Digital Commons Network^™

Mayer, Brown, Rowe & Maw, Michele Villagran

Faculty Publications

Mayer, Brown, Rowe & Maw is one of the nation’s largest corporate law firms with offices in seven US cities and eight cities overseas. The firm, founded in 1881, has headquarters in Chicago, with offices in New York, Los Angeles, Houston, Charlotte, Washington D.C. and Palo Alto. Overseas offices are in London, Paris, Brussels, Berlin, Frankfurt, Cologne, Shanghai and Beijing. The firm has more than 1300 attorneys and 566 partners. We spoke with Michelle Lucero, Legal Information Manager and Director of the Houston Office.

A New View Of Ridge Segmentation And Near-Axis Volcanism At The East Pacific Rise, 8˚–12˚N, From Em300 Multibeam Bathymetry, Scott M. White, Rachel M. Haymon, S M. Carbotte

Faculty Publications

New, high-resolution bathymetry for the East Pacific Rise between 8˚N and 12˚N was collected over a6 km wide swath centered on the ridge axis using the 30 kHz Simrad EM300 multibeam system. Thecoverage area corresponds latitudinally to the designated Ridge2000 Integrated Studies Site (ISS) for fastspreading ridges. The EM300 data, gridded at 30 m latitude by 50 m longitude, represent a greater than 4Ximprovement in horizontal resolution over previously available multibeam data and a 2X improvement indepth resolution. The new bathymetry was used to update the locations and hierarchy of ridge offsets forthis area. Among the many applications for this …

Superfluid Transition In A Rotating Fermi Gas With Resonant Interactions, Martin Y. Veillette, Daniel E. Sheehy, Leo Radzihovsky, Victor Gurarie

Faculty Publications

We study a rotating atomic Fermi gas near a narrow s-wave Feshbach resonance in a uniaxial trap with frequencies Ω⊥, Ωz. We predict the upper-critical angular velocity, ωc2(δ,T), as a function of temperature T and detuning δ across the BEC-BCS crossover. The suppression of superfluidity at ωc2 is distinct in the BCS and BEC regimes, with the former controlled by depairing and the latter by the dilution of bosonic molecules. At low T and Ωz 〉 Ω⊥, in the BCS and crossover regimes of 0 δ δc, ωc2 is implicitly given by ωc22+Ω2 ≈ 2Δ Ω/F, vanishing as ωc2∼Ω (1-δ/δc)1/2 …

When Teaching Sports, Teach Citizenship As Well, Douglas E. Abrams

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Epinecrophylla, A New Genus Of Antwrens (Aves: Passeriformes: Thamnophilidae), Morton L. Isler, Daniela Rodrigues Lacerda, Phyllis R. Isler, Shannon J. Hackett, Kenneth V. Rosenberg, Robb T. Brumfield

Faculty Publications

We offer a new generic name for the stipple-throated assemblage of antwrens (Thamnophilidae) currently placed in the genus Myrmotherula. Molecular studies demonstrated that Myrmotherula is polyphyletic, with the stippled-throated group forming a clade that is not sister to any other currently recognized Myrmotherula species. The stipple-throated assemblage is distinguished morphologically by at least one sex having a black throat stippled white or buffy white combined with a comparatively long, unmarked tail, although three populations considered subspecies have lost one of these characters. The distinct evolution of this assemblage is supported by diagnostic behavioral characters derived from foraging behaviors, vocal repertoires, …

Uniform Discretizations: A New Approach For The Quantization Of Totally Constrained Systems, Miguel Campiglia, Cayetano Di Bartolo, Rodolfo Gambini, Jorge Pullin

Faculty Publications

We discuss in detail the uniform discretization approach to the quantization of totally constrained theories. This approach allows to construct the continuum theory of interest as a well defined, controlled, limit of well behaved discrete theories. We work out several finite dimensional examples that exhibit behaviors expected to be of importance in the quantization of gravity. We also work out the case of BF theory. At the time of quantization, one can take two points of view. The technique can be used to define, upon taking the continuum limit, the space of physical states of the continuum constrained theory of …

A Search For Neutrinos From The Solar Hep Reaction And The Diffuse Supernova Neutrino Background With The Sudbury Neutrino Observatory, B. Aharmim, S. N. Ahmed, A. E. Anthony, E. W. Beier, A. Bellerive, M. Bergevin, S. D. Biller, M. G. Boulay, Y. D. Chan, M. Chen, X. Chen, B. T. Cleveland, G. A. Cox, C. A. Currat, X. Dai, F. Dalnoki-Veress, H. Deng, J. Detwiler, M. Dimarco, P. J. Doe, G. Doucas, P. L. Drouin, F. A. Duncan, M. Dunford, J. A. Dunmore, E. D. Earle, H. C. Evans, G. T. Ewan

Faculty Publications

A search has been made for neutrinos from the hep reaction in the Sun and from the diffuse supernova neutrino background (DSNB) using data collected during the first operational phase of the Sudbury Neutrino Observatory, with an exposure of 0.65 ktons yr. For the hep neutrino search, two events are observed in the effective electron energy range of 14.3 MeV < Teff < 20 MeV, where 3.1 background events are expected. After accounting for neutrino oscillations, an upper limit of 2.3 × 104 cm-2 s-1 at the 90% confidence level is inferred on the integral total flux of hep neutrinos. For DSNB neutrinos, no events are observed in the effective electron energy range of 21 MeV < Teff < 35 MeV, and, consequently, an upper limit on the νe component of the DSNB flux in the neutrino energy range of 22.9 MeV < Eν < 36.9 MeVof 70 cm-2 s-1 is inferred at the 90% confidence level. This is an improvement by a factor of 6.5 on the previous best upper limit on the hep neutrino flux and by 2 orders of magnitude on the previous upper limit on the νe component of the DSNB flux. © 2006. The American Astronomical Society. All rights reserved.

Computational Promoter Analysis Of Mouse, Rat, And Human Antimicrobial Peptide-Coding Genes, Chin-Yo Lin, Manisha Brahmachary, Christian Schonbach, Liang Yang, Enli Huang, Sin Lam Tan, Rajesh Chowdhary, S. P. T. Krishnan, David A. Hume, Chikatoshi Kai, Jun Kawai, Piero Carninci, Yoshihide Hayashizaki, Vladimir B. Bajic

Faculty Publications

Mammalian antimicrobial peptides (AMPs) are effectors of the innate immune response. A multitude of signals coming from pathways of mammalian pathogen/pattern recognition receptors and other proteins affect the expression of AMP-coding genes (AMPcgs). For many AMPcgs the promoter elements and transcription factors that control their tissue cell-specific expression have yet to be fully identified and characterized. Results- Based upon the RIKEN full-length cDNA and public sequence data derived from human, mouse and rat, we identified 178 candidate AMP transcripts derived from 61 genes belonging to 29 AMP families. However, only for 31 mouse genes belonging to 22 AMP families we …

Geological And Oceanographic Perspectives On Event Bed Formation During Hurricane Katrina, T. R. Keen, Y. Furukawa, S. J. Bentley, R. L. Slingerland, W. J. Teague, J. D. Dykes, C. D. Rowley

Faculty Publications

Storm deposits in ancient shelf sediments typically form thick sequences of interbedded sand and mud deposited during shoreline regression, whereas modern shelf sediments are generally thin veneers deposited during shoreline transgression. In this paper we present a preliminary comparison between ancient and modern storm beds deposited in these disparate contexts. Hurricane Katrina deposited a storm bed on the Louisiana shelf with a maximum observed thickness of 0.58 m, which thinned to approximately 0.1 m at 200 km west of landfall. This thickness is similar to event beds observed in both ancient and modern sediments. Using data for tropical cyclone landfalls …

Horospherical Model For Holomorphic Discrete Series And Horospherical Cauchy Transform, Simon Gindikin, Bernhard Krötz, Gestur Ólafsson

Faculty Publications

We define a complex horospherical transform on an affine symmetric space X = G/H of Hermitian type and show that it has no kernel on the representations of the H-spherical holomorphic discrete series. © Foundation Compositio Mathematica 2006.

On The Head And The Tail Of The Colored Jones Polynomial, Oliver T. Dasbach, Xiao Song Lin

Faculty Publications

The colored Jones polynomial is a function JK: ℕ → ℤ[t,t-1] associated with a knot K in 3-space. We will show that for an alternating knot K the absolute values of the first and the last three leading coefficients of JK(n) are independent of n when n is sufficiently large. Computation of sample knots indicates that this should be true for any fixed leading coefficient of the colored Jones polynomial for alternating knots. As a corollary we get a volume-ish theorem for the colored Jones polynomial. © Foundation Compositio Mathematica 2006.

Amyloid-Β-Induced Pathological Behaviors Are Suppressed By Ginkgo Biloba Extract Egb 761 And Ginkgolides In Transgenic Caenorhabditis Elegans, Yanjue Wu, Zhixin Wu, Peter Butko, Yves Christen, Mary P. Lambert, William L. Klein, Christopher D. Link, Yuan Luo

Faculty Publications

Amyloid-β (Aβ) toxicity has been postulated to initiate synaptic loss and subsequent neuronal degeneration seen in Alzheimer's disease (AD). We previously demonstrated that the standardized Ginkgo biloba extract EGb 761, commonly used to enhance memory and by AD patients for dementia, inhibits Aβ-induced apoptosis in neuroblastoma cells. In this study, we use EGb 761 and its single constituents to associate Aβ species with Aβ-induced pathological behaviors in a model organism, Caenorhabditis elegans. We report that EGb 761 and one of its components, ginkgolide A, alleviates Aβ-induced pathological behaviors, including paralysis, and reduces chemotaxis behavior and 5-HT hypersensitivity in a transgenic …

Rapid Decay Of Tree-Community Composition In Amazonian Forest Fragments, William F. Laurance, Henrique E.M. Nascimento, Susan G. Laurance, Ana Andrade, José E.L.S. Ribeiro, Juan Pablo Giraldo, Thomas E. Lovejoy, Richard Condit, Jerome Chave, Kyle E. Harms, Sammya D'Angelo

Faculty Publications

Forest fragmentation is considered a greater threat to vertebrates than to tree communities because individual trees are typically long-lived and require only small areas for survival. Here we show that forest fragmentation provokes surprisingly rapid and profound alterations in Amazonian tree-community composition. Results were derived from a 22-year study of exceptionally diverse tree communities in 40 1-ha plots in fragmented and intact forests, which were sampled repeatedly before and after fragment isolation. Within these plots, trajectories of change in abundance were assessed for 267 genera and 1,162 tree species. Abrupt shifts in floristic composition were driven by sharply accelerated tree …

Development Of Computations In Bioscience And Bioinformatics And Its Application: Review Of The Symposium Of Computations In Bioinformatics And Bioscience (Scbb06), Youping Deng, Jun Ni, Chaoyang Zhang

Faculty Publications

The first symposium of computations in bioinformatics and bioscience (SCBB06) was held in Hangzhou, China on June 21-22, 2006. Twenty-six peer-reviewed papers were selected for publication in this special issue of BMC Bioinformatics. These papers cover a broad range of topics including bioinformatics theories, algorithms, applications and tool development. The main technical topics contain gene expression analysis, sequence analysis, genome analysis, phylogenetic analysis, gene function prediction, molecular interaction and system biology, genetics and population study, immune strategy, protein structure prediction and proteomics.

Svm Classifier: A Comprehensive Java Interface For Support Vector Machine Classification Of Microarray Data, Mehdi Pirooznia, Youping Deng

Faculty Publications

Motivation

Graphical user interface (GUI) software promotes novelty by allowing users to extend the functionality. SVM Classifier is a cross-platform graphical application that handles very large datasets well. The purpose of this study is to create a GUI application that allows SVM users to perform SVM training, classification and prediction.

Results

The GUI provides user-friendly access to state-of-the-art SVM methods embodied in the LIBSVM implementation of Support Vector Machine. We implemented the java interface using standard swing libraries.

We used a sample data from a breast cancer study for testing classification accuracy. We achieved 100% accuracy in classification among the …

A Bayesian Perspective On Estimating Mean, Variance, And Standard-Deviation From Data, Travis E. Oliphant

Faculty Publications

This article shows how to compute confidence intervals for mean, standard-deviation, and variance using Bayesian methods. The method is implemented in SciPy as scipy.stats.bayes_mvs After reviewing some classical estimators for mean, variance, and standard-deviation and showing that un-biased estimates are not usually desirable, a Bayesian perspective is employed to determine what is known about mean, variance, and standard deviation given only that a data set in-fact has a common mean and variance. Maximum-entropy is used to argue that the likelihood function in this situation should be the same as if the data were independent and identically distributed Gaussian. A non-informative …

Detection Of The Irradiated Donor In The Lmxbs 4u 1636-536 (=V801 Ara) And 4u 1735-444 (=V926 Sco), J. Casares, R. Cornelisse, D. Steeghs, P. A. Charles, R. I. Hynes, K. O'Brien, T. E. Strohmayer

Faculty Publications

Phase-resolved VLT spectroscopy of the bursting low-mass X-ray binaries 4U 1636-536/V801 Ara and 4U 1735-444/V926 Sco is presented. Doppler images of the N III λ4640 Bowen transition reveal compact spots which we attribute to fluorescent emission from the donor star and enable us to define a new set of spectroscopic ephemerides. We measure K em = 277 ± 22 and 226 ± 22 kms -1 from the N III spots in V801 Ara and V926 Sco, respectively, which represent strict lower limits to the radial velocity semi-amplitude of the donor stars. Our new ephemerides provide confirmation that light-curve maxima in …

An Overview Of The Near-Death Experience Phenomenon, David San Filippo Ph.D.

Faculty Publications

Near-death experiences appear to be universal phenomena that have been reported for centuries. A near-death encounter is defined as an event in which the individual could very easily die or be killed, or may have already been considered clinically dead, but nonetheless survives, and continue his or her physical life. Reports of near-death experiences date back to the Ice Age. There are cave paintings, in France and Spain that depict possible after life scenes that are similar to reported scenes related to near-death experiences. Plato's Republic presents the story of a near-death experience of a Greek soldier named Er. In …

“Hoping To Establish Common Ground For Saving Biodiversity” (A Review Of E.O. Wilson’S The Creation), Steven C. Bouma-Prediger

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Holomorphic Horospherical Transform On Noncompactly Causal Spaces, Simon Gindikin, Bernhard Krötz, Gestur Ólafsson

Faculty Publications

We develop integral geometry for noncompactly causal symmetric spaces. We define a complex horospherical transform and, for some cases, identify it with a Cauchy-type integral.

Early Spectral Evolution Of Nova Sagittarii 2004 (V5114 Sagittarii), A. Ederoclite, E. Mason, M. Della Valle, R. Gilmozzi, R. E. Williams, L. Germany, I. Saviane, F. Matteucci, B. E. Schaefer, F. Walter, R. J. Rudy, D. Lynch, S. Mazuk, C. C. Venturini, R. C. Puetter, R. B. Perry, W. Liller, A. Rotter

Faculty Publications

Aims. We present optical and near-infrared spectral evolution of the Galactic nova V5114 Sgr (2004) during few months after the outburst. Methods. We use multi-band photometry and line intensities derived from spectroscopy to put constrains on the distance and the physical conditions of the ejecta of V5114 Sgr. Results. The nova showed a fast decline to - 11 days) and spectral features of Fen spectroscopic class. It reached Mv = -8.7 ± 0.2 mag at maximum light, from which we derive a distance of 7700 ± 700 kpc and a distance from the galactic plane of about 800 pc. Hydrogen …

M-Body Pure State Entanglement, Feng Pan, J. P. Draayer

Faculty Publications

The simple entanglement of N-body N-particle pure states is extended to the more general M-body or M-body N-particle states where N ≠ M. Some new features of the M-body N-particle pure states a re discussed. An application of the measure to quantify quantum correlations in a Bose-Einstien condensate model is demonstrated. © 2006 World Scientific Publishing Company.

Fundamental Spatio-Temporal Decoherence: A Key To Solving The Conceptual Problems Of Black Holes, Cosmology And Quantum Mechanics, Rodolfo Gambini, Rafael A. Porto, Jorge Pullin

Faculty Publications

Unitarity is a pillar of quantum theory. Nevertheless, it is also a source of several of its conceptual problems. We note that in a world where measurements are relational, as is the case in gravitation, quantum mechanics exhibits a fundamental level of loss of coherence. This can be the key to solving, among others, the puzzles posed by the black hole information paradox, the formation of inhomogeneities in cosmology and the measurement problem in quantum mechanics. © World Scientific Publishing Company.

Sines Of A Nearly Perfect Character, David A. Ray, Jinchuan Xing, Abdel Halim Salem, Mark A. Batzer

Faculty Publications

Mobile elements have been recognized as powerful tools for phylogenetic and population-level analyses. However, issues regarding potential sources of homoplasy and other misleading events have been raised. We have collected available data for all phylogenetic and population level studies of primates utilizing Alu insertion data and examined them for potentially homoplasious and other misleading events. Very low levels of each potential confounding factor in a phylogenetic or population analysis (i.e., lineage sorting, parallel insertions, and precise excision) were found. Although taxa known to be subject to high levels of these types of events may indeed be subject to problems when …

Homogenization And Field Concentrations In Heterogeneous Media, Robert Lipton

Faculty Publications

A multiscale characterization of the field concentrations inside composite and polycrystalline media is developed. We focus on gradient fields associated with the intensive quantities given by the temperature and the electric potential. In the linear regime these quantities are modeled by the solution of a second order elliptic partial differential equation with oscillatory coefficients. The characteristic length scale of the heterogeneity relative to the sample size is denoted by ε and the intensive quantity is denoted by u ε. Field concentrations are measured using the L p norm of the gradient field ||∇u ε||L p(D) for 2 ≤ p < ∞. The analysis focuses on the case when 0 < ε ≪ 1. Explicit lower bounds on lim inf ε→0 are developed. These bounds provide a way to rigorously assess field concentrations generated by the microgeometry without having to compute the actual field u ε. © 2006 Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics.

Optimization Of Composite Structures Subject To Local Stress Constraints, Robert Lipton, Michael Stuebner

Faculty Publications

An extension of current methodologies is introduced for optimization of graded microstructure subject to local stress criteria. The method is based on new multiscale stress criteria given by macrostress modulation functions. The modulation functions quantify the intensity of local stress fluctuations at the scale of the microstructure due to the imposed macroscopic stress. The methodology is illustrated for long cylindrical shafts reinforced with stiff cylindrical elastic fibers with generators parallel to the shaft. Examples are presented for shaft cross sections that possess reentrant corners typically seen in lap joints and junctions of struts. It is shown that the computational methodology …

Association Between Fire Return Interval And Population Dynamics In Four California Populations Of Tecate Cypress (Cupressus Forbesii), Roland C. De Gouvenain, Ali M. Ansary

Faculty Publications

The Tecate cypress (Cupressus forbesii) is a tree species associated with chaparral ecosystems in southern California and northern Baja California, Mexico. It is fire-adapted, its regeneration triggered by the opening of serotinous cones when adult trees are burned. Surveys made in the 1980s by others suggested that some Tecate cypress populations were declining, and some authors suggested that increased fire frequency in southern California was a major factor for this decline. We asked whether current population trends were still negative for Tecate cypress 20 years later, and whether population growth was associated with fire return interval length. Based on demographic, …

El Periodismo Martiano Y Los Abolicionistas De Estados Unidos,” (José Martí And The U.S Abolition Movement), Anne Fountain

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Objectively Measured Physical Activity In Sixth-Grade Girls, Russell R. Pate, June Stevens, Charlotte Pratt, James F. Sallis, Kathryn H. Schmitz, Larry S. Webber, Gregory J. Welk, Deborah Rohm Young

Faculty Publications

Objectives - To describe the objectively-measured physical activity (PA) characteristics of a diverse sample of 6^th grade girls to examine influences on PA, and to report compliance with PA guidelines.

Design - Cross-sectional study.

Setting - Six locations across the United States.

Participants - 1578 6^th grade girls. Actigraph accelerometers were worn for 7 days, and data for 6 days were included in the analyses.

Main exposure - Race/ethnicity, free-or-reduced price lunch (FRPL), and geographic region.

Main outcome measure - Six operational definitions of adequate activity (60 min or 30 min of daily MVPA at or above 4.6, …

A Phylogeny Of Belonolaimus Populations In Florida Inferred From Dna Sequences, Byron J. Adams, U. Gozel, K. B. Nguyen, R. N. Inserra, R. M. Giblin-Davis

Faculty Publications

The D2-D3 and ITS regions of rDNA from 33 Florida populations of Belonolaimus spp. were sequenced and subjected to phylogenetic analysis. Our objective was to derive a theoretical evolutionary framework for interpreting phenotypic differences as they relate to the taxonomy of the genus. The most striking aspect of the phylogenetic analysis is that none of the three nominal species (B. longicaudatus, B. euthychilus, and B. gracilis) are monophyletic. Additionally, two taxa appear to have discordant ITS and LSU sequences. Three major clades of B. longicaudatus exhibited discernible, overlapping, geographic foci from east to west across the peninsula. Morphological character states …