cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Effect of different uplink and downlink range mod indices on PRN range accuracy

Pseudorandom noise (PRN) sequences are used to provide a means to measure the ranging distance between a ground station and a satellite. Satellite Ground Link System (SGLS), Global Positioning System (GPS), and some radars are some of the examples that make use of PRN sequences. PRN ranging also provides a certain level of immunity to narrowband interference. The basic procedure involves transmitting a long binary PRN sequence, and measuring the time between its transmission and reception. A PRN ranging system will typically measure the propagation time by performing correlation of the received sequence with the locally generated sequence. A simple equation is used to convert that propagation time value to an accurate range. The length of the PRN sequence determines the maximum unambiguous distance that can be measured, while the code rate and code signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) or sometimes ranging code power-to-noise density ratio (C/No) determine the ranging accuracy. Typically a delay lock loop is used to measure the propagation delay. The SNR in the correlation receiver tracking loop bandwidth determines the phase error variance which is the range measurement accuracy. The SNR is a function of both the signal and noise power at the receiver, and the range signal power is a function of range modulation index. Normally the range mod indices are related through the turnaround ratio for the uplink and the downlink when the range signal is a coherent signal in SGLS. Range mod indices on the up- and downlinks can be different. This is more frequently found on new satellites with the need to have different uplink and downlink range mod indices to improve the link margin and the ranging accuracy, and also to reduce the interference such as from the command echo and intermodulation (IM) signals. In this paper the effect of different uplink and downlink range modulation indices on the achievable range accuracy is presented along with the details of the equations developed.
The Real Effects of Mandatory Non-Financial Disclosures in Financial Statements

We examine the real effects of mandatory disclosures on social responsibility, which require SEC-registered mine owners to include their mine-safety records in their financial reports. These safety records are already publicly available elsewhere, which allows us to examine the incremental effects of including information in financial reports. Comparing mines owned by SEC-registered issuers to mines that are not, we document that including safety records in financial reports decreases mining-related citations and injuries by 11% and 13%, respectively, and reduces labor productivity by approximately 0.9%. Additional evidence suggests that the inclusion in financial reports, rather than unobservable factors associated with regulatory intervention, drives these effects. We also provide evidence that feedback effects from equity markets are a mechanism through which the dissemination of information through financial reports leads to real effects. Overall, our results illustrate that including information on social responsibility in financial reports can have economically significant real effects — even if that information is also disclosed elsewhere.
The Duty to Avoid Wrongful Convictions: A Thought Experiment in the Regulation of Prosecutors

This Article explores the possible role of the attorney disciplinary process in discouraging prosecutorial conduct that contributes to false convictions. It asks what the impact would be, for better or worse, of disciplining prosecutors for incompetence when they fail to exercise reasonable care to prevent the conviction of the innocent. The inquiry provides a new vehicle for thinking about the nature of the disciplinary process, the work of prosecutors, the challenge of preventing erroneous convictions and, ultimately, the complexities of prosecutorial regulation. The Article demonstrates that it would be plausible to interpret the attorney competence rule as encompassing prosecutorial negligence and identifies various potential benefits of doing so. But the Article also identifies and analyzes significant normative and institutional objections that might be raised. The Article concludes that there are serious problems with employing the competence rule as proposed and that these problems are inherent in the use of discipline to regulate prosecutors. This analysis suggests that the historical under-utilization of discipline in regulating prosecutors may not result exclusively from insufficient resources or a lack of will on the part of disciplinary regulators, as some have argued. The Article's illustration of the inherent limitations of the disciplinary process highlights the need for renewed attention to alternative regulatory processes. These include civil liability, which currently is foreclosed by prosecutorial immunity doctrines, and more robust internal regulation.
On the Use of Probabilistic Uncertain Rewards on Crowdfunding Platforms: The Case of the Lottery

Crowdfunding aims to collect small investments from a large number of backers to support a project by fundraisers. Although uncertainty has been an important issue in the reward-based crowdfunding literature, there is limited research on how backers respond to probabilistic uncertain rewards. This study examines how backers respond to the lottery—a type of uncertain rewards—and how their motivations may shape their responses to probabilistic uncertain rewards. We hypothesize (1) how backers respond to probabilistic uncertain rewards, (2) how these effects vary over time, and (3) how backer motivations moderate their response to probabilistic uncertain rewards. We empirically test our set of hypotheses using data collected from a reward-based crowdfunding platform in China. First, the results from project-level analysis show that, although the lottery does help to attract a higher number of backers on a crowdfunding project, the lottery also reduces the total money raised by the project, and thus the probability of reaching its funding goal. Specifically, while the lottery incentivizes individuals who would otherwise not fund the project to become (small) lottery backers, it also cannibalizes regular prospective rewardees and donors by encouraging them to opt for the (cheaper) lottery option. Second, both the incentivizing and the cannibalizing effects of the lottery are stronger in the earlier stages of a project’s fundraising cycle. Third, our individual backer-level analysis shows that the lottery has larger effects on backers with higher prior tendencies to be donors than rewardees. Our study theoretically contributes to three streams of literature—crowdfunding, decision-making under uncertainty, and the lottery. From a practical standpoint, our study informs (a) fundraisers on how to design strategies to attract the right type of backers and (b) crowdfunding platform owners on how to leverage the lottery as a type of uncertain rewards in crowdfunding platforms.
The Quest for Stability: Structural Dependence of Rh(111) on Oxygen Coverage at Elevated Temperature

Recent studies have shown the importance of oxide surfaces in heterogeneously catalyzed reactions. Because of the difficulties in reproducibly preparing oxidized metal surfaces, it is often unclear what species are thermodynamically stable and what factors effect the oxide formation process. In this work, we show that the thermodynamically stable phases on Rh(111) after exposure to atomic oxygen are the (2×1)-O adlayer and the trilayer surface oxide, RhO2. Formation of RhO2 was facilitated by surface defects and elevated concentrations of dissolved O atoms in the subsurface region. As the concentration of subsurface O atoms decreased, the coverage of RhO2 decreased so that only the (2×1)-O adlayer was present on the surface. The importance of subsurface oxygen species in RhO2 formation and stability indicates a complex relationship between surface structure and subsurface oxygen concentration.
Plasma Extracellular Vesicles Enriched for Neuronal Origin: A Potential Window into Brain Pathologic Processes.

Our team has been a pioneer in harvesting extracellular vesicles (EVs) enriched for neuronal origin from peripheral blood and using them as a biomarker discovery platform for neurological disorders. This methodology has demonstrated excellent diagnostic and predictive performance for Alzheimer’s and other neurodegenerative diseases in multiple studies, providing a strong proof of concept for this approach. Here, we describe our methodology in detail and offer further evidence that isolated EVs are enriched for neuronal origin. In addition, we present evidence that EVs enriched for neuronal origin represent a more sensitive and accurate base for biomarkers than plasma, serum or non-enriched total plasma EVs. Finally, we proceed to investigate the protein content of EV enriched for neuronal origin and compare it with other relevant enriched and non-enriched populations of plasma EVs. Neuronal-origin enriched plasma EVs contain higher levels of signaling molecules of great interest for cellular metabolism, survival, and repair, which may be useful as biomarkers and to follow response to therapeutic interventions in a mechanism-specific manner.
Risk Management and Medical Malpractice

Medical malpractice claims are common and may be emotionally difficult for physicians. Most malpractice suits claim negligence. The most frequent types of claims include failure or delay in diagnosis, negligent treatment with drugs, failure to obtain consultation, failure to obtain informed consent, and negligent management of procedures. The most important risk-management strategy is the provision of good medical care. If a claim is filed, physicians should cooperate fully with the malpractice insurance carrier and refrain from discussing the case with colleagues.
L-citrulline supplementation: Impact on cardiometabolic health

Diminished bioavailability of nitric oxide (NO), the gaseous signaling molecule involved in the regulation of numerous vital biological functions, contributes to the development and progression of multiple age- and lifestyle-related diseases. While l-arginine is the precursor for the synthesis of NO by endothelial-nitric oxide synthase (eNOS), oral l-arginine supplementation is largely ineffective at increasing NO synthesis and/or bioavailability for a variety of reasons. l-citrulline, found in high concentrations in watermelon, is a neutral alpha-amino acid formed by enzymes in the mitochondria that also serves as a substrate for recycling l-arginine. Unlike l-arginine, l-citrulline is not quantitatively extracted from the gastrointestinal tract (i.e., enterocytes) or liver and its supplementation is therefore more effective at increasing l-arginine levels and NO synthesis. Supplementation with l-citrulline has shown promise as a blood pressure lowering intervention (both resting and stress-induced) in adults with pre-/hypertension, with pre-clinical (animal) evidence for atherogenic-endothelial protection. Preliminary evidence is also available for l-citrulline-induced benefits to muscle and metabolic health (via vascular and non-vascular pathways) in susceptible/older populations. In this review, we examine the impact of supplementing this important urea cycle intermediate on cardiovascular and metabolic health outcomes and identify future directions for investigating its therapeutic impact on cardiometabolic health.
Preconditioning in the Rhesus Macaque Induces a Proteomic Signature Following Cerebral Ischemia that Is Associated with Neuroprotection

Each year, thousands of patients are at risk of cerebral ischemic injury, due to iatrogenic responses to surgical procedures. Prophylactic treatment of these patients as standard care could minimize potential neurological complications. We have shown that protection of brain tissue, in a non-human primate model of cerebral ischemic injury, is possible through pharmacological preconditioning using the immune activator D192935. We postulate that preconditioning with D192935 results in neuroprotective reprogramming that is evident in the brain following experimentally induced cerebral ischemia. We performed quantitative proteomic analysis of cerebral spinal fluid (CSF) collected post-stroke from our previously published efficacy study to determine whether CSF protein profiles correlated with induced protection. Four groups of animals were examined: naive animals (no treatment or stroke); animals treated with vehicle prior to stroke; D192935 treated and stroked animals, further delineated into two groups, ones that were protected (small infarcts) and those that were not protected (large infarcts). We found that distinct protein clusters defined the protected and non-protected animal groups, with a 16-member cluster of proteins induced exclusively in D192935 protected animals. Seventy percent of the proteins induced in the protected animals have functions that would enhance neuroprotection and tissue repair, including several members associated with M2 macrophages, a macrophage phenotype shown to contribute to neuroprotection and repair during ischemic injury. These studies highlight the translational importance of CSF biomarkers in defining mechanism and monitoring responses to treatment in development of stroke therapeutics.
Development of a small molecule inhibitors of replication protein A and its role in nucleotide excision repair and DNA replication

5006 The human single-stranded DNA binding protein, replication protein A (RPA), is essential for DNA repair and DNA replication. RPA is a viable target in the treatment of cancer as many chemotherapeutic agents act by blocking DNA replication. Furthermore, inhibition of RPA and its role in DNA repair could prove useful in treating cancers that have acquired resistance to DNA damaging agents through enhanced DNA repair mechanisms, as has been observed with certain cisplatin resistant carcinomas. In an effort to identify inhibitors of RPA, we established a homogeneous high-throughput screening assay to measure RPA’s DNA binding activity. Using this assay, we initiated a large scale screening effort of the DTP library of pure and synthetic compounds. Following initial screening, secondary assays were performed using an electrophoretic mobility shift assay, fluorescence polarization analyses and in vitro NER catalyzed excision of a single cisplatin-lesion in a duplex DNA. The identification and development of potential lead compounds and structure/activity relationships will be presented. The identification and use of RPA inhibitors may aid in inhibiting NER activity, which could potentially circumvent resistance to certain chemotherapeutic agents, as well as be useful in the characterization of RPA and its interaction with DNA.
Changes in Arrest Patterns of Buyers and Sellers of Commercial Sex: An Interrupted Time-Series Analysis

Although the commercial sex trade consists of three distinct parties—buyers, sellers, and facilitators—sellers are the most likely to be criminalized for their role in prostitution. In 2015, the Texas state legislature passed Senate Bill (S.B.) 825. This bill created separate offense codes for buyers and sellers of commercial sex. Prior to this, buyers and sellers were legally indistinguishable from each other under Texas law. Legally distinguishing buyers from sellers recognizes that different roles exist within the commercial sex trade, and serves as a necessary prerequisite for creating divergent pathways for individuals in these roles (e.g., targeting buyers with criminal sanctions, but providing sellers with access to victim services and diversion programs). This study examined whether S.B. 825 was associated with a shift in the number of buyers and sellers arrested for prostitution in Harris County, Texas. Findings revealed that the enactment of S.B. 825 corresponded with an increase in the number of prostitution arrests buyers accounted for, and an observable decrease in the number of prostitution arrests sellers accounted for. These changes remained relatively stable over a one-year period after the bill took effect.
An Experiment on Diversification and Path Dependence

In an experiment where subjects can allocate their wealth between cash and two risky assets, we analyze path-dependent portfolio choices. The experiment is designed to isolate cases where subjects ...
Quantitative hematocrit measurement of whole blood in a point-of-care lateral flow device using a smartphone flow tracking app

Abstract We present a rapid and quantitative point-of-care (PoC) system based on a smartphone application that is capable of accurately tracking the flow of red blood cells (RBCs) through a no-reaction lateral flow assay (nrLFA) device. Utilizing only the camera feed from the smartphone and built-in image processing, the nrLFA is identified and RBC fluid flow distances and rates are recorded in parallel with the test without the need of any custom hardware or enclosure. We demonstrated the application by first measuring and then calculating hematocrit (Hct) values of whole blood samples with nominal content of 28%, 35%, 40%, and 45% Hct on the nrLFA platform. The PoC system was able to accurately measure (to within 1% Hct of nominal values) whole blood Hct in ~10–20 s after sample dispensing.
Probability, Lawrence M. Leemis. Lighting Source, La Vergne, TN, 2017, 566 pp., $45.00, ISBN: 978-0982917473

The book covers probability, and mostly distribution models, for undergraduate students who have learned courses in multivariate calculus and linear algebra. Together with another book by the same ...
Dielectric Transfer Process for 3D Printed Metal Microsystems

This paper deals with the fabrication and unconstrained dielectric transfer of 3D printed metal components demonstrated using an electrostatic micro switch. The use of micro laser sintering (MLS) to print micro-electro-mechanical systems (MEMS) enables a new MEMS fabrication capability able to bypass conventional high-cost fabrication processes for low-volume prototypes. To demonstrate the above mentioned technology, this paper presents the fabrication of a one-piece 3D printed metal component consisting of electrodes and sacrificial metal frames from bronze powder. A method to transfer this component onto the target substrate, removal of sacrificial metal frame for electrical isolation, electrostatic device actuation, and characterization of the dielectric isolation are presented in detail. [2020-0162]
Rationing Crisis: Bogus Standards of Care Unmasked by Covid-19.

After the spectacular failure to apply acceptable triage methods to evacuate patients from a flooded Memorial Hospital during Hurricane Katrina, preparedness planning was intensified (Fink 2013). R...
Geminivirus structure and assembly

The geminivirus capsid architecture is unique and built from twinned pseudo T=1 icosahedrons with 110 copies of the coat protein (CP). The CP is multifunctional. It performs various functions during the infection of a wide range of agriculturally important plant hosts. The CP multimerizes via pentameric intermediates during assembly and encapsulates the ssDNA genome to generate the unique capsid morphology. The virus capsid protects and transports the genome in the insect vector and plant host enroute to the plant nucleus for replication and the production of progeny. This review further explores CP:CP and CP:DNA interactions, and the environmental conditions that govern the assembly of the geminivirus capsid. This analysis was facilitated by new data available for the family, including three-dimensional structures and molecular biology data for several members. In addition, current and promising new control strategies of plant crop infection, which can lead to starvation for subsistence farmers, are discussed.
The Riesz energy of the Nth roots of unity: an asymptotic expansion for large N

We derive the complete asymptotic expansion in terms of powers of N for the Riesz s-energy of N equally spaced points on the unit circle as N →∞. For s ≥ −2, such points form optimal energy N -point configurations with respect to the Riesz potential 1/r, s 6= 0, where r is the Euclidean distance between points. By analytic continuation we deduce the expansion for all complex values of s. The Riemann zeta function plays an essential role in this asymptotic expansion.
Contact Localization using Velocity Constraints

Localizing contacts and collisions is an important aspect of failure detection and recovery for robots and can aid perception and exploration of the environment. Contrary to state-of-the-art methods that rely on forces and torques measured on the robot, this paper proposes a kinematic method for proprioceptive contact localization on compliant robots using velocity measurements. The method is validated on two planar robots, the quadrupedal Minitaur and the two-fingered Direct Drive (DD) Hand which are compliant due to inherent transparency from direct drive actuation. Comparisons to other state-of-the-art proprioceptive methods are shown in simulation. Preliminary results on further extensions to complex geometry (through numerical methods) and spatial robots (with a particle filter) are discussed.
geoChronR - an R package to model, analyze, and visualize age-uncertain data

Abstract. Chronological uncertainty is a hallmark of the paleoenvironmental sciences and geosciences. While many tools have been made available to researchers to quantify age uncertainties suitable for various settings and assumptions, disparate tools and output formats often discourage integrative approaches. In addition, associated tasks like propagating age-model uncertainties to subsequent analyses, and visualizing the results, have received comparatively little attention in the literature and available software. Here, we describe geoChronR, an open-source R package to facilitate these tasks. geoChronR is built around an emerging data standard (Linked PaleoData, or LiPD) and offers access to four popular age-modeling techniques (Bacon, BChron, OxCal, BAM). The output of these models is used to conduct ensemble data analysis, quantifying the impact of chronological uncertainties on common analyses like correlation, regression, principal component, and spectral analyses by repeating the analysis across a large collection of plausible age models. We present five real-world use cases to illustrate how geoChronR may be used to facilitate these tasks, visualize the results in intuitive ways, and store the results for further analysis, promoting transparency and reusability.
Company-Specific Revenues From Underage Drinking

Objective: Alcohol is the most commonly used illegal drug among U.S. high school students. This study aimed to estimate the proportion of drinks and sales revenue accruing to alcoholic beverage com...
Motivations and Mode-choice Behavior of Micromobility Users in Washington, DC

The COVID-19 pandemic has reduced travel in general and disrupted travel patterns across the United States. The transit and ridehailing service ridership are particularly severely impacted. After an initial dip, shared micromobility services, including bikeshare, e-scooters, and e-bikeshare, have gained popularity as social distancing promoters with fewer points of contact. The findings of this article are based on the first phase of a two-phase mixed-mode survey of users and non-users of micromobility in Washington DC (n=440) in the Summer of 2019. While the phase-2 of the study is impacted by COVID-19 prevalence, results from the phase-1 are expected to serve as a critical baseline for post-pandemic travel behavior analysis and policy design. Findings indicate that each micromobility mode caters to different trip purposes and trip lengths of riders. While pleasure and time are identified as the biggest motivator for users, safety and pricing remain the most prominent barriers to users and non-users. Women and ethnic groups prefer to stay unimodal. Young and low-income users tend to be multimodal in their micromobility usage.
Investors’ information sharing and use in virtual communities

Research demonstrates that information disseminated and circulated in online forums may have a significant impact on investors and on the securities market, so an understanding of that environment is critical. This article reports on an analysis of information sharing and use in three investment discussion forums. Threads containing 1,787 posts were coded using previously developed typologies for Internet-based discussion. Citations were studied in their context and sources were categorized into types. A high degree of collaborative information behavior was identified, but the study also reveals some areas of information use that may compromise investors’ decision making, including heavy reliance on personal sources of information and other sources that vary greatly in trustworthiness, including commercially sponsored information, blogs, and investor guru sites. These challenges are discussed and recommendations are made for improving services to investors. Questions for additional research are also identified. © 2013 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.
Edentulism Trends among Middle-aged and Older Adults in the United States: Comparison of Five Racial/Ethnic Groups

Wu B, Liang J, Plassman BL, Remle C, Luo X. Edentulism trends among middle-aged and older adults in the United States: comparison of five racial ⁄ethnic groups. Community Dent Oral Epidemiol 2012; 40: 145-153. � 2011 John Wiley & Sons A ⁄S Abstract - Objectives: This study examined edentulism trends among adults aged 50 and above in five ethnic groups in the United States: Asians, African Americans, Hispanics, Native Americans, and non-Hispanic Caucasians. Methods: Data came from the National Health Interview Surveys between 1999 and 2008. Respondents included 616 Native Americans, 2,666 Asians, 15,295 African Americans, 13,068 Hispanics, and 86,755 Caucasians. Results: In 2008, Native Americans had the highest predicated rate of edentulism (23.98%), followed by African Americans (19.39%), Caucasians (16.90%), Asians (14.22%), and Hispanics (14.18%). Overall, there was a significant downward trend in edentulism rates between 1999 and 2008 (OR = 0.97, 95% CI: 0.96, 0.98). However, compared with Caucasians, Native Americans showed a significantly less decline of edentulism during this period (OR = 1.10, 95% CI: 1.02, 1.19). Conclusions: While there was a downward trend in edentulism between 1999 and 2008, significant variations existed across racial ⁄ethnic groups. Innovative public health programs and services are essential to prevent oral health diseases and conditions for minority populations who lack access to adequate dental care. Additionally, given the increasing numbers of adults retaining their natural teeth, interventions designed to assist individuals in maintaining healthy teeth becomes more critical.
Abstract T P253: A Quality Improvement Project to Improve Stroke Assessment Adherence for Patients After Surgical or Interventional Radiology Intervention

Objective: The Joint Commission (TJC) Comprehensive Stroke Center (CSC) certification includes the standard that hospitals must use processes based upon clinical practice guidelines (CPGs) or evidence-based practice to facilitate the delivery of clinical care, including patients admitted directly from the Operating Room or Interventional Radiology. Included in this standard is the requirement that assessment and documentation post-procedure be consistent with selected CPGs. This project was designed to improve assessment and documentation adherence at a single academic hospital. Methods: Using Plan-Do-Study-Act (PDSA) quality improvement methodology, a multidisciplinary team was created to identify ways to improve compliance for required assessments when recovering a patient. The team reviewed current policies, guidelines, and order sets related to post procedure assessments. Comparison of pre-intervention and post-intervention adherence to charting standards was performed. Pre-intervention patients included a review of 4 records by TJC CSC reviewers during their on-site visit. Each patient had insufficient documentation; therefore, the institution was cited in this area. Post-intervention patients were prospectively identified. A Neuro ICU Self-Audit Tool was created to identify patients, remind staff of required assessments, and serve as a self-audit tool affirming their adherence to the guideline. Additional interventions included education (via email, poster in-services, staff meeting updates, and one-on-one teaching) for Neuro ICU nurses. A Post Cerebral Arteriography order set was created and the electronic health record modified to make it easier to document assessments. Results: Compliance improved to 98% in 4 consecutive months. 100% of cases were reviewed by the primary and charge nurses. 10% of cases were reviewed by the stroke program data analyst to ensure accuracy and inter rater reliability. Outliers were reviewed by the stroke leadership team and feedback given to unit nursing leadership and the nurse. Conclusions: Improvement of adherence to post-procedure assessments is possible using the PDSA methodology. The success of this project allowed this hospital to achieve its TJC CSC certification.
Behavioral Legal Ethics

Complaints about lawyers’ ethics are commonplace. While it is surely the case that some attorneys deliberately choose to engage in misconduct, psychological research suggests a more complex story. Iit is not only “bad apples” who are unethical. Instead, ethical lapses can occur more easily and less intentionally than we might imagine. In this paper, we examine the ethical “blind spots,” slippery slopes, and “ethical fading” that may lead good people to behave badly. We then explore specific aspects of legal practice that can present particularly difficult challenges for lawyers given the nature of behavioral ethics - complex and ambiguous ethical rules and standards, agency relationships, the ethos of the adversarial system, the financial and temporal pressures of modern legal practice, positions or feelings of relative status or power, and cues or pressure from others. The psychology we present provides substantial insight into why attorneys sometimes behave unethically, why attorneys may have difficulty curbing or reporting the unethical conduct of their clients or fellow attorneys, and why it is often difficult for attorneys to see and learn from their own ethical missteps and the missteps of others. At the same time, the psychological research also provides insight into why attorneys are often able to resist substantial pressure to act unethically. We draw on the psychological research to make suggestions for how individual attorneys and legal employers can enhance their approach to ethics.
The STRONGMAN architecture

The design principle of restricting local autonomy only where necessary for global robustness has led to a scalable Internet. Unfortunately, this scalability and capacity for distributed control has not been achieved in the mechanisms for specifying and enforcing security policies. This shortcoming must be overcome if end-to-end security mechanisms (such as IPsec or TLS) are to ever replace solutions of short-term convenience such as firewalls. The STRONGMAN (for Scalable Trust Of Next Generation Management) system offers three new approaches to scalability, applying the principle of local policy enforcement complying with global security policies. First is the use of a compliance checker to provide great local autonomy within the constraints of a global security policy. Second is a mechanism to compose policy rules into a coherent enforceable set, e.g. at the boundaries of two locally autonomous application domains. Third is the "lazy instantiation" of policies to reduce the amount of state that enforcement points need to maintain. We demonstrate the use of these approaches in the design, implementation, and measurements of a distributed firewall. Our experiments show that, under certain circumstances, performance can improve over the traditional-firewall approach.
Eastern equine encephalitis virus infection: electron microscopic studies of mouse central nervous system.

Abstract Eastern equine encephalitis (EEE) virus infection of the central nervous system of newborn mice was examined by light and electron microscopy. Initial changes in brain architecture were due to interstitial and perivascular edema formation; the resulting extracellular space increased throughout the course of infection. Neuronal damage consisted of disruption of cytoplasmic organization and terminated in crenation, vacuolation, and membrane breakdown. Virus nucleoids (28 nm in diameter) were formed in the cytoplasmic matrix of all types of brain cells except endothelium, and viral maturation took place via nucleoid budding primarily through plasma membranes. Virus particles were 55 nm in diameter and were similar in morphology to other group A arboviruses.
Self‐gravity wakes in Saturn's A ring measured by stellar occultations from Cassini

[1] An azimuthal brightness asymmetry in Saturn's A ring is caused by ephemeral agglomerations that continually form under the mutual gravity of the ring particles only to be torn apart by Keplerian shear. We calculate the shape and spacing of the self-gravity wakes from Cassini stellar occultations. The wakes are highly flatttened structures, with height/width ratio of 0.15 to 0.37, increasing outward across the A ring. The spacing between wakes increases with their height from a low value in the inner A ring of less than the wake width to >3 times the wake width in the outer third of the ring. The opacity of gaps between wakes also increases in the outer part of the ring where the wakes appear to be less coherent than in the inner and middle A ring. We calculate the vertical opacity of the A ring is 15–35% higher than previously reported.
Of bugs and brains

Bacterial Chemotaxis As a Model Behavioral System. By Daniel E. Koshland. Pp. 193. ISBN 0-89004-468-6. (Raven: 1981.) $19.50
Fluorescence and Circular Dichroism Spectroscopy of Cytochrome c in Alkylammonium Formate Ionic Liquids

The structural stability of cytochrome c has been studied in alkylammonium formate (AAF) ionic liquids such as methylammonium formate (MAF) and ethylammonium formate (EAF) by fluorescence and circular dichroism (CD) spectroscopy. At room temperature, the native structure of cytochrome c is maintained in relatively high ionic liquid concentrations (50-70% AAF/water or AAF/phosphate buffer pH 7.0) in contrast with denaturation of cytochrome c in similar solutions of methanol or acetonitrile with water or buffer cosolvents. Fluorescence and CD spectra indicate that the conformation of cytochrome c is maintained in 20% AAF-80% water from 30 to 50 °C. No such temperature stability is found in 80% AAF-20% water. About one-third of the enzyme activity of cytochrome c in 80% AAF-20% water can be maintained as compared with phosphate buffer, and this is greater than the activities measured in corresponding methanol and acetonitrile aqueous solutions. This biophysical study shows that AAFs have potential application as organic solvent replacements at moderate temperature in the mobile phase for the separation of proteins in their native form by reversed phase liquid chromatography.
Fracture studies in rubber‐modified acrylics. I. Experimental method: Design of sandwich‐tapered double‐cantilever beam cleavage specimens

Double-cantilever beam cleavage specimens are very useful in characterizing the fracture behavior of isotropic, homogeneous, brittle, and semibrittle polymers. However, until this time they have not been used for ductile materials such as rubber-modified polymers or polycarbonates because of excessive yielding or breakage of the specimen arms before crack propagation can occur. In order to make it possible to measure the fracture surface work of these materials, a new sandwich cleavage specimen was developed by bonding rigid reinforcement plates to both sides of the specimen sheet. With this sandwich-tapered double-cantilever beam cleavage specimen, one can create conditions under which controlled crack propagation through tough ductile materials and measurement of the fracture surface work–two previously unobtainable results–are readily determined. In this paper, the design and construction of the sandwich specimens, test procedure, and the data analysis will be discussed in detail.
Response to Farjoun's ‘Strategy making, novelty, and analogical reasoning — commentary on Gavetti, Levinthal, and Rivkin (2005)’

In his thoughtful commentary on our 2005 paper (Gavetti, Levinthal, and Rivkin, 2005), Farjoun offers three critiques and extensions. First, he suggests our approach should have explicitly considered a constructionist logic. Second, Farjoun argues that we have neglected the full array of modes of cognition between rational choice and feedback-based adaptive learning and have therefore overstated the role of our focal mode, reasoning by analogy. Third, he highlights some of the contingencies under which the various modes of cognition he identifies are effective. In response, we address each point. We first argue that a constructionist perspective is not alien either to the role of analogical reasoning or to the particular modeling apparatus we have developed. We then suggest that despite the richness of modes of cognition that lie between rational choice and adaptive learning, theorizing about them requires simplification and the identification of underlying categories that classify such modes, which is the approach our paper employs. Finally, we clarify how our paper adopts the contingent logic advocated by Farjoun. Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Circulating antibodies in vitamin deficiency states; pantothenic acid and pyridoxine deficiencies.

Summary1. Rats immunized while receiving a complete diet maintained high serum antibody titers during a protracted period of time in which either pantothenic acid or pyridoxine was removed from the diet. 2. Subcutaneous administration of aqueous adrenal cortical extract either immediately following each antigen injection or 3 weeks after immunization was ineffective in increasing the serum antibody titers of either pantothenic acid-deficient rats or their inanition controls. 3. Administration of massive doses of pantothenic acid or pyridoxine to rats immunized while in a corresponding vitamin deficiency state produced only a very gradual increase in serum antibody titers. Relatively normal levels were reached approximately two months after vitamin repletion. 4. These findings suggest that pantothenic acid and pyridoxine function in the processes of antibody synthesis.
Causes of Low Breeding Efficiency in Dairy Cattle Associated with Seasonal High Temperatures

Summary Evidence is presented which indicates that a low rate of fertilization and a high rate of embryonic mortality are the major factors causing the low seasonal breeding efficiency associated with high ambient temperature and humidity in lactating dairy cows. Changes in environmental temperature and humidity affecting breeding results correspond closely to the time of breeding, indicating that this is probably the critical period that fertility is affected. There was no evidence that nonfertile services associated with the high climatic temperature had any influence on the success of subsequent services. Not only were there more long estrous cycles (those exceeding 26 days) following nonfertile service during the months of high ambient temperatures, but the prolonged cycles were significantly longer than those occurring during the other months.
An Investigation of Liquid Droplet Evaporation Model Used in Multiphase Flow Simulation

Modeling liquid droplet evaporation in a flow stream is very important in many engineering applications. It was discovered that the result of predicted droplet and main flow temperatures from using commercial codes sometimes presents unexplainable phenomena; for example, the droplet temperature drops too low. The objective of this study is to investigate the issues involved in the built-in droplet evaporation model by using three different approaches: (a) use the existing built-in correlations model in a commercial code, (b) use the lumped analytical analysis, and (c) actually solve the heat and mass transfer by directly using CFD without employing the built-in correlation model. In the third approach, the evaporation process is simulated by imposing water evaporation in a very thin layer at the surface of a stagnant water droplet; in the meantime, the evaporation energy is subtracted from the same place. This is performed by imposing a positive mass source term and a negative energy source term in a thin layer of cells wrapping around the droplet surface. The transport equations are then solved using the commercial CFD solver Ansys/Fluent to track the mass and energy transfer across the shell sides into the liquid droplet and out to the ambient. Unlike the built-in evaporation model in commercial codes, which assumes that all the evaporation energy (latent heat) is supplied by the droplet, in the direct CFD calculation, the evaporation energy is absorbed partly from the droplet and partly from the surrounding air according to the natural process based on the property values and the heat and mass transfer resistance inside and outside the droplet. The direct CFD result (without using evaporation correlation) is consistent with that of the lumped analytical analysis (2nd approach). During the development of the direct CFD calculation, several technical difficulties are overcome and discussed in detail in this paper. A revised equation is proposed to improve the existing built-in model in the current commercial code. Both the direct CFD method and the zero-dimensional lumped method show the droplet temperature always increases.Copyright © 2012 by ASME
Equatorial Wave-Mean Flow Interaction: The Long Rossby Waves

Abstract The interaction of long equatorial Rossby waves with mean zonal currents in the ocean is investigated in a continuously stratified finite difference numerical model. The model allows for realistic specification of the mean state including both vertical and meridional shear of the mean flow. In addition to changing of wave scales expected from slowly varying wave theory, the effect of strongly sheared mean flows is to cause strong scattering of wave energy. This scattering can cause large structural and dispersional changes to the wave solutions. As a result, for realistic mean flows, wave energy input near the equator appears at higher latitudes and a shadow zone occurs below the Equatorial Undercurrent in the near equatorial zone. The lateral shear of the undercurrent also causes subundercurrent equatorial focusing of wave energy input at higher latitudes. Results for westward flow show that changes in resonant phase speeds and wave structures can be very large. Due to the scattering nature of r...
Numerical simulation of metallic powder flow in a coaxial nozzle for the laser aided deposition process

Abstract Laser aided deposition process offers the ability to make a metal component directly from CAD drawings. Analysis of metallic powder flow in the feeding system is of particular significance to researchers in order to optimize this technique. Powder flow simulation holds a critical role in understanding flow phenomenon so as to ensure proper design and sound functionality of the coaxial nozzle. Numerical study of metallic powder flow in the coaxial nozzle for laser aided deposition is, however, barely existent. This is partially because not all of gas-atomized powders and none of water-atomised powders can be considered spheres and an accurate and economic modeling approach in describing non-spherical powder dispersion behavior can rarely be seen. To quickly simulate realistic powder flow and also meet the practical requirement for design optimization of the coaxial nozzle, a stochastic model, which considers particle shape effects, is developed. The validity of the model is demonstrated through comparison with experiment. The application of the model to the evaluation of various nozzle geometrical configurations is shown.
Generalized Langevin model for molecular dynamics of an activated reaction in solution

Abstract The molecular dynamics (MD) by which an A+BC→AB+C atom exchange reaction takes place in rare gas solvent are modeled using the generalized Langevin equation (GLE) and are compared in terms of energy flow to the results of full deterministic MD. A simple single atom model is used for the force-force correlation function and the corresponding fluctuation-response derived memory kernel. We model both the generation from an equilibrium ensemble of the specific fluctuation by which the reactants climb the barrier to the transition state and the dissipation of the fluctuation as the reagents descend the barrier to equilibrated products. This model of the generation and decay of the fluctuation by which an activated process emerges from and returns to equilibrium is an extension beyond the usual use of the GLE to model the dynamics of equilibrium systems, barrier recrossings in the vicinity of a barrier top (Grote-Hynes), or the decay of nonequilibrium systems toward equilibrium. An analysis of reagent translational motion for this reaction in terms of the GLE shows that there are several identifiable epochs in the time history of this reaction: (1) a ± 10 fs time period (the recrossing epoch) immediately before and after the transition state at t = 0 during which the reaction coordinate dynamics are dominated by the random forces; (2) periods of ± (10–60) fs (intrinsic potential epochs) during which the mutual forces among the reagents dominate; (3) periods of ± (60–300) fs (generative-dissipative epochs) in which the generative-dissipative forces dominate; and (4) initial and final periods 300 fs (equilibrium epochs) during which the generative-dissipative and random forces are in balance. This example calculation illustrates that in favorable cases a simple GLE approach can be useful in modeling and understanding both the reactant and product time histories of the MD of activated solution reactions.
Comparing scat detection dogs, cameras, and hair snares for surveying carnivores

Abstract Carnivores typically require large areas of habitat, exist at low natural densities, and exhibit elusive behavior—characteristics that render them difficult to study. Noninvasive survey methods increasingly provide means to collect extensive data on carnivore occupancy, distribution, and abundance. During the summers of 2003–2004, we compared the abilities of scat detection dogs, remote cameras, and hair snares to detect black bears (Ursus americanus), fishers (Martes pennanti), and bobcats (Lynx rufus) at 168 sites throughout Vermont. All 3 methods detected black bears; neither fishers nor bobcats were detected by hair snares. Scat detection dogs yielded the highest raw detection rate and probability of detection (given presence) for each of the target species, as well as the greatest number of unique detections (i.e., occasions when only one method detected the target species). We estimated that the mean probability of detecting the target species during a single visit to a site with a detectio...
Managing Technology Projects.

This will be my first time authoring this column, and I'm delighted to have the opportunity it presents to explore the intersection of library technology and public services. As the recent title of the 2008 Internet Librarian conference indicates, Beyond Library 2.0: User-Focused Tools and Technologies, the tide of what for several years has felt like library technology evangelism is turning. A focus on more effective tech-based development in libraries is underway, one that privileges the actual impact of services on patrons over our need to keep up with the proverbial Joneses. This is a natural correction—libraries experienced a sort of “tech bubble” as early adopters enthusiastically explored the promise of new Web-based communication methods and user-created tools. After several years of trial and error, many early adopters now find themselves adjusting expectations, considering overall scalability, and evaluating outcomes of their early experiments. Much can be learned from these experiences, and a w...