Temple University

About: Temple University is a education organization based out in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States. It is known for research contribution in the topics: Population & Poison control. The organization has 32154 authors who have published 64375 publications receiving 2219828 citations.

Protein flexibility and intrinsic disorder.

Abstract: Comparisons were made among four categories of protein flexibility: (1) low-B-factor ordered regions, (2) high-B-factor ordered regions, (3) short disordered regions, and (4) long disordered regions. Amino acid compositions of the four categories were found to be significantly different from each other, with high-B-factor ordered and short disordered regions being the most similar pair. The high-B-factor (flexible) ordered regions are characterized by a higher average flexibility index, higher average hydrophilicity, higher average absolute net charge, and higher total charge than disordered regions. The low-B-factor regions are significantly enriched in hydrophobic residues and depleted in the total number of charged residues compared to the other three categories. We examined the predictability of the high-B-factor regions and developed a predictor that discriminates between regions of low and high B-factors. This predictor achieved an accuracy of 70% and a correlation of 0.43 with experimental data, outperforming the 64% accuracy and 0.32 correlation of predictors based solely on flexibility indices. To further clarify the differences between short disordered regions and ordered regions, a predictor of short disordered regions was developed. Its relatively high accuracy of 81% indicates considerable differences between ordered and disordered regions. The distinctive amino acid biases of high-B-factor ordered regions, short disordered regions, and long disordered regions indicate that the sequence determinants for these flexibility categories differ from one another, whereas the significantly-greater-than-chance predictability of these categories from sequence suggest that flexible ordered regions, short disorder, and long disorder are, to a significant degree, encoded at the primary structure level.

Generation Capacity Expansion in Imperfectly Competitive Restructured Electricity Markets

Abstract: We consider three models of investments in generation capacity in restructured electricity systems that differ with respect to their underlying economic assumptions. The first model assumes a perfect, competitive equilibrium. It is very similar to the traditional capacity expansion models even if its economic interpretation is different. The second model (open-loop Cournot game) extends the Cournot model to include investments in new generation capacities. This model can be interpreted as describing investments in an oligopolistic market where capacity is simultaneously built and sold in long-term contracts when there is no spot market. The third model (closed-loop Cournot game) separates the investment and sales decision with investment in the first stage and sales in the second stage-that is, a spot market. This two-stage game corresponds to investments in merchant plants where the first-stage equilibrium problem is solved subject to equilibrium constraints. We show that despite some important differences, the open- and closed-loop games share many properties. One of the important results is that the prices and quantities produced in the closed-loop game, when the solution exists, fall between the prices and quantities in the open-loop game and the competitive equilibrium.

Extended vs Short-term Buprenorphine-Naloxone for Treatment of Opioid-Addicted Youth: A Randomized Trial

Abstract: Context The usual treatment for opioid-addicted youth is detoxification and counseling. Extended medication-assisted therapy may be more helpful. Objective To evaluate the efficacy of continuing buprenorphine-naloxone for 12 weeks vs detoxification for opioid-addicted youth. Design, Setting, and Patients Clinical trial at 6 community programs from July 2003 to December 2006 including 152 patients aged 15 to 21 years who were randomized to 12 weeks of buprenorphine-naloxone or a 14-day taper (detox). Interventions Patients in the 12-week buprenorphine-naloxone group were prescribed up to 24 mg per day for 9 weeks and then tapered to week 12; patients in the detox group were prescribed up to 14 mg per day and then tapered to day 14. All were offered weekly individual and group counseling. Main Outcome Measure Opioid-positive urine test result at weeks 4, 8, and 12. Results The number of patients younger than 18 years was too small to analyze separately, but overall, patients in the detox group had higher proportions of opioid-positive urine test results at weeks 4 and 8 but not at week 12 (χ 2 2 = 4.93, P = .09). At week 4, 28 detox patients had positive results (61%; 95% confidence interval [CI] = 47%-75%) vs 15 12-week buprenorphine-naloxone patients (26%; 95% CI = 14%-38%). At week 8, 22 detox patients had positive results (54%; 95% CI = 38%-70%) vs 12 12-week buprenorphine-naloxone patients (23%; 95% CI = 11%-35%). At week 12, 21 detox patients had positive results (51%; 95% CI = 35%-67%) vs 21 12-week buprenorphine-naloxone patients (43%; 95% CI = 29%-57%). By week 12, 16 of 78 detox patients (20.5%) remained in treatment vs 52 of 74 12-week buprenorphine-naloxone patients (70%; χ 2 1 = 32.90, P 2 1 = 18.45, P 2 1 = 6.00, P = .01), and less nonstudy addiction treatment (χ 2 1 = 25.82, P Conclusions Continuing treatment with buprenorphine-naloxone improved outcome compared with short-term detoxification. Further research is necessary to assess the efficacy and safety of longer-term treatment with buprenorphine for young individuals with opioid dependence. Trial Registration clinicaltrials.gov Identifier: NCT00078130

A Survey on Aerial Swarm Robotics

Abstract: The use of aerial swarms to solve real-world problems has been increasing steadily, accompanied by falling prices and improving performance of communication, sensing, and processing hardware. The commoditization of hardware has reduced unit costs, thereby lowering the barriers to entry to the field of aerial swarm robotics. A key enabling technology for swarms is the family of algorithms that allow the individual members of the swarm to communicate and allocate tasks amongst themselves, plan their trajectories, and coordinate their flight in such a way that the overall objectives of the swarm are achieved efficiently. These algorithms, often organized in a hierarchical fashion, endow the swarm with autonomy at every level, and the role of a human operator can be reduced, in principle, to interactions at a higher level without direct intervention. This technology depends on the clever and innovative application of theoretical tools from control and estimation. This paper reviews the state of the art of these theoretical tools, specifically focusing on how they have been developed for, and applied to, aerial swarms. Aerial swarms differ from swarms of ground-based vehicles in two respects: they operate in a three-dimensional space and the dynamics of individual vehicles adds an extra layer of complexity. We review dynamic modeling and conditions for stability and controllability that are essential in order to achieve cooperative flight and distributed sensing. The main sections of this paper focus on major results covering trajectory generation, task allocation, adversarial control, distributed sensing, monitoring, and mapping. Wherever possible, we indicate how the physics and subsystem technologies of aerial robots are brought to bear on these individual areas.

Historical Institutionalism in International Relations

Abstract: This article reviews recent contributions to International Relations (IR) that engage the substantive concerns of historical institutionalism and explicitly and implicitly employ that tradition's analytical features to address fundamental questions in the study of international affairs. It explores the promise of this tradition for new research agendas in the study of international political development, including the origin of state preferences, the nature of governance gaps, and the nature of change and continuity in the international system. The article concludes that the analytical and substantive profiles of historical institutionalism can further disciplinary maturation in IR, and it proposes that the field be more open to the tripartite division of institutional theories found in other subfields of Political Science.