cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Model Predictive Control of Chemical Processes: A Tutorial

In this chapter, we will illustrate the ability of model predictive control (MPC) in dealing with the multivariable nature of process dynamics, process constraints, and multiple control objectives in chemical processes. The mathematical formulation of MPC is presented for a general class of processes. The receding-horizon implementation of MPC is demonstrated for a batch crystallization process and a continuous fermentation process. We will then discuss the importance of state estimation for output-feedback MPC when the knowledge of the process states is not fully available. This chapter will conclude with a brief introduction to advanced topics in MPC that are of relevance to chemical process control.
Toward a new HLS-based methodology for FPGA benchmarking of candidates in cryptographic competitions: The CAESAR contest case study

The increasing number of candidates competing in cryptographic contests has made hardware benchmarking using the traditional Register-Transfer Level (RTL) methodology too inefficient and potentially unfair, especially at the early stages of the competitions. In this paper, we propose supplementing, and eventually replacing, this traditional RTL methodology with the use of High-Level Synthesis (HLS) tools. We apply our proposed HLS-based approach to FPGA benchmarking in the ongoing CAESAR contest, by comparing and ranking 16 authenticated ciphers, including the current standard, AES-GCM, and the primary variants of 13 Round 3 CAESAR candidates. After a careful survey of available HLS tools, we chose Xilinx Vivado HLS as our primary benchmarking tool. Our study has demonstrated high correlation between the rankings of the evaluated algorithms, obtained using both investigated methodologies. In particular, after applying HLS, the algorithm rankings in terms of two major performance metrics — throughput and throughput to area ratio — have either remained unchanged or have been affected only for algorithms with very similar RTL performance.
Arrays of (locality-sensitive) Count Estimators (ACE): Anomaly Detection on the Edge

Anomaly detection is one of the frequent and important subroutines deployed in large-scale data processing applications. Even being a well-studied topic, existing techniques for unsupervised anomaly detection require storing significant amounts of data, which is prohibitive from memory, latency and privacy perspectives, especially for small mobile devices which has ultra-low memory budget and limited computational power. In this paper, we propose ACE (Arrays of (locality-sensitive) Count Estimators) algorithm that can be 60x faster than most state-of-the-art unsupervised anomaly detection algorithms. In addition, ACE has appealing privacy properties. Our experiments show that ACE algorithm has significantly smaller memory footprints (∠ 4MB in our experiments) which can exploit Level 3 cache of any modern processor. At the core of the ACE algorithm, there is a novel statistical estimator which is derived from the sampling view of Locality Sensitive Hashing (LSH). This view is significantly different and efficient than the widely popular view of LSH for near-neighbor search. We show the superiority of ACE algorithm over 11 popular baselines on 3 benchmark datasets, including the KDD-Cup99 data which is the largest available public benchmark comprising of more than half a million entries with ground truth anomaly labels.
Modular Forms and ℓ-Adic Representations

This report is another attempt on the part of its author to come to terms with the circumstance that L-functions can be introduced not only in the context of automorphic forms, with which he has had some experience, but also in the context of diophantine geometry. That this circumstance can be the source of deep problems was, I believe, first perceived by E. Artin. He was, to be sure, concerned with forms on GL(1) and with varieties of dimension 0. This remains the only case in which results of any profundity have been obtained. These have been hard won. Their mathematical germ is the theory of cyclotomic fields; itself easy-only in comparison to the general theory.
Śamkara's principle and two ontomystical arguments

L'A. traite de la philosophie de Sankara sur le monde exterieur comme apparence et cherche a montrer comment elle peut etre uilisee comme nouvel argument pour l'existence de Dieu en combinant l'argument ontologique de Plantiga et l'experience mystique.
Syntax: Multimedia Languages

Visual languages, which let users customize iconic sentences, can be extended to accommodate multimedia objects, letting users access media dynamically. Teleaction objects, or multimedia objects with knowledge structures, can be designed using visual languages to automatically respond to events and perform tasks like “find related books” in virtual library Bookman.
Efficacy of brincidofovir as prophylaxis against HSV and VZV in hematopoietic cell transplant recipients.

Allogeneic hematopoietic cell transplant (HCT) recipients are at risk for herpes simplex virus (HSV) and varicella-zoster virus (VZV) infections. Routine prophylaxis with acyclovir is recommended during periods of immunosuppression. Brincidofovir (BCV, CMX001), a lipid conjugate of cidofovir, has shown in vitro activity against HSV/VZV, but has not been formally studied for HSV/VZV prophylaxis. We report our clinical experience of BCV for HSV/VZV prophylaxis in HCT recipients. This was a retrospective review of 30 hematopoietic cell transplant (HCT) recipients between 8/2010 and 8/2015 who received BCV doses not exceeding 200 mg/week for adults/adolescents and 4 mg/kg/week for pediatric (<12 years) patients, for ≥14 days BCV without concomitant acyclovir under clinical trials or single patient use. HSV/VZV cases during BCV treatment were confirmed by viral culture or PCR and clinical symptoms. Of 30 patients who met the inclusion criteria, 27 (90%) patients were adults and 22 (73%) patients received T-cell depleted HCT. The most common indications for BCV were cytomegalovirus in 12 patients (40%) and adenovirus in 11 patients (37%). One patient was treated for acyclovir-resistant HSV and one for disseminated VZV. There were two breakthrough cases of HSV infection during 2170 patient-days. There were no cases of breakthrough VZV infection. The overall rate of breakthrough HSV infection was 1.0 per 1000 patient-days, without any breakthrough VZV infections. Our study provides the only available-albeit limited-evidence on the potential efficacy of BCV for HSV/VZV prophylaxis in HCT patients. Additional studies are needed to further assess the efficacy and safety of BCV in the setting.
Spare Parts Inventory Management with Substitution-Dependent Reliability

Motivated to apply sustainable supply chain principles to air-pollution control systems, this paper presents a dynamic inventory-management approach where substitution is possible to maintain these systems’ equipment. An air-pollution control system’s subsequent reliability depends on the replacement equipment selected. The corresponding problem is formulated as a stochastic dynamic program. Because the state and action space are prohibitively large, the approximate policy iteration algorithm is adapted to generate high-quality solutions. Therefore, this work replaces the value function with an affine combination of nonlinear basis functions and shows that a relaxation of the policy improvement step requires the solving of a mixed integer linear program. This approach helps in the designing of an algorithm that improves the quality of the approximation by solving a convex optimization problem. To assess the quality of resulting solutions, a lower bound is developed by considering a relaxation of the probl...
Diagnosing the Palestinian-Israeli Conflict and an Analysis of the Relevant Negotiating Process

Previous studies have focused on the nature of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict and have considered that nature as an input to analyze the deadlock that has accompanied the negotiating track. They have also considered the conflict in question as being intractable given its nature. Hence, highlighting the specific characteristics of the conflict have reflected that point of view. Many scholars have articulated that the Palestinian-Israeli conflict is existential one, which means that installing one of the parties to the conflict on the disputed land includes eliminating the possibility of the other party’s presence on it. Therefore, the conflict in Palestine reflects the battle of identity, destiny, and land. Such conflicts are characterized by the asymmetry between the two parties because one is a colonial state, while the other is a people under colonial rule. Asymmetry takes several dimensions that prevent reaching a reasonable solution to such a conflict, a situation that directly leads to the prolongation of the conflict as well as the prolongation of the negotiating process seeking a solution. On the other hand, the lack of confidence among the parties to the conflict is one of the most striking manifestations of this pattern of conflict.
In vivo measurement of esophageal hiatus surface area using MDCT: description of the methodology and clinical validation.

Accurate estimation of esophageal hiatus surface area (HSA) prior to surgical repair of hiatal hernia is difficult. The ability to do so may assist with following progression of hiatal hernias, choosing the optimal surgical approach and post-surgical evaluation. We developed a method for measurement of HSA using multi-planar reconstruction (MPR) of multi-detector computed tomography (MDCT) scans and sought to validate our method using intra-operative HSA measurements. Patients with thoracic or abdominal CT scans who were scheduled to undergo hiatal hernia repair were identified. A radiologist performed MPR of each MDCT scan to obtain the measured HSA (mHSA). Estimated HSA (eHSA) was obtained using intra-operative measurements of crura length and distance between crural edges. The association between eHSA and the corresponding mHSA was assessed using Pearson correlation. The intra-class correlation coefficient was calculated to assess both intra-observer and inter-observer agreement for the MDCT–MPR technique. Of 30 subjects included, 16 (53.3%) were female and the median age was 68.5 years. All patients underwent robotic-assisted laparoscopic hiatal hernia repair. The median HSA was 8.1 cm2 based on intra-operative measurements and 9.9 cm2 based on CT measurements. The correlation coefficient for eHSA and corresponding mHSA was 0.83 (p < 0.001). The intra-class correlation coefficient was 0.97 (p < 0.001) for intra-observer agreement and 0.97 (p < 0.001) for inter-observer agreement. We developed a MDCT–MPR technique that measures HSA in vivo. This technique is reproducible and can be used for pre-operative planning and post-operative follow-up of patients with symptomatic hiatal hernia.
Twist Angle-Dependent Atomic Reconstruction and Moiré Patterns in Transition Metal Dichalcogenide Heterostructures.

Van der Waals layered materials, such as transition metal dichalcogenides (TMDs), are an exciting class of materials with weak interlayer bonding, which enables one to create so-called van der Waals heterostructures (vdWH). One promising attribute of vdWH is the ability to rotate the layers at arbitrary azimuthal angles relative to one another. Recent work has shown that control of the twist angle between layers can have a dramatic effect on TMD vdWH properties, but the twist angle has been treated solely through the use of rigid-lattice moire patterns. No atomic reconstruction, that is, any rearrangement of atoms within the individual layers, has been reported experimentally to date. Here, we demonstrate that vdWH of MoSe2/WSe2 and MoS2/WS2 at twist angles ≤1° undergo significant atomic level reconstruction leading to discrete commensurate domains divided by narrow domain walls, rather than a smoothly varying rigid-lattice moire pattern as has been assumed in prior experimental work. Using conductive atomic force microscopy (CAFM), we show that TMD vdWH at small twist angles exhibit large domains of constant conductivity. The domains in samples with R-type stacking are triangular, whereas the domains in samples with H-type stacking are hexagonal. Transmission electron microscopy provides additional evidence of atomic reconstruction in MoSe2/WSe2 structures and demonstrates the transition between a rigid-lattice moire pattern for large angles and atomic reconstruction for small angles. We use density functional theory to calculate the band structures of the commensurate reconstructed domains and find that the modulation of the relative electronic band edges is consistent with the CAFM results and photoluminescence spectra. The presence of atomic reconstruction in TMD heterostructures and the observed impact on nanometer-scale electronic properties provide fundamental insight into the behavior of this important class of heterostructures.
Born with a Failing Right Heart

Tetralogy of Fallot is one of the most common congenital heart diseases with increasing numbers of patients surviving into adulthood due to advances in surgical and transcatheter techniques. Whereas children undergo surgical repair early, the pathophysiology has a lifetime of consequences, increasing the risk of right heart failure with variable timing and presentation throughout adulthood. Key sequelae of repair include pulmonary regurgitation, pulmonary stenosis, impaired right ventricular function, left ventricular dysfunction, arrhythmias, and conduction abnormalities—all of which contribute to morbidity and mortality later in life. These sequelae are managed using a combination of medical therapy, pacemaker and defibrillator devices, transcatheter and surgical valve replacement, and advanced heart failure therapies, including heart transplantation.
HOPE AGAINST DESPAIR

A. J. Cronin is a man who possessed a near-monastic silence in life and neither sought nor encouraged celebrity status. He embellishes the literary world with his creative genius and holds an important position among all modern English writers. Critics hail Cronin for his surer pen and more penetrating eye as his writing addresses many of the most distressing issues we face today. His books are celebrated for their honesty and realism. Cronin's experience as a doctor enabled him to bring out a literary treatment of an epidemic in 1941, six years before Albert Camus published The Plague. Caught in the sweeping tides of the Second World War, the world was swamped with hatred and meaninglessness, strangled by fear and crushed beneath the terror of the arms race. This was a time when people had lost faith in themselves, faith in everything, and nations of the world were fighting against each other. With the current situation of the world being not too dissimilar, Father Francis Chisholm’s story may give readers an answer to what the world can turn to for the survival during a pandemic. This paper focuses on analysing the human quest for meaning and happiness in absurdity, incredulity, uncertainty, and meaninglessness through a reading of A. J. Cronin’s 1941 novel, The Keys of the Kingdom. Same as COVID-19 works as an act and a process, Father Chisholm’s life too epitomises the process meaningfully.
AdaPipe: A Recommender System for Adaptive Computation Pipelines in Cyber-Manufacturing Computation Services

The industrial cyber–physical systems (ICPS) will accelerate the transformation of offline data-driven modeling to fast computation services, such as computation pipelines for prediction, monitoring, prognosis, diagnosis, and control in factories. However, it is computationally intensive to adapt computation pipelines to heterogeneous contexts in ICPS in manufacturing. In this article, we propose to rank and select the best computation pipelines to match contexts and formulate the problem as a recommendation problem. The proposed method adaptive computation pipelines (AdaPipe) considers similarities of computation pipelines from word embedding, and features of contexts. Thus, without exploring all computation pipelines extensively in a trial-and-error manner, AdaPipe efficiently identifies top-ranked computation pipelines. We validated the proposed method with 60 bootstrapped datasets from three real manufacturing processes: thermal spray coating, printed electronics, and additive manufacturing. The results indicate that the proposed recommendation method outperforms the traditional matrix completion, tensor regression methods, and a state-of-the-art personalized recommendation model.
Varus-Valgus Constrained Implants in Revision Total Knee Arthroplasty: Mean Clinical Follow-Up of Six Years.

Abstract Background There is scant literature evaluating varus-valgus constrained (VVC) prostheses in contemporary revision total knee arthroplasty (TKA). Therefore, we aimed to evaluate the durability of VVC revision TKA with selective use of cones. Methods A retrospective review of 194 revision TKAs with VVC was performed from August 2005 through February 2018 at a single institution. The final cohort consisted of 168 TKAs with a mean follow-up of 6 years. Stems were used in all but 1 TKA, tibial cones in 48%, and femoral cones in 19%. Anderson Orthopaedic Research Institute classification in femurs was 1 in 57, 2A in 33, 2B in 62, 3 in 16, and in tibias, 1 in 42, 2A in 29, 2B in 81, and 3 in 16. Results Survival analysis showed that 93% were free of revision for aseptic component loosening, 76% were free of revision for any reason, and 74% were free of reoperation at 6 years. Anderson Orthopaedic Research Institute 3 femur or tibia, age Conclusion VVC revision TKA with selective use of cones provided a reasonable outcome as 93% were free of revision for aseptic loosening at 6 years. However, given the rate of patients with progressive radiographic changes and survivorship free of reoperation of 74% at 6 years, long-term follow-up will help assess the durability of these constructs.
Resilience Improvements for Space-Based Radio Frequency Machine Learning

Recent work has quantified the degradations that occur in convolutional neural nets (CNN) deployed in harsh environments like space-based image or radio frequency (RF) processing applications. Such degradations yield a robust correlation and causality between single-event upset (SEU) induced errors in memory weights of on-orbit CNN implementations. However, minimal considerations have been given to how the resilience of CNNs can be improved algorithmically as opposed to via enhanced hardware. This paper focuses on RF-processing CNNs and performs an in-depth analysis of applying software-based error detection and correction mechanisms, which may subsequently be combined with protections of radiation-hardened processor platforms. These techniques are more accessible for low cost smallsat platforms than ruggedized hardware. Additionally, methods for minimizing the memory and computational complexity of the resulting resilience techniques are identified. Combined with periodic scrubbing, the resulting techniques are shown to improve expected lifetimes of CNN-based RF-processing algorithms by several orders of magnitude.
How Should Developers Respond to App Reviews? Features Predicting the Success of Developer Responses

Context: The Google Play Store allows app developers to respond to user reviews. Existing research shows that response strategies vary considerably. In addition, while responding to reviews can lead to several types of favorable outcomes, not every response leads to success, which we define as increased user ratings. Aims: This work has two objectives. The first is to investigate the potential to predict early whether a developer response to a review is likely to be successful. The second is to pinpoint how developers can increase the chance of their responses to achieve success. Method: We track changes in user reviews of the 1,600 top free apps over a ten-week period, and find that in 11,034 out of 228,274 one- to four-star reviews, the ratings increase after a response. We extract three groups of features, namely time, presentation and tone, from the responses given to these reviews. We apply the extreme gradient boosting (XGBoost) algorithm to model the success of developer responses using these features. We employ model interpretation techniques to derive insights from the model. Results: Our model can achieve an AUC of 0.69, thus demonstrating that feature engineering and machine learning have the potential to enable developers to estimate the probability of success of their responses at composition time. We learn from it that the ratio between the length of the review and response, the textual similarity between the review and response, and the timeliness and the politeness of the response have the highest predictive power for distinguishing successful and unsuccessful developer responses. Conclusions: Based on our findings, we provide recommendations that developers can follow to increase the chance of success of their responses. Tools may also leverage our findings to support developers in writing more effective responses to reviews on the app store.
Action of spleen exonuclease on transfer ribonucleic acid.

Abstract The hydrolytic action of spleen exonuclease on serine transfer RNA has been investigated. It was found that two different mechanisms of attack obtain: (a) processive degradation and (b) random cleavage. These two different modes of action are determined by the presence or the absence of the terminal phosphate group at the 5' terminus of transfer RNA. The loss of several important biological activities of transfer RNA or aminoacyl transfer RNA, such as amino acid acceptor activity, AMP acceptor activity, polynucleotide-directed ribosomal binding, and incorporation of the amino acid moiety into growing polypeptide chains, were examined in detail as a function of the digestion by spleen exonuclease.
Eye Ornamentation of Caribbean Reef Fishes

Considerable emphasis has, in the past, been placed on the eye camouflage of a wide variety of animals, including fishes. Evidence from those fishes inhabiting Caribbean reefs indicates that eye ornamentation is much more common than their obliteration; this is probably due mainly to the ease with which reef fishes can avoid predators and the importance of the eyes as signals in intraspecific interactions. The similarities between eye ornamentation of these fishes and the concept of poster-coloration are discussed. Zusammenfassung Obwohl bisher die Augentarnung der Fische viel beachtet wurde, zeigt ein Vergleich der Arten, die karibische Riffe bewohnen, das Hervorhebung der Augen haaufiger ist als Tarnung: 1. In den meisten Fallen ist eine dunkle Pupille von einer stark kontrastie-renden hellen Iris umrandet. 2. Viele Arten haben auserdem noch andere Augenmarkierungen, wie Ringe oder ‘Brauen’ von abstechender Farbe. 3. Die Hauptfarben der Umgebung der Augen (schwarz, blau und gelb) erhohen noch den Kontrast. Die beiden Faktoren, die wahrscheinlich zur Entwicklung der Augen als Farbsignale fuhrten, sind die Unfahigkeit eines Raubfisches, kleine Korallenfische bei Tageslicht zu erbeuten, wenn Farbsignale am auffalligsten sind, und die gut belegte Tatsache, das Fischaugen in der arteigenen Verstandigung eine Rolle spielen.
Interactions of bilirubin with bovine serum albumin in aqueous solution.

Abstract The interaction of bilirubin at concentrations less than 25 µm with bovine serum albumin (BSA) in aqueous solutions ranging from pH 3.5 to 8.6 was studied at room temperature by using the methods of optical rotatory dispersion (ORD) and absorption spectrophotometry between 230 and 600 mµ. The binding of bilirubin by BSA at pH 5 caused a red shift of an absorption maximum from about 440 to 457 mµ, the latter having a millimolar extinction coefficient of 58. This bilirubin-BSA complex exhibited probably the largest Cotton effect ever reported in the visible region, with an amplitude of approximately 1.5 x 106 degrees·cm2·decimole-1, expressed as molar rotation of bilirubin (protein rotations were deducted), with a peak at 435 mµ and a trough at 485 to 487 mµ. In addition, relatively smaller anomalous rotations were observed in the region between 250 and 400 mµ. The ORD behavior of the bilirubin-BSA complex was dependent upon the pH and buffer in the system. The amplitude of the main Cotton effect decreased greatly at either side of pH 5, with significant changes in the absorption spectra. At pH 5, low concentrations of sodium acetate-acetic acid buffer (0.2 mm ionic strength) decreased the amplitude to about one-tenth of that observed in the absence of acetate buffer when the order of addition was: bilirubin, buffer, and finally excess BSA. Sodium chloride, 50 mm, added last did not affect the ORD profile at pH 5 in the presence of excess BSA; however, at pH 7.5, 0.1 m NaCl with 10 mm Tris-HCl buffer added last reduced the Cotton effect significantly. ORD as well as spectrophotometric titrations gave a molar ratio of unity for the bilirubin-BSA complex at both pH 5 and 7.4. At pH 5 and 25° ± 2°, the apparent association (binding) constant was estimated to be (5.7 ± 1.5) x 106 m-1. The remarkably large Cotton effects observed at pH 5 were interpreted by the formation of a dissymmetric conformation of the bilirubin molecule upon binding to BSA in a specific manner which would permit dipole-dipole coupling between the juxtaposed dipyrrylmethene chromophores. This conformation was considered to be modified by pH, through changes in the ionization of binding groups and by changes in the protein conformation with pH, occurring in particular below about pH 4. The extrinsic effect of the asymmetric protein environment was also considered to be a factor in contributing to the observed anomalous rotations.
The political and economic activities of the Jesuits in the La Plata region : the Hapsburg era

The political and economic activities of the Jesuits in the La Plata region : the Hapsburg era
Improving water resource management in Bangladesh

As populations expand and make various uses of water, its growing scarcity becomes a serious issue in developing countries such as Bangladesh. Water can no longer be considered a totally free resource and plans must be developed for its efficient use through better management and rules that preserve everybody's access to it and interest in its development. Because it is a common resource, its development and management should involve all beneficiaries. The government's role in this process is to establish the ground rules for water use and conservation through a policy and legal framework and a monitoring system that ensure its continued safety of supply to--and responsible water use by--every sector and user in the economy. National water policy must set the ground rules for allocation to different users, water rights, pricing, and environmental safety. Bangladesh's water strategy should start with a national water policy that spells out key objectives such as priority of use by critical economic sectors, approaches to water pricing and cost recovery for development, and shared public- and private-sector water management. An apex public planning organization is needed to perform overall planning for water resources and to advise the National Water Counsel on policy and legislation. Also needed are agencies to implement public water plans for the development of infrastructure, the monitoring of water regimes, and the enforcement of regulations.
Theoretical study of the interactions of SiH2 radicals with silicon surfaces

Silylene (SiH2) radicals created by electron impact dissociation of silane in reactive gas discharges can play an important role in plasma deposition of amorphous and nanocrystalline silicon thin films. In this article, we present a systematic computational analysis of the interactions of SiH2 radicals with a variety of crystalline and amorphous silicon surfaces based on atomistic simulations. The hydrogen coverage of the surface and, hence, the availability of surface dangling bonds is shown to exert the strongest influence on the radical-surface reaction mechanisms and the corresponding reaction probabilities. The SiH2 radical reacts with unit probability on the pristine Si(001)-(2×1) surface which has one dangling bond per Si atom; upon reaction, the Si atom of the radical forms strong Si–Si bonds with either one or two surface Si atoms. On the H-terminated Si(001)-(2×1) surface, the radical is found to react with a probability of approximately 50%. The SiH2 radical attaches itself to the surface eithe...
Determinants of Adverse Selection on the NYSE and Nasdaq: A Paired Comparison

Using a matched sample of NYSE and Nasdaq stocks we examine the determinants of differences in the adverse selection component of the spread. Consistent with previous work, we find that adverse selection is less for Nasdaq stocks than for NYSE stocks. Further, we find that many of the factors that we hypothesize to be correlated with adverse selection are significant determinants for only NYSE stocks. Our findings are consistent with the interpretation that the more fragmented nature of the Nasdaq market means that adverse selection is less important to Nasdaq market makers than it is to the NYSE specialist. Consistent with this hypothesis, we find adverse selection is negatively correlated with the number of market makers for Nasdaq stocks. Our results suggest researchers should use caution when using adverse selection components as a proxy for information opacity without also controlling for the listing exchange.
Distributed multimedia information systems

Distributed multimedia information systems (DMIS) are concerned with multimedia information processing, multimedia information models, and multimedia information delivery in distributed computing environments. Today there are two approaches being pursued for developing large scale DMIS: the world-wide web and interactive television systems. This paper examines and compares the state and direction of these two systems. Areas of comparison include systems architecture, content models, client and server services, extensibility, and limitations. We conclude the paper with a review of the role of imaging technologies in distributed multimedia information systems, including content-based retrieval and processing of digital video.
Evaluations of control agents for conifer seed protection

Standardized test procedures have been developed for evaluating repellent and toxic treatments on Douglas-fir (Pseudotsuga menziesii) and toxic baits for use against deer mice (Peromyscus maniculatus)-a primary target species in the Pacific Northwest. This sequential series of repellent and toxicant evaluations includes various bioassay, phytotoxicity, enclosure, hazard, and field studies with each step providing more detailed information on the properties, efficacy, and potential hazards associated with specific candidate chemicals. The primary objective of these evaluations is to provide a safe, effective method to achieve the minimum stocking criteria of 7400 Douglas-fir seedlings per hectare.
The Effects of Tobacco Modification on the Biological Response to 13-Week Cigarette Smoke Inhalation in Inbred Syrian Hamsters

Twice daily exposure of 12–24 male inbred Syrian BIO 15.16 hamsters for 13 weeks to maximally tolerated doses of smoke from 12 types of investigational cigarettes under experimental conditions and with previously described instrumentation (Bernfeld et al., 1979) resulted in the following response: increased occurrence and aggregation of alveolar macrophages, increased occurrence of tracheal squamous metaplasia, and increased frequency and severity of laryngeal hyperplasia. The statistical significance of these changes was evaluated by means of loglinear models. The effect of varying the nicotine level in tobacco leaf between 0.2 and 1.5% caused no statistically significant changes in the subchronic response. Smoke from Bright tobacco with average tar yields of from 22.4 to 26.2 mg per cigarette caused significantly more alveolar macrophages and laryngeal hyperplasia but less tracheal squamous metaplasia than did smoke from Burley tobacco, with from 9.3 to 10.5 mg tar per cigarette. Deproteinization of tob...
Oxygen and sulphur isotope composition of Badenian (Middle Miocene) gypsum deposits in southern Poland: a preliminary study

The isotopic studies of primary gypsum facies have been used as a tool for interpreting palaeoenvironments and the sedimentary evolution in the Badenian evaporite basin of southern Poland. The oxygen and sulphur isotope composition of gypsum is homogeneous throughout the section. The average d-values (δ 18 O = 12.21‰ and δ 34 S = 22.21‰) correspond very well to data found for the Messinian (Upper Miocene) primary gypsum in SE Spain, as well as to other Tertiary sulphate evaporites, and thus provide additional arguments for the marine origin of these deposits. For the Badenian gypsum, the relative depletion in δ 18 O might reflect a distinct palaeogeographic control on sulphate sedimentation in the northernmost part of Central Paratethys. The results obtained, combined with other geochemical and sedimentological studies, reflect unstable sedimentary conditions in the peripheral part of the basin in the transition from the autochthonous to allochthonous gypsum members. The minor variations of isotope data are due to dissolution-precipitation and/or partial bacterial sulphate reduction.
Tumor Exosomes Inhibit Differentiation of Bone Marrow Dendritic Cells

The production of exosomes by tumor cells has been implicated in tumor-associated immune suppression. In this study, we show that, in mice, exosomes produced by TS/A murine mammary tumor cells target CD11b(+) myeloid precursors in the bone marrow (BM) in vivo, and that this is associated with an accumulation of myeloid precursors in the spleen. Moreover, we demonstrate that TS/A exosomes block the differentiation of murine myeloid precursor cells into dendritic cells (DC) in vitro. Addition of tumor exosomes at day 0 led to a significant block of differentiation into DC, whereas addition at later time points was less effective. Similarly, exosomes produced by human breast tumor cells inhibited the differentiation of human monocytes in vitro. The levels of IL-6 and phosphorylated Stat3 were elevated 12 h after the tumor exosome stimulation of murine myeloid precursors, and tumor exosomes were less effective in inhibiting differentiation of BM cells isolated from IL-6 knockout mice. Addition of a rIL-6 to the IL-6 knockout BM cell culture restored the tumor exosome-mediated inhibition of DC differentiation. These data suggest that tumor exosome-mediated induction of IL-6 plays a role in blocking BM DC differentiation.
Discriminative, disinhibitory, and depressant effects of several anticonvulsants

The discriminative attributes of drugs were used to assess the degree to which several anticonvulsants have behavioral effects resembling those of pentobarbital. Rats were trained to make alternative responses to obtain water, depending on whether they had been injected IP with pentobarbital (10 mg/kg) or saline 10 min before the session. The pentobarbital response was chosen in tests with phenobarbital, dimethylphenobarbital, or methsuximide in the anticonvulsant dosage range. Increasing doses increased the percentage pentobarbital choice. Response rate was generally increased by doses that increased percentage of pentobarbital choice. The rats predominantly chose the saline response when administered phenytoin, primidone, or phenylethylmalondiamide, even at doses that were sufficiently high to reduce the response rate. The results suggest that different types of depressant effects are associated with the anticonvulsants tested.
On the Point and Line Spread Functions of Photographic Images

The paper describes the three basic functions used to describe the image forming properties of photographic materials. The functions are the line spread function, the point spread function, and the transfer function (spatial frequency response). Only one of the three functions is independent, and therefore three pairs of conjugate relations exist among them. All six relations are given explicitly.The relations are exemplified by deriving the point and line spread functions of Super-XX, Kodachrome, and Microfile film from the transfer function measurements of Schade. The results are given in Figs. 2 and 3. Four different characteristic lengths associated with the spread functions are defined, and their numerical values are given in Table I.
A benchmark for evaluating software engineering techniques for improving medical processes

The software engineering and medical informatics communities have been developing a range of approaches for reasoning about medical processes. To facilitate the comparison of such approaches, it would be desirable to have a set of medical examples, or benchmarks, that are easily available, described in considerable detail, and characterized in terms of the real-world complexities they capture. This paper presents one such benchmark and discusses a list of desiderata that medical benchmarks can be evaluated against.
Dispositions, Constituencies, and Cross-Pressures: Modeling Roll-Call Voting on the North American Free Trade Agreement in the U.S. House

The vote on the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) created significant cross-pressures for members of the U.S. House of Representa tives. African-Americans and Latinos, two groups that are...
The non-linear initiation of diapirs and plume heads

Abstract A simple theory is devised to describe the non-linear feedback mechanisms involved in the initial growth of a single diapir or plume head from a low viscosity channel overlain by a much more viscous layer. Such feedbacks arise primarily from the relation between the growth of a proto-diapir (i.e. an undulation on the upper boundary of the low viscosity channel) and the draining of the low viscosity channel. In the period of time between its initial exponential growth (characterized by linear stability analysis) and its separation from the low viscosity channel as a fully formed diapir, the proto-diapir can undergo a significant cessation in its development due to deflation of the low viscosity channel; i.e. the proto-diapir's growth can essentially stall for a long period of time before it separates and begins its ascent through the overlying medium. The theory is used to determine a criterion for separation of the diapir from the low viscosity channel that is in terms of the geometrical and mechanical properties of the channel, instead of the ad hoc volume flux widely used in many models of mantle plumes and plume heads (e.g. Whitehead and Luther, 1975; Richards et al., 1989; Olson, 1990; Sleep, 1990; Bercovici and Mahoney, 1994). From this separation criterion, self-consistent scaling laws can be formulated to relate the size of the fully developed diapir and its trailing conduit to the properties of the initial channel, instead of to the ad hoc volume flux. Basic laboratory experiments involving highly viscous fluids are presented and demonstrate that the so-called ‘stalling’ period between initial growth and separation does indeed occur. These results suggest that nascent mantle plume heads may stall for extended periods at the base of the mantle and thereby contribute to variations in thickness of the D″ layer.
Dairy manure management : An application of Probabilistic Risk Assessment

Contemporary agricultural enterprises are having difficulty dealing with changing public perceptions about the environmental consequences of current management practices. This study was initiated to investigate the role Probabilistic Risk Assessment (PRA) could play in managing risks and communicating risk information to regulators and the public. The utility of PRA for dairy manure and wastewater management systems was evaluated on three Texas dairies beginning in spring 1992. Information collected from dairymen, along with computerized risk analysis, was used to develop risk estimates for various environmental hazards associated with the dairies. Qualitative and quantitative analysis of individual probability estimates allowed evaluation of the risks posed by various potential nutrient loss pathways. Integration of these probability estimates with simple cost-effectiveness evaluations provided a risk/cost-effectiveness value used in comparing alternative waste management technologies. Results indicate PRA, wedded witb cost-effectiveness analysis, may provide a new and effective way for the agricultural community to evaluate, manage, and communicate risk information.
Lateral Vehicle State and Environment Estimation Using Temporally Previewed Mapped Lane Features

This paper proposes a model-based method to estimate lateral planar vehicle states using a forward-looking monocular camera, a yaw rate gyroscope, and an a priori map of road superelevation and temporally previewed lane geometry. Theoretical estimator performance from a steady-state Kalman-filter implementation of the estimation framework is calculated for various look-ahead distances and vehicle speeds. The application of this filter structure to real driving data is also explored, along with error characteristics of the filter on straight and curved roads, with both superelevated and flat profiles. The effect of superelevation on estimator performance is found to be significant. Experimental and theoretical analysis both show that the benefits of state estimation using previewed lane geometry improve with increasing lane preview, but this improvement diminishes due to increased lane tracking errors at distances beyond 20 m ahead of the vehicle.
Tuboovarian abscess following transvaginal oocyte retrieval for in vitro fertilization: Imaging appearance

All physicians participating in the workup of an infertile patient should be aware of the nonspecificity of the computed tomographic or sonographic finding of a complex adnexal cystic lesion occurring following transvaginal oocyte retrieval for in vitro fertilization. Persistent fever and leukocytosis in conjunction with such lesions should lead to an early presumptive diagnosis of tuboovarian abscess with prompt administration of antibiotic therapy.
Why Can Methods for Comparing Means Have Relatively Low Power, and What Can You Do to Correct the Problem?:

1. J. Cohen, Statistical Power Analysis for the Behavioral Sciences, 2nd ed. (Erlbaum, Hillsdale, NJ, 1988). This is the source of the system of power analysis described here; the power values and sam ple sizes of the illustrations derive from this book's tables. 2. J. Neyman and E.S. Pearson, On the use and interpretation of certain test criteria for purposes of statistical inference, Biometrika, 20A, 175-240, 263-294 (1928); J. Neyman and E.S. Pearson, On the problem of the most efficient tests of statistical hypotheses, Transactions of the Royal Society of London Series A, 231, 289-337 (1933). 3. J. Cohen, Things I have learned (so far), American Psychologist, 45, 1304-1312 (1990). 4. For an article-length treatment of sample size determination using the .80 convention and a = .01, .05, and .10, see J. Cohen, A power primer, Psychological Bulletin (in press). A useful alternative treatment is offered in H.C. Kraemer and S. Thie mann, How Many Subjects? Statistical Power Anal ysis in Research (Sage, Newbury Park, CA, 1987). 5. J. Cohen, The statistical power of abnormal social psychological research: A review, Journal of Abnormal and Social Psychology, 65, 145-153 (1962). 6. P. Sedlmeier and G. Gigerenzer, Do studies of statistical power have an effect on the power of studies? Psychological Bulletin, 105, 309-316 (1989).
Identification and characterization of a mouse homologue of the spinal muscular atrophy-determining gene, survival motor neuron.

Spinal muscular atrophy (SMA), the second most common fatal, autosomal recessive disease of infants, manifests as generalized muscle weakness. The most severe form (Type I, Werdnig-Hoffmann disease) is associated with quadriplegia, respiratory muscle paralysis and death in infancy. Less severe forms are classified as Type II and Type III, based on age of onset and ultimate motor disability. Some spinal motor neurons show chromatolysis and the number of these cells is decreased. Recently, SMA has been mapped to chromosome 5q11.2-13.3 (Gilliam et al., 1990), a region that contains three candidate genes: Survival Motor Neuron (SMN) (Lefebvre et al., 1995); Neuronal Apoptosis Inhibitory Protein (NAIP) (Roy et al., 1995); and p44, a subunit of transcription factor II H (TFIIH) (Carter et al., 1995; Burglen et al., 1997). Homozygous deletions or deleterious mutations in SMN are present in all SMA patients, and in some affected individuals, deletions have been identified in one or both of the other genes. These extensive deletions may be associated with a more severe phenotype. We have identified and characterized the mouse homologue of SMN, MoSMN, which is 82% identical to SMN at the amino-acid level. Unlike the duplicated human SMN, MoSMN is present in single copy. Like its human counterpart, MoSMN is ubiquitously expressed, but unlike SMN, MoSMN does not appear to be alternatively spliced. In-situ hybridization analysis of the mouse nervous system revealed that MoSMN mRNA is expressed in spinal cord and throughout the brain, with relatively higher levels of expression in the hippocampus and cerebellum.
Effect of Oxygen on the Work Function of Barium

While a high sensitivity of the work function to gaseous contaminants is generally characteristic of metals which adsorb the common gases strongly, barium combines outstanding work function stability with an exceptional affinity for these gases. The paradox is investigated by administering measured quantities of oxygen to vapor-deposited barium surfaces at known rates, with concurrent monitoring of the work function. It is found (1) that when clean barium is exposed suddenly to a massive dose of oxygen, its work function is lowered by 0.32 ev; (2) that the work function of the heavily oxygenated surface remains constant for 5 days and then drifts very slowly toward the clean-metal value, and (3) that when oxygen is administered to a barium surface slowly (2\ifmmode\times\else\texttimes\fi{}${10}^{13}$ molecules per ${\mathrm{cm}}^{2}$ per hour) no change of work function occurs during or after the absorption of a quantity of oxygen equivalent to 100 complete monolayers of the oxide.The results are interpreted as stemming from two processes which compete for control of the surface; the expected surface oxidation and a restorative process involving engulfment of oxygen ions. The mechanism of engulfment is discussed.
Catalytic roles of the AMP at the 3′ end of tRNAs

Recent reports suggest that the ribosome retains considerable peptidyl transferase activity even when much of the protein of the ribosome is removed and further suggests that rRNA may be the peptidyl transferase. The work here suggests that the AMP residue at the 3' terminus of each tRNA has some catalytic activity both in the esterification reaction and in forming a pseudopeptide, AcGly, and further suggests that whatever peptidyl transferase is, it finds a cooperative substrate in the aminoacyl-AMP at the 3' terminus of tRNA.