bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
A novel two-dimensional tactile slip display: design, kinematics and perceptual experiments
Authors: Webster Robert J. , Murphy Todd E. , Verner Lawton N. , Okamura Allison M.
Published: August 2005

A novel two-degree-of-freedom tactile display reproduces the sensations of sliding contact and incipient slip through the rotation of a ball positioned under the user's fingertip. A pair of motor-driven wheels actuates the ball via contact friction. Mechanical performance requirements are used to define the dimensions and construction method of the device. Kinematic analysis shows that the drive wheel angles and their contact locations with the ball must be carefully selected in order to accurately control the axis of rotation and speed of the ball. However, psychophysical experiments indicate that some kinematic error is tolerable; errors of up to 20° in slip angle and 30% of a nominal velocity may be applied without detection from an average user. The lightweight, modular tactile display was attached to a multi-degree-of-freedom kinesthetic interface and used to display virtual environments with slip. Experimental results demonstrate that users complete a virtual paper manipulation task with lower applied forces using combined slip and force feedback in comparison with conventional force feedback alone.
Efficient and flexible architectural support for dynamic monitoring
Authors: Zhou Yuanyuan , Zhou Pin , Qin Feng , Liu Wei , Torrellas Josep
Published: August 2005

Recent impressive performance improvements in computer architecture have not led to significant gains in the case of debugging. Software debugging often relies on inserting run-time software checks. In many cases, however, it is hard to find the root cause of a bug. Moreover, program execution typically slows down significantly, often by 10--100 times.To address this problem, this paper introduces the
intelligent watcher (iWatcher)
, a novel architectural scheme to monitor dynamic execution automatically, flexibly, and with minimal overhead. iWatcher associates program-specified monitoring functions with memory locations. When any such location is accessed, the monitoring function is automatically triggered with low overhead. To further reduce overhead and support rollback, iWatcher can optionally leverage thread-level speculation (TLS). The iWatcher architecture can be used to detect various bugs, including buffer overflow, accessing freed locations, memory leaks, stack-smashing and value-invariant violations. To evaluate iWatcher, we use seven applications with various real and injected bugs. Our results show that iWatcher detects many more software bugs than Valgrind, a well-known open-source bug detector. Moreover, iWatcher only induces a 0.1--179% execution overhead, which is orders of magnitude less than Valgrind. Our sensitivity study shows that even with 20% of the dynamic loads monitored in a program, iWatcher adds only 72--182% overhead. Finally, TLS is effective at reducing overheads for programs with substantial monitoring.
A way-halting cache for low-energy high-performance systems
Authors: Zhang Chuanjun , Vahid Frank , Yang Jun , Najjar Walid
Published: August 2005

Caches contribute to much of a microprocessor system's power and energy consumption. Numerous new cache architectures, such as phased, pseudo-set-associative, way predicting, reactive-associative, way-shutdown, way-concatenating, and highly-associative, are intended to reduce power and/or energy, but they all impose some performance overhead. We have developed a new cache architecture, called a way-halting cache, that reduces energy further than previously mentioned architectures, while imposing no performance overhead. Our way-halting cache is a four-way set-associative cache that stores the four lowest-order bits of all ways' tags into a fully associative memory, which we call the halt tag array. The lookup in the halt tag array is done in parallel with, and is no slower than, the set-index decoding. The halt tag array predetermines which tags cannot match due to their low-order 4 bits mismatching. Further accesses to ways with known mismatching tags are then halted, thus saving power. Our halt tag array has an additional feature of using static logic only, rather than dynamic logic used in highly associative caches, making our cache simpler to design with existing tools. We provide data from experiments on 29 benchmarks drawn from Powerstone, Mediabench, and Spec 2000, based on our layouts in 0.18 micron CMOS technology. On average, we obtained 55% savings of memory-access related energy over a conventional four-way set-associative cache. We show that savings are greater than previous methods, and nearly twice that of highly associative caches, while imposing no performance overhead and only 2% cache area overhead.
Real-time multidepth stream compression
Authors: Kum Sang-Uok , Mayer-Patel Ketan
Published: August 2005

The goal of tele-immersion has long been to enable people at remote locations to share a sense of presence. A tele-immersion system acquires the 3D representation of a collaborator's environment remotely and sends it over the network where it is rendered in the user's environment. Acquisition, reconstruction, transmission, and rendering all have to be done in real-time to create a sense of presence. With added commodity hardware resources, parallelism can increase the acquisition volume and reconstruction data quality while maintaining real-time performance. However, this is not as easy for rendering since all of the data need to be combined into a single display.In this article, we present an algorithm to compress data from such 3D environments in real-time to solve this imbalance. We present a compression algorithm which scales comparably to the acquisition and reconstruction, reduces network transmission bandwidth, and reduces the rendering requirement for real-time performance. This is achieved by exploiting the coherence in the 3D environment data and removing them in real-time. We have tested the algorithm using a static office data set as well as a dynamic scene, the results of which are presented in the article.
Understanding performance in coliseum, an immersive videoconferencing system
Authors: Baker H. Harlyn , Bhatti Nina , Tanguay Donald , Sobel Irwin , Gelb Dan , Goss Michael E. , Culbertson W. Bruce , Malzbender Thomas
Published: August 2005

Coliseum is a multiuser immersive remote teleconferencing system designed to provide collaborative workers the experience of face-to-face meetings from their desktops. Five cameras are attached to each PC display and directed at the participant. From these video streams, view synthesis methods produce arbitrary-perspective renderings of the participant and transmit them to others at interactive rates, currently about 15 frames per second. Combining these renderings in a shared synthetic environment gives the appearance of having all participants interacting in a common space. In this way, Coliseum enables users to share a virtual world, with acquired-image renderings of their appearance replacing the synthetic representations provided by more conventional avatar-populated virtual worlds. The system supports virtual mobility---participants may move around the shared space---and reciprocal gaze, and has been demonstrated in collaborative sessions of up to ten Coliseum workstations, and sessions spanning two continents.Coliseum is a complex software system which pushes commodity computing resources to the limit. We set out to measure the different aspects of resource, network, CPU, memory, and disk usage to uncover the bottlenecks and guide enhancement and control of system performance. Latency is a key component of Quality of Experience for video conferencing. We present how each aspect of the system---cameras, image processing, networking, and display---contributes to total latency. Performance measurement is as complex as the system to which it is applied. We describe several techniques to estimate performance through direct light-weight instrumentation as well as use of realistic end-to-end measures that mimic actual user experience. We describe the various techniques and how they can be used to improve system performance for Coliseum and other network applications. This article summarizes the Coliseum technology and reports on issues related to its performance---its measurement, enhancement, and control.
Ext3cow: a time-shifting file system for regulatory compliance
Authors: Peterson Zachary , Burns Randal
Published: August 2005

The ext3cow file system, built on the popular ext3 file system, provides an open-source file versioning and snapshot platform for compliance with the versioning and audtitability requirements of recent electronic record retention legislation. Ext3cow provides a
time-shifting
interface that permits a real-time and continuous view of data in the past. Time-shifting does not pollute the file system namespace nor require snapshots to be mounted as a separate file system. Further, ext3cow is implemented entirely in the file system space and, therefore, does not modify kernel interfaces or change the operation of other file systems. Ext3cow takes advantage of the fine-grained control of on-disk and in-memory data available only to a file system, resulting in minimal degradation of performance and functionality. Experimental results confirm this hypothesis; ext3cow performs comparably to ext3 on many benchmarks and on trace-driven experiments.
Bridging the digital divide: storage media + postal network = generic high-bandwidth communication
Authors: Garg Nitin , Sobti Sumeet , Lai Junwen , Zheng Fengzhou , Li Kai , Wang Randolph Y. , Krishnamurthy Arvind
Published: August 2005

Making high-bandwidth Internet access pervasively available to a large worldwide audience is a difficult challenge, especially in many developing regions. As we wait for the uncertain takeoff of technologies that promise to improve the situation, we propose to explore an approach that is potentially more easily realizable: the use of digital storage media transported by the postal system as a general digital communication mechanism. We shall call such a system a
Postmanet
. Compared to more conventional wide-area connectivity options, the Postmanet has several important advantages, including wide global reach, great bandwidth potential, low cost, and ease of incremental adoption. While the idea of sending digital content via the postal system is not a new one, none of the existing attempts have turned the postal system into a
generic
and
transparent
communication channel that not only can cater to a wide array of applications, but also effectively manage the many idiosyncrasies associated with using the postal system. In the proposed Postmanet, we see two recurring themes at many different levels of the system. One is the simultaneous exploitation of the Internet and the postal system so we can combine their latency and bandwidth advantages. The other is the exploitation of the abundant capacity and bandwidth of the Postmanet to improve its latency, cost, and reliability.
Partitioning and placement for buildable QCA circuits
Authors: Lim Sung Kyu , Ravichandran Ramprasad , Niemier Mike
Published: August 2005

Quantum-dot Cellular Automata (QCA) is a novel computing mechanism that can represent binary information based on spatial distribution of an electron charge configuration in chemical molecules. In this article, we present the first partitioning and placement algorithm for automatic QCA layout. We identify several objectives and constraints that will enhance the buildability of QCA circuits. The results are intended to: (1) define what is computationally interesting and could actually be built within a set of predefined constraints, (2) project what designs will be possible as additional constructs become realizable, and (3) provide a vehicle that we can use to compare QCA systems to silicon-based systems.
Adapting branch-target buffer to improve the target predictability of java code
Authors: Li Tao , Bhargava Ravi , John Lizy Kurian
Published: August 2005

Java programs are increasing in popularity and prevalence on numerous platforms, including high-performance general-purpose processors. The success of Java technology largely depends on the efficiency in executing the portable Java bytecodes. However, the dynamic characteristics of the Java runtime system present unique performance challenges for several aspects of microarchitecture design. In this work, we focus on the effects of indirect branches on branch-target address prediction performance. Runtime bytecode translation, just-in-time (JIT) compilation, frequent calls to the native interface libraries, and dependence on virtual methods increase the frequency of polymorphic indirect branches. Therefore, accurate target address prediction for indirect branches is very important for Java code.This paper characterizes the indirect branch behavior in Java processing and proposes an adaptive branch-target buffer (BTB) design to enhance the predictability of the targets. Our characterization shows that a traditional BTB will frequently mispredict a few polymorphic indirect branches, significantly deteriorating predictor accuracy in Java processing. Therefore, we propose a rehashable branch-target buffer (R-BTB), which dynamically identifies polymorphic indirect branches and adapts branch-target storage to accommodate multiple targets for a branch.The R-BTB improves the target predictability of indirect branches without sacrificing overall target prediction accuracy. Simulations show that the R-BTB eliminates 61% of the indirect branch mispredictions suffered with a traditional BTB for Java programs running in interpreter mode (46% in JIT mode), which leads to a 57% decrease in overall target address misprediction rate (29% in JIT mode). With an equivalent number of entries, the R-BTB also outperforms the previously proposed target cache scheme for a majority of Java programs by adapting to a greater variety of indirect branch behaviors.
Fast and efficient searches for effective optimization-phase sequences
Authors: Kulkarni Prasad A. , Hines Stephen R. , Whalley David B. , Hiser Jason D. , Davidson Jack W. , Jones Douglas L.
Published: August 2005

It has long been known that a fixed ordering of optimization phases will not produce the best code for every application. One approach for addressing this phase-ordering problem is to use an evolutionary algorithm to search for a specific sequence of phases for each module or function. While such searches have been shown to produce more efficient code, the approach can be extremely slow because the application is compiled and possibly executed to evaluate each sequence's effectiveness. Consequently, evolutionary or iterative compilation schemes have been promoted for compilation systems targeting embedded applications where meeting strict constraints on execution time, code size, and power consumption is paramount and longer compilation times may be tolerated in the final stage of development, when an application is compiled one last time and embedded in a product. Unfortunately, even for small embedded applications, the search process can take many hours or even days making the approach less attractive to developers. In this paper, we describe two complementary general approaches for achieving faster searches for effective optimization sequences when using a genetic algorithm. The first approach reduces the search time by avoiding unnecessary executions of the application when possible. Results indicate search time reductions of 62%, on average, often reducing searches from hours to minutes. The second approach modifies the search so fewer generations are required to achieve the same results. Measurements show this approach decreases the average number of required generations by 59%. These improvements have the potential for making evolutionary compilation a viable choice for tuning embedded applications.
Dynamic memory interval test vs. interprocedural pointer analysis in multimedia applications
Authors: Salamí Esther , Valero Mateo
Published: August 2005

Techniques to detect aliasing between access patterns of array elements are quite effective for many numeric applications. However, although multimedia codes usually follow very regular memory access patterns, current commercial compilers remain unsuccessful in disambiguating them due mainly to complex pointer references. The Dynamic Memory Interval Test is a runtime memory disambiguation technique that takes advantage of the specific behavior of multimedia memory access patterns. It evaluates whether or not the full loop is disambiguated by analyzing the region domain of each load or store before each invocation of the loop.This paper provides a detailed evaluation of the approach, compares it against an advanced interprocedural pointer analysis framework, and analyzes the possibility of using both techniques at the same time. Both techniques achieve similar speedups separately (1.25X in average for a 8-issue width architecture). Furthermore, they can be used together to improve performance (reaching an average speed-up of 1.32X). Results also confirm that memory disambiguation is a key optimization to exploit the available parallelism in multimedia codes, especially for wide-issue architectures (1.50X average speed-up when scaling from 4- to 12-issue width in contrast to a low 1.10X for the baseline compiler).
Web-based models for natural language processing
Authors: Lapata Mirella , Keller Frank
Published: August 2005

Previous work demonstrated that Web counts can be used to approximate bigram counts, suggesting that Web-based frequencies should be useful for a wide variety of Natural Language Processing (NLP) tasks. However, only a limited number of tasks have so far been tested using Web-scale data sets. The present article overcomes this limitation by systematically investigating the performance of Web-based models for several NLP tasks, covering both syntax and semantics, both generation and analysis, and a wider range of
n
-grams and parts of speech than have been previously explored. For the majority of our tasks, we find that simple, unsupervised models perform better when
n
-gram counts are obtained from the Web rather than from a large corpus. In some cases, performance can be improved further by using backoff or interpolation techniques that combine Web counts and corpus counts. However, unsupervised Web-based models generally fail to outperform supervised state-of-the-art models trained on smaller corpora. We argue that Web-based models should therefore be used as a baseline for, rather than an alternative to, standard supervised models.
Voice fonts for individuality representation and transformation
Authors: Verma Ashish , Kumar Arun
Published: August 2005

Speaker individuality transformation is used to modify the speech signal's characteristics so that it sounds as if it is spoken by another speaker. Previous methods for individuality transformation use mapping functions which depend upon a pair of speakers. We introduce the paradigm of voice fonts to represent the individuality of a speaker, independent of other speakers. Several objective and subjective tests are conducted to evaluate the performance of the approaches proposed for the voice fonts paradigm. The results show that the voice fonts paradigm enables independent representation of a speaker's individuality and produces equally good quality of transformed speech compared to previous approaches. This independent representation will be useful in important applications which were not possible with previous methods.
Temperature-aware microarchitecture
Authors: Skadron Kevin , Stan Mircea R. , Sankaranarayanan Karthik , Huang Wei , Velusamy Sivakumar , Tarjan David
Published: August 2005

With cooling costs rising exponentially, designing cooling solutions for worst-case power dissipation is prohibitively expensive. Chips that can autonomously modify their execution and power-dissipation characteristics permit the use of lower-cost cooling solutions while still guaranteeing safe temperature regulation. Evaluating techniques for thisdynamic thermal management(DTM), however, requires a thermal model that is practical for architectural studies.This paper describesHotSpot, an accurate yet fast and practical model based on an equivalent circuit of thermal resistances and capacitances that correspond to microarchitecture blocks and essential aspects of the thermal package. Validation was performed using finite-element simulation. The paper also introduces several effective methods for DTM: "temperature-tracking" frequency scaling, "migrating computation" to spare hardware units, and a "hybrid" policy that combines fetch gating with dynamic voltage scaling. The latter two achieve their performance advantage by exploiting instruction-level parallelism, showing the importance of microarchitecture research in helping control the growth of cooling costs.Modeling temperature at the microarchitecture level also shows that power metrics are poor predictors of temperature, that sensor imprecision has a substantial impact on the performance of DTM, and that the inclusion of lateral resistances for thermal diffusion is important for accuracy.
Effects of Low Reynolds Number on Wake‐Generated Unsteady Flow of an Axial‐Flow Turbine Rotor
Authors: Matsunuma Takayuki , Tsutsui Yasukata
Published: August 2005

The unsteady flow field downstream of axial‐flow turbine
rotors at low Reynolds numbers was investigated experimentally
using hot‐wire probes. Reynolds number, based on rotor exit
velocity and rotor chord length Reout,RT, was
varied from 3.2 × 104 to 12.8 × 104 at intervals of
1.0 × 104 by changing the flow velocity of the wind
tunnel. The time‐averaged and time‐dependent distributions of
velocity and turbulence intensity were analyzed to determine the
effect of Reynolds number. The reduction of Reynolds number had a
marked influence on the turbine flow field. The regions of high
turbulence intensity due to the wake and the secondary vortices
were increased dramatically with the decreasing Reynolds number. The
periodic fluctuation of the flow due to rotor‐stator interaction
also increased with the decreasing Reynolds number. The
energy‐dissipation thickness of the rotor midspan wake at the low
Reynolds number Reout,RT = 3.2 × 104 was 1.5

times larger than that at the high Reynolds number Reout,RT = 12.8 × 104. The curve of the −0.2 power of the
Reynolds number agreed with the measured energy‐dissipation
thickness at higher Reynolds numbers. However, the curve of the
−0.4 power law fitted more closely than the curve of the −0.2
power law at lower Reynolds numbers below 6.4 × 104.
Effect of Reynolds Number and Property Variation on Fluid Flow and Heat Transfer in the Entrance Region of a Turbine Blade Internal‐Cooling Channel
Authors: Ben-Mansour R. , Al-Hadhrami L.
Published: August 2005

Internal cooling is one of the effective techniques to
cool turbine blades from inside. This internal cooling is achieved
by pumping a relatively cold fluid through the internal‐cooling
channels. These channels are fed through short channels placed at
the root of the turbine blade, usually called entrance region
channels. The entrance region at the root of the turbine blade
usually has a different geometry than the internal‐cooling channel
of the blade. This study investigates numerically the fluid flow
and heat transfer in one‐pass smooth isothermally heated channel
using the RNG k − ε model. The effect of Reynolds
number on the flow and heat transfer characteristics has been
studied for two mass flow rate ratios (1/1 and 1/2) for the
same cooling channel. The Reynolds number was varied between
10 000 and 50 000. The study has shown that the cooling
channel goes through hydrodynamic and thermal development which
necessitates a detailed flow and heat transfer study to evaluate
the pressure drop and heat transfer rates. For the case of
unbalanced mass flow rate ratio, a maximum difference of 8.9%

in the heat transfer rate between the top and bottom surfaces
occurs at Re = 10 000 while the total heat transfer rate from
both surfaces is the same for the balanced mass flow rate case.
The effect of temperature‐dependent property variation showed a
small change in the heat transfer rates when all properties were
allowed to vary with temperature. However, individual effects can
be significant such as the effect of density variation, which
resulted in as much as 9.6% reduction in the heat transfer
rate.
Unbalance Response Prediction for Rotors on Ball Bearings Using Speed‐ and Load‐Dependent Nonlinear Bearing Stiffness
Authors: Fleming David P. , Poplawski J. V.
Published: August 2005

Rolling‐element bearing forces vary nonlinearly with
bearing deflection. Thus, an accurate rotordynamic analysis
requires that bearing forces corresponding to the actual bearing
deflection be utilized. For this work, bearing forces were
calculated by COBRA‐AHS, a recently developed rolling‐element
bearing analysis code. Bearing stiffness was found to be a strong
function of bearing deflection, with higher deflection producing
markedly higher stiffness. Curves fitted to the bearing data for a
range of speeds and loads were supplied to a flexible rotor
unbalance response analysis. The rotordynamic analysis showed that
vibration response varied nonlinearly with the amount of rotor
imbalance. Moreover, the increase in stiffness as critical speeds
were approached caused a large increase in rotor and bearing
vibration amplitude over part of the speed range compared to the
case of constant‐stiffness bearings. Regions of bistable operation
were possible, in which the amplitude at a given speed was much
larger during rotor acceleration than during deceleration. A
moderate amount of damping will eliminate the bistable region, but
this damping is not inherent in ball bearings.
Comparative Study of Unsteady Flows in a Transonic Centrifugal Compressor with Vaneless and Vaned Diffusers
Authors: Cui Michael M.
Published: August 2005

To reduce vibration and noise level, the impeller and
diffuser blade numbers inside an industrial compressor are
typically chosen without common divisors. The shapes of volutes or
collectors in these compressors are also not axis‐symmetric. When
impeller blades pass these asymmetric structures, the flow field
in the compressor is time‐dependent and three‐dimensional. To
obtain a fundamental physical understanding of these
three‐dimensional unsteady flow fields and assess their impact on
the compressor performance, the flow field inside the compressors
needs to be studied as a whole to include asymmetric and unsteady
interaction between the compressor components. In the current
study, a unified three‐dimensional numerical model was built for a
transonic centrifugal compressor including impeller, diffusers,
and volute. HFC 134a was used as the working fluid. The
thermodynamic and transport properties of the refrigerant gas were
modeled by the Martin‐Hou equation of state and power laws,
respectively. The three‐dimensional unsteady flow field was
simulated with a Navier‐Stokes solver using the k − ε

turbulent model. The overall performance parameters are obtained
by integrating the field quantities. Both the unsteady flow field
and the overall performance are analyzed comparatively for each
component. The compressor was tested in a water chiller system
instrumented to obtain both the overall performance data and local
flow‐field quantities. The experimental and numerical results
agree well. The correlation between the overall compressor
performance and local flow‐field quantities is defined. The
methodology developed and data obtained in these studies can be
applied to the centrifugal compressor design and optimization.
Using Clustered Climate Regimes to Analyze and Compare Predictions from Fully Coupled General Circulation Models
Authors: Hoffman Forrest M. , Hargrove William W. , Erickson David J. , Oglesby Robert J.
Published: August 2005

Changes in Earth’s climate in response to atmospheric greenhouse gas buildup impact the health of terrestrial ecosystems and the hydrologic cycle. The environmental conditions influential to plant and animal life are often mapped as ecoregions, which are land areas having similar combinations of environmental characteristics. This idea is extended to establish regions of similarity with respect to climatic characteristics that evolve through time using a quantitative statistical clustering technique called Multivariate Spatio-Temporal Clustering (MSTC). MSTC was applied to the monthly time series output from a fully coupled general circulation model (GCM) called the Parallel Climate Model (PCM). Results from an ensemble of five 99-yr Business-As-Usual (BAU) transient simulations from 2000 to 2098 were analyzed. MSTC establishes an exhaustive set of recurring climate regimes that form a “skeleton” through the “observations” (model output) throughout the occupied portion of the climate phase space formed by the characteristics being considered. MSTC facilitates direct comparison of ensemble members and ensemble and temporal averages since the derived climate regimes provide a basis for comparison. Moreover, by mapping all land cells to discrete climate states, the dynamic behavior of any part of the system can be studied by its time-varying sequence of climate state occupancy. MSTC is a powerful tool for model developers and environmental decision makers who wish to understand long, complex time series predictions of models. Strong predicted interannual trends were revealed in this analysis, including an increase in global desertification; a decrease in the cold, dry high-latitude conditions typical of North American and Asian winters; and significant warming in Antarctica and western Greenland.
Translatio versus Concessio
Authors: Ellerman David
Published: August 2005

Liberalism is based on the juxtaposition of consent to coercion. Autocracy and slavery were based on coercion whereas today’s political democracy and economic “employment system” are based on consent to voluntary contracts. This article retrieves an almost forgotten dark side of contractarian thought that based autocracy and slavery on explicit or implicit voluntary contracts. The democratic and antislavery movements forged arguments not simply in favor of consent but arguments that voluntary contracts to alienate (translatio) aspects of personhood were invalid—which made the underlying rights inalienable. Once understood, those arguments apply as well to today’s self-rental contract, the employer-employee contract.
Anticipated Support From Neighbors and Physical Functioning During Later Life
Authors: Shaw Benjamin A.
Published: August 2005

This study has two main objectives: (1) to assess age variations in perceived support from neighbors among a nationally representative sample of adults aged 25 to 74 and (2) to examine the association between anticipated support from neighbors and physical functioning within a subsample of older adults. The findings suggest that anticipated support from neighbors is stronger among older adults, primarily because of more frequent contact with neighbors and residential stability. Within the older subsample, an inverse association between perceived support from neighbors and functional limitations is evident. Further analyses show that this association is strongest among those with infrequent contact with family members. No differences in this association were found with respect to marital status. Taken together, it appears that anticipated support from neighbors facilitates the maintenance of functional ability among some older adults. Interventions aiming to promote successful aging by enhancing this source of support should be developed and evaluated.
The Effect of Parent-Child Geographic Proximity on Widowed Parents’ Psychological Adjustment and Social Integration
Authors: Ha Jung-Hwa , Carr Deborah
Published: August 2005

The authors examine the ways that parent-child geographic proximity affects widowed older parents’ psychological well-being and social integration. Analyses are based on the Changing Lives of Older Couples (CLOC) study, a prospective study of 1,532 married individuals aged 65 and older. Compared with those who live more than one hour away from a child, widowed older adults who live with or live within an hour’s drive of their child(ren) report significantly lower levels of psychological distress, after controlling for parent-child relationship quality. However, parents who live with their children are less likely to be integrated into informal networks of friends, neighbors, and relatives. The findings reveal the complex ways that living arrangements and geographic proximity between generations affect bereaved parents’ psychosocial adjustment. This study also suggests ways that bereaved older adults may optimize their support networks during an era marked by high levels of geographic mobility and low fertility.
Determinants of Mortality in Patients with Severe Sepsis
Authors: Johnston Joseph A.
Published: August 2005

Objective . To evaluate the relative importance of predictors of in-hospital mortality in severe sepsis and compare the performance of generic and disease-specific mortality prediction models. Methods . The author used data from all 826 patients receiving placebo in the Recombinant Human Activated Protein C Worldwide Evaluation in Severe Sepsis (PROWESS) trial. After a variety of clinical factors were examined for their univariate association with in-hospital mortality, logistic regression models incorporating successively more inclusive sets of predictors were created and compared. For each model, discrimination was assessed and the relative contribution of each model component to overall model explanatory power evaluated. The accuracy of using the Acute Physiology and Chronic Health Evaluation (APACHE) II score in isolation as an indicator of “high risk” was assessed by comparing model predictions from APACHE-only models to those of disease-specific models. Results . Age, a number of laboratory values, and APACHE II score were significant univariate predictors of mortality. In multivariable models, age and laboratory values contributed the most information to model predictions; the contribution of the APACHE II score, in particular, the acute physiology component, was modest at best. A risk model including only the total APACHE II score had a c-statistic of 0.686, whereas the best performing disease-specific model had a c-statistic of 0.787. Use of the APACHE II score alone to establish high risk versus low risk resulted in misclassification of 26% of patients. Conclusions . Individual severe sepsis patient outcomes depend on an array of clinical predictors. Models incorporating sepsis disease-specific risk factors may predict mortality more accurately than generic ICU severity measures.
A Practical Approach for the Differential Diagnosis of Chronic Leg Pain in the Athlete
Authors: Edwards Peter H. , Wright Michelle L. , Hartman Jodi F.
Published: August 2005

Chronic lower leg pain results from various conditions, most commonly, medial tibial stress syndrome, stress fracture, chronic exertional compartment syndrome, nerve entrapment, and popliteal artery entrapment syndrome. Symptoms associated with these conditions often overlap, making a definitive diagnosis difficult. As a result, an algorithmic approach was created to aid in the evaluation of patients with complaints of lower leg pain and to assist in defining a diagnosis by providing recommended diagnostic studies for each condition. A comprehensive physical examination is imperative to confirm a diagnosis and should begin with an inquiry regarding the location and onset of the patient's pain and tenderness. Confirmation of the diagnosis requires performing the appropriate diagnostic studies, including radiographs, bone scans, magnetic resonance imaging, magnetic resonance angiography, compartmental pressure measurements, and arteriograms. Although most conditions causing lower leg pain are treated successfully with nonsurgical management, some syndromes, such as popliteal artery entrapment syndrome, may require surgical intervention. Regardless of the form of treatment, return to activity must be gradual and individualized for each patient to prevent future athletic injury.
Bispectral Index Monitoring During the Administration of Neuromuscular Blocking Agents in the Pediatric Intensive Care Unit Patient
Authors: Tobias Joseph D. , Grindstaff Ryan
Published: August 2005

Bispectral index (BIS) values were prospectively recorded in pediatric intensive care unit patients receiving continuous infusion of a neuromuscular blocking agent. Sedation was provided by a continuous infusion of midazolam or propofol. The BIS number was recorded by a bedside computer every 10 seconds but was concealed from health care workers. BIS values were recorded for 476 hours (161 893 BIS values) in 12 patients. The BIS number was 50 to 70, 57% of the time; ≤49, 35% of the time; and ≥71, 8% of the time. When supplemental doses of sedatives were administered, the BIS number was >70, 64% of the time; 50 to 70, 31% of the time; and ≤49, 5% of the time. Oversedation was more likely with propofol than midazolam. During the use of neuromuscular blocking agents, oversedation is a common occurrence. Physiologic parameters are not an accurate means of assessing the depth of sedation.
Asset Forfeiture and Police Priorities: The Impact of Program Design on Law Enforcement Activities
Authors: Clingermayer James C. , Hecker Jason , Madsen Sue
Published: August 2005

This article examines the use of asset forfeiture by law enforcement units within the greater Cincinnati area, using the results of a survey distributed among state and local government law enforcement agencies. The analysis reveals what kinds of assets are confiscated, what kind of legal authority is used to accomplish asset forfeiture, and which individuals are involved in the decisions to confiscate assets and to select a particular kind of legal authority under which the forfeiture will be authorized. The data indicate that the use of asset forfeiture does not have a substantial impact on the policing priorities of local agencies. The sampled jurisdictions tend to use either a criminal forfeiture statute as the legal authority for the seizure or a court-imposed settlement to confiscate assets. By using the criminal court process, jurisdictions avoid sharing the value of the assets.
Tumor Necrosis Factor-α and Neuronal Development
Authors: Bessis Alain , Bernard Delphine , Triller Antoine
Published: August 2005

Tumor necrosis factor-α (TNFα) is a prototypic inflammatory cytokine up-regulated in most if not all neurodegenerative diseases. Many studies have reported variable roles in the adult or pathological brain. In contrast, the implication of TNFα in developmental neuronal cell death has been well documented in few studies. In sympathetic and trigeminal neurons, TNFα acts in an autocrine manner to induce immediate cell death on neurotrophic factor deprivation. In the spinal cord, TNFα is transiently produced by macrophages and commits motoneurons to become competent to die 2 days later. TNFα is also likely to induce immediate and delayed prodeath effects in adult and pathological tissues. Data obtained in embryonic systems will thus help to develop new therapeutic approaches to pathological neuronal death in adults.
Nitric Oxide and Adult Neurogenesis in Health and Disease
Authors: Estrada Carmen , Murillo-Carretero Maribel
Published: August 2005

Adult neurogenesis may be functionally important as a mechanism of brain plasticity in physiological conditions and brain repair after injury. Nitric oxide (NO), a diffusible intracellular and intercellular messenger in the mammalian nervous system, has been shown to affect adult neurogenesis in different ways. In the normal brain, NO, synthesized by the neuronal isoform of NO synthase in nitrergic neurons, is a negative regulator of precursor cell proliferation. However, after brain damage, NO overproduction in different neural and nonneural cell types promotes neurogenesis. Recently reported results on the effects of NO on new neuron generation in the adult brain are reviewed, with special attention to the proposed mechanisms of action and functional consequences in health and disease.
To BDNF or Not to BDNF: That Is the Epileptic Hippocampus
Authors: Koyama Ryuta , Ikegaya Yuji
Published: August 2005

Brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF), a member of the neurotrophin family, has drawn much attention as a potential therapeutic target for temporal lobe epilepsy (TLE). TLE seizures are produced by synchronized hyperactivity of neuron populations due to the disruption of a balance between excitatory and inhibitory synaptic transmissions. In epileptogenesis-related brain areas, including the hippocampus, BDNF is up-regulated in the course of the development of epilepsy and induces a collapse of balanced excitation and inhibition, eventually exerting its epileptogenic effects. On the other hand, several reports demonstrate that intrahippocampal infusion of BDNF can attenuate (or retard) the development of epilepsy. This antiepileptogenic effect seems to be mediated mainly by an increase in the expression of neuropeptide Y. These contrasting effects of BDNF have prevented us from concluding whether inhibition or enhancement of BDNF signaling finally achieves the prevention of TLE. To address this question, it is essential to evaluate how BDNF changes its influences depending on conditions, for example, cell specificity, neural networks, and expression timing and loci. In this article, the authors review BDNF-induced acute and long-lasting changes seen in epileptic circuits from the anatomical and functional points of view.
The Optometrist’s Rise to Power in the Health Care Market, or “It’s Optometric Physician, to You”
Authors: Warnock Scott
Published: August 2005

Optometry and ophthalmology have often clashed over scope-of-practice issues. Optometry has won many of these battles and has significantly increased its professional power. While many researchers have analyzed methods of professional empowerment, even in eye care, this study specifically investigates how rhetorical strategies in a field’s professional texts might influence that empowerment. Optometry mobilized itself and elevated its professional status in part through a successful rhetorical campaign beginning in the 1960s. A rhetorical analysis of optometric texts from the 1960s and 1970s reveals (1) the regular use of agonistic, martial rhetoric and (2) not only more serious content but also more serious rhetoric, serving to upgrade the field’s scientific credibility. Through this rhetorical strategy, viewed through Burke’s ideas about rhetoric’s role in identity and division, optometrists constructed an image of medicine as an antagonistic other and used it to unify their members and convince politicians, health providers, and the public that they were qualified for heightened professional responsibilities.
Framing of Kennewick Man against the Backdrop of a Scientific and Cultural Controversy
Authors: Coleman Cynthia-Lou , Dysart Erin V.
Published: August 2005

The authors examine news coverage surrounding the unearthing of an ancient skeleton known as Kennewick Man. The skeleton was the focus of legal arguments from 1996 to 2004, with a group of scientists countering Indian claims that the skeleton should be rightfully repatriated to the North American tribes. The authors take a case-study approach, examining the theoretical underpinnings of scientific and cultural rationality in contemporary ways of knowing and linking them with communitarian ethics offered by Clifford Christians and others. Through an examination of mass media framing, the authors show how coverage has resulted in a discourse that has limited discussion to a division of rationalities. In this case, rationalist and cultural value sunfold with scant attendance to ethical or pluralistic considerations.
Phase Transition and Electric Conductivity of ASnCl3 (A = Cs and CH3NH3)
Authors: Yamada Koji , Kuranaga Yasuhisa , Ueda Keita , Goto Shusaku , Okuda Tsutomu , Furukawa Yoshihiro
Published: August 2005

A first-order phase transition of CsSnCl3 to a cubic perovskite phase was observed at Ttr = 379 K. The electric conductivity increased from 10−6 S cm−1 to 10−3 S cm−1 at the phase transition. The temperature dependence of the electric conductivity and the X-ray diffraction data for CsSnCl3 suggested a reconstructive nature of the phase transition. On the other hand, CH3NH3SnCl3 showed successive phase transitions at 283, 307, 331, and 463 K with increasing temperature. The highest temperature phase belongs to a cubic perovskite structure, and pyramidal SnCl3− anion exists below 465 K having distorted perovskite structures. The 119Sn NMR spectra for CH3NH3SnCl3 supported the coordination change around the Sn atom, and also suggested the onset of chloride-ion diffusion just below the phase-transition temperature to the cubic phase. The activation energy for chloride-ion diffusion was found to be 54 kJ mol−1 by analyzing the temperature dependence of 119Sn NMR T1. The electric conductivity of Cs and CH3NH3 salts, however, is governed by the semiconducting property of these compounds.
Adsorption Equilibria of 1,10-Phenanthroline and Its Fe(II) Complex on Octadecyl-Bonded Silica Gel
Authors: Kato Masanao , Kudo Shio , Hattori Toshiaki
Published: August 2005

Adsorption of 1,10-phenanthroline (phen) and its iron(II) complex (Fe(II)-phen) on octadecyl-bonded silica (ODS) gel from aqueous solution was studied by a batch method. The adsorption isotherms of phen and Fe(II)-phen were Langmiur type. Equilibrium constants for the adsorption reaction were estimated from the adsorption data in the system containing a small amount of adsorbates, in which the adsorption isotherm obeyed Henry’s law. It was clear that the adsorbed species of phen was not only the basic type but also the acidic type: protonated phen. The adsorption behavior in trace amounts (1.79 × 10−5 mol dm−3; 1 ppm) of Fe(II)-phen was analyzed by their equilibrium parameters. The distribution constants of Fe(II)-phen between ODS gel and aqueous solution were determined. The effect of co-existent anions on the adsorption of Fe(II)-phen was discussed from the obtained constants.
Complex Formation between Boric Acid and Triethanolamine in Aqueous Solutions
Authors: Sonoda Akinari , Takagi Norio , Ooi Kenta , Hirotsu Takahiro
Published: August 2005

The complex formation behavior between boric acid and triethanolamine (TEA, H3L) in aqueous solutions was thoroughly examined by 11B NMR spectroscopy. In chloroform, one 11B NMR signal appeared due to triethanolamine borate (TEA-B, L-B) at −4.6 ppm, whereas in aqueous solutions two signals appeared due to TEA-B and a new boron complex at −5.8and −9.5 ppm, respectively, in addition to a signal ascribed to boric acid and borate ion. The area ratios between the signals at −5.8 and −9.5 ppm were almost constant regardless of the molar ratios between boric acid and TEA, suggesting that the new complex is a 1 : 1 complex between boric acid and TEA. Both complexes were stable in aqueous solutions over the pH range of 6.7 to 10.9. Their chemical shift values were constant and independent of the pH value. This also implies that the new complex has a tetrahedral structure around the boron atom, similar to TEA-B. Based on 1H and 13C NMR spectroscopy and a preliminary examination of complexation between boric acid and aminoalkanols, we have concluded that the new complex (NB, HL-B(OH)) is a 1 : 1 boron to TEA complex with a bicyclo[3,3,0]structure having a boron–nitrogen bond.