cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
A case report of atypical Kawasaki disease presented with severe elevated transaminases and literature review

Kawasaki disease (KD) is the most common cause of acquired heart disease among children in developed countries, in which the resulting coronary artery (CA) abnormalities cause myocardial ischemia, infarction, and death. Prompt diagnosis was essential, and supplemental information should be used to assist the diagnosis when classical clinical criteria are incomplete. The elevated levels of serum transaminases in most KD patients are mild. Herein, a case of atypical KD child with severely elevated transaminase was reported. A child with clinical manifestations of fever, high C-reactive protein (CRP) and severely elevated transaminases was reported. The treatment effect of antibiotic and liver-protecting drugs was not satisfactory. A bilateral diffuse dilation of the CA was detected on echocardiography on day 5 of the illness; thus, atypical KD was diagnosed. Elevated transaminases declined rapidly to normal after the treatment of intravenous immunoglobulin (IVIG). A 1-month follow-up revealed that CA returned to normal, and 2-month, 6-months, and 1-year follow-up revealed the child was in good general health. This case highlighted that atypical KD clinical symptoms were diverse, and severely elevated transaminases might provide a clue to healthcare providers for the diagnosis and management of atypical KD.
Relationship between Sport-Related Concussion and Sleep Based on Self-Report and Commercial Actigraph Measurement.

Sleep-wake disturbance (SWD) results from sport-related concussion (SRC) and may increase risk of protracted post-injury symptoms. However, methodological limitations in the extant literature limit...
Administration of a selective retinoic acid receptor-γ agonist improves neuromuscular strength in a rodent model of volumetric muscle loss.

PURPOSE Volumetric muscle loss is a uniquely challenging pathology that results in irrecoverable functional deficits. Furthermore, a breakthrough drug or bioactive factor has yet to be established that adequately improves repair of these severe skeletal muscle injuries. This study sought to assess the ability of an orally administered selective retinoic acid receptor-γ agonist, palovarotene, to improve recovery of neuromuscular strength in a rat model of volumetric muscle loss. METHODS An irrecoverable, full thickness defect was created in the tibialis anterior muscle of Lewis rats and animals were survived for 4 weeks. Functional recovery of the tibialis anterior muscle was assessed in vivo via neural stimulation and determination of peak isometric torque. Histological staining was performed to qualitatively assess fibrous scarring of the defect site. RESULTS Treatment with the selective retinoic acid receptor-γ agonist, palovarotene, resulted in a 38% improvement of peak isometric torque in volumetric muscle loss affected limbs after 4 weeks of healing compared to untreated controls. Additionally, preliminary histological assessment suggests that oral administration of palovarotene reduced fibrous scarring at the defect site. CONCLUSIONS These results highlight the potential role of selective retinoic acid receptor-γ agonists in the design of regenerative medicine platforms to maximize skeletal muscle healing. Additional studies are needed to further elucidate cellular responses, optimize therapeutic delivery, and characterize synergistic potential with adjunct therapies.
Public Information and Capital Flows: Evidence from a Betting Market

Using a shock to transparency in a parimutuel betting market, we show that capital flows increase in public information even in markets with largely risk-seeking participants. The evidence indicates that capital allocation decisions are partly a function of behavioral mechanisms such as the illusion of control. More broadly, our results suggest transparency can facilitate gambling behavior, a result with implications for the many settings in which decision-makers are not globally risk averse but rather exhibit local risk-seeking behavior. Our findings also inform policy debate on whether and how to use transparency to address speculative flows in financial markets.
A note on the stability of cut cells and cell merging

Embedded boundary meshes may have cut cells of arbitrarily small volume which can lead to stability problems in finite volume computations with explicit time stepping. We show that time step constraints are not as strict as often believed. We prove this in one dimension for linear advection and the first order upwind scheme. Numerical examples in two dimensions demonstrate that this carries over to more complicated situations. This analysis sheds light on the choice of time step when using cell merging to stabilize the arbitrarily small cells that arise in embedded boundary schemes.
'Cold Legal Points into Points of Flame': Karl Llewellyn Attacks Lynching

This essay puts into context a Foreword that Karl N. Llewellyn wrote for a NAACP brief urging the Department of Justice to prosecute an Alabama sheriff for permitting the lynching of two young men in July 1933. They were accused of assaulting and murdering a young white woman in Tuscaloosa County, Alabama. The lynchings took place in the wake of the Scottsboro, Alabama prosecutions and many saw the lynchings as a response to Scottsboro and also to the presence of lawyers from the International Labour Defence who tried to represent the Tuscaloosa defendants. The lynchings, it seemed, were designed to send a message to African Americans throughout the state.Llewellyn’s long-forgotten Foreword, which no previous scholars have written about, expands our understanding of Llewellyn and of the role the methods of Legal Realism could play in the Civil Rights Movement. Llewellyn looked at the facts to argue that community members and government officials worked together to protect white supremacy from “challenge even in the courts of law.” Such facts turned “cold legal points into points of flame” and made the case for federal intervention.The brief, thus reflecting the methods of Realism, focused on close examination of facts to see the world fresh and to make the case for reform. It also suggests that the Civil Rights Movement and Realism may have drawn inspiration from a common well of cultural ideas to go back, see the world as it is, and to hold up those facts to the public, and in that way to change the law and legal practices.
Improving Relation Extraction by Exploiting Properties of the Target Relation

In this paper we demonstrate and quantify the advantage gained by allowing relation extraction algorithms to make use of information about the cardinality of the target relation. The two algorithms presented herein differ only in their assumption about the nature of the target relation (one-to-many or many-to-many). The algorithms are tested on the same relation to show the degree of advantage gained by their differing assumptions. Comparison of the performance of the two algorithms on a one-to-many domain demonstrates the existence of several, previously undocumented behaviors which can be used to improve the performance of relation extraction algorithms. The first is a distinct, inverted u-shape in the initial portion of the recall curve of the many-to-many algorithm. The second is that, as the number of seeds increases, the rate of improvement of the two algorithms descreases to approach the rate at which new information is added via the seeds.
A VLSI controller for active-matrix LCDs

There is currently no standard interface for active-matrix thin-film transistor liquid crystal displays (LCDs). Interface signals and timing requirements vary among panel technologies, driver ICs, and applications. To allow interfacing to the widest possible range of active matrix LCDs (AMLCDs) from various systems, a flexible, versatile, stand-alone interface controller is required. A typical existing AMLCD controller in a display module implements a rudimentary interface providing only synchronized clocks and buffering of a few pixel data The controller described in this paper absorbs all the display specific functions under the control of programmable registers, and thus presents a simple and display-independent interface to the host. In addition, the chip performs some simple image enhancement operations that can again be programmed to meet the demand of particular applications. >
Separation of conjugated urinary estrogens on columns of sephadex. II. Sequential separations.

Abstract 1 Columns of DEAE-Sephadex were used to separate conjugated estrogens in urine (metabolites of [4- 14 C]estradiol, administered intravenously) and reference standards. A scheme has been devised whereby many of the conjugated estrogens in urine may be separately by means of a sequence of three chromatographic procedures on columns of Sephadex G-25, DEAE-Sephadex and Sephadex G-15. The composite elution profile contains at least eighteen distinct peaks of radioactivity.
Soliton-induced waveguides in a photorefractive organic glass

We observe guidance of a probe beam at 980 nm by a soliton beam at 780 nm in an organic photorefractive monolithic glass, owing to the orientationally enhanced photorefractive nonlinearity of the material. We demonstrate both planar waveguides induced by soliton stripes and circular waveguides induced by two-dimensional solitons
Linear and Planar Array Factor Synthesis

This chapter contains sections titled: Synthesis of Amplitude and Phase Tapers Analytical Synthesis of Amplitude Tapers Numerical Synthesis of Low-Sidelobe Tapers Aperiodic Arrays Low-Sidelobe Phase Taper Suppressing Grating Lobes Due to Subarray Weighting Plane Wave Projection Interleaved Arrays Null Synthesis ]]>
Evaluation of summarization schemes for learning in streams

Traditional discretization techniques for machine learning, from examples with continuous feature spaces, are not efficient when the data is in the form of a stream from an unknown, possibly changing, distribution. We present a time-and-memory-efficient discretization technique based on computing e-approximate exponential frequency quantiles, and prove bounds on the worst-case error introduced in computing information entropy in data streams compared to an offline algorithm that has no efficiency constraints. We compare the empirical performance of the technique, using it for feature selection, with (streaming adaptations of) two popular methods of discretization, equal width binning and equal frequency binning, under a variety of streaming scenarios for real and artificial datasets. Our experiments show that e-approximate exponential frequency quantiles are remarkably consistent in their performance, in contrast to the simple and efficient equal width binning that perform quite well when the streams are from stationary distributions, and quite poorly otherwise.
Solid state magnetic resonance spectra of Illinois No. 6 coal and some reductive alkylation products

Abstract Illinois No. 6 coal and its reductive methylation and butylation products have been studied by magnetic resonance techniques. Conventional CP-MAS13Cn.m.r. spectroscopy indicates that 62% of the carbon atoms in the coal are aromatic and that about 6% of the carbon atoms are carbonyl. Esters are more abundant than carboxylic acids. The resonances of methoxy groups and other novel etheric carbon atoms are apparent in the high field region. Dipolar dephasing experiments suggest that methyl carbon atoms constitute no more than 16% of the carbon, methylene and methine carbon atoms about 14% and quaternary aliphatic carbon atoms about 2%. The dipolar dephasing experiments in conjunction with previous work also permit estimates of the hydrogen atom distribution. The THF-insoluble products obtained in the reductive alkylation reactions with13C-enriched alkylating agents contain paramagnetic and ferromagnetic substances that adversely influence the solid state n.m.r. spectra. However, good 13C n.m.r. spectra were obtained after these substances were extracted with aqueous hydrochloric acid. The O:C alkylation ratios are 1.2 and 1.0 for methylation and butylation, respectively. Dipolar dephasing experiments establish that the decay constants of functional groups in the whole coal and of C- and O-methyl-13C and C- and O-butyl-1 -13C nuclei in the labelled coal molecules are very similar to those of reference compounds. These findings suggest that the decay constants measured for the 13C nuclei in coals and coal-derived solids provide reliable information about their degree of substitution.
Isolation and characterization of three diapause-associated transcripts from the Colorado potato beetle, Leptinotarsa decemlineata

Using suppressive subtractive hybridization, fragments of three diapause-associated transcripts (DAT-1, 2 and 3) were isolated from the Colorado potato beetle, Leptinotarsa decemlineata. Full-length clones were developed for the transcripts. DAT-1 encodes a deduced protein 286 amino acids in length with limited identity to several proteins with leucine-rich domains. DAT-2 encodes a deduced protein 229 amino acids in length with 27% identity, 40% similarity to the desiccation stress protein from Tenebrio molitor. DAT-3 encodes a deduced protein 97 amino acids in length with identity to no known protein. DAT-1 and 2 have similar expression patterns as determined by northern blot analysis. Trace levels of these two transcripts are first detected in 3-day-old diapause-programmed adults with a significant increase in expression on day 6. Expression of DAT-3 begins on day 12 in diapause-programmed adults and expression levels increase until the beetles enter diapause. Expression of DAT-1, 2 and 3 continues at least 60 days into diapause.
Application of the ISO 13472-1 in situ technique for measuring the acoustic absorption coefficient of grass and artificial turf surfaces

This paper presents the applicability of an in situ technique based on ISO 13472-1 standard for measuring the acoustic absorption coefficient of grass and artificial turf surfaces for normal incidence from a sound source. The in situ method is based on acoustic impulse response measurement of the material surface. A maximum length sequence (MLS) signal is played through a loudspeaker and the acoustic response from the surface is recorded using a single microphone. The fast Hadamard transform and fast Fourier transform based digital signal post-processing algorithm provides the acoustic absorption coefficient of the surface under test. The normal incidence acoustic absorption coefficient of a commercial artificial quash surface of Dow Co. obtained from this method was compared with the results from the ASTM E1050 impedance tube method for the same surface. The acoustic absorption coefficients of a test-site grass surfaces were measured for 30 mm and 100 mm length of grass blades in wet and dry soil conditions. Substantial difference in the acoustic absorption coefficient was observed for a similar grass-like artificial surface used for estimating sound power of commercial garden equipments and lawnmowers. The advantage of the in situ method lies in its ability to measure the normal incident acoustic absorption coefficient of any planar surface as installed or in situ. Additionally a quick testing time of less than a minute with the use of a laptop sound card based inexpensive data acquisition system is the main feature of this robust method.
Protein phosphatase inhibitors potentiate Ca2+/calmodulin-dependent protein kinase II activity in rat pancreatic acinar cells.

Cholecystokinin (CCK) is known to rapidly and transiently increase both [Ca2+]iand autonomous CaM kinase II activity in rat pancreatic acini. Because induction of autonomous activity may involve intramolecular autophosphorylation, the effects of protein phosphatase inhibitors were examined. None of the inhibitors tested (okadaic acid, calyculin A, and cyclosporin A) affected basal activity. Okadaic acid, a potent inhibitor of PP2A and weaker inhibitor of PP1, increased the peak autonomous activity by 30% over the level normally induced by CCK alone, while calyculin A, a potent inhibitor of both PP1 and PP2A, showed an even greater increase of 97%. Both inhibitors also delayed the decline of autonomous activity and calyculin A had a more potent effect than okadaic acid. Cyclosporin A, an inhibitor of PP2B, had no effect. The data indicate that PP1 may be involved in the dephosphorylation of CaMK II and decline of autonomous activity.
Governance, good governance and global governance: conceptual and actual challenges

This article takes seriously the proposition that ideas and concepts, both good and bad, have an impact on international public policy. It situates the emergence of governance, good governance and global governance, as well as the UN's role in the conceptual process. Although 'governance' is as old as human history, this essay concentrates on the intellectual debates of the 1980s and 1990s but explores such earlier UN-related ideas as decolonisation, localisation and human rights, against which more recent thinking has been played out. A central analytical perspective is the tension between many academics and international practitioners who employ 'governance' to connote a complex set of structures and processes, both public and private, while more popular writers tend to use it synonymously with 'government'.
Sources of CAM3 temperature bias during northern winter from diagnostic study of the temperature bias equation

The Community Atmosphere Model version 3 (CAM3) temperature simulation bias is examined in this paper. We compare CAM3 output with European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts (ECMWF) 40 year reanalysis (ERA-40) data. We formulate a time mean temperature bias equation then evaluate each term in the equation. Our focus is on the Northern Hemisphere winter time. We group the temperature equation terms into these categories: linear advection terms, nonlinear advection terms, transient eddy terms and diabatic heating, and find that linear advection and diabatic bias are the largest. The nonlinear terms (velocity bias advection of temperature bias) are much smaller than each of the other groups of terms at all levels except near the surface. Linear advection terms have dipolar pattern in the Atlantic (negative NW of positive) which reflects the shift of the CAM3 model North Atlantic storm track (NAST) into Europe, especially in the upper troposphere; opposite sign dipolar structure occurs over Alaska (positive) and the north Pacific storm track (negative). The transient advection terms in middle latitudes are larger in the upper troposphere and generally positive along the Atlantic storm track. Along the north Pacific storm track (NPST), the transient terms are negative in the mid and lower troposphere over much of the NPST (positive in upper troposphere). The diabatic heating bias has large values in the tropics along the Intertropical Convergence Zone (ICZ) and along the midlatitude storm tracks. During this time of year the ICZ is mainly in the Southern Hemisphere, but CAM3 emphasizes an ICZ-like heating in the northern hemisphere of the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans. CAM3 tends to have a weaker ICZ, especially in the Atlantic. In midlatitudes, we find large bias in heating by precipitation and vertically averaged net radiation over the NAST, Europe, and the Middle East.
Bayesian lensing shear measurement

We derive an estimator of weak gravitational lensing shear from background galaxy images that avoids noise-induced biases through a rigorous Bayesian treatment of the measurement. The derived shear estimator disposes with the assignment of ellipticities to individual galaxies that is typical of previous approaches to galaxy lensing. Shear estimates from the mean of the Bayesian posterior are unbiased in the limit of large number of background galaxies, regardless of the noise level on individual galaxies. The Bayesian formalism requires a prior describing the (noiseless) distribution of the target galaxy population over some parameter space; this prior can be constructed from low-noise images of a subsample of the target population, attainable from long integrations of a fraction of the survey field. We find two ways to combine this exact treatment of noise with rigorous treatment of the effects of the instrumental point-spread function and sampling. The Bayesian model fitting (BMF) method assigns a likelihood of the pixel data to galaxy models (e.g. Sersic ellipses). The Bayesian Fourier domain (BFD) method compresses the pixel data to a small set of weighted moments calculated after PSF correction in Fourier space. A numerical test using a simplified model of a biased galaxy measurement process demonstrates that the Bayesian formalism recovers applied shears to $<1$ part in $10^3$ accuracy and provides accurate uncertainty estimates. BFD is the first shear measurement algorithm that is model-free and requires no approximations or ad hoc assumptions in correcting for the effects of PSF, noise, or sampling on the galaxy images. These algorithms are good candidates for attaining the part-per-thousand shear inference required for hemisphere-scale weak gravitational lensing surveys. (abridged)
Essential Oils of Selected Hawaiian Plants and Associated Litters

Abstract The chemical composition of the essential oils from the leaves of Araucaria heterophylla (also known as Norfolk Island pine), Casuarina cunninghamian, Eucalyptus citriodora, Psidium cattlenium var. lucidum (also known as strawberry guava), and litters of the first two species were studied using two gas chromatography techniques, one equipped with a mass spectrometer detector (GC/MS) and the other with a fame ionization detector (GC/FID). Six volatile compounds were identified in the leaf oil of A. heterophylla. A substantial increase in the amount of α-pinene, α-terpinene and a decrease in the amount of β-caryophyllene was noticed in the litter oil of A. heterophylla. Three volatile compounds were identifed in C. cunninghamian. Another monoterpene, α-terpinene, was observed in the litter oil of C. cunninghamian. Eleven compounds were identified in the leaf oil of P. cattlenium, of which β-caryophyllene (59.0%), α-pinene (13.2%) and myrcene (11.3%) were the major components. Thirteen volatile oil ...
Rates of Reconstruction Failure in Patients Undergoing Immediate Reconstruction With Tissue Expanders and/or Implants and Postmastectomy Radiation Therapy.

Objectives Mastectomy rates for breast cancer have increased, with a parallel increase in immediate reconstruction. For some women, tissue expander and implant (TE/I) reconstruction is the preferred or sole option. This retrospective study examined the rate of TE/I reconstruction failure (ie, removal of the TE or I with the inability to replace it resulting in no final reconstruction or autologous tissue reconstruction) in patients receiving postmastectomy radiation therapy (PMRT). Methods and Materials Between 2004 and 2012, 99 women had skin-sparing mastectomies (SSM) or total nipple/areolar skin-sparing mastectomies (TSSM) with immediate TE/I reconstruction and PMRT for pathologic stage II to III breast cancer. Ninety-seven percent had chemotherapy (doxorubicin and taxane-based), 22% underwent targeted therapies, and 78% had endocrine therapy. Radiation consisted of 5000 cGy given in 180 to 200 cGy to the reconstructed breast with or without treatment to the supraclavicular nodes. Median follow-up was 3.8 years. Results Total TE/I failure was 18% (12% without final reconstruction, 6% converted to autologous reconstruction). In univariate analysis, the strongest predictor of reconstruction failure (RF) was absence of total TE/I coverage (acellular dermal matrix and/or serratus muscle) at the time of radiation. RF occurred in 32.5% of patients without total coverage compared to 9% with coverage (P=.0069). For women with total coverage, the location of the mastectomy scar in the inframammary fold region was associated with higher RF (19% vs 0%, P=.0189). In multivariate analysis, weight was a significant factor for RF, with lower weight associated with a higher RF. Weight appeared to be a surrogate for the interaction of total coverage, thin skin flaps, interval to exchange, and location of the mastectomy scar. Conclusions RFs in patients receiving PMRT were lowered with total TE/I coverage at the time of radiation by avoiding inframammary fold incisions and with a preferred interval of 6 months to exchange.
Community-based exercise intervention: Zuni Diabetes Project.

Non-insulin-dependent diabetes mellitus (NIDDM) is a serious health problem among the Zuni Indians of New Mexico. In July 1983, Indian Health Service personnel initiated a community-based exercise program designed to help control NIDDM in the community. To retrospectively evaluate the effects of the exercise program, the medical records of 30 participants with NIDDM were compared with the medical records of 56 nonparticipants with NIDDM matched by age, sex, health-care provider, and duration of NIDDM. From 1 July 1983 through 1 October 1985, participants had a mean weight loss of 4 kg, whereas nonparticipants had a mean weight loss of 0.9 kg ( P P
At the Right Time and at the Right Place: Control of Cytokinesis in Mammals

Ensuring that cytokinesis occurs at the right time and in the right place is essential to maintain euploidy and cell-cycle progression. Cytokinesis is triggered by the RhoA GEF Ect2, which localizes to the spindle midzone during anaphase and activates RhoA at the overlying cell cortex to stimulate contractile ring formation. Using a chemical inhibitor of the Polo kinase Plk1, Petronczki et al. (2007) showed that Plk1 is essential for cytokinesis, because it specifically promotes Ect2 localization and interaction with its midzone receptor HsCyk-4. I liked this paper for three reasons. As a biologist, I was impressed because the paper explains an important part of biology: how a cell-cycle kinase determines when and where cytokinesis occurs. As a geneticist, I appreciate a "tight allele." The paper is a beautiful example of the power of chemical genetics to specifically and rapidly inhibit Polo at a specific cell-cycle stage. Finally, as a yeast cell-cycle researcher, it is always nice to see the dramatic conservation between yeast and mammals. In budding yeast, even though the bud neck and not the spindle midzone determines the site of cytokinesis, Polo kinase phosphorylates Rho GEFs to initiate contractile ring formation and cytokinesis. This PaperPick refers to "Polo-like Kinase 1 Triggers the Initiation of Cytokinesis in Human Cells by Promoting Recruitment of the RhoGEF Ect2 to the Central Spindle," by M. Petronczki, M. Glotzer, N. Kraut, and J.-M. Peters, published in May 2007. Video Abstract Here, Jan-Michael Peters discusses the work as a collaboration between Mark Petronczki (in his group), Michael Glotzer of the University of Chicago, and Norbert Kraut of Boehringer Ingelheim, who provided the key reagent: BI 2536, a chemical inhibitor of Plk1. The authors would like to note that their work on the role of Plk1 in cytokinesis was inspired by early observations made in the laboratory of David Glover and that the research groups of Prasad Jallepalli (Sloan Kettering) and Aaron Straight (Stanford) have also identified Plk1 as a key regulator of cleavage furrow formation in mammalian cells.
Uplink array calibration via lunar Doppler-delay imaging

Coherent arraying of transmitting antenna signals at a distant spacecraft provides an effective gain proportional to N2 , where N is the number of antennas in the array.1,2 This technology is currently being developed for NASA's Deep Space Network (DSN) to provide greater range and data throughput for future NASA missions, including manned missions to Mars and exploratory missions to the outer planets, the Kuiper belt, and beyond. However, successful uplink arraying of X-band (∼7.2 GHz) carriers transmitted by large 34 meter antennas separated by several hundred meters on the ground requires differential Doppler compensation and proper initial phasing to ensure coherent addition in the far-field of the array. This article describes a spacecraft-independent technique to phase-calibrate the array, where the calibration phases for two and three-antenna arrays are determined via lunar Doppler-delay imaging. This approach is required whenever the spacecraft range is large enough to render spacecraft-assisted calibration impractical due to long round-trip light times. The accuracy of the resulting calibration technique is evaluated, and long-term stability of the calibration phase-vector discussed in this article.
Biodegradable Composites Containing Chicken Feathers as Matrix and Jute Fibers as Reinforcement

This research demonstrates that chicken feathers can be used as matrix to develop completely biodegradable composites with properties similar to that of composites having polypropylene (PP) as matrix. Feathers are ubiquitous and inexpensive but have limited industrial applications. Feathers have been preferably used for composite applications due to their low density and presence of hollow structures that facilitate sound absorption. However, previous approaches on using feathers for composites have used the whole feather or the feather fractions as reinforcement with synthetic polymers as matrix resulting in partially degradable composites. In addition, the hydrophilicity of the feathers and hydrophobicity of the synthetic matrix results in poor compatibility and therefore less than optimum properties. Although it has been shown that feathers can be made thermoplastic and suitable to develop films and other thermoplastics, there are no reports on using feathers as matrix for composites. In this research, chicken feathers were used as matrix and jute fibers as reinforcement to develop completely biodegradable composites. Tensile, flexural and acoustic properties of the feather-jute composites were compared to PP-jute composites. Utilizing feathers as matrix could enable us to develop low cost 100 % biodegradable composites containing feathers or other biopolymers as the reinforcement.
Wave atoms and time upscaling of wave equations

We present a new geometric strategy for the numerical solution of hyperbolic wave equations in smoothly varying, two-dimensional time-independent periodic media. The method consists in representing the time-dependent Green’s function in wave atoms, a tight frame of multiscale, directional wave packets obeying a precise parabolic balance between oscillations and support size, namely wavelength ~(diameter).2 Wave atoms offer a uniquely structured representation of the Green’s function in the sense that the resulting matrix is universally sparse over the class of C ∞ coefficients, even for “large” times; the matrix has a natural low-rank block-structure after separation of the spatial indices. The parabolic scaling is essential for these properties to hold. As a result, it becomes realistic to accurately build the full matrix exponential in the wave atom frame, using repeated squaring up to some time typically of the form $${\Delta t \sim \sqrt{\Delta x}}$$, which is bigger than the standard CFL timestep. Once the “expensive” precomputation of the Green’s function has been carried out, it can be used to perform unusually large, upscaled, “cheap” time steps. The algorithm is relatively simple in that it does not require an underlying geometric optics solver. We prove accuracy and complexity results based on a priori estimates of sparsity and separation ranks. On a N-by-N grid, the “expensive” precomputation takes somewhere between O(N 3log N) and O(N 4log N) steps depending on the separability of the acoustic medium. The complexity of upscaled timestepping, however, beats the O(N 3log N) bottleneck of pseudospectral methods on an N-by-N grid, for a wide range of physically relevant situations. In particular, we show that a naive version of the wave atom algorithm provably runs in O(N 2+δ) operations for arbitrarily small δ—but for the final algorithm we had to slightly increase the exponent in order to reduce the large constant. As a result, we get estimates between O(N 2.5 log N) and O(N 3 log N) for upscaled timestepping. We also show several numerical examples. In practice, the current wave atom solver becomes competitive over a pseudospectral method in regimes where the wave equation should be solved hundreds of times with different initial conditions, as in reflection seismology. In academic examples of accurate propagation of bandlimited wavefronts, if the precomputation step is factored out, then the wave atom solver is indeed faster than a pseudospectral method by a factor of about 3–5 at N = 512, and a factor 10–20 at N = 1024, for the same accuracy. Very similar gains are obtained in comparison versus a finite difference method.
Suitability of spectral indices for evaluating vegetation characteristics on arid rangelands

Abstract The spectral behavior of an arid, Lehmann lovegrass (Eragrostis lehmanniana), range canopy with varying quantities of live, green grass, senesced, yellow grass, weathered, gray litter, and different soil backgrounds was analyzed with a ground based radiometer. The analysis included rangeland field plots and artificial mixtures of live and dead grass. Senesced grass and weathered litter were found to significantly alter the spectral response of the range canopy in the first four Thematic Mapper wavebands (0.45–0.52; 0.52–0.60; 0.63–0.69; 0.76–0.90 μm). These influences seriously hampered the utility of spectral vegetation indices in assessing green phytomass levels. Gray litter lowered the response of the green vegetation index (GVI) and perpendicular vegetation index (PVI) while minimally influencing the ratio vegetation index (RVI) and the normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI). Yellow, senesced grass increased the greenness response of plots without green vegetation and decreased the greenness response of plots with green vegetation. Higher reflecting soils increased the GVI and PVI response and decreased the RVI and NDVI response of comparable range canopy mixtures. Small amounts of 30 cm tall, green grass (750 kg/ha) could not be detected within a 75 cm tall, senesced grass stand (5000 kg/ha). The results of this study show spectral vegetation indices to be unreliable measures of green phytomass in arid rangelands. A mixture model employing principal component analysis was used to extract a green vegetation signal, but green phytomass detection was not improved. Apparently, the green vegetation signal emerging from range canopies is diminished by the scattering influences of the vertically oriented elements of the senesced grass phytomass.
Effects on temperature of morphine injected into the preoptic/anterior hypothalamus, medulla oblongata, and peripherally in unrestrained and restrained rats.

SummaryChanges in Tre were determined in unrestrained rats after injections of morphine into the PO/AH and MED regions. Injections into the former site consistently caused hyperthermia, while medullary injections caused only inconsistent small responses. Destruction of the PO/AH region did not enhance the response to medullary injections of morphine. Restraint reversed responses to PO/AH and ip administration of morphine, resulting in hypothermia. These results provide additional evidence for the concept of a sensitive primary temperature control in the PO/AH region and a secondary control, which responds minimally to drugs, in the medulla.
Why we should consider pragmatics when planning treatment for children who stutter.

Pragmatics, the use of language in context, has been investigated only recently in the language used by children who stutter (CWS). Historically, researchers compared the length and complexity of the syntactic constructions produced by these children with those of children who do not stutter (CWNS) and generally found the CWS to be relatively deficient. More recently, some investigators have begun to address how the language and fluency of CWS are influenced in different communicative settings. This article describes several findings concerning the pragmatic competencies of CWS set against the traditional framework of pragmatic language development. Most studies have shown no significant differences between the CWS and CWNS groups, although some aspects of pragmatic language use have yielded an exacerbation of stuttering for CWS. These findings have suggested specific ways of incorporating a pragmatic focus in the treatment programming for CWS where the degree of difficulty of language use is increased gr...
Injection-locked optically-pumped vertically external cavity surface emitting laser (VECSEL)

We report a novel single-frequency, injection-locked vertical external-cavity surface-emitting laser (VECSEL) for the first time to the best of our knowledge. The wavelength of the injection locked output can be tuned with the master laser. A lower power single-frequency VECSEL served as the master oscillator that provides wavelength tunability with frequency selective elements such as a birefringent filter, and/or an etalon. The master laser is mode-matched to the slave VECSEL ring resonator. By varying the injecting power and wavelength of the master VECSEL oscillator, we investigated the locking ability of the laser. With 200 mW of the injection power, we generated above 4 W of stable output in single frequency. With the ability to provide narrow linewidth, good beam quality, and stable output with sufficient power at specific wavelengths, this kind of laser sources can be useful in many laser applications, such as precision spectroscopy.
Hydrogeochemical Effects of Injecting Wastes into a Limestone Aquifer Near Pensacola, Florida”

Acidic industrial wastes have been injected into deep wells in a limestone aquifer near Pensacola, Florida, since 1963. Prior geohydrologic studies in the area had indicated that the limestone aquifer contained nonpotable water and was overlain by an extensive clay confining layer. Two injection wells are presently being used to inject the waste at a rate of approximately 2,000 gallons per minute. The injection pressures are about 200 pounds per square inch. Over 3 billion gallons have been injected. Data from a current study indicate that the waste may extend outward about 1 mile from the injection wells, and pressure effects may extend outward more than 25 miles. Monitor wells show that pressure changes are following a predictable pattern. No wastes have been detected in a monitor well open to the Floridan aquifer immediately above the Bucatunna Clay Member of the Byram Formation and 100 feet from one of the injection wells. A monitor well open to the receiving formation was constructed about 1,300 feet south of the injection wells. Geochemical effects of the wastes were detected at this well about 10 months after injection began. In early 1968, the pH of the waste was lowered to about 3. Effects of this waste, which included a large increase in calcium, were detected at the monitor well about 5 months later.
The P58 Cellular Inhibitor Complexes with the Interferon-induced, Double-stranded RNA-dependent Protein Kinase, PKR, to Regulate Its Autophosphorylation and Activity

The 58-kDa protein, referred to as P58, is a cellular inhibitor of the interferon-induced, double-stranded RNA-activated protein kinase, PKR. The P58 protein inhibits both the autophosphorylation of PKR and the phosphorylation of the PKR natural substrate, the α subunit of eukaryotic initiation factor eIF-2. Sequence analysis revealed that P58 is a member of the tetratricopeptide family of proteins. Utilizing experimental approaches, which included coprecipitation or coselection of native and recombinant wild-type and mutant proteins, we found that P58 can efficiently complex with the PKR protein kinase. Attempts to map the P58 interactive sites revealed a correlation between the ability of P58 to inhibit PKR in vitro and bind to PKR. The DnaJ sequences, present at the carboxyl terminus of P58, were dispensable for binding in vitro, while sequences containing the eIF-2 α similarity region were essential for efficient complex formation. Furthermore, not all tetratricopeptide motifs were necessary for PKR-P58 interactions. Initial experiments to map the binding domains present in PKR showed that P58 complexed with PKR molecules that lacked the first RNA binding domain but did not bind to a PKR mutant containing only the amino terminus. These data, taken together, demonstrate that P58 inhibits PKR through a direct interaction, which is likely independent of the binding of double-stranded RNA to the protein kinase.
Wavelength-tunable optical mixing experiments between 208 nm and 259 nm

Sum-frequency generation experiments in which the second harmonics of rhodamine and coumarin dye lasers are upconverted to the 208-234 nm by mixing with 1064 nm are described. The dye lasers were pumped by the second and third harmonics of a repetitively pulsed Nd:YAG laser. Both temperature-tuned and angle-tuned phase matching techniques were used with mixer crystals of ammonium dihydrogen phosphate (ADP) and potassium dihydrogen phosphate (KDP). Tunable light from 246 nm to 259 nm also was generated by mixing the output of a coumarin laser with the 532-nm harmonic of the Nd:YAG laser. Peak powers between about 500 W and 10 kW were obtained, and both theoretical and experimental tuning curves have been determined for these processes. Limitations imposed by mode beating effects in the Nd:YAG laser and by the relatively broad linewidth of the dye lasers are discussed.
Mobile Interspersed Repeats Are Major Structural Variants in the Human Genome

Characterizing structural variants in the human genome is of great importance, but a genome wide analysis to detect interspersed repeats has not been done. Thus, the degree to which mobile DNAs contribute to genetic diversity, heritable disease, and oncogenesis remains speculative. We perform transposon insertion profiling by microarray (TIP-chip) to map human L1(Ta) retrotransposons (LINE-1 s) genome-wide. This identified numerous novel human L1(Ta) insertional polymorphisms with highly variant allelic frequencies. We also explored TIP-chip's usefulness to identify candidate alleles associated with different phenotypes in clinical cohorts. Our data suggest that the occurrence of new insertions is twice as high as previously estimated, and that these repeats are under-recognized as sources of human genomic and phenotypic diversity. We have just begun to probe the universe of human L1(Ta) polymorphisms, and as TIP-chip is applied to other insertions such as Alu SINEs, it will expand the catalog of genomic variants even further.
What do different visual function questionnaires measure

Purpose: There are dozens of visual function questionnaires (VFQs). VFQs differ in number of items, item content, and response categories. Despite differences, all VFQs are designed to measure vision-related functional ability in visually impaired people. The objective is to determine whether four popular VFQs measure the same variable in visually impaired patients. Methods: Two of four VFQs (ADVS, NEI-VFQ, VF-14, VAQ) plus the SF-36 were administered by telephone to 407 consecutive low vision clinic patients. Thus, each instrument was administered to just over 200 patients, and there were over 67 patients for each of the 6 pairings of VFQs. Separate Rasch analyses were performed on patient responses to each VFQ and to the physical and mental health domains in the SF-36. Results: Person measure estimates from the four VFQs were highly correlated. Person measures estimated from the mental health and physical domains of the SF-36 were uncorrelated with each other and with person measures estimated from the ...
Non‐redundant dislocation density field of a circular bar deformed in torsion and the stress gradient hardening effect

The non-redundant dislocation density Ρ N is larger than the redundant dislocation density Ρ R in part or the plastically deformed region of a circular bar deformed in torsion it it is assumed that stress gradients (and gradients of the rotation pseudo-stress) do not affect the constitutive equation of an elastic plastic solid. 1. Does anomalous hardening seen in small diameter torsion bars arise because the added non-redundant dislocations increase the work hardening in a manner similar to the hardness produced by redundant dislocations? 2. Or does the increased hardening come about because it is physically impossible for the non-redundant dislocation density to ever be greater than the redundant dislocation density and the solid adjusts to this requirement in the affected regions by either increasing the redundant dislocation or by eliminating both redundant and non-redundant dislocations? In this paper an analysis for the torsion plastic deformation gradient effect is presented based on 2
A scalable I/O architecture for wide I/O DRAM

A 4 Gb DRAM architecture utilizing a scalable number of data pins is proposed. The architecture does not impact chip size and does not require additional metal layers. The 4 Gb DRAM measure 68.88 mm2 and achieves an array efficiency of 59.9%. This was accomplished by using a split bank, edge I/O interface, central row, and central column structures. The architecture coincides with the chip size and array efficiency measurements predicted by the ITRS for a 40 nm 2012 production DRAM architecture.
ROLE OF PLANTAR FASCIA IN THE LOAD BEARING CAPACITY OF THE HUMAN FOOT

Plantar fascia release is an accepted and widely used surgical way to reduce heel pain. however its effect of the load bearing characteristics of the foot is not well studied. A simple biomechanical model is developed here to analyze load bearing mechanism of the foot during the stance phase of the gait cycle. Quasilinearization is used for the system identification, and all model's parameters are determined from the in viva tests. The model is used to compare the load bearing mechanism of different pathological situations. The results of the study suggest that the plantar fascia carries as much as 14% of the total load on the foot. Its surgical release decreases dynamic loading on the ankle by only 10%. It is also found that the lowering of the arch degenerates the load bearing capacity of the foot. Thus, the plantar fascia plays an important part in the load bearing by the foot and its surfical release should be carefully considered. Krwwds: Plantar fascia; Model; Gait; Load; Foot
DIOS‐MSEED: A chip‐based method for measurement of enantiomeric excess by kinetic resolution/mass spectrometry

The determination of enantiomeric excess by kinetic resolution mass spectrometry has been implemented with the Desorption/Ionization On Silicon (DIOS) MS technique. Measurements can thereby be made much more rapidly than was previously possible, bringing this general methodology for screening asymmetric catalysts closer to true high-throughput status.
Clinical detection of intellectual deterioration associated with brain damage

Leli and Filskov (1979) reported cross-validated classification accuracy that equalled 83% for a discriminant function derived on two measures of intellectual deterioration. This investigation made a preliminary assessment of the clinical utility of this function through a clinical-actuarial classification paradigm. Wechsler-Bellevue Intelligence Scale Form I protocols from 12 nonpsychotic nonimpaired and 12 cerebrally impaired individuals were used by experienced clinicians and predoctoral interns to identify the presence of intellectual deterioration associated with brain damage through their own clinical experience (Clinical Judgment condition) and, then, in conjunction with the discriminant function (Clinical-Actuarial condition). The classification accuracy from the discriminant function weights (Actuarial condition) and those from clinicians in the Clinical-Actuarial condition were statistically comparable and significantly above chance levels. These results indicate that the clinician who is assessing for the presence of intellectual deterioration associated with brain damage should rely heavily upon a valid actuarial index.