cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Structural and surface chemical properties of sol–gel derived TiO2–ZrO2 oxides

Abstract Pure titania, zirconia, and binary TiO 2 –ZrO 2 oxides with Ti/Zr molar ratios of 1:3, 1:1 and 3:1 were prepared by a modified sol–gel method. The samples were calcined at different temperatures and characterized by nitrogen adsorption porosimetry, XRD, DSC–TGA and FT-IR. After calcination at 450 °C the pure titania and zirconia are in the crystalline phase (anatase and tetragonal, respectively) while the binary oxides remain in the amorphous phase. The binary oxides are crystallized after calcination at temperatures above 800 °C, but only the TiO 2 –ZrO 2 (1:1) sample is in the single phase of crystalline TiZrO 4 while the other two binary oxides contain TiZrO 4 and tetragonal (or monoclinc) zirconia and rutile phases, respectively. The crystallization temperature for the formation of ZrTiO 4 phase in the three binary oxides increases with titania content (respectively at 606, 716 and 754 °C). Different from the pure oxides, which exhibit two types of surface OH group, the binary oxides after calcination at 450 °C only have surface terminal OH group. The OH surface density decreases and, after passing through a minimum at about equimolar composition of Ti/Zr, increases with increasing titania content. The mixed oxides exhibit a large amount of surface acid sites.
Academic faculty as intellectual property in university-industry research alliances

In this article, we consider a particular type of strategic alliance that is perhaps most difficult to operate: those involving universities and industry that are based in a university setting. We consider this type of research alliance because while we know they face formidable challenges in terms of property rights – with the academic faculty participating in these alliances constituting the ‘property’ – there is very little study of how to address these challenges. Accordingly, we review a number of literatures focused on the shared use of human capital, from management science, organizational behavior, and science policy studies, among others, emphasizing the incenting of collaborative, boundary-spanning research. We discern lessons from these literatures for incenting industry-focused research in university settings and make some recommendations for future research on university-industry research alliances.
Comment on ``How macroscopic properties dictate microscopic probabilities''

Aharonov and Reznik have argued [in Phys. Rev A 65, 052116 (2002)] that the form of the probabilistic predictions of quantum theory can be seen to follow from properties of macroscopic systems. An error in their argument is identified.
Dynamics of the mean Asian summer monsoon in a maximally simplified model

A two-layer quasi-geostrophic model, containing the bare essential orographic and thermal forcings, is used as a maximally simplified model for delineating the nature of the mean Asian summer monsoon circulation (ASM). The solution reveals that the prototype ASM circulation consists of two main components. The western part of it is a greatly elongated and skewed baroclinic vortical circulation. The lower and upper features of the baroclinic vortex are the model counterparts of the Monsoon Low and the Tibetan High respectively. The eastern part of the model ASM is a composite baroclinic Rossby wave-packet which manifests itself at the lower and upper levels as the model counterparts of the surface Subtropical High and upper-level Monsoon Trough. The centre of the skewed vortex and the root of the wave-packet are collocated over East Asia arising from a common source of excitation. This overall circulation is interpreted in terms of potential vorticity dynamics. Furthermore, the ascending motion field is consistent with the notion that the thermal forcing is largely self-reinforcing. The descending motion over the model Middle East supports the notion that the desert climate is an integral part of the ASM. The roles of the individual model forcing elements are also delineated and the caveats of the analysis elaborated. Copyright © 2008 Royal Meteorological Society
Imaging and modeling of pulsed-laser thin-film-deposition plumes

Optical multichannel emission spectroscopy and intensified charge coupled device (ICCD) imaging have been applied to real-time, in situ gas phase species identification during the pulsed excimer or Nd/YAG laser deposition of selected thin films. A plume gasdynamic expansion model has been developed and used to predict the outer edge plume front locations for comparison with those observed in the ICCD images. Good agreement was found between the model and ICCD images, with plume temperatures indicated by the model to be typically between 10,000 K and 30,000 K. Molecular beam mass spectrometry has also been used for real- time, in situ species identification and velocity distribution determinations. The systems studied include PbZr 0.53 Ti 0.47 O 3 (PZT), BaTiO 3 , AlN, BN, Al 2 O 3 , and Ag. The ICCD imaging of plumes from PZT and BN targets, in particular, revealed that particulate ejecta were present after some regions of the target surface had been modified morphologically by multiple exposures to the laser beam. These ejecta appeared long after the luminous plume had decayed. When relatively high laser fluences were used, ICCD imaging also revealed strong evidence for interactions between the laser and the near-surface plume. This interaction manifests itself as increased emission intensity in the direction of the incoming laser beam. Mass spectrometric studies showing relatively fast velocity components of both neutral and charged plume species support the imaging evidence. The laser-plume interaction results in higher kinetic energies and a much greater effective temperature for a portion of the plume species. The slower component(s) appeared to be more thermal in origin (i.e. controlled by surface vaporization), and apparently reflects the target surface temperature.
News from NIH: translational research for an aging population.

The National Institute on Aging (NIA) has long been the primary sponsor of research in the basic social and behavioral sciences on the processes of aging. These investments have generated a large body of knowledge about change in physical health, social and psychological function, and economic behavior over the adult life course; on the inter-relationships between older people and social institutions; and on the economic impact of both changing age-composition of the population and public/private programs that serve older populations. (For more information visit the Division of Behavioral and Social Research (BSR) website at: http://www.nia.nih.gov/research/dbsr.). As recent years have seen an explosion of fundamental insights in the basic social and behavioral sciences, translating this knowledge into practical advances to benefit the health and well-being of older Americans has increasingly become a priority for the NIA. Of particular interest are approaches that apply these evidence-based insights to (1) translation into state/federal/international public policy; (2) adoption by agencies or firms (e.g., government agencies, insurance companies, employers, nursing homes); (3) translation into public health practice; (4) development of new technologies and; (5) development of behavior change/behavior maintenance programs.
A scalable parallel genetic algorithm for the Generalized Assignment Problem

A scalable parallel genetic algorithm (PGA) is developed for the NP-hard GAP problem.High scalability is achieved through a novel asynchronous migration strategy.Our algorithmic analysis resolves the buffer overflow issue in asynchronous PGAs.Strong and weak scaling tests demonstrate the superiority of our PGA approach.Our approach scales to 16,384 processors with super-linear speedups observed. Known as an effective heuristic for finding optimal or near-optimal solutions to difficult optimization problems, a genetic algorithm (GA) is inherently parallel for exploiting high performance and parallel computing resources for randomized iterative evolutionary computation. It remains to be a significant challenge, however, to devise parallel genetic algorithms (PGAs) that can scale to massively parallel computer architecture (also known as the mainstream supercomputer architecture) primarily because: (1) a common PGA design adopts synchronized migration, which becomes increasingly costly as more processor cores are involved in global synchronization; and (2) asynchronous PGA design and associated performance evaluation are intricate due to the fact that PGA is a type of stochastic algorithm and the amount of computation work needed to solve a problem is not simply dependent on the problem size. To address the challenge, this paper describes a scalable coarse-grained PGA-PGAP, for a well-known NP-hard optimization problem: Generalized Assignment Problem (GAP). Specifically, an asynchronous migration strategy is developed to enable efficient deme interactions and significantly improve the overlapping of computation and communication. Buffer overflow and its relationship with migration parameters were investigated to resolve the issues of observed message buffer overflow and the loss of good solutions obtained from migration. Two algorithmic conditions were then established to detect these issues caused by communication delays and improper configuration of migration parameters and, thus, guide the dynamic tuning of PGA parameters to detect and avoid these issues. A set of computational experiments is designed to evaluate the scalability and numerical performance of PGAP. These experiments were conducted for large GAP instances on multiple supercomputers as part of the National Science Foundation Extreme Science and Engineering Discovery Environment (XSEDE). Results showed that, PGAP exhibited desirable scalability by achieving low communication cost when using up to 16,384 processor cores. Near-linear and super-linear speedups on large GAP instances were obtained in strong scaling tests. Desirable scalability to both population size and the number of processor cores were observed in weak scaling tests. The design strategies applied in PGAP are applicable to general asynchronous PGA development.
Vacancy loop-denuded zones in quenched pure aluminum

Abstract When quenched-in vacancies are allowed to migrate at a low temperature, they tend to cluster. The vacancy clusters are often denuded in the vicinity of grain boundaries. The formation and the final morphology of these vacancy loop-denuded zones were studied in nominally 99.999 wt.% pure aluminum by transmission electron microscopy. The width of the denuded zones varied with the quench temperature, quenching rate and the aging conditions. The formation kinetics of the vacancy loop-denuded zones adjacent to grain boundaries in quenched aluminum was compared with the kinetics of vacancy loop formation. The results suggest that the formation and the morphology of the denuded zones are primarily controlled by the as-quenched profile of vacancy concentration and the critical conditions for the nucleation of vacancy clusters.
Quark-hadron phase transition in the early Universe: Isothermal baryon-number fluctuations and primordial nucleosynthesis

We study the quark-hadron transition in the early Universe and compute the amplitude of isothermal baryon-number fluctuations that emerge from this transition along with their effects on primordial nucleosynthesis. We find that such fluctuations are a natural consequence of a first-order phase transition occurring in the strongly interacting system. Fluctuation-generating mechanisms are discussed. We estimate the nucleation rate and derive the mean separation between fluctuations. It is shown that the amplitude of the fluctuations depends sensitively on the phase coexistence temperature ${T}_{c}$ and on the baryon transmission probability ${\ensuremath{\Sigma}}_{h}$ at the phase boundary. For realistic values of ${\ensuremath{\Sigma}}_{h}$ and ${T}_{c}$ the fluctuations are large and have a significant effect on primordial nucleosynthesis yields. With these fluctuations the limit on the baryonic contribution to \ensuremath{\Omega} depends primarily on what is taken to be the primordial $^{7}\mathrm{Li}$ abundance: \ensuremath{\Omega}=1 in baryons would require large $^{7}\mathrm{Li}$ and $^{2}\mathrm{H}$ destruction factors during the evolution of the Galaxy.
HIGHER-ORDER SPECTRAL ANALYSIS TO DETECT NONLINEAR INTERACTIONS IN MEASURED TIME SERIES AND AN APPLICATION TO CHUA’S CIRCUIT

Higher-order spectra have been used to investigate nonlinear interactions between the Fourier components of measured time series in a remarkably wide range of random processes. The basic techniques of detecting and isolating nonlinear phase coupling in observed data using higher-order spectral analysis are reviewed here. These techniques are then used to investigate nonlinear interactions in time series of voltages measured from a realization of Chua’s circuit. For period-doubled limit cycles, quadratic and cubic nonlinear interactions result in phase coupling and energy exchange between increasing numbers of triads and quartets of Fourier components as the nonlinearity of the system is increased. For circuit parameters that result in a chaotic, Rossler-type attractor, bicoherence and tricoherence spectra indicate that both quadratic and cubic nonlinear interactions are important to the dynamics. For parameters that lead to the double-scroll chaotic attractor the bispectrum is zero, but the tricoherences are high, consistent with the importance of higher-than-second order nonlinear interactions during chaos associated with the double scroll.
Fright reactions in rats to conspecific tissue.

Abstract Rats were trained to traverse a runway for water reinforcement. Then separate groups were tested with rat or guinea pig muscle homogenate, blood, or brain homogenate applied to the runway. Rat muscle and blood evoked significantly higher frequencies of fright reactions (elimination, freezing, or retreating) and significantly lower frequencies of orienting/sampling responses than evoked by guinea pig muscle and blood, or rat brain. This supports the interpretation that conspecific muscle and blood contain an alarm substance (Schreckstoff) and eliminates other possible interpretations of these reactions to conspecific blood and muscle.
Attenuation of thyroid hormone action by 1,25-dihydroxyvitamin D3 in pituitary cells.

Interactions between thyroid hormone and 1,25-dihydroxyvitamin D3 [1,25-(OH)2D3] were examined in a rat pituitary tumor cell line, GH4C1. Cells were incubated in thyroid hormone-depleted medium for 2 days, and specific nuclear binding of [125I]T3 was measured. 1,25-(OH)2D3 decreased nuclear [125I]T3 binding without changing total cellular uptake of [125I]T3. This 1,25-(OH)2D3 effect required 2-3 h to become evident and 24 h to reach a maximum (40-50% of control) and was reversible. Treatment with 1,25-(OH)2D3 for 8 h changed the maximal binding capacity for [125I]T3 from 80.2 +/- 2.9 to 50.3 +/- 6.3 fmol/10(6) cells, whereas Kd was not significantly altered. The decrease in [125I]T3 binding was dose dependent, with an IC50 for 1,25-(OH)2D3 of 1 nM in thyroid hormone-depleted medium. 1,25-(OH)2D3 caused little change in [125I]T3 binding to isolated nuclei, i.e. 1,25-(OH)2D3 does not compete directly with [125I]T3 for binding. It is unlikely that 1,25-(OH)2D3 decreased [125I]T3 binding by increasing the concentration of intracellular free calcium ([Ca2+]i), since 1,25-(OH)2D3 did not change [Ca2+]i in Indo-I-loaded GH4C1 cells. Two major species (6 and 2.6 kilobases) of mRNA for c-erb-A, which have been reported to encode nuclear thyroid hormone receptors, were found by Northern blot analysis, and both were decreased by treatment with 1,25-(OH)2D3 for 8 h. T3 (2 nM) caused a 3-fold increase in GH production over 72 h and 1,25-(OH)2D3 inhibited GH induction by T3, with an IC50 at approximately 1 nM. 1,25-(OH)2D3 stimulated PRL synthesis 5-fold when 10 nM T3 was present, but not when T3 was absent. In summary, 1,25-(OH)2D3 caused a dose-dependent down-regulation of nuclear thyroid hormone receptors at a pretranslational level and diminished GH induction by T3. These results suggest that 1,25-(OH)2D3 inhibits GH synthesis indirectly, at least partly, by attenuating endogenous thyroid hormone action.
Developmental Sequences for Hopping as Assessment Instruments: A Generalizability Analysis

The purpose of this study was to investigate the generalizability with which undergraduate kinesiology and elementary education students can rate children's hopping performances according to prelongitudinally validated developmental sequences for the arms, legs, and total body. Twenty observers were assigned to one of four training groups (n = 5): (a) kinesiology students /total-body sequence, (b) kinesiology students/component sequences, (c) elementary education students/total-body sequence, and (d) elementary education students/component sequences. The observers rated five trials of videotaped hopping performances by 10 boys and 10 girls between the ages of 3.5 and 9.0 years. The results suggested that when kinesiology students receive 2 hours of training, one observer can reliably assess leg action in one trial (.80) and arm action in five trials (.80). In contrast, one elementary education student can reliably assess leg action within five trials (.80), but the average score of two observers assessing...
Cohesion as a constraint on object persistence in infancy.

A critical challenge for visual perception is to represent objects as the same persisting individuals over time and motion. Across several areas of cognitive science, researchers have identified cohesion as among the most important theoretical principles of object persistence: An object must maintain a single bounded contour over time. Drawing inspiration from recent work in adult visual cognition, the present study tested the power of cohesion as a constraint as it operates early in development. In particular, we tested whether the most minimal cohesion violation ‐ a single object splitting into two ‐ would destroy infants’ ability to represent a quantity of objects over occlusion. In a forced-choice crawling paradigm, 10- and 12-month-old infants witnessed crackers being sequentially placed into containers, and typically crawled toward the container with the greater cracker quantity. When one of the crackers was visibly split in half, however, infants failed to represent the relative quantities, despite controls for the overall quantities and the motions involved. This result helps to characterize the fidelity and specificity of cohesion as a fundamental principle of object persistence, suggesting that even the simplest possible cohesion violation can dramatically impair infants’ object representations and influence their overt behavior.
Efficient real-time algorithms for eye state and head pose tracking in advanced driver support systems

This article shows cutting-edge computer vision methods employed in advanced vision sensing technologies for medical, safety and security applications, where the human eye represents the object of interest for both the imager and the computer. As the eye scans the environment, or focuses on particular objects in the scene, the processor simultaneously localizes the eye position, tracks its position and movement over time, and infers counter measures such as fatigue level, attention level, and gaze direction in real-time and automatically. The focus of this demonstration is placed on four different algorithms: auto-initialization (RHED), eye position tracking (SIRAT), eye closure recognition (HRA), driver head pose categorization.
Mechanics of bite force production and its relationship to diet in bats

Summary 1. In vertebrates, bite force is a measure of whole organism performance that is associated with both cranial morphology and dietary ecology. Mechanistic studies of bite force production have identified morphological features associated with bite force, and linked bite force with diet, but this approach has rarely been used in mammals. 2. Mammals are a good system with which to investigate the function of the feeding apparatus because of the relative simplicity of their skulls and their high dietary diversity. Phyllostomid bats are one of the most trophically and morphologically diverse groups of mammals, but we know little about the relative importance of biomechanical variables in producing bite force or how these variables vary with diet. 3. We combined in vivo measurements of bite force with assessments of muscular and bony morphology to build and validate a model describing the mechanics of bite force production in 25 species of bats. We used this model to investigate how bats with different diets vary in biomechanical parameters that contribute to bite force. In addition to traditional dietary categories, we used a functional definition of diet that reflects the mechanical demands (hardness) of the food items in the natural diet. 4. Our model provided good predictions of in vivo bite forces and highlighted behavioural variation that is inherent in the in vivo data. The temporalis generates the highest moment about the temporomandibular joint (TMJ) axis, but the moment generated by the masseter is the most important variable in explaining variation among species. The dietary classification based on the hardness of the diet was more effective than traditional dietary categories in describing biomechanical differences among groups. The temporalis generated the highest proportion of the moment about the TMJ axis in species with very hard and hard diets, the masseter was most important for species with soft diets, and the medial pterygoid was most important for species with liquid diets. 5. Our results highlight the utility of combining a modelling approach with in vivo data when conducting ecomorphological studies, and the importance of ecological classifications that reflect functional importance of performance traits.
Superoxide Production and Expression of Nox Family Proteins in Human Atherosclerosis

Background— NAD(P)H oxidases are important sources of superoxide in the vasculature, the activity of which is associated with risk factors for human atherosclerosis. This study was designed to investigate the localization of superoxide production and the expression of the Nox family of NAD(P)H oxidase proteins (gp91phox, Nox1, and Nox4) in nonatherosclerotic and atherosclerotic human coronary arteries. Methods and Results— In coronary artery segments from explanted human hearts, we examined intracellular superoxide production with dihydroethidium. In nonatherosclerotic coronary arteries, superoxide was present homogenously throughout the intima, media, and adventitia. In atherosclerotic arteries, there was an additional intense area of superoxide in the plaque shoulder, which is rich in macrophages and α-actin–positive cells. p22phox colocalized with gp91phox mainly in macrophages, whereas Nox4 was found only in nonphagocytic vascular cells. Expression of gp91phox and p22phox mRNA was associated with the ...
An analysis of the initial-value wavemaker problem

A Fourier-integral method is developed to obtain transient solutions to potential wavemaker problems. This method yields solutions for wavemaker velocities which need not be given as powers of time. The results are compared with known small-time and local solutions. Examples considered include ramp, step, and harmonic wavemaker velocities. As time becomes large, the behaviour near the wave front is derived for the impulsive wavemaker, and for the harmonic wavemaker it is shown that the steady-state solution is recovered. The solution for a wavemaker velocity given as a Fourier cosine series compares favourably with available experimental results. Capillary effects are included and nonlinear effects are discussed.
A critical analysis of the infant health and development program

The largest study designed to ameliorate adverse effects of premature low birth weight (LBW) and to prevent mental retardation is the Infant Health and Development Program (IHDP). This was a randomized, multisite intervention: home visits for 3 years, parents meetings, and intensive preschool education for 2 years. IHDP reported results alleging the program significantly influenced intelligence and prevented mental retardation. We conducted an independent analysis of the original computerized database (at 3 years). Five-year follow-up data were obtained from the journal publication and from data on file with the National Auxiliary Publication Service. Our intent was to determine the magnitude, durability, and clinical significance of purported intervention effects and how these are mediated. Methods used were primarily multivariate correlational analyses and examination of the logic underlying the conclusions. Results suggest alternative interpretations of claims regarding IHDP. Effects are explained by confounding variables, questionable analytical procedures, distorted interpretations, and data inconsistencies. Effect sizes and specificity of effect reported by IHDP do not survive scrutiny either in the original database or at 5 years. Given the vastly complex nature of premature LBW, IHDP was poorly conceived, failing to produce meaningful and enduring effects on IQ. Policy conclusions for interventions with LBW infants stemming from IHDP are misleading.
Use of Multivariate Analysis to Identify Functional Components of the Benthos in ST. Margaret's Bay, Nova SCOTIA1

Trends in the frequencies of occurrence of polychaetes and echinoderms in St, Margaret’s Bay, Nova Scotia, were isolated by principal components analysis and cluster analysis. Five principal components accounted for 70% of the total variance, three of them (46% of the variance) associated with sediment type, and one ( 16% of the variance) with distance from the head of the bay, probably with tidal water movements. The largest component of variance ( 23% ) was due to the difference between fauna from clay (characterized by Pectinaria hyperboreu and Synaptu sp. ) and fauna from more heterogeneous, coarser sediments. It was concluded that the large, contiguous area of soft mud in the deep part of the bay supports a reasonably well-defined, integrated community.
Basal Rather Than Induced Heme Oxygenase-1 Levels Are Crucial in the Antioxidant Cytoprotection

Heme oxygenase-1 (HO-1) overexpression protects against tissue injury in many inflammatory processes, including ischemia/reperfusion injury (IRI). This study evaluated whether genetically decreased HO-1 levels affected susceptibility to liver IRI. Partial warm ischemia was produced in hepatic lobes for 90 min followed by 6 h of reperfusion in heterozygous HO-1 knockout (HO-1(+/-)) and HO-1(+/+) wild-type (WT) mice. HO-1(+/-) mice demonstrated reduced HO-1 mRNA/protein levels at baseline and postreperfusion. This corresponded with increased hepatocellular damage in HO-1(+/-) mice, compared with WT. HO-1(+/-) mice revealed enhanced neutrophil infiltration and proinflammatory cytokine (TNF-alpha, IL-6, and IFN-gamma) induction, as well as an increase of intrahepatic apoptotic TUNEL(+) cells with enhanced expression of proapoptotic genes (Bax/cleaved caspase-3). We used cobalt protoporphyrin (CoPP) treatment to evaluate the effect of increased baseline HO-1 levels in both WT and HO-1(+/-) mice. CoPP treatment increased HO-1 expression in both animal groups, which correlated with a lower degree of hepatic damage. However, HO-1 mRNA/protein levels were still lower in HO-1(+/-) mice, which failed to achieve the degree of antioxidant hepatoprotection seen in CoPP-treated WT. Although the baseline and postreperfusion HO-1 levels correlated with the degree of protection, the HO-1 fold induction correlated instead with the degree of damage. Thus, basal HO-1 levels are more critical than the ability to up-regulate HO-1 in response to the IRI and may also predict the success of pharmacologically induced cytoprotection. This model provides an opportunity to further our understanding of HO-1 in stress defense mechanisms and design new regimens to prevent IRI.
Precession of conduction-electron spins near an interface between normal and magnetic metals

A current crossing the interface between a ferromagnetic layer F/sub 1/ and a normal layer N induces a magnetization in the conduction-electron gas near the interface. This "spin-injection" manifests itself as a DC voltage between N and a second ferromagnetic layer F/sub 2/ deposited on N. We treat the case where the magnetizations of F/sub 1/ and F/sub 2/ are perpendicular. The spin of injected conduction electrons precesses around the exchange field present in F/sub 2/. As a result, the direction of the local conduction-electron spin density in F/sub 2/ is a function of the distance from the N-F/sub 2/ interface.
Impacts of nucleating aerosol on anvil-cirrus clouds: A modeling study

This paper examines the potential effects of Saharan dust intrusions on the microphysical structure and optical properties of anvil-cirrus clouds. A series of 3-D LES simulations were initialized and forced by output data from mesoscale simulations in a previous study, in which we analyzed the impact of the enhanced low-level concentrations of cloud-nucleating aerosols on the characteristics of convective storms. The effects of enhancing aerosol concentrations on the ice-particle size distributions as well as some of their moments were analyzed as the LES model domain followed the trajectory of the simulated cirrus cloud. The experimental design was based on aerosol concentrations observed over the peninsula of Florida toward the end of the CRYSTALFACE field campaign held during July 2002. Results indicate that variations in the concentrations of nucleation aerosols have a significant effect on the optical properties and lifetime of cirrus anvil clouds. In addition, enhancing low-level aerosols can affect the radiation budget, leading to surface radiative cooling. Both IFN and CCN enhancements show important effects; however, results suggest that CCN and GCCN play a more dominant role. © 2006 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
Investigation of crosstalk among vias

Crosstalk among vias is a critical problem in high-speed digital circuits, deteriorating signal quality and increasing jitter, especially when circuit density is high. Underlying mechanism of crosstalk among vias is investigated in this paper. Using a physics-based equivalent circuit model, crosstalk as a function of various geometrical parameters, including parallel plane pair thickness, layer count in printed circuit board (PCB) stackup, ground via patterns, and parallel plane pair dimensions, has been investigated. A multi-step crosstalk evaluation procedure is proposed based on the study for PCB layout-design verifications.
Protection or Free Trade: An Analysis of the Ideas of Henry George on International Commerce and Wages

. Henry George, the 19th century American economist and social philosopher, abandoned protectionism and became a free trader when he engaged in the great tariff debate of the last quarter of his century. In the controversy, a true follower of Adam Smith, he anticipated neoclassical positions on the tariff question, particularly the Stolper-Samuelson theory which predicts that free trade will increase the prices of the abundant factors of production relative to the prices of the scarce factors. George's concern in the great debate was labor; he was convinced that only certain interests representing capital or resource ownership would benefit from protection at the cost of labor and the enterprises in fields with more abundant resources. But the free trade effort failed and in 1894 the Wilson-Gorman tariff increased the exactions to the highest level yet. The protectionist tide, only slowed by the Woodrow Wilson Administration, was not reversed until after World War II.
Globalisation Of Popular Culture: From Hollywood To Bollywood:

This article examines significant evidence of recent Bollywood influence on the Western movie industry, particularly Hollywood, and explores the implications of such developments in the context of globalisation. Within the ongoing globalisation of entertainment, a process that does not automatically lead to cultural Westernisation and uniformisation, Bollywood has by now become both a symbol of Indian cinema’s circulation all over the world and the embodiment of non-monolithic globalisation. Bollywood is evidently not a homogenising influence that forces non-Indian cultures to embrace its cinematographic or musical norms and practices. Rather, it creates new hybrids. The article offers a framework for explaining the growing cultural and economic changes and movements of such non-hegemonic spreading of popular culture and identifies future agenda for research.
An active adapter with edge cache approach for order status information integration

Sharing information among multiple business operations and distributed locations in an integrated manner has always been one of the central issues in business activity and process management. The effectiveness of the entire commerce value chain for an enterprise is largely dependent on the satisfaction of the information requesters. Improving upon the typical data federation approach, we propose to add data caches in the adapters that connect directly to the information requesters for fast data retrieval. To demonstrate the proposed approach, we have implemented the new active features for the IBM Websphere Business Integration middleware. Experimental results show that the active adapter approach significantly reduces the average data access time under a real order status tracking system.
Green chemistry in the microelectronics industry

Microelectronic devices and materials now represent one of the largest manufacturing sectors in the world. Like many large industries, growth has been accompanied by increasing concerns regarding environmental emissions and impact. One challenge for the high end of the market is the identification of alternative process technologies that are not just “greener” but provide compelling technical advantages that could foster adaptation. This review examines a few opportunities where this is possible, including the use of supercritical fluids such as carbon dioxide in advanced device fabrication. The implementation of more acceptable materials in commodity markets, including lead free solder for printed wiring boards, is also discussed.
How chest CT for the diagnosis of pulmonary embolism (PE) has changed my professional life: Reflections from a PE doctor

As a young doctor specializing in pulmonary embolism (PE), I used to share the common belief that lung scanning was the ultimate noninvasive test for PE detection or exclusion. Rectilinear scanners provided grainy images in two views, anterior and posterior. When the perfusion scans looked like Swiss cheese, and the ventilation scans were normal, the likelihood of PE was high. In contrast, if the perfusion and ventilation scans were entirely normal, PE was unlikely. From this modest origin, nuclear imaging flourished. Scanner technology improved, and SPECT lung scanning emerged. The two-view scan became a historical footnote that was replaced by a standard eight-view scan. The scans themselves were no longer interpreted in isolation. Instead, clinicallikelihoodbeforethelungscanhadamajorimpacton interpretation of the test. Nevertheless, despite these improvements, major problems remained. Despite countless algorithms and sketches of lung segmental anatomy that were posted in many Nuclear Medicine Department reading rooms, the images remained difficult to interpret. At least several times each month, a potentially dangerous situation would unfold. A radiology resident at night would interpret a scan as “low probability,” and a patient suspected of PE would receive reassurance and be discharged home from the Emergency Department. The following morning, the Nuclear Medicine Staff Physician would over-read the same scan and declare that it was “high probability” for PE. A frantic search would then ensue to contact the recently discharged patient, so that anticoagulation could be started without further delay. Some of these patients were homeless or did not have telephones.
A preliminary analysis of the MPI queue characterisitics of several applications

Understanding the message passing behavior and network resource usage of distributed-memory message-passing parallel applications is critical to achieving high performance and scalability. While much research has focused on how applications use critical compute related resources, relatively little attention has been devoted to characterizing the usage of network resources, specifically those needed by the network interface. This paper discusses the importance of understanding network interface resource usage requirements for parallel applications and describes an initial attempt to gather network resource usage data for several real-world codes. The results show widely varying usage patterns between processes in the same parallel job and indicate that resource requirements can change dramatically as process counts increase and input data changes. This suggests that general network resource management strategies may not be widely applicable, and that adaptive strategies or more fine-grained controls may be necessary for environments where network interface resources are severely constrained.
Poisson approximation of input traffic sources in asynchronous transfer mode (ATM) networks

The future telecommunication networks are expected to support a wide variety of multimedia services with very different bit-rate and performance requirements. Under these circumstances, it has been recognized that the conventional simple source modeling, namely, the Poisson arrival process, is no longer adequate to describe various kinds of traffic sources accurately. Other source modelings, which give more accurate results but greatly complicate the performance analyses, have been proposed. However, all these models share a common property, that is, they can be decomposed into a superposition of independent identical interrupted Poisson processes (IPP). In order to obtain a balance between the accuracy and the complexity of analysis, the authors propose to approximate an IPP, a basic component of various models, by a Poisson distribution and use the Chen-Stein (1975, 1972) method to find an upper bound of this approximation error. >
An Overview of U.S. Farm Real Estate Markets

This paper offers an overview of U.S. farm real estate markets. Major uses of land, location of farm real estate, and ownership patterns are summarized. Characteristics of participants in farm real markets are reviewed. Farm real estate values and rents examined, and factors affecting farm real estate values are reviewed, including the effects of conversion of farm real estate to other uses. Finally, historic returns to farmland owners are summarized.
Solubility and Phase Stability in Ordered Intermetallics

Structural and thermomechanical properties which include lattice constants, bulk moduli, Debye temperatures, and Gruneisen constants for the elements and ordered compounds can be obtained accurately using total energy electronic structure calculations within the local density approximation. Examples of these calculations are given using the linearized muffin tin orbital method (LMTO) for the Nb-Ru and Ru-Zr binary systems. Volume dependent pair- and many-body chemical interactions are extracted from the total energy results. These are used with the cluster variation method (CVM) to calculate the solid state equilibrium phase diagram by incorporating local volume relaxation and vibrational free energy using the Debye-Gruneisen approximation.
Theory of nonlinearities and pulse asymmetry in high density tape recording

The mechanisms of pulse asymmetry and nonlinearities in dibit recording have been analyzed by numerical simulation. Well-oriented longitudinal tape media were modeled by 2D discretization and subsequent iteration including distributions in particle orientations and intrinsic switching fields. Typical head-medium spacing was included as well as imaging of the demagnetization fields by the record head. Isolated transitions and dibits were recorded utilizing head fields typical of high-density recording. Characteristic isolated pulse asymmetry is shown to be due predominantly to the demagnetization fields during the write process which substantially shifts the phase of magnetization transitions with depth into the medium. In dibit recording with optimum or greater record currents, the second transition is shown to yield a larger playback voltage than that predicted by linear superposition. >
The Inhibition of Beef Liver Glutamic Dehydrogenase by Metal-binding Agents*

Crystalline preparations of the glutamic dehydrogenase of beef liver contain from 2 to 4 gm. atoms of zinc per mole of enzyme protein (1). The dependence of the catalytic activity of glutamic dehydrogenase on the metal is inferred from (a) the concomitant increase of zinc to protein and activity to protein ratios during its crystallization and (b) the inhibition of enzyme activity by agents which form stable complexes with zinc ions in aqueous solutions. In this report the inhibition of glutamic dehydrogenase by metal-binding agents, including 1, IO-phenanthroline, is shown to depend on the ability of these agents to form a complex with zinc ions and to be qualitatively similar to that observed with yeast alcohol dehydrogenase, another zinc metallobehydrogenase. A mechanism for the inhibition of glutamic dehydrogenase by metal-binding agents similar to that observed for another zinc metallodehydrogenase, yeast alcohol dehydrogenase, (2, 3) is proposed, although glutamic dehydrogenase differs from alcohol dehydrogenase both with respect to the reaction it catalyzes and its protein size and structure.
Iatrogenic Meningitis: The Case for Face Masks

Most cases of a-hemolytic streptococcal meningitis after lumbar puncture (LP) are likely caused by dispersal of the organism from the upper airway of medical personnel. Its incidence can be reduced by strict adherence to sterile technique, including wearing a face mask while performing lumbar punctures. Should the wearing of a mask for lumbar punctures be the national standard of care?
The U.S. Physician Workforce: Serious Questions Raised, Answers Needed

In this issue, Cooper argues that the United States will have 200 000 fewer physicians than needed in 2020. Demographic and economic trends could increase the demand for physician services, but his...
Standardised criteria for ECG interpretation in athletes: a practical tool

Cardiovascular-related sudden death is the leading cause of mortality in athletes during sport.1 The majority of disorders associated with increased risk of sudden cardiac death (SCD), such as cardiomyopathies and primary electrical diseases, are suggested by abnormal findings present on an ECG. ECG interpretation in athletes requires careful analysis to properly distinguish physiological changes related to athlete's heart from findings suggestive of an underlying pathological cardiac condition. Whether used for the diagnostic evaluation of cardiovascular-related symptoms, a family history of inheritable cardiac disease or SCD, or for screening of asymptomatic athletes, ECG interpretation is an important skill for physicians involved in the cardiovascular care of athletes. The purpose of this short report is to guide the clinician on the use of a two-page ECG criteria tool (Appendix, pages i7–i8 ). The science underpinning this instrument has been reported2 and demonstrates that providing standardised criteria to assist ECG interpretation in athletes significantly improves accuracy to distinguish normal from abnormal findings across physician specialties, even in physicians with little or no experience. The first page of the criteria tool consists of two tables. Table 1 lists each individual ECG criterion that should be considered abnormal, unrelated to athletic …
Amplification of extracellular nucleotide-induced leukocyte (S) degranulation by contingent autocrine and paracrine mode of leukotriene mediated chemokine receptor activation ☆

Extracellular nucleotide-induced stimulation and activation of peripheral blood leukocytes and subsequent degranulation play a critical role in immediate-type hypersensitivity reaction and other inflammatory diseases. The extracellular nucleotides stimulate a P2Y receptor(s) on human PMN with the pharmacological profile similar to that of the P2Y2 receptor. Upon activation of P2Y2, arachidonic acid, formed from the membrane bound lipids by phospholipase A2, which subsequently metabolized by 5-lipoxygenase to form the leukotrienes. Of the several leukotrienes generated, LTB(4) is a potent pro-inflammatory chemokine. Upon its release LTB(4) binds to the PMN in a paracrine manner and also other leukocytes such as monocytes at the site of vascular injury, leading to an accelerated rate of degranulation. It is known that LTA(4) formed in the 5-lipoxygenase pathway in PMN could be released from PMN by receptor-mediated transport. Upon its release, the monocytes, erythrocytes, platelet, endothelial or smooth muscle cells can take up LTA(4). The endogenous LTA(4) hydrolase form the LTB(4) from LTA(4) in erythrocytes, platelet, endothelial or smooth muscle cells. As in PMN, LTB(4) is released from these cells via receptor-mediated transport to the extracellular milieu. Thus, released LTB(4) most likely acts as potentially accelerating factor in PMN and MN degranulation through its receptor-specific binding. It is not known whether any LTB(4) receptor exists in cytoplasm in any given cell type and also, the existence of any other signaling cascade for the extracellular nucleotide-induced leukocyte degranulation. Thus, it is convincing that the extracellular nucleotides released from the activated platelets and other damaged cell types exacerbate the inflammatory response by leukotriene generation. In turn the leukotriene will act in both autocrine and paracrine manner to amplify the degranulation processes in leukocytes invoked by extracellular nucleotides.
Disorganized Attachment in Adulthood: Theory, Measurement, and Implications for Romantic Relationships

Disorganized attachment has been studied extensively in the developmental attachment literature, particularly with regard to infants and children. It has not been studied from a social psychologica...
Platelet, hemodynamic, and respiratory changes in shock, sepsis, and trauma.

Increasing experimental and clinical evidence suggests that platelet aggregates play an important role in the hemodynamic and respiratory changes occurring in shock, sepsis, and trauma. The purpose of this paper is to present some experimental and clinical data from the Wayne State University School of Medicine supporting this view.
Ultralow Density, Monolithic WS2, MoS2, and MoS2/Graphene Aerogels

We describe the synthesis and characterization of monolithic, ultralow density WS2 and MoS2 aerogels, as well as a high surface area MoS2/graphene hybrid aerogel. The monolithic WS2 and MoS2 aerogels are prepared via thermal decomposition of freeze-dried ammonium thio-molybdate (ATM) and ammonium thio-tungstate (ATT) solutions, respectively. The densities of the pure dichalcogenide aerogels represent 0.4% and 0.5% of full density MoS2 and WS2, respectively, and can be tailored by simply changing the initial ATM or ATT concentrations. Similar processing in the presence of the graphene aerogel results in a hybrid structure with MoS2 sheets conformally coating the graphene scaffold. This layered motif produces a ∼50 wt % MoS2 aerogel with BET surface area of ∼700 m(2)/g and an electrical conductivity of 112 S/m. The MoS2/graphene aerogel shows promising results as a hydrogen evolution reaction catalyst with low onset potential (∼100 mV) and high current density (100 mA/cm(2) at 260 mV).