cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Complications following tension-band fixation of patellar fractures with cannulated screws compared with Kirschner wires.

Background: Displaced patellar fractures are commonly stabilized with a modified anterior tension-band construct. The goal of the current study was to compare the incidence of complications after tension-band fixation of the patella with Kirschner wires as compared with cannulated screws. Methods: We performed a retrospective cohort study of consecutive, surgically treated patellar fractures. Patients were divided into two cohorts: fractures fixed with use of Kirschner wires and fractures fixed with use of cannulated screws. The primary outcome measure was early loss of fixation that necessitated revision surgery. Secondary outcomes included early postoperative infection and the need for implant removal. Results: Four hundred and forty-eight patellar fractures were studied. Kirschner wires were used for fixation in 315 (70%), and cannulated screws were used for fixation in 133 (30%). The incidence of fixation failure was 3.5% in the Kirschner-wire group and 7.5% in the screw group (p = 0.065). A postoperative infection occurred in 4.4% of patients in the Kirschner-wire group and 1.5% of patients in the screw group (p = 0.17). One hundred sixteen (37%) patients in the Kirschner-wire group and 30 (23%) in the screw group underwent elective implant removal (p = 0.003). After adjusting for confounding variables, a trend toward increased incidence of fixation failure with screws as compared with Kirschner wires was present (p = 0.083). Patients treated with Kirschner wires were twice as likely to undergo implant removal compared with those treated with screws (p = 0.002). Conclusions: Serious complications are uncommon following treatment of patellar fractures with a modified tension-band technique, with use of either Kirschner wires or cannulated screws. In both groups the rate of fixation failure was low, as was the rate of postoperative infection. Symptomatic implants, the most common complication observed, were twice as frequent in patients treated with Kirschner wires. Level of Evidence: Therapeutic Level III. See Instructions for Authors for a complete description of levels of evidence.
The influence of apolipoprotein E genotype on visuospatial attention dissipates after age 80.

Although it is established that the apolipoprotein E (APOE) e4 allele increases the risk of Alzheimer’s disease (AD), epidemiological studies indicate that genetic risk decreases late in life. This raises the question of whether the effects of APOE on cognition which are seen in midlife arise from a cognitive phenotype of APOE or from the presence of early AD in some APOE-e4 carriers. We addressed this question by comparing the cognitive consequences of variation in the APOE gene between individuals over the age of 80 (old-old) and middle-aged and young-old individuals. A spatially cued discrimination paradigm – previously shown to be sensitive to AD and to APOE genotype – required a speeded categorization of a target letter following cues that were valid, invalid, or neutral in predicting target location. Results revealed greater costs of invalid cues in the APOE-e4 carriers of middle-aged and young-old, but not old-old, groups. The dissipation of the APOE effect in old-old individuals at lower risk of AD suggests that visuospatial attention impairments seen as early as midlife in APOE-e4 carriers may be a preclinical marker of AD.
Global emission projections of particulate matter (PM): II. Uncertainty analyses of on-road vehicle exhaust emissions

Abstract Estimates of future emissions are necessary for understanding the future health of the atmosphere, designing national and international strategies for air quality control, and evaluating mitigation policies. Emission inventories are uncertain and future projections even more so, thus it is important to quantify the uncertainty inherent in emission projections. This paper is the second in a series that seeks to establish a more mechanistic understanding of future air pollutant emissions based on changes in technology. The first paper in this series (Yan et al., 2011) described a model that projects emissions based on dynamic changes of vehicle fleet, Speciated Pollutant Emission Wizard-Trend, or SPEW-Trend. In this paper, we explore the underlying uncertainties of global and regional exhaust PM emission projections from on-road vehicles in the coming decades using sensitivity analysis and Monte Carlo simulation. This work examines the emission sensitivities due to uncertainties in retirement rate, timing of emission standards, transition rate of high-emitting vehicles called “superemitters”, and emission factor degradation rate. It is concluded that global emissions are most sensitive to parameters in the retirement rate function. Monte Carlo simulations show that emission uncertainty caused by lack of knowledge about technology composition is comparable to the uncertainty demonstrated by alternative economic scenarios, especially during the period 2010–2030.
An examination of fire spread thresholds in discontinuous fuel beds

Many fuel beds, especially live vegetation canopies (conifer forests, shrub fields, bunch-grasses) contain gaps between vegetation clumps. Fires burning in these fuel types often display thresholds for spread that are observed to depend on environmental factors like wind, slope, and fuel moisture content. To investigate threshold spread behaviours, we conducted a set of laboratory burn experiments in artificial fuel beds where gap structure, depth, and slope were controlled. Results revealed that fire spread was limited by gap distance and that the threshold distance for spread was increased for deeper fuel beds and steeper slopes. The reasons for this behaviour were found using a high-speed thermal camera. Flame movements recorded by the camera at 120 Hz suggested fuel particles experience intermittent bathing of non-steady flames before ignition and that fuel particles across the gap ignited only after direct flame contact. The images also showed that the flame profile within the fuel bed expands with height, producing greater horizontal flame displacement in deeper beds. Slope, thus, enhances spread by increasing the effective depth in the uphill direction, which produces wider flames, and thereby increases the potential flame contact. This information suggests that fire spread across discontinuous fuel beds is dependent on the vertical flame profile geometry within the fuel bed and the statistical properties of flame characteristics.
Connective tissue responses in blacks in relation to disease: further observations.

Additional information is presented in support of the hypothesis (Polednak: Am. J. Phys. Anthropol, 41:49–58, 1974) that in some black populations certain connective-tissue responses, which are involved in protection against infection and repair after injury, also may predispose to specific chronic diseases. These diseases include some autoimmune disorders (i.e., systemic lupus erythematosus, sarcoidosis, and scleroderma) and various benign and malignant tumors involving connective-tissue cells. Complex interactions between genetic factors (HLA and non-HLA loci) and environmental agents may be involved both in the etiology of these autoimmune diseases and in population differences in the incidence of these diseases. A framework is reviewed whereby cellular responses to infectious agents, involving chiefly immunoglobulin-producing cells and macrophages, may have consequences in terms of pathogenesis of specific chronic diseases more common in some black populations. The possible role of natural selection in maintaining some of these diseases is also considered, along with the need for involvement of biomedical anthropologists in their investigation.
On the scalability of data-parallel decomposition algorithms for stochastic programs

Abstract This paper develops a data-parallel implementation of the L-shaped decomposition algorithm for stochastic linear programs with recourse. The algorithm decomposes the problem into independent scenario subproblems that are solved concurrently. These subproblems are structurally identical and can be solved on SIMD machines, such as the Connection Machine CM-2. The coordinating master program is a dense linear program and is solved efficiently by spreading its non-zero coefficients among multiple processors and using dense linear algebra subroutines. The parallel solution of the master program removes the serial bottleneck of the algorithm. The resulting implementation achieves good speed-ups and is scalable. Numerical results on the Connection Machine CM-2 and comparisons with a benchmark control-parallel implementation are included.
Mechanism of suppression in drosophila: Evidence for a macromolecule produced by the su(s)+ locus that inhibits sepiapterin synthase

Abstract Genetic suppression was studied in the purple mutant of Drosophila melanogaster and in suppressed purple by measurement of sepiapterin synthase activity. The addition of ammonium sulfate fractions from adult Drosophila that contain one, two, three or four doses of su(s) + to the suppressed purple sepiapterin synthase resulted in an inhibition that increased progressively as the dosage of su(s) + increased; the wild-type sepiapterin synthase was not inhibited. This inhibition is caused by a heat-labile macromolecule. W e suggest that the mechanism of suppression is neither transcriptional nor translational but is the result of decreased amounts, or altered properties, of the normal product of the su(s) + locus when su(s) + is replaced by su(s) 2 or su(s) e6
On the statistical, quantum and practical mechanics of electrostatic atomization

Abstract Theory, corroborated by experiment, shows that the behavior of intense electrostatic sprays involving droplet sizes above one micron and probably under all circumstances, is defined by the mechanics of free charge on the spray droplet surface. Circumstantial evidence suggests that spray characteristics are ultimately traceable to a meso-scale quantum mechanical process. A condensed overview of this first-principles model is presented, with particular attention being paid to the implications this has for the engineering development of spray devices. It is shown that the mean droplet diameter of Newtonian liquid sprays involving spray droplet sizes larger than a micron is solely a function of fluid charging level, independent of all fluid and device related properties. This fact forms the basis for the development of a new class of atomizers based on direct charge injection. Charge injection atomizers are capable of providing electrostatic sprays at essentially unlimited flow rates and arbitrary, selectable droplet sizes. The theory and practice of these devices is described.
Proposed role of septohippocampal and pallido-habenulo-raphe systems in photoperiodic time measurement.

Abstract The neuroanatomic substrate for mammalian photoperiodic time measurement (PTM), a primary requirement for appropriately timed seasonal reproductive function, is unknown. It is suggested that the ‘comparator’ of successive day lengths previously postulated as necessary for PTM may be located within the septohippocampal system, output from which is then directed to reproductive-system response elements by way of several possible routes including the pallido-habenulo-raphe conduction line. PTM thus requires the integration of an invariant, context-free circadian function subserved by the well-known melatonin-generating system with a flexible, context-dependent extracircadian function subserved by the septohippocampal system. The context-dependent neuronal network endows reproductive-system responses with the ability to be modulated by previous photoperiodic history, an ability not possessed by the context-free circadian network proper. Several suggestions for testing the validity of the proposed model are offered.
Effect of emulsion drop-size distribution upon coalescence in simple shear flow: A population balance study

A population balance is used to examine the effect of the shape of the initial drop-size distribution of an emulsion upon its short and long-time evolution in simple shear flow. Initial distributions that are monodisperse, multidisperse, lognormal, bimodal, multimodal, and step functions are considered. At short times, it is shown that the rate of coalescence decreases by up to 25% for step distributions and up to 75% for lognormal distributions as the width of the distribution increases. Bimodal, multidisperse and multimodal distributions show intermediate decreases in the rate of coalescence, between these two values, with increases in the distribution width. Furthermore, it is found that the initial rate of coalescence is strongly dependent upon the presence of large drops. As the number fraction of large droplets within the distribution increases, the rate of coalescence also increases. At long times, all distributions move toward an asymptotic distribution shape in which the frequency of drops decreases algebraically with drop diameter at small drop diameters, and decreases exponentially with drop diameter at large drop diameters. Though portions of each distribution showed the expected asymptotic scaling behavior at long times, each asymptotic distribution nevertheless retains 'fingerprints' of the respective initial distribution. Overall, the rate of coalescence for a system is bounded by the initial rate, which is a function of the initial distribution shape, and the asymptotic rate, which is dependent upon the long-time scaling behavior. Finally, it is shown that the resolution with which the drop-size distribution of an emulsion is experimentally measured can have a significant effect upon predicted rates of coalescence.
A review of interictal cerebral blood flow in the evaluation of patients for epilepsy surgery

The literature on cerebral blood flow (CBF) studies in patients with epilepsy is critically reviewed. Two methods are specifically addressed, radioactive xenon delivered through inhalation or vascularly, and single photon emission computed tomography (SPECT) using various tracers. Both regional and global blood flow were used in these studies to assess focal and generalized seizures. Electroencephalogram (EEG) foci were determined by various techniques, including interictal and ictal recordings from scalp or intracranial electrodes. All studies reported a positive concordance between EEG foci and CBF. However, there was a high incidence of false positive and false negative results. The methodology of almost all of the studies was inadequate to assess accurately the sensitivity and specificity of CBF to localize the seizure focus. Even when conservative estimates were made, the sensitivity and specificity of CBF was too low to be used as a diagnostic test for epilepsy, and inadequate to localize the EEG focus in the evaluation of patients for epilepsy surgery.
Regulating the emerging: a policy discourse analysis of mixed martial arts legislation

Policy discourse analysis has emerged as a tool for gaining a systematic understanding of the policy process and enhancing consequent outcomes, including for sport policies. In a federal system of government, there are a multitude of settings within a country to examine the formulation of public policy. As a result, there are opportunities for government bodies to adapt policies created by other government bodies in the same country. Narrative and interpretive methods for policy analysis are used to illustrate the policy process that regulated mixed martial arts in the United States. By analysing three policy contexts, it is demonstrated how the policy discourse evolved over time with the interaction of institutions, legitimations, stakeholders and the sociopolitical climate. By examining the lobbying efforts of the dominant organization seeking to govern the sport, the Ultimate Fighting Championship, it is shown how a sport organization can proactively work with governments rather than resist government ...
Activity‐based mass spectrometric characterization of proteases and inhibitors in human saliva

Proteases present in oral fluid effectively modulate the structure and function of some salivary proteins and have been implicated in tissue destruction in oral disease. To identify the proteases operating in the oral environment, proteins in pooled whole saliva supernatant were separated by anion-exchange chromatography and individual fractions were analyzed for proteolytic activity by zymography using salivary histatins as the enzyme substrates. Protein bands displaying proteolytic activity were particularly prominent in the 50-75 kDa region. Individual bands were excised, in-gel trypsinized and subjected to LC/ESI-MS/MS. The data obtained were searched against human, oral microbial and protease databases. A total of 13 proteases were identified all of which were of mammalian origin. Proteases detected in multiple fractions with cleavage specificities toward arginine and lysine residues, were lactotransferrin, kallikrein-1, and human airway trypsin-like protease. Unexpectedly, ten protease inhibitors were co-identified suggesting they were associated with the proteases in the same fractions. The inhibitors found most frequently were alpha-2-macroglobulin-like protein 1, alpha-1-antitrypsin, and leukocyte elastase inhibitor. Regulation of oral fluid proteolysis is highly important given that an inbalance in such activities has been correlated to a variety of pathological conditions including oral cancer.
Double-Layer Systems at Zero Magnetic Field

We investigate theoretically the effects of intralayer and interlayer exchange in biased double-layer electron and hole systems, in the absence of a magnetic field. We use a variational Hartree-Fock-like approximation to analyze the effects of layer separation, layer density, tunneling, and applied gate voltages on the layer densities and on interlayer phase coherence. In agreement with earlier work, we find that for very small layer separations and low layer densities, an interlayer-correlated ground state possessing spontaneous interlayer coherence (SILC) is obtained, even in the absence of interlayer tunneling. In contrast to earlier work, we find that as a function of total density, there exist four, rather than three, distinct noncrystalline phases for balanced double-layer systems without interlayer tunneling. The newly identified phase exists for a narrow range of densities and has three components and slightly unequal layer densities, with one layer being spin polarized, and the other unpolarized. An additional two-component phase is also possible in the presence of sufficiently strong bias or tunneling. The lowest-density SILC phase is the fully spin- and pseudospin-polarized ``one-component'' phase discussed by Zheng {\it et al.} [Phys. Rev. B {\bf 55}, 4506 (1997)]. We argue that this phase will produce a finite interlayer Coulomb drag at zero temperature due to the SILC. We calculate the particle densities in each layer as a function of the gate voltage and total particle density, and find that interlayer exchange can reduce or prevent abrupt transfers of charge between the two layers. We also calculate the effect of interlayer exchange on the interlayer capacitance.
Societal marketing — implications for tourism destinations

This paper examines the concept of societal marketing within a tourism destination framework. It points out the marketing implications for tourism destinations if they are to balance the marketing concept of customer satisfaction with the societal marketing orientation of consumer and societal well-being.
A Riemann–Roch formula for the blow-up of a nonsingular affine scheme

The main purpose of this paper is to obtain the Hilbert–Samuel polynomial of a module via blowing up and applying intersection theory rather than employing associated graded objects. The result comes in the form of a concrete Riemann–Roch formula for the blow-up of a nonsingular affine scheme at its closed point. To achieve this goal, we note that the blow-up sits naturally between two projective spaces, one over a field and one a regular local ring, and then apply the Grothendieck–Riemann–Roch Theorem to each containment.
Integrating the UMLS into an RDF-Based Biomedical Knowledge Repository.

(BKR), which serves as background knowledge for applica-tions including knowledge discovery and multi-document summarization [1]. The BKR integrates relations extracted from the biomedical literature (e.g., Medline citations) and from structured knowl-edge sources (e.g., Entrez Gene). It will also host relations contributed by external collaborators. Effective warehouse knowledge integration requires the entities and relationships from various sources to be identified in reference to a common vocabulary. In this project, the Unified Medical Language System (UMLS) serves as the basis for identifying biomedi-cal entities and relationships. For this reason, we first need to seed the BKR with UMLS concepts. Addi-tionally, the UMLS is a source of terminological knowledge and we also want to integrate into the BKR the large set of terminological relations, sym-bolic and statistical, present in the UMLS Metathe-saurus. The current pilot BKR uses the Semantic Web tech-nology RDF (Resource Description Framework) for its representation. In practice, the BKR is a large graph whose nodes are UMLS concepts and whose edges represent the relations extracted from various sources. In this abstract, we briefly discuss several aspects of the process of importing the concepts and relations from the UMLS into an RDF-based reposi-tory. Our goal is not to represent all the features pre-sent in the UMLS.
University Students’ Conceptualization and Interpretation of Topographic Maps

This study investigates the strategies and assumptions that college students entering an introductory physical geology laboratory use to interpret topographic maps, and follows the progress of the students during the laboratory to analyze changes in those strategies and assumptions. To elicit students’ strategies and assumptions, we created and refined a topographic visualization test that was administered before and after instruction to 26 students during the first semester of the study and to 92 students during the second semester. To more deeply understand how students think about and conceptualize topographic maps, we focused on eight individual students who were interviewed about their pretest and posttest answers as well as videotaped during three laboratory sessions. We found that even students who claim never to have worked with topographic maps often perform impressively on their pretests by making useful assumptions about symbolic topographic information. Some students, however, begin with less ...
Technical efficiency of for-profit and non-profit nursing homes

This paper employs data envelopment analysis to generate efficiency indices for individual nursing homes relative to a best-practice frontier. Further analysis then shows that these ‘unadjusted’ indices represent factors other than efficiency. Regression analysis purges the indices of these confounding influences. The resulting ‘adjusted’ efficiency indices demonstrate that for-profit homes have higher mean levels of efficiency and a more efficient production frontier than non-profit homes. These results support the property rights hypothesis that forprofit homes are inherently more efficient than non-profit ones.
Sarcopenia: Assessment of Muscle Mass

Despite general information that skeletal muscle mass is the largest organ in the body and despite increased awareness of the importance of skeletal muscle in biological function, methods and techniques for its routine assessment in humans are generally lacking. One important reason for the paucity of assessment tools is the relative lack of direct data on anatomical skeletal muscle mass in humans.
Protein quality of West African foods

The amino acid composition of regional West African diets were examined. Four amino acids tended to limit the quality of West African diets. These were methionine and cystine, lysine and isoleucine. The difference in availability of these amino acids were shown on maps. In the humid parts of West Africa most of the dietary regimens were severely limited in protein quality by the sulfur amino acids, and the intake of all amino acids and total protein tended to be low. In some regions, isoleucine was found to be as equally limiting as the sulfur amino acids. The relative lysine content of most West African diets was found to be marginal, but never as severely limiting as the sulfur amino acids in certain regions.
Plato's Paragon of Human Excellence: Socratic Philosopher and Civic Guardian

Literary and analytical approaches to the study of Plato have seldom converged in anything resembling a consensus. But recent proponents of these divergent modes of interpretation do concur in finding a number of anomalies in the Republic's portrait of the philosopher king. These anomalies, if authentic, would suffice to discredit the dialogue's paragon of human excellence, leaving readers to wonder whether Plato himself could have believed in the existence of any nonarbitrary standard of righteousness. Reexamining the textual evidence, I resolve these supposed anomalies and show that Socrates' account of the model ruler is both logically coherent and perfectly compatible with his own practice of philosophy. The philosopher king is a civic guardian in the most elevated or precise sense and also a genuine Socratic. But even this exalted harmonization of political and philosophical virtue does not constitute the “greatest lesson” of The Republic. That designation is reserved for a still loftier and more des...
Antioxidant Superoxide Dismutase Attenuates Increased Endothelial Permeability Induced By Platelet-Activating Factor:

To study the protective effects of the antioxidant superoxide dismutase (SOD) against platelet-activating factor (PAF)-induced endothelial permeability. Endothelial cells (ECs) were isolated from human umbilical veins from normal pregnancies. The first passage (P1) ECs were grown in polycarbonate transwell filters. Confluent ECs were incubated with PAF at concentrations of 2, 5, and 10 microgram/mL for 2 hours or pretreated with superoxide dismutase. Endothelial monolayer permeability was then measured by EC electrical resistance or by the leakage of horseradish peroxide (HRP) passing through filters. Endothelial junctional protein distribution and expression of VE-cadherin and occludin were determined by fluorescent staining of endothelial monolayer and by Western blot analysis. mRNA expressions for VE-cadherin and occludin were determined by reverse transcriptase-polymerase chain reaction. Data are expressed as Omega. cm(2) for electrical resistance and DeltaOD 470 nm for HRP assay and presented as mean +/- standard error of the mean. Analysis of variance was used for statistical analysis. A P value less than.05 was considered statistically significant. Endothelial cell electrical resistance was decreased and HRP leakage was increased in ECs treated with PAF. Intercellular gaps were formed at cell contact regions in ECs treated with PAF, as evaluated by staining of junctional protein VE-cadherin and occludin. The functional changes of the EC barrier and the formation of intercellular gaps induced by PAF were concentration dependent, which could be partially attenuated by pretreatment of ECs with SOD. Total cellular junctional protein expression and mRNA expression of VE-cadherin and occludin were not affected by PAF. Increased EC monolayer permeability induced by platelet-activating factor is associated with disorganization of EC junctional protein distribution of VE-cadherin and occludin. Superoxide dismutase partially attenuated the PAF-induced increased endothelial monolayer permeability, which suggests that oxidative stress might be involved in the process of PAF-induced disturbances of endothelial barrier function.
Cytomegalovirus UL91 Is Essential for Transcription of Viral True Late (γ2) Genes

Human cytomegalovirus-encoded UL91 is a betagamma gene that is essential for viral replication. Here we show that the 111-amino-acid (aa) UL91 protein controls accumulation of true-late (γ2) viral transcripts. The primate betaherpesvirus conserved N-terminal region from aa 1 to 71 is sufficient to fully reconstitute function. Evaluation of viral DNA, RNA, and antigen revealed that UL91 protein is expressed with leaky-late (γ1) kinetics, localizes in the nucleus without influencing viral DNA synthesis, and must be present from 48 h postinfection to support full expression of late viral transcripts and proteins. In the absence of UL91, viral capsid assembly in the nucleus of infected cells is significantly reduced, and mature, cytoplasmic virions fail to form. Taken together, the evidence shows that UL91 regulates late viral gene expression by a mechanism that is apparently conserved in betaherpesviruses and gammaherpesviruses.
NASA'S Robotic Lunar Lander Development Project

Abstract Over the last 5 years, NASA has invested in development and risk-reduction activities for a new generation of planetary landers capable of carrying instruments and technology demonstrations to the lunar surface and other airless bodies. The Robotic Lunar Lander Development Project (RLLDP) is jointly implemented by NASA Marshall Space Flight Center (MSFC) and the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory (APL). The RLLDP team has produced mission architecture designs for multiple airless body missions to meet both science and human precursor mission needs. The mission architecture concept studies encompass small, medium, and large landers, with payloads from a few tens of kilograms to over 1000 kg, to the Moon and other airless bodies. To mature these concepts, the project has made significant investments in technology risk reduction in focused subsystems. In addition, many lander technologies and algorithms have been tested and demonstrated in an integrated systems environment using free-flying test articles. These design and testing investments have significantly reduced development risk for airless body landers, thereby reducing overall risk and associated costs for future missions.
Comparing different thresholding algorithms for segmenting auroras

Extracting aurora oval boundary from spacecraft UV imagery is not a trivial problem. The distinction between aurora and background varies depending on the factors such as the date, time of the day, and satellite position. Thresholding technique is a well-known technique for detecting aurora boundary from satellite imagery. In this study, three distinct thresholding algorithms, mixture modeling, fuzzy sets and entropy thresholding were applied to a selected set of UV images measured on board Polar satellite to examine their effectiveness in aurora boundary detection. Two thresholding approaches were taken: global thresholding and adaptive thresholding. As expected, adaptive thresholding approach showed better results. In addition to these algorithms, another new algorithm (edge-based) was examined using adaptive approach. This thresholding algorithm detects aurora oval by identifying the boundary transition between aurora and background. The results from these different algorithms are presented.
Quadrispherical LEPEDEAS for ISEE's-1 and -2 Plasma Measurements

A new generation of spaceflight instrumentation for comprehensive measurements of plasmas within the earth's magnetosphere and its environs is described. These quadrispherical low energy proton and electron differential energy analyzers (LEPEDEAS) for the ISEE's-l and -2 spacecraft are capable of determining the directional intensities of positive ions and electrons over all but 2 percent of the 4? sr solid angle for charged-particle velocity vectors at the spacecraft positions. The energy range of this instrumentation is 1 eV < E/Q < 45 keV with good energy and angular resolutions. An example of inflight observations within the earth's magnetosheath is presented.
Behavioral History and Pigeons’ “Guiding Cues” Performance

Response-sequence learning is often studied by manipulating consequences for sequence completion. Results of research evaluating how changes in discriminative stimuli disrupt the accuracy of response sequences suggest that transitions to reversed but highly predictive discriminative stimuli are more disruptive than the removal of discriminative stimuli. Two experiments assessed effects of changing discriminative stimuli on response-sequence accuracy while reinforcement remained contingent on a left-peck, right-peck response sequence. Initially, pigeons were trained on the response sequence in which the S+ key was illuminated red and the S- key was illuminated white. For all conditions of both experiments, the “accurate” response sequence that led to food was the same, but the way the accurate sequence was signaled sometimes differed. In Experiment 1, after training, discriminative stimuli were either removed (by lighting both keys white) or reversed. Accuracy was lower when discriminative stimuli were reversed than when they were removed. Experiment 2 showed that after training with discriminative stimuli, a history of reinforcement without discriminative stimuli was sufficient for the response sequence to emerge at high levels of accuracy when the discriminative stimuli were reversed. Results suggest a parsimonious explanation for why highly predictive discriminative stimuli sometimes fail to control behavior based on behavioral history.
7-Chlorolincomycin Therapy of Pulmonary Infections Due to Mycoplasma pneumoniae

Nine ill patients with serologically proved pulmonary infection due to Mycoplasma pneumoniae were treated with 7-chlorolincomycin. The symptomatic responses with 900 to 1,200-mg doses were dramatic.
Reply to Comments on "State-Feedback Control of Fuzzy Discrete-Event Systems"

This paper is a reply to comments on "State-feedback control of fuzzy discrete-event systems" by Yongzhi Cao et l., (2011) for pointing out an error in our paper "State-feedback control of fuzzy discrete event systems" (June 2010). The error is caused by the situation in which a state-feedback control may generate a set of states while not allowing some transitions in the set of states generated. Since this situation is inconsistent and does not make sense for any good control, one shall not allow it to happen. When we formulated the problem in our original paper, we intended to exclude this situation. Nevertheless, somehow, we overlooked the issue and did not make an explicit assumption. To correct the error, we now add an assumption to explicitly exclude this situation.
Project Management Communication: a Systems Approach:

This discussion analyzes and reviews verbal and non-verbal communication issues that have an impact on information resource project managers. The concepts are presented in a familiar information systems model framework showing open and closed-loop systems as well as a communication flow system. It provides theoretical underpinnings for project managers who strive to develop proactive management of the environmental influences surrounding them to shape a communications environment, rather than having to take a reactive stance to the multiple messages and barriers they encounter. Technology alone is insufficient to improve communication. Technology may be utilized to organize data into information, but information becomes communication only as it is interpreted by a person. Information resource project managers, who can expect to spend a large percentage of their time in communication activities, can develop communication skills as they increase their understanding that communication is interactive and mana...
Design and analysis of a dual-stage disk drive servo system using an instrumented suspension

This paper presents the design and analysis of a track-following controller using a mixed-objective optimization technique for dual-stage servo systems in hard disk drives (HDD). The objective of minimizing tracking error in the presence of plant uncertainties and operational variations is formulated into a framework of multi-objective minimization. The tracking error minimization is reasonably formulated as an H/sub 2/ norm minimization problem, while the robust stability issue is addressed by some H/sub /spl infin// norm bounds. These norm minimization or constraints are then translated into a set of parametric feasibility conditions using linear matrix inequalities (LMI), which are readily solved by convex optimization solvers. To enhance tracking performance and stability robustness, attenuation of airflow excited suspension structural vibration is also explicitly taken into consideration by an inner-loop fast-rate damping and compensation controller utilizing a vibration sensor on the suspension surface. Analysis and simulation results show a noticeable improvement in tracking performance over previous designs, while retaining acceptable robust stability under certain multiplicative and parameter uncertainties.
Durable memory RS/6000 system design

The DM/6000 prototype is a fault-tolerant/durable-memory RS/6000. The main storage of this system is battery backed so as to maintain memory content across prolonged power interruptions. In addition, there are no single points of failure, and all likely multiple failure scenarios are covered. The prototype is intended to match the data integrity and availability characteristics of RAID5 disks. Redundancy is managed in hardware and in transparent to the software; application programs and the operating system (AIX) can run unmodified. The prototype is based on the IBM PowerPC 601 microprocessor operating at 80 MHz and is equivalent in performance and software appearance to a conventional 4-way shared bus, cache coherent, symmetric multiprocessor (SMP), with 4 gigabytes of non-volatile main storage. >
AN INTEGRATED ARCHITECTURE FOR RECOGNITION OF TOTALLY UNCONSTRAINED HANDWRITTEN NUMERALS

A multi-staged system for off-line handwritten numeral recognition is presented here. After scanning, the digitized binary bitmap image of the source document is passed through a preprocessing stage which performs segmentation, thinning and rethickening, normalization, and slant correction. The recognizer is a three-layered neural net trained with back-propagation algorithm. While a few systems that use three-layered nets for recognition have been presented in the literature, the contribution of our system is based on two aspects: elaborate preprocessing based on structural pattern recognition methods combined with a neural net based recognizer; and integration of neural net based and structural pattern recognition methods to produce high accuracies.
HSV-1 as a novel therapy for breast cancer meningeal metastases

Meningeal metastasis is a fatal complication of breast cancer that affects 5-8% of patients. When cancer cells seed in the meninges, their subsequent growth results in severe neurological complications involving the cranial nerves, cerebrum and spinal cord, limiting life expectancy to less than 4 months. The incidences of meningeal metastases increase with prolonged lifespan resulting from treatment advances for primary breast cancer and their metastases. Currently, there is no cure. Aggressive multimodal therapies such as radiation and chemotherapy (intra-cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) and systemic) are ineffective. Therapeutic agents are often quickly cleared from the CSF, while higher doses that can achieve a therapeutic response are highly toxic. The secure guarding of the subarachnoid space by the blood-brain barrier on one side and the blood-CSF barrier on the other prevents chemotherapy from reaching cancer cells in the meninges. These challenges with treating meningeal metastases highlight the urgent need for a new therapeutic modality. An ideal treatment would be an agent that avoids rapid clearance, remains within the CSF, reaches the meninges and selectively destroys tumor cells. Replication conditional oncolytic herpes simplex virus type 1 (HSV-1) may be effective in this regard. Viral oncolysis, the destruction of cancer cells by replicating virus, is under clinical investigation for cancers that are unresponsive to current therapies. It is based on the model of multiple cycles of lytic virus replication in cancer cells that amplify the injected dose. The therapeutic potential of oncolytic HSV-1 for breast cancer meningeal metastases is discussed here. HSV-1 could be a potential novel treatment for meningeal metastases that can be translated to the clinic.
Quantum Monte Carlo calculations of electromagnetic moments and transitions in A≤9 nuclei with meson-exchange currents derived from chiral effective field theory

Quantum Monte Carlo calculations of electromagnetic moments and transitions are reported for $A\ensuremath{\le}9$ nuclei. The realistic Argonne ${v}_{18}$ two-nucleon and Illinois-7 three-nucleon potentials are used to generate the nuclear wave functions. Contributions of two-body meson-exchange current (MEC) operators are included for magnetic moments and $M1$ transitions. The MEC operators have been derived in both a standard nuclear physics approach and a chiral effective field theory formulation with pions and nucleons including up to one-loop corrections. The two-body MEC contributions provide significant corrections and lead to very good agreement with experiment. Their effect is particularly pronounced in the $A=9$, $T=3/2$ systems, in which they provide up to $\ensuremath{\sim}20%$ ($\ensuremath{\sim}40%$) of the total predicted value for the ${}^{9}$Li (${}^{9}$C) magnetic moment.
Myeloid-derived suppressor cells in the inflammatory bowel diseases.

Background Myeloid cells are the most abundant and heterogeneous population of leukocytes. They are rapidly recruited from the blood to areas of inflammation and perform a number of important biological functions. Chronic inflammatory conditions contribute to generation of myeloid-derived suppressor cells (MDSCs). These pathologically activated cells are increasingly recognized as important players in cancer, transplantation, and autoimmunity for their abilities to modulate innate and adaptive immune responses. Methods Since clinical data on MDSC accumulation in human patients affected with inflammatory bowel diseases (IBD) are relatively scarce, most of the information described in this review came from studies using experimental mouse models of IBD. Results In this review, we discuss possible roles of these cells in chronic immune-mediated disorders focusing on studies conducted in IBD. We will review the available evidence on how MDSCs are involved in modulating T cell responses and look into the complex relationship between Th1, Th17 cells, and myeloid cells. Finally, we will review some recent successes and failures resulted from therapies aimed at manipulating myeloid cell numbers and/or their function. Conclusions Although MDSCs have been described in animal models of experimental colitis and in patients with IBD, their exact role in IBD pathogenesis is unclear and needs to be studied further. Information obtained from these studies will be useful to better understand the cross talk between myeloid cells in T cells during chronic inflammation and may identify novel pathways to be targeted therapeutically.
Meta-analysis of the association between methamphetamine use and high-risk sexual behavior among heterosexuals.

A large body of research has found that nonheterosexual methamphetamine users engage in substantially higher levels of risky sex compared to nonusers. Considerably fewer studies have examined methamphetamine use and high-risk sex among heterosexuals. The present study is a meta-analysis of the empirical literature on methamphetamine use and high-risk sexual behavior among heterosexual individuals. Four risky sex outcomes were examined: unprotected vaginal intercourse, unprotected anal sex, inconsistent condom use, and sex with multiple partners. Analysis of 24 studies (26 independent samples) including 286,781 individuals found that the pooled mean weighted odds ratios ranged from 1.37 (unprotected vaginal intercourse) to 1.72 (inconsistent condom use), indicating that the odds of engaging in risky sex for heterosexual methamphetamine users is, on average, between 37% and 72% greater than for nonmethamphetamine users. Date of publication, percentage of White Caucasian respondents, and sample size were significant moderators of effect size magnitude. Moreover, symmetry plots revealed little direct evidence for publication bias. It is recommended that future research explore additional categorical and continuous variables as potential moderators of effect size strength. (PsycINFO Database Record Language: en
The reliability of rehabilitative ultrasound imaging in the measurement of infraspinatus muscle function in the symptomatic and asymptomatic shoulders of patients with unilateral shoulder impingement syndrome.

BACKGROUND Rehabilitative ultrasound Imaging (RUSI) is increasingly used in the management of musculoskeletal conditions as it provides an objective measure of muscle function while being less invasive than needle electromyography. While research has documented the ability to reliably measure trunk muscles in patients with back pain, no study to date has used RUSI to quantify infraspinatus muscle function in patients with shoulder impingement syndrome (SIS). HYPOTHESIS/PURPOSE The purpose of this study was to examine the intra-rater and inter-rater reliability of measuring infraspinatus muscle thickness with RUSI and to compare such measures during resting versus contracted muscle states and in the symptomatic versus asymptomatic shoulders in patients with SIS. STUDY DESIGN Cross-sectional, measurement study. METHODS Fifty-two participants with unilateral SIS underwent a standard baseline examination to include RUSI of the infraspinatus muscle bilaterally. Images were acquired at rest and during a submaximal isometric contraction, by two novice examiners. The isometric contraction was elicited by having prone participants externally rotate their shoulder from a position of 90° abduction into a dynamometer and hold a static force of 20 mmHg (approximately 20-30% maximal voluntary contraction). Images were captured using a standardized placement of the transducer placed just inferior to the spine of the scapula along the medial scapular border and measured off-line using Image J software (V1.38t, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, Maryland). RESULTS Estimates (ICCs) for thickness measurements ranged between 0.96 and 0.98 for intra-rater reliability and between 0.87 and 0.92 for inter-rater reliability. Reliability was substantially lower (ICC = 0.43 to 0.79) for calculations of percent thickness change. The infraspinatus muscle was significantly thicker when contracted (19.1mm) than during rest (16.2mm) in both shoulders (p < 0.001). There was also a statistically significant interaction between contraction state and shoulder (p = 0.026), indicating that the change in thickness that occurred during contraction was significantly smaller in the symptomatic shoulder than in the asymptomatic shoulder. CONCLUSION RUSI measurements of infraspinatus muscle thickness appear to be highly reliable, both within the same examiner and between different examiners, in patients with SIS. Moreover, such measurements were different in rested and contracted states of the infraspinatus, as well as, between the symptomatic and asymptomatic shoulders of patients with unilateral SIS. LEVEL OF EVIDENCE Level 2.