cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Quantum cluster algorithm for data classification

We present a quantum algorithm for data classification based on the nearest-neighbor learning algorithm. The classification algorithm is divided into two steps: Firstly, data in the same class is divided into smaller groups with sublabels assisting building boundaries between data with different labels. Secondly we construct a quantum circuit for classification that contains multi control gates. The algorithm is easy to implement and efficient in predicting the labels of test data. To illustrate the power and efficiency of this approach, we construct the phase transition diagram for the metal-insulator transition of VO2, using limited trained experimental data, where VO2 is a typical strongly correlated electron materials, and the metallic-insulating phase transition has drawn much attention in condensed matter physics. Moreover, we demonstrate our algorithm on the classification of randomly generated data and the classification of entanglement for various Werner states, where the training sets can not be divided by a single curve, instead, more than one curves are required to separate them apart perfectly. Our preliminary result shows considerable potential for various classification problems, particularly for constructing different phases in materials.
Recrystallization of ice enhances the creep and vulnerability to fracture of ice shelves

Abstract The initiation of fractures and fast flow in floating regions of Antarctica have the potential to destabilize large regions of the grounded ice sheet, leading to rapid sea-level rise. While observations have shown rapid, localized deformation and damage in the margins of fast-flowing glaciers, there remain gaps in our understanding of how rapid deformation affects the viscosity and toughness of ice. Here we derive a model for dynamic recrystallization of ice that includes a novel representation of migration recrystallization. This mechanism is absent from existing models and is likely dominant in warm areas undergoing rapid deformation, such as shear margins in ice sheets. While solid earth studies find fine-grained rock in shear zones, here we find elevated ice grain sizes ( > 10 mm ) due to warmer temperatures and high strain rates activating migration recrystallization. Large grain sizes imply that ice in shear margins deforms primarily by dislocation creep, suggesting a flow-law stress exponent of n ≈ 4 rather than the canonical n = 3 . Further, we find that this increase in grain size results in a decrease in tensile strength of ice by ∼ 75 % in the margins of glaciers. Thus, this increase in grain size softens the margins of fast-flowing glaciers and makes ice shelf margins more vulnerable to fracture than previously supposed. These results also suggest the need to consider the effects of dynamic recrystallization in large-scale ice-sheet modeling.
Probabilistic Safety-Assured Adaptive Merging Control for Autonomous Vehicles

Autonomous vehicles face tremendous challenges while interacting with human drivers in different kinds of scenarios. Developing control methods with safety guarantees while performing interactions with uncertainty is an ongoing research goal. In this paper, we present a real-time safe control framework using bi-level optimization with Control Barrier Function (CBF) that enables an autonomous ego vehicle to interact with human-driven cars in ramp merging scenarios with a consistent safety guarantee. In order to explicitly address motion uncertainty, we propose a novel extension of control barrier functions to a probabilistic setting with provable chance-constrained safety and analyze the feasibility of our control design. The formulated bi-level optimization framework entails first choosing the ego vehicle's optimal driving style in terms of safety and primary objective, and then minimally modifying a nominal controller in the context of quadratic programming subject to the probabilistic safety constraints. This allows for adaptation to different driving strategies with a formally provable feasibility guarantee for the ego vehicle's safe controller. Experimental results are provided to demonstrate the effectiveness of our proposed approach.
A Henkin-Style Completeness Proof for the Modal Logic S5

This paper presents a recent formalization of a Henkin-style completeness proof for the propositional modal logic S5 using the Lean theorem prover. The proof formalized is close to that of Hughes and Cresswell [8], but the system, based on a different choice of axioms, is better described as a Mendelson system augmented with axiom schemes for K, T, S4, and B, and the necessitation rule as a rule of inference. The language has the false and implication as the only primitive logical connectives and necessity as the only primitive modal operator. The full source code is available online and has been typechecked with Lean 3.4.2.
Multisymplectic Hamiltonian variational integrators

Variational integrators have traditionally been constructed from the perspective of Lagrangian mechanics, but there have been recent efforts to adopt discrete variational approaches to the symplect...
The NIMBY problem

Nimbyism is widely thought to arise from an inherent tradeoff between localism and efficiency in government: because many development projects have spatially concentrated costs and diffuse benefits...
An approach to describe depth-specific periodic behavior in Pacific halibut (Hippoglossus stenolepis)

Abstract Correspondence between patterns of occupied depth and environmental cycles, called “depth-specific periodic behavior”, has been used to inform management of several flatfishes. However, little is known about depth-specific periodic behavior of Pacific halibut ( Hippoglossus stenolepis ), an important species in recreational, commercial and subsistence fisheries in the eastern North Pacific Ocean. To evaluate depth-specific periodic behavior of Pacific halibut, an approach was developed in which depth data from electronic tags were used to produce four types of complementary plots, including two-dimensional time series of depth, activity level derived from differencing adjacent depth recordings, periodograms, and wavelet transform coefficients. From a visual examination of the plots, daily depth-specific periodic behavior types, including diel, tidal, spawning, semi-lunar and lunar, were assigned to 37 individual Pacific halibut. Overall, the approach used in this study was useful for describing relatively short term depth-specific periodic behavior, but was less informative for understanding relatively long term behavioral patterns. The results suggest that patterns in occupied depth may be related to seasonal activities of Pacific halibut. Specifically, during the summer feeding season, fish most commonly behaved periodically on a diel scale or inactively laid on the seafloor, which was manifested as tidal periodicity as the height of the water column fluctuated above the fish. Both active swimming and inactivity on the seafloor may be related to different foraging strategies. During fall and spring migratory periods and the winter spawning season, no periodicity in depth-specific behavior was most common, which may correspond to directed movement over irregular bathymetry between feeding and spawning locations or to reproductive behaviors. Evidence of an additional reproductive behavior, spawning rises off the seafloor, was also observed during the winter spawning season. This approach for understanding the periodicity of occupied depth of Pacific halibut provides additional insight into the behavior of this iconic species. This knowledge perhaps may be used in the future to inform this species' management, such as refining estimates of susceptibility to capture and examining timing of movement among regulatory areas.
Comparison of Postremission Therapies in Adult Acute Myeloid Leukemia: Preliminary Analysis of an ECOG Study

Induction therapy regimens for adult acute myeloid leukemia (AML) consisting of daunorubicin and cytarabine with or without thioguanine produce complete remission in approximately two-thirds of patients [1–3]. The potential for cure and/or longterm survival correlates directly with the duration of initial remission. A variety of approaches have been employed to maintain initial remission, including long-term outpatient chemotherapy (maintenance therapy) [4], courses of intensive chemotherapy (consolidation therapy) [5], combined consolidation and maintenance therapies [1–3, 6], and allogeneic bone marrow transplantation [7].
Enzymic Activities in the Pancreas, Digestive Tract and Feces of Rats Fed Raw or Heated Soy Flour

Trypsin, chymotrypsin and amylase levels were determined in the pancreas, all along the intestinal tract, and in the feces of rats fed raw or heated soy flour diets. The levels of all enzymes measured in the pancreas in the non-fasted state were lower in the raw than in the heated soy flour-fed rats. Fasting equalized these levels. Trypsin and amylase tended to be lower, and chymotrypsin was significantly higher in the intestinal tracts of raw soy flour-fed rats than in the group fed heated soy flour; the greatest differences were found in the ileum. Trypsin and chymotrypsin levels in the feces were higher in the group fed raw soy flour than in the group fed heated soy flour. Amylase in the feces of the raw soy flour-fed rats was higher at the beginning of the experiment and dropped sharply to be even lower than in the heated soy flour-fed rats at days 13 to 14 of the experiment. It was concluded that measuring the enzymic levels in the feces is a very sensitive method for determining whether a test diet induces hypersecretion of digestive enzymes in rats. This method can be used from the start of feeding the experimental diet. As the animal need not be killed, the effect of the test diet upon enzymic secretion can be studied as a function of time, and it might be suitable to studies with large animals.
Urban Impacts of EPA’s Construction Grants Program

The massive expenditures under the EPA’S Construction Grants Program could have significant impacts on local populations and development, especially since Construction Grants projects are not required to consider actions to mitigate resulting secondary impacts. Many opportunities to use wastewater facility construction to complement other local objectives are underutilized because meeting water quality improvement requirements is the only objective used in planning of Construction Grants projects. The reluctance of many cities to undertake wastewater facility construction results from local priorities for capital investments, not from an absolute inability to pay. No correlation between current fiscal condition and total per capita wastewater facility needs was found.
Decomposition algorithms for on-line estimation with nonlinear models

Dynamic state and parameter estimation for nonlinear systems usually leads to large nonlinear problems when the governing differential constraints are discretized under a simultaneous solution strategy. In this paper we discretize the set of ordinary differential equations using an implicit Runge-Kutta integration method, and use the successive quadratic programming (SQP) method to solve the resulting nonlinear programming problem (NLP). The optimality conditions for each data set at the QP subproblem level are decoupled using an affine transform, so that the first order conditions in the state and input variables can be solved recursively and expressed as functions of the optimality conditions in the parameters, thus reducing the size of the problem and turning the effort of solving it linear with the number of data sets. As seen in our example, this approach is over two orders of magnitude faster than general purpose NLP solvers.
High iron requirement for growth, photosynthesis, and low-light acclimation in the coastal cyanobacterium Synechococcus bacillaris

Iron limits carbon fixation in much of the modern ocean due to the very low solubility of ferric iron in oxygenated ocean waters. We examined iron limitation of growth rate under varying light intensities in the coastal cyanobacterium Synechococcus bacillaris, a descendent of the oxygenic phototrophs that evolved ca. 3 billion years ago when the ocean was reducing and iron was present at much higher concentrations as soluble Fe(II). Decreasing light intensity increased the cellular iron:carbon (Fe:C) ratio needed to support a given growth rate, indicating that iron and light may co-limit the growth of Synechococcus in the ocean, as shown previously for eukaryotic phytoplankton. The cellular Fe:C ratios needed to support a given growth rate were 5- to 8-fold higher than ratios for coastal eukaryotic algae growing under the same light conditions. The higher iron requirements for growth in the coastal cyanobacterium may be largely caused by the high demand for iron in photosynthesis, and to higher ratios of iron-rich photosystem I to iron-poor photosystem II in Synechococcus than in eukaryotic algae. This high iron requirement may also be vestigial and represent an adaptation to the much higher iron levels in the ancient reducing ocean. Due to the high cellular iron requirement for photosynthesis and growth, and for low light acclimation, Synechococcus may be excluded from many low-iron and low-light environments. Indeed, it decreases rapidly with depth within the ocean’s deep chlorophyll maximum (DCM) where iron and light levels are low, and lower-iron requiring picoeukaryotes typically dominate the biomass of phytoplankton community within the mid to lower DCM.
Localized 3p excitations in 3d transition-metal-series spectroscopy

Localized 3p excitations and their decay have been studied in 3d transition metals and their single-crystal oxides by using electron-energy-loss (EELS), photoemission, and resonant photoemission spectroscopies. Variation of the primary-electron-beam energy in EELS allows the resolution of threshold transitions from higher-lying excitations. It is possible to correlate the energies of the threshold and higher-lying transitions observed in EELS with the photon energies producing resonant 3d enhancement in photoemission. Satellite amplitudes in photoemission of 3d metals are discussed, and resonant enhancement of 3d photoemission is shown to occur largely in the main emission rather than in the satellite for 3d elements below Ni and also for the oxides.
Improving Protein Localization Prediction Using Amino Acid Group Based Physichemical Encoding

Computational prediction of protein localization is one common way to characterize the functions of newly sequenced proteins. Sequence features such as amino acid (AA) composition have been widely used for subcellular localization prediction due to their simplicity while suffering from low coverage and low prediction accuracy. We present a physichemical encoding method that maps protein sequences into feature vectors composed of the locations and lengths of amino acid groups (AAGs) with similar physichemical properties. This high-level modular representation of protein sequences overcomes the shortcoming of losing order information in the commonly used AA composition and AA pair composition encoding. When applied with SVM classifiers, we showed that AAG based features are able to achieve higher prediction accuracy (up to 20% improvement) than the widely used AA composition and AA pair composition to differentiate proteins of different localizations. When AAGs and AA composition encoding combined, the prediction accuracy can be further improved thus achieving synergistic effect.
Determining sucrose and glucose levels in dual‐purpose sorghum stalks by Fourier transform near infrared (FT‐NIR) spectroscopy

BACKGROUND Sorghum is an advanced biomass feedstock from which grain, sugar and stover can be used for biofuel production. Determinations of specific sugar contents in sorghum stalks help to make strategic decisions during plant breeding, processing, storage and optimization of fermentation conditions. In this study, Fourier transform near infrared (FT-NIR) spectroscopy was used as a relatively fast, low-cost, high-throughput assay to predict sucrose and glucose levels in stalks of 40 dwarf grain sorghum inbreds. RESULTS The diffuse reflection spectra were pretreated with multiplicative scatter correction (MSC) and first-derivative Savitzy–Golay (SG-1). Calibrated models were developed by partial least squares regression (PLSR) analysis. Martens' uncertainty test was used to determine the most effective spectral region. The PLSR model for stalk sucrose content was built on 380 significant wavenumbers in the 4000–6999 cm−1 range. The model was based on four factors and had RPD = 2.40, RMSEP = 1.77 and R2 = 0.81. Similarly, the model for stalk glucose was built using 4000–9000 cm−1 and six factors, with RPD = 2.45, RMSEP = 0.73 and R2 = 0.81. CONCLUSION PLSR models were developed based on FT-NIR spectra coupled with multivariate data analysis to provide a quick and low-cost estimate of specific sugar contents in grain sorghum stalks. This sugar information helps decision making for sorghum-based biomass processing and storage strategies. © 2014 Society of Chemical Industry
Diagnostic methods for herpes simplex infection: A review

An antiviral treatment modalities appear in ever-increasing numbers, the need for precise viral diagnosis becomes essential. A review of the current diagnostic methods, including virus isolation, serology, biopsy, and cytology, is presented. The newer, more sensitive immunoperoxidase stain and ELISA are discussed. The needs, methods, and benefits of an accurate viral diagnosis are stressed.
Serum and ovarian Müllerian inhibiting substance, and their decline in reproductive aging.

The objectives of this study were to identify whether there is a decline in Mullerian inhibiting substance (MIS) in the female rat during chronological aging, and to define the physiological basis of aging-related changes in MIS. The results demonstrate that there is an exponential decline in both serum and ovarian levels of MIS with increasing female age, and that the histologic origin for the reduction in serum levels of MIS is a decline in the number of small ovarian follicles expressing MIS.
Characterization of thin-film losses with a synchronously pumped ringdown cavity.

We describe the use of a synchronously pumped ringdown cavity for measuring total optical losses, absorption and scattering, in thin optical films of arbitrary thickness on transparent substrates. This technique is compared with a single-pulse ringdown cavity regime and is shown to have a superior signal-to-noise ratio and resolution. We also provide an analysis of the factors affecting the resolution of the technique. Using this ringdown cavity pumped by a conventional mode-locked Ti:sapphire laser, we experimentally detect losses of only 58 ± 9 and 112 ± 9 parts per million in Ta2O5 and SiO2 films, respectively. To our knowledge, these are so far the lowest losses measured in thin films on stand-alone transparent substrates.
Long-term Follow-up of Relaxation Training for Pediatric Headache Disorders

SYNOPSIS The long-term effects of relaxation training for pediatric headache disorders was determined for 17 of 20 original participants from a prospective control-group experimental design study with random assignment to antogenic relaxation, progressive relaxation, autogenic plus progressive relaxation, or waiting list control groups. Long-term follow-up data were obtained at an average of 51 months post-treatment. All participants reported some increases in headache activity. Participants in the three relaxation treatment groups, however, had significantly more headache-free days and less severe headache compared to the control group. There were no significant effects of treatment for headache duration, medication intake and rest time due to headache. Twelve of the 13 treated participants indicated relaxation training was effective in relieving headaches, with 7 reporting they practiced relaxation exercises within the past month. The results generally support the long-term benefits of relaxation in reducing headaches originating in childhood.
Transforming growth factors (TGFs): Properties and possible mechanisms of action

Transforming growth factors (TGFs) are growth-promoting polypeptides that cause phenotypic transformation and anchorage-independent growth of normal cells. They have been isolated from several human and animal carcinoma and sarcoma cells. One TGF is sarcoma growth factor (SGF) which is released by murine sarcoma virus-transformed cells. The TGFs interact with epidermal growth factor (EGF) cell membrane receptors. TGFs are not detectable in culture fluids from cells which contain high numbers of free EGF cell membrane receptors. SGF acts as a tumor promoter in cell culture systems and its effect on the transformed phenotype is blocked by retinoids (vitamin A and synthetic analogs). The production of TGFs by transformed cells and the responses of normal cells to the addition of TGFs to the culture medium raise the possibility that cells "autostimulate" their own growth by releasing factors that rebind at the cell surface. The term "autocrine secretion" has been proposed for this type of situation where a cell secretes a hormone-like substance for which it has external cell membrane receptors. The autocrine concept may provide a partial explanation for some aspects of tumor cell progression.
Electrical equivalence of electrospray ionization with conducting and nonconducting needles.

An electrical equivalent circuit is derived for the electrospray process. It is a series circuit which consists of the power supply, the electrochemical contact to the solution, the solution resistance (Rs), a constant-current regulator which represents the processes of charge separation and charge transport in the gap between the spray needle aperture and the counter electrode, and charge neutralization at the counter electrode. A current i, established by the constant-current regulator flows throughout the entire circuit. Current−voltage curves are developed for each element in the circuit. From these it is shown that in the case where Rs is negligible (the power supply is connected directly to a conducting needle) the shape of the current−voltage curve is dictated by the constant-current regulator established by the charge separation process, the gap, and the counter electrode. The solution resistance may be significant if a nonconducting needle is used so that the electrochemical contact to the soluti...
Visual reflex control of indirect flight muscles in the sheep blowfly

Abstract 1. When the visual field under the fly was moved from front to back the frequency of potentials in the longitudinal and dorsoventral flight muscles was reduced. 2. Movement from back to front caused a transient increase in the frequency of potentials. 3. Air currents did not produce any such large changes in the frequency of potentials.
Wage strikes in 1880s America: A test of the war of attrition model☆

Abstract By relating strike outcomes and durations to the value of the disputed wage change and to the cost to each side of continuing the strike, this paper tests the hypothesis that the war of attrition with asymmetric information model of strikes accurately describes the characteristics of strikes over wages in the United States in the early to middle part of the 1880s. That hypothesis is not rejected by linear, probit, or nonparametric kernel estimation. Specifically, variables that decrease a side’s cost of striking or increase its opponent’s cost are shown to increase its maximum holdout time, and vice versa, and strike duration increases with the value of the prize in dispute and with uncertainty about the outcome. Alternative game theoretic models of strikes—signaling and screening models, and models with ongoing negotiations—do not fit the data as well. We also explore why the strikes took the form of wars of attrition, and why later strikes did not. Our results have implications for modern union behavior in the face of globalization.
Collagen polymorphism in cell cultures derived from guinea pig aortic smooth muscle: comparison with three populations of fibroblasts.

Abstract The collagens synthesized by cultured smooth muscle cells derived as outgrowths from the media of guinea pig aorta have been characterized. The results demonstrate that these cells synthesize Type I and Type III collagens. An additional collagenous peptide with an apparent molecular weight of 45,000 was also observed in the denaturation products of collagen synthesized by the smooth muscle cells. The latter peptide is designated CP45. A comparison of the results with collagens isolated from three populations of fibroblasts derived as outgrowths from dermis, striated muscle, and the adventitia of aorta shows that the smooth muscle cell in culture synthesizes a relatively higher proportion of Type III collagen when compared to Type I. Furthermore, no detectable synthesis of CP45 occurred in fibroblast populations which had been derived from dermis and striated muscle. The results demonstrate that phenotypic differences exist in collagen biosynthesis when smooth muscle cells are compared with fibroblast populations.
A generalized correlation for heat transfer between a gas—solid fluidized bed of small particles and an immersed staggered array of horizontal tubes

Abstract A generalized correlation for heat transfer coefficient between a horizontal staggered tube bundle and a gas—solid fluidized bed is proposed. The correlation is based on the experimental data for heat transfer coefficient between electrically heated horizontal tube bundles (12.7 and 28.6 mm diam.) and square fluidized beds (30.5 × 30.5 cm) of alumina ( d p = 259 μm) and silica sand ( d p = 167 and 504 μm). The tubes in the bundle are located at the vertices of equilateral triangles with pitch varying between 1.75 and 9 times the tube diameter. The proposed correlation is examined on the basis of existing data in the literature. The predicted values of heat transfer coefficient from the proposed correlation are, in general, in good agreement with experimental data in the literature.
Pen and Pal Are Nucleotide-Sugar Dehydratases That Convert UDP-GlcNAc to UDP-6-Deoxy-d-GlcNAc-5,6-ene and Then to UDP-4-Keto-6-deoxy-l-AltNAc for CMP-Pseudaminic Acid Synthesis in Bacillus thuringiensis

Abstract CMP-pseudaminic acid is a precursor required for the O-glycosylation of flagellin in some pathogenic Gram-negative bacteria, a process known to be critical in bacterial motility and infection. However, little is known about flagellin glycosylation in Gram-positive bacteria. Here, we identified and functionally characterized an operon, named Bti_pse, in Bacillus thuringiensis israelensis ATCC 35646, which encodes seven different enzymes that together convert UDP-GlcNAc to CMP-pseudaminic acid. In contrast, Gram-negative bacteria complete this reaction with six enzymes. The first enzyme, which we named Pen, converts UDP-d-GlcNAc to an uncommon UDP-sugar, UDP-6-deoxy-d-GlcNAc-5,6-ene. Pen contains strongly bound NADP+ and has distinct UDP-GlcNAc 4-oxidase, 5,6-dehydratase, and 4-reductase activities. The second enzyme, which we named Pal, converts UDP-6-deoxy-d-GlcNAc-5,6-ene to UDP-4-keto-6-deoxy-l-AltNAc. Pal is NAD+-dependent and has distinct UDP-6-deoxy-d-GlcNAc-5,6-ene 4-oxidase, 5,6-reductase, and 5-epimerase activities. We also show here using NMR spectroscopy and mass spectrometry that in B. thuringiensis, the enzymatic product of Pen and Pal, UDP-4-keto-6-deoxy-l-AltNAc, is converted to CMP-pseudaminic acid by the sequential activities of a C4″-transaminase (Pam), a 4-N-acetyltransferase (Pdi), a UDP-hydrolase (Phy), an enzyme (Ppa) that adds phosphoenolpyruvate to form pseudaminic acid, and finally a cytidylyltransferase that condenses CTP to generate CMP-pseudaminic acid. Knowledge of the distinct dehydratase-like enzymes Pen and Pal and their role in CMP-pseudaminic acid biosynthesis in Gram-positive bacteria provides a foundation to investigate the role of pseudaminic acid and flagellin glycosylation in Bacillus and their involvement in bacterial motility and pathogenicity.
Circulating heart-reactive antibodies in the postpericardiotomy syndrome

Abstract A prospective study of 60 patients undergoing various intrapericardiac procedures was performed to identify a heart-reactive antibody and to correlate its presence with the postpericardiotomy syndrome. When serial serum specimens were examined with the indirect immunofluorescent test, an antibody was found in some patients which bound to cardiac tissue sections but not to pericardium. Three heart-reactive antibody response patterns were demonstrated: (1) 13 patients showed no antibody postoperatively (2) 31 patients developed transient low titer heart-binding antibody, and (3) 16 patients developed high concentration of heart-reactive antibody which persisted for long periods of time. Fourteen of these 16 patients had clinical evidence of the postpericardiotomy syndrome, while only one patient in the first two groups had the syndrome. When sera containing high heart-reactive antibody titer was added to human heart cells grown in tissue culture, no effect could be seen on viability or growth characteristics of the cells. The presence of this antibody is of significance in the diagnosis and characterization of the postpericardiotomy syndrome although its role in the pathophysiology of the syndrome is not yet clear.
Self-consistent analysis of 3D undulator radiation and relativistic electron beam dynamics using Lienard-Wiechert fields

Abstract Lienard-Wiechert (LW) fields, which are exact solutions of the wave equation for a point charge in free space, and the Lorentz force equations are employed to formulate a self-consistent treatment of electron beam dynamics and radiation field evolution in magnetic undulators. In a relativistic electron beam the internal forces leading to the interaction of the electrons with each other can be computed by means of retarded LW fields. The resulting electron motion enables us to obtain three dimensional undulator radiation by summing up the field contribution of each electron in the beam. The approach used is particularly well suited to the investigation of self amplified spontaneous emission (SASE) without introducing a seed wave at start-up. In this paper, we present studies of non-periodic multi-bucket electron phase dynamics as well as temporal and angular characteristics of the electromagnetic fields radiated by a relativistic short filamentary electron beam interacting with a circularly polarized magnetic undulator.
Birth Weight and Health and Developmental Outcomes in US Children, 1997–2005

The primary goal of this study was to assess the association between the full birth weight distribution and prevalence of specific developmental disabilities and related measures of health and special education services utilization in US children. Using data from the 1997-2005 National Health Interview Survey (NHIS) Sample Child Core, we identified 87,578 children 3-17 years of age with parent-reported information on birth weight. We estimated the prevalences of DDs (attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder [ADHD], autism, cerebral palsy, hearing impairment, learning disability without mental retardation, mental retardation, seizures, stuttering/stammering, and other developmental delay) and several indicators of health services utilization within a range of birth weight categories. We calculated odds ratios adjusted for demographic factors (AOR). We observed trends of decreasing disability/indicator prevalence with increasing birth weight up to a plateau. Although associations were strongest for very low birth weight, children with "normal" birth weights of 2,500-2,999 g were more likely than those with birth weights of 3,500-3,999 g to have mental retardation (AOR 1.9 [95% CI: 1.4-2.6]), cerebral palsy (AOR 2.4 [95% CI: 1.5-3.8]), learning disability without mental retardation (AOR 1.2 [95% CI: 1.1-1.4]), ADHD (AOR 1.2 [95% CI: 1.1-1.3]), and other developmental delay (AOR 1.3 [95% CI: 1.1-1.5]) and to receive special education services (AOR 1.3 [95% CI: 1.2-1.5]). While much research has focused on the health and developmental outcomes of low and very low birth weight children, these findings suggest that additional study of a continuous range of birth weights may be warranted.
Phenotypic plasticity in two marine snails: constraints superseding life history

In organisms encountering predictable environments, fixed development is expected, whereas in organisms that cannot predict their future environment, phenotypic plasticity would be optimal to increase local adaptation. To test this prediction we experimentally compared phenotypic plasticity in two rockyshore snail species; Littorina saxatilis releasing miniature snails on the shore, and Littorina littorea releasing drifting larvae settling on various shores, expecting L. littorea to show more phenotypic plasticity than L. saxatilis. We compared magnitude and direction of vectors of phenotypic difference in juvenile shell traits after 3 months exposure to different stimuli simulating sheltered and crab-rich shores, or wave-exposed and crab-free shores. Both species showed similar direction and magnitude of vectors of phenotypic difference with minor differences only between ecotypes of the nondispersing species, indicating that plasticity is an evolving trait in L. saxatilis. The lack of a strong plastic response in L. littorea might be explained by limits rather than costs to plasticity. (Less)
Entangling probes of QKD

Following a review of the measure of Renyi information gain and its optimization, the quantum circuits and designs are reviewed of optimized entangling probes for attacking the BB84 protocol of quantum key distribution (QKD), extracting maximum Renyi information on the pre-privacy amplified key. Probe photon polarization states become optimally entangled with the signal states on their way between the legitimate transmitter and receiver. Standard symmetric von Neumann projective measurements of the probe yield maximum information on the pre-privacy amplified key.
Credit constraints, inelastic supply, and the housing boom

Abstract In this paper, I develop a dynamic general equilibrium model to study the sensitivity of house price changes with respect to credit constraints. I find that house prices are sensitive to changes of the down payment requirements if owner-occupied houses and rental houses are inelastically supplied. I then use the model to evaluate the housing boom during the 1995–2005 time period. I find that, under the assumption that owner-occupied housing and rental housing cannot be converted to each other, the increase in real household income and the decline in down payment requirements can explain a large fraction of the observed house price and price–rent ratio changes during the 1995–2005 time period. However, the model fails to match the interest rate changes during the 1995–2005 period.
An Updated Zero Boil-Off Cryogenic Propellant Storage Analysis Applied to Upper Stages or Depots in a LEO Environment

Previous efforts have shown the analytical benefits of zero boil-off (ZBO) cryogenic propellant storage in launch vehicle upper stages of Mars transfer vehicles for conceptual Mars Missions. However, recent NASA mission investigations have looked at a different and broad array of missions, including a variety of orbit transfer vehicle (OTV) propulsion concepts, some requiring cryogenic storage. For many of the missions, this vehicle will remain for long periods (greater than one week) in low earth orbit (LEO), a relatively warm thermal environment. Under this environment, and with an array of tank sizes and propellants, the performance of a ZBO cryogenic storage system is predicted and compared with a traditional, passive-only storage concept. The results show mass savings over traditional, passive-only cryogenic storage when mission durations are less than one week in LEO for oxygen, two weeks for methane, and roughly 2 months for LH2. Cryogenic xenon saves mass over passive storage almost immediately.
Restriction of virus-specific protein synthesis in a persistent paramyxovirus infection

Synthesis of virus-specific proteins in a persistent, nonproductive paramyxovirus infection derived from the peripheral blood leukocytes of a patient with subacute sclerosing panencephalitis (SSPE) was investigated. The parsistently infected cells expressed cytoplasmic virus-specific antigens and generated paramyxovirus nucleocapsids throughout long-term passage. When analyzed by specific immunoprecipitation and sodium dodecyl sulfate-polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis, most of the virus structural proteins were synthesized in acutely infected cells, but only three of the proteins could be readily detected in persistently infected cells. The two structural proteins whose synthesis was most clearly restricted had molecular weights of 69,000 and 41,000 daltons and represented the putative HN and M virus proteins. The similarities between the restriction of virus protein synthesis in this system and that reported previously for other persistent paramyxovirus infections derived from SSPE suggest that a common mechanism may be involved in the maintenance of such infections.
Genetic epidemiology of breast cancer

It has been recognized for some time that a family history of breast cancer is associated rather strongly with a woman's own risk of developing the disease. Recent segregation analyses of population-based data on familial patterns provide evidence for a rare autosomal dominant allele that increases a carrier's susceptibility to breast cancer. The estimated proportion of breast cancer patients who carry this allele declines sharply with age at diagnosis. Empirical estimates of the risk associated with particular patterns of family history of breast cancer indicate the following: (1) having any first-degree relative with breast cancer increases a woman's risk of breast cancer 1.5–3-fold, depending on age, (2) having multiple first degree relatives affected is associated with particularly elevated risks, (3) having a second-degree relative affected increases the risk by approximately 50%, (4) affected family members on the maternal side and the paternal side contribute similarly to the risk, (5) a family history of breast cancer is associated with bilateral disease, and (6) breast cancer in males is associated with breast cancer in female relatives in much the same way as is breast cancer in women. Ovarian cancer clearly has been shown to be associated with breast cancer in families, and genetic linkage has provided strong evidence for a breast-ovarian cancer gene located somewhere on chromosome 17q. At the population level, having a first degree relative with ovarian cancer may be at least as predictive of a woman's risk for developing breast cancer as is having a second-degree relative with breast cancer. Considerably weaker evidence points to a possible familial relationship between breast and endometrial cancer and between breast cancer in women and prostatic cancer in males. The clinical applications of the genetic epidemiology of breast cancer are complicated by uncertainty as to the efficacy of mammographic screening in women under the age of 50. For the vast majority of women with a positive family history, the epidemiologic evidence does provide the basis for offering considerable reassurance in that risks are not extremely high. For that rather small subgroup at exceptionally high risk, realistic estimates of the magnitude of absolute risk over the next 10–20 years may be more informative and less alarming than lifetime probabilities.
ACM Special Interest Group on Microprogramming

As the enclosed news release indicates, Data Saab has merged its interest in medium and large computers with UNIVAC in Scandanavia. The new company will market the medium and large scale products of both Data Saab and UNIVAC.
Policy analysis as discourse

The field of policy analysis encompasses a greater diversity of practices than is commonly appreciated. Many recent revisions agree with the postmodern dictum that analytic studies are socially constructed and propose some form of discourse for formulating policy. This article compares three theoretical perspectives on discourse: analytic discourse, which draws on multiple theories and data sources; critical discourse, which emphasizes critical reflection and links evidence to value discussions; and persuasive discourse, which focuses on the role of ideas and persuasion by policy entrepreneurs. Analytic discourse has had the most impact on the practice of analysis, but the other two literatures have had some influence and address important issues. Critical discourse is sensitive to the structural biases in policy research, and persuasive discourse links the practice of analysis to opportunities in the policy arena. The author seeks to make us more conscious of alternative theories, while emphasizing the role of discourse in all three models and the linkages between policy design and the policy process.
CORNIFICATION OF BALANO-PREPUTIAL EPITHELIUM IN NORMAL RATS AND IN CASTRATED RATS TREATED WITH TESTOSTERONE PROPIONATE1

DURING the course of a search for a tissue which might show good growth response to local application of androgen, and therefore prove valuable in bioassay, the interesting phenomenon of cornification of the balano-preputial epithelium in the rat was encountered. This cornifying process, leading to a cleavage in the epithelium which forms the stratified squamous lining of the prepuce, and the cornified covering of the glans was described in 1866 by Schweigger-Seidel (1) and more recently by Deibert (2) and Hunter (3). According to Deibert the process may begin in the human fetus as early as the sixth month and although the separation is not usually complete at birth, it may be sufficient by the 10th day to allow retraction of the prepuce. Incomplete separation or persisting adhesions in these membranes have been recognized as phimoses of varying types and almost yearly new procedures for their correction have been proposed.
MARIANE: Using MApReduce in HPC environments

Abstract MapReduce is increasingly becoming a popular programming model. However, the widely used implementation, Apache Hadoop, uses the Hadoop Distributed File System (HDFS), which is currently not directly applicable to a majority of existing HPC environments such as Teragrid and NERSC that support other distributed file systems. On such resourceful High Performance Computing (HPC) infrastructures, the MapReduce model can rarely make use of full resources, as special circumstances must be created for its adoption, or simply limited resources must be isolated to the same end. This paper not only presents a MapReduce implementation directly suitable for such environments, but also exposes the design choices for better performance gains in those settings. By leveraging inherent distributed file systems’ functions, and abstracting them away from its MapReduce framework, MARIANE (MApReduce Implementation Adapted for HPC Environments) not only allows for the use of the model in an expanding number of HPC environments, but also shows better performance in such settings. This paper identifies the components and trade-offs necessary for this model, and quantifies the performance gains exhibited by our approach in HPC environments over Apache Hadoop in a data intensive setting at the National Energy Research Scientific Computing Center (NERSC).
Algorithm 492: Generation of all the cycles of a graph from a set of basic cycles [H]

The PL/I procedure CYCLE_GENERATOR is an implementation of Gibbs' algorithm [1] for finding all the cycles in a graph from a set of basic cycles.
Neighborhood foreclosures and self-rated health among breast cancer survivors

Purpose We determined the association of neighborhood foreclosure risk on the health status of a statewide sample of breast cancer survivors (n = 1047) and the extent to which covariates accounted for observed associations.
Predicting the maximum gas deflagration pressure over the entire flammable range

Abstract This paper describes a semi-empirical method to predict the maximum pressure for fuel/air deflagrations over the entire flammable range. The method is based on availability, which is a thermodynamic concept representing the maximum mechanical energy extractable from a given mass of material. In total eight fuel/air systems were considered — the deviation between the predicted and experimental maximum pressure is from −20 psia to +15 psia. This is a significant improvement over ideal gas or equilibrium prediction methods.
Digestion rates and assimilation efficiencies of siphonophores fed zooplankton prey

Digestion times and assimilation efficiencies are critical factors used in calculations of carbon and nitrogen budgets. Digestion times of natural copepod prey differed significantly among 4 genera of siphonophores (P>0.001), from a minimum of 1.6 h to a maximum of 9.6 h. Assimilation efficiencies, in contrast, were uniformly high; 87 to 94% for carbon and 90 to 96% for nitrogen. Nitrogen assimilation was consistently greater than carbon assimilation. Assimilation efficiencies calculated according to dry weight substantially underestimated assimilation of carbon and nitrogen, while calculations using ash-free dry weights and ash-free to dry weight ratios approached values for carbon assimilation. These values are appreciably higher than most of the assimilation efficiencies previously measured for a few other planktonic carnivores. These results indicate very efficient digestion of food by siphonophores in oceanic environments where prey densities are low.
A comparison of savings rates in Uganda: Africans, Asians and Europeans

The paper is directed to the following question: Would the savings behaviour be the same between African, Asian and European households if we adjusted for ‘non‐economic’ factors such as education and occupation or would it be significantly different because of cultural factors specifically associated with each community? This hypothesis was tested using household survey data for African, Asian and European high level Government senior civil servants in Uganda; the test did not reveal a significant difference in their marginal savings rates.
Modification of the surface reactivity of Mo(110) upon carbide formation

The surface reactivity of thin molybdenum carbide films, prepared on a Mo(110) surface, has been investigated by using CO and ethylene molecules as chemical probes. Analytical techniques used include high-resolution electron energy loss spectroscopy (HREELS), Auger electron spectroscopy (AES), temperature-programmed desorption (TPD), low energy electron diffraction (LEED) and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS). The carbide layers remain active towards the decomposition of CO and ethylene. Comparison with the clean Mo(110) surface as well as with the oxygen-modified Mo(110) surface indicates significant differences in surface reactivity of the molybdenum carbide films. These differences lend support to the assumption of an electronic modification upon surface carbide formation, rather than pure site-blocking by carbon atoms.