cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Linearizing irregular memory accesses for improved correlated prefetching

This paper introduces the Irregular Stream Buffer (ISB), a prefetcher that targets irregular sequences of temporally correlated memory references. The key idea is to use an extra level of indirection to translate arbitrary pairs of correlated physical addresses into consecutive addresses in a new structural address space, which is visible only to the ISB. This structural address space allows the ISB to organize prefetching meta-data so that it is simultaneously temporally and spatially ordered, which produces technical benefits in terms of coverage, accuracy, and memory traffic overhead.We evaluate the ISB using the Marss full system simulator and the irregular memory-intensive programs of SPEC CPU 2006 for both single-core and multi-core systems. For example, on a single core, the ISB exhibits an average speedup of 23.1% with 93.7% accuracy, compared to 9.9% speedup and 64.2% accuracy for an idealized prefetcher that over-approximates the STMS prefetcher, the previous best temporal stream prefetcher; this ISB prefetcher uses 32 KB of on-chip storage and sees 8.4% memory traffic overhead due to meta-data accesses. We also show that a hybrid prefetcher that combines a stride-prefetcher and an ISB with just 8 KB of on-chip storage exhibits 40.8% speedup and 66.2% accuracy.
Music Education in Nineteenth-Century Greece: Its Institutions and their Contribution to Urban Musical Life

This article explores the music education of the Greek people in the nineteenth century, as revealed through the description of music education in Constantinople, Corfu and Athens.Before the establishment of the new state of Greece early in the nineteenth century, both Greeks and Europeans speak of ‘Greece’, referring to Greek communities beyond its borders. Music education in those communities consisted mainly of the music of the Greek Orthodox Church – applying a special notation, appropriate to its monophonic, unaccompanied chant – and Western music, and was characterized by the degree to which either culture prevailed. The antithesis of those music cultures was best represented, at least up to the 1850s, among the Greeks living in Constantinople – the seat of the Greek Orthodox Church – and Corfu of the Ionian Islands – where Italian music was assimilated. Athens was elected in 1834 as the capital of the Greek state because of its ancient monuments and did not attain the significance of a contemporary cultural centre before the 1870s. In Athens, these two musical cultures were absorbed and transformed through their confrontation and interaction. However, the new state's political orientation determined the predominance of Western music in music education in the capital.
Effect of age and sex on disposition of desmethyldiazepam formed from its precursor clorazepate

Desmethyldiazepam (DMDZ) disposition was evaluated in 32 healthy male and female volunteers who ingested single 15-mg doses of the precursor compound, clorazepate dipotassium. DMDZ concentrations were measured in multiple plasma samples obtained between 7 and 9 days after dosage. Appearance of DMDZ in blood was rapid, with peak concentrations attained on average 1.5 h after dosage. Absorption half-life (t1/2 a) averaged 24 min. Neither peak time nor t1/2 a were influenced by age or sex. After a rapid phase of distribution, DMDZ elimination was slow, with a mean elimination half-life (t1/2 β) of 82 h (range 27–219 h). t1/2 β became prolonged with age in men but not in women Likewise, clearance of total (free plus bound) DMDZ declined with age in male subjects (r=−0.47, P<0.1), but was unrelated to age in women. DMDZ was extensively bound to protein in all subjects. The mean free fraction (FF) was 3.1% (range 2.0–4.3%), and increased significantly with declining plasma albumin concentrations (r=−0.57, P<0.001). Partly due to a decline in plasma albumin with age (r=−0.47, P<0.01), FF tended to increase with age (r=0.23). After correction for individual differences in FF, clearance of pharmacologically active unbound DMDZ declined significantly with age in men (r=−0.62, P<0.01), but actually was slightly higher, in elderly as opposed to young women. Thus, the age-related decline in the capacity for hepatic hydroxylation of DMDZ is highly sex-specific.
Electrochemical and enzymatic oxidation of 3,9-dimethyl uric acid

Summary The electrochemical oxidation of 3,9-dimethyl uric acid in aqueous solution has been studied between pH 3.3 and 8.8 at graphite electrodes. A single 2 e−1—i H+ oxidation voltammetric peak is observed corresponding to the formation of a very unstable cationic diimine intermediate. This reacts very rapidly with water to give an imino-alcohol intermediate. The latter intermediate may be observed as a U.V.-absorbing species (λmax=290 nm between pH 3.3–8.8) and by means of its voltammetric reduction peak noted on cyclic voltammetry of 3,9-dimethyl uric acid. The location of the absorption spectrum of this imino-alcohol has been used to deduce its probable structure and the structures of imino-alcohol intermediates formed on oxidation of other uric acid derivatives. Hydration of the imino-alcohol gives the 4,5-diol of 3,9-dimethyl uric acid which decomposes to the final reaction products. The observed first-order rate constant for the latter reaction between pH 3.3 and 8.8 is 0.20±0.05 s−1. Oxidation of 3,9-dimethyl uric acid in the presence of peroxidase and H2O2 gives rise to an intermediate which has identical spectral and electrochemical properties and very similar kinetic properties to the imino-alcohol intermediate generated electrochemically. Accordingly, it appears that the electrochemical and peroxidase-catalyzed oxidations of 3,9-dimethyl uric acid proceed via identical reaction mechanisms.
Malignant hyperthermia: effects of sarcoplasmic reticulum Ca2+ pump inhibition.

In porcine malignant hyperthermia-susceptible (MHS) skeletal muscles, calcium release is abnormal and resting calcium may be elevated. Thus MHS muscles may have prolonged twitch relaxation and lower fusion frequencies, which would be augmented by inhibition of sarcoplasmic reticulum (SR) Ca2+ adenosine triphosphatase (ATPase) activity; bundles of intact muscle cells from MHS and normal pigs were used to investigate this possibility. Cooling and low-frequency stimulation, in combination, enhanced twitch fusion and prolonged twitch relaxation significantly more in MHS than in normal muscles (e.g., 34 ± 4% versus 16 ± 4% fusion, and 82.4 ± 9.4 ms versus 43.2 ± 7.8 ms half-relaxation time, for MHS and normal muscles, respectively). Similarly, inhibition of the SR Ca2+ ATPase by cyclopiazonic acid resulted in significantly greater twitch fusion in MHS muscles. These results were consistent with predicted effects of enhanced SR Ca2+ release and/or elevated resting calcium in MHS muscles and indicate that cooling during a malignant hyperthermia crisis could actually increase the force of muscle contractures. © 1998 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. Muscle Nerve 21:361–366, 1998.
On the Independence of Magnetic and Electric Body Surface Recordings

Recent papers have shown that the ECG depends on the flow sources of the impressed field in the heart while the MCG is a function of its vortex source distribution. It has consequently been suggested that body surface electric and magnetic recordings yield completely independent information about the physiological generators. Such independence would be of enormous significance wherever present diagnostic procedures rely heavily on the ECG or EEG. This paper points out that the independence of the flow and vortex sources is only a mathematical possibility. It demonstrates that two important physical constraints are operating which require the flow and vortex sources to be, in effect, one-to-one with each other. Consequently, the electric and magnetic fields arising from excitable tissue in an assumed homogeneous volume conductor are fundamentally interdependent.
Release into ventriculo-cisternal perfusate of β-endorphin- and met-enkephalin-immunoreactivity: effects of electrical stimulation in the arcuate nucleus and periaqueductal gray of the rat

Abstract To examine the resting and evoked release of the endogenous opioid peptides β-endorphin and Met-enkephalin from brain, we examined the levels of the respective immunoreactivities in the lateral ventricle-cisterna magna perfusate of the halothane-anesthetized rat. Ten Hz but not 100 Hz stimulation in the arcuate nucleus (ARC) of the hypothalamus released β-endorphin immunoreactivity (β-EPir) to the perfusate, whereas 100 Hz but not 10 Hz stimulation in the periaqueductal gray (PAG) of the mid brain released Met-enkephalin immunoreactivity (MEir). MEir was not released by stimulation in ARC and β-EPir was not released by stimulation in PAG. Characterization of the released β-EPir and MEir by high performance liquid chromatography showed that authentic β-endorphin and Met-enkephalin were the major constituents of β-EPir and MEir, respectively. Systemic administration of the dopaminergic antagonist haloperidol increased plasma, but not perfusate levels of β-EPir. Both the opioid antogonist naloxone and the NMDA antagonist MK-801 failed to affect β-EPir or MEir release. ARC and PAG stimulation inhibited a nociceptive reflex (tail-dip in 52.5°C water), and naloxone did not reliably reverse this inhibition. These data support the previously suggested possibility of opioid mediation of stimulation induced analgesia, although we were unable to confirm the theory by naloxone reversibility in this study. Furthermore, the data support the assumption that measurement of opioid peptides in cerebrospinal fluid is a relevant approach in research aimed at elucidating the physiological and pathophysiological roles of endogenous opioid peptides.
Persistent size variation in the anthophorine bee Centris pallida (Apidae) despite a large male mating advantage

. 1 Despite apparent directional sexual selection in favour of large body size, males of the anthophorine bee Centris pallida remain highly variable in body size. 2 One possible cause of persistent size variation among males is geographic variation in the extent of the large male mating advantage. However, a study of a population in an area not previously investigated revealed that the large male mating advantage was as strong here as it has been elsewhere in other years. 3 Although the reproductive benefits of being large were consistent in populations separated spatially and temporally, the intensity of bird predation on mate-searching males varied greatly between locations. 4 The bee-killing birds focused exclusively on bees which were digging down to meet emerging females or fighting on the ground, never on flying males. Males which were collected on the ground by hand (to simulate avian predation) were significantly larger on average than flying males collected by sweep netting. 5 Therefore, in some location in some years, sexual selection in favour of large body size may be opposed by natural selection exerted by predators, perhaps contributing to the maintenance of size variation in this bee.
Processing relative locations in a natural space

Earlier experiments have shown that judging the relative locations of two-dimensional stimuli takes longer if those stimuli are horizontal than if they are vertical. If the terms east, west, north, and south are used, such effects may occur only in tasks where these words are synonymous with right, left, above, and below, and not in tasks where landmarks could be used. The present experiment was designed to determine whether east and west take longer than north and south in a more natural, three-dimensional space (locations on a college campus). College students responded to sentences describing the relative locations of buildings on their campus. East and west sentences took longer than north and south sentences, and locations close together took longer than locations farther apart. Thus, earlier results with two-dimensional stimuli were replicated in this more natural, three-dimensional space.
Brainstem mechanisms underlying the sudden infant death syndrome: evidence from human pathologic studies.

The brainstem hypothesis is one of the leading hypotheses concerning the sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS). It states that SIDS, or an important subset of SIDS, is due to abnormal brainstem mechanisms in the control of respiration, chemosensitivity, autonomic regulation, and/or arousal which impairs the infant's response to life-threatening, but often occurring, stressors during sleep (e.g., hypoxia, hypercarbia, asphyxia, hyperthermia) and leads to sudden death in a vulnerable developmental period. In this review, we summarize neuropathologic evidence from SIDS cases that support this hypothesis, beginning with the seminal report of subtle brainstem gliosis three decades ago. We focus upon recent neurochemical studies in our laboratory concerning the neurotransmitter serotonin (5-HT) and its key role in mediating protective responses to homeostatic stressors via medullary circuits. The possible fetal origin of brainstem defects in SIDS is reviewed, including evidence for adverse effects of prenatal exposure to maternal cigarette smoking and alcohol upon the postnatal development of human brainstem 5-HT pathways. © 2009 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Dev Psychobiol 51: 223–233, 2009
Differential Effects of Epigenetic Modifiers on the Expansion and Maintenance of Human Cord Blood Stem/Progenitor Cells

Abstract Epigenetic therapies, including DNA methyltransferase and histone deacetylase (HDAC) inhibitors, are increasingly being considered to treat hematological malignancies, but their effects on normal hematopoietic stem cells (HSCs) remain largely unexplored. We compared the effects of several HDAC inhibitors, including valproic acid (VPA) and trichostatin A (TSA), alone or in combination with 5-aza-2′-deoxycytidine (5azaD) on the expansion of HSCs. VPA induced the highest expansion of CD34+CD90+ cells and progenitor cells compared with other HDAC inhibitors or the sequential addition of 5azaD/TSA in culture. Xenotransplantation studies demonstrated that VPA prevents HSC loss, whereas 5azaD/TSA treatment leads to a net expansion of HSCs that retain serial transplantation ability. 5azaD/TSA-mediated HSC expansion was associated with increased histone acetylation and transient DNA demethylation, which corresponded with higher gene transcript levels. However, some genes with increased transcript levels lacked changes in methylation. Importantly, a global microarray analysis revealed a set of differentially expressed genes in 5azaD/TSA- and VPA-expanded CD34+ cells that might be involved in the expansion and maintenance of transplantable HSCs, respectively. In summary, our data indicate that treatment of HSCs with different chromatin-modifying agents results in either the expansion or maintenance of HSCs, an observation of potential therapeutic importance.
A GENI Meso-Scale Experiment of a Verification Service

In this work, we demonstrate the real world results of a verification service that verifies the performance of a set of network providers by measuring the user flows, using GENI experimental facility. We first give an overview of the architectural components and their interactions to enable such a verification capability. We then give the experiment setup details followed by the numerical results for various network measurement metrics and the evaluation of these results.
Bacterial pustule disease of soybean: microscopy of pustule development in a susceptible cultivar

Leaves of the susceptible soybean cv. Clark were inoculated with virulent strains of Xanthomonas campestris pv. glycines, causative agent of bacterial pustule disease in soybean. After 7 d, leaf tissue bearing pustules was prepared for transmission and scanning electron microscopy. Pustules developed in the spongy parenchyma. Vascular-associated cells, including bundle sheath extensions, were not affected. The heaviest concentration of bacteria was in the intercellular spaces in or near pustules and bacterial extracellular polysaccharide was present. Bacteria were widely dispersed among the palisade cells, but the palisade parenchyma was not affected. There was no envelopment of bacteria at host cell wall surfaces and no bacteria were observed in the xylem or phloem elements of the minor leaf veins. Pustules were comprised of large mesophyll cells with uniform shape, unlike control spongy parenchyma cells which were irregular in shape. Affected cells had more endoplasmic reticulum and more ribosomes, both free and membrane-bound, than the control, and had few chloroplasts. Deep, focal invaginations of plasma membrane and tonoplast appeared to be involved in endocytic transport of membrane lamellae, small membrane vesicles, and non-organellar cytoplasmic constituents to the central vacuole.
Panel discussion: knowledge discovery and weather modeling and simulation

The quantity of data produced by weather sensors, simulations and operational numerical models continues to grow rapidly. In fact, in many areas of atmospheric science, the amount of data has overwhelmed the ability of humans to analyze, understand and use it effectively. Our inability to fully exploit these data represents a loss of potential knowledge that could contribute to faster advances in scientific understanding, allow creation of more accurate models of environmental phenomena and permit deployment of more powerful decision support tools to benefit society. In a number of areas of weather research, knowledge discovery and data mining techniques hold the promise of helping to address these deficiencies. This panel discussion will highlight some of the recent successes of data mining and simulation techniques in weather research and will discuss some of the significant remaining challenges. It is hoped that the session will help foster a productive collaboration between experts in the field of knowledge discovery and those engaged in weather modeling and simulation research.
Dialectics of Norms in Modernization

The frequently lamented weakening of wakening of social and law norms in modern societies is examined. After some concern about norm erosion in classical sociology, empirical social research on mas...
Integration of Self-Concept and Moral Judgment: Two Studies.

Abstract The present study investigated the hypothesis that a positive relation exists between self-concept and moral judgment in young children. In the first experiment 40 kindergarten children between the ages of 5–1 and 6–6 with mental ability scores ranging from 82 to 144 were each administered a self-concept appraisal and a series of Piagetian moral dilemmas. Product-moment correlations and a multiple-regression analysis evaluated the relationship. When the self-concept and moral-judgment scores were collapsed, all of the moral-judgment factors correlated significantly with at least one self-concept factor. A second experiment tested the implications of the first. Eighty-five children between the ages of 5–11 and 8–4 were given the self-concept and moral-judgment measures. An eight-week communications-training session for randomly selected parents of children scoring below the mean on the self-concept measure was held. Posttesting showed no improvement in self-concept for the experimental group. Impl...
A Simple Proof of the Spearman-Brown Formula for Continuous Test Lengths.

A direct proof is given for the generalized Spearman-Brown formula for any real multiple of test length.
CHILDREN WITH COMPENSATED AORTIC STENOSIS MAINTAIN ENHANCED EJECTION PERFORMANCE DURING EXERCISE

It has been shown that ejection phase indices are elevated in children with aortic stenosis (AS) at rest. We performed two-dimensional and M-mode echocardiography in 14 patients with AS and in 7 normal (NL) children at rest in the upright position, and at 50% and 752 of predicted maximal workload (PMW) during upright bicycle exercise. The two groups were compared by student's t tests and were not significantly different at the .05 level with respect to ht., wt., BSA, race and sex. There were no significant differences between the two groups in heart rate, % MVO2, or cardiac index. We also found no difference in LV diastolic dimension between the two groups at rest, at 50% and at 75% PMW. LV systolic dimension was significantly smaller at all levels in AS. LV systolic wall thickness was increased in AS. Rate corrected velocity of fiber shortening (VCFc) was significantly higher at rest in patients with AS, and remained so at both levels of exercise. The stepwise increase in VCFc was significant in both NL and AS from rest to 50%, and from 50% to 75% PMW; however, the incremental increase in VCFc from rest to exercise was not significantly different between the two groups. We conclude that patients with AS maintain enhanced ejection performance at 50% and 75% of PMW as evidenced by increased VCFc. A failure to increase VCFc during exercise in patients with aortic stenosis may imply decompensation and improve timing of surgical intervention.
Teaching addition and subtraction to mentally retarded children: a self-instruction program.

Abstract Two self-instructional training procedures were used to teach addition and subtraction regrouping skills to three mildly mentally retarded children who had failed to learn these algorithms under normal classroom conditions. Number problems completed and accuracy were monitored during a daily math period and the effects of the training procedures were assessed through a multiple baseline design across subjects. For all three children, increases in accuracy on addition and subtraction problems requiring regrouping were evident during respective training conditions. Correlated but less pronounced increases in accuracy on addition and subtraction problems not requiring regrouping also occurred. A decline in the number of problems completed by each of the children was noted. Implications for the development and application of self-in instructional training procedures in academic situations are discussed.
iBOM: a platform for intelligent business operation management

As IT systems become more and more complex and as business operations become increasingly automated, there is a growing need from business managers to have better control on business operations and on how these are aligned with business goals. This paper describes iBOM, a platform for business operation management developed by HP that allows users to i) analyze operations from a business perspective and manage them based on business goals; ii) define business metrics, perform intelligent analysis on them to understand causes of undesired metric values, and predict future values; iii) optimize operations to improve business metrics. A key aspect is that all this functionality is readily available almost at the click of the mouse. The description of the work proceeds from some specific requirements to the solution developed to address them. We also show that the platform is indeed general, as demonstrated by subsequent deployment domains other than finance.
A complex of interacting DNAase I-hypersensitive sites near the drosophila glue protein gene, Sgs4

Abstract The chromatin structure adjacent to the Drosophila glue protein gene Sgs4 changes drastically when the gene is active. In nuclei from embryos or tissue culture cells in which Sgs4 is inactive, there are three DNAase 1-hypersensitive sites 3′ to the gene, but none near its 5′ end. In the nuclei of late third instar salivary glands, Sgs4 is actively transcribed, and a complex of five DNAase 1-hypersensitive sites appears 5′ to the gene. Two of the sites are near the point of transcription initiation, at −70 and +30. The others are much farther from the gene at −330, −405 and −480 and are affected by small deletions: one deletion reduces expression about 50-fold and removes sequences corresponding to the -330 hypersensitive site; another makes no Sgs4 RNA and removes sequences corresponding to two hypersensitive sites, −405 and −480. Thus the hypersensitive sites, or DNA sequences within 50 bp of them, seem to be required for normal gene expression. Distinct changes are seen in the chromatin from salivary glands of these mutant strains. The first strain is simply missing the −330 hypersensitive site, while the second is missing all of the tissue-specific 5′ sites, even though sequences corresponding to three of them remain. This suggests that hierarchical interactions among the regions 5′ to Sgs4 are required for its full expression. A sequence of 14 bp at the most prominent hypersensitive site (-405) is closely related to sequences 5′ to several other eucaryotic genes.
An Adaptive Protection Scheme for Shipboard Power Systems

This paper presents an adaptive protection scheme that adapts overcurrent-relaying functions to changes in shipboard power system topologies initiated by reconfiguration functions. Reconfiguration is an energy management function used by shipboard power systems to alter system topology to meet operational requirements. The adaptive protection scheme uses the data of the system to determine whether any changes have occurred in the system topology and/or load and generator capacities. If there is a change, power-flow and fault-analysis are performed on the system. The results are used to update the system overcurrent relays. The scheme was tested on a two-bus power system and the results were validated in CAPE software.
Electrochemical reactivities of pyridinium in solution: consequences for CO2 reduction mechanisms

One of the most promising CO2 reduction processes presently known suffers from a lack of fundamental understanding of its reaction mechanism. Using first principles quantum chemistry, we report thermodynamical energies of various pyridine-derived intermediates as well as barrier heights for key homogeneous reaction mechanisms. From this work, we predict that the actual form of the co-catalyst involved in pyridinium-based CO2 reduction is not the long-proposed pyridinyl radical in solution, but is more probably a surface-bound dihydropyridine species.
A new CS0 course for at-risk majors

The Bureau of Labor Statistics forecasts that approximately 175,100 software engineering jobs will be created between 2008 and 2018. In order to fill these positions, new computer scientists, who enjoy and are competent in the art of programming and software design, must be trained. Computer science departments must look for novel approaches to attract non-traditional students, i.e. women and minorities, to the major, in order to fill the positions predicted by the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Additionally, although computer science enrollment has increased in the freshman and sophomore levels over the past few years, computer science departments are still faced with identifying new approaches to teaching programming that will retain students, particularly if some of them have weak mathematics backgrounds and are placed directly in CS1. In this paper, a study to determine the effectiveness of a CS0 course using Scratch for improving the retention, the performance and the attitudes of at-risk majors is discussed. Initial assessments associated with the study indicate that students of the target group who program using Scratch have a high degree of perceived self-efficacy with respect to their programming abilities. Furthermore, results to date indicate that the originally at-risk students in the study went on to successfully complete CS1 with a passing rate of 74% compared to a 39% passing rate in CS1 by the students who had sufficiently high mathematics scores upon entry into the university.
Evaluation of salivary biomarker profiles following non-surgical management of chronic periodontitis.

Objectives Soluble toll-like receptor-2 (sTLR-2) and cytokines in saliva were assessed as clinical markers for chronic periodontitis in a longitudinal study. Materials and Methods Unstimulated whole saliva was collected from 20 periodontally healthy individuals and 20 patients with chronic periodontitis at diagnosis and at 1 and 6 weeks following scaling and root planing (SRP). Biomarkers including the cytokines (IL-4, IL-6, IL-10, and IL-17), sTLR-2, and sCD14 in saliva were measured by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay. Mann–Whitney U-test and Student's t-test were used to determine the significance between healthy and chronic periodontitis groups and that between pre- and post-SRP samples, respectively. Results Salivary sTLR-2, IL-17, and IL-10 levels were significantly lower and those of sCD14, IL-6, and IL-4 were significantly higher in patients with chronic periodontitis as compared with healthy controls. Furthermore, sTLR-2 and IL-4 in saliva reached levels comparable to those of healthy individuals at 6-week re-evaluation visit, implicating a correlation of the two markers with the disease process. Conclusions Our data suggest that salivary sTLR-2 is a potential prognostic or maintenance marker for chronic periodontitis. The observed variability of salivary cytokines is consistent with the role of these cytokines in the progression of chronic periodontitis.
Leading from the middle

As a manager, one is often stuck in the middle of the operational needs of one's unit and the ideals of the organization's leadership team. Dealing with day-to-day operational issues, while also supporting the strategies and mission of a larger organization, with no supporting framework, can often lead to gaps in policy and process. In early 2010 the managers in University Information Technology at the University of Rochester decided that we needed a new strategy to connect our individual units, stop working in silos, and work towards a better integrated team environment. In March, the entire management team from across University IT went on a retreat and talked about our issues. The result of that retreat was a focus on building a better team that could take on major cross-functional issues and work on presenting solutions for them. Shortly after the retreat goals for the coming year were created, and a steering committee was formed. This committee has been guiding the work of the management team and a number of initiatives that started this past year. Additionally, a number of smaller focus groups have formed to work on making our IT department function in a more cooperative and collaborative manner.
What Is the Future of Kidney Stone Management

The burden of kidney stone disease on society is great. In a previous issue of European Urology, Scales and associates reportedon theprevalenceof thisdisorderusing theNational Health and Nutrition Examination Survey [1]. They found that in the United States, the prevalence of stone diseasewas 10.6%amongmenand7.1% amongwomen;when comparing these figures with historic values, it is readily apparent that the prevalence is increasing at a tremendous rate. Formillennia, the treatment of stonedisease evolved little andwas centered on a surgical approach thatwas often quite morbid. In the 1980s, the introduction of shock wave lithotripsy (SWL) revolutionized the treatment of kidney stones; patients who once would have required major surgical interventions could now be treated in a noninvasive fashion. Thus, the lithotripsy revolution was born. In recent years, though, it has become apparent that SWL is not as effective as it was once thought to be. Some of that diminished effectiveness may result from technical aspects associatedwith treatment. Rassweiler and associates recently summarized maneuvers that can be undertaken during a sessionof lithotripsy thatmayoptimize treatment outcomes, suchasusingslowerpulse rates,usingprotocols that rampup treatment power, and optimizing coupling of the patient to the shock wave treatment head [2]. What is likely more important than these strategies, however, is optimizing patient selection for SWL: largestones,multiple stones, ‘‘hard stones,’’ lower pole stones, and increased skin-to-stone distance are all now known to be associated with poor outcomes in patients treated with SWL [3]. Taking these patient-specific parameters all together, the pool of patients whomay be optimally selected for SWL is becoming smaller than was once thought. In the first decade following the introduction of SWL, ureteroscopy (URS) for the treatmentofkidney stoneswasnot
Effective peer interaction in a problem‐centered instructional strategy

This article suggests that peer interaction is most effective when orchestrated around a progression of problems. Problem‐centered learning is enhanced by carefully structured peer interactions. Problem‐centered instruction is a form of direct instruction wherein instructional components are taught in the context of problems. An effective problem‐centered instructional strategy involves (a) facilitating learners’ activation of relevant mental models, (b) demonstrating problem solutions to learners, (c) enabling learner application to the solution of new problems, and (d) facilitating integration into activities beyond the classroom by critique, discussion, and reflection. Instruction is most effective when there is appropriate peer interaction during each of these instructional phases: peer‐sharing during activation, peer‐discussion during demonstration, peer‐collaboration during application, and peer‐critique during integration.
α-Isopropylmalate Synthase from Salmonella typhimurium ANALYSIS OF THE QUATERNARY STRUCTURE AND ITS RELATION TO FUNCTION

Abstract Sedimentation equilibrium centrifugation and intraoligomer cross-linking were used to further investigate the quaternary structure of α-isopropylmalate synthase. Analytical ultracentrifugation of enzyme denatured in 6 m guanidine hydrochloride and 0.1 m 2-mercaptoethanol yielded a weight-average molecular weight for the polypeptide chain between 47,000 and 52,000, depending on the partial specific volume employed. This result is in good agreement with the value of approximately 50,000 established previously by gel electrophoresis in sodium dodecyl sulfate. Gel electrophoresis in the presence of 5 m urea resulted in one protein band, further supporting the concept that the subunits are similar if not identical. Analysis of the association-dissociation equilibrium of the native enzyme by sedimentation equilibrium ultracentrifugation led to the conclusion that the system can be adequately described as an ideal monomer-tetramer equilibrium with an association constant, K4 = [A4]/[A]4, of 9 x 1016 m-3. Neither substrates, employed individually, nor products were found to have a significant effect on the equilibrium. However, when enzyme which had been reacted with the potential active site-labeling reagent bromopyruvate was analyzed in the presence of acetyl-CoA, the associated form of the enzyme was stabilized. Thus, taking into account the dissociative effect of leucine shown earlier, the substrates and the feedback inhibitor appear to influence the association-dissociation equilibrium in opposite directions. An enzymatically active, nondissociable tetrameric form of the enzyme was isolated by gel filtration following intraoligomer cross-linking with dimethyl suberimidate in the presence of acetyl-CoA and α-ketoisocaproate. This form of the enzyme was largely desensitized against inhibition by leucine. The potential of the cross-linking method to isolate and characterize enzyme species of a defined state of aggregation, otherwise practically inaccessible because of rapid association-dissociation equilibrium, is indicated. The possible significance of the association-dissociation equilibrium for catalysis and regulation of α-isopropylmalate synthase is discussed.
Land grabs, government, peasant and civil society activism in the Senegal River Valley

Following the Briefing in the last issue of ROAPE, this Debates contribution again uses Senegalese evidence to explore the interests and actions of major participants in the struggle to transform African agriculture: government, national elites, peasants and their civil society allies. The first section examines government motivations in facilitating land grabs; the second reviews a seminal land grab case in the Senegal River Valley that illustrates the growing sophistication of the peasant pushback and the emergence of an anti-land grab coalition between civil society and peasant organisations.
Traumatic Bone Bruises in the Athlete’s Knee

Context:Mobile water within the bone marrow is a physiological phenomenon that is identifiable on magnetic resonance (MR) imaging, and signal changes can result from blood pooling, reactive hyperem...
Temporal transformation of multiunit activity improves identification of single motor units.

This report describes a temporally based method for identifying repetitive firing of motor units. This approach is ideally suited to spike trains with negative serially correlated inter-spike intervals (ISIs). It can also be applied to spike trains in which ISIs exhibit little serial correlation if their coefficient of variation (COV) is sufficiently low. Using a novel application of the Hough transform, this method (i.e. the modified Hough transform (MHT)) maps motor unit action potential (MUAP) firing times into a feature space with ISI and offset (defined as the latency from an arbitrary starting time to the first MUAP in the train) as dimensions. Each MUAP firing time corresponds to a pattern in the feature space that represents all possible MUAP trains with a firing at that time. Trains with stable ISIs produce clusters in the feature space, whereas randomly firing trains do not. The MHT provides a direct estimate of mean firing rate and its variability for the entire data segment, even if several individual MUAPs are obscured by firings from other motor units. Addition of this method to a shape-based classification approach markedly improved rejection of false positives using simulated data and identified spike trains in whole muscle electromyographic recordings from rats. The relative independence of the MHT from the need to correctly classify individual firings permits a global description of stable repetitive firing behavior that is complementary to shape-based approaches to MUAP classification.
Multiple ribbons in face-centered cubic materials. IV. The interaction between double ribbons and inclined dislocations

Experimental observations made using weak-beam and strong-beam diffraction conditions are presented to illustrate the interaction between double ribbons and inclined dislocations. It is shown that the two perfect dislocations which constitute the double ribbons often behave independently during the intersection process. This result emphasizes the need to consider the actual configuration of these defects rather than the apparent configuration which is suggested by TEM Burgers vector analysis. Durchgefuhrte experimentelle Beobachtungen unter „weak-beam”-und „strong-beam”-Beugungs-bedingungen werden mitgeteilt, um die Wechselwirkung zwischen Doppelbandern und geneigten Versetzungen zu demonstrieren. Es wird gezeigt, das die beiden perfekten Versetzungen, die das Doppelband bilden, sich oft unabhangig wahrend des Durchdringungsprozesses verhalten. Dieses Ergebnis hebt die Notwendigkeit hervor, die tatsachliche Konfiguration dieser Defekte zu berucksichtigen und nicht die scheinbare Konfiguration, die durch TEM-Burgersvektoranalyse suggeriert wird.
Reliability of High Temperature I2L Integrated Circuits

Silicon based I2 L circuits have survived a life test for over 5000 hours at 340°C without degradation. These chips used aluminum metallization with current densities below 10,000 amp/sq.cm to avoid electromigration failures. The need for a gold based metal system for high temperature applications has lead to the development of Ti-W diffusion barriers which have withstood temperatures of 360°C for longer than 3500 hours without change. MSI integrated circuits with a Ti-W/Au metallization system have withstood stress tests of over 2000 hours at 360°C. Gold hillock formation has been shown to be caused by the compressive strains induced in the gold film by thermal expansion mismatches. The driving force for gold hillock formation may be eliminated by depositing the gold film at elevated temperatures.
Direct-tunneling gate leakage current in double-gate and ultrathin body MOSFETs

The impact of energy quantization on gate tunneling current is studied for double-gate and ultrathin body MOSFETs. Reduced vertical electric field and quantum confinement in the channel of these thin-body devices causes a decrease in gate leakage by as much as an order of magnitude. The effects of body thickness scaling and channel crystallographic orientation are studied. The impact of threshold voltage control solutions, including doped channel and asymmetric double-gate structures is also investigated. Future gate dielectric thickness scaling and the use of high-/spl kappa/ gate dielectrics are discussed.
Structural Basis for the Restoration of TCR Recognition of an MHC Allelic Variant by Peptide Secondary Anchor Substitution

Major histocompatibility complex (MHC) class I variants H-2Kb and H-2Kbm8 differ primarily in the B pocket of the peptide-binding groove, which serves to sequester the P2 secondary anchor residue. This polymorphism determines resistance to lethal herpes simplex virus (HSV-1) infection by modulating T cell responses to the immunodominant glycoprotein B498-505 epitope, HSV8. We studied the molecular basis of these effects and confirmed that T cell receptors raised against Kb–HSV8 cannot recognize H-2Kbm8–HSV8. However, substitution of SerP2 to GluP2 (peptide H2E) reversed T cell receptor (TCR) recognition; H-2Kbm8–H2E was recognized whereas H-2Kb–H2E was not. Insight into the structural basis of this discrimination was obtained by determining the crystal structures of all four MHC class I molecules in complex with bound peptide (pMHCs). Surprisingly, we find no concerted pMHC surface differences that can explain the differential TCR recognition. However, a correlation is apparent between the recognition data and the underlying peptide-binding groove chemistry of the B pocket, revealing that secondary anchor residues can profoundly affect TCR engagement through mechanisms distinct from the alteration of the resting state conformation of the pMHC surface.
Supporting Shared Decisions When Clinical Evidence Is Low

There is growing interest in shared decision making (SDM) in the United States and globally, at both the clinical and policy levels. SDM is typically employed during "preference-sensitive" decisions, where there is equipoise between treatment options with equal or similar outcomes from a medical standpoint. In these situations, patients' preferences for the possible risks, benefits, and trade-offs between options are central to the decision. However, SDM also may be appropriate in clinical situations besides those in which data demonstrate equipoise. In situations of low evidence, where evidence is conflicting, unavailable or not applicable to an individual patient, supporting SDM can present unique challenges, above and beyond the challenges faced during more standard preference-sensitive decisions. This article discusses challenges in supporting shared decisions when clinical evidence is low, describes strategies that can facilitate SDM despite low evidence, and suggests avenues for future research to explore further these proposed strategies.
Effect of substrate concentration on dual-species biofilm population densities of Klebsiella oxytoca and Burkholderia cepacia in porous media

The long-term operation of bioremediation technologies relies on the success of the contaminant-degrading microorganism(s) to compete for available resources with microorganisms already present in an aquifer or those that may contaminate a bioreactor. Though research has been performed studying the interaction of multiple species in batch and chemostat reactors, little work has been done looking at multi-species interactions in environments that more closely resemble field-scale applications. The research presented herein examined the interaction of Burkholderia cepacia PR1-pTOM31c, an aerobic trichloroethylene (TCE)-degrading bacterium, with Klebsiella oxytoca, a facultative bacterium, in a flow-through porous media (PM) reactor. Growth characteristics and population distributions in PM were compared to previously reported values from batch and chemostat reactors. The faster growing organism in batch experiments (K. oxytoca) did not always have the greater population density in dual-species PM experiments. The biofilm population distribution was influenced by substrate concentration, with B. cepacia having a greater dual-species population density than K. oxytoca at a low (30 mg/L dissolved organic carbon [DOC]) substrate concentration and K. oxytoca having a greater population density at a high (700 mg/L DOC) substrate concentration. This change in species population distribution with change in substrate concentration, which was not observed in batch reactors, was also observed in chemostat reactors. Therefore, manipulation of substrate concentration enabled the control of species dominance to the advantage of the TCE degrading population in this dual-species PM system and may provide a mechanism to enhance bioremediation scenarios involving TCE or other contaminants of concern. © 2005 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.
Photon migration at short times and distances and in cases of strong absorption

Diffusion theory is widely used to describe photon migration in turbid media because it is simple and, in certain cases, can be accurate to within a few percent. However, it neglects the ballistic nature of photon propagation between successive scattering events and hence entirely breaks down for short times and distances, as well as for strong absorption. Here we generalize on the exact two-stream theory of one-dimensional photon migration to obtain a telegrapher equation that accounts for both diffusive and ballistic aspects of propagation in three-dimensional media. At long times and distances the standard diffusion theory is recovered, whereas at short times and distances we find improved predictions for such phenomena as pulse spreading, diffuse photon-density wave dispersion, transmission through a slab, and pulse reflection from a semi-infinite medium. Our theory should be useful for accurately characterizing turbid media, such as biological tissues, and may also aid in improving the spatial resolution of images made with diffuse light.
Asymptotic analysis of scale-invariant cost functions for blind adaptive processing

In this paper, we provide an asymptotic precision analysis of blind adaptive filter coefficients derived from a wide class of scale-invariant cost functions implicitly implemented in a batch processing mode. This analysis is based on a first-order Taylor expansion of the cost functions in the vicinity of their maxima and represents an extension of Donoho's (1981) classic asymptotic precision analysis to the complex case. Through this analysis we have a means of discriminating among different nonlinear cost functions in the sense of yielding more precise estimates with N finite samples. We also find that cost functions based on very large order statistics tend to have highly desirable convergence properties over a wide range of constellations. >
An Ob-Gyn nurse practitioner program.

An Ob‐Gyn Nurse Practitioner Program, begun as a pilot project to aid in cancer detection in the state of Alabama, has become a full‐fledged program to train Nurse Practitioners in all aspects of obstetrics and gynecology and has graduated 32 nurses. The program is divided into a four‐month lecture and clinical experience segment and a two‐month training period with a preceptor. Twenty‐eight of the graduates are employed in Alabama, either by the Health Department or by private physicians. They have been well‐accepted in Alabama by peers, physicians, and patients, and cancer detection and family planning have greatly benefitted from their impact. The benefits should continue to increase.
Intermolecular resonances, optical dephasing and relaxations in a crystalline complex

Abstract Singlet-triplet transition is investigated for 1,4-dibromonaphthalene: octafluoronaphthalene complex where the triplet states of the two components are in near resonance. Photo excitation, T 1 ←S 0 absorption and phosphorescence spectra reveal weak intercomponent quasi-resonance interactions, but rapid intercomponent relaxation. T 1 ←S 0 absorption lines are considerably broader than that in neat 1,4-dibromonaphthalene.