cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Total ankle replacement

There has been a vast change in our treatment approach to the management of ankle arthritis over the past decade. Not only has our surgical treatment armamentarium expanded, but the available options are now more numerous. Who would have thought 15 years ago that we would, for example, have a selection of total ankle arthroplasty designs to choose from for our patients? These options have clearly benefited the orthopedic surgeon as well as the patient. What is also interesting is how the spectra of ankle and extended hindfoot arthrodesis has become more evident. I do not think that these problems simply did not exist 10 years ago, but we were not as focused on the complications of arthrodesis, since our available treatment alternatives were so limited. Now that total ankle arthroplasty is a more routine treatment option, the adverse clinical and biomechanical consequences of ankle arthrodesis, are far more apparent. In reading the articles in this edition, it should be apparent that there are alternative arthroplasty designs to choose from. Each design has its staunch advocates and proponents, and I personally have had success with the Agility (DePuy, Warsaw, IN) ankle replacement. However, each of these arthroplasty designs is not without its own unique set of problems. Perhaps the most pervasive and ubiquitous of these, which is not associated with any one prosthesis, is the learning curve of total ankle implantation. Each author of total ankle replacement in this issue, as well as the rash of papers recently presented on this topic highlight the initial complications experienced by all users. This remains a concern, but one which fortunately seems to be overcome by a more thorough understanding of the prosthesis, the literature, and the execution of the surgery. With the technical and faculty
Teleological behaviorism and internal control of behavior

The Aristotelian position on causality advocates explaining biological events by the configuration of outcomes they normally achieve. Rachlin's analysis follows this strategy as an alternative to explanation via hypothetical “inner” events, though he omits considering one definition of “inner” explanation (historical definition) as being complementary to teleological explanation. He also fails to provide a detailed teleological analysis of the role of bridging responses in allowing animals to select larger-outcome alternatives.
PROBLEMS IN THE INVESTIGATION OF PICTURE VARNISHES

(1972). PROBLEMS IN THE INVESTIGATION OF PICTURE VARNISHES. Studies in Conservation: Vol. 17, Lisbon Congress 1972: Conservation of Paintings and the Graphic Arts, pp. 201-209.
USE OF ERRORS OF PREDICTION IN IMPROVING FORECAST ACCURACY: AN APPLICATION TO WOOL IN AUSTRALIA

Over the past 20 years, the RAE has produced commodity forecasts in BAE Trends in Australian Agricultural Commodities, Farm Costs and Farm Incomes and other commodity outlook publications. There have been several studies on the accuracy of the forecasts, either comparing RAE forecasts with naive forecasts or making simple calculations of biases and standard deviations. Such approaches are not sufficiently informative in that they do not give any indication of what has caused the inaccuracies, nor of the timing of significant changes in prediction accuracy. In this analysis, an attempt is made to improve upon this situation using some tools of time series analysis.
Research article: Sparse regularized discriminant analysis with application to microarrays

For cancer prediction using large-scale gene expression data, it often helps to incorporate gene interactions in the model. However it is not straightforward to simultaneously select important genes while modeling gene interactions. Some heuristic approaches have been proposed in the literature. In this paper, we study a unified modeling approach based on the @?"1 penalized likelihood estimation that can simultaneously select important genes and model gene interactions. We will illustrate its competitive performance through simulation studies and applications to public microarray data.
Heart transplant and 2-year follow up in a child with generalized arterial calcification of infancy.

Generalized arterial calcification of infancy (GACI, OMIM 208000) and pseudoxanthoma elasticum (PXE, OMIM 264800) are rare autosomal-recessive disorders which represent the opposite ends of the same spectrum of pathologies characterized by progressive ectopic calcification and degeneration of elastic fibers at skin, eyes, and cardiovascular level. Patients with GACI suffer from hypertension, severe myocardial ischemia, and congestive heart failure and often die within 6 months of life. On the other end, PXE is associated with considerable morbidity, rarely with mortality. GACI and PXE are associated with biallelic mutations in ENPP1 and in ABCC6. We report the case of a 4-year-old Italian child submitted to heart transplant, at 18 months old, for end-stage heart failure due to extensive myocardial infarction of the left ventricle and diffuse coronary calcifications. The histology showed generalized arterial calcification and the molecular analysis identified mutations in ABCC6. Two years after transplantation, the child shows good clinical conditions and growth with no recurrence of calcium deposits in the heart. Conclusion: Bisphosphonate therapy at present is the treatment of choice for systemic arterial involvement in GACI, and heart transplant has proven to be the definitive treatment in case with extensive myocardial infarction, as in our. Molecular analysis is mandatory for a complete diagnosis and familial counseling.
School Administrators’ Responses To Wireless Handheld Applications

This article is the fourth in a series examining the projected impacts of new technology and software on K‐12 education. The data was collected from 166 school administrators attending a workshop in the United States during January 2001. The data is presented in the form of brief composites representing administrator uses of handhelds for school management performances. The authors then comment on the administrators’ assessments based on the background reasoning.
Multi-capillary optical waveguides for DNA sequencing

Cylindrical capillaries can be used as optical elements in a waveguide, where refraction will confine an appropriately focused light beam to pass through the interiors of successive capillaries in a flat parallel array. Such a capillary waveguide allows efficient illumination of samples in multiple capillaries with relatively little laser power. Analytical expressions derived under paraxial and thin-lens approximations provide guidance in selecting the capillary sizes and the refractive indices that will produce the waveguiding effect, but accurate predictions require exact ray tracing. Small reflective losses as the light passes through the capillary surfaces cause cumulative intensity decreases, but the resulting lack of uniformity can be compensated to a considerable extent by illuminating the capillary array from both sides. A 12-capillary waveguide illuminated from both sides in air has a difference of less than 10% from the strongest to the weakest illumination. By increasing the refractive index of both the external medium and the contents of the capillaries, a 96-capillary waveguide for DNA sequencing could be produced that would also provide nearly uniform illumination. A 12-capillary, bi-directionally illuminated waveguide system for DNA sequencing has been constructed. The two focused laser beams are delivered by integrated fiber optic transmitters (IFOTs), and fluorescence is collected by a set of optical fibers whose spacing exactly matches that of the capillaries in the waveguide. The system is easy to align and provides sensitive detection of fluorescence with minimal cross-talk between channels.
Engineering Design Assessment Processes and Scoring Scales for Program Improvement and Accountability

Assessment of student achievement in engineering design is an important part of engineering education and vital to engineering program accreditation. Systematic assessment of design is challenging yet necessary for program improvement. Programs with design distributed across the curriculum and with significant numbers of transfer students face special challenges in assessing students' design capabilities and providing meaningful feedback to improve design education. This manuscript presents an assessment process that supports effective transfer of design credits, feedback for improvement of design education, and evaluation of program success in design education. Mid-program and end-of-program assessment strategies are included. Design scoring standards are presented to establish a basis for making performance comparisons within and among programs.
Role of single photon emission computed tomography and transcranial Doppler ultrasonography in clinical vasospasm.

This report presents our experience with Transcranial Doppler (TCD) ultrasonography and Single Photon Emission Computed Tomography (SPECT) in the assessment of patients with aneurysmal subarachnoid haemorrhage (SAH). It was designed to evaluate clinical vasospasm with both TCD and SPECT and determine their diagnostic value. Twenty-eight consecutive patients were examined with both TCD and SPECT, performed within 24 hours of each other. They had a total of 45 TCDs and 46 SPECT scans. Eight patients (29%) developed clinical vasospasm, noted from day 2 to day 11 post subarachnoid haemorrhage; these patients underwent TCDs and SPECT scans when the diagnosis of vasospasm was made. Twenty patients (71%) did not demonstrate clinical vasospasm throughout their hospital stay and underwent TCDs and SPECT scans within the first 2 weeks of their SAH, mostly between day 2 and day 10, the period of greatest risk for vasospasm. TCD and SPECT sensitivity for clinical vasospasm was 100% and 50% respectively, their specificity was only 20% and 60%. TCD sensitivity for symptomatic vasospasm was found to be excellent, whereas SPECT was not found to be as useful. We conclude that TCD is the preferred method in the evaluation of patients with subarachnoid haemorrhage.
Effect of Zinc Nutrition on Photosynthesis and Carbonic Anhydrase Activity in Cotton

Photosynthesis, respiration, carbonic anhydrase activity and chlorophyll concentrations were correlated with zinc nutrition in cotton (Gossypium hirsutum L.). The critical zinc level during early plant growth was 13 μg/g dry weight in recently matured leaves (blade three). Photosynthesis and chlorophyll concentration required a minimum Zn of 13 and 14 μg/g dry weight, respectively, in blade three for maximum activity and synthesis. Respiration was not influenced by zinc status. Carbonic anhydrase activity increased curvilinearly as zinc status improved from deficiency to adequacy.
Myth as Ideology and Scholarship as Myth with Footnotes

Myth as Ideology and Scholarship as Myth with Footnotes. Bruce Lincoln. Theorizing Myth: Narrative, Ideology, and Scholarship. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1999. xv. 298 pp.
Exploiting Degraded-Service Tolerance to Improve Performance of Telecom Networks

Degraded-service-tolerant connections can operate with reduced bandwidth under failure conditions. We propose a provisioning scheme that accepts degraded services not only during failures but also during admission process to increase service acceptance and/or availability.
Steps to translate preconditioning from basic research to the clinic.

Efforts to treat cardiovascular and cerebrovascular diseases often focus on the mitigation of ischemia–reperfusion (I/R) injury. Many treatments or “preconditioners” are known to provide substantial protection against I/R injury when administered prior to the event. Brief periods of ischemia itself have been validated as a means to achieve neuroprotection in many experimental disease settings, in multiple organ systems, and in multiple species suggesting a common pathway leading to tolerance. In addition, pharmacological agents that act as potent preconditioners have been described. Experimental induction of neuroprotection using these various preconditioning paradigms has provided a unique window into the brain's endogenous protective mechanisms. Moreover, preconditioning agents themselves hold significant promise as clinical-stage therapies for prevention of I/R injury. The aim of this article is to explore several key steps involved in the preclinical validation of preconditioning agents prior to the conduct of clinical studies in humans. Drug development is difficult, expensive, and relies on multifactorial analysis of data from diverse disciplines. Importantly, there is no single path for the preclinical development of a novel therapeutic and no proven strategy to ensure success in clinical translation. Rather, the conduct of a diverse array of robust preclinical studies reduces the risk of clinical failure by varying degrees depending upon the relevance of preclinical models and drug pharmacology to humans. A strong sense of urgency and high tolerance of failure are often required to achieve success in the development of novel treatment paradigms for complex human conditions.
Enabling Analysis and Measurement of Conventional Software Development Documents Using Project-Specific Formalism

We describe a new approach to modeling and analyzing software development documents that are typically written using conventional office applications. Our approach brings automation to content extraction, quality checking and measurement of massive document artifacts that tend to be handled by labor-intensive manual work in industry today. Rather than seeking an approach based on creation or rewriting of contents using more rigid, machine-friendly representations such as standardized formal models and restricted languages, we provide a method to deal with the diversity of document artifacts by making use of project-specific formalism that exists in target documents. We demonstrate that such project-specific formalism often tends to "naturally" exist at syntactic levels, and it is possible to define a "document model", a logical data representation gained by transformation rule from the physical, syntactic structure to the logical, semantic structure. With this transformation, various quality checking rules for completeness, consistency, traceability, etc., are realized by evaluating constraints for data items in the logical structure, and measurement of these quality aspects is automated. We developed a tool to allow a user to easily define document models and checking rules, and provide the insights on transformations when defining document models for various industry specification documents written in word processor files, spreadsheets and presentations. We also demonstrate the use of natural language processing can improve document modeling and quality checking by compensating for a weakness of formalism and applying analysis to specific parts of the target documents.
Impossible Criminals: The Suburban Imperatives of America's War on Drugs

In the late 1990s at least fourteen white high school and college students died of heroin overdoses in the wealthy Dallas suburb of Plano, recently named the safest midsized city in America. The local newspaper proclaimed a “heroin epidemic sweeping Plano and the nation,” and media reports invariably described the illegal drug consumers as tragic victims, “clean-cut teenagers” from affluent families with a “bright future ahead of them.” The intense national coverage highlighted the innocent white children of a seemingly idyllic suburb corrupted by sinister outside forces that might strike anywhere, anytime. “Heroin in Suburbia,” an abc World News expose, explained that Plano’s gated communities faced “a new enemy that has invaded their city and is threatening their children. . . . People thought it couldn’t happen here, but it did.” Dateline nbc warned that heroin, an inner-city drug, “has jumped the tracks and has been killing kids in some of our most prosperous suburbs.” cnn opened a special Plano broadcast with the searching question, “Is your town ripe for picking by drug dealers?” The Plano police blamed illegal immigrants who “peddle Chiva [heroin] to rich suburban kids,” and the U.S. district attorney pledged zero tolerance for the Mexican cartels “preying on this community.” The federal Drug Enforcement Administration announced a major operation to protect Plano’s youth, culminating in the indictment of twenty-nine “drug pushers” charged with conspiracy to commit murder. Sixteen of these defendants were local white teenagers who sold heroin (and marijuana) to other high school students; each agreed to a plea bargain and most received probation or limited jail time. The Mexican “kingpins”—in reality, low-level couriers in the cross-border trade— received mandatory-minimum sentences of twenty years to life for what prosecutors labeled their “calculated and cold-blooded” decision to “target young people in Plano as a new market.”1
Development of sentinel lymph node biopsy for melanoma.

For all solid neoplasms, with the possible exception of thyroid cancer, regional lymph node metastasis is the most important determinant of survival. Therapeutic lymph node dissection for clinically apparent nodal disease remains the standard of care for regional control of disease, but the benefits of elective lymph node dissection (ELND) (ie, removing lymph nodes that do not contain a clinically apparent tumor) beyond staging has been hotly debated. Perhaps no other tumor type’s history illustrates this controversy better than that of cutaneous melanoma. For years, melanoma was treated with generous, wide, local excision and ELND for patients who had clinically negative lymph nodes but who were at risk for locoregional failure. The hypothesis of this strategy was that accurate staging and improvement in survival would be possible by removing regional disease before it had a chance to become systemic. As the treatments for primary melanoma and, likewise, breast cancer became less radical, a critical eye was turned toward ELND. Retrospective reviews of ELND for melanoma showed an average of greater than 20% survival advantage with ELND compared with observation [1–3]. Prospective studies, however, have failed to demonstrate a statistically significant survival benefit from ELND [4,5]. The results of the Intergroup Melanoma Surgical Group [6] of 740 patients with intermediate-thickness melanoma who were randomized to either observation or ELND showed no difference in overall 5-year survival rates (82% and 86%, respectively). By performing an unplanned subset analysis, however, the authors showed a statistically significant survival difference in patients 60 years of age or younger who had nonulcerated tumors 1 to 2 mm in thickness. Because only approximately 20% of patients with intermediate-thickness melanoma have nodal metastases, a survival benefit cannot be identified, with 80% of node-negative patients diluting any potential beneficial effects. In this environment, the sentinel lymph node dissection for melanoma was born.
A broadband terahertz metamaterial electrical modulator

We demonstrate hybrid metamaterial devices that are able to electrically switch their resonances therefore the terahertz transmission properties at room temperature. The interrelated amplitude switching and phase shifting allow for fast broadband external terahertz modulation.
Mechanically assisted surface modification of polymer particles with superfine calcium phosphates

A mechanical route plays an important role in particulate coatings and synthesis. A type of particulate surface modification, i.e., oriented coating of fine particles onto the surface of a core particle, is proposed. For achieving this concept, the author has developed a two-step process involving mechanical and chemical methods. As an example, needle-like dicalcium phosphate fine particles were coated, in a standing-up state, onto the surface of nylon-12 core particles (avg 50um). The effect of the crystal structure of dicalcium phosphate on the particulate oriented coating was investigated.
RAIDR: Retention-Aware Intelligent DRAM Refresh

Dynamic random-access memory (DRAM) is the building block of modern main memory systems. DRAM cells must be periodically refreshed to prevent loss of data. These refresh operations waste energy and degrade system performance by interfering with memory accesses. The negative effects of DRAM refresh increase as DRAM device capacity increases. Existing DRAM devices refresh all cells at a rate determined by the leakiest cell in the device. However, most DRAM cells can retain data for significantly longer. Therefore, many of these refreshes are unnecessary. In this paper, we propose RAIDR (Retention-Aware Intelligent DRAM Refresh), a low-cost mechanism that can identify and skip unnecessary refreshes using knowledge of cell retention times. Our key idea is to group DRAM rows into retention time bins and apply a different refresh rate to each bin. As a result, rows containing leaky cells are refreshed as frequently as normal, while most rows are refreshed less frequently. RAIDR uses Bloom filters to efficiently implement retention time bins. RAIDR requires no modification to DRAM and minimal modification to the memory controller. In an 8-core system with 32 GB DRAM, RAIDR achieves a 74.6% refresh reduction, an average DRAM power reduction of 16.1%, and an average system performance improvement of 8.6% over existing systems, at a modest storage overhead of 1.25 KB in the memory controller. RAIDR's benefits are robust to variation in DRAM system configuration, and increase as memory capacity increases.
An investigation ofhydrogen peroxide chemistry in surface waters of Vineyard Sound with H218O2 and 18O2

labeled H,O, and 0, have been used to determine absolute rates and pathways of peroxide formation and decay processes in surface waters of a coastal marine site. Reactions were followed by incubating seawater samples with '*O, or H, l8O, and following the chemical transformation of the isotope label. Decomposition of H,180, was dominated by biological processes and led to the formation of 1802 and H,180; the product distribution indicates that 65-80% of the decay was due to catalase with 20-35% due to peroxidase activity. Photochemical oxidation of Hz'80, to 'sOz was also observed. Particle-dependent, light-independent peroxide production was also observed in freshly collected samples, with rates ranging from 0.8 to 2.4 nM h-l. These rates are low relative to photochemical production rates in surface waters, but may be important under conditions of low light intensity. Experiments with a metabolic inhibitor suggest that at least some ofthis production was biologically mediated. However, there was no evidence for light-dependent biological production.
Coreceptor Utilization by Human Immunodeficiency Virus Type 1 Is Not a Primary Determinant of Neutralization Sensitivity

We have examined the relationship between coreceptor utilization and sensitivity to neutralization in a primary isolate of human immunodeficiency virus type 1 and its T-cell line-adapted (TCLA) derivative. We determined that adaptation of the primary-isolate (PI) virus 168P results in the loss of the unique capacity of PI viruses to utilize the CCR5 coreceptor and in the acquisition by the TCLA 168C virus of sensitivity to neutralization by V3-directed monoclonal antibodies (MAbs). In experiments wherein infection by 168P is directed via either the CCR5 or the CXCR4 pathway, we demonstrate that the virus, as well as pseudotyped virions bearing a molecularly cloned 168P envelope protein, remains refractory to neutralization by MAbs 257-D, 268-D, and 50.1 regardless of the coreceptor utilized. This study suggests that coreceptor utilization is not a primary determinant of differential neutralization sensitivity in PI and TCLA viruses.
SILDENAFIL CITRATE AFTER RADICAL RETROPUBIC PROSTATECTOMY

Purpose:: Erectile dysfunction continues to be a significant problem for men after radical retropubic prostatectomy despite nerve sparing techniques. Sildenafil citrate (Viagra ‡ ‡Pfizer, New York, New York.) has proved effective for erectile dysfunction in many men. We determine the efficacy of sildenafil in men with erectile dysfunction after radical retropubic prostatectomy and examine variables that may impact the response to treatment.Materials and Methods:: A total of 84 men were prescribed sildenafil after radical retropubic prostatectomy and asked to complete a series of questionnaires, including the International Index of Erectile Function (IIEF), on erectile function before and after sildenafil administration. The importance of factors, such as patient age, time since surgery, degree of cavernous nerve sparing, preoperative prostate specific antigen, Gleason score, clinical and pathological stage, and baseline postoperative erectile function, was examined.Results:: Of the 84 patients 45 (53%) ha...
Generation of subpicosecond electrical pulses by nonuniform illumination of GaAs transmission-line gaps

We present a detailed study of subpicosecond pulse generation by nonuniform illumination of transmission-line gaps on semiinsulating GaAs. The dependence of such pulses on bias voltage, light intensity, and wavelength was examined in detail with the aid of a subpicosecond electrooptic sampling system. A complete spatial mapping of the excitation area indicates that the pulse generation is due to the depletion of the electrical field in the illuminated section of the gap. A comparison of uniform and nonuniform gap excitation schemes pinpointed the physical differences between the two processes of electrical-transient generation. Picosecond pulses were also generated by nonuniform illumination of a photoconductive gap placed in series with a coplanar waveguide for the first time and were found to contain balanced, odd modes only. >
Assessment in Academic Based Leadership Education Programs

The primary purpose of this paper is to call leadership educators to intentionally engage in a conversation regarding how we ensure participants of our programs are learning what we hope they learn. To achieve this principal aim, this paper will (a) briefly examine pressures compelling our discipline to engage in intentional conversations regarding assessment and (b) provide an overview of ways and means of assessment activities.
A novel optoelectronic tweezer using light induced dielectrophoresis

We demonstrate a novel optoelectronic tweezer using light induced dielectrophoresis mechanism to optically trap and transport micro particles with optical power in the /spl mu/W range. This device consists of two pattern-less surfaces: a bottom glass substrate coated with photoconductive material and a top transparent indium-tin-oxide (ITO) glass. To achieve optical trapping, we sandwich the liquid-immersed micro particles between these two surfaces and supply an ac electric bias. A 633-nm He-Ne laser focused by a 40x objective lens is used to transport the particles. Negative dielectrophoretic trapping is demonstrated in this paper. Our experiment results show that optical beam with power as low as 1 /spl mu/W is sufficient to transport 25-/spl mu/m-diameter latex particles at a speed of 4.5 /spl mu/m/sec. The transport speed increases with higher optical power. A maximum speed of 397 /spl mu/m/sec is observed at 100 /spl mu/W.
Barriers to hospice care in Alabama: provider-based perceptions.

Few studies have evaluated barriers to hospice from a hospice provider perspective. We assessed such views via a postal survey to all licensed hospices in Alabama (N = 193)—response = 55.4%. Most providers considered physicians and health care professionals to be somewhat knowledgeable of hospice, but also indicated a lack of knowledge constituted the barrier with the most impact in their communities. Respondents also cited physician difficulties with discussing end of life with patients and prognosticating death within 6 months as leading barriers. Providers also described Medicare reimbursement cap issues that have resulted in barriers to hospice. Our findings were similar to previous investigations assessing provider perceptions. Future studies should explore how reimbursement cap issues affect the receipt and delivery of hospice care.
Foreign capital, financial crises and incomes in the first era of globalization

We explore the association between income and international capital flows between 1880 and 1913. Capital inflows are associated with higher incomes per capita in the long run, but capital flows also brought incomes down in the short run via financial crises. Countries just barely made up for these losses over time, so that there is no conditional long-run income loss or gain for countries that experienced crises. This is in contrast to the recent wave of globalization when capital importing countries that experienced a crisis seemed to grow relatively faster over fixed periods of time. Some countries avoided crises and were able to raise incomes with foreign capital. We discuss some possibilities why.
Otitis Media: Precursor of Delayed Reading

Objective: To investigate the connection between otitis media in the language acquisition years and the occurrence of delayed reading between the ages of 8 and 10. Method: Participants were 40 children, half of whom had a history of otitis media between the ages of birth and three years and half who were free of the disease. These children, now ages 8‐10, were tested with the WISC-R and a variety of reading measures. Results: Children with a history of otitis media scored over a year below grade level in reading and significantly below controls on a variety of literacy measures as well as on the Verbal Comprehension factor on the WISC-R. Conclusions: Children with early onset otitis media (birth to three years) tend to be at greater risk for delayed reading than age-matched controls.
Environmental Influences on Growth and Reproduction of Invasive Commelina benghalensis

Commelina benghalensis (Benghal dayflower) is a noxious weed that is invading agricultural systems in the southeastern United States. We investigated the influences of nutrition, light, and photoperiod on growth and reproductive output of C. benghalensis. In the first experimental series, plants were grown under high or low soil nutrition combined with either full light or simulated shade. Lowered nutrition strongly inhibited vegetative growth and aboveground spathe production. Similar but smaller effects were exerted by a 50% reduction in light, simulating conditions within a developing canopy. In the second series of experiments, C. benghalensis plants were exposed to different photoperiod conditions that produced short- and long-day plants growing in similar photosynthetic periods. A short-day photoperiod decreased time to flowering by several days and led to a 40 to 60% reduction in vegetative growth, but reproduction above and below ground was unchanged. Collectively, the results indicate that (1) fertility management in highly weathered soils may strongly constrain competitiveness of C. benghalensis; (2) shorter photoperiods will limit vegetative competitiveness later in the growing seasons of most crops; and (3) the high degree of reproductive plasticity and output possessed by C. benghalensis will likely cause continual persistence problems in agricultural fields.
What to Do When Students Say, 'My Boss Won't Let Me Write Like That'?

This article summarizes advice for how to handle it when your supervisor prefers that your legal writing be more traditional, formal, and old-fashioned. The article advises you not to take a stand at the expense of your job, to try modern approaches when you are in sole control of the document, and to have back-up when you do take a stand.
Central Venous Catheter Scintigraphy Using a Slow Radionuclide Infusion: Case Report

Radiologic investigation of malfunctioning central venous catheters is conventionally performed using a bolus injection of either radiographic contrast material or a radionuclide solution. An alternative scintigraphic technique employing a slow radionuclide infusion is described. The association between retrograde flow in an obstructing fibrin sleeve and leakage from a central venous catheter is better demonstrated using this technique than with imaging after a bolus injection.
Molecular Imaging through centimeters of tissue: High resolution imaging with Cerenkov excitation

Cerenkov light emission from MeV gamma-ray and electron beam delivery has recently been shown to be detectable and could be used in some applications for 3D dosimetry in radiation therapy in water tanks[1-3] or 2D surface dosimetry in humans[4, 5]. The major potential benefit of Cerenkov imaging is that it is a way to image beams in real time with several frames per second. As such, it is feasible to image treatment beams dynamically, and create composite visualizations of the treatment plans. This imaging can be used to verify new treatment plans prior to application to patients, or to quickly verify new machines, or testing in situations where access is limited. The strength of this optical imaging is that it is simple to implement, and provides immediate feedback. The drawbacks are related to minor differences between Cerenkov emission and dose, which make it not an exact measurement of dose.
Left Ventricular Noncompaction With Normal Heart Function: A Rare Cause of Cardioembolic Stroke in a Young Adult (P1.026)

OBJECTIVE: Document left ventricular noncompaction without associated vascular risk factors as a rare cause of stroke DESIGN/METHODS: Case report from a tertiary medical center BACKGROUND: LV noncompaction is largely a genetic condition that leads to intrauterine developmental arrest and the subsequent formation of a loose, noncompacted myocardial layer within the left ventricle. It is often associated with other congenital cardiac abnormalities, arrhythmias or heart failure, and has been described as an etiology for stroke. However, stroke resulting from isolated LV noncompaction without coexisting vascular risk factors is particularly rare and not well described. Thrombi may form in the heavily trabeculated myocardium and embolize to the cerebral arteries. RESULTS: A 37 year-old woman with no known vascular risk factors presented with acute onset right hemiparesis. MRI showed an acute stroke within the distribution of several left MCA lenticulostriate arteries. Her preliminary workup including holter monitor, urine toxicology, vasculitis screen, hypercoagulable screen, and lumbar puncture were unrevealing. Conventional angiogram revealed a left M1 occlusion and otherwise normal vessels, suggesting a cardioembolic source. Transthoracic echocardiogram demonstrated normal systolic function with multiple LV apical trabeculae, suggesting LV noncompaction: this was confirmed with cardiac MRI. Her family members will undergo cardiac screening. She was treated with oral anticoagulation. CONCLUSIONS: LV noncompaction, even in the absence of coexisting vascular risk factors, should be considered as a rare cause of stroke in the young. Thrombi may form in the meshwork of the noncompacted LV endocardium and embolize to the cerebral arteries. In this population, familial cardiac screening and oral anticoagulation may be warranted. Disclosure: Dr. Hainline has nothing to disclose. Dr. Antoniello has nothing to disclose.
Sustainability initiatives in professional soccer

Professional soccer, as an important driver of popular culture, has the potential to transform how we view and practice sustainability. Since the 1980s, the field of sustainability has focused on trying to reduce the impact of human activity on the planet by measuring and assessing the behaviour of organizations. While much progress has been made in a number of areas such as recycling and pollution, much more needs to be done to ensure that future generations are not harmed by today’s consumptive society. It is worth examining what all major institutions, including professional soccer, are doing to reduce their impacts. This study focuses on an analysis of the 19 professional soccer teams in the US by assessing sustainability initiatives highlighted on team Websites and on the Websites of their home stadium. The results demonstrate that most teams are doing something to advance sustainability goals. However, the most active teams on sustainability initiatives are found in the Western Conference where the ...
Solving automated planning problems with parallel decomposition

In this dissertation, we present a parallel decomposition method to address the complexity of solving automated planning problems. We have found many planning problems have good locality which means their actions can be clustered in such a way that nearby actions in the solution plan are usually also from the same cluster. We have also observed that the problem structure is regular and has lots of repetitions. The repetitions come from symmetric objects in the planning problem and a simplified instance with similar problem structure can be generated by reducing the number of symmetric objects. We improve heuristic search in planning by utilizing locality and symmetry and applying parallel decomposition. Our parallel decomposition approach exploits these structural properties in a domain-independent way in three steps: action partitioning, constraint resolution, and subproblem solutions. In each step, we propose solutions to exploit localities and symmetries for minimizing solution time. Our key contribution lies in the design of simplification and generalization procedures to find good heuristics in action partitioning and constraint resolution. In application of our method to solve propositional and temporal planning problems in three of the past International Planning Competitions, our results show that SGPlan6, our proposed planner, can solve more instances than other top planners. We demonstrate SGPlan6 performs well when action partitioning is useful in decreasing heuristic value. We also show SGPlan6 can achieve better quality-time trade-off. By using the symmetry and locality, we are able to achieve good coverage using our domain-independent planner but still have good performance like domain-specific planners.
The Taxonomy of Hepatitis Delta Virus

Hepatitis delta virus is defective, requires hepatitis B virus for its transmission, and causes a distinct form of clinical liver disease. It is unique in animal virology and is currently classified among the unusual agents termed ‘satellites’. Further definition of this classification will require the discovery of currently unknown agents with similar properties.
Web development in Information Science undergraduate education: Integrating Information literacy and Information Technology

This article examines the impact of Web development on Information Literacy (IL) and Information Technology (IT) skills in an undergraduate Information Science (IS) course. The purpose of this study is to explore the connections between IL and IT in a collaborative, active learning environment. Descriptive data is analyzed within a larger pedagogical framework that identifies recent trends in IS undergraduate education. As IS programs expand at the undergraduate level, educators are challenged to develop innovative programs that meet the needs of our students, schools, libraries, and society. Data from this study indicates that Web projects engage students in collaborative, problem-solving activities to produce research oriented digital information. This is a promising method for enhancing communication in the classroom and for integrating IL and IT, but more work needs to be done to better understand the role of collaboration in this process.
Negotiation-based task scheduling to minimize user’s electricity bills under dynamic energy prices

Dynamic energy pricing is a promising technique in the Smart Grid that incentivizes energy consumers to consume electricity more prudently in order to minimize their electric bills meanwhile satisfying their energy requirements. This has become a particularly interesting problem with the introduction of residential photovoltaic (PV) power generation facilities. This paper addresses the problem of task scheduling of (a collection of) energy consumers with PV power generation facilities, in order to minimize the electricity bill. A general type of dynamic pricing scenario is assumed where the energy price is both time-of-use and total power consumption-dependent. A negotiation-based iterative approach has been proposed that is inspired by the state-of-the-art Field-Programmable Gate Array (FPGA) routing algorithms. More specifically, the negotiation-based algorithm is used to rip-up and re-schedule all tasks in each iteration, and the concept of congestion is effectively introduced to dynamically adjust the schedule of each task based on the historical scheduling results as well as the (historical) total power consumption in each time slot. Experimental results demonstrate that the proposed algorithm achieves up to 51.8% improvement in electric bill reduction compared with baseline methods.
Power delivery for series connected voltage domains in digital circuits

This paper discusses a paradigm shift in power delivery which enables low supply voltages for digital circuits — methods for connecting the voltage domains in series to enhance system efficiency and performance. Multiple, independent voltage levels enabled by this approach can reduce power consumption dramatically in microprocessor applications. Since voltage regulators only process a fraction of total load power at the intermediate nodes, decreased size and lower conversion losses are attainable. The number of cascaded power conversion stages and the number of power pins can be reduced as the combined load voltage increases, even when individual circuits operate at supply levels far below 1 V. This paper introduces several power delivery architectures for voltage regulation in series connections. A variety of operating conditions are examined in simulation and experimental hardware.
Research Designs in Crime and Violence Prevention

The central issue in the design of crime and violence prevention research is internal (causal) validity. High internal validity provides great confidence that an empirical relationship between the variables of interest is in fact causal and not due to other variables. Randomized experimental designs provide the highest levels of causal validity. Yet, randomized experiments are relatively rare in crime and violence prevention research; instead, quasi-experimental designs, which have a number of potential threats to their causal validity, are typically utilized. In recent years, however, new quasi-experimental methods have emerged that offer high causal validity.
Monte Carlo evaluation of path integrals for the nuclear shell model.

We present in detail a formulation of the shell model as a path integral and Monte Carlo techniques for its evaluation. The formulation, which linearizes the two-body interaction by an auxiliary field, is quite general, both in the form of the effective ‘‘one-body’’ Hamiltonian and in the choice of ensemble. In particular, we derive formulas for the use of general (beyond monopole) pairing operators, as well as a novel extraction of the canonical (fixed-particle-number) ensemble via an activity expansion. We discuss the advantages and disadvantages of the various formulations and ensembles and give several illustrative examples. We also discuss and illustrate calculation of the imaginary-time response function and the extraction, by maximum entropy methods, of the corresponding strength function. Finally, we discuss the "sign problem" generic to fermion Monte Carlo calculations, and prove that a wide class of interactions are free of this limitation.
Burning and Rebuilding Bridges: Forensic Infrastructures in War and its Aftermath

Resumen El 20 de febrero del ano 2002, las FARC destruyeron el puente Danticas en la region colombiana del oriente antioqueno. Tres personas murieron, incluyendo una mujer en labor de parto. Durante la proxima decada, el puente destruido era una metafora material de la debilidad del gobierno frente las negociaciones con las FARC y la reparacion de la infraestructura destruida. Basado en los campos de antropologia forense y arquitectura forense, este articulo propone el concepto de “infraestructura forense” para investigar la importancia simbolica y politica de la destruccion y reconstruccion del puente Danticas. Utilizo el marco conceptual de Eyal Weizman que entiende forense como el conocimiento de materiales como evidencia y foro donde se discute y se crea la verdad. Sugiero que el performance, la fisicalidad y el ludico—cuando se los entiende como un foro—puedan apoyar la creacion de formas incorporadas de justicia y reparacion en las posguerras. [Colombia, conflicto, ecologia, medio ambiente]
ISWI chromatin remodellers sense nucleosome modifications to determine substrate preference

ATP-dependent chromatin remodellers regulate access to genetic information by controlling nucleosome positions in vivo. However, the mechanism by which remodellers discriminate between different nucleosome substrates is poorly understood. Many chromatin remodelling proteins possess conserved protein domains that interact with nucleosomal features. Here we used a quantitative high-throughput approach, based on the use of a DNA-barcoded mononucleosome library, to profile the biochemical activity of human ISWI family remodellers in response to a diverse set of nucleosome modifications. We show that accessory (non-ATPase) subunits of ISWI remodellers can distinguish between differentially modified nucleosomes, directing remodelling activity towards specific nucleosome substrates according to their modification state. Unexpectedly, we show that the nucleosome acidic patch is necessary for maximum activity of all ISWI remodellers evaluated. This dependence also extends to CHD and SWI/SNF family remodellers, suggesting that the acidic patch may be generally required for chromatin remodelling. Critically, remodelling activity can be regulated by modifications neighbouring the acidic patch, signifying that it may act as a tunable interaction hotspot for ATP-dependent chromatin remodellers and, by extension, many other chromatin effectors that engage this region of the nucleosome surface.
Post-Transplant Anemia

Despite brisk production of erythropoietin from a functioning renal allograft, anemia in the post-transplant setting is common and has a myriad of causes, including blood loss, nutrient deficiency, and bone marrow suppression resulting from transplant medications or opportunistic infections. In addition, some transplant medications are associated with different morphologic types of anemia, including microcytic, macrocytic, or sideroblastic anemia. Anemia in the post-transplant period is significant since it can be associated with poor patient and graft survival. Any slow decline in hemoglobin concentration warrants a complete work up. Lacking randomized controlled trials, optimal target hemoglobin for anemia correction following renal allograft remains unclear.