cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Constrained Language Models Yield Few-Shot Semantic Parsers

We explore the use of large pretrained language models as few-shot semantic parsers. The goal in semantic parsing is to generate a structured meaning representation given a natural language input. However, language models are trained to generate natural language. To bridge the gap, we use language models to paraphrase inputs into a controlled sublanguage resembling English that can be automatically mapped to a target meaning representation. Our results demonstrate that with only a small amount of data and very little code to convert into English-like representations, our blueprint for rapidly bootstrapping semantic parsers leads to surprisingly effective performance on multiple community tasks, greatly exceeding baseline methods also trained on the same limited data.
RICA: Evaluating Robust Inference Capabilities Based on Commonsense Axioms

Pre-trained language models (PTLMs) have achieved impressive performance on commonsense inference benchmarks, but their ability to employ commonsense to make robust inferences, which is crucial for effective communications with humans, is debated. In the pursuit of advancing fluid human-AI communication, we propose a new challenge, RICA: Robust Inference using Commonsense Axioms, that evaluates robust commonsense inference despite textual perturbations. To generate data for this challenge, we develop a systematic and scalable procedure using commonsense knowledge bases and probe PTLMs across two different evaluation settings. Extensive experiments on our generated probe sets with more than 10k statements show that PTLMs perform no better than random guessing on the zero-shot setting, are heavily impacted by statistical biases, and are not robust to perturbation attacks. We also find that fine-tuning on similar statements offer limited gains, as PTLMs still fail to generalize to unseen inferences. Our new large-scale benchmark exposes a significant gap between PTLMs and human-level language understanding and offers a new challenge for PTLMs to demonstrate commonsense.
Gemmini: Enabling Systematic Deep-Learning Architecture Evaluation via Full-Stack Integration

DNN accelerators are often developed and evaluated in isolation without considering the cross-stack, system-level effects in real-world environments. This makes it difficult to appreciate the impact of Systemon-Chip (SoC) resource contention, OS overheads, and programming-stack inefficiencies on overall performance/energy-efficiency. To address this challenge, we present Gemmini, an open-source, full-stack DNN accelerator generator. Gemmini generates a wide design-space of efficient ASIC accelerators from a flexible architectural template, together with flexible programming stacks and full SoCs with shared resources that capture system-level effects. Gemmini-generated accelerators have also been fabricated, delivering up to three orders-of-magnitude speedups over high-performance CPUs on various DNN benchmarks.
Spillover Effects in Disclosure-Related Securities Litigation

Securities litigation is relatively rare but can significantly affect sued firms. We extend this research by examining the spillover effect of securities litigation on industry peers using a sample of disclosure-related litigation—distinct from events such as restatements and SEC enforcement. We find investors respond immediately as peers exhibit negative abnormal returns before and after case filings. Additionally, peers provide more voluntary earnings and sales forecasts. Notably, investors and peers respond primarily to cases that eventually settle, where litigation costs are concentrated. Further, disclosure results are concentrated in growth firms, where voluntary disclosure is most important, and in low litigation industries, where litigation is more noteworthy. Peers also adjust attributes of mandatory disclosures: disclosures become shorter, more readable, and contain fewer litigation-related terms. These changes appear successful as peers have lower future litigation incidence. Collectively, our findings indicate securities litigation has significant effects beyond the firms that directly face litigation.
The Culture of Digital Fighting Games: Performance and Practice

This book examines the complex network of influences that collide in the culture of digital fighting games. Players from all over the world engage in competitive combat with one another, forming communities in both real and virtual spaces, attending tournaments and battling online via internet-connected home game consoles. But what is the logic behind their shared playstyle and culture? What are the threads that tie them together, and how does this inform our understanding of competitive gaming, community, and identity? Informed by observations made at one of the biggest fighting game events in the world the Evolution Series tournament, or "EVO" and interviews with fighting game players themselves, this book covers everything from the influence of arcade spaces, to the place of gender and ethnicity in the community, to the clash of philosophies over how these games should be played in the first place. In the process, it establishes the role of technology, gameplay, and community in how these players define both themselves and the games that they play.
An Instrument for Measuring Quality Practices in Education

This paper reports the results of three studies designed to create and validate a survey instrument for measuring quality management/continuous improvement practices in educational settings. The in...
Dynamic Fracture Analysis of Notched Bend Specimens

A dynamic finite-element code was used to determine dynamic initiation fracture toughness, K 1 d , in 25.4-mm-thick (1 in.) notched bend specimens of A533B steel and a 15.9-mm-thick (5/8 in.) dynamic tear specimen of 6061 aluminum alloy. These specimen types can reflect varying dynamic fracture response due to differences in test temperature, specimen geometry, and material as well as notch tip sharpness. Measured load-time histories were applied to the tup as modeled by finite elements, and the dynamic stress-intensity factor was computed by a calibrated crack opening displacement procedure. Dynamic stress-intensity factors were also computed by the ASTM Test for Plane-Strain Fracture Toughness of Metallic Materials (E 399-74) using a load based on local dynamic strain measurements and a static K calibration. Reasonable agreements between measured and computed dynamic strains in the vicinity of the crack tip verified the accuracy of the dynamic finite-element model. The attendant agreement between measured versus computed time-varying dynamic stress-intensity factors also verified, for the first time, the applicability of ASTM E 399-74 for computing dynamic initiation fracture toughness, K I d , on the basis of local dynamic strain measurements.
Statistical Methods Applied to a Four-Year Multivariate Study of a Florida Estuarine System

A four-year study (1972 to 1976) was carried out to determine the long-term changes of organochlorine compound concentrations and of associations of epibenthic fishes and invertebrates in a river-dominated north Florida estuary. We assessed the relative effectiveness of a number of statistical techniques for describing the effects of key physicochemical variables on the estuarine biota. Techniques used included transformations, correlation, regression with dummy variables, two and three-way analysis of variance, multivariate analysis of variance, principal components analysis, factor analysis, canonical correlation, and cluster analysis. Several problems were encountered peculiar to studies of this type: missing observations, the sheer size of the data base in numbers of variables and observations, the domination of other effects by river flow, and extreme and noncyclical variation of some measures over the four-year study period.
150 years of Maxwell's equations

On page 499 of his 1865 paper (1), James Clerk Maxwell wrote, “The agreement of the results seems to show that light and magnetism are affections of the same substance, and that light is an electromagnetic disturbance propagated through the field according to electromagnetic laws.” With that knowledge, he changed the world forever. In the span of 150 years since his celebrated paper, numerous scientific discoveries and technological innovations have originated from Maxwell's equations. Electromagnetic and optical waves can be manipulated, tailored, and controlled by means of materials, and consequently, during the past one and a half centuries, materials science and engineering has always played the key roles in taming these waves for the purpose of inventing new functional devices. Early examples include radio-frequency antennas, lenses and mirrors, microwave waveguides, optical fibers, and telegraph transmission lines, to name just a few. Recent developments in nanoscience and nanotechnology, materials science and technology, and condensed matter physics has made it possible to conceive materials and structures with atomic-level controllability and with unprecedented properties not otherwise present in naturally available materials. These developments have opened doors to numerous opportunities to shape and sculpt light at the nano-, micro- and mesoscales in a desired fashion.
Association of twinning and maternal age with major structural birth defects in Utah, 1999 to 2008.

BACKGROUND Twinning is a risk factor for birth defects. Using population-based data from the Utah Birth Defect Network and the Utah Department of Health Vital Records, we investigated whether twinning increases the risk of major structural birth defects in live-born opposite-sex (OS) and same-sex (SS) twins as proxies for monozygotic and dizygotic twins, respectively. We also assessed whether maternal age modified the association between twinning and birth defects. METHODS All resident live-born singleton (n = 492,143) and twin (n = 13,596) infants issued a Utah birth certificate and delivered from 1999 through 2008 were included. Unadjusted and adjusted odds ratios (aORs) with 95% confidence intervals were calculated for each birth defect using unconditional logistic regression. RESULTS Birth defects were slightly more likely to occur in SS (aOR = 1.94; 95% confidence interval, 1.70–2.21) than OS (aOR = 1.55; 95% confidence interval, 1.27–1.90) twins. The aORs stratified by maternal age did not show a trend for any twin type when calculated for all birth defects combined. However, trends were observed for coarctation, pyloric stenosis, and shaft or penoscrotal hypospadias in OS twins; microcephaly, anotia/microtia, conotruncal defects, membranous ventricular septal defects, pyloric stenosis, all hypospadias, and craniosynostosis in SS twins; and tetralogy of Fallot, right ventricular outflow tract obstructions, renal agenesis/hypoplasia, and craniosynostosis in all twins. CONCLUSION All twin types have an increased risk for birth defects compared with singletons. SS twins have the highest risk, presumably due to the influence of monozygotic twins. The risk for birth defects in twins was not significantly modified by the mother's age. Birth Defects Research (Part A) 97:554-563, 2013. © 2013 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.
XML in practice: the groupware case

The Internet has more and more evolved from an information pool used by individuals for information gathering towards a medium that is being used by groups for information sharing and exchange. Today's Internet applications include local community networks as well as global business-to-business communication. The more the Internet is becoming a major part of our daily communication infrastructure, the more demands of effective tools for cooperation support arise. We have developed a Web-based groupware system-the BSCW shared workspace system-which aims to satisfy these demands. In this paper we describe a Java-based extension of the BSCW system that has been designed to improve usability of the system. As a consequence of limitations experienced from HTML-based user interfaces we have extended BSCW by a new JBrowser applet that uses XML as a data description language and provides a graphical representation of the user's shared workspaces. It can be seen as an example of how XML and Java can leverage from each other, how XML structures can be incorporated as objects in traditional applications, and how XML can be used to build a communication bridge between object repositories.
DYNAMO: a program for the simulation of transient faults in digital circuits

An efficient simulation tool called DYNAMO has been developed for the study of transient faults in digital circuits. It uses a dynamic mixed-mode simulation approach, whereby the representation of any subcircuit may switch among different levels of abstraction during simulation as mandated by the location of the transient fault and the resulting behavior of the subcircuit. The proposed algorithm is applied to the simulation of portions of an A/D (analog-to-digital) converter circuit. Experiments have shown very encouraging results with significant speed-ups in CPU run-times relative to the previous approach. >
Research project tasks, data, and perceptions of data quality in a condensed matter physics community

To be effective and at the same time sustainable, a community data curation model needs to be aligned with the community's current data practices, including research project activities, data types, and perceptions of data quality. Based on a survey of members of the condensed matter physics (CMP) community gathered around the National High Magnetic Field Laboratory, a large national laboratory, this article defines a model of CMP research project tasks consisting of 10 task constructs. In addition, the study develops a model of data quality perceptions by CMP scientists consisting of four data quality constructs. The paper also discusses relationships among the data quality perceptions, project roles, and demographic characteristics of CMP scientists. The findings of the study can inform the design of a CMP data curation model that is aligned and harmonized with the community's research work structure and data practices.
Stearoyl-coenzyme A desaturase activity in novikoff hepatoma

The activities of microsomal stearoyl-CoA desaturation, NADH-cytochrome b5 reductase, NADH-cytochrome c reductase, and the content of cytochrome b5 were similar in livers of normal and host rats. On the other hand, stearoyl-CoA desaturation activity was absent in Novikoff hepatoma. The activities of NADH-cytochrome b5 and NADH-cytochrome c reductases in the hepatoma microsomes were 4.8% and 2.2%, respectively, of those in normal liver. Furthermore, in hepatoma microsomes, cytochrome b5 was absent. An active stearoyl-CoA desaturation was reconstituted only on addition of both cytochrome b5 and the terminal desaturase enzyme to the hepatoma microsomes. These results indicated that a complete absence of cytochrome b5 and terminal desaturase is responsible for the lack of stearoyl-CoA desaturation in Novikoff hepatoma microsomes.
Straight-line models in star-shaped mixtures

Normal-theory inferences are validated in part for straight-line models having star-contoured errors. Adverse effects for the intercept include inconsistent estimation and disturbances in levels of the standard tests. Tests for slope remain exact in level; they are unbiased; and their power through mixing typically dominates the standard Gaussian case. Bounds on level, and envelopes for power curves, are given for certain ensembles and mixtures of distributions, and these are evaluated numerically for selected cases. Effects of mixtures on model diagnostics are examined further.
Rail Names as Indicators of Enduring Influence of Old Provinces in Modern Japan

Japan's ancient provinces were converted into modern prefectures after the Meiji Restoration of 1868. In the Kanto region, the eight former provinces of Musashi, Sagami, Awa, Kazusa, Shimosa, Hitachi, Shimotsuke, and Kozuke were reorganized into the seven prefectures of Tokyo, Saitama, Kanagawa, Chiba, Ibaraki, Tochigi, and Gunma. At the same time, railroads were being built to provide a new transportation method linking geographic areas. To what extent and how rapidly did the new prefectures replace the old provinces in geographic perception? One measure of that acceptance is how the new prefectures influenced the names given to rail companies, lines, and stations, all of which were created after the province system was replaced. Mapping and categorizing of rail names from 1872 to 1995 shows that province-based names significantly outnumbered prefecture-based names. This is especially true for station names, but is strongly apparent for rail company and line names as well. For line names, province-based names have outnumbered prefecture-related names throughout the period. Only in the case of company names has the number of prefecture-related names (including those based on a capital city with the same name as the prefecture) finally exceeded the number of province-based names. Spatially, province-based company, line, and station names are spread extensively throughout most of the Kanto region, whereas prefecture/capital-based names are found primarily in and around Tokyo itself. These temporal and spatial patterns reveal that the provinces have lived on in geographic perception long after their official demise.
On the structure of Pareto optimal cake partitions

Abstract We study Pareto optimal partitions of a “cake” among n players. Each player uses a countably additive non-atomic probability measure to evaluate the size of pieces of cake. We present two geometric pictures appropriate for this study and consider the connection between these pictures and the maximization of convex combinations of measures, which we studied in Barbanel and Zwicker [Barbanel, J.B., Zwicker, W., 1997. Two applications of a theorem of Dvoretsky, Wald, and Wolfovitz to cake division. Theory and Decision 43, 203–207].
Prenatal diagnosis of isolated levocardia and a structurally normal heart: two case reports and a review of the literature

Isolated levocardia (ILC) is a developmental abnormality involving an abnormal abdominal situs with a normal cardiac situs. This abnormality is especially rare when it is associated with a normal cardiac anatomy. The prenatal diagnoses of seven cases were reported in the English literature. This report presents two cases referred to the authors’ echocardiography laboratory for maternal diabetes mellitus in case 1 and suspected dextrocardia in case 2. In both cases, ILC with a structurally normal heart was diagnosed prenatally. The child in the first case was found to have a normal inferior vena cava (IVC) prenatally. Postnatally, he was found to have intestinal malrotation with duodenal obstruction and multiple splenules. Interruption of the IVC was shown by abdominal ultrasound. The child in the second case was found to have an interrupted IVC with azygos continuation prenatally. Postnatally, intestinal malrotation with no evidence of intestinal obstruction or asplenia was detected. Neither of the cases had reported cardiac arrhythmias. Early diagnosis is crucial in these cases due to the high incidence of associated anomalies and potential life-threatening conditions. Management of patients with ILC is dictated by the associated anomalies. Long-term follow-up assessment is recommended for these patients to monitor the development of rhythm abnormalities.
Mist Net Effort Required to Inventory a Forest Bat Species Assemblage

Little quantitative information exists about the survey effort necessary to inventory temperate bat species assemblages. We used a bootstrap resampling lgorithm to estimate the number of mist net surveys required to capture individuals from 9 species at both study area and site levels using data collected in a forested watershed in northwestern California, USA, during 1996–2000. The mean number of simulated surveys required to capture individual species varied with species’ rarity and ranged from 1.5 to 44.9. We retrospectively evaluated strategies to reduce required survey effort by subsampling data from 1996 to 1998 and tested the strategies in the field during 1999 and 2000. Using data from 1996 to 1998, the mean number of simulated surveys required to capture 8 out of 9 species was 26.3, but a 95% probability of capture required .61 surveys. Inventory efficiency, defined as the cumulative proportion of species detected per survey effort, improved for both the study area and individual sites by conducting surveys later in summer. We realized further improvements in study area inventory efficiency by focusing on productive sites. We found that 3 surveys conducted between 1 July and 10 September at each of 4 productive sites in this 10- km2 study area resulted in the capture of 8 species annually. Quantitative estimation of the survey effort required to assess bat species occurrence improves the ability to plan and execute reliable, efficient inventories. Results from our study should be useful for planning inventories in nearby geographical areas and similar habitat types; further, the analytical methods we used to assess effort are broadly applicable to other survey methods and taxa. (JOURNAL OF WILDLIFE MANAGEMENT 71(1):251–257; 2007)
Record-Based Block Distribution (RBBD) and weighted set cover scheduling (WSCS) in MapReduce

The massive increase in data volume with the development of computation capability has outmoded compute-intensive clusters for the analysis of large-scale datasets due to the network bottleneck caused by the large amount of data transferred over the network. Chunk-based storage systems are typical data-intensive clusters introduced to do big data analysis. They split data into blocks of the same predefined size and randomly store them across nodes. These systems adopt the strategy of co-located computing and storage to reduce the network transfer by scheduling computation to the node with the most required data. It performs well when the record as the input of the analysis is mostly on the same node. However, this does not always hold to be true, because there is a gap between the records and the blocks. Blocks are scattered across the data nodes with no regard to the semantics of the record. The current solution overlooks the relationship between the computation unit as a record and the storage unit as a block. For records contained in one block, there is no data transfer to schedule by block locations. On the other hand, in practice, one record could be consisted of several blocks which widely applies to binary files, as a result, extra data transfer is incurred to prepare the input data, because these blocks are randomly stored across the nodes and need to be transferred to the selected compute node. Our contribution is to develop a Record-Based Block Distribution (RBBD) framework for data-intensive analytics to eliminate the gap between records and blocks, reducing the data transfer volume before the analytics are processed. Meanwhile, a weighted set cover scheduling (WSCS) is implemented to further improve the performance of the data-intensive analytics by choosing the best combination of data nodes to perform the computation. Our experiments show that using our RBBD framework and WSCS, the data transfer volume is reduced by an average of 36.37 % and our weighted set covering algorithm outperforms the random algorithm by 51–62 %, with the deviation from the ideal solutions of not more than 6.8 %.
Single-Molecule Manipulation of Gp41 Folding Involved in HIV Infection and Drug Resistance

The HIV-1 envelope (Env) glycoprotein, a homotrimeric complex of gp41 and gp120, mediates attachment and fusion of the HIV-1 virion to its host CD4 cells, the very first and rate-limiting step of HIV infection. The complex holds gp41 in a largely unfolded high energy state like a loaded spring. The virion attachment triggers profound conformational rearrangements of Env protein that couple gp41 folding to membrane fusion by an unknown mechanism. In this process, gp41 folds from a pre-hairpin structure into a trimer-of-hairpins structure containing a six-helix bundle. Each hairpin contains an N- and a C-terminal helix linked by a loop. Here, we characterized the energetics and kinetics of gp41 folding at a single molecule level using high-resolution optical tweezers. Our data showed that single gp41 complexes fold in a two-state manner independent of the solution pH value, releasing extraordinary high energy competent for membrane fusion. As the sole antigen on the virion surface, HIV Env complexes are primary targets for anti-HIV drugs and vaccine development. Our work will provide important insights into the mechanism of HIV-1 fusion and drug resistance and help improve anti-HIV medicines.
Sensory neurobiological analysis of neuropeptide modulation of meal size

Gerry Smith's emphasis on the meal as the functional unit of ingestion spurred experiments designed to (1) identify oral and postoral stimuli that affect meal size, and (2) identify peripheral and central neural mechanisms involved in the processing of sensory signals generated by these stimuli. His observations that gut-brain peptides can limit meal size were important in formulating the idea that neuropeptides involved in the control of food intake modulate the peripheral and central neural processing of meal-stimulated sensory signals. This focus on meal size continues to foster the development of hypotheses and the design of experiments that characterize the sites and modes of action of feeding modulatory neuropeptides. These investigations have focused attention on the gut-brain neuraxis as a critical sensory pathway in the control of ingestive behavior, and have revealed important integrative properties of peripheral and central neurons along this axis. The neuromodulatory function of peptides that alter food intake is supported by their ability to recruit the activation of neurons at multiple central nodes of the gut-brain axis and to affect the neural processing and behavioral potency of meal-related gastrointestinal signals important in the negative feedback control of meal size. This sensory neurobiological perspective may also be applied to determine whether feeding modulatory neuropeptides affect the neural and behavioral potency of oral positive feedback signals that promote ingestion.
Development and validation of a predictive model for chemotherapy-associated thrombosis

Risk of venous thromboembolism (VTE) is elevated in cancer, but individual risk factors cannot identify a sufficiently high-risk group of outpatients for thromboprophylaxis. We developed a simple model for predicting chemotherapy-associated VTE using baseline clinical and laboratory variables. The association of VTE with multiple variables was characterized in a derivation cohort of 2701 cancer outpatients from a prospective observational study. A risk model was derived and validated in an independent cohort of 1365 patients from the same study. Five predictive variables were identified in a multivariate model: site of cancer (2 points for very high-risk site, 1 point for high-risk site), platelet count of 350 × 109/L or more, hemoglobin less than 100 g/L (10 g/dL) and/or use of erythropoiesis-stimulating agents, leukocyte count more than 11 × 109/L, and body mass index of 35 kg/m2 or more (1 point each). Rates of VTE in the derivation and validation cohorts, respectively, were 0.8% and 0.3% in low-risk (score = 0), 1.8% and 2% in intermediate-risk (score = 1-2), and 7.1% and 6.7% in high-risk (score ≥ 3) category over a median of 2.5 months (C-statistic = 0.7 for both cohorts). This model can identify patients with a nearly 7% short-term risk of symptomatic VTE and may be used to select cancer outpatients for studies of thromboprophylaxis.
Mechanisms for the generation of compositional heterogeneities in magma chambers

The two main hypotheses concerning the origin of compositional heterogeneities in magma chambers are discussed: (1) models in which the development of compositional zonation is simultaneous with the birth and growth of the magma body and (2) models in which zonation develops within an initially homogeneous batch of magma. The paper presents an overview of the geological possibilities and evaluates them on the basis of current research. Calculations are presented for boundary-layer flow in isothermal ternary component systems, and it is demonstrated that multicomponent diffusion effects may be very significant, as was earlier suggested by Trial and Spera (1988).
Dueling Regulatory Properties of a Transcriptional Activator (MtrA) and Repressor (MtrR) That Control Efflux Pump Gene Expression in Neisseria gonorrhoeae

ABSTRACT MtrA is a member of the AraC family of transcriptional regulators and has been shown to play an important role in enhancing transcription of the mtrCDE operon, which encodes a tripartite multidrug efflux pump, when gonococci are exposed to a sublethal level of antimicrobials. Heretofore, the DNA-binding properties of MtrA were unknown. In order to understand how MtrA activates mtrCDE expression, we successfully purified MtrA and found that it could bind specifically to the mtrCDE promoter region. The affinity of MtrA for the mtrCDE promoter increased 2-fold in the presence of a known effector and substrate of the MtrCDE pump, the nonionic detergent Triton X-100 (TX-100). When placed in competition with MtrR, the transcriptional repressor of mtrCDE , MtrA was found to bind with apparent lower affinity than MtrR to the same region. However, preincubation of MtrA with TX-100 prior to addition of the promoter-containing DNA probe increased MtrA binding and greatly reduced its dissociation from the promoter upon addition of MtrR. Two independent approaches (DNase I footprinting and a screen for bases important in MtrA binding) defined the MtrA-binding site 20–30 bp upstream of the known MtrR-binding site. Collectively, these results suggest that the MtrA and MtrR-binding sites are sterically close and that addition of an effector increases the affinity of MtrA for the mtrCDE promoter such that MtrR binding is negatively impacted. Our results provide a mechanism for transcriptional activation of mtrCDE by MtrA and highlight the complexity of transcriptional control of drug efflux systems possessed by gonococci. IMPORTANCE Antibiotic resistance in Neisseria gonorrhoeae has been increasing in recent years, such that in 2007 the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention listed N. gonorrhoeae as a “superbug.” One of the major contributors to antibiotic resistance in N. gonorrhoeae is the MtrCDE efflux pump. Until now, most work on the regulation of the genes encoding this efflux pump has been done on the transcriptional repressor, MtrR. This study is the first one to purify and define the DNA-binding ability of the transcriptional activator, MtrA. Understanding how levels of the MtrCDE efflux pump are regulated increases our knowledge of gonococcal biology and how the gonococcus can respond to various stresses, including antimicrobials.
Dynamic Braking of Synchronous Machines

TWO GENERAL electrical methods of quickly stopping synchronous machines are plugging and dynamic braking. Plugging, consisting of reversing the phase rotation of the voltage applied to the armature winding, is subjected to a number of serious objections. Dynamic braking, consisting of short-circuiting the armature through an external resistor and maintaining field excitation, is more desirable and generally will result in quicker stopping.
Immunohistochemical evaluation of HER-2/neu expression in pancreatic adenocarcinoma and pancreatic intraepithelial neoplasms☆

Abstract Although several morphological and molecular genetic studies have implicated various grades of pancreatic duct hyperplasia as precursor lesions to infiltrating pancreatic adenocarcinoma, the identity of preinvasive pancreatic neoplasms remains controversial. In the present study, the authors examined the expression of the epidermal growth factor receptor homologue, HER-2/ neu (c-erbB-2), in pancreatic duct lesions adjacent to infiltrating pancreas cancers in a series of 19 cases of pancreatic duct adenocarcinoma. HER-2/ neu expression was examined because it has been identified in a proportion of infiltrating pancreas cancers and because it may provide early neoplasms with a growth advantage over adjacent nonneoplastic epithelium. In normal pancreatic ducts and ductules, HER-2/ neu expression was absent in all but one case. By contrast, HER-2/ neu was expressed in 82% ( P = .008 vs normal) of ducts with flat mucinous hyperplasia, 86% ( P = .03 vs normal) of ducts with papillary mucinous hyperplasia without atypia, 92% ( P = .001 vs normal) of ducts with atypical papillary mucinous hyperplasia, and all specimens with carcinoma in situ. HER-2/ neu expression was observed in 69% ( P = .002 vs normal) of the moderately differentiated infiltrating carcinomas and none of the poorly differentiated infiltrating carcinomas. These data establish HER-2/ neu as a potential mediator of growth factor-related signal transduction in pancreatic duct lesions, and provide additional support for the hypothesis that lesions formerly regarded as various grades of hyperplasia instead may represent intraepithelial neoplasms with the potential for subsequent invasion and metastasis.
Platelets feel your pain

Comment on Graham et al, page [1058][1] Graham and colleagues have demonstrated that platelets express tachykinin receptors, respond to tachykinins such as substance P, and even secrete a substance P–like peptide. Tachykinins are a family of structurally related peptides that were originally
Elevated-temperature tribology of metallic materials

Abstract The wear of metals and alloys takes place in many forms, and the type of wear that dominates in each instance is influenced by the mechanics of contact, material properties, the interfacial temperature, and the surrounding environment. The control of elevated-temperature friction and wear is important for applications like internal combustion engines, aerospace propulsion systems, and metalworking equipment. The progression of interacting, often synergistic processes produces surface deformation, subsurface damage accumulation, the formation of tribo-layers, and the creation of free particles. Reaction products, particularly oxides, play a primary role in debris formation and microstructural evolution. Chemical reactions are known to be influenced by the energetic state of the exposed surfaces, and that surface energy is in turn affected by localized deformation and fracture. At relatively low temperatures, work-hardening can occur beneath tribo-contacts, but exposure to high temperatures can modify the resultant defect density and grain structure to affect the mechanisms of re-oxidation. As research by others has shown, the rate of wear at elevated temperatures can either be enhanced or reduced, depending on contact conditions and nature of oxide layer formation. Furthermore, the thermodynamic driving force for certain chemical reactions, the kinetics of those reactions, and the microstructure can all affect the response. The role of deformation, oxidation, and tribo-corrosion in the elevated-temperature tribology of metallic alloys will be exemplified by three examples involving sliding wear, single-point abrasion, and repetitive impact plus slip.
The genetic basis of plant form

Plant architecture is relevant to a number of questions in population biology because it affects the number, size, and fecundity of individuals. Architectural differences in wild plants have frequently been described and are presumed to have a genetic basis because the differences are maintained when the plants are grown in uniform gardens, but little genetic research has been done. Studies in crop plants, however, provide substantial information about how plant form can be genetically manipulated. They show that the architecture of many crops has been successfully modified by making a small number of genetic substitutions that affect shoot length, flowering node, branch presence and orientation, habit, and growth determinacy. The changes occur at the level of metamers (leaf-axillary bud-internode) and become multiplied by iteration into the characteristic architecture of the plant. Metamer growth and iteration are tightly coordinated by genetic factors that operate at the level of the whole plant. Evidence supporting this hypothesis includes single gene control of coordinated changes among successive internodes, genetic control of production of metabolites or signals that move from mature tissues to shoot growing points, and allometries connecting organs arising from the same meristem. Since different plant architectures are associated with differences in fitness, information on the genetic basis of the morphological and physiological characters that cause the architectural differences will elucidate how fitness characters evolve.
Creating and sustaining a group treatment program for cumulatively and repetitively traumatized children: administrative principles and systemic considerations

Cumulatively and repetitively traumatized children benefit from group therapy when it is offered as part of a comprehensive treatment program. Groups for traumatized children have proliferated rapidly in recent years because they are both helpful and cost effective. Nonetheless, the proliferation has had problematic as well as positive consequences. Regardless of the particular population served, child treatment centers that do not provide the administrative and supervisory structures necessary to support group therapy programs place children at significant risk. Developing and maintaining an effective program requires a significant commitment of agency time and effort. In addition to articulating a sound theoretical rationale for employing groups, child treatment centers should provide an adequate physical environment for group meetings; a structured system (involving senior administrative and supervisory staff) for referring children and assessing their suitability; a protocol for recording sessions; a case review process to evaluate the progress of children treated in groups; work load standards that give reasonable productivity credit to therapists who treat groups, and regularly scheduled modality specific supervision with a knowledgeable senior staff member. This paper discusses the administrative aspects of initiating and maintaining a model group therapy program for children. In this instance, the model is applied to children who have been cumulatively and repetitively traumatized.
A Timed Coloured Petri Net Supervisor for Urban Traffic Networks

An urban traffic network of signalized intersections can be suitably modeled as discrete event system, in which the traffic light alternations are described by means of Timed Coloured Petri nets (TCPN). In this paper, a model of such a network via TCPN is used to state and solve the problem of coordinating several traffic lights. Moreover, some relevant experimental results are presented and discussed. The analysis of the control TCPN models is performed by Occurrence Graphs (OG) method. And then the relation of the liveness and reversibility of the control TCPN nets will be obtained. Finally, an urban traffic lights' control structure with nine intersections will be realized.
Leaf physiology, production, water use, and nitrogen dynamics of the grassland invader Acacia smallii at elevated CO2 concentrations

Invasion by woody legumes can alter hydrology, nutrient accumulation and cycling, and carbon sequestration on grasslands. The rate and magnitude of these changes are likely to be sensitive to the effects of atmospheric CO(2) enrichment on growth and water and nitrogen dynamics of leguminous shrubs. To assess potential effects of increased atmospheric CO(2) concentrations on plant growth and acquisition and utilization of water and nitrogen, seedlings of Acacia smallii Isely (huisache) were grown for 13 months at CO(2) concentrations of 385 (ambient), 690, and 980 micro mol mol(-1). Seedlings grown at elevated CO(2) concentrations exhibited parallel declines in leaf N concentration and photosynthetic capacity; however, at the highest CO(2) concentration, biomass production increased more than 2.5-fold as a result of increased leaf photosynthetic rates, leaf area, and N(2) fixation. Measurements of leaf gas exchange and aboveground biomass production and soil water balance indicated that water use efficiency increased in proportion to the increase in atmospheric CO(2) concentration. The effects on transpiration of an accompanying decline in leaf conductance were offset by an increase in leaf area, and total water loss was similar across CO(2) treatments. Plants grown at elevated CO(2) fixed three to four times as much N as plants grown at ambient CO(2) concentration. The increase in N(2) fixation resulted from an increase in fixation per unit of nodule mass in the 690 micro mol mol(-1) CO(2) treatment and from a large increase in the number and mass of nodules in plants in the 980 micro mol mol(-1) CO(2) treatment. Increased symbiotic N(2) fixation by woody invaders in response to CO(2) enrichment may result in increased N deposition in litterfall, and thus increased productivity on many grasslands.
Boron carbide and boron carbonitride thin films as protective coatings in ultra-high density hard disk drives

Abstract Boron carbide (B4C) and boron carbon nitride (BxCyNz) thin films were synthesized by pulsed DC magnetron sputtering. Effects of target power, target pulse frequency, substrate bias and pulse frequency on surface roughness were studied by AFM over sampling areas of 20 μm × 20 μm. For B4C, the combination of target power of 75 W/50 kHz and substrate bias of −100 V/2 kHz results in the smallest surface roughness. Compressive stress in these films is around 2.5 GPa. These B4C films have a hardness of 30 ± 5 GPa and reduced modulus of 250 ± 50 GPa. Nitrogen incorporation into B4C films, which gives BxCyNz thin films, has a beneficial effect. When deposited under similar conditions with substrate bias pulsed at −100 V / 20 kHz, the root-mean-square surface roughness decreases to 0.19 nm, compared with 0.28 nm for B4C. The hardness of BxCyNz is 20 ± 3 GPa, and reduced modulus is 210 ± 30 GPa. Auger electron spectroscopy was used to characterize the film composition. High-resolution cross-sectioned TEM images and diffraction show that both films are amorphous. Corrosion studies indicate that BxCyNz is a better protective coating for hard disk substrates than B4C and CNx films. This is attributed mainly to the smoother morphology of BxCyNz films.
Bright Start: Description and Main Outcomes From a Group‐Randomized Obesity Prevention Trial in American Indian Children

The aim of the Bright Start study was to develop and test the effectiveness of a school environment intervention, supplemented with family involvement, to reduce excessive weight gain by increasing physical activity and healthy eating practices among kindergarten and first-grade American Indian children. Bright Start was a group-randomized, school-based trial involving 454 children attending 14 schools on the Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota. Children were followed from the beginning of their kindergarten year through the end of first grade. Main outcome variables were mean BMI, mean percent body fat, and prevalence of overweight/obese children. The goals of the intervention were to: increase physical activity at school to at least 60 min/day; modify school meals and snacks; and involve families in making behavioral and environmental changes at home. At baseline, 32% of boys and 25% of girls were overweight/obese. Although the intervention was not associated with statistically significant change in mean levels of BMI, BMI-Z, skinfolds or percentage body fat, the intervention was associated with a statistically significant net decrease of 10% in the prevalence of overweight. Intervention children experienced a 13.4% incidence of overweight, whereas the control children experienced a corresponding incidence of 24.8%; a difference of -11.4% (P = 0.033). The intervention significantly reduced parent-reported mean child intakes of sugar-sweetened beverages, whole milk, and chocolate milk. Changes in duration of school physical activity were not significant. Because obesity is the most daunting health challenge facing American Indian children today, more intervention research is needed to identify effective approaches.
Incorporating Network Topology Improves Prediction of Protein Interaction Networks from Transcriptomic Data

The reconstruction of protein-protein interaction (PPI) networks from high-throughput experimental data is one of the most challenging problems in bioinformatics. These biological networks have specific topologies defined by the functional and evolutionary relationships between the proteins and the physical limitations imposed on proteins interacting in the three-dimensional space. In this paper, the authors propose a novel approach for the identification of potential protein-protein interactions based on the integration of known PPI network topology and transcriptomic data. The proposed method, Function Restricted Value Neighborhood (FRV-N), was used to reconstruct PPI networks using an experimental data set consisting of 170 yeast microarray profiles. The results of this analysis demonstrate that incorporating knowledge of interactome topology improves the ability of transcriptome analysis to reconstruct interaction networks with a high degree of biological relevance.
Measurement Scales on the Continuum

In a seminal article in 1946, S. S. Stevens noted that the numerical measures then in common use exhibited three admissible groups of transformations: similarity, affine, and monotonic. Until recently, it was unclear what other scale types are possible. For situations on the continuum that are homogeneous (that is, objects are not distinguishable by their properties), the possibilities are essentially these three plus another type lying between the first two. These types lead to clearly described classes of structures that can, in principle, be incorporated into the classical structure of physical units. Such results, along with characterizations of important special cases, are potentially useful in the behavioral and social sciences.
Dysfluency levels during repeated readings, choral readings, and readings with altered auditory feedback in two cases of acquired neurogenic stuttering

Abstract We investigated how conditions that are known to be fluency-enhancing for individuals with persistent developmental stuttering (PDS) affect the speech of individuals with acquired neurogenic stuttering (ANS). Based on others' claims that the overt speech dysfluencies of PDS and ANS are difficult to distinguish, as well as the derived hypothesis that similar neural mechanisms—or even similar neural deficits—may underlie both disorders, the purpose of the present work was to examine whether speakers with ANS experience the same improvements in speech fluency as do speakers with PDS during (a) repeated readings of the same material, (b) choral readings with a second speaker, and (c) readings with delayed or frequency-altered auditory feedback. Two individuals with ANS read passages out loud in each of these conditions. Results differed from those typically reported for individuals with PDS and, instead, showed (a) only a small amount of adaptation during repeated readings, (b) a small improvement for choral reading that never reached nearly fluent speech, and (c) an increase, rather than decrease, in dysfluency in the conditions with altered auditory feedback. These findings are consistent with those for another case of ANS previously reported by our own group. Possible reasons for the lack of facilitation of fluent speech under these experimental conditions in cases of ANS are discussed.