cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
The Changes in Team Cognition and Cognitive Artifact Use During Agile Software Development Project Management

This study examines changing team cognition and cognitive artifact use as agile software development iterations progress to better understand team member interactions. The four case studies conduct...
Two Novels by Arno Schmidt

The fictions of Arno Schmidt (1914-1979) emit a unique and positively star tling energy. Repulsively neurotic and grandly humane, eUtist and self-con sciously vulgar, formaUy conservative and a mold-smasher, Schmidt leaves his reader with the image of a governed mania, a kind of agonized self-control, that may finaUy be as flagrantly anachronistic as it is "modern." As the cen tury that announced the death of the subject, the author, the novel and the book draws to a close, Schmidt's particular indifference to the ph?osophical and critical shifts signaUed by those deaths takes on an air of paradox. First, because as an "inteUectual," in the best sense ofthat term, Schmidt was more than equipped to respond to such signallings and the world-historical contexts from which they issued; instead, autodidactic and hostile to the academy, he became a one-man Uterary-critical industry, composing impassioned and iso lationist manifestoes in defense of his own works. Second, because on a first reading his texts display aU the famiUar hallmarks (disjunction, interiority, linguistic "play," pastiche, parody, etc., etc.) of both modernist and postmodernist works of fiction; and because they do so with such inventive extremity as would be difficult to surpass on the printed page. But Schmidt was a German who had served the Wehrmacht, and his vocif erous postwar contempt for Nazism has not prevented Freudian-minded crit ics from locating a general strategy of denial at the root of Schmidt's resis tance to the currents of European thought at midcentury. The author was born in Hamburg, completed his schooling there, worked in a textile factory, married, and was conscripted and sent to Norway in 1939, ending the war in a British P. O. W. camp. Leviathan, a volume of three wartime stories, ap peared in 1949, securing for Schmidt the role o? enfant terrible among emerg ing German writers. Over the next thirty years, as his personal work schedule grew to a boasted 100 hours per week, Schmidt produced nine novels, six volumes of noveUas and stories, four books of essays and radio dialogues, a psychoanalytic study of the adventure writer Karl May, a 700 page biography
More than real: a history of the imagination in South India, by David Shulman

Coming away from a close reading of this remarkable book one cannot help feeling much like the bemused lover in Ativīrarāma ’s sixteenth century Tenkasi Tamil poem on the tale of Nala and Damayantī...
LONGITUDINAL CONTROL CONCEPTS FOR AUTOMATED AUTOMOBILES AND TRUCKS OPERATING ON A COOPERATIVE HIGHWAY

The purpose of this paper is to present specifications for rubber tired vehicles operating on a cooperative highway. These specifications will allow control systems to be designed which could meet the requirements of a new generation of automobiles and trucks operating on roadways which can carry more vehicles per hour. These vehicles are to be electronically guided and controlled. The problem is divided into two aspects: 1) lateral contrl and 2 longitudinal control. Lateral control will be done by a sensor system that can "see" te road ahead and steer the vehicle toward the roaf and will be presented in another paper. Longitudinal control will be the subject of this paper. It involves keeping a series of dissimilar vehicles properly spaced while operating at high speeds. Safe spacing must be kept as vehicles enter and exit the vehicle stream, and as disturbances occur such as hills and winds. Sensors and a control system required to perform this task to a set of performance requirements are discussed and presented in this paper. Obviously, there are many possible solutions to these general problems. Presented in this paper are some solutions to the sensing and control issues which show technical feasibility.
Paper coating rheology

Publisher Summary This chapter discusses paper-coating rheology. With the advances in theological testing methods and computational tools, the understanding of the blade coating of paper is improved considerably. Coating of high solids gives the paper less chance to roughen upon contact with water and the coating layer does not sink into the paper web. The application of paper coating has a unique aspect in the sense that the clearance between the blade and the web is only one order of magnitude larger than the pigments in the suspension. However, high solids content naturally brings challenging rheological problems. The importance of water retention on the ability of a coating to operate at specific conditions is one significant step. However, paper coating still offers a number of challenges, as high speeds and high solids are desired. Still, the small scale between the blade and the web requires a better understanding of the small-scale microstructures that can form under the blade. A direct comparison of a complex fluid dynamics calculation and pilot scale results has yet to be accomplished. These issues should become clear because efforts are made to understand the role of rheology in the blade coating process.
Instrument validation: hospital nurse perceptions of their Behavioral Health Care Competency

Aim. To report the development and psychometric testing of the Behavioral Health Care Competency survey, designed to measure hospital nurse perceptions of behavioral healthcare competency. Background. Hospital nurses working in general or other non-psychiatric units may lack behavioral healthcare competency to manage disruptive behaviours associated with mental illnesses. Design. Instrument development. Method. A nurse study team including clinical experts and nurse researchers from three community hospitals in southern California (USA) reviewed content validity of each item and the 31-item instrument and created a behavioral health care competency conceptual model based on the nursing process. Separate institutional review board permissions were obtained from each hospital. The study team collaborated in the timing of survey administration (November 2010), analysis of the results and survey validation. Results. A total of 844 nurses completed the survey, representing approximately 23–41% of eligible nurses from each hospital. Using principal component analysis with varimax rotation, 23 items led to a factor structure with four components. Four subscales with adequate alpha coefficients were formed: Resource Adequacy, Patient Assessment, Practice/Intervention Competency, and Psychotropic Recommendation. Conclusion. The 23-item hospital nurse Behavioral Health Care Competency survey is an adequate and valid newly developed instrument. Further testing with diverse samples is needed to strengthen generalizability and address unique and specialized nursing care needs.
Running rescues a fear-based contextual discrimination deficit in aged mice.

Normal aging and exercise exert extensive, often opposing, effects on the dentate gyrus (DG) of the hippocampus altering volume, synaptic function, and behaviors. The DG is especially important for behaviors requiring pattern separation—a cognitive process that enables animals to differentiate between highly similar contextual experiences. To determine how age and exercise modulate pattern separation in an aversive setting, young, aged, and aged mice provided with a running wheel were assayed on a fear-based contextual discrimination task. Aged mice showed a profound impairment in contextual discrimination compared to young animals. Voluntary exercise rescued this deficit to such an extent that behavioral pattern separation of aged-run mice was now similar to young animals. Running also resulted in a significant increase in the number of immature neurons with tertiary dendrites in aged mice. Despite this, neurogenesis levels in aged-run mice were still considerably lower than in young animals. Thus, mechanisms other than DG neurogenesis likely play significant roles in improving behavioral pattern separation elicited by exercise in aged animals.
T and B Cell Deficiency Associated with Yellow Nail Syndrome

Yellow nail syndrome (YNS) is a rare disorder of unknown aetiology that is characterized by yellow nails associated with lymphoedema and chronic respiratory manifestations. There are no detailed immunological studies in YNS. In this study, we present first extensive immunological analysis of both adaptive and innate immunity in two patients with YNS. One patient has common variable immunodeficiency, whereas second patient has specific antibody deficiency syndrome. Severe lymphopaenia, a striking deficiency of naive CD4+ and CD8+ T cells and total B cells, and increased transitional B cells were observed. T cell proliferative response to mitogens and antigens was significantly reduced in both patients. Both patients failed to make specific antibody response to pneumococci. Complement, natural killer cell activity and neutrophil oxidative burst were normal. Immunoglobulin administration resulted in decreased frequency and severity of infections, and an impressive effect was observed on lymphoedema and on the recurrence of pleural effusion. Our data show that YNS is associated with both T and B cell defects. Furthermore, Immunoglobulin may be beneficial in clinical manifestations of lymphoedema.
Attenuation in high-energy x-ray beams.

Attenuation factors in water have been measured by a narrow-beam technique in various portions of x-ray beams with nominal energies of 6 and 25 MV, with and without a wedge in the beam. The results were analyzed in terms of an attenuation coefficient mu for small water thicknesses and a beam-hardening coefficient eta that describes the change in attenuation per unit depth. The variation of mu within the field was significant, about 0.5% per centimeter at 6 MV and 0.8% per centimeter at 25 MV for open beams. The heavy wedge used in these experiments caused significant (about 10%) beam hardening at 6 MV, softened the beam somewhat at 25 MV, and increased the variation of mu within the field to 3%-5%. These effects should be taken into account in dose calculations, and correction factors can be designed based on the variation of mu with off-axis radius for open beams and with off-axis position for wedged beams. The experimental technique, based on two measurements with the beam going through a water tank with either 26- or 50-cm path length, was simple and highly reproducible. The beam hardening with depth in water, i.e., the value of eta, was readily determined but found to be clinically insignificant.
Using Multiple Choice Quizzes

The most compelling question faced by beginning law students is “How am I doing?” They crave feedback that can help them measure and improve their performance. West’s TWEN (The West Education Network) offers a quiz function that allows teachers to upload multiple-choice quizzes. Students can take the quizzes on line, on their own schedule, and receive instant feedback. The feedback can include, in addition to the correct answer, an explanation that refers to something in the casebook or course materials. TWEN also allows the teacher to monitor who has, or has not, taken any particular quiz and to track the performance of individual students or the class was a whole. The author explains how he uses nine multiple-choice quizzes, consisting of ten Multistate Bar Exam-style questions each, in his Contracts I course. It is his experience that frequent online quizzes can help students and teachers alike assess academic progress and enhance student success.
ECC-on-SIMM test challenges

The typical personal computer of today is used more and more to perform functions and run application programs that are critical to a business's success. One of the biggest problems that inhibits productivity in this environment Is the effect of a lock-up, crash or parity error caused by cosmic-ray radiation-induced soft errors in the DRAM chips. IBM has announced a family of plug-compatible, retrofittable SIMMs with built-in ECC to provide a solution to this problem. This paper addresses the challenges associated with the full functional test of a SIMM with on-board ECC using a very test-unfriendly industry-standard memory module interface.
Polypropylene Degradation and Durability Estimates Based on the Master Curve Concept

Material degradation and life prediction studies need to overcome numerous challenges. Among the most formidable is the long term, real time data generation. The typical experimental time span seldom goes beyond a year and various ways to accelerate the ageing process frequently encounter fundamental difficulties which reduce the value of the extrapolation or worse, totally negate it.
Efficacy of ixabepilone in ER/PR/HER2-negative (triple-negative) breast cancer

Patients with ER/PR/HER2-negative (triple negative) breast cancer are not candidates for hormonal therapy or HER2-targeted agents. Ongoing research is aimed at identifying and understanding the benefit of established and emerging therapies in this disease setting. Triple-negative patients may achieve early responses to anthracyclines and taxanes, but novel strategies are also eagerly sought. The epothilone B analog ixabepilone acts to stabilize microtubules and demonstrates antitumor activity in recent breast cancer studies. Herein, we have analyzed efficacy and safety data of ixabepilone specifically for the treatment of women with triple-negative disease. A retrospective analysis was completed using activity and toxicity data in the triple-negative subsets from 5 phase II studies. In addition, a prospective pooled analysis of triple-negative patients from 2 phase III trials is also reviewed. Of 2,261 patients evaluated in these trials, 556 (24.5%) had triple-negative tumors. In the neoadjuvant setting, ixabepilone produced a pathologic complete response rate in the breast of 26% in triple-negative patients (vs. 15% in the non-triple-negative population). In patients with metastatic breast cancer whose pretreatment status ranged from no prior therapy to progression on several classes of agents, overall response rates (ORR) in the phase II ixabepilone monotherapy trials ranged from 6 to 55%, comparable to rates seen in patients with non-triple-negative tumors. The combination of ixabepilone and capecitabine in the phase II study resulted in an ORR of 23% in triple-negative patients. A similar ORR (31%) was observed for a preplanned pooled analysis of triple-negative patients in the phase III trials of ixabepilone plus capecitabine. The median progression-free survival (PFS) was significantly longer for triple-negative patients treated with ixabepilone plus capecitabine (4.2 months) compared with treatment with capecitabine alone (1.7 months). No increase in toxicity was noted in the triple-negative subgroup compared with other patients. Ixabepilone shows notable antitumor activity in patients with triple-negative breast cancer when used in a variety of settings. The addition of ixabepilone to capecitabine results in an approximately twofold increase in median PFS for triple-negative patients versus capecitabine alone and responses to ixabepilone in triple-negative disease are comparable to those seen in patients with non-triple-negative tumors.
A unified matrix formulation for the zone method: a stochastic approach

Abstract A new approach based on the Markov chain theory is utilized to derive three explicit matrix relations for the total exchange areas of the zone method. These relations are identical to those published earlier. The same method is used to derive a single explicit matrix relation for the total exchange areas. This expression is so general that it covers the same function as the aforementioned relations.
TARGETED TRANSDUCTION OF CD34+ CELLS BY TRANSDOMINANT NEGATIVE REV-EXPRESSING RETROVIRUS YIELDS PARTIAL ANTI-HIV PROTECTION OF PROGENY MACROPHAGES

Congenitally acquired HIV infection may be uniquely suited to treatment via genetic engineering of CD34+ hematopoietic stem/progenitor cells. However, current technologies yield only a small percentage of mature cells that carry the inserted genes, and expression is frequently suppressed. Since clinical trials employing these methodologies have been proposed for anti-HIV gene therapy of HIV-infected children, we wished to assess, by in vitro modeling, the expected limits of transduction efficiency, expression, and antiviral activity using currently available methods. We measured retrovirus-mediated transduction in cord blood progenitors and their in vitro-derived progeny macrophages by Mo-MuLV vectors expressing a transdominant negative Rev (RevTD). CFU-GM transduction efficiency ranged from 7 to 85%, with an average of 28%. Semiquantitative DNA PCR demonstrated < or =100 vector sequence copies per 1000 cells in monocyte/macrophage cultures, which were grown without selection to better model in vivo conditions. When challenged with the macrophagetropic HIV-1BaL isolate, cultured macrophages from mock-transduced CFU-GM colonies supported infection in eight of eight experimental cultures, control LXSN-transduced progenitors supported infection in six of eight cultures, while macrophages derived from RevTD-transduced CFU-GM colonies supported infection in four of eight cultures. Although these results support the ability of neo(r) retroviral vectors containing RevTD to inhibit HIV replication, they indicate that further optimization of transduction efficiency and sustained expression will be required for effective anti-HIV protection in vivo.
Chemical Reactivity of Single-Walled Carbon Nanotubes to Amidogen from Density Functional Calculations

We study the chemical reactivity of the sidewall of single-walled carbon nanotubes (SWNTs) (n, n), with n ranging from 5 to 16 using density functional theory calculations. We find that the exterior surface of SWNTs is reactive to amidogen, which can be chemically bound to a carbon atom, with the binding energy between 1.71 and 2.12 eV. The binding energy of SWNTs with amidogen decreases as the radius of the tubes increases. However, the interior surface of SWNTs is inert to amidogen, making them promising candidates as containers for the chemical reactions involving amidogens. The introduction of 7-5-5-7 topological defects into the wall of a (5, 5) SWNT improves the chemical reactivity of the tube wall. The bond between amidogen and the carbon atoms in the region of the topological defect can be further stabilized by about 1.05 eV. We also discuss the modification in the electronic properties of SWNTs caused by decoration of amidogen on the exterior surface.
Origins of spinal noradrenergic pathways demonstrated by retrograde transport of antibody to dopamine-β-hydroxylase

Abstract Retrograde transport of antibody to dopamine-β-hydroxylase (DBH) was used to locate the cells of origin of descending noradrenergic (and possibly adrenergic) pathways to the spinal cord. Following injections of DBH antibody into various spinal cord levels, cell bodies were immunocytochemically localized in brainstem nuclei known to contain noradrenergic neurons. These cell groups included the nucleus locus coeruleus, the nucleus subcoeruleus, the medial and lateral parabrachial nuclei, the Kolliker-Fuse nucleus, and the region dorsal and lateral to the superior olivary nucleus. Caudally, none of the noradrenergic cell groups of the medulla contained retrogradely labeled neurons. These findings indicate that the sources of spinal cord noradrenergic input are derived exclusively from the cells of the pons.
Antinociception produced by microinjection ofl-glutamate into the ventromedial medulla of the rat: mediation by spinal GABAA receptors

Abstract This study examined whether the antinociception produced by glutamatergic stimulation of neurons in the nucleus raphe magnus (NRM) or nucleus reticularis gigantocellularis pars α (NGCpα) is mediated by activation of GABA A receptors in the spinal cord. Two approaches were used. The first approach determined the ability of intrathecally (i.t.) administered bicuculline, a competitive GABA A receptor antagonist, to attenuate the antinociception produced by microinjection of l -glutamate in the NRM or NGCpα. Bicuculine was selected on the basis of an initial study that determined that 0.3 μg i.t. bicuculline caused a 3.4-fold rightward shift in the dose-effect relationship of the i i.t.-administered GABA A agonist, isoguvacine, without producing allodynia or alterations in nociceptive threshold. The GABA A antagonist SR 95531 was judged unsuitable because it caused only a modest 1.7-fold rightward shift in the dose-effect relationship of isoguvacine at doses that did not produce allodynia. The second approach determined the ability of i.t. administered diazepam, a benzodiazepine receptor agonist, to enhance the antinociception produced by microinjection of l -glutamate in these nuclei. Diazepam was selected because of its ability to enhance the actions of GABA at the GABA A receptor. Rats were pretreated with i.t. administration of 0.3 μg bicuculline, 40 μg diazepam, or vehicle, after which 30 nmol l -glutamate was microinjected into the NRM or NGCpα. Microinjection of l -glutamate into the NRM or NGCpα in vehicle-pretreated rats significantly increased tail flick latency. The antinociception produced by microinjection of l -glutamate in the NGCpα was antagonized by bicuculline and enhanced by diazepam. In contrast, the antinociception evoked from sites in the NRM was only partially attenuated by bicuculline and was not enhanced by diazepam. In an ancillary experiment, i.t. administration of 0.3 μg bicuculline or 40 μg diazepam did not alter tail skin temperature or nociceptive threshold, suggesting that their effects on glutamate-induced antinociception were not secondary to alterations in tail skin temperature. Taken together, these results support the hypothesis that the antinociception produced by activation of neurons in the NGCpα, but not the NRM, is mediated in part by an action of GABA at GABA A receptors in the spinal cord.
A real-time characterization method to rapidly optimize molecular beacon signal for sensitive nucleic acids analysis

This research demonstrates an integrated microfluidic titration assay to characterize the cation concentrations in working buffer to rapidly optimize the signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) of molecular beacons (MBs). The "Microfluidic Droplet Array Titration Assay" (MiDATA) integrated the functions of sample dilution, sample loading, sample mixing, fluorescence analysis, and re-confirmation functions all together in a one-step process. It allows experimentalists to arbitrarily change sample concentration and acquire SNR measurements instantaneously. MiDATA greatly reduces sample dilution time, number of samples needed, sample consumption, and the total titration time. The maximum SNR of molecular beacons is achieved by optimizing the concentrations of the monovalent and divalent cation (i.e., Mg(2+) and K(+)) of the working buffer. MiDATA platform is able to reduce the total consumed reagents to less than 50 μL, and decrease the assay time to less than 30 min. The SNR of the designated MB is increased from 20 to 126 (i.e., enhanced the signal 630 %) using the optimal concentration of MgCl2 and KCl determined by MiDATA. This novel microfluidics-based titration method is not only useful for SNR optimization of molecular beacons but it also can be a general method for a wide range of fluorescence resonance energy transfer (FRET)-based molecular probes.
Some graphical methods in statistics: A review and some extensions

Summary A review of some graphical methods for comparing two populations is given. The methods are applied to survival times of radiated and control mice and some results concerning the model and the effect of radiation are obtained. An extension to methods for several populations is derived and a partial table for carrying it out is given. An indication of the cost (in terms of sample size) of simultaneous graphical methods vs. pointwise and methods based on means is given. Finally, some one sample plots related to probability plots are discussed.
Valuation and the Consequences of Multiple Sources of Environmental Deterioration: the Case of the New York Striped Bass Fishery

Abstract This paper examines two sources of environmental degradation in the New York striped bass fishery. The first is the decline in environmental quality in the Chesapeake Bay, the spawning ground for the majority of fish in New York waters. The second is the PCB contamination of striped bass from the Hudson River, the other primary spawning ground for striped bass in New York waters. The paper develops methodologies for examining loss in economic value, when the loss stems from two sources. The estimates resulting from the application of these methodologies suggest that the general deterioration of the Chesapeake Bay generated 2·3 to 7·7 million dollars in annual losses to the New York striped bass fishery, and that the annual losses from PCB contamination of the Hudson striped bass are between 0·745 and 3·7 million dollars. The paper also discusses how the dual sources of degradation generate barriers to the formation of effective management policy, and develops policy recommendations based on the estimated losses.
Minimizing sequences selected via singular perturbations, and their pattern formation

We study the Cahn-Hilliard energy E ɛ(u) over the unit square under the constraint of a constant mass m with (ɛ > 0) and without ɛ= 0) interfacial energy. Minimizers of E 0(u) have no preferred pattern and we select patterns via sequences of conditionally critical points of E ɛ(u) converging to minimizers as ɛ tends to zero. Those critical points are not minimizers if the singular limit has no minimal interface. We obtain them by a global bifurcation analysis of the Euler-Lagrange equations for E ɛ(u) where the mass m is the bifurcation parameter. We make use of the symmetry of the unit square, and the elliptic maximum principle, in turn, implies that the location of maxima and minima is fixed for all solutions on global branches. This property is used to guarantee the existence of a singular limit and to verify the Weierstrass-Erdmann corner condition which proves its minimizing property.
Comparison of Humphrey Matrix frequency doubling technology to standard automated perimetry in neuro-ophthalmic disease.

Purpose : We compared Humphrey Matrix FDT 30-2 (FDT) and Humphrey Visual Field Analyzer 30-2 SITA standard (SAP) in the assessment of anterior (optic nerve or chiasm) and posterior (retro-chiasmal) afferent visual pathway defects. Materials and Methods : In this retrospective comparative study, the charts of 37 patients (16 males, range 13-84 years, mean 72.1), with neuro-ophthalmic visual field defects who were tested with both FDT and SAP, were reviewed. Two masked graders assessed the concordance and extent of field defects between the perimeters. The mean concordance between anterior and posterior disease was compared using the Wilcoxon rank sum test. The mean deviation (MD) and pattern standard deviation (PSD) of each perimeter were correlated with the Spearman coefficient. Results : Twenty-eight patients had anterior and nine had posterior disease. Most had a fair or good concordance (89.3% anterior, 88.9% posterior). When comparing anterior to posterior disease, the mean concordance of the defects of the two parameters was not statistically different ( P = 0.94 and P = 0.61 for total deviation and pattern deviation, respectively). The MD and PSD between perimeters had a significant correlation. Conclusions : Our series, using 30-2 field analysis, demonstrates fair to good correlation between FDT and SAP in the majority of patients. In roughly 10% findings between FDT and SAP were discordant. This difference was similar for anterior and posterior disease.
An ovulatory gonadotropin stimulus increases cytosolic phospholipase A2 expression and activity in granulosa cells of primate periovulatory follicles.

Context: Prostaglandins (PGs) produced within ovarian follicles in response to the ovulatory gonadotropin surge are essential for follicle rupture and oocyte release. Arachidonic acid, the common precursor for PG synthesis, is cleaved from membrane phospholipids via the activity of phospholipase A2 (PLA2). Objective: The purpose of this study was to determine which PLA2 form(s) is involved in PG production by primate periovulatory follicles. Design and Interventions: Gonadotropins were administered to cynomolgus monkeys to stimulate multiple follicular development; human chorionic gonadotropin (hCG) initiated periovulatory events. Granulosa cells and whole ovaries were obtained before (0 h), and 12, 24, and 36 h after hCG administration. Patients: Granulosa-lutein cells were also obtained from women undergoing infertility treatment. Outcome Measures and Results: mRNA for cytosolic (c)PLA2 and secretory (s)PLA2V, but not sPLA2IIA, was expressed by granulosa cells. cPLA2 mRNA levels were low at 0 h, elevate...
MNDA dimerizes through a complex motif involving an N-terminal basic region

Human myeloid cell nuclear differentiation antigen (MNDA) is a myelomonocytic lineage-specific protein that influences gene expression through interactions with other nuclear proteins and transcription factors. MNDA also self-associates and chemical cross-linking was used to demonstrate that MNDA forms a dimer. C-terminal and internal deletion mutants were used to identify two regions in the N-terminal half of MNDA essential for self-association. One region contains an imperfect leucine zipper and the second is highly enriched in basic residues. The sequences that are essential for dimerization are separated by a highly basic amphipathic α-helical region which was not required for dimerization.
Incidence of traumatic spinal cord lesions.

Abstract The incidence of acute spinal cord lesions was studied in the population of 18 Northern California counties for the years 1970 and 1971. Case ascertainment included the complete review of all hospital admissions in these counties as well as the review of all death certificates, autopsy protocols, and records of the State of California Departments of Health (Crippled Children's Service), Rehabilitation, and Industrial Relations (Workmen's Compensation). The average annual incidence rate was 53.4 per million population, and the case fatality rate was 48 per cent. Almost 56 per cent of the spinal cord injuries were attributed to motor vehicle crashes. Incidence rates were three times higher for males 20–24 yr of age and females 25–29 yr of age. The pattern of case fatality rates were not similar for males and females. Age-adjusted incidence rates were highest for black males and lowest for males of Asian origin. Risk of spinal cord injury was highest for divorced or separated persons or those who have never been married. The most frequent type of impairment among persons hospitalized with a spinal cord injury was quadriparesis. Functional impairment was related to the external cause of spinal cord injury. The use of hospitalized persons as a basis for enumeration of spinal cord injuries will result in a gross underestimation of actual incidence. Due to the extremely high costs for medical care of spinal cord injury survivors and the fact that over one-half of all persons who sustained a traumatic lesion to the spinal cord were injured as a result of a motor vehicle crash, any organized program to reduce the incidence of this tragic problem must focus on the reduction of motor vehicle crashes and/or the severity of injuries sustained in them.
Monitoring and Control Requirements for Dispersed Storage and Generation

As the number of dispersed storage and generation units connected to the power system increases, the need to control and monitor them in an integrated fashion will become increasingly evident. This paper examines the control and monitoring requirements for integrated operation of DSGs from a system viewpoint-that is to say, the discussions are largely independent of the variety of DSG technologies being developed. The control and monitoring functions are grouped into six categories. The requirements described in each category provide a basis for more detailed design and for specifications which can be more utility-and DSG-dependent. An example is provided of the calculation of the communication requirements for a DSG using hydro technology.
“Is our name remembered?”: Writing the history of Iranian constitutionalism as if women and gender mattered

CURRENT HISTORIES OF THE IRANIAN CONSTITUTIONAL REVOLUTION (1905-1909) frequently begin the story of the revolutionary years with 11 December 1905. On that day the bastinado was inflicted on three Tehrani merchants, Sayyid Hashim Qandfurush, Hajj Ahmad Qaysariyah, and Sayyid Isma'il Charmfurush, on orders from 'Ala' al-Dawlah, governor of Tehran. This incident, we are told, led the two leading Tehran clerics, Sayyid Muhammad Tabataba'i and Sayyid 'Abdallah Bihbihani, to stage a protest sit-in with their supporters in the Shah 'Abd al-'Azim shrine and demand the dismissal of 'Ala' al-Dawlah and premier 'Ayn al-Dawlah, as well as the institution of a house of justice. A month later, the sit-in ended successfully: though 'Ayn al-Dawlah remained premier, 'Ala' al-Dawlah was dismissed and a royal decree to establish a house of justice was issued. Some months later another incident set off the next round of the contest. Two men of religion, Sayyid 'Abd al-Hamid and Sayyid Hasan, were killed when government soldiers attempted to break up a protesting crowd in Tehran's Friday Mosque. This triggered a chain of events that culminated in the migration of the two Tehran clerics, this time joined by Shaykh Fazlallah Nuri, to Qum on 7 July 1906, and eventually to the issuance of the Constitutional decree by Muzaffar al-Din Shah on 5 August 1906. Sometimes a third incident is also mentioned as a pivotal moment in fomenting popular anger against the Qajars: the appearance of Iran's Belgian minister of customs, M. Naus, in a clerical robe at a masked ball. This essay recalls a different story of these same revolutionary years. The aim is to inquire into how the above events have come to form the collective Iranian memory of that revolution, while other stories have been all but forgotten. The episode concerned some young girls and women who had become objects of traffic-to use Gayle Rubin's term-among men.' Some had been sold by needy peasants to pay taxes in a bad harvest year. Others had been taken as
Attenuating the haptic horizontal—vertical curvature illusion

In a number of experiments, blindfolded subjects traced convex curves whose verticals were equal to their horizontal extent at the base. Overestimation of verticals, as compared with horizontals, was found, indicating the presence of a horizontal-vertical illusion with haptic curves, as well as with visible curves. Experiment 1 showed that the illusion occurred with stimuli in the frontal plane and with stimuli that were flat on the table surface in vision and touch. In the second experiment, the stimuli were rotated, and differences between vision and touch were revealed, with a stronger illusion in touch. The haptic horizontal-vertical illusion was virtually eliminated when the stimuli were bimanually touched using free exploration at the body midline, but a strong illusion was obtained when curves were felt with two index fingers or with a single hand at the midline. Bimanual exploration eliminated the illusion for smaller 2.5- through 10.2-cm stimuli, but a weakened illusion remained for the largest 12.7-cm patterns. The illusion was present when the stimuli were bimanually explored in the left and right hemispace. Thus, the benefits of bimanual exploration derived from the use of the two hands at the body midline combined with free exploration, rather than from bimanual free exploration per se. The results indicate the importance of haptic exploration at the body midline, where the body can serve as a familiar reference metric for size judgments. Alternative interpretations of the results are discussed, including the impact of movement-based heuristics as a causal factor for the illusion. It was suggested that tracing the curve’s peak served to bisect the curve in haptics, because of the change in direction.
Orchestrated Transcription of Key Pathways in Arabidopsis by the Circadian Clock

Like most organisms, plants have endogenous biological clocks that coordinate internal events with the external environment. We used high-density oligonucleotide microarrays to examine gene expression in Arabidopsis and found that 6% of the more than 8000 genes on the array exhibited circadian changes in steady-state messenger RNA levels. Clusters of circadian-regulated genes were found in pathways involved in plant responses to light and other key metabolic pathways. Computational analysis of cycling genes allowed the identification of a highly conserved promoter motif that we found to be required for circadian control of gene expression. Our study presents a comprehensive view of the temporal compartmentalization of physiological pathways by the circadian clock in a eukaryote.
Fitting smooth surfaces to dense polygon meshes

Recent progress in acquiring shape from range data permits the acquisition of seamless million-polygon meshes from physical models. While dense polygon meshes are an adequate representation for some applications, many users prefer smooth surface representations for reasons of compactness, control, manufacturability, or appearance. In this thesis, we present algorithms and an end-to-end software system for converting dense irregular polygon meshes of arbitrary topology into tensor product B-spline surface patches with accompanying displacement maps. This choice of representation yields a coarse but efficient model suitable for interactive modification and animation and a fine but more expensive model suitable for rendering. The first step in our process consists of interactively painting patch boundaries onto the polygonal surface. In many applications, the placement of patch boundaries is considered part of the creative process and is not amenable to automation. We present efficient techniques for representing, creating and editing curves on dense polygonal surfaces. The second step in our process consists of finding a gridded resampling of each bounded section of the mesh. Our resampling algorithm lays a grid of springs across the polygon mesh, then iterates between relaxing this grid and subdividing it. This grid provides a parameterization for the mesh section, which is initially unparameterized. Our parameterization algorithm is automatic, efficient, and robust, even for complex polygonal surfaces. Prior algorithms have lacked one or more of these properties, making them unusable for dense meshes. Our strategy also provides the user a flexible method to design parameterizations--an ability that previous literature in surface approximation does not address. The third and final step of our process consists of fitting a hybrid of B-spline surfaces and displacement maps to our gridded re-sampling. The displacement map is an image representation of the error between the fitted B-spline surfaces and our spring grid. Since displacement maps are just images our hybrid representation facilitates the use of image processing operators for manipulating the geometric detail of an object. Our resampling and fitting steps are fast enough to surface a million polygon mesh in under 10 minutes--important for an interactive system.
Immunological Analysis of Low Molecular Weight Marine Toxins

AbstractA brief resume on the immunological aspects of low dalton marine toxins, primarily polyethers is presented in this review. The polyethers include brevetoxin (PbTX), ciguatoxin (CTX), and okadaic acid (OA), and the disuccsion of palytoxin (PTX) is also presented. An immunological competitive radioimmunoassay (RTA) for PbTX has been established with goat-anti-PbTX and radioisotope labeled PbTX. This system showed cross-reactivity with other cross-reactivity with other dinoflagellate extracts and particularly with CTX. A RIA has also been established with rabbit-anti-OA and rabbit-anti-PTX for OA and PTX, respectively. These tests are also of a competitive nature, using radioisotope labeled OA and PTX. These systems can detect pmole to nmole concetrations. An enzyme linked immunoabsorbent assay (ELISA) has been developed for OA using monoclonal antibodies. This procedure was developed for use in screening OA in shellfish for diarrhetic shellfish poisoning (DSP). A radioimmunoassay using sheep anti-CT...
Low-Energy Chain of Resonances for Three-Dimensional Schrödinger Operator with Nearly Coulomb Potential

Abstract We study resonances for a three-dimensional Schrodinger operator with Coulomb potential perturbed by a spherically symmetric compactly supported function. Resonances are defined as poles of an analytical continuation of the resolvent to the second Riemann sheet through the continuous spectrum. It is proved that for a nonnegative perturbation with finite positive first moment there exists a chain of resonances accumulating to zero. It is known that in the non-Coulomb case of a rapidly decreasing potential the perturbation can produce only "high-energy" series of resonances converging to infinity. The above result shows that, in contrast with the non-Coulomb case, a small perturbation of the Coulomb potential can produce also, a "low-energy" sequence of resonances. The latter means that zero becomes a "triple singular" point of the spectrum, being the point of accumulation of the discrete, continuous and "resonance" spectra. It was shown in our previous paper that for the radial Schrodinger operator with perturbed Coulomb potential there exists a disk centered at the origin on the second sheet which is free of resonances. We prove that the radius r ( l ) of the maximal resonance-free disk corresponding to the angular momentum l has an estimate: r ( l ) ≤ Cl −1 . The results are obtained based on a detailed analysis of an asymptotic behavior at low energies of the Jest functions corresponding to the different values of an angular momentum.
TU-FF-A4-03: Post-Processing Dead Pixel Evaluation for Digital Detectors

Purpose: To investigate and determine a viable method for determining the absolute number of dead pixels from a diagnostic x‐ray digital acquisition output. Method and Materials: In a digital receptor, dead pixels are averaged over surrounding pixels to present an image without artifacts. The absolute number of dead pixels is in general not provided by the manufacturer, but a relative number of pixels from the last check may be reported. Due to the relative difficulty of gaining access to the raw image values, we focus on the least processed images obtainable from a given unit and employ post‐processing techniques to evaluate the pixel information. We use statistical and autocorrelation algorithms to evaluate the likelihood that a given pixel point or line of pixels is aberrant from the expected random noise resulting from several uniform exposures from a digital acquisition detector.Results: We are able to determine that both algorithms provide indications for the line and individual (or grouped) point pixel modifications which are not consistent with random noise. The statistical method (employing both a local and global statistical analysis of noise variations) shows both geometries (point and line defects) but requires statistical averaging over several images to provide relevant point geometry data (we use a minimum of three images to average). The autocorrelation method provides results without the need for averaging. However, by employing the criteria that each of the three images must meet the same correlation requirements, we increase the confidence of the final evaluation results through redundancy. Conclusion: We have developed two independent methods for determining the overall dead pixel information from a digital acquisition detector given three uniform 2223 2006 AAPM Meeting Program 2223 Medical Physics, Vol. 33, No. 6, June 2006 exposures. Both methods provide data for point and line geometries and can be used to provide initial and time logged progression of absolute pixel drop out with time.
Drop deformation and breakup in a vortex at finite inertia

Deformation and breakup of a viscous drop in a potential vortex are numerically simulated. Capillary number, Reynolds number, and viscosity and density ratios are varied to investigate their effects on the drop dynamics. The vortex locally gives rise to an extensional flow near the drop with the axis of extension rotating at a constant rate, as the drop revolves around the vortex centre. The rotation of the axis plays a critical role in the competing dynamics between the flow-induced stretching and the interfacial tension. The relation between the rotating extensional flow and a shear flow is explored. For low capillary numbers, a periodic state is reached, where the drop deforms into an ellipsoidal shape and undergoes steady rotation with a distinct phase lag behind the imposed flow. For density-and-viscosity-matched drops, increased interfacial tension results in decreased deformation and reduced phase lag. Increased inertia promotes deformation. In the presence of inertia, decreasing capillary number leads to a negative phase lag. The rotation of the extension axis inhibits deformation at low values of the Reynolds number. But at high Reynolds numbers, rotation-induced centrifugal forces promote deformation. At low and high viscosity ratios, an increase in viscosity ratio leads to enhancement and reduction in deformation, respectively. At density ratios larger than unity, the drop deformation displays resonance in that it varies non-monotonically with a distinct peak with variation of interfacial tension and density ratio. The peak corresponds to the natural frequency of the drop deformation matching with the frequency of rotation due to the vortex. A simple physical model is used to explain various observations including asymptotic scalings. We also explore different mechanisms for drop breakup at different Reynolds number, and provide critical capillary numbers as functions of other parameters. In particular, vortex-induced resonance offers an alternative mechanism for size-selective drop breakup. Details of flow fields and transients are also presented and discussed.
Lymphoblastoid cell adhesion mediated by a dimeric and polymeric endogenous β-galactoside-binding lectin (galaptin)

Glutaraldehyde-polymerized human splenic galaptin, a beta-galactoside-binding lectin, was demonstrated to have enhanced hemagglutinating and asialofetuin binding activity relative to native dimeric galaptin when these lectins were present in solution. The polymerized lectin consisted primarily of 2-, 4- and 12-membered species after reductive alkylation. Both forms of galaptin bound, at 4 degrees C, to saturable B lymphoblastoid cell surface receptors. Estimates obtained by Scatchard analyses, with the binding data expressed in terms of 14.5 kDa subunit molarity, were 5 x 10(7) binding sites/cell with affinity constant Ka = 2.2 x 10(5) M for dimeric galaptin and 17 x 10(7) binding sites/cell with Ka = 3.4 x 10(5) M-1 for polymeric galaptin. Both forms of galaptin adsorbed to polystyrene with high efficiency; however, only plastic-adsorbed polymeric galaptin mediated adhesion of lymphoblastoid cells. Cell adhesion was inhibited by lactose. Plastic-adsorbed polymeric galaptin bound asialofetuin more efficiently than dimeric galaptin. Asialofetuin binding was inhibited 65% and 30-50% by lactose for plastic-adsorbed polymeric and dimeric galaptin, respectively. Native fetuin bound to the adsorbed dimeric galaptin in a lactose-insensitive manner. These data indicate that cell surface receptor-galaptin interaction is carbohydrate specific whereas polystyrene-adsorbed galaptin may demonstrate protein-protein interactions with soluble ligands.