cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Managing uncertainty in self-adaptive systems with plan reuse and stochastic search

Many software systems operate in environments where change and uncertainty are the rule, rather than exceptions. Techniques for self-adaptation allow these systems to automatically respond to environmental changes, yet they do not handle changes to the adaptive system itself, such as the addition or removal of adaptation tactics. Instead, changes in a self-adaptive system often require a human planner to redo an expensive planning process to allow the system to continue satisfying its quality requirements under different conditions; automated techniques typically must replan from scratch. We propose to address this problem by reusing prior planning knowledge to adapt in the face of unexpected situations. We present a planner based on genetic programming that reuses existing plans. While reuse of material in genetic algorithms has recently applied successfully in the area of automated program repair, we find that naively reusing existing plans for self-* planning actually results in a loss of utility. Furthermore, we propose a series of techniques to lower the costs of reuse, allowing genetic techniques to leverage existing information to improve planning utility when replanning for unexpected changes.
Navigation in Virtual Space: Psychological and Neural Aspects

The majority of research into spatial navigation has focused on rodents, often with the assumption that these models apply directly to humans. The development and adaptation of virtual reality technology to experimental psychology, coupled with advances in our ability to record neural activity from the human brain, have provided new information on the neural basis of human navigation. While many of the cognitive and neural mechanisms present in rodents appear to be conserved in humans, our increased reliance on visual input during navigation leads to critical differences in how our brain codes and processes spatial information.
Musical Instruments As Sensors

The frequencies of notes made by a musical instrument are determined by the physical properties of the instrument. Consequently, by measuring the frequency of a note, one can infer information about the instrument's physical properties. In this work, we show that by modifying a musical instrument to contain a sample and analyzing the instrument's pitch, we can make precision measurements of the physical properties of the sample. We used the mbira, a 3000-year-old African musical instrument that consists of metal tines attached to a wooden board; these tines are plucked to play musical notes. By replacing the mbira's tines with bent steel tubing, filling the tubing with a sample, using a smartphone to record the sound while plucking the tubing, and measuring the frequency of the sound using a free software tool on our website, we can measure the density of the sample with a resolution of about 0.012 g/mL. Unlike existing tools for measuring density, the mbira sensor can be made and used by virtually anyone in the world. To demonstrate the mbira sensor's capabilities, we used it to successfully distinguish diethylene glycol and glycerol, two similar chemicals that are sometimes mistaken for each other in pharmaceutical manufacturing (leading to hundreds of deaths). We also show that consumers could use mbira sensors to detect counterfeit and adulterated medications (which represent around 10% of all medications in low- and middle-income countries). We expect that many other musical instruments can function as sensors and find important and lifesaving applications.
With Friends Like These: Wim Wenders’ The American Friend as Noir Allegory

This chapter examines Wim Wenders’ The American Friend (1977) in the context of European late modernity in the 1970s and the history of film noir. If noir typically offers a negative allegory in which neither the position of the criminal nor that of the law is a positive option, the Ripley series marks a striking mutation in this allegory of failure, with the protagonist occupying a position both within and against the system. Highsmith’s undoing of noir allegory is in turn reworked by Wenders in order to stage an allegory about the false promises of American-style modernization, as Ripley drives the plot forward in a manner suggestive of the power the U.S. has had in shaping European modernity from the Marshall Plan forward.
Maximum coverage capacitated facility location problem with range constrained drones

Abstract Given a set of demand and potential facility locations and a set of fully available charged drones, an agency seeks to locate a pre-specified number of capacitated facilities and assign drones to the located facilities to serve the demands. The facilities serve as drone launching sites for distributing the resources. Each drone makes several one-to-one trips from the facility location to the demand points and back until the battery range is met. The planning period is short-term and therefore the recharging of drone batteries is not considered. This paper presents an integer linear programming formulation with the objective of maximizing coverage while explicitly incorporating the drone energy consumption and range constraints. The new formulation is called the Maximum Coverage Facility Location Problem with Drones or simply MCFLPD. The MCFLPD is a complex problem and even for relatively small problem sizes a state of the art MIP solver may require unacceptably long running times to find feasible solutions. Computational efficiency of MCFLPD solutions is a key factor since conditions associated with customer demands or weather conditions (e.g., wind direction and speed) may change suddenly and require a fast global reoptimization. To better balance solution quality and running times novel greedy and three-stage heuristics (3SH) are developed. The 3SH is based on decomposition and local exchange principles and involves a facility location and allocation problem, multiple knapsack subproblems, and a final local random search stage. On average the 3SH solutions are within 5% of the best Gurobi solutions but at a small fraction of the running time. Multiple scenarios are run to highlight the importance of changes in drone battery capabilities on coverage.
Cite-Seeing Part III: The Indigo Book, ALWD, Lexis, and Westlaw

This column, the third in a series on citing, discusses the Indigo Book, ALWD, Lexis, Westlaw, the Bluebook, and the Tanbook.
The ascent of John Tyndall: Victorian scientist, mountaineer, and public intellectual

In The Ascent of John Tyndall: Victorian Scientist, Mountaineer, and Public Intellectual, Roland Jackson endeavours to reanimate an often overlooked figure in nineteenth-century British science: ep...
Construction of triple-gem detectors using commercially manufactured large GEM foils

Many experiments are currently using or proposing to use large area GEM foils in their detectors, which is creating a need for commercially available GEM foils. Currently CERN is the only main distributor of large GEM foils, however with the growing interest in GEM technology keeping up with the increasing demand for GEMs will be difficult. Thus the commercialization of GEMs up to 50 × 50 cm2 has been established by Tech-Etch Inc. of Plymouth, MA, USA using the single-mask technique. The electrical performance and optical quality of the single-mask GEM foils have been found to be on par with those produced by CERN. The next critical step towards validating the Tech-Etch GEM foils is to test their performance under physics conditions. These measurements will allow us to quantify and compare the gain and efficiency of the detector to other triple-GEM detectors. This will be done by constructing several single-mask triple-GEM detectors, using foils manufactured by Tech-Etch, which follow the design used by the STAR Forward GEM Tracker (FGT). The stack is formed by gluing the foils to the frames and then gluing the frames together. The stack also includes a Tech-Etch produced high voltage foil and a 2D r — Φ readout foil. While one of the triple-GEM detectors will be built identically to the STAR FGT, the others will investigate ways in which to further decrease the material budget and increase the efficiency of the detector by incorporating perforated Kapton spacer rings rather than G10 spacing grids to reduce the dead area of the detector. The materials and tooling needed to assemble the triple-GEM detectors have been acquired. The GEM foils have been electrically tested, and a handful have been optically scanned. We found these results to be consistent with GEM foils produced by CERN. With the success of these initial tests, construction of the triple-GEM detectors is now under way.
Caregiver Burden as a Mediator Between Emotional Distress and Concentration Problems in Patients With Cancer

Objectives To examine the longitudinal mediation effect of caregiver burden on the relationship between emotional distress and concentration among individuals with cancer. Sample & setting 96 patients with cancer and their caregivers (96 dyads) were selected from a study conducted at Duke University. Methods & variables A secondary analysis from a longitudinal study was used. Caregiver burden, as well as patients' emotional distress and concentration problems, were selected as variables and analyzed. Results Caregiver burden acts as a mediator between emotional distress and concentration problems among patients with cancer. More severe caregiver burden is associated with more severe concentration problems for the patient. Dyads with higher patient emotional distress at one week (T1) also had higher caregiver burden at T1, which increased the concentration problems of patients at T1. When caregiver burden became more severe over time, patient concentration problems also increased. Implications for nursing Healthcare providers should assess caregiver burden and identify factors that contribute to increased caregiver burden. Providing support for managing caregiver burden and patients' emotional distress will help improve patients' concentration capacity.
Long-term efficacy and late sequelae of Doxorubicin­ containing adjuvant therapy for breast cancer : MD Anderson Cancer Center studies

Since 1974 at MD Anderson Cancer Center, Doxorubicin-containing regimens have been evaluated as adjuvant therapy in patients with node-positive breast cancer. In our initial studies, all patients had either stage II or III disease and were treated with adjuvant therapy following local therapy. The earlier results of these studies have been previously published [1–4]. The objective of this report is to present the long-term follow-up data on survival and late sequelae of the treatment.
Network Analysis of Antibiotic Resistance Identifies Compelling Mutations across Pathways

The mechanism for the formation of antibiotic resistance is not clearly understood and has remained challenging due to the evolving nature of the bacterial genome. Staphylococcus aureus is a commensal of the human microbiota found in the upper and occasionally lower respiratory airways and adherent to adnexal regions. The S. aureus is responsible for several acute and chronic illnesses such as osteomyelitis, endocarditis, and infection from implanted devices. It can cause mild to life-threatening infections. In addition to its potential for hostility, S. aureus demonstrates the exceptional diversity of resistance mechanisms against antimicrobial efforts. S. aureus resistance can be attributed to permanent mutations at the genetic level. SANVA (Staphylococcus aureus Network-Based Variant Analysis) is an analytic method based on a network that can analyze the staphylococcal isolates to find the compelling mutations in Protein-Protein Interaction network. These mutated genes might be able to introduce new targets for antimicrobial drugs.
A Survey of Educational Provisions for the Institutionalized Mentally Subnormal Blind

A survey of the educational provisions for the blind mentally subnormal was conducted with 52 of the 104 state institutions replying to the mailed questionnaire.The results of the survey indicate c...
Dataset of segmented nuclei in hematoxylin and eosin stained histopathology images of ten cancer types

The distribution and appearance of nuclei are essential markers for the diagnosis and study of cancer. Despite the importance of nuclear morphology, there is a lack of large scale, accurate, publicly accessible nucleus segmentation data. To address this, we developed an analysis pipeline that segments nuclei in whole slide tissue images from multiple cancer types with a quality control process. We have generated nucleus segmentation results in 5,060 Whole Slide Tissue images from 10 cancer types in The Cancer Genome Atlas. One key component of our work is that we carried out a multi-level quality control process (WSI-level and image patch-level), to evaluate the quality of our segmentation results. The image patch-level quality control used manual segmentation ground truth data from 1,356 sampled image patches. The datasets we publish in this work consist of roughly 5 billion quality controlled nuclei from more than 5,060 TCGA WSIs from 10 different TCGA cancer types and 1,356 manually segmented TCGA image patches from the same 10 cancer types plus additional 4 cancer types.
Gauge Symmetry Enhancement and N = 2 Supersymmetric Quantum Black Holes in Heterotic String Vacua

N=2 supersymmetric quantum black holes in the heterotic S-T-U model are presented. In particular three classes of axion-free quantum black holes with half the N=2, D=4 supersymmetries unbroken are considered. First, these quantum black holes are investigated at generic points in moduli space. Then linearized non-abelian black holes are investigated representing a subset of non-abelian black hole solutions at critical points of perturbative gauge symmetry enhancement in moduli space. It is shown that the entropy of linearized non-abelian black holes can be obtained, starting at non-critical points in moduli space, by continuous variation of the moduli and a proper identification of the non-abelian charges.
Achievements and Challenges of Ecuador’s Education Sector in the 21st Century

This paper provides an overview of the achievements and challenges of Ecuador's education sector since year 2000. Ecuador has introduced significant reforms and has made important investments in the education sector, which have gone hand in hand with improvements in education access and quality. Nevertheless, Ecuador’s education system still has challenges to address. Learning gaps between regions and ethnic groups continue to be substantial, education quality displays important deficiencies, and investments in higher education have not yet contributed to improve labor productivity. The system needs to assure that education policies and programs are adequately monitored, evaluated, and aligned with education quality and learning. Sustaining some of the policy choices implemented in recent years will put substantial pressure to the country’s budget in the medium term due to the country’s new fiscal situation. In such context, the Government will need to promote more efficient and equitable expenditures on education and prioritize investments on policies that are proven to be most effective.
Intraoperative Red Blood Cell Salvage in Posterior Spinal Fusions for Idiopathic Scoliosis: Guidelines for Selective Use

Purpose: What are the patient and surgical factors which impact the cost-effectiveness of Intraoperative cell salvage (ICS) during primary posterior spinal fusions (PSF) for idiopathic scoliosis (IS). ICS can be useful in avoiding allogeneic transfusions, however it adds substantial charges ($800 - 1200 US) and requires larger volumes of blood loss in order to provide benefit. This study evaluates the role and effectiveness of ICS in primary PSF surgeries for pediatric IS patients. Methods: 180 primary, consecutive …
On C J and C T in conformal QED

QED with a large number N of massless fermionic degrees of freedom has a conformal phase in a range of space-time dimensions. We use a large N diagrammatic approach to calculate the leading corrections to C T , the coefficient of the two-point function of the stress-energy tensor, and C J , the coefficient of the two-point function of the global symmetry current. We present explicit formulae as a function of d and check them versus the expectations in 2 and 4 − ϵ dimensions. Using our results in higher even dimensions we find a concise formula for C T of the conformal Maxwell theory with higher derivative action $$ {F}_{\mu \nu }{\left(-{\nabla}^2\right)}^{\frac{d}{2}-2}{F}^{\mu \nu } $$ . In d = 3, QED has a topological symmetry current, and we calculate the correction to its two-point function coefficient, C top . We also show that some RG flows involving QED in d = 3 obey C UV > C IR and discuss possible implications of this inequality for the symmetry breaking at small values of N .
Brandefy: Approaching Expansion with Marketing Analytics

This field-based case allows instructors to explore the world of data analytics with students, using Brandefy, a startup company, and its plan to expand its app into additional categories of the grocery store as a sandbox for learning. Using R (or some other statistical programming language/software, such as Python, SAS, Stata, or SPSS) and retail scanner data from 84.51˚ (https://www.8451.com/area51), the case sets the stage for instructors to explore some fundamentals of data science, as they apply to the study of customers.The idea behind Brandefy came to its founder, Meg Greenhalgh, when she worked as a category manager and discovered that some competitors were actually name brands supplying store-brand versions of products. In addition, as a consumer herself standing in the grocery store, Greenhalgh found herself wondering when that was the case and, when it was, how she could figure it out quickly. What if there was an app that shoppers could use to learn the differences between name- and store-brand products? By the spring of 2018, Greenhalgh was ready to launch an app for Brandefy. It would compare name and store brands using consumer feedback on 200 product reviews. The reviews either confirmed that the generic version was as good as the name brand or presented data to suggest it was not. While excited about the app, Greenhalgh considered several questions, including some she had from the very beginning. How many times might people want to use the app in a given trip to the grocery store? What categories should Brandefy prioritize as it expanded? Excerpt UVA-M-0962 Aug. 20, 2018 Brandefy: Approaching Expansion with Marketing Analytics Perhaps launching a start-up was a family trait—Meg Greenhalgh's mother and great-grandmother ran their own businesses. Although Greenhalgh started her career in a more conventional manner as an assistant category manager in a private-label consumer packaged goods company, it didn't take long before she moved to a tech venture and then launched a prototype blog in 2016 that became the start-up Brandefy in 2017. The idea behind the company occurred when Greenhalgh worked as a category manager and discovered that some competitors were actually name brands supplying store-brand versions of products. In addition, as a consumer standing in the grocery store, Greenhalgh found herself wondering when that was happening and how she could figure it out quickly. What if there was an app that shoppers could use to learn the differences? By the spring of 2018, Greenhalgh was ready to launch an app named Brandefy. It would compare name and store brands using consumer feedback on 200 product reviews. The reviews either confirmed that the generic version (i.e., private-label brand or store brand) was as good as the name brand or presented data to suggest it was not. While excited about the app, Greenhalgh considered several questions, including some she had from the very beginning. How many times might people want to use the app in a given trip to the grocery store? What categories should Brandefy prioritize as it expanded? Brandefy . . .
Host-informed therapies for the treatment of pneumococcal pneumonia

Over the past two decades, traditional antimicrobial strategies have lost efficacy due to a rapid rise in antibiotic resistance and limited success in developing new antibiotics. Rather than relying on therapeutics solely targeting the bacterial pathogen, therapies are emerging that simultaneously focus on host responses. Here, we describe the most promising 'host-informed therapies' (HITs) in two categories: those that aid patients with fully functional immune systems, and those that aid patients with perturbed immune processes. Using Streptococcus pneumoniae, the leading cause of bacterial pneumonia, as a case study, we show HITs as an attractive option for supplementing infection management. However, to broaden their applicability and design new strategies, targeted research and clinical trials will be essential.
4-aminopyridine promotes accelerated skin wound healing

The discovery of ways to enhance skin wound healing is of great importance due to the frequency of these lesions. We discovered that 4-aminopyridine (4-AP), a potassium channel blocker, greatly enhances skin wound healing. Benefits include faster wound closure, restoration of normal-appearing skin architecture and epidermal thickness, increased vascularization and increases in K14+ keratinocytes. Hair follicle number was increased, both histologically and by analysis of K15 and K17 expression. Levels of vimentin (which marks fibroblasts) and α-smooth muscle actin α-SMA, which marks collagen-producing myofibroblasts) increased, as did α-SMA+ cell numbers. 4-AP also increased numbers of axons and S-100+ Schwann cells, and increased expression of p75-NTR and SOX10. Treatment also increased levels of nerve growth factor, transforming growth factor-β, Substance P and PGP9.5, important modulators of wound healing. As 4-AP is already used for treatment of multiple sclerosis and other chronic neurological syndromes, it has strong potential for rapid translational development.
Current Status and Future of Polio Vaccines and Vaccination

The history of polio vaccines and their use illustrates the concept of evolution of vaccines driven by changing epidemiological and socioeconomic conditions. The development of two vaccines against poliomyelitis—inactivated Salk vaccine (IPV) and live oral Sabin vaccine (OPV)—is among the most consequential achievements of prophylactic medicine of the past century. Each with their own strengths and weaknesses, they were used over the past 50 years in different settings and different regimens and combinations. This resulted in virtual elimination of the disease in almost the entire world with the exception of a few countries. Continuation of the eradication campaign coordinated by WHO may soon result in complete cessation of wild poliovirus transmission, and poliovirus may join smallpox virus in the club of extinct pathogens. However, unlike smallpox vaccination that was stopped after the interruption of virus circulation, vaccination against poliomyelitis will have to continue into the foreseeable future, due to significant differences in the nature and epidemiology of the viruses. This chapter reviews the reasons for the need to maintain high population immunity against polioviruses, makes the case for developing a new generation of polio vaccines, and discusses their desirable properties as well as new vaccine technologies that could be used to create polio vaccines for the post-eradication environment.
NONLINEAR BEHAVIOR OF SOFT CLAYS DURING CYCLIC LOADING

A new stress- strain model that accounts for the nonlinear and degradation characteristics in soft clays due to cyclic loading is developed based on the results of cyclic tests on specimens of San Francisco Bay Mud. The model parameters were obtained from controlled-strain tests and the model was extended for an arbitrary cyclic loading history, such as that occurring during earthquakes, and was used to predict stress-strain response of controlled-stress tests. The main features of the proposed model include: (1)During every cycle, the stress-strain behavior of the soil is defined by a backbone curve and by the Masing criterion; (2)the backbone curve is represented by the Ramberg-Osgood formulation; (3)the ordinates of the backbone curve decrease (degrade) during cyclic loading by an amount measured by a degradation index that represents an irreversible degradation process in the structure of the soil; and (4)the rate of degradation is controlled essentially by the amplitude of the cyclic strain.
Cutaneous metastasis as the presenting sign of papillary thyroid carcinoma

Cutaneous metastasis of visceral tumors accounts for 2% of skin tumors. We report the case of a 71-year-old male with a smoking history who presented to dermatology department with a violaceous nodule of the right sideburn skin. The lesion was interpreted as an adenocarcinoma that was completely excised and was suspicious for a metastasis. There was a recommendation for additional work-up. At a different institution, a positron emission tomography scan showed a left hilar mass and uptake in the right thyroid. He was then referred to our hospital for tissue diagnosis. Mediastinoscopy with biopsy of the left hilar mass showed metastatic follicular thyroid carcinoma. Subsequently, a thyroid fine needle aspirate showed suspicion for malignancy with similar morphology. Thyroidectomy and central neck dissection showed right thyroid papillary carcinoma extending to one margin and involving the lymph nodes. The left hilar metastasis mass resection showed similar lymph node findings. A re-review of the sideburn excision revealed similar histopathology to the thyroid and mediastinal resection. This case illustrates the opportunity of considering metastatic thyroid carcinoma to skin even in cases which lack the classic cytologic and architectural features of papillary thyroid carcinoma follicular variant.
Improving topological segmentation of three-dimensional vector fields

We present three enhancements to accelerate the extraction of separatrices of three-dimensional vector fields, using intelligently selected "sample" streamlines. These enhancements reduce the number of needed sample streamlines and their propagation length. Inflow/outflow matching supports the simultaneous extraction of topologically significant inflow and outflow separatrices in a single pass. An adaptive sampling approach is introduced and used to seed streamlines in a more meaningful and efficient manner. Cell-locking is a new concept that isolates regions of a data set that do not contain separatrices. This concept makes streamline propagation more efficient as streamlines are not propagated through cells that do not influence or contain separatrices. These enhancements enable us to perform separatrix construction for three-dimensional vector field data requiring less overall computation.
Frontiers of Chemistry for Americium and Curium

The discoveries of americium and curium were made only after Seaborg had formulated his actinide concept in order to design the chemistry needed to separate them from irradiated 239Pu targets. Their discoveries thus furnished the first clear-cut evidence that the series exists and justified Seaborg’s bold assumption that even though Th and Pa appeared to presage a following 6d series, the pattern established by the periodic table after Cs and Ba would be repeated exactly after Fr and Ra. That is to say, a new 5f element rare earth series (the actinides) would follow Ac in the same way the 4f rare earth series (the lanthanides) follows La. The consequences of the resulting half-filled 5f7 shell at Cm were originally presented by Seaborg as a test of his hypothesis. Recent research is outlined that substantiates Seaborg’s predictions in new and definitive ways.
Analysis of Cell Proliferation and Cell Survival by Continuous BrdU Labeling and Multivariate Flow Cytometry

Halogenated deoxyuridines such as BrdU incorporated into DNA in place of thymidine can be detected by virtue of their ability to quench the fluorescence of Hoechst dyes. This property is the basis for a simple and reliable method of enumerating cells which have incorporated BrdU. Counterstaining with another suitable DNA dye permits resolution of cells in G1, S, and G2 phases of three consecutive cell cycles. In addition to this basic technique, the authors present newer protocols for proliferative analysis of GFP-expressing or cell surface antigen expressing cells versus nonexpressing cells in culture as well as one to determine the absolute number of proliferating and nonproliferating cells by calibration for the volume analyzed. With this technique the proliferative survival of cells can be determined.
Foreign Language Effect

The foreign language effect refers to a temporary decline in intellectual ability when a person engages in the use of a foreign language, a phenomenon discovered. These authors formulated a hypothesis about a brief cognitive decline while speaking a foreign language based on theories of attention. The models of attention explain that simultaneous performance of two demanding cognitive tasks results in the tasks interfering with each other. Keywords: bilingualism; cognition; language
Downgrading Rating Agency Reform

The Dodd-Frank Act promised to usher in sweeping changes to overhaul the rating agency industry. But in the years after the Act’s passage, hopes have turned into disappointment as the most important questions of how to enhance rating agency competition, accuracy, and accountability remain largely unanswered. The Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC”) has made progress in heightening oversight of the rating agency industry and addressing the most egregious abuses that fueled the financial crisis. But rating agency reforms have fallen far short of their potential due to the Act’s competing, if not contradictory, objectives simultaneously to marginalize ratings, to expose rating agencies to greater sunlight and private liability exposure, and to treat rating agencies as a regulated industry. The most important part of the Act remains the most unresolved: the SEC’s mandate to design an alternative for the current conflicts of interest created by debt issuers’ selecting and paying their rating agency gatekeepers. Prospects for an independent commission to select rating agencies for structured finance products have foundered due to the challenges of crafting benchmarks for rating agency performance that are necessary for selecting rating agencies and holding them accountable. The danger is that any standard chosen for rating agencies could fuel herding effects, as rating agencies may shape their methodologies to game the system rather than to enhance the accuracy and timeliness of credit risk assessments. Given the difficulties in resolving this issue, this Article suggests that policymakers should consider alternative ways to enhance competition, such as by using regulatory incentives to break up the leading rating agencies so that smaller rating agencies can more plausibly compete. Additionally, it suggests that expanding the scope of private enforcement opportunities has the potential to leverage the self-interest of investors to prosecute grossly negligent conduct by rating agencies. This approach would complement the SEC’s ongoing efforts to foster greater competition and accountability.
Simple implementations of homotopy algorithms for finding DC solutions of nonlinear circuits

We describe simple software implementations of parameter embedding (also called continuation and homotopy) algorithms for calculating DC operating points of nonlinear circuits. Past implementation of homotopy algorithms in industrial circuit simulators proved that thy were viable options to resolving convergence difficulties when finding circuits' DC operating points. These software implementations involved proprietary circuit simulation tools and sophisticated software implementation of homotopy algorithms. The implementation described here, relies on commercially available MATLAB tools. In spite of its simplicity, our implementation proved powerful enough to solve benchmark nonlinear circuits with multiple DC operating points.
Monte Carlo study of the high temperature hydrogen cleaning process of 6H-silicon carbide for subsequent growth of nano scale metal oxide films

Surface preparation of silicon carbide (SiC) is critical to producing silicon carbide based wide bandgap semiconductor for electronic devices operating in high temperatures and/or harsh environments. In this research we study the impact of cleaning time and cleaning temperature on reflection high energy electron diffraction-based structural and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy based stoichiometric performance indicators. We used a neural network assisted Monte Carlo analysis of the high temperature hydrogen etching procedure. We observed that the optimum cleaning time and temperature ranges for structural and stoichiometric analyses corroborate generally. The detailed examination of the stoichiometric analysis points to narrow parameter ranges where both optimum surface chemistry and (√3 × √3) R30° reconstruction of the structure of the surface can be achieved. A range of 1,400–1,500°C cleaning temperature for a time period of 14–20 minutes was found to consistently result in (√3 × √3) R30° reconstruction with an optimum oxygen content.
P02.118. Oral chamomile (Matricaria recutita) extract therapy of Generalized Anxiety Disorder (GAD): trial in progress

Purpose Chamomile is a traditional herb known for its calming effects. We are conducting a long-term, randomized, placebo-substitution study of chamomile for the prevention of recurrent Generalized Anxiety Disorder (GAD) in individuals who have responded to initial, open-label chamomile therapy. We present preliminary results from the trial’s open label phase to offer initial evidence of safety and effectiveness of chamomile in GAD. Methods A 38-week long-term relapse prevention trial with three phases. I: Eight weeks to determine whether individuals respond to chamomile; II: Four more weeks among responders to determine whether symptoms remain stable; III: An additional 26 weeks to determine whether chamomile is superior to placebo in preventing the recurrence of anxiety symptoms in responders. Subjects meet DSM IVTR criteria for GAD, moderate severity. Study interventions include pharmaceutical grade chamomile extract (SHR-5) 1,500 mg daily standardized to 1.2% apigenin and comparable placebo. Primary outcome measures are the GAD-7, Hamilton Anxiety Rating (HAM-A), and Clinical Global Impression Severity (CGI/S) scales. Results To date, 63 subjects have been enrolled, median age 48, range (24 to 71); 40 women, 23 men; 49 White, 6 African American, 6 Asian, 2 Other. Among the 48 subjects who completed phase I, a significant mean reduction of anxiety symptoms, as measured by GAD-7 (13.4 to 5.4, 59.7%, p≤0.001) and HAM-A (16.3 to 5.5, 66.2%, p≤0.001) have been observed. By a priori defined CGI-S and by 50% symptom reduction in GAD-7, 38 of those completing phase I (79.2%) met criteria for response. No serious adverse events were observed. Conclusion Preliminary findings are consistent with our previous RCT finding that over 50% of subjects with moderate or severe GAD symptoms respond to chamomile. The 1500mg dose of chamomile oral extract appears to be safe. More definitive and long-term relapse prevention findings await the completion of the trial.
Formate kinetics in methanol poisoning.

Objective: We sought to describe the kinetics, dialysis clearance, and laboratory markers of formate (FA), the toxic metabolite of methanol (meOH). Methods: Data were obtained from a prospective, multicenter study of fomepizole±dialysis for methanol poisoning. Inclusion criteria confirmed methanol exposure or suspicion of exposure plus either acidemia or abnormal osmolar gap. Dialysis indications were [meOH]>50 mg/dL, pH<7.1, refractory acidosis, or visual toxicity. Serial plasma formate, methanol, pH, and electrolyte measurements were made. Formate was determined by gas chromatography. Endogenous and dialysis elimination half-lives were calculated as t1/2=0.693/Ke, with Ke (elimination constant) derived from the slope of log (FA) vs. time. Half-lives were compared with an unpaired Student's t-test. Dialysis clearance was calculated using the Fick Principle. Pearson correlation analysis compared initial formate with initial pH, serum bicarbonate, and anion gap. Results: Eleven patients were treated in the...
Variational calculations on a quantum well in an electric field

We present variational calculations of the eigenstates in an isolated-quantum-well structure subjected to an external electric field. At weak fields a quadratic Stark shift is found whose magnitude depends strongly on the finite well depth. In addition, the electric field induces a spatial shift of the particle wave function along or opposite to the field direction, depending on the sign of the particle mass. This field-induced spatial separation of conduction and valence electrons in GaAs quantum wells decreases the overlap between their associated wave functions, leading to a reduction of interband recombination.
Misunderstandings, agreements, and disagreements: toward a cumulative science of reproducibly superior aspects of giftedness

In our target paper we approached the issues of gifts and innate talents a little differently; in contrast to earlier reviews we turned away from definitions and global theories and focused instead on the empirical evidence for giftedness meeting the standards of laboratory science, namely that the performance associated with a gift or talent is reproducibly superior and objectively measured. We then surveyed all available domains for evidence and focused, in particular, on performance that allegedly could not be explained in terms of acquired skills and adaptations in the context of the expert performance framework. We argued that this approach would help us and other scientists make progress in identifying the verifiable, reproducible evidence for any innate gifts that may be necessary for achieving elite and expert levels of performance. Once identified, the associated phenomena could then be replicated and examined in more detail to develop complete accounts in terms of gifted individuals’ unique genetic endowment, the associated unique genes, and their expression during development leading to the observable phenotypes. We were delighted to receive so many commentaries from many of the authors that we had cited in our target paper. Several commentators (Baker, BeghettoKaufman, Coleman, Freeman, Kaufman, Runco, Subotnik-Jarvin-Rayhack, Ziegler) were kind enough to compliment us on our target paper’s scope and depth of review, even though many expressed disagreements with some of our views and ideas.
Solvent Effects on Chemical Processes. 11. Solvent Effects on the Kinetics of Decarboxylative Dechlorination of N-Chloro Amino Acids in Binary Aqueous—Organic Solvents

The phenomenological theory of solvent effects is extended to chemical reaction rates and is tested against experimental data on the decarboxylative dechlorination of N-chloroalanine and N-chloroleucine at 25 °C in binary aqueous–organic solvent mixtures. The organic cosolvents studied were methanol, ethanol, l-propanol, 2-propanol, ethylene glycol, propylene glycol, acetonitrile, and dioxane. Reaction rates increased in all cosolvent systems. The kinetic solvent effects could be quantitatively described by the theory, and the parameters of the theory (solvation exchange constants K1 and K2 and cavity surface area parameter ΔgA‡) were found to possess magnitudes reasonable for the physical significance assigned to them. In particular, the ΔgA‡ value is consistent with a recent measurement of the volume of activation ΔV‡ of the reaction.
The effect of regeneration conditions on the selectivity of NOx reduction in a fully formulated lean NOx trap catalyst

Abstract The effect of regeneration conditions on NH3 formation in a fully formulated Pt–Rh/BaO/Al2O3 lean NOx trap catalyst was investigated. Experiments were performed on a bench flow reactor under simulated diesel exhaust conditions, employing NOx storage/reduction cycles. Using CO/H2 as the reductant, the selectivity of NOx reduction to NH3 increased with increasing regeneration time, reductant concentration and space velocity, and decreased with increasing amount of stored NOx and increasing temperature. At a given temperature the effect of these parameters on NH3 selectivity can be interpreted in terms of the local H2:NOx ratio at the precious metal sites and the extent to which NH3 is consumed in the reductant front as it propagates through the catalyst. However, selectivity to NH3 increased with increasing temperature (>300 °C) during rich purging using C3H6 as the reducing agent. It was shown that NH3 selectivity was governed by the steam reforming activity of the catalyst, selectivity to NH3 increasing with increasing H2 generation. Experiments using a second catalyst to which ceria had been added as an OSC material confirmed these trends, although the presence of the ceria resulted in lower selectivity to NH3 when using H2 and/or CO as the reductant. After aging, the catalysts displayed increased selectivity to NH3; this is attributed in part to lengthening of the NOx storage-reduction zone, as demonstrated by SpaciMS data, and decreased OSC, resulting in decreased NH3 consumption by NOx and O2 downstream of the reductant front.
On the computation of the tertiary structure of globular proteins—IV. Use of secondary structure information

The distance geometry approach for computing the tertiary structure of globular proteins emphasized in this series of papers (Goelet al., J. theor. Biol. 99, 705–757, 1982) is developed further. This development includes incorporation of some secondary structure information—the location of alpha helices in the primary sequence—in the algorithm to compute the tertiary structure of alpha helical globular proteins. An algorithm is developed which estimates the interresidue distances between chain-proximate helices. These distances, in conjunction with the global statistical average distances obtainable from a database of real proteins and determined by the primary sequence of the protein under study, are used to determine the tertiary structure. Five proteins, parvalbumin, hemerythrin, human hemoglobin, lamprey hemoglobin, and sperm whale myoglobin, are investigated. The root mean square (RMS) errors between the calculated structures and those determined by X-ray diffraction range from 4.78 to 7.56 A. These RMSs are 0.21–2.76 A lower than those estimated without the secondary structure information. Contact maps and three-dimensional backbone representations also show considerable improvements with the introduction of secondary structure information.
Identifying Cognitively Gifted Minority Students in Preschool

Preschool children were administered a screening battery consisting of nine different cognitive tasks. The participants were tracked in the public school database. Based on the children’s first-grade educational status, 2 groups were formed: one consisting of children who were in regular education and the other composed of children who were in the gifted/talented program. The children’s preschool screening scores, summed over both the identification-tasks subset and the generating-tasks subset, enabled the identification of high-performing outliers from the regular education sample who performed very well compared to the school-identified gifted sample. However, a majority of minority students among the high-performing outliers were only identified with the generating measure. The superior first-grade achievement performance of 5 of these 7 and the finding that 3 of the 7 had been placed in the gifted program in second grade, attested to the effectiveness of this measure for identifying cognitively gifted...
Comparison of hemodynamic responses to nifedipine and nitroprusside in severe chronic congestive heart failure.

The hemodynamic effects of 20 to 40 mg of oral nifedipine were compared with those of intravenous nitroprusside in 11 patients with severe chronic congestive heart failure (CHF). In each patient, both drugs were administered to produce similar reduction of systemic vascular resistance (SVR) (29 ± 13% with nifedipine and 29 ± 12% with nitroprusside, difference not significant [NS]). At this comparable decrease in systemic vascular resistance, significant differences in hemodynamic responses to both drugs were noted: Nifedipine caused a smaller increase in cardiac index (20 ± 20% vs 40 ± 24%, p < 0.02) and a larger decrease in mean blood pressure than nitroprusside (16 ± 9% vs 8 ± 10%, p < 0.05). In addition, nifedipine produced a smaller decrease in mean pulmonary artery wedge pressure (13 ± 24% vs 36 ± 21%, p < 0.001) and pulmonary vascular resistance than nitroprusside (6 ± 42% vs 26 ± 46%, NS. Mean right atrial pressure decreased with nitroprusside, from 10 ± 7 to 5 ± 3 mm Hg (p < 0.05), but not with nifedipine (10 ± 7 mm Hg before and after nifedipine administration, NS). Left ventricular stroke work index increased with nitroprusside (20 ± 8 to 27 ± 9 g-m/m2, p < 0.05), but did not change with nifedipine (21 ± 9 vs 21 ± 10 g-m/m2, NS). These data show that nifedipine has an arteriolar dilatatory action in patients with CHF. However, compared with nitroprusside, nifedipine had a significantly larger hypotensive effect and had a lesser effect on right and left ventricular filling pressure, cardiac output and left ventricular function.
Detection of influential observations in regression model with autocorrelated errors

This paper attempts to provide some diagnostic statistics for identifying the influential observations in regression model with autocorrelated errors. The procedure developed based on likelihood function using the missing value technique. Two sets of data are considered to illustrate the method.
Time and number: the privileged status of small values in the brain.

When dancing, one follows the rhythm without much conscious control, while also singing, entertaining a conversation, planning intricate sequences of steps, or estimating the time until the end of the song. Processing of rapid beats, in the sub-second range seems to be done automatically and doesn't appear to interfere with timekeeping in the range of seconds or minutes, required for planning the steps, or estimating the duration left until the end of the song. This may be because the processing of rapid beats and slow sequences is split between different timing mechanisms and/or the left and the right hemispheres of our brain (Hancock, 2011).