cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Consulting Publics in European Union Gender Policies: Organising Echo Chambers or Facilitating Critical Norm Engagement?

This chapter analyzes the productivity of gender norms in European Union public consultations. With the public consultation process, the European Commission (EUC) wants to increase its democratic legitimacy by way of increasing public outreach beyond experts and professional civil society actors. At the same time, public consultations provide particular topical emphases and frames to the public for discussion. Analysing responses to the 2015 Public Consultation on Equality Between Women and Men in the European Union as well as their uptake by the EUC, we can assess the degree to which the online public consultation advances EUC goals, encourages listening of its institutions and produces critical norm engagement by EU citizens.
Polarization-correlated photon pairs from a single quantum dot

Polarization correlation in a linear basis, but not entanglement, is observed between the biexciton and single-exciton photons emitted by a single InAs quantum dot in a two-photon cascade. The results are well described quantitatively by a probabilistic model that includes two decay paths for a biexciton through a nondegenerate pair of one-exciton states, with the polarization of the emitted photons depending on the decay path. The results show that spin nondegeneracy due to quantum-dot asymmetry is a significant obstacle to the realization of an entangled-photon generation device.
Human Simulation as a Humble Approach

This epilogue to Human Simulation places the volume’s contributions into the context of the use of models in science, the potential of computational execution of concepts and ideas by using simulation, and the epistemological constraints of such efforts. It proposes that bringing social scientists, humanities scholars, and supporting simulationists together creating human simulations will push the boundaries of what we know and what we can do, moving the frontier between what is theoretically possible and what is practically feasible in support of applicable research methods.
Prior to failure extension of flaws in a rate sensitive Tresca solid.

Theoretical analysis shows that the amount of slow growth occurring prior to fracture in a plane stress tension specimen subjected to a subcritical stress intensity level is affected by the ductility and rheological sensitivity of the material, the rate of loading, the initial crack size, and the geometrical configuration of the test. These parameters enter the governing nonlinear differential equation which describes the quasi-static crack extension in a rate-sensitive Tresca solid. Examples of numerical integration are given and employed to predict the maximum fracture toughness attained in a plane stress tension test.
Gender Equity and Vitamin A Supplementation: Moving Beyond Equal Coverage.

Background:Vitamin A supplementation (VAS) is currently implemented in over 80 countries worldwide, but little attention has been paid to gender equity in the design or implementation of these prog...
Recurrence of benign phonotraumatic vocal fold lesions after microlaryngoscopy

OBJECTIVES To determine recurrence rates for benign phonotraumatic vocal fold lesions after microlaryngoscopic surgery. STUDY DESIGN Retrospective review. METHODS Records of adults who underwent microlaryngoscopy between 2006 and 2017 for vocal fold cysts, midfold masses, polyps, pseudocysts, sulcus vocalis (Ford type 3), and varices were reviewed for demographics, medical history, treatment, and lesion recurrence. Patients operated for nonphonotraumatic lesions (e.g., granuloma, keratosis/leukoplakia, papilloma) were excluded. Stroboscopic examinations were re-reviewed to confirm diagnosis and outcome. RESULTS Five hundred ten adults (223 male:287 female; mean age 40.3 ± 14.9 years) were included. Overall, 62 of 510 (12.2%) recurred (median time to recurrence: 70.0 months). Of these, 44 (71.0%) recurred to the same lesion type and 49 (79.0%) to the same side. Recurrence rates by initial lesion type were as follows: cysts, two of 92 (2.2%); midfold masses, four of 18 (22.2%); polyps, 25 of 235 (10.6%); pseudocysts, 30 of 145 (20.7%); sulcus vocalis, one of 18 (5.6%); and varices, zero of two (0%) (χ 2 = 28.7, degrees of freedom [df] = 5, P < 0.001). No significant difference in recurrence existed between males (21 of 223, 9.4%) and females (41 of 287, 14.3%). However, young adults (17 of 86, 19.8%) had significantly higher recurrence rates compared to middle-aged (12 of 155, 7.7%) and older adults (3/60, 5.0%) (χ 2 = 9.5, df = 3, P = 0.023). Of 62 recurrences, 18 were re-operated and four re-recurred. CONCLUSION Benign phonotraumatic vocal fold lesions recur at variable rates. This variation suggests pathophysiologic differences between categories that may not be entirely explained by behavioral factors. LEVEL OF EVIDENCE 4 Laryngoscope, 130: 1989-1995, 2020.
Informed Consent and Medical Artificial Intelligence: What to Tell the Patient?

Imagine you are a patient who has been diagnosed with prostate cancer. The two main approaches to treating it in the United States are active surveillance versus the surgical option of radical prostatectomy. Your physician recommends the surgical option, and spends considerable time explaining the steps in the surgery, the benefits of (among other things) eliminating the tumor and the risks of (among other things) erectile dysfunction and urinary incontinence after the surgery. What your physician does not tell you is that she has arrived at her recommendation of prostatectomy over active surveillance based on the analysis of an Artificial Intelligence (AI)/Machine Learning (ML) system, which recommended this treatment plan based on analysis of your age, tumor size, and other personal characteristics found in your electronic health record. Has the doctor secured informed consent from a legal perspective? From an ethical perspective? If the doctor actually chose to “overrule” the AI system, and the doctor fails to tell you that, has she violated your legal or ethical right to informed consent? If you were to find out that the AI/ML system was used to make recommendations on your care and no one told you, how would you feel? Well, come to think of it, do you know whether an AI/ML system was used the last time you saw a physician? This Article, part of a Symposium in the Georgetown Law Journal, is the first to examine in depth how medical AI/ML interfaces with our concept of informed consent. Part I provides a brief primer on medical Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning. Part II sets out the core and penumbra of U.S. informed consent law and then seeks to determine to what extent AI/ML involvement in a patient’s health should be disclosed under the current doctrine. Part III examines whether the current doctrine “has it right,” examining more openly empirical and normative approaches to the question. To forefront my conclusions: while there is some play in the joints, my best reading of the existing legal doctrine is that in general, liability will not lie for failing to inform patients about the use of medical AI/ML to help formulate treatment recommendations. There are a few situations where the doctrine may be more capacious, which I try to draw out (such as when patients inquire, when the medical AI/ML is more opaque, when it is given an outsized role in the final decision-making, or when the AI/ML is used to reduce costs rather than improve patient health), though extending it even here is not certain. I also offer some thoughts on the question: if there is room in the doctrine (either via common law or legislative action), what would it be desirable for the doctrine to look like when it comes to medical AI/ML? I also briefly touch on the question of how the doctrine of informed consent should interact with concerns about biased training data for AI/ML.
An overview of the tools for embedded design and debug

Abstract This chapter looks at the standard tools that are both generic to software development and the tools that are specific to software and hardware integration for embedded, real-time systems. We’ll examine in-circuit emulators, logic analyzers, HW/SW coverification, and ROM emulation.
Heuristic Approach for Arrival Management of Aircraft in On-Demand Urban Air Mobility

The arrival sequencing and scheduling problem have been formulated in the urban air mobility (UAM) context for homogeneous and mixed fleets of electric vertical takeoff and landing (EVTOL) aircraft...
Tumor-responsive, multifunctional CAR-NK cells cooperate with impaired autophagy to infiltrate and target glioblastoma

Abstract Tumor antigen heterogeneity, a severely immunosuppressive tumor microenvironment (TME) and lymphopenia resulting in inadequate immune intratumoral trafficking have rendered glioblastoma (GBM) highly resistant to therapy. As a result, GBM immunotherapies have failed to demonstrate sustained clinical improvements in patient overall survival (OS). To overcome these obstacles, here we describe a novel, sophisticated combinatorial platform for GBM: the first multifunctional immunotherapy based on genetically-engineered, human NK cells bearing multiple anti-tumor functions, including local tumor responsiveness, that addresses key drivers of GBM resistance to therapy: antigen escape, poor immune cell homing, and immunometabolic reprogramming of immune responses. We engineered dual-specific CAR-NK cells to bear a third functional moiety that is activated in the GBM TME and addresses immunometabolic suppression of NK cell function: a tumor-specific, locally-released antibody fragment which can inhibit the activity of CD73 independently of CAR signaling and decrease the local concentration of adenosine. The multifunctional human NK cells targeted patient-derived GBM xenografts, demonstrated local tumor site specific activity in the tissue and potently suppressed adenosine production. We also unveil a complex reorganization of the immunological profile of GBM induced by inhibiting autophagy. Pharmacologic impairment of the autophagic process not only sensitized GBM to antigenic targeting by NK cells, but promoted a chemotactic profile favorable to NK infiltration. Taken together, our study demonstrates a promising new NK cell-based combinatorial strategy that can target multiple clinically-recognized mechanisms of GBM progression simultaneously.
Bias-Variance Trade-off and Overlearning in Dynamic Decision Problems.

Modern Monte Carlo-type approaches to dynamic decision problems are reformulated as empirical loss minimization, allowing direct applications of classical results from statistical machine learning. These computational methods are then analyzed in this framework to demonstrate their effectiveness as well as their susceptibility to generalization error. Standard uses of classical results prove potential overlearning, thus bias-variance trade-off, by connecting over-trained networks to anticipating controls. On the other hand, non-asymptotic estimates based on Rademacher complexity show the convergence of these algorithms for sufficiently large training sets. A numerically studied stylized example illustrates these possibilities, including the importance of problem dimension in the degree of overlearning, and the effectiveness of this approach.
Contemporary Land Grabbing: Research Sources and Bibliography

Contemporary land grabbing issues often include large-scale land acquisitions by foreign and/or non-indigenous investors, land alienation from local communities, and the protection of rights, livelihoods, and culture of indigenous and local people in connection with their traditional usage of arable land, forest, and water. This new contemporary land grabbing was stimulated by many complicated reasons, such as the 2008 price spikes in food and fuel prices, the motivation of states and investors to secure food supplies under market volatility, safe investment alternatives under land and commodity price increases, the search for alternative energy sources such as biofuels, and expected compensation for carbon sequestration. Investors, consisting of multinational and transnational business entities and various types of investment banks and funds normally backed by investing countries and international financial institutions (“IFIs”) such as the World Bank, have also been supported and protected by the governments of target countries, putting local and indigenous people in a weaker position. Researching contemporary land grabbing issues is complicated and more difficult than traditional land grabbing research which covered between the colonial period and the early twenty-first century. Contemporary land grabbing research is difficult for researchers because of the complex reasons and motivations behind the contemporary land grabbing, the number of stakeholders involved, the interdisciplinary nature of research, the many different types of legal sources to search — international treaties, custom, jurisprudence, soft law, and domestic statutes and customary law — lack of empirical evidence, and scattered resources in many different places. The research is a mixture of international and domestic legal research and legal and non-legal research. In this article, the author first investigates the contemporary land grabbing and land alienation and their definitions and identify the difficulties of research. Next, the article delineates various mechanisms and international principles which can be useful for the protection of the rights of indigenous and local people from the attack of State and non-State actors. Finally, the author selectively reviews several books and articles with annotations which provide great starting points for contemporary land grabbing research.
Competition for control of the state and the transitional justice agenda among Tunisian civil society organisations

This article examines how Tunisian CSOs positioned themselves vis-a-vis the State and each other on transitional justice (TJ) since 2011. CSOs are divided over religion, their status under Ben Ali,...
FSMP-03. INVESTIGATING CO-OPTED ASTROCYTIC METABOLISM IN MELANOMA BRAIN METASTASIS

Melanoma, an aggressive form of skin cancer, frequently metastasizes to the brain. While peripheral melanoma is largely treatable, MBM fail to respond to current therapeutics and is a clear unmet clinical need. Initial clinical symptoms of Melanoma Brain Metastases (MBM) typically include headaches, seizures and other neurological deficits, suggesting that MBM disrupt normal brain functions. One of the major cell types that melanoma encounter and interact with during brain metastasis are astrocytes. Astrocytes, the most abundant cell in the brain, interact with neurons and the vasculature, provide trophic and energetic support to neurons, and regulate local blood flow. Metabolic pathways in astrocytes, particularly the glutamate-glutamine cycle, are essential for the recycling and resupply of neurotransmitters needed to maintain the excitation/inhibition balance. We propose that MBM co-opt astrocytic metabolism, fueling MBM growth, and deplete metabolic intermediates crucial for neuronal activity leading to altered neurologic function. We begin to unravel the metabolic interactions between astrocytes and MBM using novel modeling platforms with genetic and pharmacological tools to manipulate the tumor microenvironment. This project investigates the contribution of astrocytic metabolism to MBM growth. We intend on dissecting the distinct metabolic needs of metastatic brain melanoma in the CNS microenvironment and the subsequent neurological consequences. Completion of this project will provide a platform to study MBM and interaction with the local brain microenvironment. Inhibiting metabolic interactions between melanoma and glial cells may provide new avenue for therapeutic targeting of MBM.
OCT Image Segmentation Using Neural Architecture Search and SRGAN

Medical image segmentation is a critical field in the domain of computer vision and with the growing acclaim of deep learning based models, research in this field is constantly expanding. Optical coherence tomography (OCT) is a non-invasive method that scans the human's retina with depth. It has been hypothesized that the thickness of the retinal layers extracted from OCTs could be an efficient and effective biomarker for early diagnosis of AD. In this work, we aim to design a self-training model architecture for the task of segmenting the retinal layers in OCT scans. Neural architecture search (NAS) is a subfield of AutoML domain, which has a significant impact on improving the accuracy of machine vision tasks. We integrate the NAS algorithm with a Unet auto-encoder architecture as its backbone. Then, we employ our proposed model to segment the retinal nerve fiber layer in our preprocessed OCT images with the aim of AD diagnosis. In this work, we trained a super-resolution generative adversarial network on the raw OCT scans to improve the quality of the images before the modeling stage. In our architecture search strategy, different primitive operations suggested to find down- & up-sampling Unet cell blocks and the binary gate method has been applied to make the search strategy more practical. Our architecture search method is empirically evaluated by training on the Unet and NAS-Unet from scratch. Specifically, the proposed NAS-Unet training significantly outperforms the baseline human-designed architecture by achieving 95.1% in the mean Intersection over Union metric and 79.1% in the Dice similarity coefficient.
Effects of General Anesthetics in Man on the Ratio of Cerebral Blood Flow to Cerebral Oxygen Consumption

The effects of several general anesthetics on cerebral blood flow are shown in Fig. 1. The pattern which appears to be consistent for all of the general anesthetics studied in man in these laboratories is one of decreased cerebral blood flow during light anesthesia and increasing cerebral perfusion as anesthesia deepens.
Evaluating Bacterial Adhesion Using Atomic Force Microscopy

The Atomic Force Microscope (AFM) is a scanning probe microscope invented in 1986 by Binnig, Quate, and Gerber in order to image surface features of planar substrates with atomic resolution.3,22,26 The AFM consists of a cantilever that scans a planar substrate resulting in a topographic map of the surface features of the substrate. Standard AFM cantilevers have sharp, pyramidal, silicon nitride tips at their ends that contact the surface during imaging (Fig. 1).26 During imaging the AFM cantilever experiences a repulsive force that originates from the overlap of electron orbitals between atoms of the tip and the substrate.9 As the cantilever scans the substrate, features on the surface cause the cantilever to deflect. Cantilever deflection is detected using a laser which is reflected off of the cantilever into a photodiode, in accordance with the optical lever rule (Fig. 1).22,51
Implementing distributed AI systems using MACE

This paper describes the experimental DAI development system MACE (Multi-Agent Computing Environment) using the implementation of a distributed blackboard system as an example. MACE is an instrumented testbed for building DAI systems at different levels of granularity. MACE agents run in parallel, and communicate via messages. They have have facilities for knowledge representation (e.g., models of other agents) and reasoning. The MACE environment maps agents to processors, handles inter-agent communication, and provides a language for describing agents, tracing and instrumentation, a facility for remote demons, and a collection of system-agents which construct user-agents from descriptions, monitor execution, handle errors, and interface to a user. MACE is implemented on a 16-node INTEL SYM-1 large-memory hypercube and in a Lisp machine environment. We have used MACE to model lower-level parallelism (several distributed production rule systems) and to build higher-level distributed problem-solving architectures (distributed blackboard and contract-net schemes).
A REVOLUTION IN THE FOUNDATIONS OF MATHEMATICS

The standard contemporary view of the foundations of mathematics and of the role of logic in it is well known and firmly entrenched. The ground floor of the edifice of mathematics is on this view our basic logic, that is to say first-order logic, a.k.a. quantification theory or lower predicate calculus. It has various desirable features, such as completeness, compactness, Lowenheim-Skolem property and the validity of the separation theorem. Indeed, it is the strongest possible logic in the sense of abstract (model-theoretical) logic that has the pleasant properties of compactness and Lowenheim-Skolem property, assuming only the usual behavior of propositional connectives plus a few plausible structural properties. This is what the famous theorem of Lindstrom’s shows.1 This theorem seems to assign a special position to ordinary first-order logic. At the same time, it is a kind of impossibility theorem, showing that we cannot hope to strengthen first-order logic without losing some of its desirable properties.
The Role of Mycorrhizal Fungi in the Composition and Dynamics of Plant Communities: A Scaling Issue

Mycorrhizae are by now a well-known feature of plant communities in terrestrial ecosystems. These symbioses, by definition, are mutualistic and always between plants and fungi localized in the root or rhizoid, and are found in every terrestrial ecosystem except the Dry Valleys of Antarctica. For over a century, the importance of mycorrhizae in facilitating (and occasionally inhibiting) nutrient uptake by plants has been documented for hundreds of plant species and in many different soils and environmental conditions.
19TH CENTURY ASYLUMS FOR NATIVE AMERICAN YOUTH

In the history of European contact with the Native American, Christian missionary societies and the missionaries they sent among the native peoples have played a key role. From the first contact, the Europeans in North America attempted to bring European civilization and Christianity to a people they viewed as uncivilized. One of the most respected historians of the Protestant missions to the Native Americans, Robert Berkhofer (1963 176), noted that the early colonial efforts of missionaries were generally viewed as failures by the early 19th century. By the 1820s, however, there was a climate of optimism and enthusiasm for a new strategy of missionary work, the manual labor boarding school (MLBS) for Native American youth (Berkhofer 1963).
Reference, Theories of

Theories of reference are about the relations between representations and the world that are thought to determine (at least partly) the meaning or content of those representations. Keywords: concept; content; holism; meaning; truth
r-Process Enhanced Halo Stars

Abundance observations indicate the presence of rapid-neutron capture (i.e., r-process) elements in old Galactic halo and globular cluster stars. These observations provide insight into the nature of the earliest generations of stars in the Galaxy -- the progenitors of the halo stars -- responsible for neutron-capture synthesis of the heavy elements. The large star-to-star scatter observed in the abundances of neutron-capture element/iron ratios at low metallicities -- which diminishes with increasing metallicity or [Fe/H] -- suggests the formation of these heavy elements (presumably from certain types of supernovae) was rare in the early Galaxy. The stellar abundances also indicate a change from the r-process to the slow neutron capture (i.e., s-) process at higher metallicities in the Galaxy and provide insight into Galactic chemical evolution. Finally, the detection of thorium and uranium in halo and globular cluster stars offers an independent age-dating technique that can put lower limits on the age of the Galaxy, and hence the Universe.
Phase Retrieval, Symmetrization Rule and Transport-of-Intensity Equation in Application to Induction Mapping of Magnetic Materials

Recent progress in the field of noninterferometric phase retrieval brings the ordinary Fresnel microscopy to a new quantitative level, suitable for recovering both the amplitude and phase of the object, based on image intensity measurements of the object. We show that this is sufficient for in-plane component mapping of magnetic induction for small magnetic elements with known geometry ranging from micro- to few nanometers size. In present paper we re-examine some conservation principles used for the transport-of-intensity (TIE) equation derived by Teaque for application to phase retrieval in light and X-ray optics. In particular, we prove that the intensity conservation law should be replaced in general case with the energy-flow conservation law. This law describes the amplitude-phase balance of the partially coherent beam on its propagation along the optical path, valid both for light and electron optics. This substitution has at least two important fundamental consequences.
Oral Fluoroquinolones and the Risk of Uveitis

Importance Fluoroquinolones are the most commonly prescribed antibiotic class in the outpatient setting. Recent reports have implicated an association between oral fluoroquinolones and an increased risk of uveitis. Objective To determine the hazard of uveitis with oral fluoroquinolone use. Design, Setting, and Participants A retrospective cohort study was conducted using medical claims data from a large national US insurer (N = 4 387 651). Cohorts from ambulatory care centers across the United States were created including every new user of an oral fluoroquinolone or β-lactam antibiotic prescription with at least 24 months of data prior to the date of the prescription from January 1, 2000, to January 30, 2013. Exclusion criteria consisted of any previous diagnosis of uveitis or a uveitis-associated systemic illness. Participants were censored for a new diagnosis of a uveitis-associated systemic illness, the end of an observation period, use of the other class of antibiotic, or removal from the insurance plan. Data analysis was performed from January 2 through March 15, 2015. Main Outcomes and Measures The hazard of a uveitis diagnosis after a fluoroquinolone prescription compared with a β-lactam prescription using multivariate regression with Cox proportional hazards models. Results Of the 4 387 651 patients in the database, 843 854 individuals receiving a fluoroquinolone and 3 543 797 patients receiving a β-lactam were included in the analysis. After controlling for age, race, and sex using multivariate analysis, no hazard for developing uveitis at the 30-, 60-, or 90-day observation windows was seen (hazard ratio [HR] range, 0.96; 95% CI, 0.82-1.13; to 1.05; 95% CI, 0.95-1.16; P > .38 for all comparisons). The 365-day observation period showed a small increase in the HR for the fluoroquinolone cohort (1.11; 95% CI, 1.05-1.17; P P P Conclusions and Relevance These data do not support an association between oral fluoroquinolone use and uveitis. Instead, this study shows an association between oral fluoroquinolone use and the risk for uveitis-associated systemic illnesses, which is a possible source of bias that could explain the findings of previous studies.
Toxicity of pesticides registered for use in landscape nurseries to the acarine biological control agent, Neoseiulus fallacis.

Abstract The predatory mite Neoseiulus fallacis (Garman) is an important biological control agent of spider mites in landscape plants produced in the Pacific Northwest. Using pesticide toxicity information from the SELCTV database and recent literature reports, we estimated toxicity of several general pesticide classes to N. fallacis, compared susceptibility of N. fallacis to 3 other predatory mites and developed summary tables of pesticide toxicity to N. fallacis. Pesticide classes ranged from low or non-toxic to N. fallacis (i.e., organosulfur) to highly toxic (i.e., oxime carbamate). Pesticide susceptibility data for N. fallacis within or between chemical classes was similar to data for either of Typhlodromus pyri Scheuten, Galendromus occidentalis Nesbitt, or Phytoseiulus persimilis Athias-Henriot. While all pesticide types (i.e., insecticides, fungicides, herbicides, etc.) contained representatives that were highly toxic to N. fallacis, various compounds were rated low or non-toxic. On average, insec...
Anatomic landmarks utilized for physeal-sparing, anatomic anterior cruciate ligament reconstruction: an MRI-based study.

Background: Anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) injury and reconstruction in the skeletally immature patient are becoming more common. The purpose of this study was to develop a reproducible anatomic ACL reconstruction technique, based on intra-articular and extra-articular landmarks, that reliably produces a femoral tunnel of adequate length and diameter while avoiding the distal femoral physis. Methods: Magnetic resonance images (MRIs) of one hundred and eighty-eight children (age range, six to seventeen years) were evaluated. Two extra-articular landmarks, the femoral insertion of the popliteus tendon and the lateral femoral epicondyle, and one intra-articular landmark, the central portion of the femoral footprint of the ACL, were identified. Computer software was used to plot these landmarks in all three planes and to draw lines representing two potential femoral tunnels. The first line connected the center of the ACL femoral footprint with the insertion of the popliteus tendon, and the second connected the center of the ACL femoral footprint with the lateral femoral epicondyle. The length of each tunnel, the shortest distance from the center of each tunnel to the distal femoral physis, and the height of the lateral femoral condyle from the physis to the chondral surface and to the base of the cartilage cap were calculated. A three-dimensional MRI reconstruction was used to confirm that placement of a femoral tunnel with use of the chosen landmarks would avoid the distal femoral physis. Results: The mean distance from the center of the preferred ACL tunnel, which connected the center of the ACL femoral footprint with the insertion of the popliteus tendon, to the distal femoral physis was 12 mm, independent of sex (p = 0.94) or age, and the shortest distance was 8 mm. The length of this proposed tunnel averaged 30.1 mm in the boys and 27.4 mm in the girls (p < 0.001), and it averaged 25.4 mm at an age of six years and 29.7 mm at an age of seventeen years. The mean distance from the center of the alternative tunnel, which connected the center of the ACL femoral footprint with the lateral epicondyle, to the distal femoral physis was 8.8 mm in the boys and 8.9 mm in the girls (p = 0.55). The mean length of this alternative tunnel was 34.3 mm in the boys and 31.6 mm in the girls (p < 0.001). Conclusions: Drilling from the center of the ACL femoral footprint to the insertion of the popliteus tendon would have resulted in a mean tunnel length of 27 to 30 mm, and it would have allowed the safe placement of a femoral tunnel at least 7 mm in diameter in a patient six to seventeen years old. The center of the ACL femoral footprint and the popliteus insertion are easily identifiable landmarks and will allow safe, reproducible, anatomic ACL reconstruction in the skeletally immature patient.
Study of Exponential Decay and Exact Solution of Evolution System via Energy Perturbation and Decomposition Methods

Energy functional and Adomian Decomposition Methods (ADM) are employed, respectively, in order to investigate the stability of a system of connected wave equations in parallel via internal feedback controllers. Numerical computations have also been attempted for confirmation purposes.
Economic Theory and Political Reality: Managed Competition and U.S. Health Policy

During the 1992 campaign, candidate Bill Clinton made the strategic decision to embrace many aspects of an economic model called “managed competition” in his approach to health-care reform. Managed competition ideas did not die when Clinton’s health plan expired. Instead, they informed the 1997 expansion of a demonstration project into the Medicare + Choice program. Today, the Medicare + Choice legacy lives on in the Medicare Advantage and prescription drug programs created by the Medicare Prescription Drug, Improvement and Modernization Act of 2003. Shortcomings of the managed competition approach received little public attention during the debate over the Medicare Modernization Act, despite the fact that the record of Medicare + Choice is disappointing in a number of respects. There are serious questions about the ability of the managed competition approach to control costs and achieve equitable access to high-quality care. Nevertheless, the approach remains influential largely because of political considerations.
Increase in bone density and lean body mass during testosterone administration in men with acquired hypogonadism

Acquired hypogonadism is being increasingly recognized in adult men. However, the effects of long term testosterone replacement on bone density and body composition are largely unknown. We investigated 36 adult men with acquired hypogonadism (age, 22-69 yr; median, 58 yr), including 29 men with central hypogonadism and 7 men with primary hypogonadism, and 44 age-matched eugonadal controls. Baseline evaluation included body composition analysis by bioimpedance, determination of site-specific adipose area by dual energy quantitative computed tomography scan (QCT) of the lumbar spine, and measurements of spinal bone mineral density (BMD) using dual energy x-ray absortiometry, spinal trabecular BMD with QCT, and radial BMD with single photon absorptiometry. Percent body fat was significantly greater in the hypogonadal men compared to eugonadal men (mean +/- SEM, 26.4 +/- 1.1% vs. 19.2 +/- 0.8%; P < 0.01). The mean trabecular BMD determined by QCT for the hypogonadal men was 115 +/- 6 mg K2HPO4/cc. Spinal BMD was significantly lower than that in eugonadal controls (1.006 +/- 0.024 vs. 1.109 +/- 0.028 g/cm2; P = 0.02, respectively). Radial BMD was similar in both groups. Testosterone enanthate therapy was initiated in 29 hypogonadal men at a dose of 100 mg/week, and the subjects were evaluated at 6-month intervals for 18 months. During testosterone therapy, the percent body fat decreased 14 +/- 4% (P < 0.001). There was a 13 +/- 4% decrease in subcutaneous fat (P < 0.01) and a 7 +/- 2% increase in lean muscle mass (P = 0.01) during testosterone therapy. Spinal BMD and trabecular BMD increased by 5 +/- 1% (P < 0.001) and 14 +/- 3% (P < 0.001), respectively. Radial BMD did not change. Serum bone-specific alkaline phosphatase and urinary deoxypyridinoline excretion, markers of bone formation and resorption, respectively, decreased significantly over the 18 months (P = 0.003 and P = 0.04, respectively). We conclude that testosterone therapy given to adult men with acquired hypogonadism decreases sc fat and increases lean muscle mass. In addition, testosterone therapy reduces bone remodeling and increases trabecular bone density. The beneficial effects of androgen administration on body composition and bone density may provide additional indications for testosterone therapy in hypogonadal men.
DIFFERENTIATION IN RESPONSE TO CHILLING TEMPERATURES AMONG POPULATIONS OF THREE MARINE SPERMATOPHYTES, THALASSIA TESTUDINUM, SYRINGODIUM FILIFORME AND HALODULE WRIGHTII

Upon exposure to chilling conditions, the seagrass populations of Thalassia testudinum Banks ex Konig, Syringodium filiforme Kiitz., and Halodule wrightii Aschers. showed various amounts of leaf and plant damage that correlated with their origin in the Gulf of Mexico-Caribbean. Populations of more tropical origin in the southern Gulf and Caribbean showed the most chill damage and those of the northern Gulf showed the least injury from the exposure to low temperatures. Of the three seagrasses, Halodule showed greatest chill tolerance, Syringodium showed the least tolerance and Thalassia was intermediate. The uptake of 14C by leaves following exposure to chilling temperatures showed quantitative differences that correlated with the amount of leaf damage in the various populations. No significant changes in the fatty acids in total lipid extracts were noted in the Texas seagrasses after chilling and, therefore, their resistance to low temperature damage did not relate to changes in saturation of fatty acids. Although the growing conditions slightly altered the severity of the chilling effects, the differentiation of response to chilling among the seagrass populations is based on inherited properties.
Software Testing [Guest editors' introduction]

Ensuring software's reliability and effectiveness--particularly as its role in society becomes ubiquitous, and the platforms on which it operates continue to evolve--is increasingly critical, ever more challenging, and replete with moving targets.
Motion-corrected compressed-sensing enables robust spiral first-pass perfusion imaging with whole heart coverage

Background First-pass perfusion imaging using CMR is an important tool for diagnosing coronary artery disease (CAD), but most clinical techniques are limited in their spatial coverage. While compressed-sensing (CS) holds promise for highly accelerated perfusion spiral imaging, CS techniques suffer from blurring artifacts in the setting of respiratory motion. Spiral pulse sequences have multiple advantages for myocardial perfusion imaging including high acquisition efficiency, high signal to noise (SNR) and robustness to motion and for CS including a relatively incoherent aliasing pattern. Thus, we develop a whole heart spiral first-pass perfusion sequence combined with robust motion-correction.
Reproducibility and genital sparing with a vaginal dilator used for female anal cancer patients

Abstract Purpose Acute vulvitis, acute urethritis, and permanent sexual dysfunction are common among patients treated with chemoradiation for squamous cell carcinoma of the anal canal. Avoidance of the genitalia may reduce sexual dysfunction. A vaginal dilator may help delineate and displace the vulva and lower vagina away from the primary tumor. The goal of this study was to evaluate the positional reproducibility and vaginal sparing with the use of a vaginal dilator. Materials and methods Ten female patients treated with IMRT for anal cancer were included in this study. A silicone vaginal dilator measuring 29mm in diameter and 114mm in length was inserted into the vagina before simulation and each treatment. The reproducibility of dilator placement was investigated with antero-posterior and lateral images acquired daily. Weekly cone beam CT (CBCT) imaging was used to confirm coverage of the GTV, which was typically posterior and inferior to the dilator apex. Finally, a planning study was performed to compare the vaginal doses for these 10 patients to a comparable group of 10 female patients who were treated for anal cancer with IMRT without vaginal dilators. Results The absolute values of the location of the dilator apex were 7.0±7.8mm in the supero-inferior direction, 7.5±5.5mm in the antero-posterior, and 3.8±3.1mm in the lateral direction. Coverage of the GTV and CTV was confirmed from CBCT images. The mean dose to the vagina was lower by 5.5Gy, on average, for the vaginal dilator patients, compared to patients treated without vaginal dilators. Conclusion The vaginal dilator tended to be inserted more inferiorly during treatment than during simulation. For these ten patients, this did not compromise tumor coverage. Combined with IMRT treatment planning, use of a vaginal dilator could allow for maximum sparing of female genitalia for patients undergoing radiation therapy for anal cancer.
Immunoglobulins in prolonged ruptured membranes

Concentrations of immunoglobulins G, M, and A were studied in maternal and cord serum of patients with prolonged premature rupture of membranes, as well as in properly matched control patients. None of the patients studied showed any evidence of clinical chorioamnionitis or other prenatal infections. Cases were divided into term premature rupture of membranes and term controls and preterm (less than 34 gestational weeks) premature rupture of membranes and preterm controls. In the term group, with 12 to 24 hours of premature rupture of membranes, maternal immunoglobulins M and A, and cord immunoglobulin A were significantly increased. With a duration of premature rupture of membranes of more than 24 hours, levels of immunoglobulins M and A in maternal serum and levels of immunoglobulins G and A in cord serum showed significant elevations. Levels of cord immunoglobulin M from both subgroups of patients with premature rupture of membranes showed a trend upward but were not significantly higher than those in control patients. In the preterm group, with 12 to 24 hours of premature rupture of membranes, only cord immunoglobulin A was significantly increased. With premature rupture of membranes of greater than or equal to 72 hours, only maternal immunoglobulin G increased significantly and remained elevated; immunoglobulins M and A in cord serum were also significantly increased. The significant rise in immunoglobulins in patients with premature rupture of membranes may indicate subclinical maternal and fetal infection. This suggests the possibility that subclinical infections may play a role in the etiology of premature rupture of membranes.
Electrostatically confined nanoparticle interactions and dynamics.

We report integrated evanescent wave and video microscopy measurements of three-dimensional trajectories of 50, 100, and 250 nm gold nanoparticles electrostatically confined between parallel planar glass surfaces separated by 350 and 600 nm silica colloid spacers. Equilibrium analyses of single and ensemble particle height distributions normal to the confining walls produce net electrostatic potentials in excellent agreement with theoretical predictions. Dynamic analyses indicate lateral particle diffusion coefficients ∼30−50% smaller than expected from predictions including the effects of the equilibrium particle distribution within the gap and multibody hydrodynamic interactions with the confining walls. Consistent analyses of equilibrium and dynamic information in each measurement do not indicate any roles for particle heating or hydrodynamic slip at the particle or wall surfaces, which would both increase diffusivities. Instead, lower than expected diffusivities are speculated to arise from electrovis...
Techniques for assessment of stratification and effects of mechanical mixing in tropical fish ponds.

Abstract Density stratification isolates near-surface from bottom pond waters and prevents exchange of dissolved oxygen (DO) and nutrient elements, potentially restricting photosynthesis and production. Destratification strategies have become important for cost-effective intensification of pond aquaculture. Evaluation of methods and devices has emphasized effects on production, with little detailed description of effects on physicochemical components of pond ecosystems. This paper describes short-term effects of mechanical mixing on temporal and spatial distribution of temperature and DO in tropical freshwater fish ponds. Intensely stratified ponds of 1.5 m depth were monitored at eight depths for temperature and two depths for DO every 30 min with a modest-cost automated system of commercially available hardware. Results are presented as time-series plots, isotherm diagrams of temperature distribution with time and depth, and a stability index of energy required to mix a pond to uniform temperature. Required mixing energy is minuscule compared with electrical energy consumption of the lowest-powered mixing devices discussed in literature. Strategy for application of mechanical energy to water is critical for efficiency. A relatively subtle difference between two mixing regimes (daytime mixing for one 2-h period or two 1-h periods) produced potentially important differences in temperature and DO distribution.
Effects of a hydrochloric acid spill on neurobehavioral and pulmonary function

A container truck leaked 800 L (200 gallons) of hydrochloric acid (HCl) near a mobile home park in Louisiana in August 1993. The investigating officer and residents became acutely ill with burning and tearing eyes, burning throats, headache, chest pain, shortness of breath, and flu-like complaints. Twenty months later, 45 exposed adult subjects and 56 age-matched referents underwent neurobehavioral testing, including balance, reaction time, blink-reflex latency, and spirometry. They also completed health questionnaires and a profile of mood states. The exposed subjects differed significantly from referents by t test and by covariance analysis for balance, simple and two-choice visual reaction time, digit symbol, and for placing pegs in a pegboard. Proximity to the HCl spill increased sway speeds and impaired pulmonary midflow rates. Chronic neurobehavioral dysfunction and airways obstruction were found after environmental HCl exposure.
Thin-film Photodetectors For Integrated Optics

Thin -film photodetectors for integrated opticsM. L. McWright, T. E. Batchman, and R. F. CarsonDepartment of Electrical Engineering, University of VirginiaCharlottesville, Virginia 22901AbstractMetal- silicon -metal cladding layers on dielectric waveguides exhibit coupling and absorp-tion characteristics which make them useful as high- efficiency thin -film photodetectors forintegrated optical applications. Periodic coupling between the guided mode of the losslesswaveguide and the lossy modes supported by the semiconductor cladding produces an oscilla-tory behavior as the semiconductor thickness is increased. A high level of energy transferfrom the waveguide to the semiconductor can be obtained, thereby maximizing detectorabsorption.IntroductionThe periodic coupling effect in semiconductor -clad waveguides has been studied and shownto possess unique properties which are useful for integrated optical device applications.We have modelled and experimentally verified the behavior of several guided -wave devices,including a polarizer and filter.1 -4 These devices are based on properties which occurwhen the lossless modes of a dielectric waveguide couple into the lossy modes of an ab-sorptive semiconductor cladding. We have observed significant absorption levels for certainthickness values of amorphous silicon claddings. The enhanced energy transfer from thewaveguide to the semiconductor suggests that an efficient integrated waveguide /photodetectorstructure could be fabricated.5 Recent work has focussed on optimizing the device designto achieve a structure which is both efficient and feasible from a fabrication standpoint.Since our computer modelling program relies on input values such as the thickness andpermittivity of each layer, it is important to consider how parameter perturbations affectthe predicted response. The material parameter that is of primary concern is the imaginaryportion of the silicon permittivity, which is a measure of the loss or absorption in the
Preliminary Study on SST Forecast Skill Associated with the 1982/83 EI Niño Process, Using Coupled Model Data Assimilation

ABSTRACT A previous study by Rosati et al. (1997) has concluded that the specification of an adequate thermocline structure along the equatorial Pacific ocean is most crucial for El Nino forecasts. In that paper, the oceanic initial condition was generated by a data assimilation (DA) system (Derber and Rosati, 1989). However, the initial condition for the atmospheric part was taken from the National Meteorological Center's (NMC) operational analysis, which was simply attached to the oceanic part for the coupled model forecasts. In the present paper, both the atmospheric and oceanic initial conditions are generated by a coupled DA system applied to a coupled air-sea general circulation model (GCM). The assimilation for the ocean is performed by the same system as mentioned above, in which the SST (sea surface temperature) and the subsurface temperatures are injected into a 15 vertical level oceanic GCM. The Upper boundary condition, such as surface wind stress, is specified by the atmospheric DA. The assim...