cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Suppression of cellular structure in slot-burner flames

Abstract The mechanisms responsible for suppression of corrugated (cellular) structure in premixed flames have been investigated for slot-burner flames. Employing a novel variable-width slot burner, the effects of rim temperature, aerodynamics at the rim, and slot width were isolated. The results reveal that the dominant mechanism responsible for suppression of corrugated structure with increasing flow rate or decreasing slot width is time along the flame front. The results also suggest that stretch-induced stability due to positive strain rate and curvature at the base of rim-stabilized flames is essential for suppression of corrugated structure. Additionally, the suppression process, previously thought to be abrupt, was identified to occur over a distinct range of velocities, and this range was found to increase with increasing slot width. This new regime, defined as the transition regime, was characterized by a smooth, two-dimensional structure in the lower region near the rim and a corrugated, multi-dimensional structure in the upper region near the tip. A critical slot width, defined as w c , was also identified beyond which the corrugated structure could not be suppressed throughout the entire flame with increasing velocity. By examining the time available for growth of the instability, a simple model was developed that qualitatively describes the experimental results. For the 1-butene/air/CO 2 mixture analyzed, particle-tracking measurements yielded a characteristic time for growth of 22 ms and a critical slot width of w c = 0.7 cm, which agrees well with the model prediction of w c = 0.75 cm.
Modeling the temporal variability in the flux of sediment from ungauged river basins

Abstract The suspended sediment load carried by rivers is highly variable in space and time. On a given river, the suspended sediment load is generally related to the discharge. However, at any given discharge on a specific river the suspended sediment load can vary by a couple of orders of magnitude. The temporal variations can be due to many factors including: varying water sources through a season (i.e., rain versus snowmelt), variability in the amount of easily mobilized sediment stored in the channel, changing channel morphology due to intermittent events or changing climate, and variations in erosional processes supplying sediment to the river. Many studies have looked at the causes of the temporal variability in suspended sediment load on a particular river over specific time periods and created models to simulate the variability. A review of the physical mechanisms responsible for the variability in suspended sediment load reveals the necessary components of a general suspended sediment model for ungauged (and gauged) basins. A generally applicable model is presented that accounts for the inter- and intra-annual variability of suspended sediment load of rivers. The strength of this new model is that the coefficients have strong trends between river basins that can be related to drainage basin parameters. The model accounts for basin wide characteristics through a mean exponent. A variable exponent captures the annual variability and is related to the size of the river basin. The inter-annual variability is accounted for by a variable coefficient, which has large values on small rivers. This is a result of small rivers having larger changes in the intra-annual flows and large rivers tending to have less variability.
Wheat proteins. II. Changes in the protein composition of Triticum vulgare during the life cycle of the plant.

Changes in the wheat protein system, particularly endosperm proteins, during the life cycle of the plant have been followed using a starch gel electrophoresis technique. Fractions of low electrophoretic mobility were progressively degraded during germination and progressively synthesised towards the end of the ripening period, indicating their probable role as storage proteins of the endosperm. In contrast, fractions of higher mobility were less affected during germination and were utilised at a later stage. Similarly, these components were synthesised first during ripening and remained at a relatively constant level during the build-up of apparently high molecular weight material. On the information available it was not possible to determine whether the fast-moving fractions represented the enzymes of the system or were precursors of the larger components.
Mammographic Breast Density as a Risk Factor for Breast Cancer: Awareness in a Recently Screened Clinical Sample

Abstract Background Breast density is an established, independent risk factor for breast cancer. Despite this, density has not been included in standard risk models or routinely disclosed to patients. However, this is changing in the face of legal mandates and advocacy efforts. Little information exists regarding women's awareness of density as a risk factor, their personal risk, and risk management options. Methods We assessed awareness of density as a risk factor and whether sociodemographic variables, breast cancer risk factors. and perceived breast cancer risk were associated with awareness in 344 women with a recent screening mammogram at a tertiary care center. Findings Overall, 62% of women had heard about density as a risk factor and 33% had spoken to a provider about breast density. Of the sample, 18% reported that their provider indicated that they had high breast density. Awareness of density as a risk factor was greater among White women and those with other breast cancer risk factors. Conclusion Our results suggest that although a growing number of women are aware of breast density as a risk factor, this awareness varies. Growing mandates for disclosure suggest the need for patient education interventions for women at increased risk for the disease and to ensure all women are equally aware of their risks.
Identification of corn fields using multidate radar data

Airborne C- and L-band radar data acquired over a test site in western kansas were analyzed to determine corn-field identification accuracies obtainable using single-channel, multichannel, and multidate radar data. An automated pattern-recognition procedure was used to classify 144 fields into three categories: corn, pasture land, and bare soil (including wheat stubble and fallow). Corn fields were identified with accuracies ranging from 85 percent for single channel, single-date data to 100 percent for single-channel, multidate data. The effects of radar parameters such as frequency, polarization, and look angle as well as the effects of soil moisture on the classification accuracy are also presented.
Reaction Concept in Electromagnetic Theory

A physical observable called the reaction is defined to simplify the formulation of boundary value problems in electromagnetic theory. To illustrate its value it is used to obtain formulas for scattering coefficients, transmission coefficients, and aperture impedances. An approximate solution to problems of this type is obtained by replacing the correct source (of the scattered field for example) with an approximate source which is adjusted so that its reaction with certain "test" sources is correct. This insures that the approximate source "looks" the same as the correct source according to the physical tests which are inherent in the problem. The formulas so obtained have a stationary character (for the cases considered) and thus the results could also be obtained from a variational approach. However the physical approach has two important advantages. It is general whereas the variational technique has to be worked out for each problem. It is conceptually simple and leads directly to results which might not be uncovered by the variational approach because of the complexity of the mathematical formulation. The problem of scattering by a dielectric body is used to illustrate this latter point.
Deleuze and the Filmic Diagram

This article aims to consider how the ‘diagram’ or ‘little machine’ is integral to the dissociative, at once polyvocal and polymorphous writing that marks the work of Blanchot and that, in turn, informs the disjunctive – hence critical and productive – operation within the register of Deleuze's writings on cinema. I shall consider a number of Deleuze's ‘keywords’ or recurring formulas as diagrams, that is, as intermediate configurations at once visual and lexical, in order to show how, like rebuses or ideograms, they form collisions and ruptures of voice and graphic form, in order to bring forward the ‘outside’ of thought – what cannot be put into language yet is conveyed in language.
Extending moment computation to 2-port circuit representations

In this paper, we present an extension of moment computation to 2-port circuits. Our formulas are applicable to both transfer function moments and driving-point admittance moments. Given the input admittances, output admittances, and transfer functions of two 2-ports, our formulas compute the input admittance, output admittance, and transfer function when these 2-ports are combined either in parallel or in series. A nice conclusion of our work is the discovery our formulas form an elegant framework integrating the results from two classical papers. Rubinstein et al. and O'Brien and Savarino, for computing the Elmore delay and driving-point admittance moments in RC trees.
Incumbent Effects on Individual-Level Voting Behavior in Congressional Elections: A Decade of Exaggeration

This study challenges the widespread belief that members of the challengers' party have been defecting to incumbents at 50% levels and traces this perception to the coincidence of methodological discontinuities in the initiating studies of individual-level incumbent effects with the pro-incumbent bias in the 1978 and 1980 data. These originating discontinuities are briefly examined and the best available means of sustaining continuity and accuracy established. Defection toward incumbents and other individual-level pro-incumbent figures are then shown to be much lower than is currently thought.
The Role of External Variables in Self-Reinforcement: A Review

The present paper reviews self-reinforcement research in behavior modification. This research suggests that a wide range of responses can be altered, including classroom deportment, academic perfor...
Ineffectiveness of aureomycin and terramycin against rabies street virus in mice.

Discussion and Summary1. Neither aureomycin nor terramycin administered as described had an effect on the course of rabies in white mice when street virus was inoculated into the masseter muscle. 2. The pH of the terramycin preparation tried was sufficiently low to exert a lethal action on the street virus. A control suspension buffered at the same pH as the terramycin solution exerted the same lethal effect on the street virus.
Spread Spectrum Communication Through Modulation of Chaos

In this letter we demonstrate experimentally how Chua’s circuits can be used to implement a secure communication system. This system is compared to another system proposed earlier. This system has the advantage of transmitting a spread spectrum signal and is also more secure in the sense that better parameter matching is required in order to recover the signal. Furthermore, there is less of a problem with loss of synchronization.
Comments on the Validity of Ballistic Pendulum Measurements with Pulsed Plasma Accelerators

The pendulum configuration was suggested as a possible fault in a previous condemnation of the ballistic pendulum as a useful momentum measurement tool with pulsed plasma accelerators. A ballistic pendulum was presented in which the entire discharge system of a rail-type plasma accelerator, including the electrodes, is surrounded completely by the pendulum bob. Finally, with this arrangement, any momentum components due to surface sputtering of the pendulum are cancelled through multiple collisions with the walls, with the possible exception of a negligible error introduced by impingement of sputtered mass onto the electrodes.
Subspace identification based inferential control of a continuous pulp digester

In this paper we develop an inferential control scheme for Kappa Number control in a continuous pulp digester. First, a state-space model that correlates the Kappa number to an optimally selected set of liquor measurements is identified from input output data using a subspace identification technique. The model is then used to construct a multi-rate Kalman filter and a model predictive controller. Simulation results are provided to illustrate the efficacy of the approach.
Gender difference in a subpopulation of rat superior cervical ganglion neurons

The number of superior cervical ganglion (SCG) neurons is equivalent in males and females on the day of birth. By 15 days, after most of the normal neuron death has occurred, males have 20-30% more neurons than females; and this difference persists in the adult. The present study was undertaken to determine whether this difference exists uniformly throughout the ganglion, or only in a subpopulation of these neurons. To study subpopulations of SCG neurons, bilateral transection of the internal carotid nerve, the external carotid nerve, or both postganglionic nerves was performed on neonatal male and female Sprague-Dawley rats on the day of birth. Littermate sham operates served as controls. Numbers of neurons were counted in SCGs of animals on either postnatal day 4 or 15, before or after normal development of the SCG sex difference. At 4 days, the number of SCG neurons in sham-operated males had females were not different, while at 15 days, sham-operated males had more SCG neurons than did sham-operated females. The number of neurons remaining in the SCG following neonatal transection of the internal carotid nerve were not different in males and females at either 4 or 15 days postnatal. The number of SCG neurons remaining following neonatal transection of the external carotid nerve was greater in males than in females at both 4 and 15 days postnatal. It was concluded that the gender difference in survival of SCG neurons lies in neurons projecting through the internal carotid nerve. The number of neurons projecting out the external carotid nerve is equivalent in males and females.
Anisotropic branching random walks on homogeneous trees

Symmetric branching random walk on a homogeneous tree exhibits a weak survival phase: For parameter values in a certain interval, the population survives forever with positive probability, but, with probability one, eventually vacates every finite subset of the tree. In this phase, particle trails must converge to the geometric boundaryΩ of the tree. The random subset Λ of the boundary consisting of all ends of the tree in which the population survives, called the limit set of the process, is shown to have Hausdorff dimension no larger than one half the Hausdorff dimension of the entire geometric boundary. Moreover, there is strict inequality at the phase separation point between weak and strong survival except when the branching random walk is isotropic. It is further shown that in all cases there is a distinguished probability measure μ supported by Ω such that the Hausdorff dimension of Λ∩Ωμ, where Ωμ is the set of μ-generic points of Ω, converges to one half the Hausdorff dimension of Ωμ at the phase separation point. Exact formulas are obtained for the Hausdorff dimensions of Λ and Λ∩Ωμ, and it is shown that the log Hausdorff dimension of Λ has critical exponent 1/2 at the phase separation point.
Numerical modelling of ultrasonic wave propagation using the efficient p-version finite element method

Abstract In this paper, the new p-version of the finite element method has been used for the numerical modelling of ultrasonic wave propagation in solid media. The p-method involves increasing the polynomial order of the interpolation functions to achieve convergence. This is unlike the conventional h-version in which the number of elements is increased to achieve the same goal. Illustrative examples of wave propagation through an isotropic aluminium block, including a case with a built-in defect in the form of a crack, have been discussed. Also, a convergence criterion has been developed for dynamic problems. The potential to extend this model to other applications such as medical ultrasonics or to a more complex anisotropic medium is significant.
Results of a phase 2 trial of the single-agent histone deacetylase inhibitor panobinostat in patients with relapsed/refractory Waldenström macroglobulinemia

The present study aimed to determine the safety and activity of the histone deacetylase inhibitor panobinostat in patients with relapsed/refractory Waldenstrom macroglobulinemia (WM). Eligibility criteria included patients with relapsed/refractory WM with any number of prior therapies. Patients received panobinostat at 30 mg 3 times a week; 12 of 36 (33%) patients were enrolled at 25 mg dose. A total of 36 patients received therapy. The median age was 62 years (range, 47-80) and the median number of prior therapies was 3 (range, 1-8). All of the patients had received prior rituximab. Minimal response (MR) or better was achieved in 47% of patients (90% confidence interval [CI], 33-62), with 22% partial remissions and 25% MR. In addition, 18 (50%) patients achieved stable disease and none showed progression while on therapy. The median time to first response was 1.8 months (range, 1.7-3.2). The median progression-free survival was 6.6 months(90% CI, 5.5-14.8). Grade 3 and 4 toxicities included thrombocytopenia (67%), neutropenia (36%), anemia (28%), leukopenia (22%), and fatigue (11%). We conclude that panobinostat is an active therapeutic agent in patients with relapsed/ refractory WM. This study (www.clinicaltrials.gov identifier: NCT00936611) establishes a role for histone deacetylase inhibitors as an active class of therapeutic agents in WM.
Fitting B-splines to scattered data new and old parameterization

Parametric representation for curves is important in computer-aided geometric design, medical imaging, computer vision, computer graphics, shape matching, and face/object recognition. They are far better alternatives to free form representation, which are plagued with unboundedness and stability problems. This paper deals with the problem of fitting approximating B-spline curves with high compression ratios (control to data point ratios) to scattered data, where the data might be noisy or locally deformed, and where the curve sample points might be non-uniformly sampled across the curve. The approximating B-spline is robust to noise and local deformation. B-splines are bounded, continuous, invariant to affine and perspective transformations, and have local shape controllability. A parameterization based on curvature is proposed as a meaningful choice for the topological parameter of the B-spline that leads to a superior capturing of the curve shape and of preserving corner points. We compare several parameterization methods both theoretically and experimentally, and show that the curvature based parameterization is superior for noise free data, noisy data, local deformation, and non-uniform sampling. The fitting method is fast, and non-iterative. The fitting errors are, by and large, sub-resolution, i.e., they are below or at the resolution of the scattered data (defined here as the average distance between curve points). We also show the extension of the method to 3D surface fitting.
Haematological changes and anaemia associated with captivity and petroleum exposure in seabirds

Free-ranging marine birds are severely impacted by petroleum released into the environment. Although petroleum can affect many organ systems, oxidative damage to red blood cells (RBC) and development of Heinz body anaemia is the only known mechanism of RBC damage in oil-exposed marine birds. Rhinoceros auklets (Cerrorhinca monocerata) were orally exposed to 0, 2.5 or 10 ml of Prudhoe Bay crude oil/kg body weight for five consecutive days by gavage tube. No statistically significant differences between treatment groups were evident for the following blood parameters: packed cell volume (PCV); haemoglobin concentration (Hb); mean corpuscular haemoglobin concentration (MCHC); reticulocyte percentage: fibrinogen concentration; white blood cell count (WBC); and cell counts of heterophils, lymphocytes, monocytes, eosinophils and basophils. After petroleum exposure, blood samples from auklets did not have any evidence of haemolysis, oxidative RBC damage or Heinz body formation as determined by new methylene blue staining of blood smears. Anaemia developed in both oil-exposed and unexposed auklets within 3 weeks of being captured and placed in captivity. Anaemia persisted throughout the duration of the study (77 days). Statistically significant differences over time were identified for PCV, Hb concentration, MCHC, reticulocyte percentage, fibrinogen concentration and lymphocyte, eosinophil and basophil numbers in auklets, without regard to petroleum exposure status. A mild transient regenerative response was noted after gavaging birds with either petroleum or sterile saline, however, the PCV never returned to levels measured immediately after capture. It is likely that anaemia associated with petroleum exposure in seabirds is multifactorial and may be associated with the sedentary nature of captivity, a variety of captivity associated stressors and possibly, the age of affected birds. Furthermore, neither inflammatory nor acute phase responses were consistent indicators of petroleum ingestion.
Alpha Spectrum in the Decay of Li 8

The alpha-particle spectrum in the successive beta-alpha decay of ${\mathrm{Li}}^{8}$ was observed with magnetic analysis from 1 to 6.5 Mev, corresponding to excitation energies in ${\mathrm{Be}}^{8}$ from 2 to 13 Mev. The only definite structure in the spectrum corresponds to the well-known broad state at 2.9 Mev.
Women, Economy, War

Political violence amplifies contemporary trends occurring worldwide in the twenty-first century: globalization, an increasing reliance on the informal economy, a shift from twentieth-century manufacturing to resource and labour wildcatting, and the growth of complex international extra-legal trade networks. Women are central to all of these, though their roles both as leaders of development and victims of violence are often overlooked in mainstream analyses. To explain these invisibilities, this article introduces the concept of vanishing points – places where formal analyses and policy effectively cease, such as the dividing lines between formal and informal economies, and the violence associated with controlling extra-legal profits that is effectively invisible to the public at large. The realities of women's work amid political violence and postwar development, and across the spectrum of in/formality are explored. The conclusions serve to challenge established notions of power, profit, and economy, and the role of gender within these.
The alpha-smooth muscle actin promoter: a useful tool to analyse autocrine and paracrine roles of mesenchymal cells in normal and diseased bowel

### IGF-I AND NORMAL OR ADAPTIVE GROWTH OF BOWEL IGF-I mediates many of the postnatal growth promoting actions of pituitary derived growth hormone (GH) on multiple organs between birth and puberty and during adulthood.1 2 The bowel is now well established as an important target organ for GH and IGF-I.1 2 GH and IGF-I are currently being used in clinical trials to improve bowel function in patients with short bowel syndrome.3 4 IGF-I seems to mediate many of the enterotrophic actions of GH, which in turn increases circulating concentrations and local expression of IGF-I in bowel.2 5Previous studies in transgenic mice overexpressing metallothionen promoter I driven human IGF-I transgenes (MT-hIGF-I mice) or bovine GH transgenes (MT-bGH mice) revealed major increases in the mass of intestinal mucosa and in small bowel length relative to wild type.5 6 MT-hIGF-I mice have elevated circulating IGF-I, local overexpression of IGF-I in intestine and GH deficiency.6 Despite the deficiency in GH, MT-hIGF-I mice show similar or increased bowel growth compared with MT-bGH mice that have excess GH and IGF-1.6 Although studies on MT-bGH and MT-hIGF-I mice support the concept that IGF-I mediates most of the enterotrophic actions of GH, they did not tackle a key issue in IGF-I physiology—that is, the relative contributions of circulating versus locally expressed IGF-I in mediating bowel growth. A further limitation of the MT-hIGF-I mice is that the IGF-I transgene is expressed primarily in intestinal epithelial cells which are not the normal sites of endogenous IGF-I expression in bowel.6 A number of lines of evidence indicate that locally expressed, endogenous IGF-I contributes to normal or adaptive growth of bowel and is expressed throughout human and rodent bowel.7 8 Increased IGF-I expression in small bowel correlates with adaptive growth of bowel mucosa in response to refeeding9 or bowel resection, …
Shell-model calculations applied to the γ-ray spectroscopy of light Λ hypernuclei

Abstract The interpretation of hypernuclear γ -ray data for p-shell hypernuclei in terms of shell-model calculations that include the coupling of Λ - and Σ -hypernuclear states is briefly reviewed with emphasis on the successes and outstanding problems. The extension of the shell-model calculations to sd-shell hypernuclei, motivated by an experiment with a 19 F target to be performed at J-PARC with the new Hyperball-J, is outlined including a discussion of both positive-parity and negative-parity states in F Λ 19 .
Social Psychology As History or Science: An Addendum

The present paper attempts to reassess the "social psychology as science or history" debate insti gated by Gergen (1973). It is argued that although Gergen is correct in asserting the transhistorical variability of social psychological phenomena, the implication is that social contextual variables should be incorporated into our theoretical framework, rather than that we should engage in an historical endeavor.
Dynamic flux chamber measurement of gaseous mercury emission fluxes over soils. Part 1: simulation of gaseous mercury emissions from soils using a two-resistance exchange interface model

Abstract A two-resistance exchange interface model (TREIM) was developed to simulate gaseous mercury (Hg) emissions from soils measured by dynamic flux chamber (DFC) operations. The model is based on mass balance principles and a Hg air/soil exchange theory that considers the influence of flushing flow rate on Hg air/soil exchange. We used this model to examine the effect of the flushing flow rate and understand the optimum conditions for DFC measurements of Hg emission fluxes over soils. Our model simulations indicate that the flushing flow rate is a most critical operation condition. We recommend adoption of high flushing flow rates (e.g., ∼15–40 l min−1 for DFCs of common design) based on our simulation findings that underestimation of actual emission fluxes can occur at low flushing flow rates. The biased low fluxes are caused by suppression of emission potential resulting from internal accumulation of emitted Hg and by higher exchange resistance both at low flushing flow rates. This model provides a useful means for estimating maximum steady-state fluxes and soil air Hg concentrations and for adjustment of the fluxes measured under different operating conditions. The model also finds its value in understanding mechanical processes of Hg emissions from soils.
SU-FF-T-374: Robustness of Proton Versus IMRT Treatment Plans in the Presence of Target Motion for Prostate Cancers

Purpose: To compare dose distributions and DVHs of proton vs. IMRT prostate plans and their robustness in the presence of target motion. Method and Materials:Protontreatment plans with two lateral or lateral oblique fields are compared to 5‐field or 7‐field IMRT plans for low‐ and intermediate‐risk prostate tumors respectively. Both the proton and IMRT plans are designed such that D95, PTV =100%, and V95, PTV =100%. The beam angle, distal and proximal margins, smearing and border smoothing of range compensator are designed for each double‐scattered proton beam to achieve an optimal dose distribution. IMRT inverse planning constrains the 90% isodose line to fall within 0.5 cm of the PTV and the pelvic wall dose to below 70% of the prescribed dose. A triangular cylinder along the length of the rectum limits the anterior rectal wall dose. Dose volume histograms for PTV and CTV, rectal and bladder walls, and femoral heads are compared. The robustness of the two approaches is investigated by introducing CTV movements of 0.5 or 1.0 cm and reevaluating the DVHs. Results: Compared to IMRT,proton plans provide more uniform PTV coverage and significantly reduce volumes of doses to critical organs, especially the rectal wall, while maintaining excellent PTV coverage. CTV coverage in proton therapy is very robust against lateral movements of CTV, similar to or slightly better for superior‐inferior movements, but worse for posterior movements larger than 0.5 cm. This is due to the larger lateral and smaller anterior‐posterior extensions of proton dose profiles beyond the PTV, and the smearing and smoothing used for protontreatments.Conclusion:Proton plans generally provide better target coverage and better or comparable sparing of critical organs. They are more robust than IMRT with regard to prostate motion except for large posterior movement.
Chemistry (McMurry, John; Fay, Robert C.)

This text is suitable for chemistry majors, engineers, prenursing, and premedical students.
Aluminum administration in the Rat separately affects the osteoblast and Bone mineralization

Aluminum administration in the experimental animal results in osteomalacia as characterized by osteoid accumulation and decreased mineralization. Previous in vivo and in vitro studies have indicated that either aluminum directly inhibits mineralization or is toxic to the osteoblast. In the present study, PTH was continuously infused in rats with aluminum-induced osteomalacia to evaluate whether aluminum administration decreased mineralization without a concomitant decrease in osteoblasts. Four groups of rats were studied: chronic renal failure (CRF); CRF + aluminum (AL); CRF + PTH; and CRF + PTH + AL. Rats were sacrificed 5 and 12 days after aluminum or diluent administration; in the PTH groups, bovine PTH (1–34) was administered at 2 units/h via a subcutaneously implanted Alzet pump. Aluminum administration decreased osteoblast surface, increased osteoid accumulation, and produced a cessation of bone formation. The infusion of PTH alone increased osteoblast surface and bone formation. The simultaneous administration of aluminum and PTH resulted in an osteoblast surface intermediate between aluminum and PTH alone; however, despite a PTH-induced restoration of osteoblast surface, bone formation did not increase. These findings indicate (1) aluminum is toxic to osteoblasts and also directly inhibits mineralization even when osteoblasts are not decreased; (2) PTH is capable of increasing osteoblasts even in the presence of aluminum; and (3) despite a PTH-induced increase in osteoblast surface, mineralization of osteoid was not improved
Automated Recognition of Lateral from PA Chest Radiographs: Saving Seconds in a PACS Environment

Images acquired in a two-view digital chest examination are frequently not electronically distinguishable. As a result the lateral and posterioanterio (PA) images are often improperly positioned on a PACS work station. A series of 1998 chest radiographs (999 lateral, 999 PA or AP) were used to develop a neural network classifier. The images were down-sampled to 16 × 16 matrices, and a feed-forward neural network was trained and tested using the “leave-one-out” method. Using five nodes in the hidden layer, the neural network correctly identified 987 of the 999 test cases (98.8%) (average of six runs). The simple architecture and speed of this technique suggests that it would be a useful addition to PACS work station software. The accumulated time saved by correctly positioning the lateral and PA chest images on the work station monitors in accordance with each radiologist’s hanging protocols was estimated to be about 1 week of radiologist time per year.
Changes in urea‐dispersibility of proteins during maturation

The quantity of proteins involved in gluten formation in wheat harvested at various stages of development of the grain was inversely related to absorbence at 280 mμ of 3 M-urea extracts. The amount of protein, as determined by the biuret procedure, in the 3·0 M-urea extracts did not change during maturation. Thus the decreasing absorbence (280 mμ) with increasing maturity between 27 to 17 days pre-ripe seems to indicate a gradual increase in molecular weight and complexity of the synthesised proteins. The changes in formation of gluten proteins were accompanied by a decrease in water- and salt-dispersible proteins, and paralleled improvement in bread-making properties of the flours.
An Instrument for the Measurement of Barré in Knitted Fabrics

An instrument and computer algorithm is described which measures fabric color variations known as barre. The instrument consists of a phototropic photometer focused on a small spot on a fabric sample which is mounted on a rotating cylinder that moves past the photometer. The analog output is digitized and processed by a computer. The logarithm of the average relative peak-to-peak re flectivity of a series of fabrics of two different colors and two barre widths correlated with the logarithm of the subjective visual grading of the fabrics using the HATRA standard. The coefficient of deter mination for the raw data was 0.78. Replicate runs had good reproducibilities. Blocked photo metric HATRA grade data from the two colors and two barre width fabrics gave a good one-to-one comparison to blocked, visually-determined HATRA grade data.
Evaluating the effects of the introduction of off-sale alcohol outlets on violent crime.

Aims: To examine the effects on violence of a policy change that ended prohibition of off-sale alcohol outlets in Lubbock, Texas. Methods: Time-series analysis of violent crime data from police records comparing the periods before and after the policy change. Results: The effect of the policy change on both total violent crime and aggregated assault was small and did not approach statistical significance. Conclusions: Increased availability of alcohol through off-sale premises may not influence the type of violence reported to the police in Lubbock, Texas.
Blade-coating of a viscoelastic fluid

A theory is presented which describes the dynamics of blade-coating of a viscoelstic fluid onto a moving sheet. The method begins with the usual “lubrication” approximation, and develops the solution as a perturbation about the Newtonian case. Viscoelasticity is described by an empirical constitutive equation which shows non-Newtonian viscosity and finite normal stress behavior consistent with typical observations of polymeric fluids. Theoretical results indicate a small increase in coating thickness due to departure from Newtonian behavior, and a significant decrease in the magnitude of the pressure developed under the blade. Consequently, the blade loading can be reduced significantly by viscoelastic effects. The results for the loading may be an artifact of the specific constitutive model, since it can be shown that some viscoelastic fluids, specifically an “elastic Newtonian” fluid, would exhibit increased loading relative to the inelastic Newtonian case.
Novel mid-infrared imaging Fabry-Perot interferometer for the Keck telescopes

We present a technical description, and up-to-date status report, of the mid-IR imaging Fabry-Perot interferometer system (MIRFI) currently under development by the IR Astronomy Group at the University of California, Irvine. MIRFI, which is designed primarily for operation with the new Keck 10-m telescopes, will facilitate diffraction- limited imaging at extremely high spectral resolution in a variety of important mid-IR ionic and molecular spectral lines. The unique design goals of MIRFI, namely its high spectral resolving power and diffraction-limited imaging capability, are ideally suited for studying the dynamics of extended, optically obscured regions of ionic or warm molecular gas. Such regions include, but are not restricted to, (1) HII regions associated with young OB star clusters, (2) molecular cloud shocks associated with young stellar outflows, (3) photodissociation regions, (4) the Galactic Center, and (5) galactic nuclei and extragalactic HII regions.
Misfolding and interactions of Aß proteins: Insight from single molecule experiments and computational analyses

Background The current model for the development of Alzheimer’s (AD), Parkinson’s, Huntington’s, prion, and other neurodegenerative diseases involves protein misfolding as the early step followed by spontaneous aggregation, with specific proteins identified as the primary initiators for disease development. Therefore, elucidating the properties of the disease-prone misfolded states, understanding the mechanism of their formation, and identification of their most toxic forms will open prospects for the development of early diagnostics and specific therapeutics for these diseases.
A structured product development perspective for service operations

Abstract In this paper we review the literature on product development from a services perspective. We identify similarities in the creation and evolution of products and services, and discuss three types of knowledge that are commonly required in a development process: the sequence of steps or procedural plan that must be followed; the understanding of what components integrate the design and how they interact (architectural knowledge); and the principles and models that describe physical or human behavior in the system that is being designed. For each step of a generic development process we review the methods and tools that are widely used in product development and may be successfully applied to service development. To illustrate the notion of architectural knowledge in the service context, we introduce an example of a service operation structure and discuss important aspects of its components. Finally we explain the role of models in the development of products and services and argue how they can help design intangible elements. We conclude the paper by identifying gaps in the literature and suggesting directions for future research.
Effects of Promastigote Growth Phase, Frequency of Subculture, and Host Age on Promastigote-initiated Infections with Leishmania donovani in the Golden Hamster*†

SYNOPSIS Promastigotes of Leishmania donovani, 3S strain, were cultured from homogenized infected hamster spleen incubated at 25 C in a particle-free modification of Tanabe's (1923) medium, and were subcultured in this medium from 1 to 4 times. Promastigotes were inoculated intracardially to golden hamsters (Mesocricetus auratus). Promastigotes that were subcultured frequently by transfer from log phase of growth retained their infectivity for hamsters, as assayed by numbers of amastigotes in the liver at 16 days post infection. Promastigotes that were subcultured infrequently by transfer from stationary phase declined in infectivity. The extent of the decline was roughly proportional to the length of the incubation periods of the primary culture plus 1st subculture. Promastigotes harvested from log phase of growth were significantly less infective for hamsters than those harvested from stationary phase of growth, in that numbers of amastigotes found in the liver after 16 days were lower, and times to death longer, when log phase organisms were used to infect hamsters. The age of the hamster at the time of inoculation was found to affect the apparent infectivity of promastigotes from a 1st or 2nd subculture. When weanling (age 4 weeks), juvenile (age 8 weeks) and adult (age 24 to 32 weeks) hamsters received the same numbers of promastigotes, the weanlings had the highest numbers of liver amastigotes at 16 days, and shortest times to death, of the 3 groups; juveniles were intermediate between weanlings and adults; and adults had the lowest numbers of parasites and longest times to death of the host. Differences were statistically significant only between weanlings and adults. Responses of weanling and adult hamsters to infection with promastigotes could be rendered indistinguishable if the promastigotes were inoculated on the basis of 105 promastigotes per g of host body weight.
A specification idiom for reactive systems

Interrupt- and event-driven applications constitute an important system class, with connections to desktop computing, embedded systems, and sensor networks. We refer to this set of applications collectively as reactive systems. In this paper, we present a specification idiom for documenting reactive system behavior. Specifically, we discuss an approach to documenting split-phase operations—operations that involve a request, followed by a deferred out-of-context callback. We derive the idiom by example using interfaces from the TinyOS library, a popular component library for sensor network applications. We conclude with a broader discussion of specification idioms for reactive systems.
Effects of Social Labeling on Giving to Charity.

Abstract This field experiment tested the hypothesis that social labeling influences an actor's self-concept and his perception of the consequences of his behavior. Subjects who gave to charity were labeled charitable or not labeled and subjects who refused to give were labeled uncharitable or not labeled. Subjects were later asked to contribute to a second charity by a canvasser who was either highly involved in his cause, and hence likely to dispense social reinforcements, or uninvolved in it. Subjects labeled charitable gave more and subjects labeled uncharitable gave less than their respective control groups ( p p
Which "Apple" are you talking about ?

In a higher level task such as clustering of web results orword sense disambiguation, knowledge of all possible distinct concepts in which an ambiguous word can be expressed would be advantageous, for instance in determining the number of clusters in case of clustering web search results. We propose an algorithm to generate such a ranked list of distinct concepts associated with an ambiguous word. Concepts which are popular in terms of usage are ranked higher.We evaluate the coverage of the concepts inferred from our algorithm on the results retrieved by querying the ambiguous word using a major search engine and show a coverage of 85% for top 30 documents averaged over all keywords.
An ultra-high sensitivity, capacitive pressure sensor using ionic liquid

We introduce a novel, microfluidic capacitive pressure sensor which uses a high capacitance per unit area at the interface between the metal and ionic liquid. Unlike traditional pressure sensors, which use rigid material constructs, we employ conductive liquid and elastomeric constructs as the sensing medium -- a design which is very responsive to applied pressure. A prototyped sensor achieves a sensitivity of 522.5 pF/mmHg.
So How Does the Mind Work

In my book How the Mind Works, I defended the theory that the human mind is a naturally selected system of organs of computation. Jerry Fodor claims that 'the mind doesn't work that way' (in a book with that title) because (1) Turing Machines cannot duplicate humans' ability to perform abduction (inference to the best explanation); (2) though a massively modular system could succeed at abduction, such a system is implausible on other grounds; and (3) evolution adds nothing to our under- standing of the mind. In this review I show that these arguments are flawed. First, my claim that the mind is a computational system is different from the claim Fodor attacks (that the mind has the architecture of a Turing Machine); therefore the practical limitations of Turing Machines are irrelevant. Second, Fodor identifies abduction with the cumulative accomplishments of the scientific community over millennia. This is very different from the accomplishments of human common sense, so the supposed gap between human cognition and computational models may be illusory. Third, my claim about biological specialization, as seen in organ systems, is distinct from Fodor's own notion of encapsulated modules, so the limitations of the latter are irrelevant. Fourth, Fodor's arguments dismissing of the relevance of evolution to psychology are unsound.
Evaluation of efficient security for BGP route announcements using parallel simulation

Abstract The Border Gateway Protocol (BGP) determines how Internet traffic is routed throughout the entire world; malicious behavior by one or more BGP speakers could create serious security issues. Since the protocol depends on a speaker honestly reporting path information sent by previous speakers and involves a large number of independent speakers, the Secure BGP (S-BGP) approach uses public-key cryptography to ensure that a malicious speaker cannot fabricate this information. However, such public-key cryptography is expensive: S-BGP requires a digital signature operation on each announcement sent to each peer, and a linear (in the length of the path) number of verifications on each receipt. We use simulation of AS models derived from the Internet to evaluate the impact that the processing costs of cryptography have on BGP convergence time. As the size of these models grows, inherent memory requirements grow beyond what is normally available in serial computers, motivating us to use distributed memory cluster computers, just to hold the model state. We find that under heavy load the convergence time using ordinary S-BGP is significantly larger than BGP. We examine the impact of highly aggressive caching and pre-computation optimizations for S-BGP, and find that convergence time is much closer to BGP. However, these optimizations may be unrealistic, and are certainly expensive of memory. We consequently use the structure of BGP processing to design optimizations that reduce cryptographic overhead by amortizing the cost of private-key signatures over many messages. We call this method Signature-Amortization (S-A). We find that S-A provides as good or better convergence times as the highly optimized S-BGP, but without the cost and complications of caching and pre-computation. These experiments––whose memory demands easily exceed 10Gb––are made possible using parallel simulation. They show that it is is possible therefore to minimize the impact route validation has on convergence, by being careful with signatures, rather than consumptive of memory.
Rethinking the application-database interface

From social networking websites to bank transactions, we interact with data-intensive applications every day. Such applications are typically hosted on an application server that interacts with a database server to manipulate persistent data. To make such applications efficient, developers face the daunting task of mastering the intricacies of both the programming system and the database management system. For instance, while many application features can be implemented in either the application or pushed into the database, it is difficult for a programmer to decide where to place a given computation as the decision is typically workload-driven. Unfortunately, making the wrong choice often results in drastic performance hit.In this talk, I will show how examining both the programming system and the database management system at the same time allows us to significantly improve the performance of data-intensive applications. To illustrate such cross-system optimization opportunities, I have designed, built, and evaluated three systems: Query By Synthesis, a tool that converts functionality written as imperative code into relational queries; Sloth, a system that combines queries embedded in applications into batches; and Pyxis, a system that seamlessly moves computation between application and database servers. Using real-world examples, I will show that these systems allow orders of magnitude performance improvement and graceful adaptation to changing server environments while preserving the high-level programming interface to the developer. I will furthermore highlight research opportunities and challenges in applying similar techniques to other system problems.