cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Early recurrence of atrial arrhythmias following pulmonary vein antral isolation: Timing and frequency of early recurrences predicts long-term ablation success

Background Early recurrence of atrial arrhythmia (ERAA) is common after atrial fibrillation (AF) ablation and is associated with long-term recurrence. However, the association between timing or frequency of ERAA and long-term ablation success remains unclear. Objective We aimed to examine whether timing or frequency of ERAA after pulmonary vein antral isolation (PVAI) affects long-term ablation success. Methods Three hundred AF patients (100 paroxysmal, 100 persistent, 100 long-standing persistent; mean age 59.5 ± 9.6 years, 79% male) undergoing PVAI were included. All patients underwent 30-day monitoring with mobile continuous outpatient telemetry after PVAI and were followed for >1 year. ERAA was defined as AF or organized atrial tachycardia (OAT) in the first 6 weeks, and was categorized as early (weeks 1–2), intermediate (weeks 3–4), or late (weeks 5–6). Long-term ablation success was defined as the absence of AF/OAT lasting >30 seconds off antiarrhythmic drugs 1 year after a single ablation (excluding first 6 weeks). Results ERAA occurred in 169 patients (53%); of those, 79 (46.7%) had single ERAA and 90 (53.3%) had multiple ERAAs. ERAA occurred less commonly with paroxysmal versus persistent or long-standing persistent AF (46% vs 57% and 66%; P = .017). ERAA was associated with worse ablation success at 1 year (38.1% vs 79.5% [no ERAA]; P Conclusions ERAA after PVAI is associated with decreased long-term ablation success. Patients experiencing multiple ERAA events are at greatest risk for long-term arrhythmia recurrence and represent a subgroup in whom early reablation may be considered.
Spaces of Illiteracy

At age five, in this small town in the very far south of India, I refuse to be made literate. Learning to read and write means learning to read and write in English, that legacy left by the British; and now7 that the time has come for me to go to school, my great-aunt?peppery, fiercely nationalistic?says: "So? The British will leave shortly and we'll be independent. But you? You will still be a slave. You'll learn their language and have them on your tongue forever." So the first day of school I mount my revolution and run away, and they have a rule thereafter that the gates should be kept shut.
Solid state- and magneto-chemistry of the SrO-Fe2O3 system: III. The non-existence of single-phase “SrFe2O4”

Abstract A detailed Mossbauer investigation of 1 : 1 SrO : Fe 2 O 3 has shown that a single phase with the SrFe 2 O 4 composition does not exist in the SrO-Fe 2 O 3 system when SrCo 3 and Fe 2 O 3 are reacted in air. A multiphase assemblage of SrFe 12 O 19 , Sr 4 Fe 6 O 13 , and SrFeO 3- x is observed in the material with an overall composition of “SrFe 2 O 4 ”. By means of novel analyses of the complex Mossbauer spectra of the 1 : 1 SrO : Fe 2 O 3 composition, all of the Fe containing phases have been identified and their respective mole percentages determined. The relative amounts of the phases present depend on the final firing temperature. The published X-ray powder data for “SrFe 2 O 4 ” can be interpreted satisfactorilly in terms of the Mossbauer results, i.e., as a multiphase assemblage, and corresponds to a low temperature assemblage of SrFe 12 O 19 , Sr 4 Fe 6 O 13 and SrFeO 3- x for the overall composition of “SrFe 2 O 4 ”.
Spatial population genetic structure and limited dispersal in a Rocky Mountain alpine stream insect

Using the mitochondrial cytochrome oxidase I (COI) gene, we assessed the phylogeographic structure of Prosimulium neomacropyga , a black fly (Simuliidae) whose distribution in the US Southern Rockies ecoregion is limited to alpine tundra streams. Given high habitat specificity, lack of hydrological connection between streams, and a terrestrial environment restrictive to insect flight, we hypothesized limited gene flow. A spatially nested sampling design showed that grouping populations according to high-elevation ‘islands’ of alpine tundra (which typically include headwater streams of > 1 watershed) explained a significant proportion of genetic variation while grouping streams according to major watershed (across islands) did not. Nested clade analysis and isolation-by-distance (IBD) relationships further implicated limited ongoing gene flow within but not among the isolated alpine islands. IBD was strong among five streams within an individual island using each of four alternative models of pairwise landscape connectivity for flying insects. Results of all landscape models were positively correlated, suggesting that straight-line distance is an acceptable surrogate for presumably more biologically meaningful connectivity measures in this system. IBD was significantly weaker across the entire study area, comprised of three separate islands. Overall, population structure was significant with F ST = 0.38, suggesting limited dispersal across a small spatial extent.
The War on Terror and Ontopolitics: Concerns with Foucault’s Account of Race, Power Sovereignty

In this article, I explore several of Foucault’s claims in relation to race, biopolitics, and power in order to illuminate some concerns in the wake of the post-9.11.01 political regime of population management. First, what is the relationship between sovereignty and power? Foucault’s writings on the relation between sovereignty and power seem to differ across his writings, such that it is not clear whether he had definitively circumscribed the role of sovereignty in relation to “power.” Second, while central sovereign authority, at least in ”Society Must Be Defended” has been displaced by Foucault’s analysis of power, the question still remains as to what drives or instantiates the exercise of power. I lay out an account of what I will call “ontopolitics,” as one that foregrounds the role of sovereign authority in ascribing racial divisions. Moreover, these divisions are driven by cultural, social, and moral criteria that complement—or circumscribe—biopolitics—and are inscribed at the level of the ontological, or onto-ethical.
Performance Analysis of Fault Tolerant TTCAN System

Continuous demand for fuel efficiency mandate “Driveby-Wire” systems. The goal of Drive-by-Wire is to replace nearly every automotive hydraulic/mechanical system with electronics. Drive-by-Wire and active collision avoidance systems need fault tolerant networks with time triggered protocols, to guarantee deterministic latencies. CAN is an event triggered protocol which has features like high bandwidth, error detection, fault confinement and collision avoidance based on message priority. However, CAN do not ensure message latency, which is critical for real time application. TTCAN (Time Triggered CAN) removes this fallacy of CAN by providing exclusive time windows for those messages that need deterministic latencies. In addition to the exclusive windows, there are arbitration windows too, which make way for event triggered communications. In TTCAN, if an error occurs within an exclusive or arbitration window, retransmission of the message is not allowed. If the message that encountered the error is a safety critical message, then the transmission error can compromise the safety of the vehicles. In this paper, we propose a fault tolerant TTCAN system that uses a secondary bus to tolerate faults on the primary bus. To keep the cost down, we can use the same secondary bus to connect various partitions in the in-vehicle network. Each partition of the network takes care of a particular type of functionality of the vehicle. Thus the same secondary bus can tolerate faults on the primary busses of various partitions. The paper will show analysis done on a realistic TTCAN system. Our results show that even using a low bandwidth secondary bus, the performance of a Drive-by-Wire system can be significantly improved under various types of transmission errors on the primary busses.
A PCR method for the quantitative assessment of mRNA for laminin A, B1, and B2 chains

A PCR method for the quantitative assessment of mRNA for laminin A, B1, and B2 chains. Laminin, a basement membrane glycoprotein, is involved in the development of normal kidney and its dysregulation contributes to glomerulosclerosis in renal disease. Studies designed to assess the regulation of this molecule at the level of transcription have been hindered by the relatively low abundance of the mRNA, making standard techniques such as Northern hybridization and RNase protection difficult and inaccurate. In this report, we have utilized the polymerase chain reaction (PCR) to quantitate differences in laminin mRNA expression during normal development of the mouse kidney. We have constructed a synthetic template to be used as an internal standard for mRNA quantitation of laminin chains A, B1 and B2, and β-actin. This DNA template can be used to generate complementary RNA which can be reverse transcribed and amplified simultaneously with 0.5 µg of total cellular mRNA allowing for accurate and absolute quantitation of laminin mRNA by PCR.
Physician Use of Advance Care Planning Discussions in a Diverse Hospitalized Population

Two decades after the Patient Self Determination Act it is unknown how often physicians have advance care planning (ACP) discussions with hospitalized patients. The objective of this study is to investigate use of ACP discussions in a multi-ethnic, multi-lingual hospitalized population. Cross-sectional communication study of hospitalized patients. The Participants are 369 patients at one urban county hospital and one academic medical center. Interventions are not applicable. Participants were asked at baseline and a post-discharge interview whether hospital physicians had discussed either (a) what type of treatment they would want if they could not make decisions for themselves or (b) whether they would want cardiopulmonary resuscitation if needed. We compared patient characteristics for those who did and did not have an ACP discussion. Only 151 (41%) participants reported an ACP discussion. Rates of ACP were low across ethnic, language, education and age groups. In a multivariate model, scoring higher on a co-morbidity scale was associated with higher odds of reporting having had an ACP discussion during hospitalization; this finding remained after adjusting for time period and site of data collection. Multiethnic, multi-lingual hospitalized patients reported low rates of ACP discussions with their physicians regardless of ethnicity, English proficiency, education level or age.
Interface vacancy relocation model for annealing effect on exchange coupling between ferro-antiferromagnetic layers in NiFe/FeMn polycrystalline layer system

Abstract Annealing effect was inverstigated by using a sandwich NiFe/FeMn/NiFe sample. The sample was annealed at 70°C up to 90 h. It was found that both the coercivity and the exchange bias field of the two NiFe layers were increased with increasing the annealing time. An interface vacancy relocation mechanism is proposed to explain the experimental data. The proposed mechanism also explains the existence of the exchange bias field of a sample deposited at room temperature without field cooling as well as other related phenomena. The activation energy of about 1 eV obtained from the annealing time dependence of the switching field for both top and bottom NiFe layers suggests a mechanism in which a single activation process dominates, which is consistent with the new model.
What Do Students Think Scientists Look Like

The purpose of this study was to determine if there was a gender difference in the way nine to 12-year-old students drew scientists before and after their teachers implemented intervention strategies. Rubrics were used to analyze for stereotypic characteristics such as sex of the scientist and the presence of eye glasses, a lab coat, funny hair, a weird smile, wild eyes, facial hair, robotic features, and facial scars. Results indicated that boys held more stereotypic views on pretest drawings than did girls and also demonstrated the most improvement to less stereotypic views as a result of intervention.
Optical data storage potential of six materials.

Measurements of writing sensitivity and theoretical projections of readout signal-to-noise ratio achievable for several magnetooptical materials and an amorphous semiconductor material are used to assess their storage density and data rate potential in a discrete bit recording system. Dynamic read/write experiments utilizing infrared GaAs lasers presently indicate a density limit of 107 bits/cm2 on MnAlGe and MnGaGe due to grain noise and on GdCo due to domain stability. Wavelength limited resolution appears obtainable on MnBi and TeGeAs although reversibility limitations exist. PtCo seems capable of exceeding 108 bits/cm2 at data rates of 50 M bits/sec.
A structured approach for developing a campus-wide network

Developing a campus wide network that addresses the needs of a relatively disjoint population as well as the needs of small individual groups requires planning and research. A technique based on the software engineering paradigm can be applied to the network planning and implementation. Network planning starts with the development of specifications which describes the users' needs. From this information a phase development of the network design and implementation is created along with a series of criteria to evaluate each phase. This paper addresses the planning and implementation of a campus wide network in a small university with limited networking experience.Developing an understanding of the users' needs requires an understanding of the user. In most school settings the population can be divided into five groups: students, faculty, administration, non-technical staff, and computer service staff. Each of these groups have specific computing requirements that must be addressed by the network, and this requires an analysis of the computing needs prior to the establishment of the network services.A profile of each users group is developed. The information included in a profiles is determined by the environment that network will service. The profile ascertains by group the type of resources needed, the level of security needed, the overall size of the population, and the number of highly active users, moderately active users, and minimally active users. In some instances the investigation requires the consideration of other factors in forming the profile. For example in the faculty and student populations such things as major and department need to be considered. Much of the information contained is dependent upon the groups current level of computing, the profile can not stop at this point but must try to include the types of resources and activities a group will use given the ease of access via the network. A very important point to remember is the network will put resources at people's finger tips that prior to this time were inaccessible. Departments that have never used the main frame may now be interested in taking advantage of the network access. Finally the profiles need to include the hardware resources that currently exist. It is unreasonable to think that all the equipment will be replaced to produce a nice homogenous network.
Incarcerated women: Consequences and contributions of victimization and intervention

The increasing rate of imprisonment of women in the United States and the over‐representation of women victims of violence in the corrections system confirms that there are long‐term, often substantially debilitating consequences to women victims of intimate partner violence, sexual violence and youth maltreatment and injury, including incarceration. As part of a study funded by the National Institute of Justice, the authors pursued an exploration of the personal risks, resiliencies and life opportunities that make a difference in the lives of women who have ended up incarcerated. The findings of this study about the prevalence and consequences of youth maltreatment and adult victimization and the mitigating factors, which may have had an impact on the life trajectories of adult incarcerated women will be reviewed. Recommendations will be given for preventive and interventive policy and practice measures that stand to reduce the negative consequences of victimization, particularly those that can prevent i...
Neonatal Maternal Deprivation Response and Developmental Changes in Gene Expression Revealed by Hypothalamic Gene Expression Profiling in Mice

Neonatal feeding problems are observed in several genetic diseases including Prader-Willi syndrome (PWS). Later in life, individuals with PWS develop hyperphagia and obesity due to lack of appetite control. We hypothesized that failure to thrive in infancy and later-onset hyperphagia are related and could be due to a defect in the hypothalamus. In this study, we performed gene expression microarray analysis of the hypothalamic response to maternal deprivation in neonatal wild-type and Snord116del mice, a mouse model for PWS in which a cluster of imprinted C/D box snoRNAs is deleted. The neonatal starvation response in both strains was dramatically different from that reported in adult rodents. Genes that are affected by adult starvation showed no expression change in the hypothalamus of 5 day-old pups after 6 hours of maternal deprivation. Unlike in adult rodents, expression levels of Nanos2 and Pdk4 were increased, and those of Pgpep1, Ndp, Brms1l, Mett10d, and Snx1 were decreased after neonatal deprivation. In addition, we compared hypothalamic gene expression profiles at postnatal days 5 and 13 and observed significant developmental changes. Notably, the gene expression profiles of Snord116del deletion mice and wild-type littermates were very similar at all time points and conditions, arguing against a role of Snord116 in feeding regulation in the neonatal period.
Translocation efficiency of apolipoprotein B is determined by the presence of β-sheet domains, not pause transfer sequences

Cotranslational translocation of apoB100 across the endoplasmic reticulum (ER) membrane is inefficient, resulting in exposure of nascent apoB on the cytosolic surface of the ER. This predisposes apoB100 to ubiquitinylation and targeting for proteasomal degradation. It has been suggested that pause transfer sequences (PTS) present throughout apoB cause inefficient translocation. On the other hand, our previous study demonstrated that the translocation efficiency of apoB100 is dependent on the presence of a β-sheet domain between 29 and 34% of full-length apoB100 (Liang, J.-S., Wu, X., Jiang, H., Zhou, M., Yang, H., Angkeow, P., Huang, L.-S., Sturley, S. L., and Ginsberg, H. N. (1998) J. Biol. Chem. 273, 35216–35221); this region of apoB has no PTS. However, the effects of the β-sheet domain may require the presence of PTS elsewhere in the N-terminal region of apoB100. To further investigate the roles of PTS and β-sheet domains in the translocation of apoB100 across the ER, we transfected McArdle RH7777, HepG2, or Chinese hamster ovary cells with human albumin (ALB)/human apoB chimeric cDNA constructs: ALB/B12–17 (two PTS but no β-sheet), ALB/B29–34 (β-sheet but no PTS), ALB/B36–41 (two PTS and a β-sheet), and ALB/B49–54 (neither PTS nor a β-sheet). ALB/ALB1–40 served as a control. Compared with ALB/ALB1–40, secretion rates of ALB/B12–17, ALB/B29–34, and ALB/B36–41 were reduced. Secretion of ALB/B49–54 was similar to that of ALB/ALB1–40. However, only ALB/B29–34 and ALB/B36–41 had increased proteinase K sensitivity, ubiquitinylation, and increased physical interaction with Sec61α. These results indicate that the translocation efficiency of apoB100 is determined mainly by the presence of β-sheet domains. PTS do not appear to affect translocation, but may affect secretion by other mechanisms.
Nonlinear Heterogeneous Model of Composite Solid-Propellant Combustion

A computational model of composite solid-propellant combustion that combines three important properties is described. First, the model is heterogeneous, in that it incorporates a multilevel flame structure similar to the Beckstead-Derr-Price proposition. Second, it is nonsteady, and its main purpose is to predict pressure-coupled frequency response. Third, it is fully nonlinear, where thermal capacitance calculations come from a computational solution of the transient heat-conduction equation separately in the oxidizer and binder. Calculations show a frequency response that varies significantly with oxidizer particle diameter and mean pressure. Some observed trends are that the magnitude of the real part of Rp tends to diminish with higher mean pressures and that propellants with very coarse oxidizer particles tend to develop two peaks, one for the oxidizer and one for the binder.
A Perfectly-Stirred-Reaction Description of Chemistry in Turbulent Nonpremixed Combustion of Methane in Air

Explanation of the observed peak CO concentration in turbulent nonpremixed jet combustion of methane in air
Overcoming the temperature increase hurdle in photonic crystal molecular tweezers

We study the thermal effects on flow and transport of species near 1550nm silicon photonic crystal nano-tweezers. With a silicon nitride based 1064nm alternative we reduce heating to 0.3K temperature increase and demonstrate molecular tweezing.
Discriminating Supersymmetry and Black Holes at the CERN Large Hadron Collider

We show how to differentiate the minimal supersymmetric extension of the standard model from black hole events at the CERN Large Hadron Collider. Black holes are simulated with the CATFISH generator. Supersymmetry simulations use a combination of pythia and isajet. Our study, based on event-shape variables, visible and missing momenta, and analysis of dilepton events, demonstrates that supersymmetry and black hole events at the LHC can be easily discriminated.
Crystals of X29, a Xenopus laevis U8 snoRNA-binding protein with nuclear decapping activity.

Eukaryotic ribosome biosynthesis requires modification (methylation, pseudouridylation) and nucleolytic processing of precursor ribosomal RNAs in the nucleolus. The RNA components of the small nucleolar RNPs (snoRNAs) are essential for many of these events. One snoRNP, called U8, is necessary for maturation of 5.8S and 28S rRNA in vertebrates. In Xenopus laevis, U8 snoRNA was found to bind specifically and with high affinity to a protein called X29. X29 is a Nudix hydrolase, a nucleotide diphosphatase that removes the m7G and m227G caps from U8 and other RNAs. X29 requires an RNA as substrate and cap analogues are not substrates or inhibitors of cleavage. To study the determinants of X29 activity and its specificity for U8 RNA substrate, X29 was crystallized in an orthorhombic crystal form that diffracts to 2.1 A resolution.
Polyelectrolyte Multilayer Stamping in Aqueous Phase and Non-Contact Mode

Polyelectrolyte multilayer (PEM) transfer printing has been previously achieved by stamping under dry conditions. Here, we show for the first time that PEM can be transferred from a stamp to the base substrate under aqueous conditions whereby the two surfaces are in a noncontact mode. Degradable multilayers of (PAA/PEG)10.5 followed by nondegradable multilayers of (PDAC/SPS)80.5 were fabricated under acidic pH conditions on either PDMS or glass (stamp), and subsequently transferred over top of another multilayer prepared on a different substrate (base substrate), with a spacing of ∼200 μm between the stamping surface and the base substrate. This multilayer transfer was performed under physiological pH conditions. This process is referred to herein as noncontact, aqueous-phase multilayer (NAM) transfer. NAM transfer can be useful for applications such as fabricating three-dimensional (3-D) cellular scaffolds. We attempted to create a 3-D cellular scaffold using NAM transfer, and characterized the scaffolds...
Resilient design in scaled CMOS for energy efficiency

Traditional processors are designed to guarantee error-free operation under worst-case (1) device & interconnect parameter variations resulting from less than ideal manufacturing process control; (2) static & erratic defects; (3) operating environments such as temperature excursions and voltage droops; (4) critical path activation and path delay degradations due to multiple inputs switching simultaneously in gates containing transistor stacks, or signal coupling from neighboring lines in interconnect paths; (5) speed degradation over the operating lifetime due to transistor aging under voltage, temperature & current stress; (6) early-life failures due to latent defect accelerations; and (7) soft error due to cosmic rays and alpha particle impacts. The voltage-frequency settings for all processors are set based on these infrequently encountered worst-case considerations, even though under typical conditions voltage can be pushed down further or frequency increased without causing errors for most of the processors, thus limiting both energy efficiency and performance in scaled CMOS technologies.
Studies of hydride formation and superconductivity in hydrides of alloys Th-M (M = La, Y, Ce, Zr and Bi)

In order to gain a better insight into both the unusual composition of ThH15 and its superconductivity, an experimental study was conducted to assess the influence of partial replacement of Th in Th4H15 by elements which allow for a systematic alteration of spatial and electronic effects. For this purpose, substituent elements with the same number of valence electrons (4) but of smaller size (Zr) as well as elements with a smaller number of valence electrons (3) and either larger (La) or smaller size (Y) were selected. A few data with Ce and Bi as substituent atoms are also included. The matrix alloys for hydriding were obtained by induction melting under Ar in water-cooled Cu boats. Superconducting transition temperatures are found to decrease on substitution for Th in Th4H15. Hydrides derived from LaH3 by substitution for La by Th do not become superconducting. It is suggested that superconductivity in Th4H15 is connected with a deviation from the exact stoichiometry of Th4H15. A model of unsatisfied valencies may be of more general validity in predicting superconductivity.
Studies on glutathione S-transferase in Helicoverpa (=Heliothis) zea

Abstract The amount of glutathione S-transferase activity present in various stages of development and in various tissues of an insecticide susceptible strain of Helicoverpa zea was determined. GSH S-transferase activity toward CDNB (1-chloro-2,4-dinitrobenzene) was detected in the egg, and increased throughout the larval stages and was the highest in the 2 day old fifth instar larvae. GSH S-transferase activity toward DCNB (1,2-dichloro-4-nitrobenzene) could only be detected in the 2 day old fourth instar larvae, and the 2 day old fifth instar larvae. Enzyme activity using CDNB and DCNB as substrates was found in different tissues of the 2 day old fifth instar larvae, i.e. fat body, gut and cuticle. The fat body contained the highest enzyme activity for both substrates. The K m values for CDNB conjugation in different stages of larval development and in the different tissues of the 2 day old fifth instar larvae, was approx. 0.24 mM. The enzyme responsible for CDNB-conjugation was purified 48 fold by GSH-agarose affinity chromatography. SDS gel electrophoresis and chromatofocusing resolved only one isozyme which is a homodimer, consisting of two equal size subunits having 23,900 mol. wt, with a pI value of 8.0.
An Infrared Spectroscopic and Temperature-Programmed Desorption Study of 1,1-Difluoroethylene on Clean and Hydrogen-Covered Pd(111)

The surface chemistry of 1,1-difluoroethylene was studied on clean and hydrogen-covered Pd(111) using a combination of temperatureprogrammed desorption and reflection absorption infrared spectroscopy (RAIRS) to explore whether the larger infrared absorbance of 1,1-difluoroethylene than ethylene may be used to examine reactions under realistic catalytic conditions using RAIRS. It was found that the chemistry of 1,1-difluoroethylene on Pd(111) with bonding occurring in both the π- and di-σ-forms. However, due to the presence of C-F bonds in the molecule, the infrared absorbances for 1,1-difluoroethylene were much larger than those for ethylene. This provides the potential for using RAIRS for in situ studies of catalytic reactions that involve alkenes.
The adaptive advantage of prolonged mating: a test of alternative hypotheses

When a female can mate with more than one male, males are thought to reduce intrasexual competition by prolonging mating, that is, mating longer than necessary for sperm release. Two principal hypotheses have been proposed to explain the advantage of prolonged mating. The extended mate guarding hypothesis suggests that with longer mating, the female is less likely to be inseminated by another male. The ejaculate transfer hypothesis suggests that with longer mating, more of the male's sperm are stored. To our knowledge, this is the first study to test these alternatives simultaneously by manipulating duration of mating and examining effects on sperm release, storage and female polyandry. We found support for the mate guarding hypothesis in the golden orb-weaving spider Nephila clavipes; the longer the mating with the first male, the lower the likelihood of the female copulating with another male. This was not due to influence on female receptivity but on the ability of subsequent males to couple. Inconsistent with the ejaculate transfer hypothesis was the observation that duration of mating with the first male did not linearly correlate with release or storage of its sperm. We suggest that prolonged mating does not result in sexual conflict in this species.
Algebraic description of bounded real matrixes

A description is given in algebraic terms of the constraints imposed on a square matrix of rational functions when the matrix is bounded real.
Triangulation in Qualitative Research: Evaluation of Completeness and Confirmation Purposes

The term triangulation has been applied to research strategies intended to serve two distinct purposes, confirmation and completeness. Many researchers who claim to have used a triangulated approach fail to provide evidence to show that their approach contributed to either confirmation or completeness of the data set. This paper reviews these distinct purposes and describes how triangulation of qualitative and quantitative methods was built into a study to achieve them. Analysis of data related to a single construct illustrates how data generated by qualitative and quantitative methods can provide both convergent validity and a broader understanding of one's subject matter.
Instantaneous reliability assessment of motion features in surveillance videos

Although a tremendous effort has been made to perform a reliable analysis of images and videos in the past fifty years, the reality is that one cannot rely 100% on the analysis results. The only exception is applications in controlled environments as dealt in machine vision, where closed world assumptions apply. However, in general, one has to deal with an open world, which means that content of images may significantly change, and it seems impossible to predict all possible changes. For example, in the context of surveillance videos, the light conditions may suddenly fluctuate in parts of images only, video compression or transmission artifacts may occur, a wind may cause a stationary camera to tremble, and so on. The problem is that video analysis has to be performed in order to detect content changes, but such analysis may be unreliable due to the changes, and thus fail to detect the changes and lead to "vicious cycle". The solution pursuit in this paper is to monitor the reliability of the computed features by analyzing their general properties. We consider statistical properties of feature value distributions as well as temporal properties. Our main strategy is to estimate the feature properties when the features are reliable computed, so that any set of features that does not have these properties is detected as being unreliable. This way we do not perform any direct content analysis, but instead perform analysis of feature properties related to their reliability.© (2005) COPYRIGHT SPIE--The International Society for Optical Engineering. Downloading of the abstract is permitted for personal use only.
Fast nonrigid image registration using statistical deformation models learned from richly-annotated data

Nonrigid image registrations require a large number of degrees of freedom (DoFs) to capture intersubject anatomical variations. With such high DoFs and lack of anatomical correspondences, algorithms may not converge to the globally optimal solution. In this work, we propose a fast, two-step nonrigid registration procedure with low DoFs to accurately register brain images. Our method makes use of a statistical deformation model based upon a principal component analysis of deformations learned from a manually-segmented dataset to perform an initial registration. We then follow with a low DoF nonrigid transformation to complete the registration. Our results show the same registration accuracy in terms of volume of interest overlap as high DoF transformations, but with a 96% reduction in DoF and 98% decrease in computation time.
Age-specific effects of juvenile rheumatoid arthritis-associated HLA alleles.

Objective To define the onset and duration of effect of the HLA alleles that are associated with disease susceptibility and protection in juvenile rheumatoid arthritis (JRA) and 2 of its subtypes. Methods We typed 680 patients with JRA and 254 ethnically matched unrelated controls for HLA class I and II genes. The frequency of each allele was calculated for each of the age-at-onset, onset type, and sex categories and plotted against the allele frequency in the control population. Survival analysis (with onset of disease as the terminating event) was used to calculate the age by which 50% (St0.5) and 80% (St0.2) of the children with particular alleles and combinations of alleles develop disease. This allele-specific survival analysis also allowed for the comparison of the overall survival functions for the various JRA subtype and sex categories. Results Certain alleles are strongly associated with early susceptibility to pauciarticular JRA, including HLA–A2, DR8, DR5, and DPB1*0201. Fifty percent of the children carrying at least 1 of these alleles had disease onset prior to their third birthday. Among children who carried HLA–A2 and any 2 HLA–DR alleles (DR3, DR5, DR6, or DR8), the median age at the onset of pauciarticular disease was 2.7 years. Combinations of A2 and DPB1*0201 and one DR allele narrowed the window further to a median age at onset of 2.4 years. B27 and DR4 were associated with protection early in life but with increased risk later in childhood, with St0.5 values of 7.3 and 6.6 years, respectively, for pauciarticular JRA and St0.5 values of 10.2 and 10.7 years, respectively, for polyarticular JRA. Sex strongly influenced the age at which many of the alleles have their effect. Conclusion These data define at what age and for how long various HLA alleles influence susceptibility and protection (window-of-effect) in patients with JRA. In addition, these data establish more clearly the boundaries of ages-at-onset for 2 of the subtypes of the disease.
Seldinger Brush Biopsy: A Synthesis of Techniques

Transcricoid bronchial brush biopsies, using the Seldinger technique, have been performed in over 36 patients to date, with no significant complications. The method is simple to do and learn, is readily accepted and easily tolerated by patients, and it appears to be safe. The method is described in detail.
Magnetic Alignment of Fluorescent Nanowires

Nickel nanowires prepared by electrochemical growth in alumina templates have been removed from their templates and functionalized with luminescent porphyrins. The nanowires response to magnetic fields was quantified using video microscopy. In viscous solvents, magnetic fields can be used to orient the nanowires; in mobile solvents, the nanowires form chains in a head-to-tail configuration when a small magnetic field is applied. The dynamics for chain formation have been quantitatively modeled. The results demonstrate a new approach for assembling nanowires.
Physical Activity Interventions Among Older Adults: A Literature Review

Physical activity (PA) is important in the management of chronic illness among older adults worldwide. Researchers have conducted several intervention studies to increase PA behavior in this population. This review of the past 12 years of relevant PA intervention research among adults age 60 and older systematically summarized research findings, identified characteristics of successful interventions, and proposed areas of future research. Twenty studies were reviewed for this paper, most employing a combination cognitive-behavioral intervention design. Cognitive-based only and combination interventions were more successful in changing PA behavior; however, behavioral-based interventions demonstrated more long-term changes in PA behavior. Among theory-based interventions, self-efficacy was the most commonly operationalized construct. Findings from this review may inform future primary research to promote PA behavior among older adults, as well as gerontological clinical practice.
Habits and Distribution of Larval Lobsters (Homarus americanus)

In three weeks' towing off Pictou, 319 first stage, 10 second, 2 third and 2 fourth stage lobster larvae were obtained. In the daytime at least, lobster larvae are largely concentrated at the surface and many thousands of crab larvae are captured with each lobster larva. Larvae are driven many kilometres offshore or onshore by the wind. First stage larvae were red in the daytime and blue at night in shallow water, and green in the daytime at the surface in deep water. All second, third and fourth stage larvae obtained were green.
The peripherality of reductionism in the development of molecular biology.

I have not attempted to provide here an analysis of the methodology of molecular biology or molecular genetics which would demonstrate at what specific points a more reductionist aim would make sense as a research strategy. This, I believe, would require a much deeper analysis of scientific growth than philosophy of science has been able to provide thus far. What I have tried to show is that a straightforward reductionist strategy cannot be said to be follwed in important cases of theory development in molecular biology, and that in at least one important case, the Jacob-Monod operon theory, the methodology followed was more biological than chemical. It should be noted in closing, however, that since biological systems are thought by molecular biologists to be nothing but chemical systems, in the long run detailed investigations of such systems will be in full accord with the dictates suggested by the general reduction model.
Inadvertent brainstem anesthesia following extraoral trigeminal V2-V3 blocks.

Abstract Inadvertent intrathecal injection of 5 c.c. of 0.25 percent bupivacaine hydrochloride produced brainstem anesthesia with central respiratory arrest during extraoral trigeminal V 2 –V 3 diagnostic blocks for trigeminal neuralgia. Prompt recognition and proper management reversed a life-threatening situation.
Facultative sex ratios and population dynamics.

THE theory of R. A. Fisher1 for the effect of natural selection on the sex ratio predicts the population to be in evolutionary equilibrium when half of the parental reproductive resources are devoted to sons, and half to daughters. Provided that sons and daughters are of equal cost, this implies a sex ratio of ½ males at or near conception, and the result is independent of differential male and female survival after the period of parental care2–5. Most models demonstrating these results assume discrete generations, but some show that they also follow with overlapping generations6–8. These latter models typically assume the population to be in stable age distribution. Here, we relax that assumption, and show that selection can favour genes which result in the temporary overproduction of one or the other sex, under certain general conditions. The conditions are; overlap in generations; different temporal changes in life history expectations for the two sexes; parental ability to vary the sex ratio in response to the life history changes. The results are of interest because stable age distributions are probably uncommon in nature, with fluctuations in survival more the norm.
Development of the potash fertilizer industry

Potassium (K) salts were first mined commercially in Germany in 1861 after Liebig's doctrine of mineral nutrition had demonstrated the need for K as a valuable fertilizer nutrient. Use of potash as a crop fertilizer was slow to develop, however. For example, only about 90000 short tons of K2O yr−1 were being used in US agricultural production by 1900. When the US became involved in World War I and its supply of potash was cut off, the price jumped from $50 to $500 ton−1. This triggered an intensive search for North American potash. In the following decades, the industry was developed in the US, Soviet Union, Canada and several other countries. In 1935 the American Potash Institute was formed to develop the agricultural market for potash. Today the Potash & Phosphate Institute continues with market development programs worldwide.
Anhysteretic remanent magnetic anisotropy and calcite strains in Devonian carbonates from the Appalachian Plateau, New York

Jackson, M., Craddock, J.P., Ballard, M., Van der Voo, R. and McCabe, C., 1989. Anhysteretic remanent magnetic anisotropy and calcite strains in Devonian carbonates from the Appalachian Plateau, New York. Tectonophysrcs. 161: 43-53. Anisotropy of anhysteretic susceptibility (AAS) is a recently developed high-resolution method of measuring the magnetic fabric of rocks. In order to test the applicability and limitations of AAS for estimation of strain orientations in weakly-deformed and weakly magnetic rocks, we have used the method to examine the magnetic fabric of samples from a series of sites in limestones of the Helderberg and Onondaga formations along a 500-km E-W transect across New York State. Two distinct shortening directions have been previously identified and interpreted in terms of two separate phases of Alleghenian deformation. Over most of the transect, minimum anhysteretic susceptibility axes within the plane of bedding closely parallel the compression direction of the earlier (“Lackawanna”) phase. A few sites show minimum anhysteretic susceptibility parallel to the later (“Main”) phase. The threshold for resolution of the tectonic signal by AAS is at anhysteretic susceptibilities of about 2 X lo-’ (SI) and strain magnitudes of 0.5 to 1% as recorded by twinning in calcite. The central part of the transect exhibits minimum horizontal anhysteretic susceptibility perpendicular to the inferred tectonic compression, rather than parallel to it. We attribute this to either: (a) anisotropic transmission of stresses from the larger calcite matrix grains to the smaller magnetite grains during twinning; or (b) preferential recording of a late-stage non-coaxial stress direction in this area by late diagenetic magnetite.
Per-cluster-prediction based sparse channel estimation for multicarrier underwater acoustic communications

In this paper, we present a sparse channel estimator for zero-padded orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (ZP-OFDM) modulation in clustered sparse underwater acoustic (UWA) channels. The proposed channel estimator consists of two stages. In the first stage, channel prediction from the previous block to the current block is carried out to generate artificial measurements on OFDM subcarriers. One key innovation is to allow different clusters of channel paths to vary differently across the blocks, where the delay, amplitude and phase variations of the clusters are determined based on the channel estimate of the previous block and the measurements on pilot subcarriers of the current block. In the second stage, a sparse channel estimation is performed based on both the artificially generated measurements and the real measurements of the current block, accounting for their different reliabilities. Experimental results demonstrate that the proposed channel estimator considerably outperforms the conventional channel estimator without cluster-based adaptation.
VIP-mediated increase in cAMP prevents tetrodotoxin-induced retinal ganglion cell death in vitro

Abstract Afferent influences on natural cell death were modeled in retinal cultures derived from neonatal rats. Tetrodotoxin (TTX) blockade of electrical activity produced a significant reduction in surviving retinal ganglion cell (RGC) neurons during a critical period of development, similar in magnitude to the reduction observed during natural cell death in the intact retina at a similar developmental stage. The addition of vasoactive intestinal peptide (VIP) protected the RGCs from the lethal action of TTX. This effect was specific, since the related peptides PHI-27 and secretin produced no significant increase in RGC survival. Radioimmunoassay of cyclic nucleotides showed that TTX decreased culture levels of cAMP and that this trend was reversed by VIP Decreases in RGC survival associated with TTX electrical blockade were prevented by 8-bromo:cAMP or forskolin. Furthermore, VIP 10–28 , the C-terminal fragment that inhibits VIP stimulation of adenylate cyclase, reduced the number of surviving RGCs. Thus, our results suggest that VIP, acting by increasing cAMP, has a neurotrophic effect on electrically blocked RGCs and may be an endogenous factor modulating normal cell death in the retina.
Language skills and school achievement of bilingual Hispanics

Abstract This paper investigates the interrelationships between linguistic skills, ability, and school achievement of bilingual Hispanics using the first wave 1980 of the High School and Beyond survey. The measurement model reveals that self-reported proficiency in English and Spanish is partly a measure of general ability, and that the negative correlations between English proficiency and Spanish language background is small for these seniors, suggesting little cost to bilingualism. English proficiency has little effect on school achievement, while Hispanicity has positive effects on GPA and educational expectations. Sociolinguistic and educational implications of these results and others are discussed. Particular attention is paid to the potential effects on results of systematic sample selection due to high Hispanic dropout rates.
Late Miocene Atmospheric CO2 Concentrations and the Expansion of C4 Grasses

The global expansion of C4 grasslands in the late Miocene has been attributed to a large-scale decrease in atmospheric carbon dioxide (CO2) concentrations. This triggering mechanism is controversial, in part because of a lack of direct evidence for change in the partial pressure of CO2(pCO2) and because other factors are also important determinants in controlling plant-type distributions. Alkenone-based pCO2 estimates for the late Miocene indicate that pCO2 increased from 14 to 9 million years ago and stabilized at preindustrial values by 9 million years ago. The estimates presented here provide no evidence for major changes in pCO2 during the late Miocene. Thus, C4 plant expansion was likely driven by additional factors, possibly a tectonically related episode of enhanced low-latitude aridity or changes in seasonal precipitation patterns on a global scale (or both).