cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
The evolution of nonlinear Alfven waves subject to growth and damping

Results of a numerical study of Alfven waves are presented subject to nonlinearity, dispersion, growth, and damping. The model presented is the derivative nonlinear Schrodinger equation, modified to include linear growth and damping processes. The processes that are considered are wave amplification by streaming particle distributions, and damping resulting from ion‐cyclotron resonance absorption. These growth and damping mechanisms are dominant in different portions of wavenumber space. The primary role of nonlinearity is the transfer of wave energy from growing or amplified wavenumbers to those which are damped. A nonlinear saturation mechanism thereby results, in which instability of low wavenumber modes may be quenched. A simple phenomenological model is developed, which accounts for many of the salient features of the numerical calculations. The application of these results to observations of Alfven waves upstream of the Earth’s bow shock is briefly considered. It is suggested that the short wavelength ‘‘shocklet’’ structures resemble the soliton‐like pulses that emerge from the driven derivative nonlinear Schrodinger equation. However, the nonlinear effects discussed in this paper do not seem responsible for limiting the amplitude of the ‘‘low‐frequency’’ waves in the foreshock region.
WARD IDENTITIES IN OPEN STRING FIELD THEORY

Abstract We use the BRST invariant gauge fixed action for open string field theory to derive the Ward identities of the latter.
Impact of Clear, Loud, and Slow Speech on Scaled Intelligibility and Speech Severity in Parkinson's Disease and Multiple Sclerosis

Purpose The perceptual consequences of rate reduction, increased vocal intensity, and clear speech were studied in speakers with multiple sclerosis (MS), Parkinson's disease (PD), and healthy contr...
CMOS compatible bistable electromagnetic microvalve on a single wafer

Abstract This paper presents our work in the bistable electromagnetic actuated microvalve. The microvalve is entirely fabricated by surface micromachining on top of a single Si (silicon) substrate. The microvalve has an overall diameter of 1600 μm and the overall height of 600 μm, including the wafer thickness. The bistable mechanism is achieved by integrating an electroplated micro CoNiMnP magnet on the membrane. The microvalve was tested in the flow of deionized (DI) water at 0–50 μL/min. The latching/unlatching of the microvalve was performed to control the flow DI water at 30 μL/min, it required the operational current of 0.38 A and the power of 1.17 W. The latching/unlatching response time of the microvalve is 10 ms, with the leaking rate of 0.16–0.8 μL/min.
New skeletal muscle relaxants.

In the early 1980s the clinical use of nondepolarizing neuromuscular blocking drugs (muscle relaxants) made a significant leap forward with the introduction of vecuronium and atracurium. These two drugs have an intermediate duration of action, vecuronium is free of cardiovascular effects, and atracurium has a unique non-organ-dependent mode of elimination [1]. Vecuronium and atracurium were a significant improvement over the previously available muscle relaxants, and the usefulness of intermediate-acting drugs became firmly established. Any muscle relaxant introduced since vecuronium and atracurium must have some aspect of its pharmacology that gives it a clinical advantage over these two drugs. In recent years, four new muscle relaxants, pipecuronium (Arduan), doxacurium (Neuromax), mivacurium (Mivacron), and rocuronium (Zemuron) have been introduced into clinical practice in the United States. Other muscle relaxants are at the stage of clinical trials. I will discuss the pharmacology of the drugs recently released into clinical practice, and provide an outline of the drugs undergoing clinical trials.
LSD and Mystical Experiences

WITH the publication of Aldous Huxley's The Doors of Perception and Heaven and Hell, and of R. C. Zaehner's Mysticism, Sacred and Profane, attention has again been given to the similarities between certain kinds of druginduced experiences and mystical experiences.' The student of world religions has long known of the sacramental use of such special agents as alcohol, plants, mushrooms, etc., to facilitate contact with the gods or make available spiritual knowledge or powers-as in the ancient Aryan use of soma and the still-practiced peyote sacrament of certain North American Indians. In spite of a long recognition of the use of such agents to facilitate or produce states of consciousness considered to be of the highest religious significance, psychologists of religion have given very little attention to the phenomena involved. Even psychologists in general had until recently studied very little the patterns and significance of a wide range of drug-induced states of consciousness. The last fifteen years have brought a tremendous increase in psychiatric and psychological research in drug experiences. But psychologists of religion have as yet shown relatively little concern with some of the very interesting aspects of these practices which might help shed light on certain varieties of religious experience. After a brief introduction to the known physical effects of hallucinogenic drugsprincipally, LSD-25 or, more simply, LSD -this article summarizes the characteristics of a variety of drug-induced experiences. These experiences are then confronted with various types of mystical experiences which in the author's opinion are of the same nature. In the course of the comparative confrontation several suggestions are made regarding the value of hallucinogenic drugs as potential aids to psychological studies of religion. The general standpoint of the article is that of the history and psychology of religions. In addition to data from others' reports--historical and experimental-the writer has been able to draw on his own experiences as a voluntary, normal subject in experimentations with lysergic acid diethylamide (LSD).
Damage test capabilities using a high repetition rate visible laser at LLNL

A well controlled damage testing facility is vital for establishing confidence in production coatings for high power laser operation and for the understanding of damage phenomena. An upgraded damage test facility at LLNL now allows better control in measuring damage thresholds and absorption of thin film coatings as well as examination of sites where damage first occurs. A description of the system configuration using lasers from the Laser Isotope Separation (LIS) at the Laser Demonstration Facility (LDF) as well as the methods used to acquire damage thresholds will be given.
Facilitatory or Inhibitory Nontarget Effects in the Location-Cuing Paradigm ☆

The effect of nontargets on the identification of targets in the location-cuing paradigm was investigated in order to determine whether observers consistently allocate their attention to a validly cued location and whether the effect of nontargets is to facilitate or to inhibit performance. In four experiments, the effects of a single matching nontarget or a single nonmatching nontarget were compared. In each experiment, it was shown that observers consistently allocate their attention to a cued location when a precue appears and that performance is inhibited more by nonmatching nontargets in the display than it is facilitated by matching nontargets.
Hepatopulmonary syndrome: Long-term survival in the Mayo Clinic experience

Introduction :Hepatopulmonary syndrome (HPS) is an uncommon pulmonary vascular disorder occurring in advanced liver disease, characterized by hypoxemia due to intrapulmonary vascular dilatations. Liver transplantation (LT) improves survival in HPS. We present the largest consecutive series of HPS patients specifically addressing long-term survival relative to the degree of pre-LT hypoxemia. Methods: Survival was assessed using Kaplan-Meier methodology for 106 HPS patients from 1986 through 2010. Results: 49 HPS patients underwent LT. Post-LT survival (1, 3, 5 and 10 year) did not differ between groups based on Pa0 2 at the time of HPS diagnosis. Improvements in overall survivals at 1, 3 and 5 years post-LT in those HPS patients transplanted after 2002 (MELD exception era, n=28) ( 92, 87 and 87%, respectively) as compared to those transplanted prior to that time (pre MELD era, n=21) (71, 67 and 67%, respectively) did not reach statistical significance (P= 0.09) (figure 1). Model for Endstage Liver Disease (MELD) exception to facilitate LT was granted to 18 patients since 2002 with post-LT survival of 15/18 patients (83%) and no wait-list mortality. Conclusion: Long-term outcome after LT in HPS is favorable. The survival patterns from the time of LT were not influenced by pre-LT PaO 2 . Limited experience with HPS-MELD exception suggests a positive impact on survival with no wait list mortality.
Angiographic and clinical outcomes among patients with acute coronary syndromes presenting with isolated anterior ST-segment depression: a TRITON-TIMI 38 (Trial to Assess Improvement in Therapeutic Outcomes by Optimizing Platelet Inhibition With Prasugrel-Thrombolysis In Myocardial Infarction 38) substudy.

Objectives This study sought to determine angiographic and clinical outcomes among patients with acute coronary syndrome (ACS) presenting with isolated anterior ST-segment depression on 12-lead electrocardiogram (ECG). Background In patients with ACS, anterior ST-segment depression on 12-lead ECG may represent plaque rupture with: 1) acute thrombotic occlusion with elevation of cardiac biomarkers (+Tn); 2) a patent artery with +Tn; or 3) a patent artery with –Tn. Methods The TRITON–TIMI 38 (Trial to Assess Improvement in Therapeutic Outcomes by Optimizing Platelet Inhibition with Prasugrel–Thrombolysis In Myocardial Infarction 38) enrolled 13,608 ACS patients. Those with isolated anterior (leads V1 to V4) ST-segment depression were analyzed. Angiograms and ECGs were interpreted by local investigators. Results There were 1,198 (8.8%) patients with isolated anterior ST-segment depression. Of those, 314 (26.2%) had an occluded culprit artery (TIMI flow grade 0/1) and +Tn, 641 (53.5%) had a patent culprit artery (TIMI flow grade 2/3) and +Tn, and 243 (20.3%) had TIMI flow grade 2/3 and –Tn. Among patients with an occluded artery, the culprit artery was most often the left circumflex artery (48.4%). The 30-day incidence of the composite of death and MI was significantly higher among patients with an occluded artery (8.6%) than among those with a patent culprit artery and either +Tn (6.3%) or –Tn (2.9%) (3-way p = 0.006). Among patients with an occluded artery, the median time from ECG to percutaneous coronary intervention was 29.4 h (interquartile range 26.1 to 44.1 h). Conclusions Among ACS patients presenting with isolated anterior ST-segment depression, over one-quarter had an occluded culprit artery and elevated cardiac biomarkers. These patients had significantly worse clinical outcomes, and few underwent urgent angiography.
Postmenopausal Estrogen/Progestin Intervention Trial (PEPI)

The Postmenopausal Estrogen/Progestin Interventions (PEPI) trial was a 3-year randomized double-masked placebo controlled trial conducted between 1989 and 1994. This aim of this study was to test the effects of four active hormone replacement treatments (HRT) on cardiovascular risk factors in women between 1 and 10 years postmenopausal after multiple observational studies suggested that HRT might reduce cardiovascular disease. Primary endpoints were changes in HDL cholesterol, systolic blood pressure (SBP), 2-hour post-challenge insulin, and fibrinogen. It enrolled 875 women into five groups defined by estrogen, progestin, and dosing pattern. Groups were placebo/placebo, daily conjugated equine estrogen 0.625 mg (CEE)/placebo, CEE/medroxyprogesterone acetate (MPA) 10 mg for 12 days per month, CEE/MPA 2.5 mg daily, and CEE/micronized progesterone (MP) 200 mg for 12 days per month. Compared with placebo, all treatments improved HDL except CEE alone; CEE/MP was significantly better than CEE/either MPA. All treatments reduced fibrinogen. No significant differences were observed in SBP or insulin. Endometrial safety was a secondary endpoint for the 60% of subjects with a uterus. CEE/placebo was associated with > 20% annual incidence of hyperplasia, whereas all regimens with a progestin were effective in preventing disease. Bone mineral density, which was another secondary endpoint, was improved by all treatments. Keywords: estrogen; progestin; hormone therapy; women; postmenopausal; cardiovascular
Ritual Craft Specialists in Middle Range Societies

This chapter focuses on the social identity of specialists who produced items used in ritual contexts in prehistoric middle range societies. After introducing two prehistoric case studies (Mimbres and Ohio Hopewell) that illustrate the range of productive scale for ritual crafts, ethnographic case studies (Iroquois and Northwest Coast) are discussed to provide more detail on the social identities of ritual craft specialists. It is concluded that artistic skill, regardless of social status, is the primary criterion for the production of ritual icons in many middle range societies. In contexts in which ritual knowledge is critical in status-building, however, the ritual practitioners themselves are likely to be the ritual craft specialists.
Long-Distance Demonstration and Modeling of Low-Power Silicon Microdisk Modulators

Silicon micro-resonators have been proposed for short-distance intracomputer interconnects and recently for long-distance communications. In this letter, the spectral profile, chirp, and power penalties are theoretically analyzed, measured, and compared for a recent silicon microdisk resonator technology. Theory predicts negative pulse chirping of the transmitted wave which when combined with the dispersion properties of SMF-28 fiber results in no power penalty at 40 km and less than 1 dB for 70 km at 5 Gb/s. The measurement at 5 Gb/s agrees with the theoretically predicted values. Measurement of the modulator at a bandwidth limited speed of 10 Gb/s results in 2- and 6.5-dB power penalties at 40 and 70 km, respectively. Comparison with commercial Mach-Zehnder modulator (MZM) technology at 70 km shows that the silicon microdisk is within 0.5-dB power penalty of the MZM at 5 Gb/s and within 4 dB of the MZM power penalty at 10 Gb/s. Theory and experimental results show silicon photonic modulators can be competitive options for long-distance communications.
A constitutively active ErbB4 mutant inhibits drug-resistant colony formation by the DU-145 and PC-3 human prostate tumor cell lines

ErbB4 (HER4) is a member of the ErbB family of receptor tyrosine kinases, a family that also includes the Epidermal Growth Factor Receptor (EGFR/ErbB1/HER1), Neu/ErbB2/HER2, and ErbB3/HER3. Several groups have hypothesized that signal transduction by the ErbB4 receptor tyrosine kinase is coupled to differentiation, growth arrest, and tumor suppression in mammary and prostate epithelial cells. In this report we demonstrate that a constitutively active ErbB4 mutant inhibits the formation of drug-resistant colonies by the DU-145 and PC-3 human prostate tumor cell lines. This is consistent with our hypothesis that ErbB4 signaling is growth inhibitory and may be coupled to tumor suppression in prostate cells.
Ewing's sarcoma

Summary Progress in the treatment of Ewing's sarcoma, the second most common bone tumour in children and adolescents, has improved survival from about 10% in the period before chemotherapy was introduced to about 75% today for patients with localised tumours. However, patients with metastases still fare badly, and the therapy carries short-term and long-term toxicities. Multidisciplinary care is indispensable for these patients. Molecular techniques and new imaging modalities are affecting the diagnosis and classification of patients with Ewing's sarcoma. Cooperative group studies have led to chemotherapy regimens using the same drugs (vincristine, doxorubicin, cyclophosphamide, ifosfamide, and etoposide), although the exact regimens differ in Europe and North America. The EWS–ETS family of gene fusions and their downstream effects in Ewing's sarcomas provide opportunities for new approaches to treatment. These include the inhibition of the fusion gene or its protein product, and pathways related to IGF1 and mTOR. Inhibition of tyrosine kinases, exploitation of non-apoptotic cell death, and interference with angiogenesis are promising new approaches. With many new approaches and relatively few patients, it will be challenging to integrate new and established treatments through clinical trials.
Sexual Identities and Political Engagements: A Queer Survey

This project asks if the theoretical contributions of queer theory accurately characterize sexual identity and politics in “mainstream” lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, transsexual, queer (LGBTQ) communities. Responses to a mail survey distributed in San Diego, California, and Albany, New York, indicate that self-identified queers are politically and sexually more radical than their nonqueer counterparts, supporting the contentions of queer theorists. Nonetheless, self-identified queers also support “traditional” movement goals, such as marriage, military service, and litigating for social change. In conclusion, we suggest that “queer” may complicate conceptions of political strategy as well as sexual and political identity. Sexuality research has grown exponentially over the past few years and often appears to be branching off in at least two different directions with very different methodological approaches dominating each branch. On one side, queer theorizing, built on a social constructivist foundation, has raised important questions about the ways that identity categories emerge from and evolve at numerous discursive sites, often inspiring liberationist political tendencies that challenge established hierarchies of power. On the other side, gay and lesbian studies scholarship, often assuming fixed and stable identities, explores equally important questions about the political, economic, and sociocultural lives of sexual minorities. Our project originates at an infrequently traversed intersection of these two approaches and
The Role of Hypoxia and Hypoxia-Inducible Factor-1Alpha in Preeclampsia Pathogenesis

Preeclampsia affects 5%-8% of pregnancies and is the leading worldwide cause of maternal and fetal morbidity and mortality. Preeclampsia is associated with shallow trophoblast invasion and inadequate spiral artery remodeling, which are widely believed to lead to placental hypoxia, the putative culprit initiating the cascade of events that ultimately results in the maternal manifestations of the disease. Despite extensive research, however, the pathophysiology of this disease remains poorly understood, no effective prevention exists, and treatment is limited to symptomatic therapy. Recent research has introduced exciting new theories regarding the pathogenesis of preeclampsia. Clinical and experimental evidence implicating the circulating antiangiogenic molecules soluble Fms-like tyrosine kinase-1 (sFLT-1) and soluble endoglin (sENG), as well as endothelin-1 and the angiotensin II receptor type I autoimmune antibody (AT-1AA), have been especially promising. This review collates evidence for a role of hypoxia and hypoxia-inducible factor-1alpha (HIF1A; referred to as HIF-1α throughout) in the pathogenesis of preeclampsia and discusses possible molecular links between hypoxia and the newly reported potential mediators of the disease's manifestations.
On the self-similarity of synthetic traffic for the evaluation of intrusion detection systems

The difficulty of quantifying the accuracy of intrusion detection tools against real network data mandates that researchers use simulated attack data for the partial evaluation of such tools. In 1998 and 1999 researchers at MIT Lincoln Labs produced datasets both with and without attack data specifically for use by those interested in developing intrusion detection tools. Because self-similarity has been shown to be a statistical property of real network traffic, this paper examines the attack-free datasets for the presence of self-similarity in various time periods. The results offer insight for researchers who may wish to use specific subsets of the data for testing. Where the results indicate a lack of self-similarity in the data, the likely cause was determined to be either a low activity level or traffic that was dominated by a single protocol, thus forcing the overall distribution to match its own.
Single Document Keyphrase Extraction Using Label Information

Keyphrases have found wide ranging application in NLP and IR tasks such as document summarization, indexing, labeling, clustering and classification. In this paper we pose the problem of extracting label specific keyphrases from a document which has document level metadata associated with it namely labels or tags (i.e. multi-labeled document). Unlike other, supervised or unsupervised, methods for keyphrase extraction our proposed methods utilizes both the document’s text and label information for the task of extracting label specific keyphrases. We propose two models for this purpose both of which model the problem of extracting label specific keyphrases as a random walk on the document’s text graph. We evaluate and report the quality of the extracted keyphrases on a popular multi-label text corpus.
Synthesis of a glycosaminoglycan polymer mimetic using an N-alkyl-N,N-linked urea oligomer containing glucose pendant groups

The synthesis of a glycosaminoglycan polymer mimetic is reported. An isopropylidene protected glucose methacrylate monomer was copolymerized under reversible addition fragmentation chain transfer polymerization control with an azido-containing comonomer to a molecular weight of 29 000 g mol−1 with polydispersity of 1.21. The comonomer ratio was determined to be 15:1 based on 1H NMR spectroscopy. This copolymer was coupled to sugar-functionalized N-alkyl-N,N-linked urea oligomers using a copper catalyzed alkyne/azide cycloaddition reaction. The reaction efficiency was 100% as monitored by 1H NMR spectroscopy. The isopropylidene protecting groups on the polymer and N-alkyl-N,N-linked urea oligomers were removed using acid hydrolysis to give the final polysaccharide mimetic. It is expected that these polymers will have applications in a variety of future therapeutic applications. © 2013 Society of Chemical Industry
Controlled synthesis of responsive hydrogel nanostructures via microcontact printing and ATRP

Surfaces thatare spatially functionalized withintelligenthydrogels,especially at themicro-and nanoscale,areof high interest in the diagnostic and therapeutic fields. Conventional methods of the semiconductor industry have been successfully employed for the patterning of hydrogels for various applications, but methods for fabricating precise 3 D patterns of hydrogels at the micro- and nanoscale over material surfaces remain limited. Herein, microcontact printing (mCP) followed by atom transfer radical polymerization (ATRP) was applied as a platform to synthesize temperature responsive poly(N-isopropylacrylamide) hydrogels with varied network structures (e.g. different molecular weight crosslinkers) over gold surfaces. The XY control of the hydrogels was achieved using mCP, and the Z (thickness) control was achieved using ATRP. The controlled growth and the responsive behavior of hydrogels to temperature stimuli were characterized using Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy and atomic force microscopy (AFM). The results demonstrate that this platform allows for the controlled growth of hydrogel nanostructures using the controlled ATRP mechanism. It is also shown that the molecular weight of the crosslinker affects the rate of hydrogel growth. These PNIPAAm-based crosslinked hydrogel patterns were also demonstrated to have a temperature-dependent swelling response. Using this technique, it is possible to synthesize responsive hydrogel patterns over various surfaces for potential applications in the biomedical field. Copyright 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Light Water Reactor Control Systems

The sections in this article are 1 Neutron Life Cycle 2 Reactor Operation 3 Light Water Reactor Operation
A One‐Pot Synthesis of Constitutionally Unsymmetrical Rotaxanes Using Sequential CuI‐Catalyzed Azide–Alkyne Cycloadditions

A one-pot sequential Cu(I)-catalyzed azide–alkyne cycloaddition (CuAAC) strategy is presented for the synthesis of constitutionally unsymmetrical cyclobis-(paraquat-p-phenylene)-based rotaxanes in good yields from simple starting materials. The methodology consists of performing multiple CuAAC reactions to stopper a pseudo-rotaxane in a stepwise manner, the order of which is controlled through silyl-protection and AgI-catalyzed deprotection of a terminal alkyne. The methodology is highlighted by the synthesis of an amphiphilic branched [4]rotaxane. The methodology increases the ability to access ever more complicated mechanically interlocked compounds to serve in devices as sophisticated and functional molecular machinery.
Optimal tracking of time-varying channels: a frequency domain approach for known and new algorithms

In this paper, we developed a systematic frequency domain approach to analyze adaptive tracking algorithms for fast time-varying channels. The analysis is performed with the help of two new concepts, a tracking filter and a tracking error filter, which are used to calculate the mean square identification error (MSIE). First, we analyze existing algorithms, the least mean squares (LMS) algorithm, the exponential windowed recursive least squares (EW-RLS) algorithm and the rectangular windowed recursive least squares (RW-RLS) algorithm. The equivalence of the three algorithms is demonstrated by employing the frequency domain method. A unified expression for the MSIE of all three algorithms is derived. Secondly, we use the frequency domain analysis method to develop an optimal windowed recursive least squares (OW-RLS) algorithm. We derive the expression for the MSIE of an arbitrary windowed RLS algorithm and optimize the window shape to minimize the MSIE. Compared with an exponential window having an optimized forgetting factor, an optimal window results in a significant improvement in the h MSIE. Thirdly, we propose two types of robust windows, the average robust window and the minimax robust window. The RLS algorithms designed with these windows have near-optimal performance, but do not require detailed statistics of the channel. >
Impact of Second Messenger Modulation on Activity-Dependent and Basal Properties of Excitatory Synapses

ii Acknowledgment iv Table of content v List of figures vii Chapter 1. Synaptic properties and transmitter release 1.
Optical Studies of Proton Tunneling and Relaxation in Benzoic Acid

The double proton transfer, leading to the tautomerization of carboxylie acid dimers, is an example of a translational tunneling system. It provides a model for the interplay of tunneling and relaxation in a condensed phase environment. At low temperatures the study of such systems was made possible by the discovery that the optical spectra of dilute mixed crystals of indigo dyes in benzoic acid reflect the proton structure and dynamics of neighboring benzoic acid dimers. Fluorescence line narrowing and time-resolved spectral measurements lead to the determination of the tunneling matrix element (0.16 cm−1) and the rate of tautomerization by tunneling (1.7 – 4.5 × 10+8 sec−1).
Canonical operator theory of non-Abelian gauge fields

Non-Abelian gauge theory in a manifestly covariant gauge is formulated as a theory of canonical field operators and embedded in an indefinite metric space. A gauge-fixing field is included and every field component has a nonvanishing adjoint momentum with which it has canonical commutation (or anticommutation) relations. Faddeev-Popov fields are represented as scalar fermion fields with ghost particle excitations. Feynman rules are derived from the canonical formulation. A discussion is given of the relation between the existence of a subsidiary condition and the existence of « pure gauge » states that dynamically detach from observable states.
Analysis: Limitations of Point-of-Care Testing

363 POINT-OF-CARE TESTING (POCT) has become an increasingly popular means of delivering laboratory testing. With the advantage of enhanced turn-around time for obtaining test results, POCT has the potential for faster therapeutic intervention and improved patient outcomes. The portability of POCT devices allows access to laboratory testing in remote healthcare sites, like rural physician’s offices and mobile transport vehicles, helicopters, even cruise ships. Patients at risk for blood loss and transfusions further benefit from the small volume of blood required for POCT, particularly neonatal patients. Recent surveys estimate that POCT currently represents about 25% ($4.9 billion U.S.) of the world-wide diagnostic testing market, and this market share is expected to double in the next decade.1 Yet, for all its convenience, inaccurate POCT results may actually increase overall healthcare costs by triggering further diagnostic testing and procedures, or may fail to detect a significant condition. Complaints about self-monitoring blood glucose meters represent the largest number of reports files with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration for any medical device. Over 3000 reports including 16 deaths have been received.2,3 Without proper training and ongoing supervision, operators of cholesterol analyzers in outpatient clinics have generated results leading to wrong clinical interpretations.4 The quality of POCT is thus directly related to various operator (training, competency), site (light, temperature, storage conditions) and patient-specific factors (hematocrit, drugs), as well as the quality of management oversight of the testing process.5 In one U.S. location, unsupervised bedside glucose testing conducted by nonlaboratory staff differed by over 34% from the clinical laboratory, leading to inappropriate categorization of hypoglycemic and normoglycemic patients. However, after implementation of a quality assurance program involving standardized operator training, quality control and laboratory supervision, the same staff were able to reduce their coefficients of variation from 17 to 8% and improve POCT results to clinically acceptable levels.6 For POCT to be clinically effective, test results must be freely interchangeable with more traditional, centralized laboratory results. Many current clinical management protocols have been based on core laboratory results. Adaptation of these protocols to POCT requires comparable performance within acceptable tolerance for the given clinical situation. This implies an understand of the unique site and patient specific variables that can affect POCT results when testing is conducted with dozens of meters and operators or when devices are used on patients with a variety of acute and chronic diseases. The study by Tang et al.7 in this issue illustrates the need to validate POCT devices on the intended patient population prior to clinical implementation. Previous studies have demonstrated oxygen biases on early generation glucose oxidase based meters.8–10 This has clinical
Myocardial Galectin-3 Expression Is Associated with Remodeling of the Pressure-Overloaded Heart and May Delay the Hypertrophic Response without Affecting Survival, Dysfunction, and Cardiac Fibrosis.

The β-galactoside–binding animal lectin galectin-3 is predominantly expressed by activated macrophages and is a promising biomarker for patients with heart failure. Galectin-3 regulates inflammatory and fibrotic responses; however, its role in cardiac remodeling remains unclear. We hypothesized that galectin-3 may be up-regulated in the pressure-overloaded myocardium and regulate hypertrophy and fibrosis. In normal mouse myocardium, galectin-3 was constitutively expressed in macrophages and was localized in atrial but not ventricular cardiomyocytes. In a mouse model of transverse aortic constriction, galectin-3 expression was markedly up-regulated in the pressure-overloaded myocardium. Early up-regulation of galectin-3 was localized in subpopulations of macrophages and myofibroblasts; however, after 7 to 28 days of transverse aortic constriction, a subset of cardiomyocytes in fibrotic areas contained large amounts of galectin-3. In vitro , cytokine stimulation suppressed galectin-3 synthesis by macrophages and cardiac fibroblasts. Correlation studies revealed that cardiomyocyte- but not macrophage-specific galectin-3 localization was associated with adverse remodeling and dysfunction. Galectin-3 knockout mice exhibited accelerated cardiac hypertrophy after 7 days of pressure overload, whereas female galectin-3 knockouts had delayed dilation after 28 days of transverse aortic constriction. However, galectin-3 loss did not affect survival, systolic and diastolic dysfunction, cardiac fibrosis, and cardiomyocyte hypertrophy in the pressure-overloaded heart. Despite its potential role as a prognostic biomarker, galectin-3 is not a critical modulator of cardiac fibrosis but may delay the hypertrophic response.
Iron partitioning between basaltic melts and clinopyroxene as a function of oxygen fugacity

Oxygen fugacity (f O 2 ) is an important parameter because it influences the crystallization sequences of magmas, as well as the composition of the resultant minerals. Traditionally f O 2 has been estimated using coexisting Fe-Ti oxide compositions or Fe 3 + /Fe 2 + ratios in silicate melts, for which the relationship between f O 2 and Fe 3 + has been calibrated. Problems arise in systems where oxides and/or glasses (melts) are absent, or when oxides are suspected to have been re-equilibrated. Therefore, it is important to develop alternate ways to look at f O 2 in volcanic rocks. In this work, we describe a set of experiments to establish the relationship between the Fe 3 + content of clinopyroxene and a basaltic melt as a function of oxygen fugacity. The starting bulk compositions were chosen to be representative of martian parental melts, with pyroxene (either augite or pigeonite) on their liquidi, in order for the results to be applicable to the martian meteorite magma source regions. Experimental conditions ranged from f O 2 = IW to ∼IW+8.6 at 1165 °C for pigeonite/melt pairs and at 1235 °C for melts alone. and f O 2 = IW-1 to IW+4 at ∼1190 °C for augite/melt pairs. Results show that Fe 3 + varies from 0-65% of the total Fe over this range of experimental conditions, and mass D (wt%Fe 3 + P y x /wt%Fe 3 + m e l t ) ranged from 0.75-1.44 and from 0.00-0.77, for pigeonite and augite respectively. XANES and Mossbauer analytical methods give similar results within known error bars of the two techniques, with the best agreement in compositions with >10% Fe 3 + . Our data show that only at high values of f O 2 (>IW + 3.5, or QFM) can Fe 3 + distribution in pyroxene be used to estimate crystallization oxygen fugacity.
Systematics and Morphologic Variation in Two Chromosomal Forms of the Agile Kangaroo Rat (Dipodomys agius)

Morphologic variation between two chromosomal forms of Dipodomys agilis was analyzed by use of external, cranial, and bacular characters. Significant morphologic differences were evident between chromosomal forms. Discriminant-function analysis followed by examination of specimens from the Los Angeles Basin, California, suggested a broad zone of sympatry between the two chromosomal forms, primarily delineated by habitat and elevation. Animals with a diploid chromosomal number of 2n = 62 generally were collected in mesic woodland and coniferous forests at higher elevations in the San Gabriel, San Bernardino, and coastal Santa Monica mountains. Conversely, the southern chromosomal form (2n = 60) inhabits a mosaic of environments ranging from coastal grassland and chaparral in southern California to arid desert and conifer forests in Baja California. These two chromosomal forms appear to represent two distinct species.
Solution-Deposited F:SnO2/TiO2 as a Base-Stable Protective Layer and Antireflective Coating for Microtextured Buried-Junction H2-evolving Si Photocathodes

Protecting Si photocathodes from corrosion is important for developing tandem water-splitting devices operating in basic media. We show that textured commercial Si-pn+ photovoltaics protected by solution-processed semiconducting/conducting oxides (plausibly suitable for scalable manufacturing) and coupled to thin layers of Ir yield high-performance H2-evolving photocathodes in base. They also serve as excellent test structures to understand corrosion mechanisms and optimize interfacial electrical contacts between various functional layers. Solution-deposited TiO2 protects Si-pn+ junctions from corrosion for ∼24 h in base, whereas junctions protected by F:SnO2 fail after only 1 h of electrochemical cycling. Interface layers consisting of Ti metal and/or the highly doped F:SnO2 between the Si and TiO2 reduce Si-emitter/oxide/catalyst contact resistance and thus increase fill factor and efficiency. Controlling the oxide thickness led to record photocurrents near 35 mA cm–2 at 0 V vs RHE and photocathode effi...
Predicting compliance with annual follow-up evaluations in persons with spinal cord injury.

A prospective study was performed to determine why some persons with spinal cord injury (SCI) fail to return for scheduled evaluations in order to identify predictive factors that could be used to target those at greatest risk for noncompliance and facilitate interventions to improve rates of return. Sixty-one noncompliant subjects and 102 persons compliant with regularly scheduled annual examinations were paid to come to the clinic for evaluation. Each participant completed a psychological questionnaire comprised of theoretical and socioeconomic variables. There was no difference between the two groups according to gender, race, level or completeness of injury, education, etiology of injury, responses to questions from the Health Locus of Control Scale, Health Beliefs Model, inconvenience or discomfort. For noncompliant versus compliant persons, cost (P=0.0002), distance (P=0.0047), transportation (P=0.0330), belief that follow-up was not necessary (P<0.0001), availability of good local doctor (P=0.0001) and time (P=0.0209) were identified as obstacles to returning for follow-up. These data indicate a need to improve the education for newly injured persons as well as those persons residing in the community on the importance of regular urological follow-up, to maintain close contact post-discharge and to assist in identifying community resources to facilitate either compliance with planned evaluations or the development of acceptable alternatives.
Knowledge management as a mediator for the efficacy of transformational leadership and quality management initiatives in U.S. health care.

Background The health care industry has become one of the largest sectors of the U.S. economy and provides the greatest job growth of any industry. With such growth, effective leadership, knowledge management, and quality programs can ameliorate patient safety outcomes and improve organizational performance. Purposes This exploratory study examines the efficacy of transformational leadership, knowledge management, and quality initiatives, each of which has been proven effective in health care organizations. The literature has neglected the relationships among these three types of programs, although they are increasingly implemented simultaneously now. This research tests the degree to which knowledge management could act as a mediator of the effects transformational leadership and quality management have on organizational performance for hospitals. Methodology Our survey of U.S. hospitals utilizes validated scales from the literature. By calling and e-mailing quality and other department directors, the data set includes responses from all 50 states in our sample of 370 U.S. hospitals. Statistical tests confirmed acceptable regional distribution, interrater reliability, and control variable characteristics for our sample. Structural equation modeling is used to test the research hypotheses. Findings These preliminary results reveal that transformational leadership and quality management improve knowledge management. In addition, transformational leadership is fully mediated by knowledge responsiveness and quality management is partially mediated by knowledge responsiveness for their effects on organizational performance. Practice implications The unique contribution of this study includes the suggestion that greater transformational leadership skills are important for health care executives to motivate successful knowledge management initiatives. Secondly, continuous improvements in quality management programs have significant positive impacts on knowledge management and organizational outcomes in hospitals. Finally, successful knowledge management initiatives are more closely tied to patient and organizational outcomes through the enhancement of knowledge responsiveness than by knowledge acquisition and dissemination alone.
Bayesian optimization for molecular communication channel capacity

Advances in Nanotechnology have led to the introduction of Molecular communication, in which, the natural biological cells or molecules are used to convey information from end to end. In order for us to fully utilize this kind of communication, we need to better understand the model of communication and come up with expressions for the channel capacity and information rate. In the literature, researchers have done exhaustive simulations on the molecular communication channels and they were able to come up with a formula that calculates the capacity for a specific kind of molecular channels. The only flaw in the previous work is the complexity, the needed computations to run huge number of simulations are not feasible in a regular computer system. In this paper we are proposing a Bayesian optimization technique, that minimizes the number of needed simulations to find out the optimal channel size for active molecular communication systems.
Imaging the Responding Neuronal Population with 14c-2-Deoxyglucose: The Somatosensory Cerebral Cortical Signature of a Tactile Stimulus

The single unit method has been used to great advantage for several decades and, as a result, there exists a wealth of information about the properties of individual somatosensory neurons and their capacity to signal specific stimulus events. While single unit studies have advanced our understanding of individual somatosensory neuron behavior (e.g., response properties, input-output relations, receptive field organization, stimulus feature extraction, etc.), they have provided limited information about the spatial distribution of the population of neurons activated at a given level of the somatosensory projection pathway by a given stimulus. As a consequence, there is currently little evidence which bears directly on the possibility that population response patterns might encode important information about somatsensory stimulus conditions, or the possibility that the information encoded at the level of somatosensory neuron populations might differ from that encoded by single neurons.
Gender and Ethnic Differences in the Association Between Body Image Dissatisfaction and Binge Eating Disorder among Blacks

The research on binge eating has overwhelmingly focused on Whites. We aimed to study gender and ethnic differences in the association between body image dissatisfaction and binge eating in a nationally representative sample of Black adults in the USA. This cross-sectional study used data from the National Survey of American Life (NSAL), 2003–2004. Self-identified Caribbean Black (n = 1621) and African American (3570) adults aged 18 and older were enrolled. The independent variable was body dissatisfaction measured with two items. Using the World Health Organization Composite International Diagnostic Interview (WHO-CIDI), outcome was lifetime binge eating without hierarchy according to the DSM-IV criteria. Covariates included age, socioeconomic factors (i.e., education and marital status), and body mass index. Ethnicity and gender were focal moderators. Logistic regressions were used for data analysis. Despite comparable prevalence of lifetime binge eating (5 vs 4 %, p > 0.05), African Americans reported higher body image dissatisfaction than Caribbean Blacks (36 vs 29 %, p > 0.05). In the pooled sample, body dissatisfaction was a strong predictor of lifetime binge eating disorders. There was a significant interaction (p = 0.039) between ethnicity and body image dissatisfaction on binge eating, suggesting a stronger association between body image dissatisfaction and lifetime binge eating for Caribbean Blacks (OR = 11.65, 95 % 6.89–19.72) than African Americans (OR = 6.72, 95 % CI 3.97–11.37). Gender did not interact with body image dissatisfaction on binge eating. Ethnic variation in the link between body image dissatisfaction and binge eating may be due to within-race cultural differences in body image between African Americans and Caribbean Blacks. This may include different definitions, norms, and expectations regarding the body size. Findings suggest that ethnicity may bias relevance of body image dissatisfaction as a diagnostic criterion for binge eating disorders among diverse populations of Blacks.
Description of sedimentary structures

Primary sedimentary structures are formed at the time of deposition or shortly thereafter. The character of these structures depends mainly on current velocity, water depth, grain size, and sedimentation rate. As such they are critical to the understanding of the processes and conditions of deposition and lead to an interpretation of the depositional environment. In addition, some are useful in determining “stratigraphical-up” or “way-up” in folded sequences and paleocurrent directions.
Simultaneous Priority and Detection based Carrier Sense Multiple Access protocol

Carrier Sense Multiple Access (CSMA) protocol, along with collision detection in wired communication, helps in further increasing the efficiency of channel usage. It helps in terminating its transmission over the channel immediately once collision is detected, releasing the channel for other useful transmissions. Whereas in wireless communication, the packet collision cannot be detected until the completion of the entire transmission. To detect the collision immediately, the robust mechanism is requested. In this paper, we introduce Simultaneous Priority and Detection based Carrier Sense Multiple Access (SPD-CSMA) protocol to establish an efficient connection and immediate collision detection. The SPD-CSMA handles the situation using an additional antenna and a unique code message. SPD-CSMA is also supported with Shortest First (SF) algorithm for prioritizing the transmission. The proposed SPD-CSMA approach is validated by using NS3 on Ubuntu 13.10 operating system. The experimental results demonstrate that a reduced collision rate helps with improving the Quality of Service.
High-resolution ultrahigh-pressure long column reversed-phase liquid chromatography for top-down proteomics

Abstract Separation of proteoforms for global intact protein analysis (i.e. top-down proteomics) has lagged well behind what is achievable for peptides in traditional bottom-up proteomic approach and is becoming a true bottle neck for top-down proteomics. Herein, we report use of long (≥1 M) columns containing short alkyl (C1-C4) bonded phases to achieve high-resolution RPLC for separation of proteoforms. At a specific operation pressure limit (i.e., 96.5 MPa or 14 K psi used in this work), column length was found to be the most important factor for achieving maximal resolution separation of proteins when 1.5–5 μm particles were used as packings and long columns provided peak capacities greater than 400 for proteoforms derived from a global cell lysate with molecular weights below 50 kDa. Larger proteoforms (50–110 kDa) were chromatographed on long RPLC columns and detected by MS; however, they cannot be identified yet by tandem mass spectrometry. Our experimental data further demonstrated that long alkyl (e.g., C8 and C18) bonded particles provided high-resolution RPLC for