cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Musculoskeletal complications of neutron therapy for prostate cancer.

The purpose of this study was to investigate the cause of hip complaints following conformal neutron therapy delivered by opposed lateral and oblique anterior ports to treat prostate cancer. Twenty-seven patients with hip complaints following neutron or mixed neutron and photon therapy for prostate cancer had 34 magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) studies 3–39 (mean 15.3) months following treatment; for comparison, 13 similarly treated patients without hip complaints were imaged 1–32 (mean 13.8) months post-treatment; 25/40 imaged patients received concurrent nonsteroidal hormone therapy. Coronal and axial images of the hips/pelvis were obtained utilizing T1 weighted spin echo and fat suppressed inversion recovery (STIR) sequences. Signal amplitude (SA) of involved muscles was measured on the STIR images and normalized to that of the psoas outside the treatment field. Hip complaints ranged from mild soreness or motion limitation to severe pain and limitation of ambulation; presence and severity of symptoms (sx) were significantly related to neutron dose (P = 0.020 and 0.0001) but not to hormone therapy (each P > 0.17). Normalized SA of the obturator muscles differed significantly with neutron dose (P = 0.013), the presence, and the severity, of sx (P = 0.0002 and 0.0007); estimated extent of abnormal muscle also differed significantly with neutron dose (P = 0.039), presence, and severity, of sx (P = 0.00004 and 0.0007); [hormone treatment had a profound effect on SA (P = 0.0001) and extent (P = 0.005) which was independent of sx (P = 0.10 and 0.14, respectively) and neutron dose (P = 0.33 and 0.32, respectively)]. Subcutaneous changes localized lateral to the greater trochanter were seen in all, and edema of the subjacent gluteus muscles in many, symptomatic hips; only 4/13 asymptomatic hips showed subcutaneous changes, 6 had mild gluteus edema. Avascular necrosis of the femoral head was seen in 5 symptomatic hips, with marked acetabular necrosis in 3 of these; small joint effusions were seen in 8 symptomatic hips; asymptomatic hips had no significant bone or joint abnormalities. Neutron therapy for prostate cancer designed to spare the rectum results in significant dose-dependent, musculoskeletal complications which are well demonstrated by MRI. SA abnormalities of irradiated muscle correlate significantly with neutron dose and both presence and severity of hip sx. Protocol modifications have been implemented to reduce these complications. MRI provides an objective means to assess both complications and the success of new protocols in ameliorating them. Concurrent hormone therapy has a profound effect on muscle changes on MRI which is independent of neutron dose and sx. Radiat. Oncol. Invest. 5:81–91, 1997. © 1997 Wiley-Liss, Inc.
Underpotentially Deposited Metal Layers of Silver Provide Enhanced Stability to Self-Assembled Alkanethiol Monolayers on Gold

This letter details a straightforward electrochemical method for increasing the thermal stability of alkanethiol-based self-assembled monolayers (SAMs) on polycrystalline gold surfaces. Ex situ ell...
Electron scattering from atoms in the presence of a laser field. II

In the first paper of this series a formal theory of atomic scattering of electrons in the presence of an intense electromagnetic field was given. Cross sections, near the forward direction, between atomic states (modified by the laser) were obtained. However, it was assumed that the atom could not emit spontaneous radiation. In this paper the effect of spontaneous radiation is included, and it is shown that in most cases the measured cross section will be a weighted average of the two different cross sections starting from the two different initial states which are those atomic states resonantly linked by the laser. The Born approximation for the scattering is obtained, and it is shown that for the simplest description of the spontaneous radiation field the effect of the laser on the cross sections is simply to multiply them by a factor which depends upon the laser detuning.
Equilateral polygon approximation of closed contours

Numerous algorithms have been suggested for computing polygonal approximations of closed contours. We present an algorithm which as a unique feature creates polygons which are equilateral, that is, whose edges are all of the same length. This allows one-dimensional shape descriptions to be derived using the interior polygon angles. Conceptually, the algorithm is an optimization framework for finding the minimum energy configuration of a mechanical system of particles and springs that represent the contour points, the polygon vertices and their interaction. In practice, the dominant points are detected on the Gaussian smoothed contour and used to seed an initial polygon. Nonlinear programming is then used to minimize the system energy subject to the constraint that adjacent vertices must be equidistant. The objective function is the sum of a curvature weighted distance between each vertex and a set of contour points associated therewith. Experimental results are given for closed contours obtained from grey-scale images.
Visual and auditory sentence processing: A developmental analysis using event‐related brain potentials

Subjects aged 5 to 26 years listened to and read (7 to 26 years) sentences that ended either with a highly expected (best completion) or a semantically inappropriate (anomalous completion) word. Event‐related potentials (ERPs) to sentence final words displayed effects of contextual priming in both modalities in all age groups. Early and late ERP components displayed large decreases in amplitude and latency with age. These changes necessitated normalization procedures so that overall changes in amplitude with age could be assessed separately from changes in the amplitude of the differences between best‐completion and anomalous‐completion words. There were significant reductions in the contextual priming effects with age. Moreover, these age‐related changes were different for the auditory and visual modalities, and for the early and later phases of the priming effect. These results suggest that nonidentical systems, with different developmental time courses, generate the early and late priming effects in th...
Intramolecular charge transfer in a trinuclear iron ene-triyne complex

A trinuclear redox-active complex with an unprecedented ene-triyne backbone has been isolated and structurally characterized. The mono-oxidized mixed-valent species exhibits electronic delocalization necessary for molecular circuitry.
The development of the dual thin scintillator (DTS) in thy 1 + 2 coincidence configuration as a neutron spectrometer

Abstract The Dual Thin Scintillator-(DTS) when operated in the 1 + 2 coincidence configuration, exihibits a peaked response centered at the incident neutron energy. This is a more favouable response to be used with spectrum unfolding techniques and should provide a significant improvement over spectral determination with conventional proton recoil response functions.
Information protection via environmental data tethers

Faced with an increasing number of incidents involving leaks of confidential data, it is clear that new data protection strategies are needed. We propose Data Tethers, a new paradigm which uses policies based on environmental factors to determine when sensitive data may be stored on a machine and when it must be encrypted or removed from the machine entirely. We discuss a number of example scenarios where existing data protection systems provide insufficient protection and Data Tethers would prevent data exposure. We also discuss a proposed implementation of Data Tethers, including a number of different environmental inputs.
Cryopreservation of the SB-M photosynthetic soybean [Glycine max (L.) Merr.] suspension culture

The photosynthetic cell suspension culture of soybean [Glycine max (L.) Merr. cv. Corsoy] (SB-M) was successfully cryopreserved in liquid nitrogen using a preculture and controlled freezing to −40° C (two-step) freezing method. The effective method included a preculture treatment with gradually increasing levels of sorbitol added to the 3% sucrose already present in the medium. The cells were then placed in a cryoprotectant solution [10% DMSO (dimethylsulfoxide) and 9.1% sorbitol, or 10% DMSO and 8% sucrose], incubated for 30 min at 0° C, cooled at a rate of 1° C/min to −40° C, held at −40° C for 1 h, and then immersed directly into liquid nitrogen. The cells were thawed at 40° C and then immediately placed in liquid culture medium. The cell viabilities immediately after thawing were 75% or higher in all cases where cell growth resumed. The original growth rate and chlorophyll level of the cells was recovered within 40 to 47 d. If the sorbitol level was not high enough or the preculture period too short, growing cultures could not be recovered. Likewise, survival was not attained with cryoprotectant mixtures consisting of 15% DMSO, 15% glycerol, and 9.1% sucrose or 15% glycerol and 8% sucrose. The successful method was reproducible, thus allowing long-term storage of this and certain other unique photosynthetic suspension cultures in liquid nitrogen.
Resonance line transfer calculations by doubling thin layers. I - Comparison with other techniques. II - The use of the R-parallel redistribution function

A versatile and efficient technique for the solution of the resonance line scattering problem with frequency redistribution in planetary atmospheres is introduced. Similar to the doubling approach commonly used in monochromatic scattering problems, the technique has been extended to include the frequency dependence of the radiation field. Methods for solving problems with external or internal sources and coupled spectral lines are presented, along with comparison of some sample calculations with results from Monte Carlo and Feautrier techniques. The doubling technique has also been applied to the solution of resonance line scattering problems where the R-parallel redistribution function is appropriate, both neglecting and including polarization as developed by Yelle and Wallace (1989). With the constraint that the atmosphere is illuminated from the zenith, the only difficulty of consequence is that of performing precise frequency integrations over the line profiles. With that problem solved, it is no longer necessary to use the Monte Carlo method to solve this class of problem.
Photoellipsometry: a modulation spectroscopy method applied to n-type GaAs

Abstract Photoellipsometry combines the structural sensitivity of spectroscopic ellipsometry with the built-in electric field sensitivity of photoreflectance, by measuring both the pseudodielectric function and the photomodulated pseudodielectric function. This allows simultaneous characterization of the built-in fields, and the structural parameters such as heterostructure layer thicknesses on which the fields partly depend. Results for bulk n-type GaAs are presented here. Lineshape analysis, similar to that for photoreflectance, yields the surface field and depletion width. The Schottky barrier height is also determined by analysis of the dependence on the pump beam intensity.
Polarizing Beamsplitters And Combiners

The design of thin film polarizing devices is reviewed with emphasis on biprism and front surface polarizers. Particular applications of each type are outlined. Information is provided on the angular res-ponse characteristics of the devices and potential systems applications are discussed.© (1974) COPYRIGHT SPIE--The International Society for Optical Engineering. Downloading of the abstract is permitted for personal use only.
Bovine RNase MRP cleaves the divergent bovine mitochondrial RNA sequence at the displacement-loop region

RNase MRP is a site-specific ribonucleoprotein endoribonuclease that cleaves mitochondrial RNA from the origin of leading-strand DNA synthesis contained within the displacement-loop region. Bovine mitochondrial DNA maintains the typical gene content and order of mammalian mitochondrial DNAs but differs in the nature of sequence conservation within this displacement-loop regulatory region. This markedly different sequence arrangement raises the issue of the degree to which a bovine RNase MRP would reflect the physical and functional properties ascribed to the enzymes previously characterized from mouse and human. We find that bovine RNase MRP exists as a ribonucleoprotein, with an RNA component of 279 nucleotides that is homologous to that of mouse or human RNase MRP RNA. Characterization of the nuclear gene for bovine RNase MRP RNA showed conservation of sequence extending 5′ of the RNase MRP RNA coding sequence, including the presence of a cis-acting element known to be important for the expression of some mitochondrial protein-coding nuclear genes. Bovine or mouse RNase MRP cleaves a standard mouse mitochondrial RNA substrate in the same manner; each also cleaves a bovine mitochondrial RNA substrate identically. Since bovine and mouse RNase MRPs process both bovine and mouse substrates, we conclude that the structural features of the mitochondrial RNA substrate required for enzymatic cleavage have been well conserved despite significant overall primary sequence divergence. Inspection of the bovine RNA substrate reveals conservation of only the most critical portion of the primary sequence as indicated by earlier studies with mouse and human RNase MRPs. Interestingly, a principal cleavage site in the bovine mitochondrial RNA substrate is downstream of the promoter located at the leading-strand mitochondrial DNA replication origin.
Can spatial training improve long-term outcomes for gifted STEM undergraduates?

article i nfo Article history: This one-year longitudinal study investigated the benefits of spatial training among highly gifted science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) undergraduates (28 female, 49 male). Compared to a ran- domized control condition, 12 h of spatial training (1) improved the skills to mentally rotate and visualize cross-sections of 3-D objects shortly after training, (2) narrowed gender differences in spatial skills shortly after training, and (3) improved examination scores in introductory physics (d=.38) but not for other STEM courses. After eight months, however, there were no training differences for spatial skills, STEM course grades, physics self-efficacy, or declared majors. Large gender differences, favoring males, persisted for some spatial skills, physics grades, and physics self-efficacy eight months after training. These results suggest that sustained exposure to spatially enriching activities over several semesters or years may be necessary to address gender gaps in spatial skills among highly gifted STEM undergraduates.
Visual quality and attentional capture: a challenge to the special role of abrupt onsets

This article investigates the nature of stimulus-driven attentional capture. Previous studies (e.g., J. Jonides & S. Yantis, 1988) have suggested that only a single visual feature--abrupt visual onset--can elicit stimulus-driven attentional capture. Two experiments are reported that challenge the special status of abrupt onsets in attentional capture. In particular, this evidence suggests that abrupt onsets appear to attenuate display-size effects only in certain experimental contexts that inadvertently increase the ease with which they are perceived. Consequently, the special status attributed to abrupt onsets is argued to derive from their higher visual quality.
Biologically inspired robots as artificial inspectors

Imagine an inspector conducting an NDE on an aircraft where you notice something is different about him - he is not real but rather he is a robot. Your first reaction would probably be to say 'it's unbelievable but he looks real' just as you would react to an artificial flower that is a good imitation. This science fiction scenario could become a reality at the trend in the development of biologically inspired technologies, and terms like artificial intelligence, artificial muscles, artificial vision and numerous others are increasingly becoming common engineering tools. For many years, the trend has been to automate processes in order to increase the efficiency of performing redundant tasks where various systems have been developed to deal with specific production line requirements. Realizing that some parts are too complex or delicate to handle in small quantities with a simple automatic system, robotic mechanisms were developed. Aircraft inspection has benefitted from this evolving technology where manipulators and crawlers are developed for rapid and reliable inspection. Advancement in robotics towards making them autonomous and possibly look like human, can potentially address the need to inspect structures that are beyond the capability of today's technology with configuration that are not predetermined. The operation of these robots may take place at harsh or hazardous environments that are too dangerous for human presence. Making such robots is becoming increasingly feasible and in this paper the state of the art will be reviewed.
Grain Quality Characteristics and Milling Performance of Full and Partial Waxy Durum Lines

ABSTRACT Mutation of the gene coding for the granule bound starch synthase (waxy protein) leads to reduced amylose content in cereal endosperm. Durum wheat (Triticum turgidum L. var. durum) has one waxy locus in each of its two genomes. Full waxy durum wheat is produced when both genomes carry the waxy null alleles. When only one locus is mutated, partial waxy durum wheat is obtained. Partial and full waxy near-isogenic lines of durum wheat developed by a breeding program were analyzed as to their quality characteristics. Amylose was largely eliminated in full waxy lines; however, no reduction in amylose content was detected in partial waxy lines. The waxy mutation did not affect grain yield, kernel size, or kernel hardness. Full waxy durum lines had higher kernel ash content, α-amylase activity, and a unique nonvitreous kernel appearance. Protein quality, as evaluated by SDS microsedimentation value, gluten index, and wet gluten was slightly lower in the full waxy lines than in the other genotypes. Howev...
Bone marrow changes related to disuse

To evaluate bone marrow changes on knee magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) in patients with 3- to 6-week-long period of unloading. MRI knee examinations were performed in 30 patients (14 men, 16 women; aged 20–53 years) at baseline and 5–10 weeks after immobilisation of the ipsilateral lower extremity; subsets of patients were examined at additional time-points. Ten volunteers (4 men, 6 women; aged 20–50 years) were studied as control cohort at two time-points. Bone marrow signal abnormalities were analysed according to: (1) severity, (2) signal alteration relative to hyaline cartilage, (3) morphology, (4) increased vascularity in the knee joint and (5) T1-signal alteration. Spearman’s rank correlation test (SRC) and Kendall’s tau (KT) were used to compare individual scores. All 30 patients presented abnormal bone marrow findings after unloading, which reached a peak at 10–25 weeks (P <0.001). These findings decreased within 1 year (P < 0.001). High scores of severity were associated with confluent and patchy patterns of bone marrow (SCR = 0.923, P < 0.001 and KT = 0.877, P <0.001). Signal abnormalities of the bone marrow related to unloading are consistent findings and most prominent 10–25 weeks following immobilisation when both confluent and patchy hyperintense patterns are present. • Disuse is associated with hyperintense MRI signal alteration on fluid-sensitive sequence. • Disuse findings are more prominent at the patella and femoral epiphyses. • Disuse MRI findings appear to be characterised by a specific chronological pattern.
Underwater Robots: Motion and Force Control of Vehicle-Manipulator Systems (G. Antonelli; 2006) [Book Review]

This book covers the area of robot control while addressing the additional challenges of a mobile platform (the underwater vehicle) and considers the difficulties and adversity related to the underwater environment. Some of the topics covered include: a discussion on the state of underwater vehicle technology; modeling of underwater vehicle/manipulator systems (UVMs); a survey of existing control algorithms for autonomous underwater vehicles (AUVs); fault detection and tolerance strategies for underwater vehicles; experimental results on both control and fault tolerance to thruster faults; the kinematics, dynamics, and interaction control for UVMs; and coordinated control of a platoon of AUVs. This book does an excellent job presenting many of the issues related to the modeling and control of UVMs. The number of references is impressive, and most of the work in the field that any researcher would need to consult for a deeper understanding of the state of the art is included.
Automated Exiting from OCLC with ProComm

My article in the April 1987 OCLC Micro (pp. 23–26) described the use of the communications program ProComm to ease access to OCLC when dialing through a PC. It included a series of batch files and logon commands for speeding entry to OCLC and printing the results automatically.
Activation Dynamics and Signaling Properties of Notch3 Receptor in the Developing Pulmonary Artery

Notch3 signaling is fundamental for arterial specification of systemic vascular smooth muscle cells (VSMCs). However, the developmental role and signaling properties of the Notch3 receptor in the mouse pulmonary artery remain unknown. Here, we demonstrate that Notch3 is expressed selectively in pulmonary artery VSMCs, is activated from late fetal to early postnatal life, and is required to maintain the morphological characteristics and smooth muscle gene expression profile of the pulmonary artery after birth. Using a conditional knock-out mouse model, we show that Notch3 receptor activation in VSMCs is Jagged1-dependent. In vitro VSMC lentivirus-mediated Jagged1 knockdown, confocal localization analysis, and co-culture experiments revealed that Notch3 activation is cell-autonomous and occurs through the physical engagement of Notch3 and VSMC-derived Jagged1 in the interior of the same cell. Although the current models of mammalian Notch signaling involve a two-cell system composed of a signal-receiving cell that expresses a Notch receptor on its surface and a neighboring signal-sending cell that provides membrane-bound activating ligand, our data suggest that pulmonary artery VSMC Notch3 activation is cell-autonomous. This unique mechanism of Notch activation may play an important role in the maturation of the pulmonary artery during the transition to air breathing.
A Case for Preserving the Diversity of Madness

Summary Watters questions the universality of mental illness and warns of the harms that accompany the exportation of Western typologies to non-Western cultures. He is particularly concerned that these effects will be exacerbated by the upcoming revisions of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-V). Building on his examination of non-Western practices, Watters exposes the historical instability of mental health classifications in North America to question the validity of current DSM categories. Although Watters' warnings about the dangers of the globalisation of the DSM are persuasive, they may be overreaching as our examination of the successful incorporation of Western created autism services, information, and interventions in the developing world suggests.
Analysis of Crowded Field Adaptive Optics Image Data

A point source deconvolution technique is described that models the effects of anisoplanatism on the adaptive optics point spread function. This technique is used in the analysis of a quadruple system observed using the Palomar Adaptive Optics system on the Hale 5 meter telescope. Two members of this system reside in a .1 asec double. Deconvolution of this close double was performed using the PSF of a third member of the system, which was offset from the double by 12 asec. Incorporation of anisoplanatism into the deconvolution procedure requires knowledge of the turbulence profile, which was measured at the time of these observations using a DIMM/MASS unit at Palomar Observatory.
Mental Health Needs of Older Adults and Primary Care: Opportunity for Interdisciplinary Geriatric Team Practice

The convergence of a number of disparate factors has led to opportunities to help address the mental health needs of older adults in primary care (PC) or “integrated care” settings. Older adults are disproportionately high users of health care resources, and cost projections for coming decades have catastrophic implications. Elders shun mental health services, instead turning to their personal physicians when troubled. The PC system is clogged with patients without medical problems or whose medical conditions are exacerbated by psychosocial factors (estimated at 60% to 70%), resulting in overutilization of services and high costs. However, PC physicians detect and adequately treat or refer only 40% to 50% of patients with mental health problems. Early experience with brief and/or structured interventions in PC settings is promising and suggests opportunities for multidisciplinary team geriatric practice.
Does Acquistion by Non-U.S. Shareholders Cause U.S. Firms to Pay Less Tax?

The U.S. corporate tax revenue implications for foreign-domiciled firms acquiring U.S. companies is an important and longstanding tax policy issue. This study attempts to provide some empirical underpinning for this controversial debate. We compare actual corporate taxable income before and after their 1996 acquisitions for 31 matched pairs, half acquired by foreign-controlled companies and half acquired by American-controlled firms. Contrary to claims that foreign-controlled firms pay less tax, we find no evidence that taxable income declines more after a non-U.S. shareholder acquires a U.S.-domiciled firm than after a U.S. shareholder acquires a U.S.-domiciled firm.
CONDITION MONITORING FOR INDEXABLE CARBIDE END MILL USING ACCELERATION DATA

In order to automate machining operations, it is necessary to develop robust tool condition monitoring techniques. In this paper, a tool monitoring strategy for indexable tungsten carbide end milli...
SPOT the Drug! An Unsupervised Pattern Matching Method to Extract Drug Names from Very Large Clinical Corpora

Although structured electronic health records are becoming more prevalent, much information about patient health is still recorded only in unstructured text. """"Understanding"""" these texts has been a focus of natural language processing research for many years, with some remarkable successes. Knowing the drugs patients take is not only critical for understanding patient health (e.g., for drug-drug interactions or drug-enzyme interaction), but also for secondary uses, such as research on treatment effectiveness. Several drug dictionaries have been curated, such as RxNorm or FDA's Orange Book, with a focus on prescription drugs. Developing these dictionaries is a challenge, but even more challenging is keeping these dictionaries up-to-date in the face of a rapidly advancing field. To discover other, new adverse drug interactions, a large number of patient histories often need to be examined, necessitating not only accurate but also fast algorithms to identify pharmacological substances. We propose a new algorithm, SPOT, which identifies drug names that can be used as new dictionary entries from a large corpus, where a """"drug"""" is defined as a substance intended for use in the diagnosis, cure, mitigation, treatment, or prevention of disease. Measured against a manually annotated gold-standard corpus, we present precision and recall values for SPOT. SPOT is language and syntax independent, can be run efficiently to keep dictionaries up-to-date and to also suggest words and phrases which may be misspellings or uncatalogued synonyms of a known drug. We show how SPOT's lack of reliance on NLP tools makes it robust in analyzing clinical medical text. SPOT is a generalized bootstrapping algorithm, seeded with a known dictionary and automatically extracting the context within which each drug is mentioned. We define three features of such context: support, confidence and prevalence. We present the performance tradeoffs depending on the thresholds chosen for these features.
A comparison of mini-bronchoalveolar lavage and blind-protected specimen brush sampling in ventilated patients with suspected pneumonia

Purpose: Mini-bronchoalveolar lavage (m-BAL) and blind-protected brush sampling (b-PSB) are minimally invasive methods of diagnosing pneumonia in mechanically ventilated patients. The aim of this study was to compare these techniques in a prospective study at a medical and surgical intensive care unit in a university-affiliated community teaching hospital. Patients and Methods: One hundred and ninety episodesof pneumonia was suspected in 175 mechanically ventilated patients. Sequential b-PSB followed by m-BAL were performed by respiratory therapists who had undergone specialized training. A b-PSB quantitative culture greater than 1,000 cfu/mL and a m-BAL greater than 10 4 cfu/mL was considered diagnostic of pneumonia. Colony counts between 500 and 1,000 efu/mL and 5,000 − 10 4 cfu/mL, respectively, were considered borderline positive. Results: One hundred and ninety paired specimens were obtained from 175 patients. The diagnostic agreement between the two techniques was 90%. Sixty-six patients (37%) were considered to have bacterial pneumonia. In 108 episodes, patients were receiving concurrent antibiotics; pneumonia was diagnosed in 30 (27%) of these cases compared with 36 of 82 (43%) episodes off antibiotics ( P = .03). In 6 episodes, m-BAL was negative and b-PSB was positive (1 patient receiving antibiotics). In 13 episodes, b-PSB was negative and m-BAL was positive (7 patients were receiving antibiotics). The b-PSB took 30 ± 8 seconds to perform and was complicated by minor bleeding in 3 cases. The m-BAL took 5 ± 2 minutes to perform, was considered easy in 105 cases, difficult/very difficult in 63, and failed in 2 patients. Significant coughing occurred in 98 patients with other minor reversible complications occurring in a further 20 cases. Conclusions: In mechanically ventilated patients withsuspected pneumonia both b-PSB and m-BAL can be performed safely by respiratory therapists. The tests complement each other and likely reduce the number of false-negative results.
Where Eagles Dare: An Ethno-Fable with Personal Landfill:

“Where eagles dare” is an ethno-fable about the conversion of the toxic Rocky Mountain Arsenal to wildlife nature preserve, supplemented by an academic and personal subsurface guide that considers Arsenal remediation beneath the surface.
Studies on a biotin-hexokinase interrelationship.

Abstract The problem of biotin involvement in glycolysis has been investigated with studies on glucose utilization by biotin-deficient cells of Saccharomyces cerevisiae 139 and studies on the utilization of 2-deoxy- d -glucose by cell-free extracts of biotin-deficient cultures of the same organism. The results of these studies implicate hexokinase as a site of biotin involvement. Several interpretations of these findings have been proposed.
Towards Low-cost >15% Efficient Film c-Si Solar Cells: Progress & Challenges

We report progress towards >15% c-Si solar cells using a “seed and epitaxy” approach. While 9% solar cells on test substrates prove feasibility, improved seeds and light trapping will be required to achieve >15%.
Some space gravity formulas and the dimensions and the mass of the Earth

Adopting thePizzetti-Somigliana method and using elliptic integrals we have obtained closed formulas for the space gravity field in which one of the equipotential surfaces is a triaxial ellipsoid. The same formulas are also obtained in first approximation of the equatorial flattening avoiding the use of the elliptic integrals. Using data from satellites and Earth gravity data the gravitational and geometric bulge of the Earth's equator are computed. On the basis of these results and on the basis of recent gravity data taken around the equator between the longitudes 50° to 100° E, 155° to 180° E, and 145° to 180° W, we question the advantage of using a triaxial gravity formula and a triaxial ellipsoid in geodesy. Closed formulas for the space field in which a biaxial ellipsoid is an equipotential surface are also derived in polar coordinates and its parameters are specialized to give the international gravity formula values on the international ellipsoid. The possibility to compute the Earth's dimensions from the present Earth gravity data is the discussed and the value ofMG=(3.98603×1020 cm3 sec−2) (M mass of the Earth,G gravitational constant) is computed. The agreement of this value with others computed from the mean distance Earth-Moon is discussed. The Legendre polinomials series expansion of the gravitational potential is also added. In this series the coefficients of the polinomials are closed formulas in terms of the flattening andMG.
Effects of Surface‐Applied Limestone on the Efficiency of Urea‐Containing Nitrogen Sources for No‐Till Corn

Fertilizer N and lime amendments are commonly surface-applied to no-till (NT) production systems, but research on these practices under NT is limited. We examined the effect of surface-applied limestone on the efficiency of urea, urea-NH 4 NO 3 (UAN), and NH 4 NO 3 applied broadcast or injected for NT corn (Zea mays L.) production on loessal soils. No-till field studies were established on two loessal soils in western Tennessee: a Memphis silt loam (fine-silty, mixed, active, thermic Typic Hapludalf) that had been in NT for 7 yr and a Collins silt (coarse-silty, mixed, acid, thermic Aquic Udifluvent) that had been under conventional tillage. Corn, with a wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) cover, was established on the Memphis soil in 1990. In 1994, corn was established on the Collins soil. The experimental design was a randomized complete block with a split-plot arrangement of treatments. Agricultural limestone was surface-applied at rates of 0 and 1.12 Mg ha -1 , 1 to 3 wk before N treatment. The N treatments were UAN broadcast (UAN-B), UAN injected (UAN-I), urea broadcast or split-applied (Urea-B and Urea-S), and NH 4 NO 3 broadcast (AN-B). Nitrogen treatments were applied at 168 kg ha -1 within 5 d after planting. For the split urea treatment, 84 kg ha -1 N was broadcast at planting and 84 kg ha -1 N was surface-banded at the 8-leaf growth stage. Applications of AN-B, UAN-B, and Urea-B resulted in lower grain yields and leaf N concentrations than UAN-I. These reductions were attributed to N immobilization and NH 3 volatilization. Average yield reductions attributed to N immobilization were 8% on the Memphis soil and none on the Collins soil. Volatilization losses attributed to UAN-B were 8 and 12% for the Memphis and Collins soils, respectively. Yield reductions attributed to NH 3 volatilization from Urea-B were 22 and 19% for the Memphis and Collins soils. Splitting the urea application increased yields relative to the Urea-B treatment only on the Memphis soil. Surface application of limestone decreased Urea-B yields.
Axial electron heat loss from mirror devices revisited

An issue of the axial electron heat loss is of a significant importance for mirror-based fusion devices. This problem has been considered in a number of publications but it is still shrouded in misconceptions. In this paper we revisit it once again. We discuss the following issues: 1) Formation of the electron distribution function in the end tank at large expansion ratios; 2) The secondary emission from the end plates and the ways of suppressing it (if needed); 3) Ionization and charge exchange in the presence of neutrals in the end tanks; 4) Instabilities caused by the peculiar shape of the electron distribution function and their possible impact on the electron heat losses; 5) Electron heat losses in the pulsed mode of operation of mirror devices.
Enrollment of Drug Abusers in HIV Clinical Trials: A Public Health Imperative for Communities of Color

There is an increasing appreciation of the impact of drug abuse on AIDS in the United States because of the pivotal role of injecting drug use in the prevalence of total AIDS cases and case reporting among ethnic/racial minorities, women, and children. While the participation of injecting drug users (IDUs) in HIV clinical trails has increased steadily, the IDU accrual rate lags unacceptably behind the IDU proportion of AIDS cases. The stigma of drug abuse, issues related to poverty, and the underrepresentation of communities of color are the major obstacles to IDU participation in HIV clinical research. It is critical to overcome these obstacles as the spectrum of HIV disease in IDUs requires the development of an IDU-relevant scientific agenda for HIV clinical trials. This, in turn, is crucial to the development of effective therapies for the treatment of HIV disease in IDUs. To the extent that these endeavors are successful, more relevant therapies to communities of color will be developed, as injecting drug use is disproportionately more prevalent in these communities.
High Tc superconducting thin film fabrication by modified DC sputtering process

Preparation of high Tc Y-Ba-Cu-O superconducting thin film by a modified DC sputtering process is described. This technique offers the unique feature of achieving an onset of superconductive temperature of 93K without any annealing nor heat treatment on common fused quartz and (100) Si single crystal wafer. The target was made of the regular calcined YBa 2 Cu 3 O x by solid state reaction. X-ray analysis indicates that the 0.6 ∼~ 2 μm films consist of predominantly the orthorhombic superconducting phase of YBa 2 Cu 3 O x with traces of CuO.
Making Muslim Space in North America and Europe

Making Muslim Space in North America and Europe. Barbara Daly Metcalf. ed. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1996. xix. 264 pp., Illustrations, notes, works cited, contributors, Index.
Mutual Information in a MEG Complexity Measure Suggests Regional Hyper-Connectivity in Schizophrenic Probands

Abnormalities of regional brain functional connectivity have been suggested for the syndromes of schizophrenia since the origin of the name using the Greek roots: skhizein (to split) and phren (mind) by Eugen Bleuler in 1908 (Kuhn, 2004). The neuropsychologist Norman Geschwind generalized this pathophysiological concept in his classic papers about what he called the disconnexion syndromes (Geschwind, 1965). He suggested that deficits in higher functions resulted from the disruption of pathways involving the signal relay functions of the association cortices. Discontinuities in white matter observed in diffusion tensor imaging and inferences from fMRI have been interpreted as evidence for cortical network disconnections in patients with schizophrenia (Bullmore et al, 1997).
Plasma thiols, copper and rheumatoid arthritis

A means by which methotrexate diminishes the overproduction of leukotriene B4 by neutrophils from rheumatoid arthritic patients is described. It is postulated that neutrophil intracellular reduced glutathione is decreased by increased cellular copper, which results in leukotriene B4 overproduction. In the arthritic patient it is proposed that there is an inappropriate amount of a copper donor form of ceruloplasmin which contains a reduced copper that was formed during ceruloplasmin's oxidation of plasma cysteine. Oxidation of increased amounts of plasma homocysteine, present during methotrexate administration, restores ceruloplasmin's redox state leading to decreased copper transport into cells.
Fluorescence-lifetime-based sensing: applications to clinical chemistry and cellular imaging

Measurements of fluorescence lifetimes, rather than intensity or intensity ratios, offer many advantages in clinical chemistry and imaging. However, measurements of time-resolved fluorescence are normally associated with complex laser light sources and instrumentation. In this lecture, we show how emerging technology is enabling the design and use of simple instrumentation for time-resolved fluorescence. In particular, it is now possible to imagine lifetime-based measurements of blood gases and blood glucose, and lifetime imaging of calcium and other ions in microscopic samples.
Cell division: Combined anti-mitotic effects of colchicine and heavy water on first cleavage in the eggs of Arbacia punctulata

Abstract The anti-mitotic effects of colchicine and of heavy water, used separately and in combination, were studied with reference to inhibition of first cleavage in the eggs of Arbacia punctulata. Treatments were initiated at early prophase which at the experimental temperature (20 + 0.1 °C) was 17 min before the first appearance of cleavage furrows. With lower concentrations of D2O (25–35 per cent) the two anti-mitotic agents antagonized each other over the whole range of colchicine concentrations (3.0–8.5 × 10−4M). At higher concentrations (55–65 per cent D2O) there was a distinct synergism throughout; whereas at intermediate D2O concentration (45 per cent) synergism was observed when the colchicine concentration was below 6.0 × 10−4M and antagonism when the colchicine concentration was above this point. A tentative interpretation, in terms of molecular mechanisms, is proposed.
The selective solar properties of oxide films grown in-situ cobalt and cobalt alloys

Abstract Oxide films were grown on pure cobalt and on three alloys, Co5Mn, Co5Ni and Co5Ti at 950°C for various times to produce several thicknesses. The solar absorptance was found to increase with film thickness and saturate at about 0.83–0.85. This value agreed very well with the one calculated from the index of refraction. Emittances were below 0.10 for films of about 1 μm in thickness. Rather high values of the absorptance-to-emittance ratio of 10 or greater were obtained for this films. Emittances were observed also to increase with film thickness, and the ratio of absorptance to emittance decreased to about 5 at film thicknesses of 4 μm. SEM examination of the surface showed that no surface asperities existed, and thus multiple reflections were not obtained. An analysis of the defect structures of CoO and doping effects on the defect structure showed that the introduction of impurity bands or of changes in the cation vacancy concentration did not play a role in determining the optical properties. The “plasma wavelength” calculated from the band gap energy, based on Christie's theory, did not correlate with spectral reflectance curves.
Orientation dependence of the energy of slit cracks in bcc refractory metals

The elastic energy of a two-dimensional slit crack in bcc refractory metals (Fe, Nb, Ta, Cr, V, Mo and W) is analyzed as a function of crystallographic orientation. Approximate energy expressions are obtained for cracks lying on {100}, {110}, and {111} planes. The distinction between the mode of fracture and the mode of loading in general anisotropic solids is clarified. Cleavage fracture in bcc metals is discussed based on the energy data.
Moon patterns, sun patterns, and wave breaking in rotating granular mixtures

Granular materials, such as powders and sand, tend to segregate due to differences in particle properties. When a cylindrical drum is partially filled with particles of different sizes and rotated about its axis, this leads to radial segregation patterns in which the smaller particles concentrate in a radial core near the axis, and the larger particles near the outside walls of the drum. Under certain conditions, undulations in the radial core of smaller particles grow into radial stripes that extend toward the outer walls of the drum in a manner somewhat reminiscent of viscous fingering. The patterns are strongly dependent on the fill level and rotation speed of the drum. These observations can be explained by two spatially disjoint mechanisms: (1) a wave-breaking mechanism that promotes the growth of the stripes and (2) a filtering mechanism that limits the growth of stripes. © 2005 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Complexity 10: 79–86, 2005
Comparison of two methods—regression predictive model and intake shift model—for adjusting self-reported dietary recall of total energy intake of populations

Daily dietary intake data derived from self-reported dietary recall surveys are widely considered inaccurate. In this study, methods were developed for adjusting these dietary recalls to more plausible values. In a simulation model of two National Health and Nutrition Examination Surveys (NHANES), NHANES I and NHANES 2007-2008, a predicted one third of raw data fell outside a range of physiologically plausible bounds for dietary intake (designated a 33% failure rate baseline). To explore the nature and magnitude of this bias, primary data obtained from an observational study was used to derive models that predicted more plausible dietary intake. Two models were then applied for correcting dietary recall bias in the NHANES datasets: (a) a linear regression to model percent under-reporting as a function of subject characteristics, and (b) a shift of dietary intake reports to align with experimental data on energy expenditure. After adjustment, the failure rates improved to less than 2% with the regression model and 4-9% with the intake shift model -- both substantial improvements over the raw data. Both methods gave more reliable estimates of plausible dietary intake based on dietary recall and have the potential for more far-reaching application in correction of self-reported exposures.
Ternary single electron tunneling phase logic element

An analysis of a ternary single electron tunneling phase logic element is presented. The analysis is based on Monte Carlo simulations and an analytical treatment of a resistively loaded tunneling junction at low temperatures. We show that tristable operation can be obtained over a 19% dc bias operating range by optimizing the pump frequency and amplitude. For large ac frequencies, our optimizations also show that simple linear relationships exist between the optimal parameters (the optimal dc bias and pump amplitude) and frequency. Finally, we show that the ternary phase state of a clocked element can be controlled by an input signal provided that the clock turn-on is not too abrupt. The results should be of use in the design of ternary and other multilevel tunneling phase logic families.
On mitigating wind energy variability with storage

Reducing fluctuations and mitigating the variability of wind energy is essential for its integration in grids, electricity markets, microgrids, and distributed generation settings. In this work, we present a storage-based wind power smoothing system that uses novel optimization algorithms to reduce the variability of wind energy. The system considers forecasted and actual energy generated, battery size, and energy prices and determines export rates that have low variability and maximize either the energy exported or revenue earned. Our optimization algorithms are novel as they model an equivalent relaxed buffer system that uses only linear constraints and allows the computation of optimal smoothing solutions in an efficient manner. This enables the system to be used in an online manner in real time as well as in planning and operations. The smoothing system and the mathematical models and programs used in optimization are presented along with preliminary simulation results that demonstrate the need and effectiveness of the system with the help of real wind energy data. Finally, we compare wind smoothing to video smoothing and point out the important similarities and differences.
On the periodic solutions of a forced second-order equation

We study the equations for two-dimensional irrotational motion induced in a rectangular tank of water which is forced to oscillate horizontally in a periodic fashion (“shallow water sloshing”). The problem reduces to a second-order non-autonomous ordinary differential equation. We rigorously show the existence of many solutions obtained previously by numerical computations, and in addition we show that there are many other bounded solutions. We use simple shooting to obtain irregular solutions of the kind obtained by the methods of dynamical systems. In addition, we obtain a kind of “kneading” theory whereby we can order the initial conditions according to the pattern of “spikes” exhibited by the solutions.