are noted. Results of 3-D simulation are presented for a 30 A example, exhibiting an order of magnitude increase in gain.
Intermediate-range order in simple metal-phosphate glasses: The effect of metal cations on the phosphate-anion distribution

The technique of high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) has been used to determine the phosphate-anion distribution in a variety of metal phosphate glasses-including glasses made with the trivalent metal cations: Al, In, Ga, and La. The composition of each glass was chosen so that the average phosphate chain length was between 2 and 4 PO4 tetrahedra. The widths of the resulting phosphate-anion chain-length distributions were determined directly from an analysis of the HPLC chromatograms. Literature values for the free energy of formation of the crystalline metal-orthophosphate compounds with respect to P2O5 and the metal oxide were compared to the width of the phosphate-anion chain-length distributions. We found that the smaller the energy of formation, the wider the distribution of phosphate chains, and the greater the ease of glass formation.
Parabolic Omori–Yau Maximum Principle for Mean Curvature Flow and Some Applications

We derive a parabolic version of Omori–Yau maximum principle for a proper mean curvature flow when the ambient space has lower bound on $$\ell $$ -sectional curvature. We apply this to show that the image of Gauss map is preserved under a proper mean curvature flow in euclidean spaces with uniformly bounded second fundamental forms. This generalizes the result of Wang (Math Res Lett 10:287–299, 2003) for compact immersions. We also prove a Omori–Yau maximum principle for properly immersed self-shrinkers, which improves a result in Chen et al. (Ann Glob Anal Geom 46:259–279, 2014).
A physically based hydrological connectivity algorithm for describing spatial patterns of soil moisture in the unsaturated zone

Hydrologic connectivity has been proposed as an important concept for understanding local processes in the context of catchment hydrology. It can be useful for characterizing the soil moisture variability in complex heterogeneous landscapes. The current land surface models (e.g., Community Land Model, CLM) could not completely account for flow path continuity and connected patterns of subsurface properties in the unsaturated zone. In this study, we developed a physically-based hydrologic connectivity algorithm based on dominant physical controls (e.g., topography, soil texture, vegetation) to better understand spatially distributed subsurface flow and improve the parameterization of soil hydraulic properties in hydrological modeling. We investigated the effects of mixed physical controls on soil moisture spatial variability and developed hydrologic connectivity using various thresholds. The connectivity was used for identifying the soil moisture variability and applied in a distributed land surface model (CLM) for calibrating soil hydraulic properties and improving model performance for estimating spatially distributed soil moisture. The proposed concept was tested in two watersheds (Little Washita (LW) in Oklahoma and Upper South Skunk (USS) in Iowa) comparing estimated soil moisture with the airborne remote sensing data (Electronically Scanning Thinned Array Radiometer (ESTAR) and Polarimetric Scanning Radiometer (PSR)). Our finding demonstrated that the spatial variations of soil moisture could be described well using physically-based hydrologic connectivity, and the land surface model performance was improved by using the calibrated (distributed) soil hydraulic parameters. In addition, we found that the calibrated soil hydraulic parameters significantly affect model outputs not only on the water cycle, but also on surface energy budgets.
Deep learning is effective for the classification of OCT images of normal versus Age-related Macular Degeneration.

Purpose The advent of electronic medical records (EMRs) with large electronic imaging databases along with advances in deep neural networks with machine learning has provided a unique opportunity to achieve milestones in automated image analysis. Optical coherence tomography is the most common imaging modality in ophthalmology and represents a dense and rich data set when combined with labels derived from the EMR. We sought to determine whether deep learning could be utilized to distinguish normal OCT images from images from patients with age-related macular degeneration (AMD). Design EMR and OCT database study. Subjects Normal and AMD patients who underwent macular OCT. Methods Automated extraction of an OCT database was performed and linked to clinical end points from the EMR. Optical coherence tomography scans of the macula were obtained by Heidelberg Spectralis, and each OCT scan was linked to EMR clinical end points extracted from EPIC. The central 11 images were selected from each OCT scan of 2 cohorts of patients: normal and AMD. Cross-validation was performed using a random subset of patients. Receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curves were constructed at an independent image level, macular OCT level, and patient level. Main Outcome Measure Area under the ROC curve. Results Of a recent extraction of 2.6 million OCT images linked to clinical data points from the EMR, 52 690 normal macular OCT images and 48 312 AMD macular OCT images were selected. A deep neural network was trained to categorize images as either normal or AMD. At the image level, we achieved an area under the ROC curve of 92.78% with an accuracy of 87.63%. At the macula level, we achieved an area under the ROC curve of 93.83% with an accuracy of 88.98%. At a patient level, we achieved an area under the ROC curve of 97.45% with an accuracy of 93.45%. Peak sensitivity and specificity with optimal cutoffs were 92.64% and 93.69%, respectively. Conclusions The deep learning technique achieves high accuracy and is effective as a new image classification technique. These findings have important implications in utilizing OCT in automated screening and the development of computer-aided diagnosis tools in the future.
Spectral Algorithms for Temporal Graph Cuts

The sparsest cut problem consists of identifying a small set of edges that breaks the graph into balanced sets of vertices. The normalized cut problem balances the total degree, instead of the size, of the resulting sets. Applications of graph cuts include community detection and computer vision. However, cut problems were originally proposed for static graphs, an assumption that does not hold in many modern applications where graphs are highly dynamic. In this paper, we introduce sparsest and normalized cuts in temporal graphs, which generalize their standard definitions by enforcing the smoothness of cuts over time. We propose novel formulations and algorithms for computing temporal cuts using spectral graph theory, divide-and-conquer and low-rank matrix approximation. Furthermore, we extend temporal cuts to dynamic graph signals, where vertices have attributes. Experiments show that our solutions are accurate and scalable, enabling the discovery of dynamic communities and the analysis of dynamic graph processes.
Hyperbolic quasi-geodesics in CAT(0) spaces

We prove the equivalence of various hyperbolic type properties for quasi-geodesics in CAT(0) spaces. Specifically, in our main theorem we prove that for $$X$$ a CAT(0) space and $$\gamma \subset X$$ a quasi-geodesic, the following four statements are equivalent: (1) $$\gamma $$ is Morse, (2) $$\gamma $$ is (b,c)—contracting, (3) $$\gamma $$ is strongly contracting, and (4) in every asymptotic cone $$X_{\omega },$$ any two distinct points in the ultralimit $$\gamma _{\omega }$$ are separated by a cut-point. In particular, this characterization provides a converse to a generalized Morse stability lemma in the CAT(0) setting. In addition, under mild conditions we prove the equivalence of wideness and unconstrictedness in the CAT(0) setting.
Benefits and costs of a higher bank “leverage ratio”

Abstract This study reports estimates of the marginal benefits and costs of increasing the regulatory minimum bank equity-to-asset “leverage ratio” from 4 to 15 percent. Benefits arise from reducing the probability of a banking crisis. Costs arise from reduced lending, should banks pass off higher equity costs onto borrowers. Net benefits increase with a higher discount rate, a smaller tax advantage of debt, a lower non-financial corporate debt-to-capital ratio, a higher cost of crises, a longer duration of crises or if crises have some permanent effects. Baseline estimates indicate that the benefits equal costs at 19 percent.
Tradeoffs between microbial growth phases lead to frequency-dependent and non-transitive selection

Microbial populations undergo multiple phases of growth, including a lag phase, an exponential growth phase, and a stationary phase. Therefore mutations can improve the frequency of a genotype not only by increasing its growth rate, but also by decreasing the lag time or adjusting the yield (resource efficiency). Furthermore, many mutations will be pleiotropic, affecting multiple phases simultaneously. The contribution of multiple life-history traits to selection is a critical question for evolutionary biology as we seek to predict the evolutionary fates of mutations. Here we use a simple model of microbial growth to quantify how these multiple phases contribute to selection. We find that there are two distinct components of selection corresponding to the growth and lag phases, while the yield modulates their relative importance. Despite its simplicity, the model predicts nontrivial population dynamics when mutations induce tradeoffs between phases. Multiple strains can coexist over long times due to frequency-dependent selection, and strains can engage in rock-paper-scissors interactions due to non-transitive selection. We characterize the environmental conditions and patterns of traits necessary to realize these phenomena, which we show to be readily accessible to experiments. Our results provide a theoretical framework for analyzing high-throughput measurements of microbial growth traits, especially interpreting the pleiotropy and correlations between traits across mutants. This work also highlights the need for more comprehensive measurements of selection in simple microbial systems, where the concept of an ordinary fitness landscape breaks down.
A fast LP approach for enhanced utilization of variable impedance based FACTS devices

Transmission systems are under stress and need to be upgraded. Better utilization of the existing grid provides a fast and cheap alternative to building new transmission. One way to improve the utilization of the transmission network is power flow control via flexible ac transmission system (FACTS) devices. While FACTS devices are used today, the utilization of these devices is limited; traditional dispatch models (e.g., security constrained economic dispatch) assume a fixed, static transmission grid even though it is rather flexible. The primary barrier is the complexity that is added to the power flow problem. The mathematical representation of the DC optimal power flow, with the added modeling of FACTS devices, is a nonlinear program (NLP). This paper presents a method to convert this NLP into a mixed-integer linear program (MILP). The MILP is reformulated as a two-stage linear program, which enforces the same sign for the voltage angle differences for the lines equipped with FACTS. While this approximation does not guarantee optimality, more than 98% of the presented empirical results, based on the IEEE 118-bus and Polish systems, achieved global optimality. In the case of suboptimal solutions, the savings were still significant and the solution time was dramatically reduced.
A simple and robust estimator for linear regression models with strictly exogenous instruments

In this paper, I investigate the estimation of linear regression models with strictly exogenous instruments under minimal identifying assumptions. I introduce a uniformly (in the data‐generating process) consistent estimator under nearly minimal identifying assumptions. The proposed estimator, called the integrated instrumental variables (IIV) estimator, is a simple weighted least‐squares estimator. It does not require the choice of a bandwidth or tuning parameter, or the selection of a finite set of instruments. Thus, the estimator is extremely simple to implement. Monte Carlo evidence supports the theoretical claims and suggests that the IIV estimator is a robust complement to optimal instrumental variables in finite samples. In an application with quarterly UK data, the IIV estimator estimates a positive and significant elasticity of intertemporal substitution and an equally sensible estimate for its reciprocal, in sharp contrast to instrumental variables methods that fail to identify these parameters.
Posterior interosseous nerve localization within the proximal forearm - a patient normalized parameter.

Posterior interosseous nerve localization within the proximal forearm - a patient normalized parameter
On the Capacity of the Noncausal Relay Channel

This paper studies the noncausal relay channel, also known as the relay channel with unlimited look ahead, introduced by by El Gamal, Hassanpour, and Mammen. Unlike the standard relay channel model, where the relay encodes its signal based on the previous received output symbols, the relay in the noncausal relay channel encodes its signal as a function of the entire received sequence. In the existing coding schemes, the relay uses this noncausal information solely to recover the transmitted message or part of it and then cooperates with the sender to communicate this message to the receiver. However, it is shown in this paper that by applying the Gelfand–Pinsker coding scheme, the relay can take further advantage of the noncausally available information and achieve rates strictly higher than those of the existing coding schemes. This paper also provides a new upper bound on the capacity of the noncausal relay channel that strictly improves upon the existing cutset bound. These new lower and upper bounds on the capacity coincide for the class of degraded noncausal relay channels and establish the capacity for this class.
Egocentric medium-field distance perception in projection environments

Egocentric distance perception over distances of 2--20 meters has been extensively studied within real world environments and within virtual environments (VEs) using head-mounted displays (HMDs). Not as much investigation has been performed within projection-based VEs, partly because of measurement restrictions imposed by the limited spatial constraints of the projection-based hardware. A standard measurement technique is blind-folded walking, in which subjects observe the object, close their eyes, and walk to where they perceives the object to be. However, due to the limited space in front of projection-based displays, this technique is difficult to perform. To our best knowledge, there is only one technique, imagined walking [Plumert et al. 2005], applied in projection-based environments. We use and compare triangulated walking [Knapp 1999] to imagined walking and verbal estimation for projection-based environments.
Global existence, uniqueness and estimates of the solution to the Navier–Stokes equations

Abstract The Navier–Stokes (NS) problem consists of finding a vector-function v from the Navier–Stokes equations. The solution v to NS problem is defined in this paper as the solution to an integral equation. The kernel G of this equation solves a linear problem which is obtained from the NS problem by dropping the nonlinear term ( v ⋅ ∇ ) v . The kernel G is found in closed form. Uniqueness of the solution to the integral equation is proved in a class of solutions v with finite norm N 1 ( v ) = sup ξ ∈ R 3 , t ∈ [ 0 , T ] ( 1 + | ξ | ) ( | v | + | ∇ v | ) ≤ c ( ∗ ) , where T > 0 and C > 0 are arbitrary large fixed constants. In the same class of solutions existence of the solution is proved under some assumption. Estimate of the energy of the solution is given.
Predictors of Women's Entry into Engineering: Why Academic Preparation Is Not Sufficient

Women and minorities continue to be underrepresented in engineering. Betz and Hackett (1981) suggested that women's socialization provides them with less exposure to the information that allows individuals to develop self-efficacy for traditionally male occupations. This social cognitive hypothesis proposes that low self-efficacy for the tasks required to enter and succeed in engineering is the primary reason women and minorities continue to be underrepresented in engineering. The present study used a social cognitive framework and structural equation modeling to determine what factors predict the intentions of male and female high school students to pursue engineering majors in college. Preliminary data indicate that in order to increase the likelihood of a high school student planning on an engineering career, efforts should be focused on the student gaining quality mathematical and science experiences, exposure to engineering role models and a special emphasis must be made with respect to recruiting women into engineering.
Rhythmic Repair of Morphological Accent Assigned Outside of a Metrical Window

This paper studies the interaction of morphologically-assigned accent and a left-edge three syllable metrical window within which primary prominence is restricted. Kager (2012) illustrates that when morphological (or lexical) accent appears outside of a designated metrical window, primary prominence reverts to a default position within the window. I refer to this as 'default repair'. The main claim of this paper is that the Bolivian language Ese’eja demonstrates a novel type of repair called 'rhythmic repair'. In this type, when phonological accent is assigned outside a metrical window, primary prominence does not fall on a default position but rather appears on a position within the window which is rhythmically dependent on the position of accent. I argue that these Ese’eja data cannot be reduced to a type of default repair involving multiple morphosyntactically-conditioned defaults. Further, I formalize the differences between default and rhythmic repair following Kager’s (2012) view of metrical windows as decomposable into common OT constraints. While default repair involves highly ranked word-to-foot alignment constraints (e.g. Align-Wd-L) ranked above lower Faith-Accent and Parse-Syl, in contrast rhythmic repair involves splitting Faith-Accent into Accent-to-Prominence (Acc-Prom) and Accent-to-PrimaryProminence (Acc-PrimProm) constraints, and ranking Parse-Syl, Acc-Prom, and an Edgemost constraint above Acc-PrimProm and word-to-foot alignment constraints.
Different types of housing and respiratory health outcomes

Evidence has shown that housing conditions may substantially influence the health of residents. Different types of housing have different structures and construction materials, which may affect indoor environment and housing conditions. This study aimed to investigate whether people living in different types of housing have different respiratory health outcomes. The data from the 1999-2006 National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey were used for the analyses. The types of housing included houses, townhouses, apartments, and mobile homes. Respiratory symptoms included wheezing, coughing, sputum, and dyspnea; respiratory diseases included asthma, chronic bronchitis, emphysema, and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). Multiple logistic regression was used to calculate odds ratio (OR) and 95% confidence interval (CI) after adjustment for potential confounding factors. A total of 11,785 participants aged 40 years and older were included in the analyses. Compared with those living in single family houses, participants living in mobile homes were more likely to have respiratory conditions, the OR (95% CI) was 1.38 (1.13-1.69) for wheezing, and 1.49 (1.25-1.78) for dyspnea; whereas participants living in apartments were less likely to have respiratory conditions, the OR (95% CI) was 0.58 (0.36-0.91) for chronic bronchitis, and 0.69 (0.49-0.97) for COPD. Compared with living in single family houses, living in mobile home was associated with worse, whereas living in apartments was associated with better, respiratory health outcomes. Further research is needed to better understand the underlying mechanisms and prevent adverse respiratory effects associated with living in mobile homes.
MBE-grown AlGaN/GaN HEMTs on SiC

We report on the development of AlGaN/GaN high-electron mobility transistors (HEMTs) grown on SiC using plasma-assisted molecular beam epitaxy (MBE). In this work, we show that performance comparable to state-of-the-art AlGaN/GaN HEMTs can be achieved using MBE-grown material. Buffer leakage was an important limiting factor for these devices. The use of either carbon-doped buffers, or low Al/N ratio in the nucleation layer growth was effective in reducing buffer leakage. Studies varying the thickness and concentration of the carbon doping were carried out to determine the effect of different carbon doping profiles on the insulating and dispersive properties of buffers. On devices without field plates, at 4 GHz an output power density of 12 W/mm was obtained with a power-added efficiency (PAE) of 46% and gain of 14 dB. 15.6 W/mm with PAE of 56% was obtained from these devices after field-plating. Two-tone linearity measurements of these devices were also carried out. At a C/I3 level of 30 dBc, the devices measured had an output power of 1.9 W/mm with a PAE of 53%. The effect of the Al/N ratio in the AlN nucleation layer on buffer leakage was studied. N-rich conditions yielded highly insulating GaN buffers without carbon doping. At 4 GHz, devices without field plates delivered 4.8 W/mm with a PAE of 62%. At a higher drain bias (50 V), 8.1 W/mm with a PAE of 38% was achieved.
The Relationship of Natural Killer Cells to Metastasis of a Transplantable Prostate Adenocarcinoma

Natural killer (NK) cells have been proposed to play a significant role in the inhibition of metastasis. The prostate adenocarcinoma (PA-11) in the Lobund-Wistar (L-W) rat provides a unique model of spontaneous metastasis in which to study NK response. Cultured PA-11 tumor cells were shown to be resistant to NK lysis in vitro, and enhancement or inhibition of NK reactivity in vivo using drugs or antiserum did not change the rate or extent of metastasis evident at autopsy. Exposure to PA-11 tumor cells, supernatants from cultured tumor cells, or sera from rats with advanced PA-11 in vitro did not result in inhibition of NK activity. Exposure to PA-11 tumor cells in vivo also did not cause suppression of NK activity. These data indicate that, in the PA-11/L-W system, metastasis is independent of NK activity.
Multicystic Dysplastic Kidneys Suggesting Hydronephrosis During Tc-DTPA Imaging

Tc-99m DTPA renal scans on two infants with flank masses were interpreted as consistent with hydronephrosis and obstruction of the uretopelvic junction because of delayed accumulation of the radiotracer in the initially photon-deficient regions. However, both these patients were found to have multicystic dysplastic kidney. It appears that for proper diagnosis more attention should be paid to the location of the functioning cortex rather than to the delayed images.
In Vitro Activation of Cyclophosphamide for an In Vitro Chemosensitivity Assay

The problem of activation of cyclophosphamide (CY) for an in vitro chemosensitivity assay was studied using the B16 melanoma. The efficacy of the S9 hepatic microsomal fraction in vitro was compared with activation by passage of drug in vivo. The effect of CY was assayed by inhibition of tritiated thymidine (3HdThd) uptake by B16 tumor cells in vitro, and by its effect in single dose in vivo on the life span of syngeneic C57BL/6 mice injected with B16 tumor cells. In vivo activation of CY that was achieved by injecting 20 mg of CY intraperitoneally (i.p.) into mice and obtaining plasma 20 minutes later was more rapid and more reproducible, while in vitro activation provided a more potent preparation and a better quantitative correlation with the in vivo effect of CY. The activation activity of different preparations of S9 microsomal fractions was found to be directly related to the activity of aminopyrine demethylase, a mixed function oxidase enzyme, in the S9 fraction, rather than to total protein concentration. The S9-activated drug required 2 1/2 to 3 hours to achieve maximum inhibition of subsequent tumor cell tritiated thymidine (3HdThd) incorporation compared with 20 minutes to achieve maximum inhibition by in vivo activated drug. We conclude that rapid qualitative screening for effectiveness of CY may best be done with in vivo activated drug, whereas quantitative prediction of effective concentration appears to be best achieved with drug activated in vitro by the hepatic S9 fraction.
Evidence for Disordered Control of 1,25-Dihydroxyvitamin D Production in Absorptive Hypercalciuria

In previous studies, we observed increases in the circulating concentration and production rate of 1,25-dihydroxyvitamin D (1,25-(OH)2D) in a large majority of patients with the syndrome of absorptive hypercalciuria. In the present study, the hypothesis that 1,25-(OD)2D production might be relatively autonomous in this syndrome was tested by fashioning a suppression test in which patients were challenged with a short-term increase in dietary calcium intake. We found that contrary to our hypothesis, the circulating concentration of 1,25-(OH)2D was remarkably sensitive to calcium intake in 15 patients with absorptive hypercalciuria (mean decrease, from 74 to 49 pg per milliliter, P less than 0.001). When this challenge was prolonged for two weeks, however, patients with absorptive hypercalciuria had evidence of an apparent "escape" phenomenon, in which the circulating concentration of 1,25-(OH)2D rebounded toward its initial level and the renal tubular phosphate threshold fell markedly. These findings provide evidence for disordered control of renal phosphate handling and 1,25-(OH)2D production in absorptive hypercalciuria and suggest a linked rather than a cause-and-effect relation between these two abnormalities.
An Architecture for a Policy-Oriented Web Browser Management System: HiFiPol: Browser.

Web browsers are a necessity of today's economy and government. This success is attributed to their flexibility, which is afforded by Turing-complete execution and powerful graphic capabilities, both accessible through the network to trusted and untrusted sites. These capabilities, if maliciously undermined, have high potential for data or system compromise. An approach that can be successfully applied to prevent and mitigate compromise is tailoring browser security settings according to device, user/role, and domain. To make such a high-fidelity security configurations practical, we are designing and implementing HiFiPol: Browser: A policy-oriented and multi-platform Hi-Fidelity security Policy management system for web Browsers. In this article, we describe the architecture of HiFiPol: Browser. We describe in detail all components of the architecture, the tasks needed to implement it in a fully operational system, and the current status on the progress of each task. HiFiPol: Browser has been designed to provide: a) a human-friendly and high-level policy specification language and environment, b) security policy conflict detection and resolution, c) automatic instantiation of high-level policies into configurations, and d) distributed browser configuration deployment. We believe that HiFiPol: Browser will enable the design and implementation of domain-, application-, device-, and user-tailored secure policies within a technically diverse organization.
Interactive Computer Graphics: The Arms Race

By using interactive computer graphics (ICG), it is possible to discuss the numerical aspects of some arms race issues with more specificity and in a visual way. The number of variables involved in these issues can be quite large; computers operated in the interactive, graphical mode, can allow exploration of the variables, leading to a greater understanding of the issues. This paper will examine some examples of interactive computer graphics:(1) The relationship between silo hardening and the accuracy, yield, and reliability of ICBMs;(2) Target vulnerability (Minuteman, Dense Pack);(3) Counterforce vs. countervalue weapons;(4) Civil defense;(5) Gravitational bias error;(6) MIRV;(7) National vulnerability to a preemptive first strike;(8) Radioactive fallout; and(9) Digital image processing with charge-coupled devices.
High Energy Glass Lasers

A number of laboratories throughout the world are actively pursuing the development of pulsed high power Nd:glass lasers for use in their laser fusion and laser plasma interaction studies programs. Perhaps the most ambitious programs in this field have been undertaken by the Lawrence Livermore Laboratory where several irradiation facilities are in opera-tion and where the 4-arm ARGUS and 20-arm SHIVA lasers are currently under construction. These systems are designed to provide the energy, power and wavefront uniformity required to spherically implode nuclear fuel targets such as the deuterium-tritium (DT) solid sphere, in an effort to achieve thermonuclear fusion through inertial confinement.