cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Influence of coating thickness and sand fineness on mold filling in the lost foam casting process

The effects of coating thickness and sand fineness on the mold filling characteristics of aluminum alloy 319 have been investigated. Experiments have been conducted with strip patterns and transparent molds have been used to visually record the flow behavior. The results indicate that a higher fill time is observed in thicker coatings and finer sands. Typical flow velocities are on the order of 80 mm/s and 90 mm/s for sands with AFS numbers of 80 and 20 respectively. By comparison, when a completely impermeable mold is used, the flow velocity is reduced to about 20 mm/s. Under normal casting conditions, the gases formed at the metal front are eliminated rapidly into the sand, so that there is no substantial gas layer ahead of the flowing melt. A gas layer may build up at the metal front if the permeability of the mold medium is not adequate and eventually the gas bubbles may escape by penetration through the liquid metal. Factors affecting polymer degradation may have strong effect on mold filling while parameters associated with the elimination of degradation products may control defect formation.
Development, Reliability, and Validity of the Beliefs Toward Mental Illness Scale

The present study describes the development of a new scale to measure Beliefs toward Mental Illness (BMI), which was designed to measure cross-cultural differences in such beliefs as well as to predict treatment-seeking behavior among different cultural groups. A total of 216 students participated in this study (114 Asian students and 102 American students). A series of factor analyses examining construct validity for the BMI revealed that the BMI has three dimensions, including dangerousness, poor social and interpersonal skills, and incurability. Examination of the reliability estimates for each factor revealed moderate to high internal consistency of the BMI. Comparisons between American and Asian students revealed the expected cultural differences in their beliefs toward mental illness and treatment preference.
Presence of NMDA-R Antibodies in Schizophrenia (P4.187)

Objective: Evaluate for encephalitis autoantibodies in a group of well-characterized psychosis patients. Background: Autoimmune encephalitis (AE) commonly presents with psychosis. A recent study from UK identified NMDA-R antibodies in 3% of patients with first-episode of psychosis. Younger patients may be incorrectly diagnosed as schizophrenia if other features of AE are not present. Design/Methods: As part of an ongoing multicenter study on psychosis biomarkers (B-SNIP consortium) over 3,000 probands with psychotic disorders, their biological relatives, and healthy subjects have been characterized using a broad battery of brain-based biomarkers (EEG, eye tracking, cognition, neuroimaging). We utilized this resource to investigate the possibility that autoimmune encephalitis may present as schizophrenia. As a pilot study, we tested all females in the study who had plasma samples available - 68 subjects with schizophrenia or schizoaffective disorder (mean age: 43.3±10.4y/o; mean age at first diagnosis: 20.1±9.8y/o) and 36 controls (mean age: 33.3±10.6y/o). Plasma samples were coded to ensure blinding and tested (at 1:10 screening dilution) for a panel of encephalitis antibodies (NMDAR, LGI1, CASPR2, AMPAR, GABABR, DPPX) using cell-based assay. Positive results were confirmed by an independent reference laboratory using live cell NMDA-R assay. Results: Three African American subjects (2 schizophrenia, 1 control) were found to have NMDA-R antibodies. No other encephalitis antibodies were found in these samples. One 38y/o patient had sudden onset auditory hallucinations at age 19 which have persisted for 20 years. She denied other thought disorder but was unable to work. The other patient was 28y/o with sudden onset auditory hallucinations at around age 21 along with visual and tactile hallucinations and delusions of control and thought broadcasting. The control subject was a healthy 43y/o. Conclusions: NMDA-R antibodies are found in a small number of patients with psychosis who otherwise meet the criteria for diagnosis of schizophrenia. Study Supported by: UT Southwestern Funds (Vernino); 1RO1 MH077851, National Institute of Mental Health (Tamminga) Disclosure: Dr. Vernino has received personal compensation for consulting, serving on a scientific advisory board, speaking, or other activities with Lundbeck, Quest. Dr. Kim has nothing to disclose. Dr. Ivleva has nothing to disclose. Dr. Gershon has nothing to disclose. Dr. Keedy has nothing to disclose. Dr. Tamminga has received personal compensation for consulting, serving on a scientific advisory board, speaking, or other activities with Intracellular Therapies Inc; Astellas; Pierre Fabre. Dr. Tamminga has received personal compensation in an editorial capacity for American Journal of Psychiatry. Dr. Tamminga has received research support from Sunovion.
Immunodominance of Antigenic Site B in the Hemagglutinin of the Current H3N2 Influenza Virus in Humans and Mice

The hemagglutinin protein of H3N2 influenza viruses is the major target of neutralizing antibodies induced by infection and vaccination. However, the virus frequently escapes antibody-mediated neutralization due to mutations in the globular head domain. Five topologically distinct antigenic sites in the head domain of H3 hemagglutinin, A to E, have been previously described by mapping the binding sites of monoclonal antibodies, yet little is known about the contribution of each site to the immunogenicity of modern H3 hemagglutinins, as measured by hemagglutination inhibition activity, which is known to correlate with protection. To investigate the hierarchy of antibody immunodominance, five Δ1 recombinant influenza viruses expressing hemagglutinin of the A/Hong Kong/4801/2014 (H3N2) strain with mutations in single antigenic sites were generated. Next, the Δ1 viruses were used to determine the hierarchy of immunodominance by measuring the hemagglutination inhibition reactivity of mouse antisera and plasma from 18 human subjects before and after seasonal influenza vaccination in 2017-2018. In both mice and humans, mutations in antigenic site B caused the most significant decrease in hemagglutination inhibition titers compared to wild-type hemagglutinin. This study revealed that antigenic site B is immunodominant in the H3N2 influenza virus strain included in the current vaccine preparations.IMPORTANCE Influenza viruses rapidly evade humoral immunity through antigenic drift, making current vaccines poorly effective and antibody-mediated protection short-lived. The majority of neutralizing antibodies target five antigenic sites in the head domain of the hemagglutinin protein that are also the most sequence-variable regions. A better understanding of the contribution of each antigenic site to the overall antibody response to hemagglutinin may help in the design of improved influenza virus vaccines.
From pastoral to georgic: the Dutch Jewish country house as a rhizome

Scholars often analyze houses’ “Jewishness” vis-a-vis Jewish law and rituals. For Dutch Sephardic Jews during the long eighteenth century, however, identity is better understood using a mod...
Hand Surgery in Underserved Populations in the United States: The Author’s Experience with the Navajo at the Gallup and Chinle Indian Health Service Hospitals

Even in the most affluent country in the world there are many underserved population groups with limited or no access to health care. This article shares my experience with hand surgery volunteering with the Indian health service at Gallup, New Mexico and Chinle, Arizona. Although it has nuances with respect to logistics and challenges with regard to resources, the rewards of helping the patients in need has been among the best experiences of my career. I encourage anyone to consider domestic outreach because it reminds us of why we went to medical school.
Ultrabroadband infrared near-field spectroscopy and imaging of local resonators in percolative gold films

Percolation processes are ubiquitous in nature and are responsible for many critical phenomena such as first-order phase transitions and infectious epidemic networks. The optical properties of a percolative medium can generally be captured by the effective medium approximation (EMA) when the degree of percolation and the properties of the constituent materials are properly addressed. However, the important local collective responses of nanoclusters in the deep subwavelength regime are often only phenomenologically addressed in the standard EMA formalism. A comprehensive method that measures local light–matter interactions and registers how the local responses influence global optical properties has yet to be established on a firm basis. In this paper, we use infrared nano-imaging/spectroscopy to investigate percolative gold films in the vicinity of the critical percolation threshold. We demonstrate experimentally and theoretically that the near-field spectra yield quantitative information of the characteristic length scale of the local gold clusters and their relative oscillator strengths. As a result, EMA analysis can be augmented with near-field nano-spectroscopy to yield better predictability of the far-field reflection spectrum at the corresponding spectral range.
Nicotine in tobacco product aerosols: ‘It's déjà vu all over again’

Introduction The distribution of nicotine among its free-base (fb) and protonated forms in aerosolised nicotine affects inhalability. It has been manipulated in tobacco smoke and now in electronic cigarettes by the use of acids to de-freebase nicotine and form ‘nicotine salts’. Methods Measurements on electronic cigarette fluids (e-liquids) were carried out to determine (1) the fraction of nicotine in the free-base form (αfb) and (2) the levels of organic acid(s) and nicotine. Samples included JUUL ‘pods’, ‘look-a-like/knock-off’ pods and some bottled ‘nicotine salt’ and ‘non-salt’ e-liquids. Results αfb= 0.12 ±0.01 at 40°C (≈ 37°C) for 10 JUUL products, which contain benzoic acid; nicotine protonation is extensive but incomplete. Discussion First-generation e-liquids have αfb ≈ 1. At cigarette-like total nicotine concentration (Nictot) values of ~60 mg/mL, e-liquid aerosol droplets with αfb≈ 1 are harsh upon inhalation. The design evolution for e-liquids has paralleled that for smoked tobacco, giving a ‘deja vu’ trajectory for αfb. For 17th-century ‘air-cured’ tobacco, αfb in the smoke particles was likely ≥ 0.5. The product αfbNictot in the smoke particles was high. ‘Flue-curing’ retains higher levels of leaf sugars, which are precursors for organic acids in tobacco smoke, resulting in αfb ≈ 0.02 and lowered harshness. Some tobacco cigarette formulations/designs have been adjusted to restore some nicotine sensory ‘kick/impact’ with αfb≈ 0.1, as for Marlboro. Overall, for tobacco smoke, the de-freebasing trajectory was αfb ≥ 0.5 → ~0 →~0.1, as compared with αfb= ~1 →~0.1 for e-cigarettes. For JUUL, the result has been, perhaps, an optimised, flavoured nicotine delivery system. The design evolution for e-cigarettes has made them more effective as substitutes to get smokers off combustibles. However, this evolution has likely made e-cigarette products vastly more addictive for never-smokers.
Validation of a Skinfold Prediction Equation Based on Dual-Energy X-Ray Absorptiometry to Estimate Body Fat Percentage in Women

The purpose of this study was to validate an alternative skinfold equation for women created from dual-energy x-ray absorptiometry (DXA). Anthropometrics and a whole-body DXA scan were completed on...
The evaluation and management of patients with LDL-C ≥ 190 mg/dL in a large health care system.

Abstract Objectives Patients with severe hyperlipidemia (low-density lipoprotein-cholesterol (LDL-C) ≥190 ​mg/dL) have a significantly increased risk of cardiovascular disease (CVD) and are more likely to have familial hypercholesterolemia (FH). We sought to determine how often health care providers recognize the implications of and adjust therapy for an LDL-C ≥190 ​mg/dL. Methods We conducted a retrospective review of patients with an LDL-C measurement in the medical record of a large health care system between November 2015 and June 2016. Patients were restricted to those with LDL-C ≥190 ​mg/dL and without secondary causes of dyslipidemia, with sensitivity analyses for those with LDL-C ≥220 ​mg/dL. Results Of 27,963 patients, 227 had LDL-C ≥190 ​mg/dL. Only 21% were on a statin at the time of LDL-C measurement. More than 90% had a follow-up clinic visit, but 41% had no change in treatment. FH was only included in the differential for 14%. The presence/absence of a family history of dyslipidemia, myocardial infarction, and premature CVD were documented in 26%, 29%, and 31%. Only 20.7% and 22.1% had documentation of the presence or absence of tendinous xanthomas or corneal arcus, respectively. Among those without prior specialist care (cardiologist or endocrinologist), only 13% were referred. These measures were only slightly better for those with LDL-C ≥220 ​mg/dL. Conclusion In a large health care system, the possibility of FH was rarely acknowledged in those with residual LDL-C ≥190 ​mg/dL, few were referred to specialists, and therapeutic adjustments were suboptimal. Additional efforts are required to understand barriers to improving the evaluation and management of patients with LDL-C ≥190 ​mg/dL.
Efficacy of Electrical Stimulation on Nerve Fiber Growth in Small Fiber Neuropathy.

OBJECTIVES To define whether electrical nerve stimulation (ENS) therapy would promote intraepidermal nerve growth and nerve regeneration in patients with small fiber neuropathy (SFN). METHODS This was a prospective study conducted on 8 subjects with previously diagnosed SFN. Nerve conduction testing, punch biopsies, and clinical examinations with a calculation of revised total neuropathy score were conducted on subjects before beginning ENS therapy and at 30 and 60 days after the start of ENS therapy. RESULTS Clinical examination findings and intraepidermal nerve fiber density measurements on day 30 and day 60 did not show statistically significant changes in the treated group compared with the untreated group. CONCLUSIONS Despite the success of previous animal studies, no meaningful nerve growth and regeneration in SFN was demonstrated with ENS therapy in this study. Studies of larger subject larger populations with longer duration of ENS treatment are warranted to confirm our findings.
Synthesis of Pyrrolopyrazinones by Construction of the Pyrrole Ring onto an Intact Diketopiperazine.

This study reveals an alternative sequence for the synthesis of compounds that contain the pyrrolodiketopiperazine structural motif. Starting with a diketopiperazine precursor, a mild aldol condens...
Evaluation of Fairness Trade-offs in Predicting Student Success.

Predictive models for identifying at-risk students early can help teaching staff direct resources to better support them, but there is a growing concern about the fairness of algorithmic systems in education. Predictive models may inadvertently introduce bias in who receives support and thereby exacerbate existing inequities. We examine this issue by building a predictive model of student success based on university administrative records. We find that the model exhibits gender and racial bias in two out of three fairness measures considered. We then apply post-hoc adjustments to improve model fairness to highlight trade-offs between the three fairness measures.
Interactive Visualization for Debugging RL

Visualization tools for supervised learning (SL) allow users to interpret, introspect, and gain an intuition for the successes and failures of their models. While reinforcement learning (RL) practitioners ask many of the same questions while debugging agent policies, existing tools aren't a great fit for the RL setting as these tools address challenges typically found in the SL regime. Whereas SL involves a static dataset, RL often entails collecting new data in challenging environments with partial observability, stochasticity, and non-stationary data distributions. This necessitates the creation of alternate visual interfaces to help us better understand agent policies trained using RL. In this work, we design and implement an interactive visualization tool for debugging and interpreting RL. Our system identifies and addresses important aspects missing from existing tools such as (1) visualizing alternate state representations (different from those seen by the agent) that researchers could use while debugging RL policies; (2) interactive interfaces tailored to metadata stored while training RL agents (3) a conducive workflow designed around RL policy debugging. We provide an example workflow of how this system could be used, along with ideas for future extensions.
Recent advancements in flapping mechanism and wing design of micro aerial vehicles

Recent studies on understanding of natural flyers have encouraged researchers in development of micro aerial vehicles mimicking birds and insects such as hummingbirds, dragonflies, bats and many mo...
Generation of Autonomous Vehicle Validation Scenarios Using Crash Data

Autonomous vehicle (AV) technology is expected to make a transformative impact on mobility. As a step towards that direction, advanced driver-assistance systems (ADAS) and semiautonomous features have been increasingly deployed in modern vehicles. Consequently, there have been crashes reported for these vehicles while operating in autonomous mode. In this paper, we describe a methodology to use the information from these crashes for the validation of autonomous vehicles, which is the most critical obstacle in their mass deployment. We use existing crash databases and provide a methodology to automatically convert them into test scenarios in simulation, using our scenario generation framework. The methodology assists in validation by recreating crashes and their cousin scenarios. It is also instrumental in forming the requirements the accident reports for autonomous vehicles.
Quad-qualified audit committee director: Implications for monitoring and reducing financial corruption

Abstract Financial corruption has an extensive adverse impact on corporate stakeholders. Over the last two decades, numerous prescriptions have been offered to improve the governance of US public firms, yet financial corruption is still prevalent. Board of directors' audit committees are typically charged with the responsibility of assuring that the corporation's financial reports satisfy the criterion of accuracy. We propose that a quad-qualified audit committee director can serve as an exemplar corporate overseer of financial reporting and minimize the likelihood of corruption. We predict that by having the qualifications of independence, directorship experience and financial expertise, bandwidth, and stock ownership, the effectiveness of monitoring financial reporting by such a director will be considerably enhanced, thus complementing the benefits of the US Sarbanes-Oxley Act (SOX) enacted in 2002. To test our predictions, we employed a time-lagged, matched-pairs sample of 328 large US corporations (164 financially corrupt firms plus a comparison group of 164 compliant firms). Controlling for covariates, we found that the presence of a quad-qualified audit committee director reduced the likelihood of financial corruption in a public firm by 72%. Combined with the benefits from SOX, having at least one quad-qualified audit committee director decreased the probability of financial corruption by 92%. Our results also show that having just one quad-qualified audit committee director is more effective than the combination of the individual qualifications dispersed among the committee members.
Effect of Sleep and Biobehavioral Patterns on Multidimensional Cognitive Performance: Longitudinal, In-the-Wild Study.

Background: With nearly 20% of the US adult population using fitness trackers, there is an increasing focus on how physiological data from these devices can provide actionable insights about workplace performance. However, in-the-wild studies that understand how these metrics correlate with cognitive performance measures across a diverse population are lacking, and claims made by device manufacturers are vague. While there has been extensive research leading to a variety of theories on how physiological measures affect cognitive performance, virtually all such studies have been conducted in highly controlled settings and their validity in the real world is poorly understood. Objective: We seek to bridge this gap by evaluating prevailing theories on the effects of a variety of sleep, activity, and heart rate parameters on cognitive performance against data collected in real-world settings. Methods: We used a Fitbit Charge 3 and a smartphone app to collect different physiological and neurobehavioral task data, respectively, as part of our 6-week-long in-the-wild study. We collected data from 24 participants across multiple population groups (shift workers, regular workers, and graduate students) on different performance measures (vigilant attention and cognitive throughput). Simultaneously, we used a fitness tracker to unobtrusively obtain physiological measures that could influence these performance measures, including over 900 nights of sleep and over 1 million minutes of heart rate and physical activity metrics. We performed a repeated measures correlation (rrm) analysis to investigate which sleep and physiological markers show association with each performance measure. We also report how our findings relate to existing theories and previous observations from controlled studies. Results: Daytime alertness was found to be significantly correlated with total sleep duration on the previous night (rrm=0.17, P<.001) as well as the duration of rapid eye movement (rrm=0.12, P<.001) and light sleep (rrm=0.15, P<.001). Cognitive throughput, by contrast, was not found to be significantly correlated with sleep duration but with sleep timing—a circadian phase shift toward a later sleep time corresponded with lower cognitive throughput on the following day (rrm=–0.13, P<.001). Both measures show circadian variations, but only alertness showed a decline (rrm=–0.1, P<.001) as a result of homeostatic pressure. Both heart rate and physical activity correlate positively with alertness as well as cognitive throughput. Conclusions: Our findings reveal that there are significant differences in terms of which sleep-related physiological metrics influence each of the 2 performance measures. This makes the case for more targeted in-the-wild studies investigating how physiological measures from self-tracking data influence, or can be used to predict, specific aspects of cognitive performance.
The Impact of Away Rotations on the Ophthalmology Residency Match

Background The ophthalmology residency match is highly competitive, and fourth-year medical students frequently complete away rotations at other institutions hoping to increase their chances of matching. Objective The study aimed to determine the impact of away rotations on the ophthalmology residency selection process and to provide recommendations to faculty for counseling fourth-year medical students as they prepare for the ophthalmology match. Methods A survey was sent in June 2020 to program directors (PDs), medical student educators (MSEs), and residents at 119 accredited ophthalmology residency programs via the Association of University Professors of Ophthalmology e-mail listserv. The 43 PDs and 38 MSEs who responded were asked questions about their views regarding away rotations and visiting students during the residency selection process. The 83 resident respondents were asked about their interview and match success after completing away rotations. Categorical variables were analyzed by Chi-square test. Results The majority of PDs and MSEs typically recommend that fourth-year medical students complete away rotations (p = 0.022 and p = 0.194, respectively). The majority believe that an away rotation will increase the chance of the applicant matching with the host institution (p = 0.004 and p = 0.001, respectively). The vast majority of PDs were more likely to offer an interview to a visiting student compared with another equally qualified applicant (p Conclusion The majority of ophthalmology PDs and MSEs surveyed recommend that fourth-year medical students complete away rotations and believe that these rotations will increase the chance of the applicant matching at a host institution. The PDs are more likely to offer an interview to a visiting student compared with another equally qualified applicant. For some programs, visiting students may also receive special consideration by being ranked higher on a program's rank list and being more likely to match.
Context-aware Urban Energy Analytics (CUE-A): A framework to model relationships between building energy use and spatial proximity of urban systems

Abstract Cities account for over 75% of primary energy use in the world, with buildings making up a significant share of this energy use. Previous simulation-based research has established that building energy use can be greatly impacted by surrounding urban systems such as other buildings, vegetation, and roads. Understanding these relationships is thus critical to enhancing the efficiency of energy-intensive urban environments. Taking advantage of the recent profusion of urban data, this paper proposes a novel Context-aware Urban Energy Analytics (CUE-A) framework to empirically extract and quantify the relationships between building energy use and the spatial proximity of multiple surrounding urban systems. We apply the CUE-A framework to a case study of 477 buildings in a mid-size U.S. city to demonstrate its merits and the statistical significance of explored relationships. Results show that spatial proximity of other buildings, trees, and roads is associated with varied and significant changes in both the central tendency and variability of building energy use, indicating that empirical frameworks, which are a growing field of work, can serve as useful complements to existing simulation models. Further, our paper demonstrates that energy-aware urban planning and design has the potential to unlock energy efficiency and low-carbon pathways for cities around the world.
Utility of ERAS Pathway in Nonabdominal-Based Microsurgical Breast Reconstruction: Efficacy in PAP Flap Reconstruction?

Background Enhanced recovery after surgery (ERAS) protocols are effective in decreasing hospital length of stay and inpatient opioid consumption. Implementation of these protocols in abdominally based breast reconstruction has been successful. When a patient is a poor candidate for abdominally based flaps a popular secondary option is the profunda artery perforator (PAP) flap. We present our experience with implementation of our ERAS protocol in patients treated with PAP flaps for breast reconstruction. Methods Retrospective review of patients treated with autologous breast reconstruction using PAP flaps before and after ERAS implementation were performed. Patient characteristics, postoperative oral morphine equivalents (OMEs), and flap data were collected. Results A total of 87 patients were included in this study (58 patients in pre-ERAS and 29 patients in ERAS group). There was no statistical difference in patient age, comorbidities, smoking, and radiation between two groups. The ERAS group had statistically lower hospital length of stay (2.6 vs. 3.8 days), procedure time (315 vs. 433 minutes), postoperative day 0 (54.8 vs. 96.3), postoperative day 1 (29.9 vs. 57.7), and total opioid consumption (103.7 vs. 192.1). There was no statistical difference in average pain scores between two groups. Multivariate analysis revealed that procedure time significantly increased the amount of opioid consumption while ERAS implementation significantly reduced LOS and opioid consumption. Conclusion Use of an ERAS protocol in PAP flap breast reconstruction has not been previously studied. Our work shows that ERAS implementation in PAP flap breast reconstruction significantly reduces inpatient opioid use and length of hospital stay.
Influence of light exposure on horizontal transmission of Salmonella typhimurium in weaned pigs

The obJective of the follow1ng experiment was to examine the effect of light exposure on horizontal transmission of Salmonella typhimunum m weaned pigs. Twenty crossbred pigs (average BW = 15 kg) were housed m ISolation rooms (1 0 p1gs/room) and randomly ass1gned to one of two lighting regimes. Low (8 h light, 16 h dark) or High (16 h light, 8 h dark) Pigs were adjusted to the1r respect1ve llghtmg treatments for six days and on the seventh day, two randomly selected p1gs/room orally moculated w1th 5 ml of tryptic soy broth contain1ng 18 x 108 cfu Salmonella typhtmuriumlml. Rectal swabs were collected from each p1g da1ly over the next e1ght days for direct plating and plating following 24-h enrichment. On day nme, fo ll owmg moculat1on of the seeder p1gs, all p1gs were euthan1zed and necropsied. Lummal contents were coll ected from the 1leum, colon, cecum and rectum (quantification and qualification of Inoculated stra1n) and tissue samples collected from the above gut segments as well as the tons1ls, 1leo-cecal lymph nodes, spleen and liver (qualification only). The number of recta l swabs positive for the inoculation stra1n of Salmonella was higher (P = 0 003) m the H1gh llght1ng treatment (25 versus 54% positive) compared to the Low treatment when examined across sampling days. No differences (P > 0.1 0) were observed m the percentage of fecal swabs positive for Salmonella following enrichment. Senal d1lut1ons of lummal contents were not statistically different with very few samples containing quantifiable amounts of Salmonella However, follow1ng ennchment, the percentage of pos1t1ve luminal content samples was higher (P 0 10) among treatments. Results of thiS research indicate that lighting exposure may play a role in the horizontal transmission of Salmonella typhtmurium among weaned p1gs
Identification of Drug Tablet and Capsule Evidence as to Source

The identification of the manufacturing source or common source of drug tablets and capsules in illicit channels provides intelligence on the diversion of commercially made products. It also provides information on the source and distribution pattern of counterfeit and other illicitly made products. Identification is made by comparison of the punch marks and formulation of unknown samples with those of authentic samples from known manufacturers [1,2]. This technique, in the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), has come to be known as the “ballistics” method of drug identification.
Nature of vitamin B 12 binding. I. Covalent coupling of hydroxocobalamin to soluble and insoluble carriers.

Abstract Hydroxocobalamin was coupled covalently to poly- l -lysine or albumin by use of a carbodiimide. Cerous hydroxidesplitting of the covalently bound hydroxocobalamin showed the site of coupling to be the phosphate group in the molecule. 5′-Deoxyadenosylcobalamin could be coupled with carbodiimide to poly- d -glutamic acid or succinylated γG-globulin. On splitting of the covalent bond between the cobalt atom and the deoxyadenosine group by exposure to light, 70% of the cobalamin was liberated from the complex of poly- d -glutamic acid and 5′-deoxyadenosylcobalamin. When the complex of succinylated γG-globulin and 5′-deoxyadenosylcobalamin was exposed to light, 28% of the cobalamin was liberated. These percentages indicate the fraction of cobalamin which had been attached to the high molecular weight carriers through the deoxyadenosine group. The hydroxocobalamin-albumin conjugate was coupled to bromoacetyl cellulose. This insoluble material was capable of adsorbing cobalamin binding proteins from gastric juice and serum. Specific elution with hydroxocobalamin recovered binding activity from the adsorbant. Such cobalamin conjugates may be used as a tool in the purification of these cobalamin binding proteins as well as in the elucidation of the nature and site of binding.
Magnetic moment of soft underlayers for perpendicular media

Summary form only given. The micromagnetic method is utilized to explicitly verify the notion that it is not possible to saturate a soft magnetic underlayer (SUL) when the pole tip and the SUL have the same saturation magnetization. Simple magnetostatic arguments reveal that, to lowest order, saturation of the SUL would require that the moment of the pole tip (M/sub s,tip/) be twice the moment of the SUL (M/sub s,SUL/). The magnetic field under the writer pole will certainly not exceed 2/spl pi/M/sub s,tip/. In response to the write field, a demagnetization field (4/spl pi/M/sub z,tip/, z along the perpendicular direction) develops in the SUL such that the torques generated by the write field and the demagnetization fields are equal and opposite. Hence, saturation of the SUL can be safely excluded unless M/sub s,tip/spl sim/2/ M/sub s,SUL/. This fundamental observation relaxes restrictions on the choice for materials for a low SUL.
A Framework for multimodal image guidance for robot-assisted partial nephrectomy

Robot-assisted laparoscopic partial nephrectomies (RALPN) are performed to treat patients with locally confined renal carcinoma. However, there are challenges in identifying tumor margins and critical benign structures in this time-critical procedure. The primary objective of this effort is to couple multiple image and data streams together to augment visual information currently provided to surgeons performing RALPN and ultimately ensure complete tumor resection and minimal damage to functional structures. Our framework involves registering high-resolution anatomic images with intra-operative ultrasound (US) and optical-based surface mapping using EM tracking. We have currently implemented methods for surface reconstructions from MR, US, and the stereo-endoscope, US-to- MR registration, and deformation registration using control points. These components have been evaluated through phantom studies to demonstrate protocol feasibility.
Floods, Flood Insurance, Litigation, Politics - and Catastrophe: The National Flood Insurance Program

In the wake of its catastrophic losses from Hurricane Katrina and resulting 17 billion dollar debt, this article examines the efforts of the National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) to become financially self-sustaining by raising premiums, reducing coverage, requiring that flood-prone properties be insured, and addressing repetitive loss properties. It also shows how how these efforts have been reflected in litigation by property owners against the federal government and the private insurance companies that issue federal flood insurance policies. This litigation is rarely successful because the NFIP can avail itself of defenses available to the federal government (e.g., sovereign immunity, federal preemption, and a requirement of strict compliance with regulatory requirements). Although Congress has been sympathetic to policy holder grievances, it has not opened the door to litigation. Congress has instead sought to address policy holder concerns by administrative means: requiring better communication of policy terms to policyholders, enhancing training of insurance agents, and creating administrative appeal procedures.
Multilayered graphene acquires ferromagnetism in proximity with magnetite particles

Anisotropic diamagnetism of pristine graphite and graphene is well known. Here, evidence of significant induced ferromagnetism in multilayer graphene (MLG) decorated with ferrimagnetic Fe3O4 particles is reported. This MLG-Fe3O4 nano-composite was prepared by a one-step ultrasonic treatment at 75 °C in the surfactant sodium dodecyl-benzene-sulfonate. To verify the phase structure and morphology of the composite, X-ray diffraction, scanning and transmission electron microscopy, scanning tunneling electron microscopy, and Raman spectroscopy were employed. Room temperature data of magnetization versus magnetic field showed that the saturation magnetization MS = 58.6 emu/gm for pristine Fe3O4 increased to MS = 158.4 emu/gm for a 1:1 composite of Fe3O4 to MLG. These results lead to induced MS = 253 emu/gm in MLG resulting from its proximity to Fe3O4. Similar experiments on Fe3O4 to single walled carbon nanotubes (SWNT) composite did not show any induced magnetism in SWNT.
Obsessive-compulsive disorder in pregnancy and the postpartum period: course of illness and obstetrical outcome

The study aimed to examine the course of obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) across pregnancy and its impact on obstetric and neonatal outcomes. Women enrolled prior to 20-week gestation in a prospective, observational study. The Structured Clinical Interview for DSM-IV was completed to obtain lifetime Axis I diagnoses. A total of 56 women with OCD were followed at 1 to 3-month intervals through 52 weeks postpartum. Each visit, the Yale-Brown Obsessive Compulsive Scale (YBOCS), clinical assessment, and medication/exposure tracking were performed. Obstetric and neonatal data were abstracted from the medical record. In subjects with OCD, associations between perinatal obsessive-compulsive symptoms (OCSs) and outcomes were examined. Additionally, outcomes were compared to 156 matched psychiatric patients without OCD. Maternal age inversely correlated with the YBOCS scores across the study period (β = −0.5161, p = .0378). Cesarean section was associated with increased OCSs in the postpartum period compared to vaginal delivery (β = 5.3632, p = 0.043). No associations were found between severity of perinatal obsessions or compulsions and any specific obstetric or neonatal complications. Subjects without OCD had higher frequency of fetal loss compared to mothers with OCD (χ 2 = 4.03, p = 0.043). These novel prospective data fail to identify an association of OCSs with adverse outcomes. In contrast, there is an association of delivery method and younger maternal age with increased postnatal symptoms of OCD. Psychiatric subjects without OCD may have a higher risk of miscarriage and intrauterine fetal demise compared to subjects with OCD.
High performance ultra-wide bandwidth systems via novel pulse shaping and frequency domain processing

Ultra-wide bandwidth (UWB) systems have emerged as a strong candidate for high-throughput short range wireless communications. Because of the UWB systems' fine time resolution properties, a large path diversity gain can be exploited. However, to exploit this path diversity gain while avoiding inter symbol interference between data bits, the repetition period of data-modulated pulses must be larger than the time delay spread of multipath fading channels. This significantly reduces the throughput of UWB systems (making it spectrally inefficient, e.g., 0.05 b/s/Hz). If a larger throughput is desired (e.g.. a throughput requiring information-bearing pulses separated by less than the time delay spread), the BER performance degrades rapidly. In this work, we propose a novel pulse waveform referred to as the carrier interferometry (CI) pulse waveform for use in UWB systems: CI supports significant increases fit throughput with negligible performance loss. Specifically, the CI pulse waveform corresponds to the superpositioning of N orthogonal subcarriers. At the receiver side, the received pulse is decomposed into its subcarriers and recombined to exploit diversity in the frequency domain. This frequency domain processing provides resistance to inter symbol interference (from data-modulated pulses positioned within the delay spread of the channel). As a direct result, much higher throughput is supported with small performance loss when CI pulse waveforms are employed. Simulation results over indoor channels confirm that the novel CI-UWB system is capable of significantly outperforming current UWB systems: at a fixed BER performance level of 10/sup -3/, the proposed system can provide up to 64 times the data rate of current time domain UWB systems.
Regional gradient of initial inhibition and refractoriness in esophageal smooth muscle.

Abstract The influence of two successive vqgal stimuli on esophageal contractions was studied by recording intraluminal pressures in the smooth muscle portion of the opossum esophagus. The esophageal contraction in response to the first or second stimulus in a pair of vagal stimuli was inhibited depending on the interstimulus interval, the frequency of the stimulus, and the esophageal site. The esophageal contraction in response to the first vagal stimulus was inhibited by a second vagal stimulus if the latter stimulus was applied before the peak of the first contraction. This phenomenon is termed initial inhibition. Initial inhibition is a graded phenomenon. It was greater at higher frequencies than at lower frequencies (p
Identifying Young Children with Mild Cognitive Deficiencies

Sixty-two 4- and 5-year-old exceptional children, with either mild mental retardation or learning disabilities, were matched on age, sex, and ethnicity with children who were making normal progress. All 62 pairs were presented a minibattery that included 6 cognitive tasks: two memory, three oddity, and a word definition task. The exceptional group performed more poorly than their normal matches on all dependent measures. Discriminant function analyses resulted in classification accuracy levels for the normally achieving group of no less than 89%. Ninety-seven percent of preschoolers with mild mental retardation were correctly identified, as were 84% of children classified as learning disabled. When the two groups with mild cognitive deficiencies were combined, 90% of the children with special educational needs were correctly classified. Cutoff scores applied to frequency distributions were associated with similar levels of accuracy. These results support the contention that a screening test composed of a ...
Image transfer through a Fabry-Perot interferometer

An experimental method for determining the transfer function and accompanying cutoff frequency of a Fabry-Perot interferometer (FPI) is described and a set of experimental results is presented. It is shown that upon passage through the FPI, the level of image distortion decreases with a decrease in cavity length (resulting in an increase in Fresnel number) when the FPI finesse is held constant. This phenomenon is in agreement with the theoretical prediction.
Substitution and complementarity with nested production

Abstract Nested technologies, generated by weakly separable production structures, are pervasive in multi-stage processes. This letter utilizes duality to isolate three distinct effects of price-induced changes in factor demand to analyze substitutability and complementarity; economic implications for domestic content are noted.
Diameter of the NEPS of bipartite graphs

Abstract We prove that, if connected, the NEPS of connected, bipartite graphs has diameter which does not exceed the sum of the diameters of the individual graphs, and we characterize the case of equality.
Physicians' Reported Use of Mental Images and Language in Clinical Reasoning

This study compares the reported results of family physicians' and surgeons' uses of nonverbal images, as well as language, in examining and treating (operating) patients. Similar, but slightly different, questionnaires were mailed to random samples of 300 academic family physicians and surgeons. The response rate from family physicians was 54% and from surgeons 56%. Different types of mental imagery, as well as language, were reported as common and useful. Surgeons reported significantly higher ratings for frequency and use of 7 of the 12 items. Overall, gender and years of practice did not make significant differences. Physicians of two widely differing specialties report using mental images of various modalities to examine, treat, or operate on patients. These self-reports point up the importance of studying nonverbal mental representations. Much basic research is needed to describe the precise nature of mental images and their uses in clinical reasoning.
Signalment, Survival, and Prognostic Factors in Doberman Pinschers With End-Stage Cardiomyopathy

Congestive heart failure (CHF) was evaluated by retrospective review of case records of 66 Doberman Pinschers presenting with overt signs of 2 weeks' duration or less. Left-sided CHF was predominant, the majority of dogs were male, most were 5 to 10 years of age, and CHF tended to occur in females at an older age. Sudden death occurred in 13 dogs (20%). The mean and median survival times of all dogs were 9.65 and 6.5 weeks, respectively. Both atrial fibrillation and bilateral CHF at the time of presentation were associated with significantly shorter survival times.
Perceived Social Climate and Weight Preoccupation in College Women

Abstract Most current theories of eating disorders propose that cultural factors influence the development of eating disorders. The present study sought to expand our understanding of the relationship between perceived social climate variables and weight preoccupation in a nonclinical population. We hypothesized that weight-preoccupied college women would differ from normal controls in their perceptions of their campus's social environment. Social climate measures and an abbreviated Eating Disorders Inventory were completed by 283 female college students at two US campuses. The hypothesis that weight-preoccupied women would perceive their campus as placing a stronger emphasis on appearance than would normal controls was confirmed. The predicted relationship between traditional social orientation and weight preoccupation was partially confirmed. No differences were found between weight-preoccupied and normal control women in perceptions of their campus on the dimensions of involvement, competition, depende...
Adult Sexual Orientation and Attraction to Underage Persons

A random sample of 175 males convicted of sexual assault against children was screened with reference to their adult sexual orientation and the sex of their victims. The sample divided fairly evenly into two groups based on whether they were sexually fixated exclusively on children or had regressed from peer relationships. Female children were victimized nearly twice as often as male children. All regressed offenders, whether their victims were male or female children, were heterosexual in their adult orientation. There were no examples of regression to child victims among peer-oriented, homosexual males. The possibility emerges that homosexuality and homosexual pedophilia may be mutually exclusive and that the adult heterosexual male constitutes a greater risk to the underage child than does the adult homosexual male.
Constraints on Weights in Binary Codes

There are known constraints on the number of doubly-even and singly-even vectors in a linear even binary code C. These constraints give information about C∩C⊥. We find new constraints on weights in a binary linear code C which also contains odd weight vectors. This leads to information about the dimension and weights of C∩C⊥.
Sorting action potentials one hundred channels at a time

For over half a century neuroscientists have sorted action potentials according to their shape, limited more by the technology available than by the inherent difficulty of the problem. Now the tools exist for real-time execution of a number of excellent sorting algorithms, including commercial offerings permitting large numbers of channels to be monitored in real-time. Shortly, the instrumentation questions will tum to the storage of data and the creation of visualization tools for investigating the correlative information which will be available. The scientific question is whether this information is useful for understanding the brain.