cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Association of preprocedural cardiac magnetic resonance imaging with outcomes of ventricular tachycardia ablation in patients with idiopathic dilated cardiomyopathy

Background Knowledge of complex arrhythmogenic substrates can help plan ventricular tachycardia (VT) ablation in patients with idiopathic dilated cardiomyopathy (DCM). Objective The purpose of this study was to assess whether preprocedural late gadolinium enhancement magnetic resonance imaging (LGE-MRI) can improve ablation outcomes in DCM. Methods Consecutive patients (N = 96) with idiopathic DCM underwent VT ablation with open-irrigated catheters (2006–2016). Before 2012, LGE-MRI was not performed at our institution in patients with implanted devices, but it has been performed routinely in all patients after implementation of a new MRI protocol in 2012. We retrospectively compared acute and long-term outcomes of initial VT ablation procedures in patients with (n = 41) and those without (n = 55) preprocedural LGE-MRI. Procedural outcome was classified as successful if VT was not inducible postablation. Results The 2 groups had a similar mean age and ejection fraction, comorbidities, and frequency of epicardial ablation. Preablation LGE-MRI was independently associated with improved procedural success (63% vs 24%) by logistic regression analysis (adjusted odds ratio [OR] 7.86, P P = .005). Preablation imaging was also associated with improved survival free of the composite endpoint of VT recurrence, heart transplantation, or death, which was met by 11 (27%) and 33 (60%) patients in the imaging and no imaging groups, respectively, after median 7.6 months of follow-up (unadjusted log-rank P = .02). However, there was no association with long-term outcomes after adjustment for other covariates. Conclusion Preprocedural imaging with LGE-MRI may be associated with improved outcomes of VT ablation in DCM.
The critical role of light in moderating microbial stress due to mixtures of engineered nanomaterials

Exposure to light is a key parameter that influences the chemical interactions and microbial stress of engineered nanomaterials (ENMs). Yet, the photochemistry and phototoxic stress responses of many ENMs and ENM mixtures have not been adequately detailed. We exposed E. coli bacteria to binary combinations of n-TiO2 (a stable metal oxide) with different plasmonic metal ENMs (n-Ag, n-Au, or n-Pt) in a natural aqueous medium under light and dark conditions. Using ATP level and cell membrane integrity probes, we measure the toxic stress due to these ENM mixtures. We previously found that under dark conditions, n-TiO2 attenuates the toxic stress due to low concentrations of n-Ag (<20 μg L−1) via adsorption of Ag+. However, mixtures containing n-Au or n-Pt produce no difference in toxic stress responses with and without n-TiO2 in the dark. In contrast, under simulated solar irradiation, we observed that n-Ag, n-Au, and n-Pt each with n-TiO2 cause synergistic toxic stress. The n-Ag/n-TiO2 combination causes the greatest phototoxicity, followed by n-Au/n-TiO2 and then n-Pt/n-TiO2. Measurements of photocatalytic production of reactive oxygen species reveal that irradiation of n-Ag or n-Au with n-TiO2 yields synergistic production of superoxide anion and hydrogen peroxide. The photochemical interactions of these ENMs, governed by metal ENM solubility and localized surface plasmon resonance, provide mechanistic insight into the amplified photoactivity of mixtures.
Computational Study of Aeroelastic Limit Cycles due to Localized Structural Nonlinearities

Aeroelastic systems including all-moving control surfaces and aircraft wings with stores may experience limit cycling caused by nonlinear structural and/or aerodynamic mechanisms. These systems are...
A belief logic for analyzing security of web protocols

Many useful transactions on the web are implemented as a sequence of interactions that a user performs with multiple collaborating providers. Safety of such transactions requires the user to not only trust individual providers and communication channels, but also the web protocols that manage security of these transactions. A protocol can be trusted for a particular usage, if the guarantees that it provides its participants are considered acceptable in the context. An important set of approaches for cryptographic protocol analysis are based on the so-called BAN logic which is used to reason about beliefs established at protocol participants. In this paper, we attempt at providing a similar approach for web protocols. The new logic extends BAN and supports key concepts that simplify security analysis of web protocols. It also takes into account additional challenges introduced due to browser-based interaction. Through examples of two leading cross-domain identity and access management protocols, we demonstrate efficacy of our analysis in establishing precisely what a protocol achieves, in deciding whether it can be trusted for a particular need and in proposing fixes that improve trust levels.
Development and Validation of a Nausea Severity Scale for Assessment of Nausea in Children with Abdominal Pain-Related Functional Gastrointestinal Disorders.

The objective of this study was to develop a pediatric measure of chronic nausea severity, the Nausea Severity Scale (NSS), and evaluate its reliability and validity in youth with abdominal pain-related functional gastrointestinal disorders (AP-FGID). Pediatric patients (aged 11–17 years-old, n = 236) presenting to an outpatient clinic for evaluation of abdominal pain completed the NSS, Children’s Somatization Inventory (CSI), Functional Disability Inventory (FDI), Abdominal Pain Index (API), Patient-Report Outcomes Measurement Information System (PROMIS), Anxiety and Depression Scales and the Pediatric Rome III Questionnaire for FGIDs. The NSS demonstrated good concurrent, discriminant, and construct validity, as well as good internal consistency. One-third (34%) of AP-FGID patients reported experiencing nausea “most” or “every day” in the previous two weeks. The severity of nausea was higher in females than males and correlated significantly with the severity of somatic symptoms, functional disability, anxiety, and depression. The NSS is a valid and reliable measure of nausea in children with AP-FGID.
Constrained Motion of Mechanical Systems and Tracking Control of Nonlinear Systems

This paper aims to expose the interrelations and connections between constrained motion of mechanical systems and tracking control of nonlinear mechanical systems. The interrelations between the imposition of constraints on a mechanical system and the trajectory requirements for tracking control are exposed through the use of a simple example. It is shown that given a set of constraints, d’Alembert’s principle corresponds to the problem of finding the optimal tracking control of a mechanical system for a specific control cost function that Nature seems to choose. Furthermore, the general equations for constrained motion of mechanical systems that do not obey d’Alembert’s principle yield, through this duality, the entire set of continuous controllers that permit exact tracking of the trajectory requirements. The way Nature seems to handle the tracking control problem of highly nonlinear systems suggests ways in which we can develop new control methods that do not make any approximations and/or linearizations related to the nonlinear system dynamics or its controllers. More general control costs are used and Nature’s approach is thereby extended to general control problems. A simple, unified methodology for modeling and control of mechanical systems emerges. Examples drawn from diverse areas of control are provided dealing with synchronization of multiple nonlinear gyroscopes, design of optimal Lyapunov stable controllers for nonautonomous nonlinear systems, and energy control of nonhomogeneous Toda chains.
Computational Multiscale Analysis for Interfacial Behavior of Bio-Layers and Medical Implants

A joint approach of molecular dynamics (MD) and microstructural finite element analysis (FEA) is proposed in this work to carry on multiscale analysis for interfacial behavior of bio-layers and medical implants. Here the bio-layer is a layer which consists of bio-molecules such as DNA and membrane, along with water molecules. Because bio-cells such as fibroblasts and osteoblasts around the implant live and regenerate under this kind of interface conditions the interfacial behavior investigated in this work is fundamentally important for implant’s bio-compatibility and designing new-generation materials to solve the notoriously difficult problem in elongating implant’s duration and improving life quality of people who uses implants (see background*).
Nonrigid Molecule Symmetry Groups

Bringing together the formalism of the previous chapter and the semi-direct product theory described in Appendix 3, it is possible to embark upon an exploration of the structure of NRM symmetry groups. The treatment given in this chapter is certainly neither exhaustive nor systematic, but is intended to illustrate the application of our approach to some representative NRMs and, we hope, establish its practical significance. We shall in fact mainly be concerned with NRMs exhibiting some form of internal rotation (cf. [123, 125, 138]); nevertheless, §4.5 treats the symmetry group of the pseudorotating XY4Z molecule [68], while two ring-puckering models have been discussed in §3.4.
Controversies in Allergy: Food Testing and Dietary Avoidance in Atopic Dermatitis.

Atopic Dermatitis is a chronic inflammatory skin disease with complex pathophysiology presenting challenges in management for both patients and providers. We have described the current evidence and controversies regarding FA testing and dietary elimination in AD. It is clear that exacerbations of skin disease do in fact occur in relation to food ingestions, but occurrence of these reactions is not as prevalent as is often perceived by the community. Food-triggered AD is most likely to occur in infants and young children with severe AD. Testing interpretation requires a nuanced clinical history and analysis, as allergic sensitization as determined by SPT and sIgE is frequently discovered in AD patients, however testing does not always aid in determination of disease triggers. In patients with true food- triggered AD, elimination of allergenic foods from the diet may improve AD control, but can also lead to subsequent development of IgE-mediated allergy, including anaphylaxis, in patients undergoing dietary elimination. As both clear risks and benefits exist from food avoidance in a proportion of AD patients, allergists/immunologists must play a vital role in actively determining the relevance of food sensitization in AD management in those at high risk.
Age-related alterations in swallowing biomechanics.

Abstract Background Aging rodent models allow for the discovery of underlying mechanisms of cranial muscle dysfunction. Methods are needed to allow quantification of complex, multivariate biomechanical movements during swallowing. Videofluoroscopic swallow studies (VSS) are the standard of care in assessment of swallowing disorders in patients and validated quantitative, kinematic, and morphometric analysis methods have been developed. Our purpose was to adapt validated morphometric techniques to the rodent to computationally analyze swallowing dysfunction in the aging rodent. Methods VSS, quantitative analyses (bolus area, bolus velocity, mastication rate) and a rodent specific multivariate, morphometric computational analysis of swallowing biomechanics were performed on 20 swallows from 5 young adult and 5 old Fischer 344/Brown Norway rats. Eight anatomical landmarks were used to track the relative change in position of skeletal levers (cranial base, vertebral column, mandible) and soft tissue landmarks (upper esophageal sphincter, base of tongue). Results Bolus area significantly increased and mastication rate significantly decreased with age. Aging accounted for 77.1% of the variance in swallow biomechanics, and 18.7% of the variance was associated with swallow phase (oral vs pharyngeal). Post hoc analyses identified age-related alterations in tongue base retraction, mastication, and head posture during the swallow. Conclusion Geometric morphometric analysis of rodent swallows suggests that swallow biomechanics are altered with age. When used in combination with biological assays of age-related adaptations in neuromuscular systems, this multivariate analysis may increase our understanding of underlying musculoskeletal dysfunction that contributes to swallowing disorders with aging.
#RelationshipGoals? Suicide Squad and Fandom’s Love of “Problematic” Men:

In the DC Comics Universe, Harley Quinn and the Joker have been an iconic and problematic canonical couple, represented as everything from enviable “mad” lovers to abusive relationship cautionary t...
Output-Feedback Control of an Extended Class of Sandwiched Hyperbolic PDE-ODE Systems

Motivated by an engineering application in brake control of cable mining elevators, where the dynamics consist of a brake, a shock absorber, a time-varying-length cable, and a cage, we address a theoretical problem of control of a particular class of coupled hyperbolic PDEs sandwiched between a nonlinear ODE on the actuated side and a linear ODE on the opposite side, with a PDE domain that is time-varying. A state-feedback controller entering a single ODE state is designed to exponentially stabilize the overall system through several backstepping transformations. An observer which only uses the boundary values at the actuated side is constructed to recover all the states of the overall system, based on which a “collocated” type output-feedback control system is proposed. The global exponential stability of the closed-loop system, boundedness, and exponential convergence of the controller, are proved via Lyapunov analysis. The performance is investigated via numerical simulation.
Long term outcomes for patients with von Hippel-Lindau and Pheochromocytoma: defining the role of active surveillance

Abstract Introduction Patients with a confirmed germline mutation in the von Hippel-Lindau (VHL) tumor suppressor gene have been followed at the National Cancer Institute since the 1980s. In this study, we identify VHL patients with pheochromocytoma and long-term follow-up to determine the best candidates for active surveillance and surgical resection. Methods A prospectively collected database of patients with a confirmed germline VHL mutation was reviewed to identify patients with a history of pheochromocytoma and at least 10 years of follow up. The presence of symptoms was assessed at the time of resection. Imaging data obtained at each clinic visit was reviewed to evaluate mass size and annual growth rate. Catecholamine data were reviewed to evaluate for data above the upper limit of the reference range. Masses that underwent imaging at least 3 months apart were considered in our surveillance cohort. Results Median follow up was 16.7 years. There was a size-dependent increase in catecholamine production (P Conclusion Active surveillance is a safe strategy for management of VHL associated pheochromocytoma in masses less than 2 cm.
Will the Modi Government Succumb to U.S. and Industry Pressure to Modify its Pro-Access Pharmaceutical Patent Policy?

The U.S. has persistently pressured India to adopt U.S.-style patent protections on pharmaceuticals for many years. That pressure has intensified recently because of Indian rules that have blocked patents on medicines widely patented elsewhere and because India has issued a compulsory license. Under the leadership of its new Prime Minister, Narrendra Modi, India has already made several overtures to appease U.S. pressure. The two countries have established a bilateral IP Working Group that will meet regularly as part of their Trade Policy Forum. This allows the U.S. fox in India’s patent law chicken house. In addition, India has issued a Draft National IPR Policy that is highly pro-IP and that promises consensus-oriented negotiations with international partners. These signals have been reinforced by decisions to drop price controls on non-essential medicines, to appoint a pro-IP economic advisor, and to stall issuance of additional compulsory licenses. On the other hand, both PM Modi and the Draft IP Policy state the need for a balance in IP, including a balance that promotes public health and that avoids granting of secondary patents. The world will see other countries copying India’s pro-access rules at the same time that India continues to be pressured by the U.S.
Lost Opportunities: The Underuse of Tax Whistleblowers

Legal literature on whistleblower programs often assumes an agency’s ability to effectively use a whistleblower tip. This article challenges that assumption in the context of tax enforcement by exposing the Internal Revenue Service’s dismal performance. The article uses Fourth Amendment jurisprudence, taxpayer privacy law, as well as whistleblower and tax enforcement literature to propose a new approach to using information from tax whistleblowers.
Calculation of test-retest variability in phase I/IIa clinical trials for Inherited Retinal Degenerations.

Background: Several novel treatments of inherited retinal degenerations have undergone phase I/IIa clinical trials with limited sample size, yet investigators must still determine if toxicity or an...
Ventral cervico-thoracic meningeal cyst resulting in myelopathy: Case report and literature review.

Background Spinal meningeal (dural) cysts rarely cause spinal cord compression and/or myelopathy. Case description A 38-year-old male presented with 6 weeks of worsening bilateral lower extremity paresthesias and an unsteady gait. Notably, the patient was involved in a snowmobile accident 7 years ago that resulted in trauma to his thoracic spine for which he had undergone a corpectomy and posterior fusion. A full spine MRI was obtained to evaluate his new paresthesias and myelopathy, which revealed a large extra-axial fluid collection consistent with a meningeal cyst extending from C2 to T4. This caused severe spinal cord compression, maximal at the T1-3 level. The patient underwent a T1-3 laminectomy initially accompanied by partial cyst resection/ drainage, but ultimately he returned and required a subsequent cystoperitoneal shunt. Following the final surgery, the patient's symptoms gradually resolved over 6 months postoperatively. Conclusion Spinal meningeal cysts rarely cause back pain and/or neurological symptoms. MRI is the diagnostic study of choice for defining this entity. Operative intervention must be tailored to the symptoms, location, extent, and type of the cyst. If cysts recur after partial resection and drainage, cystoperitoneal shunt placement is warranted.
Bare fingers, but no obvious influence of "prickly" Velcro! In the absence of parents' encouragement, it is not clear that "sticky mittens" provide an advantage to the process of learning to reach.

Abstract In their critique of our mittens study, Needham et al. (2015. Infant Behavior and Development) describe our findings as “surprising.” Further; they suggest that babies in our “sticky mittens” condition may have been discouraged from reaching because, in our study, infants may have touched “prickly” Velcro with their bare fingers. In this response, we present data analyses that do not support the interpretation that finger contact with our Velcroed toy surfaces was associated with poor reaching performance in our “sticky” mittens group. We also clarify that our toys were mainly covered with “non-prickly” Velcro. To explain discrepancies between studies, we restate the original intent of our study and reasons for our methodological modifications. We point to confounds and lack of critical control conditions in the Needham et al. studies, which prevent the making of firm inferences about the effectiveness of the “sticky mittens experience” on the learning to reach process. We also present additional analyses on our “sticky” mittens group showing that the increasing rate of finger touch on the toy leads to greater reaching performance while the rate of toy sticking to the mittens does not. We discuss the importance of sensory-motor experience on the development of learning to reach in infancy and conclude that our results are not surprising.
Patients with special health care needs in pediatric dental practices.

Purpose: The objective of this study was to determine the involvement of pediatric dentists in practice in managing patients with special health care needs (SCHN) upon completion of training. Methods: A questionnaire was developed, pilot tested, modified and sent to a randomly selected sample of 950 pediatric dentists in practice who were active and fellow members of the American Academy of Pediatric Dentistry. Results: Fifty-one percent of the dentists responded. The majority were males between the ages of 41 and 50 years. Most practiced in communities with over 500,000 citizens. Most were trained in hospital-based programs, and 84% reported comprehensive didactic courses on SHCN patients during training. SCHN patients were routinely appointed in an integrated schedule in their practices. Seventy-one percent of responders continue to follow the patients after 21 years of age. Most had buildings and offices that were handicapped accessible. Patient profiles remained similar since initiating private practice with notable increases reported in the new and recall patients and patients with complicated medical histories categories. Conclusions: The results of this survey demonstrate the continuing involvement of pediatric dentists in private practice in scheduling and treating patients with special health care needs after the completion of training.(Pediatr Dent 24:227-228, 2002)
SUPERCONDUCTING HYDRIDES OF TRANSITION METAL ALLOYS

Publisher Summary This chapter examines the superconducting properties of various new transition metal alloy hydrides. Although many features of the PdH(D) systems have been clarified, a great deal of uncertainty surrounds the current description of related alloy hydrides. The equilibrium solubility of hydrogen is generally quite small in metal alloys. The transition metal alloy hydride samples are prepared by the ion implantation of hydrogen into thin films of the appropriate metallic alloys. The binary alloy films are first deposited on sapphire substrates by electron beam co-evaporation from two independently controlled sources. The films are typically 0.4 m in thickness, and the compositions are determined from the relative rates of evaporation of the two metals. The temperature is maintained below 15 K throughout the implantation and measurement process. The chapter explains that it is the s-like electronic density of states at the Fermi energy that dominates the variation in T C in similar materials.
Recent Studies on the Metabolic Activation of Chemical Carcinogens

Xenobiotics continue to be found that are metabolized in mammals to electrophilic reactants that form covalently bound adducts to cellular DNA leading to tumor formation. This discussion will be limited to the following two topics: sulfonation in chemical carcinogenesis and endogenous etheno adducts in DNA.
The effectiveness of tight glycemic control on decreasing surgical site infections and readmission rates in adult patients with diabetes undergoing cardiac surgery: A systematic review

Abstract Objective A systematic review of the effects of tight glycemic control with a continuous insulin infusion to achieve blood glucose levels ≤ 200 mg/dL on surgical site infections and readmission rates in adult patients with diabetes after cardiac surgery. Methods A quantitative systematic review of the literature. Databases, including PubMed, CINAHL, EMBASE, and CENTRAL, were searched for relevant studies from database inception through August 2014. Randomized and quasi-experimental studies were included. Results A meta-analysis of ten studies demonstrated that glycemic control with a continuous insulin infusion to achieve blood glucose levels ≤ 200 mg/dL significantly reduced surgical site infection rates (odds ratio 0.35, 95% confidence interval 0.25-0.49; Z = 6.0, P Conclusions Maintaining blood glucose levels ≤ 200 mg/dL with a continuous insulin infusion in all stages of the perioperative period in cardiac surgery patients with diabetes can reduce the incidence of surgical site infections.
Eculizumab prevents recurrent antiphospholipid antibody syndrome and enables successful renal transplantation

Renal transplantation in patients with antiphospholipid antibodies has historically proven challenging due to increased risk for thrombosis and allograft failure. This is especially true for patients with antiphospholipid antibody syndrome (APS) and its rare subtype, the catastrophic antiphospholipid antibody syndrome (CAPS). Since a critical mechanism of thrombosis in APS/CAPS is one mediated by complement activation, we hypothesized that preemptive treatment with the terminal complement inhibitor, eculizumab, would reduce the extent of vascular injury and thrombosis, enabling renal transplantation for patients in whom it would otherwise be contraindicated. Three patients with APS, two with a history of CAPS, were treated with continuous systemic anticoagulation together with eculizumab prior to and following live donor renal transplantation. Two patients were also sensitized to human leukocyte antigens (HLA) and required plasmapheresis for reduction of donor-specific antibodies. After follow-up ranging from 4 months to 4 years, all patients have functioning renal allografts. No systemic thrombotic events or early graft losses were observed. While the appropriate duration of treatment remains to be determined, this case series suggests that complement inhibitors such as eculizumab may prove to be effective in preventing the recurrence of APS after renal transplantation.
Fido: fast inter-virtual-machine communication for enterprise appliances

Enterprise-class server appliances such as network-attached storage systems or network routers can benefit greatly from virtualization technologies. However, current inter-VM communication techniques have significant performance overheads when employed between highly-collaborative appliance components, thereby limiting the use of virtualization in such systems. We present Fido, an inter-VM communication mechanism that leverages the inherent relaxed trust model between the software components in an appliance to achieve high performance. We have also developed common device abstractions - a network device (MMNet) and a block device (MMBlk) on top of Fido. We evaluate MMNet and MMBlk using microbench-marks and find that they outperform existing alternative mechanisms. As a case study, we have implemented a virtualized architecture for a network-attached storage system incorporating Fido, MMNet, and MMBlk. We use both microbenchmarks and TPC-C to evaluate our virtualized storage system architecture. In comparison to a monolithic architecture, the virtualized one exhibits nearly no performance penalty in our benchmarks, thus demonstrating the viability of virtualized enterprise server architectures that use Fido.
Totally geodesic Seifert surfaces in hyperbolic knot and link complements, II

The first examples of totally geodesic Seifert surfaces are constructed for hyperbolic knots and links, including both free and totally knotted surfaces. Then it is proved that two bridge knot complements cannot contain totally geodesic orientable surfaces.
Stochastic search for the conformations of bicyclic hydrocarbons

The stochastic search method was used to seek all of the conformations for 32 bicyclic hydrocarbons. Since the size of the random kick used is sufficient to invert the configurations of carbon atoms, the out, out, in, out, and in, in conformations were all found in a single stochastic run for each hydrocarbon. The lowest energy conformer obtained in each category is reported. A modification of the program to prevent inversion of configuration was developed. It was found, in some cases, that in, in and out, out isomers for some bicyclic hydrocarbons were interconverted by this modified program, presumably through the “homeomorphic isomerization” process described by Park and Simmons. A statistical formula for estimating the approximate chances of finding (or missing) any conformer as a function of the number of random kicks given is derived and presented.
New materials strategies for creating hybrid electronic circuitry (Presentation Video)

This lecture focuses on the challenging design and realization of new materials for creating unconventional electronic circuitry. Fabrication methodologies to achieve these goals include high-throughput, large-area printing techniques. Materials design topics to be discussed include: 1. Rationally designed high-mobility p- and n-type organic semiconductors for printed organic CMOS, 2. Polycrystalline and amorphous oxide semiconductors for transparent and mechanically flexible electronics, 3) Self-assembled and printable high-k nanodielectrics enabling ultra-large capacitance, low leakage, high breakdown fields, minimal trapped interfacial charge, and device radiation hardness. 4) Combining these materials sets to fabricate a variety of high-performance thin-film transistor-based devices.
Chick Growth Response from Nitrogenous Compounds Fed With Suboptimal Level of Protein

Abstract This study of seven experiments presents observations on growth-promoting action of glutamic acid in combination with 26 different fish meals fed as sole protein at suboptimal levels in the presence of different mineral mixtures. The study also includes a comparison of the growth-promoting action of other nitrogenous compounds with that produced by glutamic acid. The results indicated that the composition of the mineral mixture affected the growth response of chicks to the addition of glutamic acid when fed with fish meal as the sole source of protein at suboptimal level. In five out of nine instances, urea could replace glutamic acid for additional growth, whereas in fewer studies, ammonium salts induced growth. The parameters for successful utilization of non-specific nitrogen by the chick are not clear. However, in addition to the effect of the mineral mixture composition, a few of the other factors involved in obtaining positive growth responses from non-specific nitrogen include (1) an inadequate level of total protein, (2) excessive amount of essential amino acids and (3) possibly a disproportionate and inadequate level of the non-essential amino acids.
Small-angle neutron-scattering study of dense sheared silica gels

Small-angle neutron-scattering (SANS) shearing experiments on dense colloidal silica suspensions in a ${\mathrm{H}}_{2}$O-${\mathrm{D}}_{2}$O medium are reported for the wave vector range 0.03Q(${\mathrm{nm}}^{\mathrm{\ensuremath{-}}1}$)0.8, at volume fractions \ensuremath{\varphi}=0.1, 0.12, 0.18, 0.24, and 0.3. For the unsheared gels, apparent fractal structures were observed at the lower volume fractions, and a small maximum at a Q corresponding to a contact particle morphology was apparent at all volume fractions. A fractal dimension d=1.60\ifmmode\pm\else\textpm\fi{}0.05 was estimated for \ensuremath{\varphi}=0.10 and 0.12 by fitting the power law behavior of the structure factor. Shear induces an apparent fractal domain into the dense gels and enhances the contact particle structure.
Procurement and vendor management in the global environment

Abstract The emerging dynamics of trade and technology in the global environment is having a tremendous impact on manufacturing companies and their strategies all over the world. One of the major aspects in the new strategies of manufacturing companies is the identification and development of global sources for procurement of raw materials and part components. This paper discusses some of the recent trends and strategies of manufacturing companies in identifying and managing vendors, both domestically and internationally. In particular, the discussion focuses on the role and implications of the ‘sourcing system’ on manufacturing companies that are contemplating on revitalizing their operations through strategies such as just-in-time (JIT), flexible manufacturing (FMS) and total quality management (TQM).
High temperature texture strengthening in zinc

Abstract : The authors have investigated the compressive creep behavior of zinc over a wide range of temperatures and strain rates as part of an investigation of zinc-based particulate composites. The purpose of this note is to illustrate the large anisotropy in strength observed by the authors in the textured zinc sample and to compare the results with other high temperature creep data reported for polycrystalline zinc. The salient feature of the results was the following: for the entire range of testing, samples deformed by uniaxial loading parallel to the extrusion axis were consistently 1.5 to 2 times stronger than samples deformed by loads applied parallel to the extrusion axis.
Higher Serum Insulin Concentrations Positively Influence the Bone Mineral Density in African American Adolescents.

Background : Puberty is a developmental stage of increased insulin resistance that also is a critical period for bone mass accrual. Historically, African Americans (AA) have lesser risk for osteoporotic fractures compared to European Americans (EA). AA also have higher incidence of insulin resistance. The possibility that bone health and insulin secretion or concentrations are linked has not been investigated. Aims : We aimed to examine the associations of bone mineral density (BMD) and bone mineral apparent density (BMAD) with insulin sensitivity and secretion in healthy adolescent girls and healthy female adults and to evaluate ethnic differences in these
Genetic contributions to urgency urinary incontinence in women.

Purpose: We identify genetic variants associated with urgency urinary incontinence in postmenopausal women.Materials and Methods: A 2-stage genome-wide association analysis was conducted to identify variants associated with urgency urinary incontinence. The WHI GARNET substudy with 4,894 genotyped post-reproductive white women was randomly split into independent discovery and replication cohorts. Genome-wide imputation was performed using IMPUTE2 with the 1000 Genomes ALL Phase I integrated variant set as a reference. Controls reported no urgency urinary incontinence at enrollment or followup. Cases reported monthly or greater urgency urinary incontinence and leaked sufficiently to wet/soak underpants/clothes. Logistic regression models were used to predict urgency urinary incontinence case vs control status based on genotype, assuming additive inheritance. Age, obesity, diabetes and depression were included in the models as covariates.Results: Following quality control, 975,508 single nucleotide polymorp...
Carotid atherosclerotic plaques from symptomatic stroke patients share the molecular fingerprints to develop in a neoplastic fashion: A microarray analysis study

Identification of genetic mechanisms that promote the onset of stroke and transient cerebral ischemic attack symptoms in carotid atherosclerotic patients would further our understanding of the pathophysiology of this disease and could lead to new pharmacological and molecular therapies. Using Affymetrix Human Genome 230 GeneChip set, the present study evaluated the gene expression differences in geometrically similar carotid artery plaque samples extricated from six symptomatic stroke patients and four asymptomatic patients. There was no significant difference in the degree of stenosis between the two groups. Of the 44,860 transcripts analyzed, 289 (approximately 0.6% of the total transcripts) were differentially expressed between the plaques from the symptomatic and asymptomatic groups (236 were expressed more abundantly and 53 were expressed less abundantly in the symptomatic group). Of the 236 transcripts expressed more abundantly in the symptomatic plaques, 71% (167 transcripts) indicate an active cell proliferation and neoplastic process. These include oncogenes, growth factors, tumor promoters, tumor markers, angiogenesis promoters, transcription factors, RNA splicing factors, RNA processing proteins, signal transduction mediators and those that control the metabolism. Real-time polymerase chain reaction confirmed the increased expression of 63 transcripts in the symptomatic plaques. The other groups of transcripts expressed more abundantly in the symptomatic plaques are those that control ionic homeostasis, those that participate in the progression of degenerative neurological diseases (Alzheimer's disease, amyotrophic lateral sclerosis and Huntington's disease) and epilepsy. This indicates that symptomatic plaques are molecularly and biochemically more active than the asymptomatic plaques, or active plaque growth precipitates stroke symptoms.
Nonlinear robust control design for levitation and propulsion of a maglev system

A nonlinear robust control design for the levitation and propulsion of a magnetic levitation (maglev) system is presented. The maglev dynamics under consideration are nonlinear and contain uncertain dynamics including negative damping due to eddy currents. The proposed recursive controller is designed using nonlinear state transformation and Lyapunov's direct method in order to guarantee global stability for the nonlinear maglev system. Simulation results are provided to show the effectiveness of the proposed control design.
Energy utilization of four strains of commercial layers and influence on suggested dietary methionine level.

Abstract Harms, R.H., Russell, G.B. and Sloan, D.R. 2000. Energy utilization of four strains of commercial layers and influence on suggested dietary methionine level. J. Appl. Anim. Res., 18: 25–31. An experiment was conducted to compare the energy required to produce a g of egg content (EC) for four strains of commercial layers. Calculations were made to demonstrate the effect on the level of Met needed in the diet. The energy required to produce a g of EC was 6.60, 5.78, 6.09 and 6.35 kcal, respectively for the Hy-Line Brown, Hy-Line W36, Hy-Line W98 and DeKalb White hens. Therefore, the calculated requirement for percent of Met needed in the feed in this experiment (2799 kcal/kg) would be 0.254, 0.312, 0.276, and 0.260%, respectively for Hy-Line Brown, Hy-Line W36, Hy-Line 98 and DeKalb White.
Anxiety sensitivity and intolerance of uncertainty: Evidence of incremental specificity in relation to health anxiety.

Abstract Anxiety sensitivity (AS) reflects the fear of arousal-related sensations and intolerance of uncertainty (IU) represents the dispositional fear of the unknown. Within cognitive–behavioral models, AS and IU are individual difference variables considered central to the phenomenology of health anxiety. However, prior studies have cast doubt on whether both variables incrementally contribute to our understanding of health anxiety. Addressing limitations of these prior studies, the present study examined the incremental specificity of AS and IU as these two variables relate to health anxiety in a large medically healthy sample of community adults (N = 474). Both AS and IU incrementally contributed to the concurrent prediction of health anxiety beyond both negative affect and one another. However, within these analyses, the physical dimension of AS and the inhibitory dimension of IU were the only AS and IU dimensions to evidence incremental specificity in relation to health anxiety.
Attitudes and cardiovascular disease

Psychological attitudes are prospectively related to cardiovascular disease (CVD), but a causal relationship has not been demonstrated. Trait optimism/pessimism (positive or negative future expectation, respectively), and cynical hostility (mistrust of people), are attitudes with features of personality traits. These attitudes may affect CVD risk in several ways, by influencing an individual's (1) adoption of health behaviors, (2) maladaptive stress responding resulting in direct alteration of physiology (i.e., autonomic dysfunction, thrombosis, arrhythmias), (3) development of traditional CVD risk factors, and (4) lack of adherence to therapy in both primary and secondary prevention. More adaptive attitudes may favorably influence CVD risk at each of these critical junctures. The genetic and environmental (i.e., social, economic, racial/ethnic) determinants of attitudes have not been extensively studied. In addition, it is important to understand how some of these environmental determinants may also moderate the association between attitudes and CVD. Clinical trials to modify attitudes for CVD risk reduction (either by reducing negative attitudes or by increasing positive attitudes) are difficult to conduct, but are necessary to determine whether attitudes can indeed be modified, and if, so, to quantify any CVD-related benefits. To address these questions we present a broad, multidisciplinary research agenda utilizing mixed methods and integrating principles of epidemiology, genetics, psychophysiology, and behavioral medicine over the lifecourse (first figure). This overview focuses on attitudes and CVD, but has broader implications for understanding how psychological factors relate to chronic diseases of adulthood.
A Biorobotic Investigation of Norway Rat Pups (Rattus norvegicus) in an Arena

Biorobotics research typically focuses on simulating specific aspects of animal biomechanics, sensory systems, and computational abilities. We have developed a novel methodology for integrating the study of biorobotics and animal behavior. We describe several metrics for characterizing and comparing rat pup and robot behavior without presupposing behavioral goal states. In the rat pup and robot experiments, we found that when 10-day-old Norway rats (Rattus Norvegicus) are placed in an arena, they typically follow walls to a single corner and stay there. However, our thigmotaxic robots followed walls but typically circumnavigated the entire arena, contacting all corners, and exhibiting asymmetric corner behavior. After observing the latter behavior in robots, we found that rat pups also exhibited asymmetric corner behavior. Thus, our robotic experiments, while not quantitatively matching pup behavior, led to the discovery of a previously unrecognized pattern of behavior in rat pups. This illustrates the value of models in leading to discovery of new patterns of behavior in the system modeled. Our results also show that simple thigmotaxic architectures alone may not explain pup behavior in an arena.
Preliminary observations on drug responses in viably frozen mammalian hearts

Summary Whole isolated rat hearts were frozen at −20°C for 20 min using one of three cryoprotective agents: 15% DMSO in Ringer's solution, 6% high molecular weight dextran in saline, or 1.3% MgCl 2 in Ringer's solution. Also rat, guinea pig, rabbit, and dog hearts were frozen under similar conditions using 5% MgSO 4 as a cryoprotective agent. A series of rat hearts were frozen in Ringer's solution alone. Less than 10% of the hearts frozen in Ringer's solution resumed spontaneous atrial and ventricular contraction after thawing, while more than 85% of the hearts in each of the experimental groups met this criterion of survival. Typical pharmacological responses were elicited from thawed rat hearts receiving either DMSO, dextran, or MgCl 2 cryoprotection when tested with isoproterenol, MJ-1999 (a beta blocking agent), and ouabain. Magnesium ions seem to be potentially useful as cryoprotective agents. The mechanism of action of the agents used in this study is thought to be stabilization of macromolecules during freezing and prevention of bound water extraction leading to denaturation.
Optimization of Livestock Air Pollutants Removal Biofilter Part : Media Selection

We characterized the physical and chemical properties of various media (hardwood mulch, softwood mulch and composts) for livestock air pollutants degradation biofilters. Density, porosity, pH, total carbon, total nitrogen, organic matter content, particle size distribution and airflow resistance of each medium material were tested by using standard methods. Airflow resistance of each media was tested in a 0.61m×0.98m×0.61m testing chamber and the results were fitted into Hukill and Ives (1955) equation. It was found that particle size, moisture content, and compaction of media have significant effects on airflow resistance. Quantification of air pollutants removal capability with selected media will be conducted on laboratory/pilot scale biofilters later. This research aims to provide a database of effective, low cost and easily available media for biofilter design in the Midwestern US.
Infrared characterization of uranium oxide powders using a metal light pipe

A light-pipe technique has been used to measure infrared spectra of UO2, U3O8, and UO3 in the range 2000 to 450 cm−1. Comparison with transmission spectra found in the literature indicates that the technique is very suitable for characterization of actinide powders and will therefore be a useful tool for future work, especially with hazardous materials such as actinides. The spectra obtained show all features predicted by group theory calculations, and the spectrum for the trioxide exhibits previously unseen features characteristic of uranyl bonds.
Geometric critical exponent inequalities for general random cluster models

A set of new critical exponent inequalities,d(1 −1 /δ)≥2 −η, dv(1 − 1/δ)≥γ, anddμ> 1, is proved for a general class of random cluster models, which includes (independent or dependent) percolations, lattice animals (with any interactions), and various stochastic cluster growth models. The inequalities imply that the critical phenomena in the models are inevitably not mean-field-like in the dimensions one, two, and three.
Use of GIS and ancillary variables to predict volatile organic compound and nitrogen dioxide levels at unmonitored locations

Abstract In late 1999, passive air sampling of nitrogen dioxide (NO2) and volatile organic compounds was conducted at 22 school locations and two intensive sites in El Paso, Texas. Our goal was to predict concentrations of NO2 and benzene, toluene, ethylbenzene, o-xylene, and m,p-xylene at a total of 55 schools. The predictive equations were developed by regressing the passive monitor measurements at the 22 monitored schools on land-use variables derived from a geographic information system (GIS). These GIS-based ancillary variables included distance to the nearest border crossing, elevation, population density, distance to roads with specified traffic volumes, traffic intensity around the schools, and distance to the nearest petroleum facility. The reliability of the predictive equations was assessed at the two intensive monitoring sites. For all pollutants, the most useful predictive ancillary variables were elevation, population density, distance to a border crossing, and distance to a petroleum facility. For estimating NO2, traffic intensity was also important.
Brown Tide Rising, Metaphors of Latinos in Contemporary American Public Discourse: Otto Santa Ana; Austin, TX: University of Texas Press, 2002, 402 pages

The book is organized in research format but written in creative style of writing. The first part is about theory and method, the second part explicates the analysis, and part three describes the c...
LOGARITHMIC GEOMETRY AND ALGEBRAIC STACKS

Abstract We construct algebraic moduli stacks of log structures and give stack-theoretic interpretations of K. Kato's notions of log flat, log smooth, and log etale morphisms. In the last section we describe the local structure of these moduli stacks in terms of toric stacks.
Advanced Si/sub 1-x/Ge x source/drain and contact technologies for sub-70 nm CMOS

Future CMOS technology nodes require super-abrupt source/drain junctions with very low contact resistivities. In this paper, we examine properties of ultra-shallow junctions formed by selective deposition of in-situ doped Si/sub 1-x/Ge/sub x/ alloys. Contacts to these junctions consist of self-aligned Ni and Pt germanosilicide contacts formed via solid phase reactions. We present super-abrupt junctions with SIMS abruptness figures under 2.2 nm/decade and contact resistivities near 10/sup -8/ ohm-cm/sup 2/. The results indicate that the technology can meet source/drain requirements of all technology nodes included in the 2001 edition of International Technology Roadmap for Semiconductors.