cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
SIDNEY HOOK, ROBERT NOZICK, AND THE PARADOXES OF FREEDOM

Diggins observes in this essay that, while Nozick and Hook shared a passion for freedom and for understanding liberty in all its complexities, the two philosophers, one a libertarian and the other a democratic socialist, occupied different worlds when it came to how they viewed property and power. Nozick believed that freedom and justice depended upon a minimal state that would be severely restricted in its exercise of power. Sidney Hook never renounced his conviction, born of his early attraction to Marxism, that truly dangerous power is wielded not principally by government but by private individuals of great material wealth: by industrialists. Diggins examines the divergent views of these two seminal thinkers on such issues as human rights, private property, democracy, and judicial review. The differences are profound, yet they shared a common interest in the life of the mind and in exploring such hoary philosophical topics as free will versus determinism and the grounding of moral values.
State variable representations in digital control systems with MA-prefiltered measurements

This paper derives three discrete state variable representations for a continuous-time plant driven by a zero-order hold with a combination of instantaneous measurements and measurements prefiltered by a multiinput/multioutput moving average (MA) process. These representations allow the control system engineer to model plants of this type accurately in a form which permits him to use standard techniques to design digital feedback controllers for them. An example is presented which illustrates how to obtain the coefficient matrices in each representation. Guidelines are presented for choosing the best representation to use for any given plant of this type.
Reputation Management in Global 1000 Firms: A Benchmarking Study

In December 1996, the authors designed a questionnaire survey and sent it to the Chief Executive Officers of the 1,000 largest international companies in the USA and United Kingdom. A total of 139 usable responses were returned to us in January, 1997 — a 14 per cent response rate. The questionnaires were filled out by either the CEO, or a member of the senior management team responsible for reputational matters. The responding companies were not significantly different from the larger sample in both size and reputational standing. Among the respondents were such industry leaders as American Express, BBC, Ford, Hewlett Packard, IBM, Johnson and Johnson, Royal Dutch/Shell, Sainsbury and Xerox. The purpose of the questionnaire was to examine how leading companies conceive and manage their reputation management practices. We solicited answers to questions in three categories: 1 Constituent Relationships: How leading companies relate to their constituents; the standards against which they design their practices; 2 Reputation-Building Practices: What kinds of strategies and systems leading companies rely on to build reputation and relate to their key constituents; 3 Organizational Issues: How companies organize themselves to manage reputation; do they have a reputation-building strategy, and who is responsible for it?
Initiation of transform faults at rifted continental margins

Data from the Woodlark Basin, Gulf of Aden and NW Australia show that spreading segments nucleate en echelon in overlapping rift basins and that transform faults develop as or after spreading nucleates; typically they are not inherited from transverse rift structures. Initial spreading offsets, where present, are often non-transform. After continental break-up, spreading center segmentation is modified by ridge jumps and/or propagation.
Metabolic Disposition of Pyrithiones

The urinary pattern of pyrithione metabolites in urine of the rat, rabbit and rhesus monkey was similar to that of the swine after iv. administration of sodium pyrithione (Sodium Omadine) and the magnesium sulfate adduct of 2,2'-dithio-bis(pyridine-1-oxide), (Omadine MDS). The major metabolite accounting for 80% or more of the metabolites in urine was the S-glucuronide of 2-mercaptopyridine-N-oxide. After Omadine MDS administration, three transient metabolites and one persistent metabolite were observed in the plasma. The transient metabolites were tentatively identified as 2-methylthiopyridine-N-oxide, 2-methylsulfinylpyridine and 2-methylsulfinylpyridine-N-oxide. 2-Methylsulfonylpyridine was the only metabolite observed in the plasma 16 hr after Omadine administration. This metabolite could be detected 14 days after rats were treated repeatedly with a shampoo formulation containing Omadine MDS.
Fracture toughness anisotropy of a pyrolytic carbon

The anisotropic flexural strengths, static Young's moduli and the corresponding fracture toughnesses were measured for the three orthogonal fracture surface orientations,S ca (interlaminar cleavage),S ba andS ab (layer rupture across and along the layers, respectively), of an as deposited substrate-nucleated pyrolytic carbon. BothS ca delamination andS ab along-layer rupture produced smooth fracture surfaces with meanK lc values (MPam1/2) of 0.53 forS ca and 0.93 forS ab , independent of notch length. A different type of behaviour was observed forS bc across-layer fracture. Delamination cracking during failure resulted in rough fracture surfaces, crack arrests, and high apparent toughness values dependent on sample size and crack length. The nature of this induced delamination toughening is discussed.
Diffusion of Binary Non-Solvent Mixtures in Polymers: Aqueous Ethanol Solutions in Poly(Vinyl Acetate)

The diffusion of binary non-solvent mixtures of ethanol and deuterium oxide (D2O) into poly(vinyl acetate) (PVAc) was studied by FT-IR imaging. Initial diffusion rates were calculated for all mixtures from the concentration profiles, and a positive deviation from ideal behavior was observed; higher initial diffusion rates and greater degrees of swelling were observed for the solvent mixtures than for the pure liquids. PVAc swells to various extents in pure deuterium oxide, 20, 30, and 40 weight percent (wt %) ethanol, and pure ethanol. Dissolution of PVAc occurs for 50, 60, 70, 80, 90, and 95 wt % ethanol–water mixtures. The lowest initial diffusion rate occurred for pure deuterium oxide and the highest initial rate for 80 wt % ethanol. The spectral data suggest that ethanol and water form a complex that solvates PVAc more effectively than either pure liquid. Furthermore, the data indicate that sufficient quantities of this complex for effective dissolution are formed above 40 wt % ethanol, while optimum quantities occur between 70 and 90 wt % (50 to 80 mole %) ethanol.
Robustness of Stein's Two-Stage Procedure for Mixtures of Normal Populations

Abstract Explicit expressions for the level of significance and power of Stein's two-stage hypothesis testing procedure are derived when the normal population is mixed with another normal population differing in the mean. Approximate expansions for these expressions have been obtained, and numerical studies of the size have been carried out using the expansions. Some numerical indication of the accuracy of the approximations has also been obtained. Stein's two-stage procedure is quite robust against mixtures of normal populations differing in location parameters. Similar conclusions can be drawn regarding the coverage probabilities of confidence intervals generated by this procedure.
On the generation of QFT bounds for general interval plants

Considered in this paper is the question of synthesizing a fixed compensator for an interval plant so that (i) robust stability and (ii) robust disturbance rejection in the sense of Quantitative Feedback Theory (QFT) are attained. As expected, the problem reduces to one of loop shaping a nominal transfer function that avoids a set of frequency dependent forbidden regions while simultaneously stabilizing the nominal plant. It is shown that for the class of interval plants considered, the QFT boundaries (i.e., the magnitude restrictions on the nominal loop transfer function at each phase for a given frequency) can be explicitly computed by solving a number of simultaneous inequalities at each frequency. These results yield computationnally efficient algorithms mainly because the need for the usual one dimensional search on the magnitude of the nominal loop transfer function has been completely removed
Decreased Functional Caspase-3 Expression in Umbilical Cord Blood Neutrophils Is Linked to Delayed Apoptosis

Resolution of inflammatory processes depends on the efficient removal of aging neutrophils by the reticuloendothelial system. Neutrophil apoptosis is key to this process, and its impairment may contribute to the pathogenesis of chronic inflammation. We recently discovered that Fas-mediated apoptosis in umbilical cord blood neutrophils was significantly delayed as compared with those of adults. Because execution of apoptosis relies on caspases, we used reverse transcription PCR, immunoblots, and enzymatic assays to study the integrity of several members of those proteases known to mediate Fas-induced apoptosis in neutrophils. Our results indicate that diminished expression of caspase-3 mRNA and the precursor form of the protein, as well as a lower functional enzymatic activity of caspase-3, correlates with delayed apoptosis in umbilical cord blood neutrophils. Our data suggest that functional expression of caspase-3 in neutrophils may be regulated during ontogeny.
Criteria for fragmentation in a collapsing rotating cloud

The isothermal collapse of a rotating protostar with pressure and self-gravity is calculated by a hydrodynamic computer code that treats three space dimensions. A number of initial conditions are tested to determine the conditions under which a cloud is unstable to fragmentation. It is shown that fragmentation does not proceed to a significant extent during the first free-fall time, but that in most cases fragmentation has occurred by 1.5 to 2 times the initial free-fall time. The extent to which the density in the fragments is enhanced over that in their surroundings on this time scale depends on the initial ratio of thermal to gravitational energy, but is only weakly dependent on the type and amplitude of the perturbation and on the initial rotational energy.
Shrew Remains from Moonshiner and Middle Butte Caves, Idaho

Analysis of Holocene soricid fossils, previously regarded as Sorex cf. cinereus , from Moonshiner and Middle Butte caves, Bingham Co., Idaho, revealed Sorex merriami, S. monticolus, S. nanus , and S. cf. haydeni . The latter two taxa are new records for Idaho; their former presence is consistent with cooler temperatures and greater precipitation postulated to have occurred during part of the time that these caves operated as natural traps.
Comparative Analysis of Jones’ and Kelley’s Ethical Decision-Making Models

This study used structural equation modeling to verify the performance of the ethical decision-making models developed by Jones and by Kelley and Elm. A comparison showed that the Kelley and Elm decision model yielded the optimal degree of fit. The investigations conducted in this study indicated that moral intensities are not an objective, existing concept but rather the product of subjective perception influenced by organizational factors. In addition to directly influencing ethical decisions, organizational factors indirectly influence ethical decisions through moral intensities.
Primary cutaneous leiomyosarcoma. A histological and immunohistochemical study of 9 cases, with ultrastructural correlation.

Leiomyosarcoma (LMS) of dermal and subcutaneous tissues is an uncommon neoplasm. In order to analyze the specialized pathologic features of this tumor, we undertook a histological, ultrastructural, and immunohistochemical study of 9 superficial LMS, including 7 dermal lesions and 2 subcutaneous neoplasms. These were compared with 12 examples of “deep” extracutane-ous LMS. Metastases to the skin from two of the latter neoplasms were also examined. Immunohistochemistry was found to be a useful diagnostic adjunct to light microscopic and ultrastructural studies in that all LMS coexpressed vimentin and des-min, regardless of site, and 90% also expressed muscle-specific actin. Variable expression of cathepsin B and niyelin basic protein was noted in 8 and 10 tumors, respectively, whereas none contained cytokeratin. Weak cytoplasmic positivity for epithelial membrane antigen was seen in 1 dermal and 3 extracutaneous LMS. Of 7 dermal LMS, 4 contained S-100 protein, whereas this determinant was found in only 1 of 12 extracutaneous tumors. Conversely, Leu 7 reactivity was present in 7 of 12 extracutaneous LMS, but only 2 of 9 superficial lesions. Review of clinical features confirmed that subcutaneous LMS is capable of aggressive behaviour, whereas dermal LMS was more likely to behave in an indolent fashion. However, one example of dermal LMS exhibited aggressive local recurrences and distant metastasis, ultimately leading to the death of the patient. Therefore, careful clinical followup is indicated in all cases.
Pistil development in 2 types of flowers of Xanthoceras sorbifolia

In order to investigate flower development and female abortion during sex differentiation of Xanthoceras sorbifolia, anatomical observations and comparative study on differential proteins were carried out in different developmental stages of two types of flowers of this species. It was found that the selective abortion happened in male flower before the formation of megasporocyte. Special proteins related to the female abortion were found through 2-dimensional electrophoretic analysis. Protein A1 (14.2 kD) only existed in florescence of male flower, while B1 (13.7 kD) and B2 (18.2 kD) disappeared in that stage of male flower. They were all considered to be relative to pistil abortion of Xanthoceras sorbifolia.
The assessment of leaf water content using leaf reflectance ratios in the visible, near-, and short-wave-infrared

The common features of spectral reflectance from vegetation foliage upon leaf dehydration are decreasing water absorption troughs in the near-infrared (NIR) and short-wave-infrared (SWIR). We studied which leaf water index in the NIR and SWIR is most suitable for the assessment of leaf water content and the detection of leaf dehydration from the laboratory standpoint. We also examined the influence of the thickness of leaves upon leaf water indices. All leaf water content indices examined exhibited basic correlations with the relative water content (RWC) of leaves, while the R 1300/R 1450 leaf water index also demonstrated a high signal strength and low variability (R 2>0.94). All examined leaf reflectance ratios could also be correlated with leaf thickness. The thickness of leaves, however, was not independent of leaf RWC but appeared to decrease substantially as a result of leaf dehydration.
Circuit techniques for 1.5-V power supply flash memory

We describe circuit techniques for a Flash memory which operates with a V/sub DD/ of 1.5 V. For the interface between the peripheral circuits and the memory core circuits, two types of level shifter circuits are proposed which convert a V/sub DD/ level signal into the high voltage signals needed for high performance. In order to improve the read performance at a low V/sub DD/, a new self-bias bitline voltage sensing scheme is described. This circuit greatly reduces the delay's dependence on bitline capacitance and achieves 19 ns reduction of the sense delay at low voltages. Multilevel storage sensing with this circuit is also discussed.
Cytoplasmic free Ca2+ is essential for multiple steps in malaria parasite egress from infected erythrocytes

Egress of Plasmodium falciparum, from erythrocytes at the end of its asexual cycle and subsequent parasite invasion into new host cells, is responsible for parasite dissemination in the human body. The egress pathway is emerging as a coordinated multistep programme that extends in time for tens of minutes, ending with rapid parasite extrusion from erythrocytes. While the Ca2+ regulation of the invasion of P. falciparum in erythrocytes is well established, the role of Ca2+ in parasite egress is poorly understood. This study analysed the involvement of cytoplasmic free Ca2+ in infected erythrocytes during the multistep egress programme of malaria parasites. Live-cell fluorescence microscopy was used to image parasite egress from infected erythrocytes, assessing the effect of drugs modulating Ca2+ homeostasis on the egress programme. A steady increase in cytoplasmic free Ca2+ is found to precede parasite egress. This increase is independent of extracellular Ca2+ for at least the last two hours of the cycle, but is dependent upon Ca2+ release from internal stores. Intracellular BAPTA chelation of Ca2+ within the last 45 minutes of the cycle inhibits egress prior to parasitophorous vacuole swelling and erythrocyte membrane poration, two characteristic morphological transformations preceding parasite egress. Inhibitors of the parasite endoplasmic reticulum (ER) Ca2+-ATPase accelerate parasite egress, indicating that Ca2+ stores within the ER are sufficient in supporting egress. Markedly accelerated egress of apparently viable parasites was achieved in mature schizonts using Ca2+ ionophore A23187. Ionophore treatment overcomes the BAPTA-induced block of parasite egress, confirming that free Ca2+ is essential in egress initiation. Ionophore treatment of immature schizonts had an adverse effect inducing parasitophorous vacuole swelling and killing the parasites within the host cell. The parasite egress programme requires intracellular free Ca2+ for egress initiation, vacuole swelling, and host cell cytoskeleton digestion. The evidence that parasitophorous vacuole swelling, a stage of unaffected egress, is dependent upon a rise in intracellular Ca2+ suggests a mechanism for ionophore-inducible egress and a new target for Ca2+ in the programme liberating parasites from the host cell. A regulatory pathway for egress that depends upon increases in intracellular free Ca2+ is proposed.
Problems in the aging of skeletal juveniles: Perspectives from maturation assessments of living children

We employ samples of children of known chronological age to demonstrate the significance of random and systematic effects on maturation in both dental and skeletal development. Differences between chronological age for dental age in young healthy Canadian children can be as much as 100% of the actual age of the children. For skeletal development by reference to Greulich-Pyle standards, three samples of known-age children from Mexico document parallel effects: 1) 183 six-year-old children have skeletal-based ages with a 95% confidence interval of 4-8 years; 2) 80% of 217 4.0-4.5-year-old children are underaged by 1-3 years; and 3) 130 children of skeletal age between 39 and 44 months are actually between 4 and 7.4 chronological years of age. The Mexican samples are drawn from a population living under conditions of environmental stress with chronic mild to moderate protein-energy malnutrition and moderate to high levels of infectious disease. These children may parallel those from the past, whose remains are studied by skeletal biologists or paleoanthropologists. Our findings reinforce concerns expressed in extant studies regarding the accuracy of age-at-death reconstructions.
Investigating the mesoscale impact of artificial reservoirs on frequency of rain during growing season

[1] The specific question that this study pursued is “Have large dams modified the downwind frequency of rainfall in the mesoscale during growing season?” Rigorously quality controlled precipitation data comprising 3055 stations from the Global Historical Climatology Network (GHCN) were analyzed with 92 large dams in the U.S. Using 30 years of atmospheric reanalysis data, the wind rose diagram for each dam was derived from wind data at the 850 mb level. Around 96 (78) GHCN downwind (upwind) precipitation stations were identified that were within 100 km (mesoscale) of dams. The Mediterranean and humid subtropical climates were found to have experienced the highest and statistically significant change in trend in precipitation frequency downwind and within 100 km of dams during the growing season. The warm summer continental climatic region was found to have exhibited the next most modification. Paired analyses were performed as a function of predam and postdam and at upwind and downwind locations. For Mediterranean climates, the stations studied were found to have experienced a generally weak trend in precipitation frequency before the construction of the selected dams and a systematically more impacted trend during the postdam period. However, using precipitation observations alone, the specific role played by irrigation dams could not be distinguished from other types of dams in this study. Analysis of humidity records, however, revealed that dams can increase the moistening of the air mass by about 5%–15% (in terms of vapor pressure) as it passes downwind, while the effect can also be marginal for other dams. In summary, our study reveals that it is easier to establish a physically intuitive connection between large dams and downwind frequency of rain, but it is much more difficult to demonstrate this connection consistently for all the downwind stations in the mesoscale without the use of additional geophysical data (e.g., topography, land use, and land cover patterns) and mesoscale atmospheric modeling.
Comparisons Of An Adaptive Neural Network Based Controller And An Optimized Conventional Power System Stabilizer

Power system stabilizers are widely used to damp out the low frequency oscillations in power systems. In power system control literature, there is a lack of stability analysis for proposed controller designs. This paper proposes a Neural Network (NN) based stabilizing controller design based on a sixth order single machine infinite bus power system model. The NN is used to compensate the complex nonlinear dynamics of power system. To speed up the learning process, an adaptive signal is introduced to the NN's weights updating rule. The NN can be directly used online without offline training process. Magnitude constraint of the activators is modeled as saturation nonlinearities and is included in the stability analysis. The proposed controller design is compared with Conventional Power System Stabilizers whose parameters are optimized by Particle Swarm Optimization. Simulation results demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed controller design.
Hellinger distance decision trees are robust and skew-insensitive

Learning from imbalanced data is an important and common problem. Decision trees, supplemented with sampling techniques, have proven to be an effective way to address the imbalanced data problem. Despite their effectiveness, however, sampling methods add complexity and the need for parameter selection. To bypass these difficulties we propose a new decision tree technique called Hellinger Distance Decision Trees (HDDT) which uses Hellinger distance as the splitting criterion. We analytically and empirically demonstrate the strong skew insensitivity of Hellinger distance and its advantages over popular alternatives such as entropy (gain ratio). We apply a comprehensive empirical evaluation framework testing against commonly used sampling and ensemble methods, considering performance across 58 varied datasets. We demonstrate the superiority (using robust tests of statistical significance) of HDDT on imbalanced data, as well as its competitive performance on balanced datasets. We thereby arrive at the particularly practical conclusion that for imbalanced data it is sufficient to use Hellinger trees with bagging (BG) without any sampling methods. We provide all the datasets and software for this paper online ( http://www.nd.edu/~dial/hddt ).
Mortality of acute mesenteric ischemia remains unchanged despite significant increase in utilization of endovascular techniques.

IntroductionIn this study, we evaluated if increase in utilization of endovascular surgery has affected in-hospital mortality rates among patients with acute mesenteric ischemia.MethodsThe National...
The Importance of Ordering in Sequential Auctions

To date, the largest part of literature on multi-unit auctions has assumed that there arek homogeneous objects being auctioned, where each bidder wishes to win exactly one or all ofk units. These modeling assumptions have made the examination of ordering in sequential auctions inconsequential. The aim of this paper is to introduce and highlight the critical influence that ordering can have on the efficiency of an auction. We study a buyer who outsources via sequential 2nd-price auctions two heterogeneous jobs, and faces a diverse set of suppliers with capacity constraints.
Mapping of Equine Lentivirus Receptor 1 Residues Critical for Equine Infectious Anemia Virus Envelope Binding

The equine lentivirus receptor 1 (ELR1), a member of the tumor necrosis factor receptor (TNFR) protein family, has been identified as a functional receptor for equine infectious anemia virus (EIAV). Toward defining the functional interactions between the EIAV SU protein (gp90) and its ELR1 receptor, we mapped the gp90 binding domain of ELR1 by a combination of binding and functional assays using the EIAV SU gp90 protein and various chimeric receptor proteins derived from exchanges between the functional ELR1 and the nonbinding homolog, mouse herpesvirus entry mediator (murine HveA). Complementary exchanges of the respective cysteine-rich domains (CRD) between the ELR1 and murine HveA proteins revealed CRD1 as the predominant determinant of functional gp90 binding to ELR1 and also to a chimeric murine HveA protein expressed on the surface of transfected Cf2Th cells. Mutations of individual amino acids in the CRD1 segment of ELR1 and murine HveA indicated the Leu70 in CRD1 as essential for functional binding of EIAV gp90 and for virus infection of transduced Cf2Th cells. The specificity of the EIAV SU binding domain identified for the ELR1 receptor is fundamentally identical to that reported previously for functional binding of feline immunodeficiency virus SU to its coreceptor CD134, another TNFR protein. These results indicate unexpected common features of the specific mechanisms by which diverse lentiviruses can employ TNFR proteins as functional receptors.
Progesterone concentrations in peripheral plasma of laying hens in relation to the time of ovulation.

Plasma progesterone concentrations were measured in the laying hen by a competitive protein-binding assay. Several birds were examined at 4-hr intervals over several sequential ovulations, including the interval between sequences. Progesterone levels rose to several ng/ml plasma beginning about 6 hr prior to ovulation and had returned to basal levels at the time of ovulation. The maximum of the peak was between 4 and 6 hr before ovulation. There was no progesterone peak on a day when oviposition was not directly followed by ovulation. The increase in progesterone relative to LH release is discussed. (Endocrinology 90: 1350,1972)
Introduction: Invention Input–Output Analysis

The papers in this issue are directed towards the development of invention input–output (I(IO)) coefficients. They discuss the procedures for creating I(IO) coefficients using the Yale Technology Concordance, which assigns patented inventions to the industry of manufacture and sector of use, utilizing the International Patent Class system. Tests of reliability of the I(Io) coefficients and their use in economic studies are reported.
CD4+ T Cells Contain Early Extrapulmonary Tuberculosis (TB) Dissemination and Rapid TB Progression and Sustain Multieffector Functions of CD8+ T and CD3− Lymphocytes: Mechanisms of CD4+ T Cell Immunity

The possibility that CD4 + T cells can act as “innate-like” cells to contain very early Mycobacterium tuberculosis dissemination and function as master helpers to sustain multiple effector functions of CD8 + T cells and CD3 − lymphocytes during development of adaptive immunity against primary tuberculosis (TB) has not been demonstrated. We showed that pulmonary M. tuberculosis infection of CD4-depleted macaques surprisingly led to very early extrapulmonary M. tuberculosis dissemination, whereas CD4 deficiency clearly resulted in rapid TB progression. CD4 depletion during M. tuberculosis infection revealed the ability of CD8 + T cells to compensate and rapidly differentiate to Th17-like/Th1-like and cytotoxic-like effectors, but these effector functions were subsequently unsustainable due to CD4 deficiency. Whereas CD3 − non–T lymphocytes in the presence of CD4 + T cells developed predominant Th22-like and NK-like (perforin production) responses to M. tuberculosis infection, CD4 depletion abrogated these Th22-/NK-like effector functions and favored IL-17 production by CD3 − lymphocytes. CD4-depleted macaques exhibited no or few pulmonary T effector cells constitutively producing IFN-γ, TNF-α, IL-17, IL-22, and perforin at the endpoint of more severe TB, but they presented pulmonary IL-4 + T effectors. TB granulomas in CD4-depleted macaques contained fewer IL-22 + and perforin + cells despite the presence of IL-17 + and IL-4 + cells. These results implicate a previously unknown innate-like ability of CD4 + T cells to contain extrapulmonary M. tuberculosis dissemination at very early stage. Data also suggest that CD4 + T cells are required to sustain multiple effector functions of CD8 + T cells and CD3 − lymphocytes and to prevent rapid TB progression during M. tuberculosis infection of nonhuman primates.
Foreskin preservation in penile surgery.

Purpose: Most hypospadias repairs performed in the United States involve the removal of any foreskin that is not used in the repair, resulting in a circumcised penis. Occasionally, the wishes of the parents or the child are for the final appearance to be that of a normal uncircumcised penis. We report our collective experience from 4 institutions in the reconstruction of the foreskin during penile surgery.Materials and Methods: A total of 58 patients underwent penile surgery with reconstruction of the foreskin during a 6-year period. Of the patients 49 underwent hypospadias repair, 8 underwent phalloplasty for chordee correction without hypospadias and 1 underwent reconstruction of the foreskin for a dorsal hood without hypospadias or chordee. Of the 49 hypospadias repairs 46 were distal, 2 mid shaft and 1 proximal shaft. The technique for foreskin reconstruction consisted of a multilayered reapproximation of the lateral margins of the dorsal hood after completion of the urethroplasty and glanuloplasty.Re...
The Lindemann and Grüneisen Laws

The Lindemann assumption of direct contact of neighboring atoms at fusion is replaced by the criterion that melting occurs when the root-mean-square amplitude of thermal vibration reaches a critical fraction $\ensuremath{\rho}$, presumed the same for all isotropic monatomic solids, of the distance of separation of nearest-neighbor atoms. The Debye-Waller theory of the temperature dependence of the intensity of Bragg reflection of x-rays is used, without further assumptions, to derive a generalized Lindemann law. In contrast to the Lindemann form, all physical quantities involved in this formulation are evaluated at the fusion point, and departure of the average energy of an atomic oscillation from the equipartition value is taken into account by the quantization factor of the Debye-Waller theory. If the Gr\"uneisen constant ${\ensuremath{\gamma}}_{m}$ of the solid at fusion is evaluated by its definition from the Debye frequency of the solid, use of the generalized Lindemann law and Clapeyron's equation permits one to express ${\ensuremath{\gamma}}_{m}$ in terms of the bulk modulus of the solid at melting and the latent heat and volume change of fusion. By means of Gr\"uneisen's law applied to the solid at fusion, ${\ensuremath{\gamma}}_{m}$ can be expressed likewise in terms of the corresponding bulk modulus, thermal expansion, volume, and heat capacity at constant volume; the two evaluations of ${\ensuremath{\gamma}}_{m}$ connect the Lindemann and Gr\"uneisen laws. These relations permit one to evaluate the slope and curvature of a fusion curve as functions of ${\ensuremath{\gamma}}_{m}$, and thus to express in terms of ${\ensuremath{\gamma}}_{m}$ the conditions that a fusion curve be normal in the sense of Bridgman. Experimental fusion data on 13 cubic metals are used to evaluate the constant of proportionality (inversely proportional to $\ensuremath{\rho}$) in the Lindemann frequency; the values are reasonably constant. The corresponding values of $\ensuremath{\rho}$ for Al and Cu show reasonable agreement with values deduced from x-ray intensity measurements. The average $\ensuremath{\rho}$ seems significantly below values estimated by Gr\"uneisen. Good agreement with the cubic metals is found for hexagonal close-packed elements, but not for elements with more complex lattices, in general. The two evaluations of the Gr\"uneisen constant ${\ensuremath{\gamma}}_{m}$ of the solid at fusion are shown to be in good agreement, experimentally, for 14 elements checked, but agreement fails for the elements Ga, Bi, and Sb, which show abnormal fusion curves.
FireFly Mosaic: A Vision-Enabled Wireless Sensor Networking System

With the advent of CMOS cameras, it is now possible to make compact, cheap and low-power image sensors capable of on-board image processing. These embedded vision sensors provide a rich new sensing modality enabling new classes of wireless sensor networking applications. In order to build these applications, system designers need to overcome challenges associated with limited bandwidth, limited power, group coordination and fusing of multiple camera views with various other sensory inputs. Real-time properties must be upheld if multiple vision sensors are to process data, communicate with each other and make a group decision before the measured environmental feature changes. In this paper, we present FireFly Mosaic, a wireless sensor network image processing framework with operating system, networking and image processing primitives that assist in the development of distributed vision-sensing tasks. Each FireFly Mosaic wireless camera consists of a FireFly (Rowe et al., 2006) node coupled with a CMUcam3 (Rowe et al., 2007) embedded vision processor. The FireFly nodes run the nano-RK (Eswaran et al., 2005) real-time operating system and communicate using the RT-link (Rowe et al., 2006) collision-free TDMA link protocol. Using FireFly Mosaic, we demonstrate an assisted living application capable of fusing multiple cameras with overlapping views to discover and monitor daily activities in a home. Using this application, we show how an integrated platform with support for time synchronization, a collision-free TDMA link layer, an underlying RTOS and an interface to an embedded vision sensor provides a stable framework for distributed real-time vision processing. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first wireless sensor networking system to integrate multiple coordinating cameras performing local processing.
Could mycobacterial Hsp70-containing fusion protein lead the way to an affordable therapeutic cancer vaccine?

Cancer vaccine development efforts have recently gained momentum, but most vaccines showing clinical impact in human trials tend to be based on technology approaches that are very costly and difficult to produce at scale. With the projected doubling of the incidence of cancer and its related cost of care in the U.S. over the next two decades, the widespread clinical use of such vaccines will prove difficult to justify. Heat shock protein-based vaccines have shown the potential to elicit clinically meaningful immunologic responses in cancer, but the predominant development approach – heat shock protein–peptide complexes derived from a patient’s own tumor – face similar challenges of cost and scalability. New innovative modalities for deploying heat shock proteins in cancer vaccines may open the door to vaccines that can generate potent cytotoxic responses against multiple tumor targets and can be made in a cost-effective and scalable manner.
Satisfaction With Firm Performance in Family Businesses

Business goals in family businesses are often subsumed by family goals. As a result, reference performance for each family business is different. This makes the popular financial performance measur...
The Handbook of Aging and Cognition by F. I. M. Craik and T. A. Salthouse, eds

The purpose of The Handbook of Aging and Cognition is to provide a comprehensive evaluation of the current state of research in areas as diverse as the new field of functional neuroimaging to the m...
Autocorrelation-Based Spectrum Sensing for Cognitive Radios

We propose a new spectrum-sensing technique based on the sample autocorrelation of the received signal. We assume that the received signal is oversampled and allow for frequency offset between the local oscillator and the carrier of the primary signal. We evaluate the performance of this algorithm for both additive white Gaussian noise (AWGN) and Rayleigh-fading channels and study its sensitivity to carrier frequency offset. Simulation results are presented to verify the accuracy of the approximation assumptions in our analysis. The performance of the proposed algorithm is also compared with those from the energy detector, the covariance detector, and the cyclic-autocorrelation detector. The results show that our algorithm outperforms the covariance detector and the cyclic autocorrelation detector. It also outperforms the energy detector in the presence of noise power uncertainty or in the case of unknown primary signal bandwidth. Finally, we investigate three diversity combining techniques, namely 1) equal gain combining, 2) selective combining and 3) equal gain correlation combining. Our simulations show that for detection probabilities of interest (e.g., > 0.9), a system with a four-branch diversity achieves a signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) gain of more than 5 dB over the no-diversity system that uses the same number of received signal samples.
Studies on the mechanism of action of a pigment dispersing chromatophorotropin in the fiddler crab, Uca pugilator

Abstract 1. 1. A23187 induces pigment dispersion and potentiates hormone-induced pigment dispersion in isolated legs of Uca pugilator. 2. 2. cAMP and Bt2AMP induce pigment dispersion in melanophores, leucophores, and erythrophores, and both potentiate hormone-induced pigment dispersion in melanophores and leucophores of U. pugilator. 3. 3. cGMP induces pigment dispersion in all three chromatophore types and both potentiates and inhibits hormone-induced dispersion in a dose dependent manner in isolated legs of U. pugilator. 4. 4. Colchicine and Cytochalasin-B inhibit hormone-induced pigment dispersion in melanophores, leucophores, and erythrophores of U. pugilator.
Thermodynamic properties of silicides I. calorimetric measurements of the specific energy of combustion in fluorine of hyperstoichiometric tungsten disilicide, and the derived standard molar enthalpy of formation ΔfHom(WSi2.060) at the temperature 298.15 K

The specific energy of combustion in fluorine of hyperstoichiometric tungsten silicide of composition WSi 2.060 ± 0.002 and containing mole fraction 2.06 (cr) + 7.12F 2 (g) = WF 6 (g) + 2.06SiF 4 (g). The standard molar enthalpy of formation was derived from the energy of combustion: Δ f H ° m (WSi 2.060 , cr, 298.15 K) = −(80.4 ± 4.7) kJ · mol −1 . On the basis of that result, Δ f H o m (WSi 2 , cr, 298.15 K) was estimated to be −(79 ± 5) kJ · mol −1 . The only other experimental value for the enthalpy of formation of WSi 2 is approximately −93 kJ · mol −1 .
Measurements of eye distortions caused by elevated intracranial pressure

We have measured the optical disc region in the eye of patients with elevated intracranial pressure (ICP). We used a scanning laser ophthalmoscope (SLO), which gives a digital measure of the topology. We formulated two measures of the swelling caused by high ICP (called papilledema): 1) depth of the optic disc, and 2) average mean diameter of the swelling. We show that these quantitative evaluations vary systematically with a physicians qualitative grading of the severity of the papilledema.
Evaluation of Four Mixing Correlations for Performance and Soot-Emission Characteristics for a Small Open-Chamber Diesel Engine

A quasi-steady gas-jet model was applied to examine the spray penetration and deflection in swirling flow during the ignition-delay period in an open-chamber diesel engine timed to start combustion at top dead center. The input to the gas-jet model included measured values of ignition delay and mean fuel-injection velocity. Attempts were made to correlate measured fuel-consumption and soot-emissions data with mixing parameters based on calculated spray penetration and deflection. The engine parameters examined were piston-bowl geometry, compression ratio, speed, and overall air-fuel ratio
The commonly missed diagnosis of intracranial hypotension

Abstract We report a 28 year old female who presented with a subacute onset of a severe throbbing and stabbing headache after a morning spin class 9 months ago. We confirmed the diagnosis of spontaneous intracranial hypotension cause by a cerebrospinal fluid leak. The headache finally resolved after a 55 ml blood patch. Affecting an estimated 5/100,000 patients, spontaneous intracranial hypotension is considered rare in medical literature. Many patients with spontaneous intracranial hypotension are incapacitated for years and even decades. The misdiagnosis of intracranial hypotension can have serious consequences and lead to unnecessary testing and treatment. Healthcare professionals need to be aware of this diagnosis when evaluating a patient with acute head pain. Considering that physical exams are usually normal, clinicians must focus on the patient history and physical. Clues in the patient interviewing process can lead to an immediate and accurate diagnosis.
Aspergillus fumigatus native valve infective endocarditis in an otherwise healthy adult.

Introduction: Fungal endocarditis is a rare cause of infective endocarditis, and Aspergillus spp. account for up to 30 % of all cases. Risk factors include intravenous drug use, immunosuppression, malignancy and the presence of prosthetic valves. Case presentation: We present a case of A. fumigatus endocarditis in a patient without any known or described risk factors. Conclusion: Diagnosis of Aspergillus endocarditis requires a high clinical index of suspicion, given the initial non-specific presentation, and treatment may require both medical and surgical therapies to ensure improved outcomes, but mortality rates still approach 80 %. Voriconazole remains the antifungal agent of choice.
Adventures in Physico-Chemical Measurements by Gas Chromatography: Past, Present, and Future

Historique et prevision de l'utilisation de la CG a la Rice University (Texas): en particulier, etude des equilibres liquide-vapeur, adsorption des gaz, transitions de phases, diffusion moleculaire
Hard-sphere behavior in the dynamics of all mono-atomic liquids at the de Gennes minimum

Abstract We show that the position of the de Gennes minimum in scattering spectra, where the dynamics of liquids slow down, is given by a hard-sphere expression for a range of mono-atomic liquids that crystallize in a close packed structure. This expression relates the position of the minimum to the number density of the liquid, without any adjustable or unknown parameters. We argue that this implies that a liquid can be viewed as a close packed structure of the cages that represent the confinement of atoms by their neighbors. We further show that some metals deviate from this expression, namely those metals that crystallize in a structure that is not close packed. Our expression should prove very useful in identifying what liquids to study in inelastic scattering experiments given that deviations from normal fluid behavior can already be predicted based on the peak position of the static structure factor.
Analysis of organic selenium and inorganic selenium in health foods

Objective:To establish a method for simultaneous detection of the organic selenium and the inorganic selenium in the health foods.Methods: Determines the total selenium conten after oxidation of organic selenium into inorganic selenium in the sample with nitric acid-perchloric acid mixed acid system,simultaneously with the acid extraction the inorganic selenium in the sample,obtains the organic selenium content through the subtraction method.Results:After the recovery experiment and the actual sample examination,the recovery rate was 95.0%~105.6%,RSD 2.5%~4.9%.Conclusion:This method has a wide linear dynamic range,good precision and accuracy,and has a high practicale value.
Population-based requirements for thoracic surgery.

In order to determine the population-based requirement for thoracic surgery, we identified all of the thoracotomies undertaken upon Olmsted County, Minnesota, residents in a 10 year period. There were 674 initial operations and 78 reoperations among 689 residents. The age-adjusted incidence rate for all thoracotomies in the community was 99.6 per 100,000 person-years. Rates generally increased with age and were greater for men, with an age-adjusted male: female ratio of incidence rates of 2.1:1. Age-adjusted rates for urban residents were nearly twice as great as those for rural residents of the county. Sixty percent of the operations were performed for cardiovascular disease, 30% for pulmonary disease, and 10% for all other chest conditions. The incidence of operations for all three of these subgroups increased substantially during the 10 year study period. If the Olmsted County experience for 1976-1979 is applied to the 1980 United States population, an estimated 300,000 thoracic operations would be required. The operations could entail the use of nearly 6 million hospital bed-days and over 1 million operating room hours.
Pathway of Photocatalytic Oxygen Evolution on Aqueous TiO2 Anatase and Insights into the Different Activities of Anatase and Rutile

The photocatalytic oxidation of water to molecular oxygen is a key step toward the conversion of solar energy to fuels. Understanding the detailed mechanism and kinetics of this reaction is important for the development of robust catalysts with improved efficiency. TiO2 is one of the best-known photocatalysts as well as a model system for the study of the oxygen evolution reaction (OER). Here we use hybrid density functional based energetic calculations and first-principles molecular dynamics simulations to investigate the pathway and kinetics of the OER on the majority (101) surface of anatase TiO2 in a water environment. Our results show that terminal Ti–OH groups are stable intermediates at the aqueous (101) interface, in accord with the experimental observation that OH radicals are efficiently produced on anatase. Oxidation of Ti–OH gives rise to a second stable intermediate, a surface-bridging peroxo dimer ((O22–)br) composed of one water and one surface lattice oxygen atom, consistent with the surfa...
CLIMATE AND CLIMATE CHANGE | Climate Variability: Seasonal and Interannual Variability

Seasonal variability of climate is principally controlled by changes in the amount of incoming solar radiation hitting different latitudes during Earth’s year-long orbit around the Sun. Continents and oceans respond differently to seasonal changes in solar radiation, adding geographical complexity to seasonal variability. Interannual variability in the atmosphere can be organized into very large scale patterns of wind and temperature fluctations. These patterns are often found to be associated with slow shifts in ocean circulation and temperature. Coupled ocean-atmosphere models have demonstrated increasing skill in simulating and predicting interannual variability.
The Birth of Chaos

The word chaos has become firmly embedded in the literature on dynamical systems. Indeed, James Gleick’s book, Chaos Theory [17], established that term as a description of the entire subject in the public mind. Nonetheless, there is no authoritative technical meaning of “chaos” in dynamical systems. Li and Yorke first used the word in the title of their paper “Period three implies chaos” [31], but it does not appear in the text.