cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Practical memory safety with REST

In this paper, we propose Random Embedded Secret Tokens (REST), a simple hardware primitive to provide content-based checks, and show how it can be used to mitigate common types of spatial and temporal memory errors at very low cost. REST is simply a very large random value that is embedded into programs. To provide memory safety, REST is used to bookend data structures during allocation. If the hardware accesses a REST value during execution, due to programming errors or adversarial actions, it reports a privileged memory safety exception. Implementing REST requires 1 bit of metadata per L1 data cache line and a comparator to check for REST tokens during a cache fill. The software infrastructure to provide memory safety with REST reuses a production-quality memory error detection tool, AddressSanitizer, by changing less than 1.5K lines of code. REST based memory safety offers several advantages com-pared to extant methods: (1) it does not require significant redesign of hardware or software, (2) the overhead of heap and stack safety is 2% compared to 40% for AddressSanitizer, (3) the security of the memory safety implementation is improved compared AddressSanitizer, and (4) REST based memory safety can mitigate heap safety errors in legacy binaries without recom-pilation or source code. These advantages provide a significant step towards continuous runtime memory safety monitoring and mitigation for legacy and new binaries.
EFFECTS OF SLEEP DISORDERED BREATHING ON LEFT VENTRICULAR AND LEFT ATRIAL FUNCTION EVALUATED BY ECHOCARDIOGRAPHY

Sleep disordered breathing (SDB) increases the risk of systolic and diastolic heart failure. Detection of subclinical cardiac dysfunction by echocardiography in SDB is paramount to understanding the underlying pathophysiology and guiding intervention during early disease process. 282 patients
Wide-area measurement-based modal decoupling for power system oscillation damping

Abstract Inter-area oscillation modes usually fall within the same frequency range of 0.1–1.0 Hz; thus, power oscillation damping (POD) control methods should avoid unnecessary excitation of weakly damped modes. This paper presents a decoupled control strategy to damp inter-area oscillations in the power grid. Pure oscillation mode signals are extracted from wide-area measurements and used as feedback input for POD actuators such as power system stabilizers or high-voltage direct current transmission. The decoupled control strategy is able to increase the damping of the concerned oscillation modes without deteriorating others. This proposed strategy could be implemented independently, or serve as a complement and work along with conventional POD controllers to damp concerned inter-area modes. The proposed method has been tested on a modified MinniWECC system. Extensive results indicate that inter-area oscillations can be successfully and precisely damped using the proposed decoupled strategy.
Higher order correlations in a levitated nanoparticle phonon laser

We present theoretical calculations of higher order correlations for a phonon laser, demonstrated recently using an optically levitated nanoparticle. Our results for steady state and transient correlations agree well with experimental data.
Monitoring Emergency Department Visits From Puerto Rico in the Aftermath of Hurricane Maria Using Syndromic Surveillance - New York City, 2017.

Objective Syndromic surveillance has been useful for routine surveillance on a variety of health outcomes and for informing situational awareness during public health emergencies. Following the landfall of Hurricane Maria in 2017, the New York City (NYC) Department of Health and Mental Hygiene (DOHMH) implemented an enhanced syndromic surveillance system to characterize related emergency department (ED) visits. Methods ED visits with any mention of specific key words ("Puerto," "Rico," "hurricane," "Maria") in the ED chief complaint or Puerto Rico patient home Zip Code were identified from the DOHMH syndromic surveillance system in the 8-week window leading up to and following landfall. Visit volume comparisons pre- and post-Hurricane Maria were performed using Fisher's exact test. Results Analyses identified an overall increase in NYC ED utilization relating to Puerto Rico following Hurricane Maria landfall. In particular, there was a small but significant increase in visits involving a medication refill or essential medical equipment. Visits for other outcomes, such as mental illness, also increased, but the differences were not statistically significant. Conclusions Gaining this situational awareness of medical service use was informative following Hurricane Maria, and, following any natural disaster, the same surveillance methods could be easily established to aid an effective emergency response.
Massive Acetaminophen Overdose.

The authors present a case of a fatal intentional acetaminophen (APAP) overdose and remind the physician how ubiquitous the drug is. This case presentation highlights the clinical presentation and treatment options for APAP overdose in unresponsive patients. In cases of massive APAP overdose (> 300 µg/ml plasma at four hours post-ingestion), prompt administration of N-acetylcysteine (NAC) and early hemodialysis are indicated.
Dispositivos de observación para el desarrollo del croquis y pensamiento creativo en alumnos de arquitectura

Theories of Complexity, as a variety of new morphological models, have been assimilated from different points of view, in both the paradigmatic order and the world impression, these elements serving, in the following commission, as a reflective and operational framework for the carrying out a commission called machines for observing chance. With this commission, it is sought that students have a qualitative and experiential-creative approach with some formal principles typical of complex geometric models associated with a procedural logic based on the notion of specific operations and interventions, in the creative search for viso-spatial effects, as pedagogical experiences.
Technical Note: On the spatial correlation between robust CT-ventilation methods and SPECT ventilation

PURPOSE The computed tomography (CT)-derived ventilation imaging methodology employs deformable image registration (DIR) to recover respiratory motion-induced volume changes from an inhale/exhale CT image pair, as a surrogate for ventilation. The Integrated Jacobian Formulation (IJF) and Mass Conserving Volume Change (MCVC) numerical methods for volume change estimation represent two classes of ventilation methods, namely transformation based and intensity (Hounsfield Unit) based, respectively. Both the IJF and MCVC methods utilize subregional volume change measurements that satisfy a specified uncertainty tolerance. In previous publications, the ventilation images resulting from this numerical strategy demonstrated robustness to DIR variations. However, the reduced measurement uncertainty comes at the expense of measurement resolution. The purpose of this study was to examine the spatial correlation between robust CT-ventilation images and single photon emission CT-ventilation (SPECT-V). METHODS Previously described implementations of IJF and MCVC require the solution of a large scale, constrained linear least squares problem defined by a series of robust subregional volume change measurements. We introduce a simpler parameterized implementation that reduces the number of unknowns while increasing the number of data points in the resulting least squares problem. A parameter sweep of the measurement uncertainty tolerance, τ , was conducted using the 4DCT and SPECT-V images acquired for 15 non-small cell lung cancer patients prior to radiotherapy. For each test case, MCVC and IJF CT-ventilation images were created for 30 different uncertainty parameter values, uniformly sampled from the range 0.01,0.25 . Voxel-wise Spearman correlation between the SPECT-V and the resulting CT-ventilation images was computed. RESULTS The median correlations between MCVC and SPECT-V ranged from 0.20 to 0.48 across the parameter sweep, while the median correlations for IJF and SPECT-V ranged between 0.79 and 0.82. For the optimal IJF tolerance τ=0.07 , the IJF and SPECT-V correlations across all 15 test cases ranged between 0.12 and 0.90. For the optimal MCVC tolerance τ=0.03 , the MCVC and SPECT-V correlations across all 15 test cases ranged between -0.06 and 0.84. CONCLUSION The reported correlations indicate that robust methods generate ventilation images that are spatially consistent with SPECT-V, with the transformation-based IJF method yielding higher correlations than those previously reported in the literature. For both methods, overall correlations were found to marginally vary for τ∈[0.03,0.15] , indicating that the clinical utility of both methods is robust to both uncertainty tolerance and DIR solution.
Soy diferente: a qualitative study on the perceptions of recovery following traumatic brain injury among Spanish-speaking U.S. immigrants.

To explore the impact of traumatic brain injury (TBI) on the quality of life (QoL) and self-concept of Spanish-speaking U.S. Hispanic immigrants with TBI. A prospective, qualitative study conducted...
Demographic history mediates the effect of stratification on polygenic scores

Population stratification continues to bias the results of genome-wide association studies (GWAS). When these results are used to construct polygenic scores, even subtle biases can cumulatively lead to large errors. To study the effect of residual stratification, we simulated GWAS under realistic models of demographic history. We show that when population structure is recent, it cannot be corrected using principal components of common variants because they are uninformative about recent history. Consequently, polygenic scores are biased in that they recapitulate environmental structure. Principal components calculated from rare variants or identity-by-descent segments can correct this stratification for some types of environmental effects. While family-based studies are immune to stratification, the hybrid approach of ascertaining variants in GWAS but re-estimating effect sizes in siblings reduces but does not eliminate stratification. We show that the effect of population stratification depends not only on allele frequencies and environmental structure but also on demographic history.
The Prevalence and Potential Role of Pain Beliefs When Managing Later-Life Pain.

OBJECTIVES In this study of 154 community-dwelling older adults with chronic noncancer pain, we sought to assess participants' beliefs about pain as well as pain management treatments and to determine the influence of those beliefs on participants' willingness to undertake 3 physician-recommended pain treatments, that is, a pharmacologic, physical, and psychological therapy. MATERIALS AND METHODS A 16-item questionnaire was employed to ascertain participants' pain beliefs, divided into 4 subscales representing: (1) negative beliefs about pharmacological treatments, (2) positive beliefs about physical treatment approaches, for example, exercise, (3) positive beliefs about psychological treatments, and (4) fatalistic beliefs about pain. Participants were asked to rate their willingness to undertake a pharmacologic, physical, or psychological therapy if their physician recommended that they do so. Agreement with each belief was measured, and we examined willingness to undertake each treatment as a function of pain belief subscale scores after controlling for relevant covariates. RESULTS Positive beliefs about physical treatments (eg, benefits of exercise) were the most strongly endorsed items on the pain beliefs questionnaire. All 3 treatment-focused pain beliefs subscales were significantly associated with willingness to undertake that form of treatment (eg, negative beliefs about pain medication use were associated with decreased willingness to take pain medication). Fatalistic attitudes were significantly associated with a decreased willingness to undertake physical treatments. DISCUSSION These results support the notion that patients' beliefs about pain and pain treatments can have important effects on treatment engagement and, if assessed, can help guide clinical management of chronic pain in older adults.
Co-Integrating Currencies and Yield Differentials

This study investigates the relationship between currencies and interest rates of different maturity horizons. The real exchange rate is found to depend both on short-term real domestic and foreign interest rate difference and on long-term real domestic and foreign interest rate difference. Co-integrating regressions of contemporaneous currency rates generate negative and significant coefficients for long-term rate differentials, consistent with uncovered interest parity. Therefore, the expectations hypothesis holds for long horizons. On the other hand, positive coefficients for real short-term interest rate differentials reveal the forward premium puzzle: the failure of uncovered interest parity for short-horizons. Results are partly driven by the very different risk characteristics of short-term bonds and foreign bonds.
Emerging therapeutic targets for sepsis

Introduction: Sepsis is characterized by a dysregulated host response to infection. Sepsis-associated morbidity/mortality demands concerted research efforts toward therapeutic interventions which are reliable, broadly effective, and etiologically based. More intensive and extensive investigations on alterations in cellular signaling pathways, gene targeting as a means of modifying the characteristic hyper and/or hypo-immune responses, prevention through optimization of the microbiome, and the molecular pathways underlying the septic immune response could improve outcomes.] Areas covered: The authors discuss key experimental mammalian models and clinical trials. They provide an evaluation of evolving therapeutics in sepsis and how they have built upon past and current treatments. Relevant literature was derived from a PubMed search spanning 1987-2020.Expert opinion: Given the complex nature of sepsis and the elicited immune response, it is not surprising that a single cure-all therapeutic intervention, which is capable of effectively and reliably improving patient outcomes has failed to emerge. Innovative approaches seek to address not only the disease process but modify underlying patient factors. A true improvement in sepsis-associated morbidity/mortality will require a combination of unique therapeutic modalities.
Reinforced Concrete Design

Reinforced concrete is a composite material consisting of concrete and intimately bonded steel reinforcing bars. A typical reinforced concrete cross section is shown in Fig. 11.1. The reinforcing steel is always present in the portion of the cross section which experiences tensile stresses under load. In some cases, such as in columns and doubly reinforced beams (Fig. 11.2), steel is placed in the compression zone. The purposes of such steel are to increase the load capacity over singly reinforced sections, properly reinforce sections which are subject to stress reversals, increase the load capacity of column sections, and provide resistance to tensile stresses, which are caused by accidental eccentricities, buckling, and combined axial and flexural loads in compression members.
Shifting osteogenesis in vascular calcification.

Transitions between cell fates commonly occur in development and disease. However, reversing an unwanted cell transition in order to treat disease remains an unexplored area. Here, we report a successful process of guiding ill-fated transitions toward normalization in vascular calcification. Vascular calcification is a severe complication that increases all-cause mortality of cardiovascular disease but lacks medical therapy. The vascular endothelium is a contributor of osteoprogenitor cells to vascular calcification through endothelial-mesenchymal transitions, in which endothelial cells (ECs) gain plasticity and ability to differentiate into osteoblast-like cells. We created a high throughput screening and identified SB216763, an inhibitor of glycogen synthase kinase 3 (GSK3), as an inducer of osteoblastic-endothelial transition. We demonstrated that SB216763 limits osteogenic differentiation in ECs at an early stage of vascular calcification. Lineage tracing showed that SB216763 redirected osteoblast-like cells to the endothelial lineage and reduced late-stage calcification. We also find that deletion of GSK3beta in osteoblasts recapitulated osteoblastic-endothelial transition and reduced vascular calcification. Overall, inhibition of GSK3beta promoted the transition of cells with osteoblastic characteristic to endothelial differentiation thereby ameliorating vascular calcification.
To drill or not to drill: determinants of geothermal energy project siting in Japan

Geothermal energy is an important resource in the fight against climate change, but local siting issues often stand in the way. We analyze the socioeconomic determinants of the location of all geot...
The Information Content of the 1999 Announcement of Funds from Operations Changes for Real Estate Investment Trusts

This study examines the market response to the 1999 announcement of a change in accounting for Funds from Operations (FFO) for Real Estate Investment Trusts (REITs). This change provides an increas...
Pregnancy and birth outcomes after SARS-CoV-2 vaccination in pregnancy.

BACKGROUND SARS-CoV-2 infection during pregnancy is associated with significant maternal morbidity and increased rates of preterm birth. For this reason, COVID-19 vaccination in pregnancy has been endorsed by multiple professional societies, including the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists and the Society for Maternal-Fetal Medicine, despite the exclusion of pregnant women from initial clinical trials of vaccine safety and efficacy. However, to date, little data exist regarding the outcomes of pregnant patients after COVID-19 vaccination. OBJECTIVE To assess the safety and efficacy of COVID-19 vaccines in pregnant patients. STUDY DESIGN A comprehensive vaccine registry was combined with a delivery database for an integrated healthcare system to create a delivery cohort that included vaccinated patients. Maternal sociodemographic data were examined to identify factors associated with COVID-19 vaccination. Pregnancy and birth outcomes were analyzed, including a composite measure of maternal and neonatal pregnancy complications, the Adverse Outcome Index. RESULTS Of 2002 patients in the delivery cohort, 140 (7.0%) received a COVID-19 vaccine during pregnancy, and 212 (10.6%) experienced a COVID-19 infection during pregnancy. The median gestational age at first vaccination was 32 weeks (range, 13 6/7–40 4/7 weeks), and patients vaccinated during pregnancy were less likely than unvaccinated patients to experience COVID-19 infection before delivery (2/140 [1.4%] vs 210/1862 [11.3%]; P CONCLUSION In this birth cohort, vaccinated pregnant women were less likely than unvaccinated pregnant patients to experience COVID-19 infection, and COVID-19 vaccination during pregnancy was not associated with increased pregnancy or delivery complications. The cohort was skewed toward late pregnancy vaccination, and thus, findings may not be generalizable to vaccination during early pregnancy.
Academic deceleration in a gross anatomy centered first-year integrated medical curriculum (532.2)

The current trend in United States medical education is movement toward complete integration of courses throughout the first two years of basic science centered curricula. This has introduced an em...
Purification of the Escherichia coli purine regulon repressor and identification of corepressors.

Abstract The Escherichia coli pur regulon repressor protein was overproduced in a phage T7 expression system. The overexpressed repressor constituted approximately 35% of the soluble cellular protein. Pur repressor was purified to near homogeneity by two chromatographic steps. Hypoxanthine or guanine was required for binding of purified repressor to purF operator DNA. Apparent dissociation constants of 3.4 nM were determined for binding of holorepressor to purF operator and of 1.7 and 7.1 microM were determined for aporepressor interaction with guanine and hypoxanthine, respectively. A requirement for hypoxanthine or guanine for conversion of aporepressor to holorepressor in vitro supports the earlier report (U. Houlberg and K.F. Jensen, J. Bacteriol. 153:837-845, 1983) that these purine bases are involved in regulation of pur gene expression in Salmonella typhimurium and confirms that hypoxanthine and guanine are corepressors.
Medical Interpreting and Cross-cultural Communication: Emerging metaphors and final words

In the ICEs they facilitate, interpreters play a wide variety of roles. In the present study, that variety was evidenced by how interpreters perceived their roles, enacted them, and talked about them. During interviews and conversations, the terms used by interpreters to talk about their roles illustrated the tension between the prescribed role (invisible) and the actual role (visible). However, this tension only seems to exist at the level of the perception or belief, because in practice, the tension gets resolved. The interpreters shadowed in this study became visible partners in their interpreted communicative events. Many of them described their varied roles using metaphors. In the following sections, we explore some of those metaphors. Interpreters as detectives As we saw in chapter 6, patients do not always give specific answers to HCPs' questions. Sometimes HCPs even ask interpreters to get information without giving them a specific script. Interpreters then take the lead in a line of questioning, in order to get the answer. In other words, they become detectives, questioning the patient carefully, hoping to discover the answer. Interpreters perceive this as an enormous responsibility, not just because the HCP depends on this answer to take action, but also because in many instances, interpreters have no guidance as to what exactly they are supposed to ask. In spite of this, interpreters willingly take on this responsibility.
Novel Laser and Diagnostic Technologies for the OMEGA EP High-Energy Petawatt Laser

OMEGA EP (extended performance) is a petawatt-class laser facility that includes two NIF-like beamlines designed to operate in a chirped-pulse-amplifi cation mode to produce up to 2.6 kJ in a pulsewidth range of <1 to 100 ps at 1,053 nm. The OMEGA EP performance and the laser engineering of enabling technologies required to meet these goals are discussed.
Rapid Identification of Enterococci by Reduction of Litmus Milk

Of 100 strains of enterococci, 83% reduced litmus milk within 4 h. None of the 100 non-enterococcal streptococci tested were positive.
A radically emergentist approach to phonological features: implications for grammars

Phonological features are often assumed to be innate (Chomsky & Halle 1968) or learned as a prerequisite for learning grammar (Dresher 2013). In this paper, I show an alternative approach: features are learned in parallel with grammar. This allows for addressing an interesting question: is it really optimal that the phonological grammar only use phonological features to refer to segmental material (Chomsky & Halle 1968), or could it be more advantageous for the grammar to refer to segmental material on more than one level of representation? The learner considered here finds that it is only optimal for the grammar to use phonological features to refer to multiple segments in the same pattern (e.g., the class of nasals), but when a pattern refers to a single segment, it may be at least equally good for the grammar to refer to this single segment as a bare segment label (for instance, [m] instead of [labial, nasal]). In this way, the grammar uses different kinds of representational units (features and non-features) for the same sound – which mimics models with multiple layers of representation (such as Goldrick 2001, Boersma 2007).
First-principles theory of atomic-scale friction

We determine the atomic-scale friction associated with a layer of Pd atoms moving across a graphite substrate from ab initio total-energy calculations. We evaluate the friction energy caused by variations of the chemical bond strength and work against an external force (load) due to variations of the bond length along the trajectory. We find only a very small dependence of the Pd-graphite interaction on the adsorption site which gives rise to a very small friction coefficient \ensuremath{\mu}\ensuremath{\approxeq}${10}^{\mathrm{\ensuremath{-}}2}$ for loads near ${10}^{\mathrm{\ensuremath{-}}8}$ N. We also find \ensuremath{\mu} to increase with load in agreement with recent experiments.
The effect of signal variability on the histograms of anthropomorphic channel outputs: factors resulting in non-normally distributed data

Model Observers are widely used in medical imaging for the optimization and evaluation of instrumentation, acquisition parameters and image reconstruction and processing methods. The channelized Hotelling observer (CHO) is a commonly used model observer in nuclear medicine and has seen increasing use in other modalities. An anthropmorphic CHO consists of a set of channels that model some aspects of the human visual system and the Hotelling Observer, which is the optimal linear discriminant. The optimality of the CHO is based on the assumption that the channel outputs for data with and without the signal present have a multivariate normal distribution with equal class covariance matrices. The channel outputs result from the dot product of channel templates with input images and are thus the sum of a large number of random variables. The central limit theorem is thus often used to justify the assumption that the channel outputs are normally distributed. In this work, we aim to examine this assumption for realistically simulated nuclear medicine images when various types of signal variability are present.
An Overview of Metformin in the Treatment of Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus

Type 2 diabetes mellitus results from impaired insulin secretion and reduced peripheral insulin sensitivity. Treatment options include diet, oral antihyperglycemic agents, and insulin. Metformin, an oral biguanide, ameliorates hyperglycemia by improving peripheral sensitivity to insulin, and reducing gastrointestinal glucose absorption and hepatic glucose production. Unlike sulfonylureas, it does not stimulate insulin secretion, aggravate hyperinsulinemia, or cause hypoglycemia or weight gain (weight stabilizes or decreases). It also has beneficial effects on serum lipid profiles. In lean or overweight type 2 diabetic patients uncontrolled by diet, metformin monotherapy significantly improves glycemic control, compared with placebo, and to similar extents as sulfonylurea monotherapy. In secondary sulfonylurea failure, combination metformin-sulfonylurea treatment significantly improves glycemic control beyond that achieved with either agent alone. Metformin-sulfonylurea also appears to be as effective as insulin or insulin plus sulfonylurea, suggesting that such combination therapy may obviate or substantially delay insulin therapy. Limited data suggest that metformin-insulin therapy may improve glycemic control, possibly reducing insulin requirements, in type 2 diabetic patients uncontrolled by insulin alone following secondary sulfonylurea failure. Gastrointestinal side effects are common, but usually tolerated. Lactic acidosis risk is minimal, provided that contraindications, particularly renal impairment, and prescribing guidelines are respected. Aside from elevated plasma metformin levels with cimetidine and synergistic hypoglycemia with sulfonylureas, few interactions occur. Thus, metformin is safe and effective both as monotherapy or in combination with other antihyperglycemic agents in type 2 diabetic patients requiring additional glycemic control, and may be advantageous when weight control is desirable and/or hyperlipidemia exists.
Aβ-Associated cerebral angiopathy and senile plaques with neurofibrillary tangles and cerebral hemorrhage in an aged wolverine (Gulo gulo)

Abstract In this study of an aged wolverine ( Gulo gulo ), we document neuropathologic lesions (cerebral amyloid angiopathy (CAA), neuritic plaques (NPs), neurofibrillary tangles (NFTs), and granulovacuolar degeneration strikingly similar to those present in aging and Alzheimer's disease (AD), with the additional finding of concurrent cerebral hemorrhage. Aβ immunoreactive cerebral amyloid angiopathy and senile plaques (neuritic and diffuse) were present throughout the cerebral cortex and hippocampus. Ubiquitin immunoreactivity was noted in peripheral portions of some of the plaques. Argyrophilic intracellular neurofibrillary tangles containing abnormally phosphorylated (Set 202) tau protein were present within cortical and hippocampal neurons. The wolverine should be added to the list of nonhuman species (dogs, nonhuman primates, polar bears) with amyloid deposits similar to those in aged humans and in humans with AD. The aged wolverine appears to be distinct from other nonhuman species in possessing plaques and NF Ts as well as other histologic cerebral lesions frequently associated with AD.
A new therapeutic approach to acute coronary occlusion: I. Production of standardized coronary occlusion with microspheres☆

Abstract 1. 1. A reproducible method for creating coronary occlusion with predictable and varied degrees of myocardial infarction in the closed chest animal is presented. 2. 2. Adjustment of microsphere dosage to animal body weight can provide animals suitable for study of the acute phase of coronary occlusion with high mortality or a preparation with myocardial infarction but long term survival suitable for the study of chronic coronary heart disease. 3. 3. Serum lactic dehydrogenase was observed to rise in all animals. The mean levels of response are directly related to microsphere dose and mortality. 4. 4. Two types of early death were observed in dogs that succumbed in 1 hour or less. Sixty per cent had shock followed by ventricular fibrillation in most cases. Forty per cent maintained an adequate blood pressure until ventricular fibrillation developed. Both mechanical failure and interruption of the normal conduction potential occurred in about equal proportions in the early deaths in this experiment. 5. 5. Electrocardiographic changes were inconsistent and sometimes transient in animals with proved disease at autopsy. 6. 6. Infarcts could be demonstrated in all dogs surviving 8 to 12 hours in this series. They closely approximated those in human subjects. Individual lesions could be found that were smaller than their human counterparts in those instances where coalescence of adjacent infarcts did not occur. 7. 7. Extracorporeal assisted circulation by arterioarterial counterpulsation has been previewed as a method of treating the early acute coronary occlusion.
Low risk prostate cancer in men under age 65: the case for definitive treatment

The management of low risk prostate cancer, defined as Gleason's sum <or=6, PSA <10 ng/ml, and clinical stage T1c to T2a, remains controversial. There is substantiating evidence to suggest that a subset of early stage, low risk cancers can cause significant patient morbidity and death in the long term. Studies have shown that the natural history of untreated prostate cancer is to progress, particularly after 15 years of followup. The majority of men seeking definitive surgical treatment in contemporary series fall within 55 to 65 years of age and are expected to enjoy an overall life expectancy ranging from about 15 to 30 years, placing these men at long-term risk for disease progression and prostate cancer-specific death if managed expectantly. During the past 2 decades, refinements in surgical technique and in the delivery of external beam radiation have resulted in excellent long-term cancer control and favorable quality of life outcomes following treatment. Active surveillance with selective delayed intervention assumes that an individual's cancer will not progress outside the window of curability during the surveillance period, that markers for disease progression are reliable, and that patients are compliant. Until we understand better the long-term natural history of untreated prostate cancer, have more reliable and accurate markers to detect disease progression with certainty, and can risk stratify more precisely the subgroup of men with low risk cancers who will eventually succumb to their disease, early definitive therapy seems prudent.
The Middle Class Falls Back

Is the typical middle-class family doing better today than they were twenty-five years ago? The answer is no, according to new measures of economic wellbeing. The combination of stagnant incomes and staggering cost increases for important middle-class items--housing, health care, education, and transportation--have left families with less money to save and spend than just a few years ago, and working longer to achieve the same results as in 1980.
Strategies and Innovative Models for Delivering Palliative Care in Nursing Homes

The goals of palliative care address critical issues for individuals with complex and serious illness residing in nursing homes, including pain and symptom management, communication, preparation for death, decisions about treatment preferences, and caregiver support. Because of the uncertain prognosis associated with chronic nonmalignant diseases such as dementia, many nursing home residents are either not referred to hospice or have very short or very long hospice stays. The integration of palliative care into nursing homes offers a potential solution to the challenges relating to hospice eligibility, staffing, training, and obtaining adequate reimbursement for care that aligns with resident and surrogate's preferences and needs. However, the delivery of palliative care in nursing homes is hindered by both regulatory and staffing barriers and, as a result, is rare. In this article, we draw on interviews with nursing home executives, practitioners, and researchers to describe the barriers to nursing home palliative care. We then describe 3 existing and successful models for providing nonhospice palliative care to nursing home residents and discuss their ongoing strengths and challenges. We conclude with specific policy proposals to expedite the integration of palliative care into the nursing home setting.
Unraveling the Complexity of Capital Gain and Loss Transactions

The current capital gain and loss provisions, especially when combined with the casualty and theft and sale or exchange of business property provisions, are very challenging from both a planning and reporting perspective. The American Institute of Certified Public Accountants (AICPA) and the Joint Committee on Taxation recently identified individual capital gains and losses as an area requiring simplification. This article explores how the complexity of capital gain and loss provisions arose by first tracing the evolution of the capital gains provisions from the Revenue Act of 1913 through changes made by the Jobs and Growth Tax Relief Reconciliation Act of 2003. Tables, figures, and a spreadsheet are used to illustrate this complexity. The spreadsheet also serves as a comprehensive planning tool for taxpayers considering additional property transactions during the tax year. A modest proposal for simplifying the capital gain and loss provisions is compared to recent simplification proposals.
Fundamental studies of liquid chromatography at the critical condition using enhanced-fluidity liquids.

The improvement in the analysis of telechelic polymer matrixes continues to be a pursuit for many scientists of varying disciplines. This quest for a new technique has led to the continued development of liquid chromatography at the critical condition (LCCC) or liquid chromatography at the critical adsorption point (LC-CAP). LCCC allows for the isolation of one area of the polymer matrix so that other areas of the polymer can be probed with size-exclusion or adsorptive chromatographic modes. Although this technique has been successfully applied to the analysis of telechelic polymers, the practice of LCCC can be difficult. These difficulties include finding and maintaining a solvent system appropriate for the practice of LCCC as well as deterioration of peak shape once the system is operating at the LCCC mode. Because of the specificity of the mobile phase required for the practice of LCCC, the work is routinely practiced by premixing solvents. Previous work with enhanced-fluidity liquid mobile phases demo...
Continuity of prescribers of short-acting beta agonists among children with asthma.

Objective To determine whether short-acting β-agonist (SABA) prescriber continuity was associated with emergency department visits among children with asthma. Study design An analysis of Michigan Medicaid administrative claims (2004–2005) for children ages 5 to 18 with asthma. Logistic regression models assessed the effect of SABA prescriber continuity (the number and site of prescribers) on emergency department visits, controlling for demographics, historical (2004) asthma use and SABA prescription frequency (2-5 low; ≥6 high). Results Most children had one SABA prescriber (62%); 13% had multiple prescribers in the same practice as the primary care provider and 25% had multiple prescribers in different practices. Children with multiple prescribers in different practices had increased odds of an emergency department visit compared with those with 1 prescriber, among those with high SABA prescription frequency (AOR: 2.7, 95% CI: 1.9, 3.9), as well as those with low prescription frequency (AOR: 1.7, 95% CI: 1.3, 2.2). Conclusions Children with discontinuity of SABA prescribers have an increased risk of asthma emergency department visits, irrespective of their SABA prescription frequency. Primary care providers may have difficulty identifying patients at high risk with asthma solely on the basis of SABAs prescribed within their own practices.
Interrelationships of yuccas and yucca moths

Purposeful pollination of yucca by females of a moth that produces larvae that feed on some of the seeds is a classic example of plant-animal mutualism. Recent research has focused on the complex interspecific nature of this association. Pollinators are members of two genera with different oviposition and larval biologies. There appear to be several sibling species among populations of the pollinator that were formerly considered to be a single widespread generalist, and these may include sympatric nonpollinator 'cheaters'. Bogus yucca moths, members of a third genus, which neither transport pollen nor feed in the seed but depend upon the inflorescences, are niche specific and often host-species specific and include one leaf-mining species. Their larvae can spend many years in diapause before synchronized development.
Few girls with childhood attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder show positive adjustment during adolescence.

Employing data from 140 prospectively followed girls with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and 88 age- and ethnicity-matched comparison girls, we adopted a person-centered analytic approach to assess rates of adolescent positive adjustment (PA) across six domains: ADHD symptoms, externalizing symptoms, internalizing symptoms, social skills, peer acceptance, and school achievement. During adolescence, between 19.8% and 61.1% of the girls with childhood ADHD met criteria for PA when the six domains were considered independently. A total of 16.4% of the ADHD sample showed PA in at least five of six domains, versus 86.4% of the comparison girls. Results were similar when PA was examined excluding the ADHD symptom domain. Most girls did not “grow out of” the symptoms and impairments related to their ADHD.
A new approach to quantitation of exercise thallium-201 scintigraphy before and after an intervention: Application to define the impact of coronary angioplasty on regional myocardial perfusion

We have developed a new computer method designed to quantitate regional myocardial thallium-201 (Tl-201) initial distribution, redistribution, and clearance rate. In addition, this computer method permits the generation of functional images to compare two thallium images in the same projection to one another. These functional images can be used to demonstrate the extent of redistribution and the extent of change in regional perfusion before and after an intervention. To validate and apply this new computer technique, exercise Tl-201 myocardial images obtained before and 1 week after percutaneous transluminal coronary angioplasty (PTCA) were analyzed in 20 patients with isolated left anterior descending coronary artery disease. Significant improvement in initial Tl-201 activity, expressed as a percentage of maximal myocardial activity, was present in the anterior (71.9 ± 12.0 to 84.1 ± 11.5%, p < 0.001) and septal (66.7 ± 15.4 to 75.2 ± 11.0%, p < 0.05) regions of the left ventricle 1 week after PTCA. This increase in relative anterior wall Tl-201 uptake was associated with a significant reduction in the amount of TI-201 redistribution between initial and delayed postexercise images (14.7 ± 14.6 to 3.0 ± 13.2%, p < 0.05) as well as an increase in Tl-201 clearance rate (t 12 from 8.8 ± 4.4 to 4.3 ± 2.5 hours, p < 0.001). Quantitative analysis of Tl-201 scans demonstrated improvement in 14 of 20 patients following PTCA. Computer-derived functional difference images depicted diminution in the extent of ischemia as manifested by redistribution of Tl-201. Abnormal lung uptake of Tl-201 immediately after exercise was present in 17 patients before and in only four patients after PTCA. We conclude that this new computer method for quantitative analysis of Tl-201 images objectively and graphically documents improvement in the severity and extent of regional myocardial perfusion defect following interventions such as PTCA.
Polyphase-coded FM (PCFM) radar waveforms, part I: implementation

Polyphase radar codes promise enhanced performance and flexibility due to greater design freedom. While the search for better codes continues, the implementation issues of transmitter bandlimiting and nonlinear distortion have precluded their widespread use in high-power systems. This paper introduces a modified continuous phase modulation implementation that converts an arbitrary polyphase code into a nonlinear frequency-modulated waveform that is constant envelope and spectrally well contained. Experimental results assess the receive sampling and pulse compression effects.
Determinants, torsion, and strings

We apply the results of [BF1, BF2] on determinants of Dirac operators to String Theory. For the bosonic string we recover the “holomorphic factorization” of Belavin and Knizhik. Witten's global anomaly formula is used to give sufficient conditions for anomaly cancellation in the heterotic string (for arbitrary background spacetimes). To prove the latter result we develop certain torsion invariants related to characteristic classes of vector bundles and to index theory.
Internet Gripe Sites: Bally v. Faber

Abstract Every large organization has unhappy customers and disgruntled employees. Until recently, a dissatisfied person had a limited number of ways of expressing his complaints, reaching only a small group of friends and sympathizers. Organizations would often simply ignore the situation, realizing that public denials would only draw more attention to the complaint.
Comparison of allozyme, RFLP, and RAPD markers for revealing genetic variation within and between trembling aspen and bigtooth aspen

We examined genetic variation in allozyme loci, nuclear DNA restriction fragment length polymorphisms (RFLPs), and random amplified polymorphic DNAs (RAPDs) in 130 trembling aspen (Populus tremuloides) and 105 bigtooth aspen (P. grandidentata) trees. In trembling aspen 10 out of 13 allozyme loci assayed (77%) were polymorphic (P), with 2.8 alleles per locus (A) and an expected heterozygosity (He) of 0.25. In contrast, bigtooth aspen had a much lower allozyme genetic variability (P=29%; A=1.4; He=0.08). The two species could be distinguished by mutually exclusive alleles at Idh-1, and bigtooth aspen has what appears to be a duplicate 6PG locus not present in trembling aspen. We used 138 random aspen genomic probes to reveal RFLPs in HindIII digests of aspen DNA. The majority of the probes were from sequences of low copy number. RFLP results were consistent with those of the allozyme analyses, with trembling aspen displaying higher genetic variation than bigtooth aspen (P=71%, A=2.7, and He=0.25 for trembling aspen; P=65%, A=1.8, and He=0.13 for bigtooth aspen). The two species could be distinguished by RFLPs revealed by 21 probes (15% of total probes assayed). RAPD patterns in both species were studied using four arbitrary decamer primers that revealed a total of 61 different amplified DNA fragments in trembling aspen and 56 in bigtooth aspen. Assuming a Hardy-Weinberg equilibrium, estimates of P=100%, A=2, and He=0.30 in trembling aspen and P=88%, A=1.9, and He=0.31 in bigtooth aspen were obtained from the RAPD data. Five amplified DNA fragments were species diagnostic. All individuals within both species, except for 2 that likely belong to the same clone, could be distinguished by comparing their RAPD patterns. These results indicate that (1) RFLPs and allozymes reveal comparable patterns of genetic variation in the two species, (2) trembling aspen is more genetically variable than bigtooth aspen at both the allozyme and DNA levels, (3) one can generate more polymorphic and species-specific loci with DNA markers than with allozymes in aspen, and (4) RAPDs provide a very powerful tool for "fingerprinting" aspen individuals.
Artificial laser intensity oscillations associated with beam splitters.

Investigation of the interference-fringe jitter, due to wavelength instability in a laser, that gives rise to pulse-shape blurring intensity variations. The obtained results suggest that the problem can be controlled by using a perfectly flat splitter, or more easily by using a large-angle wedged splitter that either casts many fringes upon the detector element or casts none if the detector is sufficiently far from the splitter.
Southwestern Internal Medicine Conference: Analgesic Nephropathy

ABSTRACT Analgesic nephropathy has been a recognized clinical problem for the past three decades. The association between chronic renal insufficiency and habitual analgesic consumption initially focused on combination analgesics containing phenacetin. Most recently, the increased popularity of nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs has led to the recognition that these agents are capable of producing several distinct clinical syndromes. This review discusses both of these disorders from a clinical perspective.
On the establishment of a continuous repertoire

Pigeons trained to peck the response key directly below a spot of light which appeared in only three of five positions were tested with the spot in all five positions. Key choice, given these test stimuli, showed a mixture of functional control: on some trials, the key beneath the spot was chosen, indicating that the training produced a correspondence between novel points on the stimulus and response dimensions (a continuous repertoire); on other trials, the specific responses acquired during training were made.
The retinoblastoma tumor suppressor pathway modulates the invasiveness of ErbB2-positive breast cancer.

The retinoblastoma tumor suppressor pathway modulates the invasiveness of ErbB2-positive breast cancer
A SYSTEMATIC REVIEW OF MAJOR NON-INFERIORITY CARDIOVASCULAR TRIALS FROM 2006-2011

Non-inferiority trials can test if two clinical strategies have similar clinical effectiveness. Since the tested new interventions may have safety or tolerability advantages (such as the case for novel anticoagulants), non-inferior efficacy might suffice for introducing them into clinical practice.
Squaring the Learning Circle Cross-Classroom Collaborations and the Impact of Audience on Student Outcomes in Professional Writing

Student compositions traditionally are written for the teacher. Yet instructors of professional communication genres have discovered that students' motivation may be enhanced when they write assign...