cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Local distributed algorithms for multi-robot systems

The field of swarm robotics focuses on controlling large populations of simple robots to accomplish tasks more effectively than what is possible using a single robot. This thesis develops distributed algorithms tailored for multi-robot systems with large populations. Specifically we focus on local distributed algorithms since their performance depends primarily on local parameters on the system and are guaranteed to scale with the number of robots in the system. The first part of this thesis considers and solves the problem of finding a trajectory for each robot which is guaranteed to preserve the connectivity of the communication graph, and when feasible it also guarantees the robots advanced towards a goal defined by an arbitrary motion planner. We also describe how to extend our proposed approach to preserve the k -connectivity of a communication graph. Finally, we show how our connectivity-preserving algorithm can be combined with standard averaging procedures to yield a provably correct flocking algorithm. The second part of this thesis considers and solves the problem of having each robot localize an arbitrary subset of robots in a multi-robot system relying only on sensors at each robot that measure the angle, relative to the orientation of each robot, towards neighboring robots in the communication graph. We propose a distributed localization algorithm that computes the relative orientations and relative positions, up to scale, of an arbitrary subset of robots. For the case when the robots move in between rounds we show how to use odometry information to allow each robot to compute the relative positions complete with scale, of an arbitrary subset of robots. Finally we describe how to use the our localization algorithm to design a variety of multi-robot tasks. (Copies available exclusively from MIT Libraries, libraries.mit.edu/docs - docs@mit.edu)
Cardiovascular Disease Burden and Socioeconomic Correlates: Findings From the Jackson Heart Study.

BackgroundBlack persons have an excess burden of cardiovascular disease (CVD) compared with white persons. This burden persists after adjustment for socioeconomic status and other known CVD risk fa...
Blood Gas: Fetal

Blood gas analysis of a fetus can represent the fetal condition in utero and sometime help the obstetrician to decide on the mode of delivery. It can be assessed antepartum, intrapartum, or postpartum via a number of ways. Umbilical cord blood gas analysis is routinely ordered by obstetricians at the time of delivery if there is suspicion of neonatal depression in utero. In 2006, the American Congress of Obstetricians and Gynecologists (ACOG) have recommended cord blood gas for certain conditions. It reflects the fetal condition immediately before delivery and is a more objective indication of a newborn’s condition than the Apgar score. According to ACOG task force, umbilical blood gas analysis has become a useful tool to predict neonatal morbidity.
“THE PROOF IS IN THE PUDDING”: DO SGLT2 INHIBITORS CAUSE DIABETIC KETOACIDOSIS?

Abbreviations: DKA diabetic ketoacidosis EuDKA euglycemic diabetic ketoacidosis SGLT2i sodium-glucose cotransporter 2 inhibitors T2DM type 2 diabetes mellitus
Rapid assembly of multilayer microfluidic structures

We demonstrate rapid 3D-printed molding and assembly of two-sided PDMS devices. Advancing the 3D printed transfer molding technique from single-sided microfluidics to multi-layer microfluidic manufacturing, this work utilizes the ease of 3D printing to create complementary molds with built-in alignment structures to PDMS layers and then assemble them at the end. Using this single-step double-sided molding method, we demonstrate the molding of complex geometries in PDMS — including vias, built-in alignment marks, and membrane valves — that are difficult or impossible to achieve using standard soft lithography. The membrane valves show distinctive transistor characteristic curves and a closing pressure of 200 kPa. A new stamp-bonding method is used to selectively apply liquid PDMS adhesive, demonstrating a reliable method of assembling multi-layered PDMS microfluidic devices.
Predicting Eye Color from Near Infrared Iris Images

Iris recognition systems typically acquire images of the iris in the near-infrared (NIR) spectrum rather than the visible spectrum. The use of NIR imaging facilitates the extraction of texture even from darker color irides (e.g., brown eyes). While NIR sensors reveal the textural details of the iris, the pigmentation and color details that are normally observed in the visible spectrum are subdued. In this work, we develop a method to predict the color of the iris from NIR images. In particular, we demonstrate that it is possible to distinguish between light-colored irides (blue, green, hazel) and dark-colored irides (brown) in the NIR spectrum by using the BSIF texture descriptor. Experiments on the BioCOP 2009 dataset containing over 43,000 iris images indicate that it is possible to distinguish between these two categories of eye color with an accuracy of 90%. This suggests that the structure and texture of the iris as manifested in 2D NIR iris images divulges information about the pigmentation and color of the iris.
Instrumentation and Data Analysis Methods Needed for Blood Pressure Monitoring in Chronobiology

Elevated blood pressure (BP) is a medical problem receiving much attention today, since its treatment can prevent major incapacitating diseases. A vast literature indeed indicates that a high BP constitutes an important risk factor in the development of strokes and a variety of other diseases, including those of the heart and the kidney (Australian national blood pressure study, 1980). Although the etiology of high BP remains obscure, extensive life insurance statistics document the point that early detection and treatment can prolong useful life. The remarkable “42% decrease in strokes” since 1972 emphasized by Kolata (1983a) is in the opinion of many a benefit from treating high BP.
ECONOMICS AND THE VULNERABILITY OF THE PAN-EUROPEAN INSTITUTIONS

Because of the dramatic political changes that have occurred over the past decade there is significant interest in understanding the dynamics of citizen support for nascent democratic institutions. The success of the new de- mocracies of the former communist regimes is a case in point. And in West- ern Europe, of course, there is considerable interest in understanding the dynamics of popular support for the rapidly changing institutions of the Euro- pean Union. One of the common themes found in these studies is the impor- tance of economic factors in shaping mass support for these new institutions. Duch (1995) has argued that in the context of new postcommunist regimes this relationship is often exaggerated and to some extent misspecified. We raise a similar concern with respect to the institutions of the European Union. We do not deny that economic considerations shape mass attitudes regarding the European Union. Rather we argue for a more careful specifica- tion of how economic outcomes are shaped by the European Union and hence how self-interested citizens are likely to incorporate economic out- comes into their evaluation of European integration. We make four arguments in this essay. First, we argue that models of the relationship between macroeconomic conditions and political preferences, in this case support for the European Union, must be based on a credible asso- ciation between the institution or political office and these economic out- comes. Because the European Union is, as yet, not responsible for macro- economic policies, we should not expect evaluations of these institutions to be shaped by policy outcomes in this area. Second, to the extent that economic factors do shape citizens' attitudes toward the European Union, it will be in terms of comparative advantage. Those best situated to reap benefits from the European Union will be more supportive than those who are less likely to
Self-Net: Lifelong Learning via Continual Self-Modeling

Learning a set of tasks over time, also known as continual learning (CL), is one of the most challenging problems in artificial intelligence. While recent approaches achieve some degree of CL in deep neural networks, they either (1) grow the network parameters linearly with the number of tasks, (2) require storing training data from previous tasks, or (3) restrict the network's ability to learn new tasks. To address these issues, we propose a novel framework, Self-Net, that uses an autoencoder to learn a set of low-dimensional representations of the weights learned for different tasks. We demonstrate that these low-dimensional vectors can then be used to generate high-fidelity recollections of the original weights. Self-Net can incorporate new tasks over time with little retraining and with minimal loss in performance for older tasks. Our system does not require storing prior training data and its parameters grow only logarithmically with the number of tasks. We show that our technique outperforms current state-of-the-art approaches on numerous datasets---including continual versions of MNIST, CIFAR10, CIFAR100, and Atari---and we demonstrate that our method can achieve over 10X storage compression in a continual fashion. To the best of our knowledge, we are the first to use autoencoders to sequentially encode sets of network weights to enable continual learning.
Abstract WP194: Influence of Selective Seratonin Reuptake Inhibitors on Aphasia Recovery: Preliminary Data From a Clinical Trial

Background: In an ongoing trial on the effects of transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS vs sham) plus language therapy on aphasia recovery in subacute stroke, we are evaluating the effects ...
Ion-Selective, Atom-Resolved Imaging of a 2D Cu2N Insulator: Field and Current Driven Tip-Enhanced Raman Spectromicroscopy Using a Molecule-Terminated Tip.

Tip-enhanced Raman scattering (TERS) with a cobalt tetraphenylporphyrin (CoTPP)- terminated silver tip is used to obtain ion-selective, atomically resolved images of an insulating Cu2N monolayer gr...
Association between grains, gluten and the risk of colorectal cancer in the Cancer Prevention Study-II Nutrition Cohort.

Evidence supports a role of whole grains in colorectal cancer (CRC) prevention, but the association between gluten intake and CRC risk in healthy populations is unclear. We examined the association of grain and gluten intake with risk of CRC overall and by subsite among Cancer Prevention Study-II Nutrition Cohort participants. In 1999, 50,118 men and 62,031 women completed food frequency questionnaires assessing grain intake. Gluten intake was estimated using the protein content of grain products. Multivariable-adjusted hazards ratio (HR) and 95% confidence interval (CI) of CRC risk were estimated using Cox proportional hazards regression. During follow-up through 2013, 1742 verified CRC cases occurred. For the highest vs. lowest quintiles of whole grain intake, HRs (95% CIs) of CRC risk were 0.77 (0.61–0.97; P trend = 0.03) among men and 1.10 (95% CI 0.88–1.36; P trend = 0.14) among women (P interaction by sex = 0.01). Men in the highest vs. lowest quintile of whole grain intake had a 43% lower risk of rectal cancer (HR = 0.57, 95% CI 0.35–0.93, P trend = 0.04). Gluten intake was not associated with CRC risk overall (HR = 1.10, 95% CI 0.93–1.32, P trend = 0.10), but was associated with risk of proximal colon cancer among men and women, combined (HR = 1.37, 95% CI 1.07–1.75, quintile 5 vs. 1, P trend = 0.001) and separately. Refined grains and grain-based sweets were not associated with CRC risk. We found that higher whole grain intake was associated with lower CRC risk among older US men, but not women. The positive association of gluten intake with the risk of proximal colon cancer deserves further study.
The Effectiveness of Creating Localized Content for Middle School Computing Curriculum

The need for computing education in K-12 is growing all over the world. Several countries have created national curriculum standards to meet this growing need. In most cases, the actual implementation of the curriculum, including the technical content, is left to individual schools or teachers. In this paper, we outline our work in implementing a computing curriculum based on Alice software in the State of Qatar. We present our experience in creating the content and evaluating its effectiveness. The curriculum was developed in cooperation with schoolteachers, education professionals, and the Qatari Ministry of Education. Materials developed included lesson plans, academic calendar, assessment tools, and student textbooks. We address the issues encountered in creating this computing curriculum content.
Bayesian approach in estimating the road grade impact on vehicle speed and acceleration on freeways

ABSTRACTThis research explores how road grade impacts the operations of light-duty vehicles and heavy-duty express buses on freeways. The Bayesian Hierarchical Model (BHM) used in this research emp...
Using Bayesian Nonparametric Item Response Function Estimation to Check Parametric Model Fit.

Previous studies indicated that the assumption of logistic form of parametric item response functions (IRFs) is violated often enough to be worth checking. Using nonparametric item response theory ...
Measuring Social Biases of Crowd Workers using Counterfactual Queries.

Social biases based on gender, race, etc. have been shown to pollute machine learning (ML) pipeline predominantly via biased training datasets. Crowdsourcing, a popular cost-effective measure to gather labeled training datasets, is not immune to the inherent social biases of crowd workers. To ensure such social biases aren't passed onto the curated datasets, it's important to know how biased each crowd worker is. In this work, we propose a new method based on counterfactual fairness to quantify the degree of inherent social bias in each crowd worker. This extra information can be leveraged together with individual worker responses to curate a less biased dataset.
Seeing trees: A history of street trees in New York City and Berlin, by Sonja Dümplemann: New Haven, CT, Yale University Press, 2019

Street trees serve a critical role in public green infrastructure. As cities seek solutions to mitigate heat island effects, improve water quality, reduce storm-water runoff, and provide habitat fo...
Trapping lead in perovskite solar modules with abundant and low-cost cation-exchange resins

One major concern for the commercialization of perovskite photovoltaic technology is the toxicity of lead from the water-soluble lead halide perovskites that can contaminate the environment. Here, we report an abundant, low-cost and chemically robust cation-exchange resin (CER)-based method that can prevent lead leakage from damaged perovskite solar modules under severe weather conditions. CERs exhibit both high adsorption capacity and high adsorption rate of lead in water due to the high binding energy with lead ions in the mesoporous structure. Integrating CERs with carbon electrodes and layering them on the glass surface of modules has a negligible detrimental effect on device efficiency while reducing lead leakage from perovskite mini-modules by 62-fold to 14.3 ppb in water. The simulated lead leakage from damaged large-area perovskite solar panels treated with CERs can be further reduced to below 7.0 ppb even in the worst-case scenario that every sub-module is damaged. Lead leakage from damaged perovskite photovoltaic modules poses health and environmental risks limiting the potential use of the technology. Now Chen et al. show that the encapsulation of perovskite modules with a cation-exchange resins reduces lead leakage to 14.3 ppb in waste water.
IT’S ABOUT TIME: COSTS OF DELIVERING NEW VACCINES ADDED TO THE ROUTINE CHILD IMMUNIZATION SCHEDULE SINCE 2000

Objective To estimate, using simulations, the time necessary to administer and document the additional vaccines added since 2000 to the routine child immunization schedule in the U.S. Design and Methods Using guidelines published by the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices we calculated the incremental time needed to administer and document the following vaccines to panels of 1,000, 1,200, 1,500, 1,800, and 2,000 patients: PCV-7; Influenza; MCV4; Tdap.; Hep A; Rotavirus; 3 HPV vaccines to girls; and a second varicella. Age/sex distribution of patient panels was adopted from published reports. Nursing time of vaccine administration and documentation was measured at a single urban academic pediatric practice. Results See table. Conclusions Time associated with administering and documenting new vaccines added since 2000 to the routine childhood immunization schedule can amount to up to 16 weeks of a full time nurse equivalent for a busy practitioner. The public policy implications merit serious attention.
Has China's Housing Production Peaked?

China's real estate has been a key engine of its sustained economic expansion This paper argues, however, that even before the COVID‐19 shock, a decades‐long housing boom had given rise to severe price misalignments and regional supply–demand mismatches, making an adjustment both necessary and inevitable We make use of newly available and updated data sources to analyze supply–demand conditions in the fast‐moving Chinese economy The imbalances are then compared to benchmarks from other economies We conclude that the real estate sector is quite vulnerable to a sustained aggregate growth shock, such as COVID‐19 might pose In our baseline calibration, using input–output tables and taking account of the very large footprint of housing construction and real estate related sectors, the adjustment to a decline in housing activity can easily trim a cumulative 5–10 percent from the level of output over a period of years
The Lived Experience of Food Pantry Users in Minnesota: Qualitative Findings from a Statewide Survey

In 2017, a community-University of Minnesota collaborative conducted a statewide survey of food pantry clients. Of the 188 food pantries surveyed, 4321 individual client surveys were returned, from...
Kugel's Artery: Silent Bystander or Savior?

Kugel's artery is defined as a rare anatomical variant of the coronary artery vascular bed consisting of an anastomotic connection between branches of the right coronary artery (RCA) and/or left circumflex artery (LCX). Kugel's artery has been reported to have an incidence of 6% in the general population. The presence of this anastomotic communication may play a pathophysiological role in a patient with a right dominant coronary circulation and an underlying coronary artery disease (CAD) affecting the right coronary system. Understanding the existence and significance of Kugel's artery and the anastomotic network cannot be overemphasized. The presence of an anomalous vascular connection bypassing an area of epicardial vessel occlusion may be a lifesaving pathophysiological finding that maintains myocardial perfusion and viability. Herein, we present a case with multivessel occlusion myocardial infarction found to have anomalous vascular anastomosis between the proximal RCA and distal segment of the same artery.
Early Intraocular Pressure Control Via Capsule Revision of a Failed Valved Aqueous Shunt During Concurrent Placement of a Nonvalved Aqueous Shunt.

Purpose To describe the novel strategy of performing a concurrent capsule revision of a failed pre-existing valved aqueous shunt with implantation of an additional nonvalved aqueous shunt for early postoperative intraocular pressure (IOP) control. Design Case report of a single patient. Results An 87-year-old man with severe primary open-angle glaucoma in both eyes presented to our clinic. His pseudophakic left eye had a failed superonasal trabeculectomy and an encapsulated superotemporal Ahmed FP7 (New World Medical) aqueous shunt in the anterior chamber. He had previously undergone micropulse cyclophotocoagulation 3 times and excisional goniotomy. Visual acuity in his left eye was 20/30, and IOP was 24 mmHg on 4 topical IOP-lowering medications. An inferonasal Baerveldt 350 (Advanced Medical Optics) aqueous shunt was placed with concurrent revision of the Ahmed capsule. A large block of capsule tissue was excised from the surface of the plate, and 20 mg of subtenon triamcinolone acetonide (Kenalog, Bristol-Myers Squibb) was injected overlying the plate. His IOP ranged between 6 and 15 mmHg in the immediate postoperative period. There were no hypotony-associated complications at any time point. At postoperative month 18, his IOP was 10 mmHg on zero medications. Conclusions In patients with a failed valved aqueous shunt undergoing an additional nonvalved aqueous shunt, a concurrent capsule revision of the valved aqueous shunt can provide early IOP lowering before the nonvalved tube opens.
Age as a Factor in Rodent Susceptibility to Rodenticides—A Review

Age is discussed as a factor in the susceptibility of animals to rodenticides such as strychnine, ANTU, anticoagulants, arsenic, crimidine, endrin, barium carbonate, and chemosterilants. Age-differential mortality will beof importance if the difference is great enough and if baits cannot be strengthened without the loss of bait acceptance. Some possible implications of these age-related differences to actual rodent control practices and to laboratory and field efficacy tests are discussed. Age-related toxicity differences of some rodenticides to certain nontarget species are included for practical and comparative purposes. Age-specific toxicity tests are suggested. The authors speculate that age-related behavioral traits may play an independent role or compound an age-toxicity association.
A Survey of Some Recent Results in Transmutation

Publisher Summary This chapter is a much abbreviated survey of some work done in the past few years on the theme of transmutation. In addition, the chapter briefly indicates some techniques of studying Parseval formulas in framework.
Chemical and histological comparisons between Brevoortia sp. (menhaden) collected in fall 2010 from Barataria Bay, LA and Delaware Bay, NJ following the DeepWater Horizon (DWH) oil spill

Body burdens of PAHs were compared to histological effects in menhaden (Family: Clupeidae, Genus: Brevoortia) collected in fall 2010 from Barataria Bay, LA (BBLA) and Delaware Bay, NJ (DBNJ). Barataria Bay was heavily oiled during the DeepWater Horizon (DWH) oil spill, while Delaware Bay although urbanized had no reported recent oil spills. GCMS analyses of pre-spill 2009, BBLA and DBNJ fish found predominantly C2/C3 phenanthrene (1.28-6.52 ng/mg). However, BBLA also contained five higher molecular weight PAHs (0.06-0.34 ng/mg DW). Fluorescent aromatic compound spectroscopy (FACS) of gastrointestinal (GI) tract tissue showed statistically higher levels of hydroxypyrene-like PAHs in DBNJ than BBLA fish. Histopathologic lesions were more prevalent in BBLA than DBNJ fish. The lesion prevalence (gill, trunk kidney, epidermis, stomach) in the BBLA menhaden were significantly higher and more severe than observed in the DBNJ menhaden. Reversible lesions included gill lamellar hyperplasia, adhesions, edema, and epidermal hyperplasia. The increased pigmented macrophage centers were indicative of activated macrophages responding to connective tissue damage or other antigens. The liver hepatic necrosis and renal tissue mineralization may well have undergone repair, but damage to the kidney nephrons and hepatic/biliary regions of the liver would be slower to resolve and apparently remained after elimination of PAHs. Therefore, a direct cause and effect between DWH oil spill and increased lesion prevalence in BBLA menhaden could not be established.
Survey and Excavation (Field Methods) in Archaeology

This article presents a general introduction to the subject of archaeological field methods, and therefore does not deal with many distinct areas or challenges to the discipline. Archaeology is a dynamic, inherently interdisciplinary field of study in that new research techniques continue to revolutionize its modes of thought and methods, and researchers are asking different questions of the data today from those they asked only a few years ago. On both scientific and theoretical fronts, therefore, the field is developing at a fast pace. In the past few years, archaeology has become a global discipline with many researchers applying the same systems such as geographic information systems along with aerial reconnaissance and remote sensing. We begin with ‘archaeology’ as a term, and cover a brief history of the discipline, its importance, types of archaeological sites, fields of archaeological study, and dating systems used in the discipline. The focus then changes to survey, excavation and ethical considerations, excavation and the modern developments in the discipline.
Systemic bank risk in Brazil: an assessment of correlated market, credit, sovereign and inter-bank risk in an environment with stochastic volatilities and correlations

In this study we develop and demonstrate a powerful and flexible forward-looking portfolio simulation methodology for assessing the correlated impacts of market risk, and private sector, sovereign and inter-bank default risk on both individual banks (i.e. 28 of the largest Brazilian banks) and groups of banks (i.e. the Brazilian banking system). The methodology importantly accounts for bank asset and liability maturity and currency mismatches and loan portfolio credit quality and sector and region concentrations. In a significant innovation, financial and economic environment variables are modeled with stochastic volatilities and correlations. We demonstrate the reliability of the models by comparing simulated and historical credit transition probabilities, simulated and historical bank rates of return, and simulated versus actual bank credit ratings. When omitting sovereign risk our analysis indicates that none of the banks face significant default risk over a 1-year horizon. This low default risk stems primarily from the large amount of government securities held by Brazilian banks, but also reflects the banks' adequate capitalizations and extraordinarily high interest rate spreads. Once sovereign risk is considered and losses in the market value of government securities reaches 10 percent (or higher), several banks face potential solvency problems. These results demonstrate the well known risk of concentrated lending to a borrower which has a non-zero probability of default (e.g. Government of Brazil). We also demonstrate the potential systemic risk impact of variation in average recovery rates on defaulted private sector loans which reflect, among other factors, bank lending policies, the efficiency of the legal system in resolving defaults, and aggregate levels of defaults. Our analysis also highlights the importance of accounting for the differential risk characteristics of various banks and for the inter-bank risk channel, through which a systemic crisis may propagate. It further indicates that, in the event of a sovereign default, the Government of Brazil would face constrained debt management alternatives. To the best of our knowledge no one else has put forward a systematic methodology for assessing correlated market and credit (sovereign, corporate and inter-bank) default risk for a financial system.
Early decision in clinical trials when the treatment differences are small: Experience of a controlled trial in head trauma

Abstract In a long-term clinical trial, it is customary to review the results of the data periodically. Two possible situations suggesting a possible early decision in hypothesis testing may arise. First, the difference in outcome may be sufficiently convincing without further evidence from additional data. Second, the difference may be such that it is not likely to be significant even if additional data are collected. This article is mainly concerned with a method for reaching a decision under the second situation, in particular when inadequate patient acquisition has occured. A predicted distribution of likely future outcomes on the basis of data already accumulated is used to evaluate what might happen if the trial were carried on the designed end. The method is intended for the case where the outcome variable is dichotomous and the two groups are compared for the difference in proportions.
Warfare command stratagem analysis for winning based on Lanchester attrition models

Lanchester equations and their extensions are widely used to calculate attrition in warfare models. The current paper addresses the warfare command decision-making problem for winning when the total combats capability of the attacking side is not superior to that of the defending side. For this problem, the corresponding warfare command stratagems, which can transform the battlefield situation, are proposed and analyzed quantitatively by considering the influence of the warfare information factor. The application examples in military conflicts show the feasibility and effectiveness of the proposed model and the warfare command stratagems for winning. The research results may provide a theoretical reference for warfare command decision making.
The Common Envelope Evolution of Massive Stars

The progress in our understanding of the common envelope phase of binary evolution is reviewed. The results of a series of multi-dimensional hydrodynamical simulations suggest that the interaction between the two stellar components is sufficiently rapid and energetic to eject a large fraction of the common envelope and orbital angular momentum of the binary system. These results are used as the basis for an examination of the evolution of binary systems containing massive stellar components. As possible applications of the common envelope phase we focus on the evolutionary scenarios for the formation of binary radio pulsars. We also consider, within the same framework, the origin of high velocity pulsars from disrupted massive binary systems.
Deriving private information from arbitrarily projected data

Distance-preserving projection based perturbation has gained much attention in privacy-preserving data mining in recent years since it mitigates the privacy/accuracy tradeoff by achieving perfect data mining accuracy. One apriori knowledge PCA based attack was recently investigated to show the vulnerabilities of this distance-preserving projected based perturbation approach when a sample dataset is available to attackers. As a result, non-distance-preserving projection was suggested to be applied since it is resilient to the PCA attack with the sacrifice of data mining accuracy to some extent. In this paper we investigate how to recover the original data from arbitrarily projected data and propose AKICA, an Independent Component Analysis based reconstruction method. Theoretical analysis and experimental results show that both distance-preserving and non-distance-preserving projection approaches are vulnerable to this attack. Our results offer insight into the vulnerabilities of projection based approach and suggest a careful scrutiny when it is applied in privacy-preserving data mining.
COMPOSITE MATERIAL MECHANICS: THERMOELASTIC MICROMECHANICS*

This paper is a survey of the principal analytical and experimental developments in the field of composite material mechanics. Emphasis is placed on filamentary-type composite materials. Topics covered are (1) elastic micromechanics, including a great variety of analytical approaches to the problem, and (2) thermal and other transport phenomena, including a number of useful analogies for such phenomena. The survey concludes with a brief discussion of future trends in the field.
Diagnostic value of a second generation CA 15-3 antibody to detect adenocarcinoma in body cavity effusions.

BACKGROUND Detecting malignant cells in body cavity effusions can be diagnostically challenging. Several monoclonal antibodies have been studied to improve the diagnostic yield of effusion cytology but without widespread acceptance. The CA 15-3 antibody has demonstrated high sensitivity but limited specificity for breast carcinoma in surgical pathology. A second generation CA 15-3 antibody has been developed that has not been studied in serous effusions to the authors' knowledge. The authors examined this second generation CA 15-3 antibody for its diagnostic utility in detecting adenocarcinomas in this cytologic setting. METHODS Cell block material from 114 cases of unequivocally benign or malignant body cavity effusions were studied. Slides were stained for CA 15-3 by using the avidin-biotin complex method. The percentage of cells exhibiting strong staining was estimated both for breast carcinoma and for all adenocarcinomas as a group. These results were compared with CA 15-3 staining exhibited by benign mesothelium. RESULTS CA 15-3 was expressed in at least 10% of tumor cells in 97% of breast carcinoma cases and in 90% of adenocarcinomas overall. The highest sensitivity was observed in carcinomas of the breast, ovary, and lung. Of 40 cases of benign mesothelium, only 4 (10%) were positive (P < 0.001). The sensitivity of CA 15-3 was 97% for breast carcinoma and 91% for adenocarcinomas overall. Specificity was 95% for breast carcinoma and 91% for adenocarcinomas. CONCLUSIONS CA 15-3 is an immunostain with high specificity and sensitivity for adenocarcinomas in cell block material from effusions. The antibody holds particular promise for detecting breast carcinoma. Cancer (Cancer Cytopathol) 2000;90:230–4. © 2000 American Cancer Society.
Platelet-Vessel Wall Interactions in Hemostasis and Thrombosis

Abstract Platelets are essential mediators of the physiologic process of hemostasis and pathologic thrombosis. While platelets do not interact with vascular walls under normal conditions, vascular injury or inflammation result in a coordinated series of events including platelet adhesion, aggregation, and promotion of coagulation. In this review, we describe the primary mechanisms involved in these responses in various vascular beds of both macro- and microvessels, and outline key unresolved aspects of these important interactions. Table of Contents: Introduction / General Characteristics of Platelets / Platelet Adhesion to Vascular Walls / Platelet Aggregation / Platelet Recruitment and Blood Coagulation / Arterial, Venous, and Microvascular Hemostasis/Thrombosis / Summary
Time and the propensity interpretation of probability

The prime concern of this paper is with the nature of probability. It is argued that questions concerning the nature of probability are intimately linked to questions about the nature of time. The case study here concerns the single case propensity interpretation of probability. It is argued that while this interpretation of probability has a natural place in the quantum theory, the metaphysical picture of time to be found in relativity theory is incompatible with such a treatment of probability.
Range-gated imaging for near-field target identification

The combination of two complementary technologies developed independently at Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL) and Sandia National Laboratory (SNL) has demonstrated feasibility of target detection and image capture in a highly light-scattering medium. The technique uses a compact SNL developed Photoconductive Semiconductor Switch/Laser Diode Array (PCSS/LDA) for short-range (distances of 8 to 10 m) large Field-Of-View (FOV) target illumination. Generation of a time-correlated echo signal is accomplished using a photodiode. The return image signal is recorded with a high- speed shuttered Micro-Channel-Plate Image Intensifier (MCPII), designed by LANL and manufactured by Philips Photonics. The MCPII is gated using a high-frequency impedance-matching microstrip design to produce 150 to 200 ps duration optical exposures. The ultra fast shuttering produces depth resolution of a few inches along the optic axis between the MCPII and the target, producing enhanced target images effectively deconvolved from noise components from the scattering medium in the FOV. The images from the MCPII are recorded with an RS-170 Charge-Coupled-Device camera and a Big Sky, Beam Code, PC-based digitizer frame grabber and analysis package. Laser pulse data were obtained by the system but jitter problems and spectral mismatches between diode spectral emission wavelength and MCPII photocathode spectral sensitivity prevented the capture of fast gating imaging with this demonstration system. Continued development of the system is underway.© (1997) COPYRIGHT SPIE--The International Society for Optical Engineering. Downloading of the abstract is permitted for personal use only.
Influences on Fast and Slow Pathway Conduction in Children: Does the Definition of Dual Atrioventricular Node Physiology Need to Be Changed?

The present study clearly establishes that there are a variety of influences on fast and slow pathway conduction properties and that there are subpopulations of children in whom these conduction properties differ. A more detailed comparison of data from these subpopulations may provide more information regarding the relative strength of these influences and how they change. In turn, this may lead to a more accurate and useful definition of dual AV node physiology in children and an improved understanding of the etiology of AVNRT.
Abstract 2681: 4-methylumbelliferone: Dietary supplement turned chemo-preventive and anti-metastatic agent for prostate cancer

INTRODUCTION: Hyaluronic acid (HA), a glycosaminoglycan, is associated with prostate cancer (PCa) progression and metastasis. 4-methylumbelliferone (4-MU) is dietary supplement that inhibits HA-synthesis. In this study we evaluated chemopreventive and therapeutic efficacy of 4-MU to prevent PCa growth and metastasis in three PCa models. METHODS: Efficacy of daily oral gavage of 4-MU was evaluated in 3 PCa models: Model 1: TRAMP mice (n = 8-20/group) were treated with vehicle or 4-MU (450 mg/kg) by starting stage-specific treatment at 8 (PIN stage), 12 (adenocarcinoma) and 22 (invasive carcinoma) wks of age. Model 2: Mice were treated with 4-MU (200 mg/kg or 450 mg/kg) following intracardiac injection of Luciferase expressing PC3-ML cells. 3. Palpable DU145 xenografts were treated with 4-MU (200 and 450 mg/kg). Effect of 4-MU on EMT markers, HA receptors was evaluated by Q-PCR, immunoblotting and/or immunohistochemistry in PCa cells and xenograft tissues. HA add back and overexpression studies were conducted to evaluate the mechanism of action of 4-MU. RESULTS: In the TRAMP model, at 28 wks, 100% of vehicle treated mice developed PCa, but tumor growth and progression was inhibited in all 4-MU treated groups; P+SV weight (g): vehicle: 3.2±2.9; 8 wk: 0.43±0.14; 12 wk: 0.35±0.04; 22 wk: 1.0±0.35 g. The P+SV weight in TRAMP mice at 22 wks of age was 0.9±0.04, showing that late stage administration of 4-MU halted further tumor progression. Animals in 8, 12 and 22 wk groups remained tumor free until 52, 44 and 34 wks respectively, even after stopping treatment at 28 wks. While 55% of vehicle treated animals developed metastasis, none of the treated groups had metastasis. In the PC3-ML intracardiac model, 100% of the mice in the vehicle group but none in the treatment group developed skeletal metastasis. In the DU145 model, 4-MU inhibited tumor growth. No serum/organ toxicity or weight loss was observed in any treatment groups. In all models, 4-MU treatment downregulated HA, HA receptors (CD44, RHAMM) and EMT markers (β-catenin, Zeb2) by >2-fold) but up-regulated E-cadherin. HA addition and overexpression of myristoylated AKt inhibited 4-MU effects. CONCLUSION: 4-MU is a potent non-toxic, oral chemopreventive agent, which inhibits PCa growth and metastasis by abrogating HA-signaling and reversing EMT. Support: R01 CA 123063-04 (VBL); R01 CA 72821-11 (VBL) Note: This abstract was not presented at the meeting. Citation Format: Travis Yates, David Alonzo, Soum Lokeshwar, Kelly Hoye, Luis E. Lopez, Marie Hupe, Vinata Lokeshwar. 4-methylumbelliferone: Dietary supplement turned chemo-preventive and anti-metastatic agent for prostate cancer. [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the 105th Annual Meeting of the American Association for Cancer Research; 2014 Apr 5-9; San Diego, CA. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2014;74(19 Suppl):Abstract nr 2681. doi:10.1158/1538-7445.AM2014-2681
Increases in Academic Connectedness and Self-Esteem Among High School Students Who Serve as Cross-Age Peer Mentors

Cross-age mentoring programs are peer helping programs in which high school students serve as mentors to younger children. The study in this article compared fall-to-spring changes on connectedness, attachment, and self-esteem between 46 teen mentors and 45 comparison classmates. Results revealed an association between serving as a cross-age peer mentor and improvements on academic self-esteem and connectedness. The American School Counselor Association regards coordinating a peer helping program as an appropriate activity for school counselors; this study supports this position.
Health promotion at the worksite. I. A process for establishing programs

A 14-step process for establishing health promotion programs at the worksite is described. During a period of 3 years, it has been used to establish 58 such programs in 12 small industries that employ 4,200 persons in a rural county in Pennsylvania. Few problems have been encountered; the most serious is the very limited record-keeping system of industries. The process is flexible and can be readily generalized to different settings. The major strengths of the process are the sense of ownership it gives to employees, and the modesty of its costs and the costs of the resulting programs.
Simultaneous Separation of Acidic, Basic, and Neutral Organic Compounds, Including Strong and Moderate Acids and Bases, by Capillary Electrochromatography

The separation of strongly basic, moderately basic, weakly basic, strongly acidic, moderately acidic, weakly acidic, and neutral compounds in a single run using capillary electrochromatography (CEC) is presented. This is accomplished using a 3-μm CEC Hypersil C8 capillary with high organic content acetonitrile/phosphate (pH 2.5) mobile phases containing hexylamine. Fifteen basic, acidic, and neutral drugs of forensic interest are resolved using a step gradient. Strong and moderately basic drugs separate before to, apparently by a combination of free zone electrophoresis (CZE) and chromatographic phenomena. Weak bases separate after to, also by a combination of CZE and chromatographic processes. Due to large selectivity differences between CEC and CZE for bases, there is evidence that the stationary phase is playing a significant role in the separation of these solutes. The CEC approach presented offers unique selectivity, expanded peak capacity, and the ability to solubilize both hydrophilic and hydrophob...
Multiwavelength Methods in Holographic Interferometry

Abstract Techniques are presented which take advantage of the wavelength dependence of various phenomena in holographic interferometry. Image-plane interferograms illuminated with light containing multiple wavelengths exhibit colour dispersion of the fringes. From this dispersion, we extract full-field information concerning displacement components which are not disclosed by monochromatic illumination.
Cuts in Hyperfinite Time Lines

In an ω 1 -saturated nonstandard universe a cut is an initial segment of the hyperinlegers which is closed under addition. Keisler and Leth in [KL] introduced, for each given cut U , a corresponding U -topology on the hyperintegers by letting O be U -open if for any x ϵ O there is a y greater than all the elements in U such that the interval [ x − y , x + y ] ⊆ O. Let U be a cut in a hyperfinite time line , which is a hyperfinite initial segment of the hyperintegers. U is called a good cut if there exists a U -meager subset of of Loeb measure one. Otherwise U is bad. In this paper we discuss the questions of Keisler and Leth about the existence of bad cuts and related cuts. We show that assuming b > ω 1 , every hyperfinite time line has a cut with both cofinality and coinitiality uncountable. We construct bad cuts in a nonstandard universe under ZFC. We also give two results about the existence of other kinds of cuts.
How the "What" Becomes the "How"

Recent years have seen a growing interest in pervasive computing environments. Peppered with wireless, mobile and embedded devices, such environments are characterized by a degree of dynamism not common in traditional distributed systems. A fundamental problem highlighted by such emerging environments is how to satisfy and sustain an application's service requirements in the face of continuous changes in available resources. An application in such an environment cannot be programmed to depend on a predetermined set of resources to access a service. Rather, resources must be dynamically discovered and opportunistically utilized to sustain the application's service requirements in its changing environment. In this talk, I will describe three systems, developed as part of Project Oxygen at MIT, that take different approaches to opportunistic service access. The first system, Intentional Naming System (INS, SOSP'01), integrates adaptive service access with the network routing layer. The second architecture, dubbed Service-oriented Network Sockets (SoNS, MobiSys'03), handles the dynamism of the system at the end-host session layer and combines a service-oriented abstraction with the operating system socket interface. Finally, our most recent system, Light-weight Adaptive Network Sockets (LANS, MC2R Jan'05), combines the lightweight operation of INS with the end-to-end semantics of SoNS, while offering richer semantics for adaptive access in shared environments. I will conclude with comments about our over-arching project aimed at formalizing a similar high-level (goal-oriented) abstraction as a language-level primitive for programming adaptive behavior.
What roles for utility sponsored DSM in a competitive environment

It is not just the competition, it is the uncertainty that is responsible for dramatic changes in utility planning. This includes uncertainty about the level and rules of competition that utilities will face. DSM is affected by fears of the future competition, but also by falling avoided costs, consumer resentment of the increasing costs of essential services and an unwillingness and/or inability of utilities and regulators to plan for the longer term. Beyond the confusion of the near term there will be a place for energy efficiency in the social agenda, regardless of whether utilities are the source of funding. The premise of this paper is that, in the interim, utilities will have the motivation and capability to maintain some ratepayer sponsored DSM programmes. The interim driving forces will be customer service needs, operational needs and regulation.
Evaluation of Covariances for Actinides and Light Elements at LANL

Los Alamos evaluates covariances for the evaluated nuclear data library (ENDF), mainly for actinides above the resonance region and for light elements in the entire energy range. We also develop techniques to evaluate the covariance data, like Bayesian and least-squares fitting methods, which are important to explore the uncertainty information on different types of physical quantities such as elastic scattering angular distribution, or prompt neutron fission spectra. This paper summarizes our current activities of the covariance evaluation work at LANL, including the actinide and light element data mainly for criticality safety studies and transmutation technology. The Bayesian method based on the Kalman filter technique, which combines uncertainties in the theoretical model and experimental data, is discussed.