bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
Low Testosterone Is Associated with Decreased Function and Increased Mortality Risk: A Preliminary Study of Men in a Geriatric Rehabilitation Unit
Authors: Shores Molly M. , Moceri Victoria M. , Gruenewald David A. , Brodkin Kayla I. , Matsumoto Alvin M. , Kivlahan Daniel R. 
Published: November 2004

Objectives: To evaluate whether low testosterone levels are associated with greater depression or poorer function in a geriatric rehabilitation unit.Design: Retrospective review.Setting: Geriatric rehabilitation unit.Measurements: Low testosterone levels were defined as total testosterone of 3.0 ng/mL or less or free testosterone of 9.0 pg/mL or less. Age, ethnicity, weight, depression, ambulation, length of rehabilitation, and 6‐month rehospitalization and mortality rates were obtained. Overall illness severity was determined using the Cumulative Illness Rating Scale for Geriatrics.Results: Low testosterone levels were present in 29 of 44 (65.9%) men. There were no significant differences between men with low and normal testosterone levels in ethnicity, age, weight, depression, and overall illness severity. Lower testosterone levels were correlated with decreased ability to ambulate and transfer (Spearman P>.34; P<.05). There were no significant differences between men with low and normal testosterone in length of stay on the rehabilitation unit (mean±standard deviation= 19.6±11.6 vs 17.7±17.5 days, P=.68) or rehospitalization rates (41.4% vs 26.7%; P=.34). Men with low testosterone had a trend toward increased 6‐month mortality (31.0% vs 6.7%; χ2=3.3, P=.07) and shorter survival time (log rank=3.2; df 1, P=.07). After entering testosterone and variables with potential prognostic significance for mortality in a stepwise manner in a Cox regression analysis, there was a significant mortality risk associated with low testosterone (hazard ratio=27.9, 95% confidence interval=2.0–384.0; P=.01).Conclusion: Low testosterone levels were correlated with decreased physical function and increased risk for 6‐month mortality. Prospective studies with larger sample sizes and better standardized testosterone measures are needed to confirm these findings.
Emergence and Transmission of Amantadine‐Resistant Influenza A in a Nursing Home
Authors: Schilling Margo , Gravenstein Stefan , Drinka Paul , Cox Nancy , Krause Peggy , Povinelli Laura , Shult Peter 
Published: November 2004

Objectives: To prospectively detect amantadine‐resistant influenza when amantadine was used for influenza A outbreak control.Design: Prospective clinical surveillance and viral culture of all new respiratory illnesses during the course of amantadine prophylaxis.Setting: A 721‐bed, 14‐ward nursing home for veterans and spouses during an influenza A outbreak (1993–94).Participants: Residents of a veterans hospital and their spouses.Measurements: Nasopharyngeal and throat viral culture. All residents with positive cultures who developed new respiratory symptoms while receiving or residing on a unit receiving amantadine prophylaxis had antiviral‐resistance testing and polymerase chain reaction restriction analyses performed.Results: Amantadine prophylaxis was administered sequentially on nine of 14 wards to all well residents for 14 to 31 days/ward to control influenza outbreaks between December 9, 1993, and January 28, 1994. Amantadine treatment was simultaneously provided to 29 ill residents. Between December 3, 1993, and January 22, 1994, 68 culture‐positive cases of influenza A were detected. Twenty subjects were receiving or residing on units receiving amantadine prophylaxis. Amantadine sensitivity testing could be performed on 16 residents; 12 residents had amantadine resistant strains. Four of the 12 had not received any antiviral treatment. Illness onset ranged from 1 to 22 days after amantadine prophylaxis was begun on the individual's unit. Two ribonucleic acid (RNA) mutations in the gene coding the M2 protein transmembrane region were observed that were clustered in time and space. Isolates from two roommates, one receiving amantadine for 18 days and one on no antiviral, had identical RNA sequences.Conclusion: Antiviral resistance may be responsible for failure of prophylaxis in nursing home outbreaks. Strategies that use different classes of antivirals for prophylaxis and treatment may limit emergence and transmission of resistant virus.
Subjective Memory Deterioration and Future Dementia in People Aged 65 and Older
Authors: Wang Li , Van Belle Gerald , Crane Paul K. , Kukull Walter A. , Bowen James D. , McCormick Wayne C. , Larson Eric B. 
Published: November 2004

Objectives: To study whether subjective memory deterioration is associated with future dementia in older people.Design: A population‐based prospective cohort study begun in 1994 with biennial follow‐up interviews.Setting: Community‐based members of Group Health Cooperative, a large health maintenance organization in the Seattle area.Participants: A sample of 1,883 subjects, dementia free, aged 65 and older, who scored 91 or higher on the 100‐point Cognitive Ability Screening Instrument (CASI) at study entry.Measurements: Subjective memory was assessed by asking whether memory had changed on 5‐point Likert scales (e.g., 1=definitely improved, 3=no change, 5=definitely deteriorated) with regard to five items: remembering names, faces, friends, and appointments and judging the time. The items were summed for a possible total score ranging from 5 to 25. Subjective memory deterioration was defined as present if the total score was 20 or above. Cognitive performance was measured using the CASI. Incident dementia cases were identified using Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Fourth Edition criteria.Results: Of 1,883 subjects, 126 developed dementia during 5 years of follow‐up. Subjective memory deterioration was associated with cognitive decline and incident dementia. Age modified the association between subjective memory deterioration and future dementia. For persons reporting subjective memory deterioration at the ages of 70, 75, and 80, the hazard ratios of developing dementia were 6.0 (95% confidence interval (CI)=2.1–18), 3.2 (95% CI=1.6–6.2) and 1.6 (95% CI=0.86–3.1), respectively.Conclusion: Subjective memory deterioration was found to precede the development of dementia in older people with normal cognitive screening results. These findings suggest that a high level of subjective memory deterioration in persons with normal objective cognitive function may identify a subset of individuals at greater risk for developing dementia.
Incidence of Loss of Ability to Walk 400 Meters in a Functionally Limited Older Population
Authors: Chang Milan , Cohen‐Mansfield Jiska , Ferrucci Luigi , Leveille Suzanne , Volpato Stefano , De Rekeneire Nathalie , Guralnik Jack M. 
Published: November 2004

Objectives: To assess the incidence of and factors related to nondisabled but functionally limited older adults aged 75 to 85 years losing the ability to walk 400 m.Design: Observational study with average follow‐up of 21 months.Setting: Community.Participants: At baseline, 101 persons with objective signs of functional limitations and intact cognitive function agreed to participate in the study. Of these, 81 were able to walk 400 m at baseline, and 62 participated in the follow‐up examination.Measurements: Mobility disability was defined as an inability to complete a 400‐m walk test. At baseline, eligible participants (n=81) had the ability to walk 400 m, scored between 4 and 9 on the Short Physical Performance Battery (SPPB; range 0–12), and scored 18 or more on the Mini‐Mental State Examination. Demographics, difficulty in daily activities, disease status, behavioral risk factors, and muscle strength were assessed at baseline and follow‐up.Results: Of 62 persons at follow‐up, 21 (33.9%) developed incident mobility disability. The strongest predictors of loss of mobility were the time to complete the 400‐m walk at baseline (odds ratio (OR)=1.6 per 1‐minute difference, 95% confidence interval (CI)=1.04–2.45), and decline in SPPB score over the follow‐up (OR=1.4 per 1‐point difference, 95% CI=1.01–1.92).Conclusion: Older persons with functional limitations have a high rate of loss of ability to walk 400 m. The 400‐m walk test is a highly relevant, discrete outcome that is an ideal target for testing preventive interventions in vulnerable older populations.
Stress and dysmenorrhoea: a population based prospective study
Authors: Wang L , Wang X , Wang W , Chen C , Ronnennberg A G , Guang W , Huang A , Fang Z , Zang T , Wang L , Xu X 
Published: November 2004

Background:Dysmenorrhoea is the most common gynaecological disorder in women of reproductive age. Despite the association between stress and pregnancy outcomes, few studies have examined the possible link between stress and dysmenorrhoea.Aims and Methods:Using a population based cohort of Chinese women, the independent effect of women’s perceived stress in the preceding menstrual cycle on the incidence of dysmenorrhoea in the subsequent cycle was investigated prospectively. The analysis included 1160 prospectively observed menstrual cycles from 388 healthy, nulliparous, newly married women who intended to conceive. The perception of stress and the occurrence of dysmenorrhoea in each menstrual cycle were determined from daily diaries recorded by the women.Results:After adjustment for important covariates, the risk of dysmenorrhoea was more than twice as great among women with high stress compared to those with low stress in the preceding cycle (OR = 2.4; 95% CI 1.4 to 4.3). The risk of dysmenorrhoea was greatest among women with both high stress and a history of dysmenorrhoea compared to women with low stress and no history of dysmenorrhoea (OR = 10.4, 95% CI 4.9 to 22.3). Stress in the follicular phase of the preceding cycles had a stronger association with dysmenorrhoea than stress in the luteal phase of the preceding cycles.Conclusion:This study shows a significant association between stress and the incidence of dysmenorrhoea, which is even stronger among women with a history of dysmenorrhoea.
Study on the relation between occupational fenvalerate exposure and spermatozoa DNA damage of pesticide factory workers
Authors: Bian Q , Xu L C , Wang S L , Xia Y K , Tan L F , Chen J F , Song L , Chang H C , Wang X R 
Published: November 2004

Aims:To determine sperm nuclear DNA integrity and to investigate the relation between fenvalerate (FE) exposure and spermatozoa DNA damage.Methods:Sperm DNA fragmentation was detected by a modified alkaline single cell gel electrophoresis (Comet) assay and a terminal deoxynucleotidyl transferase mediated dUTP nick end labelling (TUNEL) assay. The olive tail moment (OTM) and percentage tail DNA were measured by the Comet assay, and cell positive percentage was measured by the TUNEL assay for DNA damage evaluation.Results:The DNA integrity of spermatozoa of external and internal control groups were both significantly greater than that of the FE exposed group. The median value of tail DNA percentage in the exposure group was 11.30, which was significantly higher than 5.60 in the internal control group and 5.10 in the external control group. The median value of OTM was 3.80 in the exposure group, significantly higher than 1.50 in the internal control group and 2.00 in the external control group. Mean cell positive was 31.2% in the exposure group, significantly higher than 17.4% in the internal control and 19.6% in the external control groups. Cell positive (%) was significantly correlated with tail DNA percentage and with OTM of whole subjects (n = 63).Conclusions:Results showed that occupational FE exposure is associated with an increase in sperm DNA damage. A combination of the Comet and TUNEL assays would offer more comprehensive information for a better understanding of sperm DNA damage, and the biological significance of sperm DNA damage in sperm function and male infertility.
GaAs HBT RELIABILITY
Authors: SUGAHARA HIROHIKO 
Published: November 2004

This paper reviews recent studies on the reliability of GaAs heterojunction bipolar transistors (HBTs), mainly carbon-doped-base AlGaAs/GaAs HBTs, and discusses degradation modes in these devices. The carbon-doped-base AlGaAs/GaAs HBTs generally have more stable current-voltage characteristics than beryllium-doped-base ones. However, even carbon-doped-base HBTs show a decrease in the current gain due to an anomalous increase in the base current that occurs under high-current stress. The estimated ohmic contacts of these HBTs show that their stability is high enough under actual operating conditions. Bias stress testing has shown that two factors dominate the reliability of carbon-doped-base AlGaAs/GaAs HBTs: the material and the passivation. HBTs with an AlGaAs surface passivation layer on the extrinsic base region exhibit a longer life than those without one. The base current ideality factor of short-lived HBTs increases to larger than 2 during bias stress testing, suggesting that the origin of the excess base current cannot be simply explained by a space-charge recombination process. The reported activation energies are distributed around 0.5 eV, which is almost the same as those for AlGaAs/GaAs laser diodes. Cross-sectional TEM analysis has revealed that current-induced defects are formed in the base layer. The indium-incorporated-base HBTs show a median life of longer than 15,000 hours at a junction temperature of 215°C with a collector current density of 50 kA/cm 2, implying that GaAs HBTs have sufficient reliability for very-high-speed communication systems.
QCD AND ASYMPTOTIC FREEDOM: PERSPECTIVES AND PROSPECTS
Authors: WILCZEK FRANK 
Published: November 2004

QCD is now a mature theory, and it is possible to begin to view its place in the conceptual universe of physics with an appropriate perspective. There is a certain irony in the achievements of QCD. For the problems which initially drove its development — specifically, the desire to understand in detail the force that holds atomic nuclei together, and later the desire to calculate the spectrum of hadrons and their interactions — only limited insight has been achieved. However, I shall argue that QCD is actually more special and important a theory than one had any right to anticipate. In many ways, the importance of the solution transcends that of the original motivating problems. After elaborating on these quasiphilosophical remarks, I discuss two current frontiers of physics that illustrate the continuing vitality of the ideas. The recent wealth of beautiful precision experiments measuring the parameters of the standard model have made it possible to consider the unification of couplings in unprecedented quantitative detail. One central result emerging from these developments is a tantalizing hint of virtual supersymmetry. The possibility of phase transitions in matter at temperatures of order ~102 MeV, governed by QCD dynamics, is of interest from several points of view. Besides having a certain intrinsic grandeur, the question “Does the nature of matter change qualitatively, as it is radically heated?” is important for cosmology, relevant to planned high-energy heavy-ion collision experiments, and provides a promising arena for numerical simulations of QCD. Recent numerical work seems to be consistent with expectations suggested by renormalization group analysis of the potential universality classes of the QCD chiral phase transition; specifically, that the transition is second-order for two species of massless quarks but first order otherwise. There is an interesting possibility of long-range correlations in heavy ion collisions due to the creation of large regions of the misaligned chiral condensate. Finally, at the end, there is a brief discussion on the relation between scaling violations and running of the coupling. Some statements made later in the conference seemed to indicate that the relationship between these concepts is commonly misunderstood, so I’m smuggling this bit in even though it wasn’t part of the original talk.
LOW Q2, HIGH ν NEUTRINO PHYSICS (CVC, PCAC, HADRON DOMINANCE)
Authors: KOPELIOVICH B.Z. , MARAGE P. 
Published: November 2004

A critical review is given of the main theoretical bases and of the experimental results of neutrino physics at low four-momentum transfer (Q2≤1 GeV 2) and high energy transfer (ν≥a few GeV). The theoretical predictions for the vector current are first presented, using the CVC hypothesis and the hadron dominance model of Piketty and Stodolsky. The predictions for the axial current at very small Q2 values are discussed on the basis of the PCAC hypothesis (Adler’s theorem), and extended for Q2≲1 GeV 2 in the lines of hadron dominance; the structure of the longitudinal component of the axial current is particularly discussed. Experimental data on neutrino and antineutrino interactions on nucleons are reviewed, in particular the total cross sections, which provide good tests of the PCAC hypothesis and of the model of Piketty and Stodolsky; also reviewed are the data on diffractive production of π, ρ and a1 mesons. The observation of shadowing, from the comparison of the total cross sections of neutrinos and antineutrinos on neon and deuterium nuclei, is discussed in detail with emphasis on the predictions of the PCAC hypothesis, in the framework of the Glauber-Gribov model. Finally a review is given of the results on coherent neutrino and antineutrino interactions on atomic nuclei: • π meson production, by charged and neutral currents in several experiments, providing a detailed test of the PCAC hypothesis; • ρ meson production, providing a test of the CVC hypothesis in weak interactions; • a1 meson or nonresonant ρπ system production, allowing the study of the weak axial current structure.
A TWO-DIMENSIONAL SHAPE RECOGNITION SCHEME BASED ON PRINCIPAL COMPONENT ANALYSIS
Authors: CHANG CHIN-CHEN , CHEN YAW-WEN , BUEHRER DANIEL JAMES 
Published: November 2004

In this paper, we propose a simple, but efficient method to recognize two-dimensional shapes without regard to their translation, rotation, and scaling factors. In our scheme, we use all of the boundary points to calculate the first principal component, which is the first shape feature. Next, by dividing the boundary points into groups by projecting them onto the first principal component, each shape is partitioned into several blocks. These blocks are processed separately to produce the remaining shape features. In shape matching, we compare two shapes by calculating the difference between the two sets of features to see whether the two shapes are similar or not. The amount of storage used to represent a shape in our method is fixed, unlike most other shape recognition schemes. The time complexity of our shape matching algorithm is also O(n), where n is the number of blocks. Therefore, the matching algorithm takes little computation time, and is independent of translation, rotation, and scaling of shapes.
INTEGRATION OF GEOMETRIC AND NON-GEOMETRIC ATTRIBUTES FOR FAST OBJECT RECOGNITION
Authors: GREWE LYNNE , KAK AVI 
Published: November 2004

Both man-made and natural objects are described by both their geometric shapes and by their non-geometric attributes such as color. The objective of the proposed research is to create a system which integrates geometric and non-geometric attribute information for fast 3D model-based object recognition. Hashing is employed in a hypothesize and verify approach to the 3D model-based object recognition problem. Viewpoint independent attributes are used in the hypothesis generation stage to eliminate model objects from consideration during hypothesis formation. Utilizing more than one attribute in the proposed hashing scheme helps to ensure a reduction in the actual execution time for object recognition over a larger number of model bases. A nice feature of the system is that new object attributes can be added with relative ease. Issues concerning the ranking of attributes by their distinctiveness with respect to the objects in the model base are discussed. Current work on the use of an information theoretic measure in the design of an optimal multiple attribute hash table is presented.
MATISSE: A KNOWLEDGE-BASED TEAM PROGRAMMING ENVIRONMENT
Authors: GARG PANKAJ K. , PHAM THUAN Q. , BEACH BRIAN , DESHPANDE ANAND , ISHIZAKI AUDREY , WENTZEL KEVIN , FONG WENDY 
Published: November 2004

The downstream activities of large scale software systems life-cycle require team effort of several people over extended time periods. Current computing environments, exemplified by Unix, provide limited support for such team activities. Matisse is a knowledge-based team programming environment that addresses this issue. Matisse models source code, associated documents, people, and tasks as objects in an information system. Relationships between these objects provide associative information retrieval and navigational support; rules defined on object attributes facilitate team coordination and configuration management. We describe the design, implementation, and experimental use of Matisse. Matisse represents a novel information management architecture for team programming: It uses database technology for team information management and expert system technology for individual information management; some experimental data on accesses from the individual to the team information space is presented. Three hard scenarios: semiautomatic design history maintenance, dynamic object composition, and adaptive use of existing software, illustrate the power of Matisse, with respect to team programming, over traditional programming environments.
THE ANCIENT AND MEDIEVAL SOURCES FOR THE EMPEROR JULIAN'S ATTEMPT TO REBUILD THE JERUSALEM TEMPLE
Authors: Levenson David 
Published: November 2004

AbstractThis article attempts to provide a complete inventory and brief sourcecritical analysis of the more than fifty sources from the fourth through the fourteenth century, representing a wide variety of literary genres and cultural contexts, that report the Emperor Julian's attempt to rebuild the Jerusalem Temple. By identifying the immediate sources of most of the accounts and discussing the complex relationships among others, the analysis is able to clarify specific historical and historiographical issues, as well, to establish afirmer basis for further research on the event itself, the sources, methods and Tendenzen of the individual works in which it is found, and the literary and ideological factors influencing the history of a tradition which has played an important role in Jewish-Christian relations.