cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Does the JOBS Act Reduce Compliance Costs of Emerging Growth Companies? Theory and Evidence

SUMMARY In April 2012, the Jumpstart Our Business Startups (JOBS) Act was enacted to revitalize the initial public offering market by reducing regulatory burdens for small firms. We focus on audit ...
What Belongs in a Computer Science Syllabus

This work-in-progress research paper studies the role of the syllabus in a computer science course. There is considerable literature detailing why a syllabus is an important part of a lecturer‘s tools, and what items a syllabus ought to contain. However, there is little empirical evidence to back up these claims. We investigate what computer science students report seeing (and wishing to see) on a syllabus, and compare those results against advice given in various syllabus design guides. We find that several topics listed as points of emphasis on syllabus guidelines are named by students both as important and as areas for improvement in syllabi. We do this as a first step towards developing a research program to derive meaningful data on what a useful computer science syllabus really contains.
X-ray measurement model and information-theoretic metric incorporating material variability with energy correlations

Extending our prior work, we propose a multi-energy X-ray measurement model incorporating material variability with energy correlations to enable the analysis and exploration of the performance of X-ray imaging and sensing systems. Based on this measurement model we provide analytical expressions for the Cauchy-Schwarz mutual information (ICS) measure that quantifies the performance limits of an X-ray measurement system for the threat-detection task. We analyze the performance of a prototypical X-ray measurement system to demonstrate the utility of our proposed material variability measurement model.
A note on stochastic Schrödinger equations with fractional multiplicative noise

Abstract This work is devoted to non-linear stochastic Schrodinger equations with multiplicative fractional noise, where the stochastic integral is defined following the Riemann–Stieljes approach of Zahle. Under the assumptions that the initial condition is in the Sobolev space H q ( R n ) for a dimension n less than three and q an integer greater than or equal to zero, that the noise is a Q-fractional Brownian motion with Hurst index H ∈ ( 1 2 , 1 ) and spatial regularity H q + 4 ( R n ) , as well as appropriate hypotheses on the non-linearity, we obtain the local existence of a unique pathwise solution in C 0 ( 0 , T , H q ( R n ) ) ∩ C 0 , γ ( 0 , T , H q − 2 ( R n ) ) , for any γ ∈ [ 0 , H ) . Contrary to the parabolic case, standard fixed point techniques based on the mild formulation of the SPDE cannot be directly used because of the weak smoothing in time properties of the Schrodinger semigroup. We follow here a different route and our proof relies on a change of phase that removes the noise and leads to a Schrodinger equation with a magnetic potential that is not differentiable in time.
Toward computational singular perturbation (CSP) without eigen-decomposition

Abstract The theory of Computational Singular Perturbation (CSP) has been widely used in the chemical kinetics and combustion community to understand complex chemistry, reduce chemical kinetic models and perform computational diagnostics in reacting flow simulations. Useful as it is, the application of CSP is nevertheless subject to computationally expensive eigen-decomposition of the chemical Jacobian matrix, especially for mechanisms involving a large number of species. In 2016–2017, a new CSP approach was developed by Lam, taking advantage of species lifetime and linearity in the governing equation of the fastest species. The corresponding quasi-state value of the current fastest species across the thin transition layer could be accurately predicted at each time step, during which period the concentration of the slower species is considered as constant. As a result, tedious explicit integration to resolve the apparent exponential transition layer, as those utilized in conventional implicit chemistry solvers (e.g., CVODE), is avoided and the integration time step could be largely extended. This method, referred to as linear CSP (LCSP), has been demonstrated to be useful in deriving reduced models and to numerically integrate stiff ODE systems. In 2018, an idea of nonlinear CSP (NCSP) following similar approach was further proposed by Lam, which abandons the enabling assumptions of the linearized governing equation for the fastest species and provides useful insights into the numerical integration of stiff chemical ODE systems. The development of CSP without expensive eigen-decomposition and computational evidence supporting its implementation are discussed and disseminated as a promising direction of advanced CSP theory. For general kinetic problems with complex couplings, a method based on sparse adaptive hybrid integration is introduced to demonstrate the redundancy issue and general stiffness in the fast subspace.
Immune checkpoint inhibitors and radiotherapy—concept and review of current literature

Traditional chemotherapeutic agents non-selectively eliminate cancer cells at the expense of normal tissue; in an attempt to minimize such effects, a new class of targeted agents, immunotherapy, was introduced in the late 1950s with the discovery of interferons and the development of the first cancer vaccine. Ever since, immunotherapy evolved, exploiting different cellular mechanisms including dendritic cell therapy, monoclonal antibodies, and cytokines. Immune checkpoint inhibitors (ICPI) are the most recent subclass of this family and we herein review the basis of exploiting this new subclass of immunotherapy with radiotherapy in the context of studies evaluating their effects on human subjects and focusing on the synergism between the molecular pathways operating in the background. PubMed was searched for studies evaluating the combined use of ICPI and radiotherapy among human subjects. The majority of studies noted an increased response rate in patients receiving combined therapy with no significant increase in toxicity. Outcomes varied among the different ICPI, and treatment with combined anti-PD-1 and anti-CTLA-4 had a higher response rate compared to either modality alone. Synergistic use of ICPI and radiotherapy has the potential to improve survival, however the specifics regarding treatment plan is dependent on a myriad of factors including the genetic and molecular makeup of the tumor as well as the patient.
Peyronie's Disease and the Female Sexual Partner: A Comparison of the Male and Female Experience

Abstract Background Peyronie’s disease (PD) is characterized by penile pain, deformity, and sexual dysfunction, often resulting in an impaired sexual experience and significant psychological bother for the patient. However, there are limited data on the impact of PD on female sexual partners (FSPs). Aim To compare the psychosexual experience of men with PD and their FSPs. Methods We retrospectively reviewed all prospectively enrolled men and their FSPs who presented for initial PD evaluation to our sexual health clinic from July 2018 to February 2020. All men completed a PD-specific survey and the PD questionnaire (PDQ). If the patient was accompanied by an FSP during initial evaluation, she completed the PDQ for Female Sexual Partners and Female Sexual Function Index. We further queried our database that included information on patient demographics and clinical characteristics. Outcomes The main outcome of this study is retrospective comparison of responses with the PDQ and PDQ for Female Sexual Partners. Results Data were available for 44 men with PD (median age, 56 years; interquartile range, 49–63) and their FSPs (median age, 54 years; interquartile range, 50–61). The majority of men presented in the chronic phase (35 of 44, 79.5%), and median objective composite curvature was 75° (interquartile range, 50–90°). Owing to PD, female and male partners reported similar difficulty with vaginal intercourse (VI) (74.3% vs 81.5%, P = .555), decreased frequency of VI (70.6% vs 85.2%, P = .228), and at least moderate discomfort/pain with VI (48.6% vs 33.3%, P = .232). FSPs were “very” or “extremely” bothered by the appearance of their partner’s erect penis less often than male partners (20.0% vs 59.3%, P Clinical Implications The sexual experience for men with PD and their FSPs differs, thus emphasizing the importance of active engagement of both men with PD and FSP during initial PD evaluation. Strengths and Limitations This initial study draws data from a single, high-volume men’s health clinic with a limited sample size. Survey responses may have been shared by patients with PD and their FSPs. Conclusion PD impacts the sexual experience for both men and FSPs. A similarly large proportion of men with PD and FSP noted decreased frequency of and difficulty with vaginal intercourse. Yet, FSPs were less bothered by the appearance of the erect penis and the deformity during VI compared with men. Farrell MR, Ziegelmann MJ, Bajic P, et al. Peyronie’s Disease and the Female Sexual Partner: A Comparison of the Male and Female Experience. J Sex Med 2020;17:2456–2461.
Optimal Offloading for Dynamic Compute-Intensive Applications in Wireless Networks

With the rapid growth of wireless compute-intensive services (such as image recognition, real-time language translation, or other artificial intelligence applications), efficient wireless algorithm design should not only address when and which users should transmit at each time instance (referred to as wireless scheduling) but also determine where the computation should be executed (referred to as offloading decision) with the goal of minimizing both computing latency and energy consumption. Despite the presence of a variety of earlier works on the efficient offloading design in wireless networks, to the best of our knowledge, there does not exist a work on the realistic user- level dynamic model, where each incoming user demands a heavy computation and leaves the system once its computing request is completed. To this end, we formulate a problem of an optimal offloading design in the presence of dynamic compute-intensive applications in wireless networks. Then, we show that there exists a fundamental logarithmic energy- workload tradeoff for any feasible offloading algorithm, and develop an optimal threshold-based offloading algorithm that achieves this fundamental logarithmic bound.
Knowledge Distillation Using Soft and Hard Labels and Annealing for Acoustic Model Training

While larger acoustic models provide better speech recognition performance, smaller models are appropriate when computational resources are limited. Knowledge distillation is used to train small models on basis of soft labels obtained from larger models instead of hard labels obtained from reference transcriptions. In this work, we investigated two methods for using both types of labels: sequence-level distillation (SD), in which the loss function selected is related to the hard or soft labels, and sequence-level interpolation (SI), in which both loss functions are interpolated. Experiments showed that SI was consistently better than SD, and that SI with annealing performed the best.
POLARIMETRIC SIGNATURES OF VASCULAR TISSUE RESPONSE FOLLOWING DRUG-ELUTING STENT IMPLANTATION IN PATIENTS

Intravascular polarimetry with polarization-sensitive (PS-) optical frequency domain imaging (OFDI) measures polarization properties of the coronary artery (Figure). Tissue rich in collagen and smooth muscle cells appears birefringent, while the presence of lipid causes depolarization. We aimed to
RAS internal tandem duplication disrupts GTPase-activating protein (GAP) binding to activate oncogenic signaling.

The oncogene RAS is one of the most widely studied proteins in cancer biology, and mutant active RAS is a driver in many types of solid tumors and hematological malignancies. Yet the biological effects of different RAS mutations and the tissue-specific clinical implications are complex and nuanced. Here, we identified an internal tandem duplication (ITD) in the switch II domain of NRAS from a patient with extremely aggressive colorectal carcinoma. Results of whole-exome DNA sequencing of primary and metastatic tumors indicated that this mutation was present in all analyzed metastases and excluded the presence of any other clear oncogenic driver mutations. Biochemical analysis revealed increased interaction of the RAS ITD with Raf proto-oncogene Ser/Thr kinase (RAF), leading to increased phosphorylation of downstream MAPK/ERK kinase (MEK)/extracellular signal-regulated kinase (ERK). The ITD prevented interaction with neurofibromin 1 (NF1)-GTPase-activating protein (GAP), providing a mechanism for sustained activity of the RAS ITD protein. We present the first crystal structures of NRAS and KRAS ITD at 1.65-1.75 A resolution, respectively, providing insight into the physical interactions of this class of RAS variants with its regulatory and effector proteins. Our in-depth bedside-to-bench analysis uncovers the molecular mechanism underlying a case of highly aggressive colorectal cancer and illustrates the importance of robust biochemical and biophysical approaches in the implementation of individualized medicine.
Functional Suppression of Premotor Activity in a Transient Model of Motor Cortex Injury

Cortical injuries (e.g. strokes or traumatic brain injuries) can create a host of secondary events that further impair the brain9s sensory, motor, or cognitive capabilities. Here, we attempted to isolate the acute effects of the primary injury, i.e., the loss of cortical activity, on rodent motor cortex (caudal forelimb area, CFA) without the secondary effects that arise from damage to cortical tissue. We then observed the effects of this loss of activity on the rodent premotor cortex (rostral forelimb area, RFA). In anesthetized rats, CFA was temporarily inactivated with the GABA-A agonist muscimol, disrupting motor network function while leaving neural connectivity intact. Using intracortical microstimulation (ICMS) techniques, we found that CFA inactivation completely abolished ICMS-evoked forelimb movement from RFA yet spared some CFA evoked-movement. Neural recordings confirmed that neural suppression by muscimol was isolated to CFA and did not spread into RFA. We next observed how CFA inactivation suppressed RFA influence on forelimb muscles by obtaining intramuscular electromyographical (EMG) recordings from forelimb muscles during ICMS. EMG recordings showed that despite the presence of evoked movement in CFA, but not RFA, muscle activation in both areas were similarly reduced. These results suggest that the primary reason for the loss of ICMS-evoked movement in RFA is not reduced forelimb muscle activity, but rather a loss of the specific activity between RFA and CFA. Therefore, within the intact motor network of the rat, RFA9s influence on forelimb movement is mediated by CFA, similar to the premotor and motor organization observed in non-human primates.
Semiparametric and nonparametric evaluation of first-passage distribution of bivariate degradation processes

Abstract In system engineering, the reliability of a system depends on the reliability of each subsystem. Those subsystems have their own performance characteristics (PCs) which can be dependent. The degradation of those dependent PCs of the subsystems is used to access the system reliability. Parametric frameworks have been developed to model bivariate degradation processes in the literature; however, in practical situations, the underlying degradation process of a subsystem is usually unknown. Therefore, it is desired to develop semiparametric and nonparametric approaches to model bivariate degradation processes. Here, different semiparametric and nonparametric methods are proposed to estimate the first-passage time distribution of dependence bivariate degradation data. The saddlepoint approximation and bootstrap methods are used to estimate the marginal FPT distributions empirically and the empirical copula is used to estimate the joint distribution of two dependence degradation processes nonparametrically. A Monte-Carlo simulation study is used to demonstrate the effectiveness and robustness of the proposed semiparametric and nonparametric approaches. A numerical example is presented to illustrate the methodologies developed in this paper.
Electrohydrodynamic analysis of bubble burst in large Leidenfrost droplets

A thin vapor gap forms underneath a liquid drop on a sufficiently hot surface, which prevents solid–liquid contact (the Leidenfrost effect). This vapor gap can be partly eliminated by applying an electrical potential difference across the vapor gap to electrostatically suppress the Leidenfrost state. An interesting hydrodynamics-related phenomenon that can occur in Leidenfrost droplets is the formation of a vapor dome and subsequent bubble burst at the center of the droplet. This work reports a comprehensive study of vapor dome formation and bubble burst in large Leidenfrost droplets under the influence of an electric field. First, a detailed numerical model (non-linear thin film lubrication equation) is developed to analyze the evolution of the vapor dome and bubble burst. Second, a simplified stability analysis is conducted to analytically estimate the critical droplet diameter (for bubble burst) under the influence of an electric field. Third, experiments are conducted to measure the critical diameter of Leidenfrost droplets for bubble burst under the influence of electric fields. The results from the numerical modeling and stability analysis show very good agreement with experimental measurements. The critical diameter for bubble burst and the time period between consecutive vapor bursts reduce with the applied electric field. Comparisons are made between the presently studied vapor burst and film boiling; similarity in the underlying hydrodynamic phenomena results in the length and time scales for bubble burst being similar to those encountered in film boiling.
Anticipative and Predictive Control of Automated Vehicles in Communication-Constrained Connected Mixed Traffic

Connected automated driving technologies have shown substantial benefits to improve the safety and efficiency of traffic. However, connected mixed traffic, which involves both connected automated vehicles and connected human-driven vehicles, is more foreseen for the realistic case in the near future. This brings new challenges because of the complexity of human elements in the system. In addition, the communication constraints in realistic connectivity such as random delays and packet losses bring even more challenges to the system. Therefore, this paper proposes a new anticipative and predictive automated vehicle control approach in connected mixed traffic. The approach first anticipates the states of surrounding vehicles including human-driven vehicles, and then integrates the anticipation into the predictive control of automated vehicles, which can help improve the control performance and also handle the communication constraints. An inverse model predictive control (IMPC) based anticipation approach has been proposed. The proposed approach, together with constant speed (CS), intelligent driver model (IDM) and artificial neural network (ANN) based anticipation methods are integrated with model predictive control (MPC) for automated vehicle control. The approaches have been tested in human-in-the-loop experiments and the results show that the integration with a newly proposed IMPC based anticipation has shown the best performance in terms of accuracy, efficiency and scalability in connected mixed traffic with both ideal and constrained communications.
Life-limiting fetal conditions and pregnancy continuation: parental decision-making processes.

Objectives When parents are facing a life-limiting fetal condition (LLFC), decision making about prenatal and neonatal care is very stressful. To participate in successful shared decision making, interdisciplinary care teams need to understand factors that parents consider and the process by which they make decisions about care of their baby. Methods This study reports on findings about parental decision making from a larger longitudinal, naturalistic study of parents’ experiences of continuing pregnancy with an LLFC. Mothers and fathers over 18 were interviewed in person, on phone or via video, twice during pregnancy and twice after birth and death. Transcripts were professionally transcribed and verified. Data were analysed with iterative coding and theme identification, using within-case and cross-case comparison. Results Thirty parents (16 mothers, 13 fathers, 1 lesbian partner) from multiple US states and a range of racial/ethnic backgrounds were interviewed. Parents’ experience with decision making was difficult, stressful and time-sensitive. They described a three-phase process: (1) identifying the decision to be made, (2) conducting a risk–benefit analysis to weigh objective medical information and subjective factors (values and spirituality, impact on self, partner, baby and the other children) and (3) making a decision. Parents considered diagnostic and prognostic certainty, likelihood of a good outcome and avoidance of suffering and regrets. Conclusion For shared-decision making, healthcare providers must discuss objective medical information as well as recognise parents’ subjective values and priorities. This study expands on the literature on parental decision making around the numerous types of decisions after LLFC, informing obstetrics, neonatology and palliative care.
A survey to identify factors associated with veterinarian and administrative staff turnover in rural veterinary practices

Employee recruitment and retention is challenging for rural veterinary practices. Employee turnover creates personnel replacement costs that hinder profits. This survey identified factors potentially associated with veterinarian and administrative personnel turnover.
Posner on Beanie Babies

Cuddly, stuffed toy animals and Richard Posner might seem a strange combination. But maybe not, for Posner has a soft spot for small animals (but not dogs) and in addition to being an ardent fan of monkeys, describes himself as "slavishly devoted" to his cat Dinah. So what could be more fun for a judge who likes small animals, finds in tellectual property a challenging area for economics, and views writing as a form of consumption, not work (unlike the rest of us), than au thoring one copyright and three trademark opinions in a three-year period involving Ty's pellet-filled plush toy animals called "Beanie Babies"? In the copyright case, Posner held that a collector's guide containing photographs of every released Beanie Baby did not in fringe the copyrights on Beanie Babies as sculptural works. In the trademark cases, Posner found that (1) a seller of second-hand Beanie Babies using the business name Bargain Beanies and the domain name "bargainbeanies.com" did not violate the federal antidilution statute; (2) the personal name rule (which requires that a personal name achieve "secondary meaning" before it will be protected as a trademark) did not apply to a toy camel named "Niles;" and (3) there was insufficient evidence on likelihood of confusion to find that the mark "Screenie Beanies" attached to a soft stuffed toy animal used for wiping computer screens infringed Ty's trademark for purposes of summary judgment. Not surprisingly, I find myself in complete agreement with the four decisions, since my views on copyright and trademarks are thor oughly intertwined with Posner's after having jointly authored numer ous articles and a book on the economics of intellectual property law. My intention here, therefore, is to look more closely at a fascinating economic and legal question that arises in the Perry man case: whether
Sexual Activity among College Students Living in Residence Halls and Fraternity or Sorority Housing

Abstract This study was conducted to determine the prevalence of high-risk sexual behaviors among college students at a midwestern university. The sexual behaviors portion of the National College Health Risk Behavior Survey was used to collect data from 735 university students who were 18 years of age or older, never married, and lived in residence halls or in fraternity/sorority (F/S) housing. The independent variables for analysis were gender, residence, and F/S affiliation. The dependent variables were the various sexual behaviors (e.g., number of lifetime sexual partners, condom use, alcohol/drug use prior to sexual intercourse, etc.). The majority of the students (n = 634, 86.3%) had experienced sexual intercourse. Students living in F/S housing had more lifetime sexual intercourse partners and engaged in more sexual activity during the 30 days preceding the survey than students living in the residence halls. F/S members were more likely to use alcohol and/or drugs prior to last sexual intercourse th...
Maternal alcohol consumption, birth weight, and minor physical anomalies

The effect of maternal alcohol consumption during pregnancy upon neonatal outcome was examined in 278 mother-infant dyads. Accounts of the mother's drug use as well as information about confounding factors were obtained by personal interviews on two occasions during pregnancy and again after delivery. The infants were examined by a standardized procedure for the presence of minor physical anomalies. Alcohol, in moderate amounts, was found to be unrelated to infant birth weight, birth length, or head circumference. Minor physical anomalies associated with fetal alcohol syndrome were no more common in infants exposed to heavy amounts of alcohol in the first trimester than in nonexposed infants. A weak but significant negative correlation between alcohol consumption and gestational age was not accounted for by covariance with emotional stress, parity, socioeconomic status, mother's age, or use of other drugs.
Plant-Plant Allelopathic Interactions

This chapter provides a definition of allelopathy, processes included and excluded from plant–plant allelopathic interactions, criteria needed to establish plant–plant allelopathic interactions, application of the Scientific Method, use of laboratory and field bioassays, and a short paragraph on the subject matter of the rest of the book.
Joint longitudinal modeling of age of dam and age of animal for growth traits in beef cattle

Two methods to jointly model age of dam (AOD) and age of animal in random regression analyses of growth in Gelbvieh cattle were examined. The first method (M1) was analogous to the multiple-trait analysis and consisted of AOD as a nested class variable and a cubic polynomial regression on age nested within birth, weaning, and yearly weights. The second method (M2) used two-dimensional splines, with age knots at 150, 205, 270, 340, and 390 d. The AOD knots were placed at 725, 1,464, and 2,189 d. These selected knots were used to form a two-dimensional grid containing 15 knots, each representing a specific age and AOD combination. A data set containing Gelbvieh growth records was split along contemporary groups into two data sets. Data set 1 contained 316,078 records and was used for prediction by mixed-model equations. Data set 2 contained 164,167 records and was used for cross validation. In the complete data set, only 90 and 30% of animals with birth weight had records on weaning and yearling weights, respectively. Models were evaluated based on R 2 , average squared error (ASE), percent bias, and plots of solutions. The ASE for weights associated with birth weight, weaning weight, and yearling weight for Ml were 15, 505, and 703 kg2. With M2, large jumps in fixed-effect estimates were observed outside the two-dimensional grid. To eliminate this problem, weighted one-dimensional splines were used for extrapolation beyond the two-dimensional grid. For M2 with weighted spline extrapolation, the ASE were 15, 542, and 777 kg2 for birth weight, weaning weight, and yearling weight, respectively. Creation of optimal two-dimensional splines is difficult when data are clustered. Despite such difficulties, the two-dimensional spline was capable of jointly and continuously modeling AOD and age of animal.
Bucking the Trend: Three New Geoscience Programs

At a time when geoscience departments are being eliminated or dispersed, three new undergraduate geoscience degree-granting programs were approved during the past decade. These programs have grown ...
Chapter 19 – Friction Ridge Examination

Friction ridge examination is one of the bedrock disciplines in forensic science and has been employed for over 100 years. It is considered the pre-eminent method of individualization in forensic science. That status, however, has recently been upset by court challenges and high-profile misidentifications. Friction ridge examination will no doubt continue as a mainstay of forensic science, but changes in methodology and interpretation may be on the horizon. How the discipline weathers these changes depends on the willingness of the profession to critically examine their foundations, procedures, and methods.
The First Men in Leadership Positions in the American Association of Nurse Anesthetists

PURPOSE This exploratory study focuses on the American Association of Nurse Anesthetists. It sheds light on the process by which men gain access to leadership positions in a female-dominated setting. It also expands the narrative of the professional association's history. CONCLUSIONS As soon as men became eligible for membership in 1947, they gained access to leadership positions in disproportionate numbers and at a faster pace than women at the national level and in a number of states. The specific pattern of findings is consistent with volitional relational practices, suggesting that women facilitated the integration and empowerment of male colleagues who constituted a small minority in the association. MANAGEMENT IMPLICATIONS The paper discusses the need to understand and manage the interactions between relational practices that are gendered female and views of leadership as male-gendered.
Formwork for Concrete

One of the important uses of lumber and structural plywood is one in which the wood does not even remain as a part of the completed structure. Plywood and lumber used as concrete formwork are, of course, stripped (removed) after the concrete hardens. Wood formwork can be used to make a simple concrete wall or column or a complex shell roof.
Operator theory in finite-dimensional vector spaces

This chapter is preliminary to the following one where perturbation theory for linear operators in a finite-dimensional space is presented. We assume that the reader is more or less familiar with elementary notions of linear algebra. In the beginning sections we collect fundamental results on linear algebra, mostly without proof, for the convenience of later reference. The notions related to normed vector spaces and analysis with vectors and operators (convergence of vectors and operators, vector-valued and operator-valued functions, etc.) are discussed in somewhat more detail. The eigenvalue problem is dealt with more completely, since this will be one of the main subjects in perturbation theory. The approach to the eigenvalue problem is analytic rather than algebraic, depending on function-theoretical treatment of the resolvents. It is believed that this is a most natural approach in view of the intended extension of the method to the infinite-dimensional case in later chapters.
Bear weight management: a diet reduction plan for an obese spectacled bear (Tremarctos ornatus)

Spectacled bears (Tremarctos ornatus) are agile climbers and many aspects of behaviour in the wild are related to procuring food. In captive situations obesity can result from reduced activity and offering food in excess of energy requirements if food is not presented in a way that encourages increased foraging time. In December 2006, a fifteen-year-old male spectacled bear was received into quarantine at the Smithsonian Institution’s National Zoological Park. During the quarantine examination, nutrition staff manually assessed body condition and at 222.5 kg, the animal was deemed grossly obese with a body condition score of 9 on a 1–9 point scale. A weight reduction plan was developed with a goal of gradual and continual weight loss at a rate of 1.0% of initial body weight (BW) per week, with a maximum of 2.0% and a minimum of 0.5% of initial BW/week to reach an initial summer target BW of 170 kg in 6–8 months. Once the initial goal was achieved, seasonal target BW ranges were further refined over the following 12 months, resulting in a total weight loss of 77 kg (35% of initial BW). Throughout the process keepers noted a marked positive increase in physical activity and associated behaviours. The male was successfully introduced to a newly acquired female spectacled bear and mating occurred during June 2009, with two genetically valuable cubs born in January 2010.
Attenuating surface plasmon resonance via core/alloy architectures.

The layer-by-layer processing of Au/AuxPd 1−x core/alloy nanoparticlesvia microwave irradiation (MWI) based hydrothermal heating is described. Alloy shell growth was monitored by the attenuation of surface plasmon resonance (SPR) as a function of shell thickness and composition. Discrete dipole approximation (DDA) correlated the SPR to particle morphology.
Communicating About Health: Current Issues and Perspectives, by Athena du Pre

Do female physicians and male physicians communicate differently? How should health communicators plan for a crisis? What is “health communication” anyway? Athena du Pre answers these questions and...
Clothing and Difference: Embodied Identities in Colonial and Post‐Colonial Africa

Clothing and Difference: Embodied Identities in Colonial and Post-Colonial Africa. Hildi Hendrickson. ed. Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 1996. 268 pp.
Comment on "On the geometry of parallel impedances"

In the original paper by S. Karni (see ibid., vol. 35, p. 233-4, 1992), the author argues that the time-honored custom of forbidding the use of angle-measuring devices in geometrical proofs appears to have been violated. If it were otherwise, the problem of trisecting an arbitrary angle would be trivial. Furthermore, the author states that the method proposed by Karni suffers from the disadvantage of employing one procedure for resistors and another for impedances. He argues that this is bound to prove awkward when then is a combination of the two. By far the most elegant geometrical method of handling impedances and resistors connected in parallel is that of inversion in a circle followed by reflection in the real axis. This requires that the impedances be given in rectangular rather than polar form. The author learned the inversion method (invented in the West at least a 100 years ago) in the 1950s as an undergraduate in his native India. In the modern age of computers, graphical methods can perhaps play a supplementary role.
Hypersonic plasma particle deposition of nanostructured silicon and silicon carbide

Abstract A new process for the production of nanostructured materials, hypersonic plasma particle deposition (HPPD), is experimentally investigated. In HPPD, vapor phase precursors are injected into a flowing plasma generated by a DC arc. The plasma undergoes a supersonic expansion into a deposition chamber, with the pressure dropping across the nozzle from ∼500 Torr to ∼2 Torr. Ultrafine particles nucleate in the nozzle, accelerate in the hypersonic free jet downstream of the nozzle, and deposit by inertial impaction onto a temperature-controlled substrate. The low particle residence time (∼50 μ s) minimizes particle agglomeration, while the high particle deposition velocity (∼1 km s -1 ) results in the formation of a partially consolidated coating. We have characterized silicon, carbon and silicon carbide coatings produced by injecting vapor-phase SiCl 4 and hydrocarbon (CH 4 and C 2 H 2 ) precursors into an Ar–H 2 plasma. The silicon coatings are polycrystalline, while the carbon and silicon carbide deposits are amorphous and hydrogenated. Both Si and SiC coatings had nanostructured regions with grain sizes on the order of 20–30 nm, reasonably close to the diameters of impacting particles measured using an extractive aerosol probe coupled to a scanning electrical mobility analyzer.
Overgeneration and Ranking for Spoken Dialogue Systems

We describe an implemented generator for a spoken dialogue system that follows the 'overgeneration and ranking' approach. We find that overgeneration based on bottom-up chart generation is well-suited to a) model phenomena such as alignment and variation in dialogue, and b) address robustness issues in the face of imperfect generation input. We report evaluation results of a first user study involving 20 subjects.
Modelling the radiant output of orchard heaters

Abstract The radiant output from orchard heaters is an important factor in frost protection, although it is usually neglected in frost protection models. The basic theory for calculating radiant flux incident on a leaf, which is arbitrarily positioned and oriented with respect to a radiation-emitting cylinder, and disc, is presented. A typical heater stack is shown not to emit as a point source; errors of 30% result from applying the “inverse square law”. Furthermore, arguments about the importance of heater radiation that are based on point source emission from a single orchard heater are invalid, because foliage at any point in an orchard receives radiation from many heaters. Considering the radiant output of only a single heater, instead of the combined effect of all heaters, leads to an underestimate of the importance of heater radiation by a factor of two to ten.
Why Americans Hate Politics and Politicians

Do psychiatrists still use word-association techniques with their patients? I sometimes do word association with my students, usually on the first day of my introductory American government classes at Rhodes College. The first word I say is “politics,” and here is what they come back with: corrupt, dirty, games-playing, ego trip, a waste. (The nicest thing I heard the last time I did this was “boring”.) Here is what they say in response to “politician”: selfish, ambitious, mediocre, unprincipled.The teacher in me wants to despair when students associate words like these with politics. I know, as did Aristotle, that politics is a vital and sometimes noble human activity. I know that politics was at the heart of our birth as a nation. (As John Roche [1961] has pointed out, the founding fathers may be described in many ways, but no description is accurate that leaves out the word “politician.”) I know that politics was the vehicle that integrated generations of our immigrant ancestors into the mainstream of American society—the job on the city road crew that my German grandfather got from the Frank Hague machine in Jersey City is the reason that my father and then I were later able to build careers of our own in the private sector. And I know that it is politics that secures the basic freedoms that allow my students to say critical things about politics.
Surgical management of benign tumors of the liver

Introduction: Benign tumors of the liver are increasingly being diagnosed and continue to represent a management challenge. These lesions constitute a substantial component of hepatic neoplasms evaluated and resected at a tertiary referral center. We reviewed our experience with resection of benign liver lesions to clarify the safety and effectiveness of this treatment. Methods: Between January 1996 and January 2000, 28 patients with benign hepatic lesions were identified from a cohort of 140 hepatic resection patients. Demographic characteristics, operative management, morbidity, mortality and follow-up were retrospectively analyzed. Results: The mean age in our patients was 35±14, with 24/28 (86%) patients being female. Seven of the 24 woman (29%) at presentation were either pregnant or immediate postpartum. A history of OCP use was noted in 14/24 (58%) female patients. The most common presenting symptom was abdominal pain in 12/28 (43%). Resection for an undiagnosed mass occurred in 11/28 (39%) patients. The distribution of pathology was hemangioma 10/28 (35.7%), adenoma 8/28 (28.6%), hepatic cyst 5/28 (17.9%), hamartoma 2/28 (7.1%), and FNH 3/28 (10.7%). Average size of the tumor was 7.4±3.9 (range 2.5–15 cm) with a mean of 1.4±0.8 lesions (range 1–3) per patient. Tumors were evenly distributed between the right and left side while eight patients (29%) had bilobar tumors. Enucleation rather than anatomic resection was performed in 18/28 (64%) patients, with a mean blood loss of 457±532 cc (range 50–2200 cc). Blood transfusion was required in only 3/28 (10%) patients, while total vascular isolation was used in only a single patient undergoing an extended left hepatectomy. Mean length of stay was 6.8±3.2 d (range 3–14 d). Three complications (10.7%) were encountered: pulmonary embolus, ileus and non-operative bile leak. There were no mortalities in this series. Recurrence of tumor occurred in only one patient with a giant hepatic cyst managed laparoscopically. Conclusions: In our institution, the management of clinically relevant benign tumors of the liver comprises a significant proportion of our resectional practice (20%). Our data suggests that both enucleation and anatomically based resections can be performed safely with minimal blood loss and transfusion requirements. Resection of symptomatic lesions was highly effective in treating abdominal pain due to these benign tumors. We advocate resection of non-resolving hepatic adenomas, symptomatic lesions, or when malignancy cannot be excluded.
Apparent Slow Oceanic Transform Earthquakes Due to Source Mechanism Bias

Slow earthquakes, characterized as ones whose magnitude increases with period, are often observed occurring on oceanic transform faults (Kanamori and Stewart 1976; Okal and Stewart 1982; Stein and Pelayo 1991; Choy and Boatwright 1995; Newman and Okal 1998; Perez-Campos et al. 2003). Previous work has found that oceanic transform earthquakes often have lower body wave magnitudes compared to ridge and oceanic intraplate earthquakes of comparable surface wave magnitude and seismic moment. This phenomenon might result from the slow events having lower stress drop. Alternatively, the effect could be due to a source mechanism bias resulting from the fact that transform earthquakes are primarily strike-slip events on steeply dipping faults. In this geometry, body waves arriving at teleseismic distances left the source near nodal planes, resulting in smaller amplitudes than for dip-slip events of the same moment. Slow earthquakes are ones that release energy more “slowly” than typical earthquakes and therefore radiate more energy at longer periods. Such earthquakes have been identified in various ways. One is from an anomalous ratio of the body wave magnitude mb , which reflects the energy release at a period of 1 s, to the surface wave magnitude MS , which reflects the energy release at a period of 20 s. Although slow earthquakes have been observed in various tectonic environments, they are especially common for oceanic transform earthquakes that have strike-slip mechanisms, as shown by analysis of a global catalog of oceanic earthquakes (Stein and Pelayo 1991). The transform earthquakes generally had lower body wave magnitudes compared to ridge and oceanic intraplate earthquakes of comparable surface wave magnitude and seismic moment. This effect is illustrated in Figure 1A, where a transform event with a moment larger than the ridge event shown has lower mb than …
Pneumopericardium due to transdiaphragmatic perforation of a gastric ulcer

A 65-year-old man presented with cardiogenic shock and massive pneumopericardium. A gastropericardial fistula due to transdiaphragmatic penetration of a large fundal ulcer was documented radiographically and confirmed at autopsy. Previously recorded cases of pneumopericardium complicating gastric ulcers or other diseases of the digestive tract are briefly reviewed.
Superbase-derived protic ionic liquids with chelating fluorinated anions

Abstract Eighteen new protic ionic liquids were synthesized in one step from five organic superbases and five commercially available fluorinated β-diketones. Physical properties of the ionic liquids, including thermal decomposition temperature were determined. Nine of the ionic liquids were examined as extraction media for La 3+ , with some very large distribution coefficients obtained.
On growing pine cones and other Fibonacci fruits— McCulloch's localized algorithm

Abstract A central interest in mathematical biology is to find localized rules for growing objects having global characteristics that can be simply characterized within different reference frames. W.S. McCulloch, a few years before his death, developed (but never published) a local set of rules for growing any of the many kinds of fruits in which the numbers of clockwise and counterclockwise spirals of scales, florets, or what have you, are successive Fibonacci numbers. This article explains these rules by applying them to a five- and eight-spiral pine cone.
Evolutionary variation and adaptation in a conserved protein kinase allosteric network: implications for inhibitor design.

Abstract The activation of protein kinases involves conformational changes in key functional regions of the kinase domain, a detailed understanding of which is essential for the design of selective protein kinase inhibitors. Through statistical analysis of protein kinase sequences and crystal structures from diverse organisms, we recently proposed that the activation of protein kinases involves a hidden strain switch in the catalytic loop. Specifically, we demonstrated that the backbone torsion-angles of residues in the catalytic loop switch from a “relaxed” to “strained” conformation upon kinase activation and the strained geometry results in a network of hydrogen bonds involving conserved non-catalytic residues in the ATP and substrate binding lobes. Here, we further explore this activation mechanism by analyzing families that lack the canonical hydrogen bonding interactions with the strained backbone. We find that alternative mechanisms have evolved to maintain catalytic loop strain. In PIM kinase, for example, two water molecules account for the lack of a conserved aspartate in the substrate binding by hydrogen bonds to the strained backbone. We discuss the relevance of these findings in the design of family-specific allosteric inhibitors, and in predicting the structural and functional impact of cancer mutations that alter the strain associated hydrogen bonding network. This article is part of a Special Issue entitled: Inhibitors of Protein Kinases (2012).
Medical care for haemophilia.

Background/objectives: haemophilia is a lifelong bleeding disorder associated with significant morbidity. Because of this for almost 25 years there has been a national network of specialized haemophilia treatment centres (HTCs). Despite this, there is little published information about HTC utilization. We chose to study utilization and satisfaction with care received from the Colorado HTC as compared with that received at other nonspecialized sites. Research design: a survey was designed in collaboration between Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment (CDPHE) and the Denver Mountain States Regional Hemophilia Center personnel for telephone administration by CDPHE personnel to all persons with haemophilia (pwh) residing in Colorado in 1994. Subjects: one hundred forty-five persons with haemophilia (77% of those eligible) participated in the survey. Results: the majority of respondents received care from the HTC. Persons less than 21 years of age and those with severe disease were significantly more likely to do so. Satisfaction with care received at the HTC was greater than that received at other sites (P < 0.01). Issues of concern were insurer restricted access to the HTC and the lack of haemophilia knowledge of non-HTC providers. Conclusions: if HTCs and other specialty centres are to survive in an increasingly managed care environment, in addition to increased patient satisfaction, data documenting improved patient outcome with specialty centre directed care will be necessary to facilitate referral.