cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Acute-onset postoperative endophthalmitis after cataract surgery and transzonular intravitreal triamcinolone-moxifloxacin.

Purpose To report 4 cases of acute postoperative endophthalmitis (POE) after uneventful temporal clear corneal topical dropless cataract surgery involving intravitreal triamcinolone–moxifloxacin (TriMoxi). Setting Private practice in Peoria, IL, USA. Design Retrospective noncomparative case series. Methods Charts of patients presenting with POE after an uneventful temporal clear corneal phacoemulsification with in-the-bag implantation of a posterior chamber intraocular lens over a 15-month period were reviewed. Results Patients presented with typical signs and symptoms of acute POE 3 to 14 days after cataract surgery. The POE resolved after 25-gauge pars plana vitrectomy and injection of intravitreal vancomycin, ceftazidime, and dexamethasone. Two of 4 eyes were culture-positive for coagulase-negative Staphylococcus. The corrected distance visual acuity at the last follow-up visit was 20/40 or better in 3 eyes, and 20/400 in 1 eye because of underlying atrophic age-related macular degeneration. Conclusion Postoperative endophthalmitis can occur after dropless cataract surgery with intravitreal triamcinolone–moxifloxacin.
A Comprehensive Survey of Navigation Systems for the Visual Impaired

Sight is essential for humans to navigate their surrounding environment independently. Tasks that are simple for the sighted are often close to impossible for the visually impaired. Throughout the years, many researchers dedicated their time and efforts to design and implement technologies and devices that can help the visually impaired to navigate in unknown areas independently. A navigation assistive system for the visually impaired is built on multiple components of which localization, navigation, obstacle avoidance, and human-machine interaction form the essential components. Individual components have been explored extensively in the literature and it is a daunting task to review it in its entirety. In this paper, a compact but comprehensive collection of available methods to build each component has been provided. The discussed methods may not have been implemented for a navigation assistive technology for visually impaired directly but they can be employed to build an individual building block. Given that every approach has its own challenges, methods to combat those challenges have been presented. The purpose of this paper is to provide researchers with a shortcut to review most of the available methods to build each component, provide them with the essential knowledge to understand the nuances in each component and give them a baseline to start with.
A two-stage preconditioner for multiphase poromechanics in reservoir simulation

Abstract Many applications involving porous media–notably reservoir engineering and geologic applications–involve tight coupling between multiphase fluid flow, transport, and poromechanical deformation. While numerical models for these processes have become commonplace in research and industry, the poor scalability of existing solution algorithms has limited the size and resolution of models that may be practically solved. In this work, we propose a two-stage Newton–Krylov solution algorithm to address this shortfall. The proposed solver exhibits rapid convergence, good parallel scalability, and is robust in the presence of highly heterogeneous material properties. The key to success of the solver is a block-preconditioning strategy that breaks the fully-coupled system of mass and momentum balance equations into simpler sub-problems that may be readily addressed using targeted algebraic methods. Numerical results are presented to illustrate the performance of the solver on challenging benchmark problems.
Geographic differences in breast cancer cases and controls by genetic and biological characteristics: explaining clustering of breast cancer at place of birth

3214 There is growing evidence that early environmental exposures may be related to risk of breast cancer. We had identified previously geographic clustering of residences in early life, especially at birth, in relation to breast cancer risk. Because women with glutathione-S-transferase M1 (GSTM1) null genotypes may be more sensitive to environmental insults, we report here on clustering by GST genotype. Further, we examined whether there were differences by estrogen receptor (ER) or progesterone receptor (PR) status. We conducted a population-based case control study of incident, primary, histologically-confirmed breast cancer with controls frequency matched to cases on age, race and county of residence (the WEB study). All participants provided lifetime residential histories; we report here on place of birth. ER and PR status were obtained from medical records, and GST genotype was determined by PCR and agarose gel resolution. Geographic differences in clustering of breast cancer cases and controls were examined by the k-function method, a test for general tendency of spatial clustering, in groups stratified by GST genotype and by ER and PR status. We found evidence that breast cancer cases with GSTM1 null genotype were more clustered than controls, while there was no such evidence among GSTM1 wild genotype. However, there was no indication that cases with GSTM1 null genotype were more clustered when compared to cases with the wild genotype. We also observed a tendency to clustering among those with ER+ tumors relative to controls, but not among other groups defined by either ER or PR status. Clustering of women with GSTM1 null genotype may indicate that breast cancer cases with GSTM1 null genotype are more likely to share common environmental exposures at place of birth, but not necessarily congregated in a specific geographic area, and that such genetic susceptibility to early environmental exposure may play a role in subsequent risk of breast cancer. The tendency for clustering of ER positive tumors may also indicate that there are effects of common exogenous exposures related to place of birth among ER positive tumors. These findings are provocative in providing an indication that exogenous exposures at the time of birth may affect breast cancer risk.
Evaluation and Management of Patients with Gastroesophageal Reflux Disease (GERD): TIF/Plication Methods

Gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD) is one of the most common disease processes encountered worldwide and it causes significant impairment in patient’s quality of life. Endoscopic therapies have been developed to provide high-efficacy treatments for GERD with a low incidence of side effects. Transoral incisionless fundoplication (TIF) provides an endoscopic approach to rebuild the gastroesophageal flap valve and control reflux symptoms. This approach has been shown to improve patient symptoms and improve quality of life of patients suffering with GERD. In this chapter we discuss the indications, technique, risks, complications, and outcomes of TIF for the management of chronic GERD.
Parallelism across the curriculum

A sea change within the computing discipline occurred last year which is not widely recognized nor fully understood. Individual processor chips are not going to be faster in the future. The implications of this fact are discussed and changes to the undergraduate computing curriculum are proposed.
Management of MitraClip Single-Leaflet Detachment with an Additional Clip and an Amplatzer Vascular Plug

Abstract Single-leaflet detachment of the MitraClip is a mechanism of early failure, but management is challenging and often requires surgical repair. This case report describes a novel transcatheter approach to repairing severe mitral regurgitation after MitraClip single-leaflet detachment by placement of an additional clip and an Amplatzer vascular plug. (Level of Difficulty: Advanced.)
Nagumo theory without the Nagumo point

In the Nagumo-Westphal theory of parabolic inequalities the first step typically involves a strict inequality, and the result for weak inequality is then obtained by introduction of a suitable perturbation. As a rule, it is the latter result that is really wanted. By a double use of the perturbation, bypassing the Nagumo theory, we reach the goal in a single step. Avoiding the Nagumo point is one novelty of the presentation. Another is the use of a discontinuous comparison function in the main theorem.
Chain-Growth Polymerization of Benzotriazole Using Suzuki–Miyaura Cross-Coupling and Dialkylbiarylphosphine Palladium Catalysts

Electron-deficient (n-type) conjugated materials are commonly prepared via step-growth methods with limited control over the molecular weight and molecular weight distribution of the resulting poly...
Fine-needle aspiration cytomorphology of papillary thyroid carcinoma with NTRK gene rearrangement from a case series with predominantly indeterminate cytology.

Background Neurotrophic tyrosine kinase receptor (NTRK) rearrangement has been reported in a subset of papillary thyroid carcinoma (PTC) cases. Little is known about the cytomorphologic features of NTRK-rearranged PTC. Methods We report an institutional series of 13 fine needle aspiration (FNA) specimens of NTRK-rearranged PTC with a predominantly indeterminate cytology diagnosis. NTRK3 or NTRK1 rearrangements were detected on FNA or surgical specimens by next-generation sequencing. Results The 13 patients had a median age of 18 years; 10 patients were female and 3 patients were male. In 10 (77%) cases, cytology was indeterminate, and histopathologic follow-up was predominantly the follicular variant of PTC (n = 8 [62%]), mostly infiltrative subtype. Of 12 FNA specimens available for review, a predominant loosely cohesive group pattern was the most commonly encountered architectural pattern (n = 5 [41%]), followed by single cell (n = 3 [25%]), thick cord (n = 2 [17%]), and microfollicular pattern (n = 2 [17%]). Background lymphocytic thyroiditis was observed in 9 cases. At the cellular level, the cytoplasm was moderate and granular, occasionally vacuolated. Classic PTC nuclear features (eg, nuclear enlargement, elongation, grooves, and nuclear membrane irregularity) were present but were often focal and subtle. Chromatin was often granular. Intranuclear pseudoinclusions were absent or rare. Conclusion Our study demonstrates that most cases of NTRK rearrangement lack classic PTC cytomorphologic characteristics. Loosely cohesive groups and single cells with granular, sometimes vacuolated cytoplasm and subtle nuclear features are often seen on FNA specimens. Recognizing these characteristics may be helpful to preoperatively prompt molecular testing, including NTRK rearrangement analysis.
The Fine Line Between Informing and Coercing: Community Health Center Clinicians’ Approaches to Counseling Young People About IUDs

Context While community health centers (CHCs) are meeting increased demand for contraceptives, little is known about contraceptive counseling in these settings. Understanding how clinicians counsel about IUDs in CHCs, including whether they address or disregard young people's preferences and concerns during counseling, could improve contraceptive care. Methods As part of a training program, 20 clinicians from 11 San Francisco Bay Area CHC sites who counsel young people about contraception were interviewed by telephone in 2015 regarding their IUD counseling approaches. An iterative grounded theory approach was used to analyze interview transcripts and identify salient themes related to clinicians' contraceptive counseling, IUD removal practices and efforts to address patient concerns regarding side effects. Results Most clinicians offered comprehensive contraceptive counseling and method choice. While several clinicians viewed counseling as an opportunity to empower their patients to make contraceptive decisions without pressure, they also described a tension between guiding young people toward higher-efficacy methods and respecting patients' choices. Many clinicians engaged in what could be considered coercive practices by trying to dissuade patients from removals within a year of placement and offering to treat or downplay side effects. Conclusions Providers try to promote their young patients' autonomous decision making, but their support for high-efficacy methods can result in coercive practices. More training is needed to ensure that providers employ patient-centered counseling approaches, including honoring patient requests for removals.
Interrelationships among bluegill demographics, predator and competitor abundances and impoundment characteristics

Bluegills Lepomis macrochirus R. provide popular sport fisheries but the quality of these fisheries has declined across much of their range. Factors that may influence bluegill demographics were ex...
Lung Ultrasound in Left Ventricular Assist Device Patients: A Feasibility Study

Purpose Speed optimization in left ventricular assist device (LVAD) recipients remains a key feature in patient management. Noninvasive evaluation with echocardiography is routinely performed, however, around 38% of LVAD patients considered stable had non-optimal hemodynamics at baseline speed. Pulmonary congestion can be seen on lung ultrasound (LUS) in the form of B-lines. In heart failure (HF) patients, the number of B-lines has proven to be an excellent prognostic marker and a strategy of treatment guided by LUS appears to decrease the number of HF admissions. LUS, a noninvasive point of care test, seems an attractive tool to complement echocardiographic assessment in LVAD recipients; however, this has never been studied. Methods This is a single center, observational, prospective study. Heart Mate 3 (HM3) patients 18 years or older were invited to participate during an outpatient clinic visit or during a right heart catheterization. Patients with known severe pulmonary diseases were excluded. We examined eight thoracic sites (4 in each hemithorax) and the number of B-lines was reported in real time as the sum of the B-lines visualized in each site. Results This is the report of the first 10 patients included. Mean age was 49 ± 11 years. 80% of patients were male, 80% had a nonischemic cardiomyopathy, and 20% had a history of COPD. The median BMI was 36 kg/m^2 (25-37). 100% of the thoracic sites examined were interpretable and the median number of B-lines was 2.5 (1-7). 2 patients also had a pleural effusion. In contrast, patients had very few signs of congestion on physical examination (Figure). Conclusion LUS in HM3 patients is feasible and no interference with the LVAD has been encountered in an 8-site protocol. Whether LUS can help LVAD optimization and improve outcomes in this challenging population remains to be determined.
Term Human Placental Trophoblasts Express SARS-CoV-2 Entry Factors ACE2, TMPRSS2, and Furin.

ABSTRACT The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic, caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), has had a massive impact on human lives worldwide. While the airborne SARS-CoV-2 primarily affects the lungs, viremia is not uncommon. As placental trophoblasts are directly bathed in maternal blood, they are vulnerable to SARS-CoV-2. Intriguingly, the human fetus is largely spared from SARS-CoV-2 infection. We tested whether the human placenta expresses the main SARS-CoV-2 entry factors angiotensin-converting enzyme 2 (ACE2), transmembrane protease serine 2 (TMPRSS2), and furin and showed that ACE2 and TMPRSS2 are expressed in the trophoblast rather than in other placental villous cells. While furin is expressed in the main placental villous cell types, we surveyed, trophoblasts exhibit the highest expression. In line with the expression of these entry factors, we demonstrated that a SARS-CoV-2 pseudovirus could enter primary human trophoblasts. Mechanisms underlying placental defense against SARS-CoV-2 infection likely involve postentry processing, which may be germane for mitigating interventions against SARS-CoV-2. IMPORTANCE Pregnant women worldwide have been affected by COVID-19. As the virus is commonly spread to various organs via the bloodstream and because human placental trophoblasts are directly bathed in maternal blood, feto-placental infection by SARS-CoV-2 seems likely. However, despite the heightened risk to pregnant women, thus far the transmission risk of COVID-19 to the feto-placental unit seems extremely low. This has been recently attributed to a negligible expression of SARS-CoV-2 entry factors in the human placenta. We therefore sought to explore the expression of the entry factors ACE2 and TMPRSS2 in the different cell types of human placental villi. Using a combination of transcriptome sequencing (RNA-seq), real-time quantitative PCR (RT-qPCR), in situ hybridization, and immunofluorescence, we found that trophoblasts, but not the other main villous cell types, express ACE2 and TMPRSS2, with a broad expression of furin. Correspondingly, we also showed that primary human trophoblasts are permissive to entry of SARS-CoV-2 pseudovirus particles.
Postpubertal spermatogonial stem cell transplantation restores functional sperm production in rhesus monkeys irradiated before and after puberty.

Background Cancer treatment of prepubertal patients impacts future fertility due to the abolition of spermatogonial stem cells (SSCs). In macaques, spermatogenesis could be regenerated by intratesticular transplantation of SSCs, but no studies have involved cytotoxic treatment before puberty and transplantation after puberty, which would be the most likely clinical scenario. Objectives To evaluate donor-derived functional sperm production after SSC transplantation to adult monkeys that had received testicular irradiation during the prepubertal period. Materials and methods We obtained prepubertal testis tissue by unilaterally castrating six prepubertal monkeys and 2 weeks later irradiated the remaining testes with 6.9 Gy. However, because spermatogenic recovery was observed, we irradiated them again 14 months later with 7 Gy. Three of the monkeys were treated with GnRH-antagonist (GnRH-ant) for 8 weeks. The cryopreserved testis cells from the castrated testes were then allogeneically transplanted into the intact testes of all monkeys. Tissues were harvested 10 months later for analyses. Results In three of the six monkeys, 61%, 38%, and 11% of the epididymal sperm DNA were of the donor genotype. The ability to recover donor-derived sperm production was not enhanced by the GnRH-ant pretreatment. However, the extent of filling seminiferous tubules during the transplantation procedure was correlated with the eventual production of donor spermatozoa. The donor epididymal spermatozoa from the recipient with 61% donor contribution were capable of fertilizing rhesus eggs and forming embryos. Although the transplantation was done into the rete testis, two GnRH-ant-treated monkeys, which did not produce donor-derived epididymal spermatozoa, displayed irregular tubular cords in the interstitium containing testicular spermatozoa derived from the transplanted donor cells. Discussion and conclusion The results further support that sperm production can be restored in non-human primates from tissues cryopreserved prior to prepubertal and post-pubertal gonadotoxic treatment by transplantation of these testicular cells after puberty into seminiferous tubules.
College students' media habits, concern for themselves and others, and mental health in the era of COVID-19

The COVID-19 pandemic has entirely disrupted college students' education plans, often their physical location, and it remains elusive when life will return to prepandemic normalcy. The current study examined changing media use patterns during the COVID-19 pandemic, the effect of these patterns on feelings of concern regarding one's future and society, and the moderating roles of anxiety and depression in relations. Seventy-four college students (70% female;55% White, 24% Pell-grant eligible) completed an online survey assessing time spent on TV, social media, and video game use in spring of 2019 (T1) and spring of 2020 (T2). Results revealed TV and video game, but not social media, use increased from T1 to T2, and change in TV use positively predicted an increased concern about society. Further, moderation analyses showed increased social media use raised concern for one's future at lower levels of anxiety. Change in social media use raised concern for society at higher levels of depression. This study advances our understanding of college students' interactions with media during the COVID-19 pandemic, suggesting some types of media may have been used as coping mechanisms with various effects on concern for self and others. Mental health can be salient to these relations. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2021 APA, all rights reserved) Impact Statement Public Policy Relevance Statement-This study showed the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic led college students to watch more TV and play more video games. This could be due to desires to stay current with news on the national emergency and due to unexpected confinement to home settings. More TV viewing predicted increased concern for society, perhaps due to constant reporting on deaths, hospital crowding, and virus spread on TV news. Increasing social media use also was related to increased concern for one's future for students low in anxiety and concern for society for students high in depression, potentially due to worrisome posts and dire news stories being posted at high rates. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2021 APA, all rights reserved)
A Fuzzy Spatial Relationship Graph for Point Clouds Using Bounding Boxes

Three dimensional point cloud data sets are easy to acquire and manipulate, but are often too large to process directly for embedded real-time applications. The spatial information in a point cloud can be represented in a variety of reduced forms, such as voxel grids, Gaussian mixture models, or spatial semantic structures. In this article, we show how a segmented point cloud can be represented as a spatial relationship graph using bounding boxes and triangular fuzzy numbers. This model is a lightweight encoding of the relative distance and direction between objects, and can be used to describe and query for particular spatial configurations using linguistic terms in a multicriteria framework. We show how this approach can be applied on a hand-segmented subset of the NPM3D data set with several illustrative examples. The work herein has useful applications in many applied domains, such as human-robot interaction with unmanned aerial systems.
“Nothing the Forest Raises is a Monster”: A Review of Shivanee Ramlochan’s Everyone Knows I Am a Haunting

Review of Shivanee Ramlochan, Everyone Knows I Am a Haunting. Peepal Tree Press, 2017. 70 pages.
A contemporary review of rearranged during transfection-selective inhibitors.

Objective Rearranged during transfection genes are present in 1-2% of patients who have non-small cell lung cancer and 10-30% of patients with papillary thyroid cancer. The objective of this article is to review the current rearranged during transfection inhibitors indicated for patients with rearranged during transfection-mutated cancers and their future directions.Data sources: The pivotal phase I/II studies for selpercatinib and pralsetinib were evaluated. Current studies on rearranged during transfection inhibitors were searched on ClinicalTrials.gov using the key word "RET."Data summary: Selpercatinib and pralsetinib were the first two U.S. Food and Drug Administration-approved rearranged during transfection-selective inhibitors for advanced or metastatic rearranged during transfection fusion-positive non-small cell lung cancer, rearranged during transfection-mutant medullary thyroid cancer, and rearranged during transfection fusion-positive thyroid cancer. Both agents showed promising efficacy with objective response rate ranging from 60% to 73% in all aforementioned rearranged during transfection-mutated cancers. Additionally, benefits were seen even in patients with intracranial metastasis at baseline. Both showed favorable safety profiles. Some common class adverse events included elevated liver function tests and hypertension. Hematologic side effects such as anemia and neutropenia were more common with pralsetinib. Selpercatinib had interactions with acid suppressive therapy and specific instructions when used concomitantly. Conclusions While the rearranged during transfection inhibitors are generally well-tolerated, each agent possesses slightly different efficacy, side-effect profile, and drug-drug interactions.
The Ethics in Long-Term Care Model: Everyday Ethics and the Unseen Moral Landscape of Assisted Living:

Assisted living (AL) communities are long-term care settings where people live, work, and visit, and where social relationships and care, including end-of-life care, are negotiated. Assisted living...
Revisiting Adolescent Separation-Individuation in the Contexts of Enmeshment and Allocentrism

Traditional means through which successful separation-individuation occurs, although popular, have undergone criticism. In the current study, involving 188 undergraduate students from a university in the Pacific Northwest, the focus was on the attainment of separation-individuation through more contemporary means. Quantitative findings supported such contemporary means of the attainment of separation-individuation in that participants who identified as allocentric or enmeshed were able to successfully accomplish this crucial developmental task. Clinical implications call for the consideration of the supportive influence that both allocentrism and enmeshment can have on the separation-individuation of the individual.
Maximum likelihood estimation of a binomial proportion using one-sample misclassified binary data†

In this article, we construct two likelihood-based confidence intervals (CIs) for a binomial proportion parameter using a double-sampling scheme with misclassified binary data. We utilize an easy-to-implement closed-form algorithm to obtain maximum likelihood estimators of the model parameters by maximizing the full-likelihood function. The two CIs are a naive Wald interval and a modified Wald interval. Using simulations, we assess and compare the coverage probabilities and average widths of our two CIs. Finally, we conclude that the modified Wald interval, unlike the naive Wald interval, produces close-to-nominal CIs under various simulations and, thus, is preferred in practice. Utilizing the expressions derived, we also illustrate our two CIs for a binomial proportion parameter using real-data example.
Latent heat of vaporization of nanofluids: Measurements and molecular dynamics simulations

This paper reports measured and calculated (through molecular dynamics simulations) latent heat of vaporization (Hfg) for water and ethanol based nanofluids. The experimental results showed that the addition of 3 wt. % Ag and Fe nanoparticles in water results in a substantial reduction in Hfg (25% and 17%, respectively). On the contrary, 3 wt. % Al addition slightly increases Hfg (3%). Similar trends were observed for ethanol based nanofluids: 3 wt. % addition of Ag and Fe resulted in a reduction in Hfg by 19% and 13%, respectively, whereas 3 wt. % Al addition resulted in an increases in Hfg by 2%. Molecular dynamics simulations, which determine Hfg by calculating the total enthalpy change of a system before and after vaporization from a molecular level, showed that the strength of bonding between the nanoparticles and the fluid molecules is the governing factor in the variation of Hfg upon particle addition. It was found that the strength of Al/water bonds was much greater than Ag/water, resulting in a r...
Postmenopausal uterine bleeding of psychogenic origin.

Abstract 1. 1. Five cases of postmenopausal uterine bleeding are presented. Gynecologic examination and findings did not explain the bleeding. 2. 2. In these instances and in 2 observations found in the literature, bleeding followed loss of, or separation from, a loved one. 3. 3. These observations confirm an earlier observation made regarding certain cases of functional uterine bleeding; i.e., this bleeding is a somatic equivalent of the psychological reaction of depression.
Necessary Spectral Conditions for Coloring Hypergraphs.

Hoffman proved that for a simple graph $G$, the chromatic number $\chi(G)$ obeys $\chi(G) \le 1 - \frac{\lambda_1}{\lambda_{n}}$ where $\lambda_1$ and $\lambda_n$ are the maximal and minimal eigenvalues of the adjacency matrix of $G$ respectively. Lovasz later showed that $\chi(G) \le 1 - \frac{\lambda_1}{\lambda_{n}}$ for any (perhaps negatively) weighted adjacency matrix. In this paper, we give a probabilistic proof of Lovasz's theorem, then extend the technique to derive generalizations of Hoffman's theorem when allowed a certain proportion of edge-conflicts. Using this result, we show that if a 3-uniform hypergraph is 2-colorable, then $\bar d \le -\frac{3}{2}\lambda_{\min}$ where $\bar d$ is the average degree and $\lambda_{\min}$ is the minimal eigenvalue of the underlying graph. We generalize this further for $k$-uniform hypergraphs, for the cases $k=4$ and $5$, by considering several variants of the underlying graph.
Continuous regularized Gauss-Newton-type algorithm for nonlinear ill-posed equations with simultaneous updates of inverse derivative

A new continuous regularized Gauss-Newton-type method with simultaneous updates of the operator [F 0 (x(t))F 0 (x(t)) + "(t)I] 1 for solving nonlinear ill-posed equations in a Hilbert space is proposed. A convergence theorem is proved. An attractive and novel feature of the proposed method is the absence of the assumptions about the location of the spectrum of the operator F 0 (x). The absence of such assumptions is made possible by a source-type condition.
Semi-automatic system for speaker identification (SAUSI)

A four vector computerized semi-automatic speaker identiflcation system has been developed. The ultimate purpose of this machine approach is to permit field identification of unknown talkers -- rather than to carry out speaker verification tasks in controlled environments. The four vectors presently utilized consist of 11-45 parameters each; they include analysis of 1) fundamental frequency (17-25 parameters) ; 2) power spectra (11-23 parameters) ; 3) vowel formants (32-45 parameters), and 4) temporal features (15-24 parameters). Vectors 1, 2, and 4 have been subjected to considerable laboratory analysis -- for both large and small populations and under both ideal and distorted conditions. Some testing of vector 3 and of combinations of vectors also has been conducted. The results have been encouraging and the combined identification power of these vectors, both in laboratory and field ("simucrimes") experiments, currently is under evaluation.
Creating the IC palette (ASIC design)

To facilitate the design of high performance digital ASICs, the Research Triangle Institute (RTI) is developing a library of common digital signal processing macrocells for use in a silicon compilation environment. In many types of digital ASICs (especially signal processing applications), VLSI circuits are composed of a basic set of high-level functions which are used in different configurations. Examples of these functions are adders, registers, memories, multiplexers, and multipliers. By developing a robust library of parameterized functions, significant reductions in design time and costs can be achieved. A complete list of macrocells slated for development by RTI is shown. This list is meant to complement RAM, ROM, and PLA generators already available through Mentor-Graphics. >
Allocation folding based on dominance

Memory management system performance is of increasing importance in today's managed languages. Two lingering sources of overhead are the direct costs of memory allocations and write barriers. This paper introduces it allocation folding, an optimization technique where the virtual machine automatically folds multiple memory allocation operations in optimized code together into a single, larger it allocation group. An allocation group comprises multiple objects and requires just a single bounds check in a bump-pointer style allocation, rather than a check for each individual object. More importantly, all objects allocated in a single allocation group are guaranteed to be contiguous after allocation and thus exist in the same generation, which makes it possible to statically remove write barriers for reference stores involving objects in the same allocation group. Unlike object inlining, object fusing, and object colocation, allocation folding requires no special connectivity or ownership relation between the objects in an allocation group. We present our analysis algorithm to determine when it is safe to fold allocations together and discuss our implementation in V8, an open-source, production JavaScript virtual machine. We present performance results for the Octane and Kraken benchmark suites and show that allocation folding is a strong performance improvement, even in the presence of some heap fragmentation. Additionally, we use four hand-selected benchmarks JPEGEncoder, NBody, Soft3D, and Textwriter where allocation folding has a large impact.
Stereoisomers of isovaline in the Murchison meteorite

Isovaline is present in the Murchison meteorite as a racemic mixture (about equal concentrations of the R and S enantiomers). Since isovaline does not have a hydrogen atom on its asymmetric alpha-carbon atom, the racemic mixture could not have formed by commonly accepted mechanisms of racemization. Thus, isovaline in the meteorite most probably was synthesized as a racemic mixture and is not the result of the racemization of either the R or S enantiomer. Other chiral amino acids in the meteorite are present as racemic mixtures, and were probably synthesized in a similar manner by abiotic, extraterrestrial processes.
EARLY NEUROLOGICAL PREDICTORS OF ONE-YEAR OUTOOME IN BIRTH ASPHYXIATED INFANTS

Perinatal asphyxia remains a leading cause of mortality and morbidity in the term neonate. Although certain clinical features have been associated with poor outcome in infants with asphyxia, it has been difficult to accurately identify in the neonatal period those infants who will have subsequent mental and motor handicap. In this study, 34 consecutive term infants with birth asphyxia who were admitted to a neonatal intensive care unit received a detailed neurological examination during the first week of life. Eighteen also underwent CT scans in the first 72 hours. Based on these respective examinations, the authors developed a neonatal post-asphyxial neurological examination score (PAS) and a CT ratio reflective of the degree of hypodense areas of the brain. At one year of age, the surviving 28 infants received a Bayley examination, a measure of head circumference, and the Amiel-Tison neurological examination on which they were rated as normal, suspect, or abnormal. Results showed that the PAS and CT ratio measures were significantly related to each other (p < .01) and that both of these measures were significantly correlated with mental and motor scores on the Bayley, head circumference, and neurologic rating at one year (r's ranged from .70 to .83; p's from < .05 to < .005). Thus, PAS and CT ratio are new measures which appear to be effective in predicting neurodevelopmental outcome of full-term, birth asphyxiated infants at one year of age.
Writing as process and product: The impact of tool, genre, audience knowledge, and writer expertise

Abstract Two experiments investigated the impact of writing tool (word processing or handwriting), genre (narrative or exposition), and audience (familiar or unfamiliar) on measures of writing quality, syntactic complexity, and number and type of initial text production revisions. In the first, 84 undergraduates with little word processing experience wrote letters by hand or computer. The 64 subjects in Experiment 2 were experienced college writers who always wrote by computer. Subjects composed more syntactically complex letters of higher rated quality to an unfamiliar audience than to a familiar one. Handwritten letters were of higher rated quality than word processed. Although there were more total revisions when using a word processor, there were more text-preserving than meaningful revisions. The number and distribution of revisions also depended upon the writers' level of experience. The Hay es and Flower (1980) model of the writing process remains a useful heuristic, but our data indicate that it warrants extension.
Attitude And Brand Loyalty: A Longitudinal Study Of Multiattribute Attitude Models And Intervening Variables

Brand loyalty has been a major concern within marketing circles, both business and academic. This research goes beyond the traditional end brand-loyal behavior. In addition, the effect of several variables which may mediate this attitude/behavior association was analyzed. Attitude was represented by Fishbein's AB and BI models while brand loyalt) was measured by actual purchase data. Diaries of consumer purchases were kept over a two month span, during which several measures of attitude and intervening variables were collected. Correlation and regression analysis indicated that an association exists between attitude and brand-loyal behavior, with very little difference between the AB and BI models. While the effects of intervening variables were equivocal, the attitudinal approach to brand loyalty appears to a viable alternative to ex post facto measures.
Poster: Designing reusable user-interfaces for browsing a collection of neuroscience ontologies

This poster examines the problem of generating effective, reusable web interfaces for searching and browsing neuroscience data represented in the Web Ontology Language (OWL). The goal of this work is to design interfaces that are reusable across different ontologies without the need for extensive customizations. In order to achieve this re-usability, we view the underlying semantic data in the ontology as a graph and are currently exploring the use of different graph properties to infer the structure of the class hierarchy in the ontology.
The politics of engagement between Islam and the secular state: ambivalences of 'civil society'.

The paper reveals contemporary transformations of the interaction between Islam and secular states from opposition to engagement. In-depth ethnographic evidence challenges the predominant juxtaposition of Islam against the secular state. Following micro-sites of interaction between the Gulen movement and the state from Turkey to Kazakhstan, my fieldwork revealed a continuum of engagements between them. The paper analyses the engagements ranging from contestation and negotiation to co-operation. The case illustrates the extent to which scholarly interest in opposition and clash has left a wide-ranging variety of state-Islam interaction understudied with regard to civil society. It also reveals the conditions under which effective Islamic horizontal organizations have provided the platforms of vertical engagements with the secular states. The major argument of the paper is that both civil and uncivil outcomes in the Muslim world are primarily shaped by the nature of state-Islam interaction. The evidence suggests that the key to understanding the relationship between Islam and civil society is the state.
Estimates of the coherence of ocean currents over vertical distances

Abstract Pairs of moored current meters at Site D have been used to collect simultaneous series of ocean current measurements over vertical separations of from 1 to 1500 m. Within the range of frequencies that can be resolved with the limited time series available, currents are not coherent across the seasonal thermocline. Otherwise currents are generally coherent over some range of lower frequencies, and incoherent at higher frequencies. It was found that the frequency at which the coherence drops below 0·5 varies inversely as the separation, δZ , between sensors according to the relation: f 0·5 δZ = 13 m/hr. At small separations, the maximum coherent frequency is apparently related to the Brunt-Vaisala frequency. More extensive measurements are needed to obtain a good description of the relation between coherence and vertical separation, but the results presented here may be adequate for defining vertical sampling intervals in the design of the next stage of array experiments.
Detecting Objects Using Deformation Dictionaries

Several popular and effective object detectors separately model intra-class variations arising from deformations and appearance changes. This reduces model complexity while enabling the detection of objects across changes in view- point, object pose, etc. The Deformable Part Model (DPM) is perhaps the most successful such model to date. A common assumption is that the exponential number of templates enabled by a DPM is critical to its success. In this paper, we show the counter-intuitive result that it is possible to achieve similar accuracy using a small dictionary of deformations. Each component in our model is represented by a single HOG template and a dictionary of flow fields that determine the deformations the template may undergo. While the number of candidate deformations is dramatically fewer than that for a DPM, the deformed templates tend to be plausible and interpretable. In addition, we discover that the set of deformation bases is actually transferable across object categories and that learning shared bases across similar categories can boost accuracy.
Preparation and catalytic evaluation of macroporous crystalline sulfated zirconium dioxide templated with colloidal crystals

Colloidal crystal templates were used to synthesize three-dimensionally ordered macroporous sulfated zirconia catalysts with pore diameters of ∼300 nm and less. Ordered arrays of uniformly sized poly(methyl methacrylate) latex spheres were infiltrated with clear precursor solutions containing varying SO4/Zr molar ratios. After solidification of the material in the void space between the spheres, the polymer templates were removed by calcination at various temperatures, producing crystalline sulfated zirconia replicas of the template arrays. The effects of changing sulfate content and calcination temperature on the physicochemical properties of the material (including shrinkage, grain size, surface area, and composition) were systematically studied. The presence of sulfate retarded the crystallization and crystal growth, which enabled greater control of macropore shrinkage and periodic order of the material. The combination of crystal growth inhibition and the inherent porosity of the PMMA latex are believ...
Cartilage Stress-Relaxation is Affected by both the Charge Concentration and Valence of Solution Cations

Summary Objective Understanding the mechanical functions of specific cartilage molecules such as aggrecan is important for understanding both healthy cartilage and disease progression. Cartilage is primarily composed of chondrocytes and an extracellular matrix consisting of multiple biopolymers, ions, and water. Aggrecan is one matrix biopolymer which consists of a core protein and multiple anionic glycosaminoglycans. Previous research has demonstrated that the stiffness of extracted aggrecan decreases under increased solution cation concentration, and the purpose of this study was to determine whether changes in solution ion concentration resulted in changes in tissue-level viscoelastic properties. Methods Middle-zone explants of bovine calf patellofemoral cartilage were harvested and cultured overnight before mechanical testing. Repeated stress–relaxation and cyclical loading tests were performed after equilibration in solutions of 0.15M and 1M NaCl and 0.075M and 0.5M CaCl 2 . A stretched exponential model was fit to the stress–relaxation data. Storage and loss moduli were determined from the cyclical loading data. Results Changes in ionic strength and species affected both stress–relaxation and cyclical loading of cartilage. Stress–relaxation was faster under higher ionic strength. CaCl 2 concentration increases resulted in decreased peak stress, while NaCl increases resulted in decreased equilibrium stress. Storage and loss moduli were affected differently by NaCl and CaCl 2 . Conclusions These results show that cartilage stress–relaxation proceeds faster under higher concentrations of solution cations, consistent with the theory of polymer dynamics. These data demonstrate the complexity of cartilage mechanical properties and suggest that aggrecan stiffness may be important in tissue-level cartilage viscoelastic properties.
Autologous immune complex nephritis induced with renal tubular antigen. I. Identification and isolation of the pathogenetic antigen.

The nephritogenic antigen, responsible for the immunogenic stimulus in experimental allergic glomerulonephritis induced with tubular antigen, has been identified as a renal tubular epithelial (RTE)-specific antigen and has been isolated in a relatively purified form. This antigen, RTE-α5, is a distinct and antigenically specific lipoprotein of high density which is derived primarily from the brush border of proximal convoluted tubular epthelium of the rat kidney. It has been suggested that this molecule may be a plasma membrane subunit. Immunization of rats with as little as 3 µg N of RTE-α5 in complete Freund's adjuvant has effectively induced this form of membranous glomerulonephritis. RTE-α5 is not a constituent of normal rat glomeruli; however, with the onset of autologous immune complex nephritis it is deposited in a granular fashion along glomerular capillary walls indistinguishable from the deposits of γ-globulin and complement. The antigenic specificity of this antigen and its tissue derivation has been explored, and the observations support the autologous immune complex pathogenesis of the glomerulonephritis induced in rats by immunization with renal tubular antigen.
Transit time and bacterial overgrowth as determinants of absorptive capacity.

Abstract A detailed account is given of the hospital course of a newborn male infant who at 18 days of age underwent resection of all small bowel but 2.5 cm. of duodenum and 5 cm. of terminal ileum. He was maintained on parenteral nutrition while compensatory growth of the gut permitted him to exist by eating a diet supplemented with medium-chain triglycerides and enteric antibiosis. Elimination of the iodochlorhydroxyquin results in increased stool frequency and weight. As absorptive area decreases, transit time and bacterial growth seem to be critical determinants of absorptive capacity.