cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Oxygen as a cause of blindness in premature infants : autopsy of a decade of errors in clinical epidemiologic research

Several intellectual "autopsies" have recently reviewed errors in clinical epidemiologic studies of causation, such as the original claim that amyl nitrite "poppers" caused AIDS. The current autopsy was done to determine why it took more than a decade--1942 to 1954--to end an iatrogenic epidemic in which high-dose oxygen therapy led to retrolental fibroplasia (RLF) in premature infants, blinding about 10,000 of them. The autopsy revealed a museum of diverse intellectual pathology. When first noted, RLF was regarded as neither a new disease nor a postnatal effect. In early investigations, the ophthalmologists did not establish explicit criteria for diagnosis and confused RLF with malformations previously seen in full-term infants. Because the patients were not referred until months after birth, the ophthalmologists assumed that the lesion, which resembled an embryologic structure, must have occurred prenatally. Other events suggesting a prenatal cause for RLF were its strong statistical associations with fetal anomalies, multiple gestations, and maternal infections. Although these events were also associated with prematurity, it was ignored when the RLF cases were compared with controls who were mainly full-term infants. The postnatal timing of RLF was eventually recognized when investigators did cohort studies in premature infants and found that RLF could develop in eyes that were normal at birth. As the search for a cause turned to events occurring after birth, statistical associations were produced for agents such as light, vitamins, iron, vitamin E deficiency, and hypoadrenalism. Each study had its own methodologic flaws: controls were missing for light; co-maneuvers were ignored for vitamins and iron; objective diagnosis was not used for vitamin E deficiency; and the research on hypoadrenalism contained biases in susceptibility and detection as well as problems of a competing outcome event. When the role of oxygen administration was first considered, the statistical association with RLF was stronger for vitamin- and iron-therapy than for oxygen. In addition, many investigators were dissuaded by contradictory evidence from institutions in which RLF was either absent despite high-dose oxygen or persistent despite reduced dosage. The contradictory evidence was later regarded as erroneous because of unsatisfactory delivery systems for the oxygen or failure to check the actual oxygen concentrations. An alternative explanatory hypothesis, rejecting the role of high-dose and long-duration oxygen, was the idea that RLF was due to "relative hypoxia", produced by overly rapid weaning from oxygen therapy rather than the duration of oxygen treatment itself.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 400 WORDS)
Health and performance of commingled feeder pigs as affected by lincomycin and carbadox

Abstract Purchased feeder pigs from 12 farms were commingled and divided into three treatment groups of carbadox, lincomycin and controls. Health and performance evaluations included serology, bacterial isolations, fecal examinations and post-mortem examinations at slaughter, weight gain, and feed efficiency. Serological tests for influenza, Aujeszky's disease and Mycoplasma hyopneumoniae were negative throughout the study. Bordetella bronchiseptica was isolated from 14% of the pigs on arrival and from 42% of the pigs 30 days after commingling. No Salmonella spp. were isolated from fecal swabs on arrival; Salmonella typhimurium was isolated from 2.5% of the pigs on Day 30, but no Salmonella was isolated on Day 90. Fecal examination on arrival revealed that 12.5% were infected with gastrointestinal parasites (5.0% Trichuris suis , 5.0% Ascaris suum and 2.5% Strongyloides ransomi ). During the 30-day treatment period immediately following purchase and commingling, carbadox and lincomycin improved growth rate by 7.6% and 10.2%, respectively. The treatments also improved feed efficiency, by 9.9% and 5.7%, respectively, and uniformity of growth. Growth rate and feed efficiency were not affected by treatment from Days 30 to 90 following removal of the feed additives from the diet. Growth rate varied greatly, depending on the farm of origin. Although the reasons for the differences in performance were not well established, results suggested that transmission of B. bronchiseptica between pigs resulted in decreased growth rate following infection. Carbadox was significantly more effective than lincomycin in preventing transmission of B. bronchiseptica between commingled pigs. Post-mortem examination at slaughter revealed turbinate atrophy in 5.8% of the noses and pneumonia in 18% of the lungs. One liver exhibited evidence of ascarid larval migration. Treatments produced no significant effect ( P >0.05) on post-mortem examination results.
Structure and evolution of a group of related aminoacyl-tRNA synthetases☆

Abstract A yeast nuclear gene, designated MSK1, has been selected from a yeast genomic library by transformation of a respiratory deficient mutant impaire lysine tRNA. This gene confers a respiratory competent phenotype and restores the mutant's ability to acylate the mitochondrial lysine tRNA. The amino acid sequence of the protein encoded by MSK1 is homologous to yeast cytoplasmic lysyl-tRNA synthetase and to the product of the herC gene, which has recently been suggested to code for the Escherichia coli enzyme. These observations indicate that MSK1 codes for the lysyl-tRNA synthetase of yeast mitochondria. Several regions of high primary sequence conservation have been identified in the bacterial and yeast lysyl-tRNA synthetases. These domains are also present in the aspartyl-and asparaginyl-tRNA synthetases, further confirming the notion that all three present-day enzymes originated from a common ancestral gene. The most conserved domain, located near the carboxyl terminal ends of this group of synthetases is characterized by a cluster of glycines and is also highly homologous to the carboxyl-terminal region of the E. coli ammonia-dependent asparagine synthetase. A catalytic function of the carboxyl terminal domain is indicated by in vitro mutagenesis of the yeast mitochondrial lysyl-tRNA synthetase. Replacement of any one of three glycine residues by alanine and in one case by aspartic acid completely suppresses the activity of the enzymes, as evidenced by the inability of the mutant genes to complement an mski mutant, even when present in high copy. Other mutations result in partial loss of activity. Only one glycine replacement affects the stability of the protein in vivo. The observed presence of a homologous domain in asparagine synthetase, which, like the aminoacyl-tRNA synthetases, catalyzes the formation of an aminoacyladenylate, suggests that the glycine-rich sequence is part of a catalytic site involved in binding of ATP and of the aminoacyladenylate intermediate.
The Hume Literature, 2008

This bibliography covers the Hume literature for 2008, and follows upon the annual update begun by Rolland Hall for the years 1977 through 1985 and continued by William Edward Morris for 1986 through 2003. This installment, like previous ones, excludes items published in Hume Studies, which are indexed annually in each November issue. Readers of Hume Studies may contact me at jfieser@utm.edu with additions or corrections to any previous year, which can be noted in future installments. I am grateful to all who have provided input on an earlier draft of this bibliography that was posted on the Internet. Aside from the yearly bibliographies published in Hume Studies, readers may find the following bibliographical resources useful:
Demographic behavior and the welfare state: econometric issues in the identification of the effects of tax and transfer programs.

The evaluation of the effects of tax and transfer programs on demographic behavior raises a number of difficult econometric issues related to identification of program effects. The main issue concerns whether there exists the true exogenous variation in program parameters necessary to estimate the effects of the program on behavior. This paper provides a discussion of the types of exogenous variation that are commonly available as well as the pitfalls in using potentially endogenous sources of variation. The general points are illustrated with an example drawn from the demographic literature in the United States. The paper concludes with a recommendation that the source of exogenous variation in program parameters be carefully examined in any study undertaken.
Rumblings from Hawaii

The Volcano Letter. Reprint edition edited by Richard S. Fiske Tom Simkin and Elizabeth A. Nielsen. National Museum of Natural History/Smithsonian Institution Press*: 1987. 3kg. $30. * Orders to E. Nielsen, NHB Mail Stop 119, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, DC 20560, USA.
Transforming professionalism: Relational bureaucracy and parent–teacher partnerships in child care settings:

Dramatic shifts in early childhood policy in the US are increasing the bureaucratic nature of early childhood programs and influencing the field’s definition of professionalism. Despite the many benefits of professionalizing the child care field, the current trend toward formalization and standardization may have unintended negative consequences for parent–teacher partnerships, a key dimension of child care quality. This article employs an interdisciplinary lens to explore the conflict between family-centered practice and bureaucratic organizational systems, and suggests an alternative hybrid organizational model that transforms conventional notions of professionalism and bureaucracy. Effective partnerships with families in formal child care settings may depend on this ‘relational bureaucratic’ organizational context.
Hybrid learning in expert networks

Expert networks are defined as the embodiment of an expert's rule-based knowledge in an acyclic feedforward network. A transformation process is used to create an expert network from an expert system to enable training of the certainty factors of the expert system's rules from data. Certainty factors in the expert system correspond to connection weights in the network. The training algorithm presented begins with only the basic architecture of the network and uses a reinforcement learning process to arrive at an improved knowledge state and a back-propagation segment to complete convergence to correct values. Results of a case study illustrate the practicality of the proposed design and of the hybrid learning algorithm used. >
Quetiapine-induced sleep-related eating disorder-like behavior: a case series.

Introduction: Somnambulism or sleepwalking is a disorder of arousal from non-rapid eye movement sleep. The prevalence of sleep-related eating disorder has been found to be approximately between 1% and 5% among adults. Many cases of medication-related somnambulism and sleep-related eating disorder-like behavior have been reported in the literature. Quetiapine, an atypical antipsychotic medication, has been associated with somnambulism but has not yet been reported to be associated with sleep-related eating disorder. Case presentation: Case 1 is a 51-year-old obese African American male veteran with a body mass index of 34.11kg/m 2 and severe sleep apnea who has taken 150mg of quetiapine at bedtime for more than one year for depression. He developed sleepwalking three to four nights per week which resolved after stopping quetiapine while being compliant with bi-level positive pressure ventilation therapy. At one year follow-up, his body mass index was 32.57kg/m 2 . Case 2 is a 50-year-old African American female veteran with a body mass index of 30.5kg/m 2 and mild sleep apnea who has taken 200mg of quetiapine daily for more than one year for depression. She was witnessed to sleepwalk three nights per week which resolved after discontinuing quetiapine while being treated with continuous positive airway pressure. At three months follow-up, her body mass index was 29.1kg/m 2 . Conclusion: These cases illustrate that quetiapine may precipitate complex motor behavior including sleep-related eating disorder and somnambulism in susceptible patients. Atypical antipsychotics are commonly used in psychiatric and primary care practice, which means the population at risk of developing parasomnia may often go unrecognized. It is important to recognize this potential adverse effect of quetiapine and, to prevent injury and worsening obesity, discuss this with the patients who are prescribed these medications.
Thrombopoietin Gene Transfer–Mediated Enhancement of Angiogenic Responses to Acute Ischemia

The development of new blood vessels is a complex process, likely requiring the synergy of multiple angiogenic mediators. This study focuses on the proximal angiogenic response using the platelet as a complex carrier of critical mediators of angiogenesis. Platelet levels are controlled by circulating levels of thrombopoietin (TPO) functioning to activate megakaryocyte differentiation and platelet release through the c-mpl receptor. We hypothesized that TPO gene transfer should enhance correction of experimental ischemia by providing increased levels of platelets and hence platelet-derived mediators of angiogenesis. To evaluate this hypothesis, we dissected the role of the TPO–c-mpl–megakaryocyte–platelet pathway in the angiogenic response using a model of acute hindlimb ischemia of wild-type, TPO−/−, and c-mpl−/− mice. The data demonstrate that infusion of platelets will enhance the angiogenic response in wild-type mice and that the endogenous angiogenic response is blunted in TPO−/− and c-mpl−/− mice. Consistent with this observation, adenovirus (Ad)-mediated transfer of TPO (AdTPO) enhanced the correction of ischemia in wild-type and TPO−/−, but not c-mpl−/−, mice. Local versus systemic administration of AdTPO showed that the effect of TPO gene transfer was systemic, not local, and it could be replaced by gene transfer of VEGF, one of the many mediators of angiogenesis carried by the platelets, even in the absence of components in the TPO–c-mpl–megakaryocyte–platelet pathway.
Global Tracking Control Structures for Nonlinear Singularly Perturbed Aircraft Systems

The problem of simultaneous tracking of both fast and slow states for a general class of nonlinear singularly perturbed systems is addressed. A motivating example is an aircraft tracking a prescribed fast moving target, while simultaneously regulating speed and/or one or more kinematic angles. Previous results in the literature have focused on tracking outputs that are a function of the slow states alone. Moreover, global asymptotic tracking has been demonstrated only for a class of nonlinear systems that possess a unique real root for the fast states. For a more general class of nonlinear systems only local tracking results have been proven. In this paper, control laws that accomplish global tracking of both fast and slow states is developed using geometric singular perturbation methods. Global exponential stability is proven using the composite Lyapunov function approach and an upper bound necessary condition for the scalar perturbation parameter is derived. Controller performance is demonstrated through simulation of a combined longitudinal lateral/directional maneuver for a nonlinear, coupled, six degree-of-freedom model of the F/A-18A Hornet. Results presented in the paper show that the controller accomplishes global asymptotic tracking even though the desired reference trajectory requires the aircraft to switch between linear and nonlinear regimes. Asymptotic tracking while keeping all the closed-loop signals bounded and well behaved is also demonstrated. Additionally the controller is independent of the scalar perturbation parameter nor does it require knowledge of it.
Introducing the First Global Congress for Qualitative Health Research What Are We? What Will We Do—and Why?

In this plenary address, I introduce the Global Congress for Qualitative Health Research, its purpose, and its role internationally. Within this context, I explore the origins and development of qualitative health research, the content of qualitative health research, its components, and its contribution to health research. I argue that qualitative inquiry develops in levels, building from exploration and description of phenomena to the identification of concepts, the theoretical basis for quantitative inquiry, qualitative theory development, and to utilization, implementation, and evaluation. This incremental development is not purposefully planned, but occurs as a result of voluminous inquiry into similar topics using different qualitative approaches and designs. A single study rarely makes a breakthrough; rather, we must recognize the conglomerate of qualitative studies that give it validity and strength. The Global Congress for Qualitative Health Research will provide a forum for international collabor...
Adaptation to P Element Transposon Invasion in Drosophila melanogaster

SUMMARY Transposons evolve rapidly and can mobilize and trigger genetic instability. Piwi-interacting RNAs (piRNAs) silence these genome pathogens, but it is unclear how the piRNA pathway adapts to invasion of new transposons. In Drosophila, piRNAs are encoded by heterochromatic clusters and maternally deposited in the embryo. Paternally inherited P element transposons thus escape silencing and trigger a hybrid sterility syndrome termed P-M hybrid dysgenesis. We show that P-M hybrid dysgenesis activates both P elements and resident transposons and disrupts the piRNA biogenesis machinery. As dysgenic hybrids age, however, fertility is restored, P elements are silenced, and P element piRNAs are produced de novo. In addition, the piRNA biogenesis machinery assembles, and resident elements are silenced. Significantly, resident transposons insert into piRNA clusters, and these new insertions are transmitted to progeny, produce novel piRNAs, and are associated with reduced transposition. P element invasion thus triggers heritable changes in genome structure that appear to enhance transposon silencing.
A comment on Suzuki's model for composite vector mesons

We show that Suzuki's model of composite vector bosons is consistent at the level of the effective low-energy theory. We generalize it to include couplings to quarks and leptons and discuss its phenomenology. We find observable corrections to the W mass.
The Nebulin family: an actin support group

Nebulin, a giant, actin-binding protein, is the largest member of a family of proteins (including N-RAP, nebulette, lasp-1 and lasp-2) that are assembled in a variety of cytoskeletal structures, and expressed in different tissues. For decades, nebulin has been thought to act as a molecular ruler, specifying the precise length of actin filaments in skeletal muscle. However, emerging evidence suggests that nebulin should not be viewed as a ruler but as an actin filament stabilizer required for length maintenance. Nebulin has also been implicated recently in an array of regulatory functions independent of its role in actin filament length regulation. In this review, we discuss the current evolutionary, biochemical, and functional data for the nebulin family of proteins — a family whose members, both large and small, function as cytoskeletal scaffolds and stabilizers.
Impacts of Minimum Quality Standards Imposed Through Marketing Orders or Related Producer Organizations

We analyze the impacts of minimum quality standards (MQS) imposed by producers acting collectively through a producer organization, such as a marketing order. MQS imposed in a competitive market can never enhance social welfare because in general an MQS creates two deadweight losses—one due to inefficient enhancement of product quality and a second due to wastage of the low-quality product. Any MQS that a competitive industry implements based upon a profit criterion causes all consumers in the market to be harmed. However, an MQS may be preferred relative to supply control as a second-best instrument for transferring income to producers.
Aerosol optical properties at Pasadena, CA during CalNex 2010

Aerosol optical properties measured at the Pasadena, CA site during the CalNex field campaign in May eJune 2010 are summarized. Average measurements of PM2.5 aerosol extinction, scattering, absorption coefficients, and single scattering albedo (bext, bscat, babs and SSA) at l ¼ 532 nm were 62 Mm � 1 ,5 8 Mm � 1 , 4M m � 1 , and 0.92, respectively. The aerosol optical densities were 5 times lower than during the SCAQS study in 1987, highlighting major progress in PM control in the Los Angeles area in the last two decades. The period May 30eJune 8 2010 was characterized by exceptionally high aerosol loading (bext up to 250 Mm � 1 ). During this period, bext, bscat, and SSA tended to peak during the mid-morning. Correlation of PM2.5 bext, bscat with mass concentration data yielded mass scattering and mass extinction coefficients of 3.5e5.1 m 2 g � 1 for 532 nm. Aerosol babs were compared directly to mass concentration of elemental carbon (EC) yielding a campaign average mass absorption cross section (M.A.C.) of 5.7 � 1.8 m 2 g � 1 . TEM analysis of particles suggests soot was often internally mixed or adhering to sulfate and/or organics. Total non-refractory PM1 mass was a good quantitative indicator of coated soot fraction. Alteration of M.A.C. with mixing/coating state was not detected, however, increases in M.A.C. were linked to the presence of light absorbing, water-soluble organic carbon (WSOC) suggesting a possible role of this material invisible light absorption in the LA basin.
Direct Numerical Simulation of Turbulent Flow Over a Modelled Riblet Covered Surface

An immersed boundary technique is used to model a riblet covered surface on one wall of a channel bounding fully developed turbulent flow. The conjecture that the beneficial drag reduction effect of riblets is a result of the damping of cross-flow velocity fluctuations is then examined. This possibility has been discussed by others but is unverified. The damping effect is explicitly modelled by applying a cross-flow damping force field in elongated streamwise zones with a height and spacing corresponding to the riblet crests. The same trends are observed in the turbulence profiles above both riblet and damped surfaces, thus supporting cross-flow damping as a beneficial mechanism. It is found in the examples presented that the effect of the riblets on the mean flow field quantities (mean velocity profile, velocity fluctuations, Reynolds shear stress, and low–speed sreak spacing) is small. The riblests cause a relatively small drag reduction of about 4%, a figure that is in rough agreement with experiments and other computations. The simulations also suggest a mechanism for the observed displacement of the turbulence quantities away from the wall.The immersed boundary technique used to model the riblets consists of creating an externally imposed spatially localized body force which opposes the flow velocity and creates a riblet-like surface. For unstead viscous flow the calculation of the force is done with a feedback scheme in which the velocity is used to iteratively determine the desired value. In particular, the surface body force is determined by the relation f(xs, t) = α ∫ t0 U(xs,t′)dt′ + βU(xs, t) for surface points xs, velocity U time t and negative constants α and β. All simulations are done with a spectral code in a single computational domain without any mapping of the mesh. The combination of the immersed boundary and spectral techniques can potentially be used to solve other problems having complex geometry and flow physics.
Explaining the Global Digital Divide: Economic, Political and Sociological Drivers of Cross-National Internet Use

We argue that the global digital divide, as measured by cross-national differences in Internet use, is the result of the economic, regulatory and sociopolitical characteristics of countries and their evolution over time. We predict Internet use to increase with worldsystem status, privatization and competition in the telecommunications sector, democracy and cosmopolitanism. Using data on 118 countries from 1997 through 2001, we find relatively robust support for each of our hypotheses. We conclude by exploring the implications of this new, powerful communication medium for the global political economy and for the spread of democracy around the world. The Internet has developed unevenly throughout the world, creating what has become known as the “global digital divide” (Castells 2001; Kirkman et al. 2002; Mosaic Group 1998; Norris 2001; Rogers 2001). The number of Internet users is one of the most widely used indicators of development of this emerging medium of communication. Less than 10 percent of the world’s population uses the Internet, and the gap between developed and developing countries has continued to widen since the early 1990s (see Figure 1). Differences by country are remarkable. Statistics compiled by the International Telecommunication Union as of the end of 2002 indicate that Internet use as a proportion of the population ranges from less than one percent in many underdeveloped African, Central American, and South Asian countries to between 50 and 60 percent in Iceland, the United States, Scandinavia, Singapore or South Korea (ITU 2003).1 The growth of the Internet has captured the imagination of users, policymakers, entrepreneurs, corporate managers, military strategists, social commentators, scholars, and journalists. Some early optimistic analyses envisioned the Internet as a “decentralizing, globalizing, harmonizing, and empowering” medium (Negroponte 1995:229), as a new communication technology that would bring about a “smaller, more open world.” (Tapscott and Caston 1993:313) The most enthusiastic visionaries have argued that the Internet means the “triumph over time and space,” the rise of the “netizen,” and the crowning of the “customer as sovereign” (Gilder 2000). According to the cyber-optimists, the Internet can create a public sphere in Habermas’s (1989) sense, one that is not regulated by the state or by commercial interests but rather owned and controlled by the participants themselves (Schneider 1996). While some of the cyber-optimists recognized the looming issue of inequality in access to the Internet (e.g. Tapscott and Caston 1993:312), it was not until the late 1990s that international organizations, governments, think tanks, and universities started to warn about the existence of a yawning digital divide, both within and across countries (e.g., U.S.
Reflector antennas with mesh surfaces: contact or no contact at wire intersections?

The authors develop a model capable of predicting the effects of mesh electrical contacts on antenna performance by determining the mesh reflection/transmission coefficients. These coefficients can then be used in a diffraction analysis program to determine the reflector's far-field pattern. A generalized method of moment/Floquet expansion technique is used to formulate the problem for an arbitrary mesh cell configuration. Representative numerical results are constructed for contact and no-contact mesh surface models. Results are compared to measured data and good agreement is observed. >
Toward an understanding of the fundamental attribution error: Essay diagnosticity in the attitude attribution paradigm

Abstract The observer error in attitude attribution was examined, focusing upon the perceiver's conception of the relationship between a writer's attitude and the quality of performance on an essay task. Subjects appear to have invested essays, written under assignment, with diagnostic value on the presumption of a correlation between the quality or strength of the essay and the writer's attitude. When subjects were given essays varying in direction, strength, and constraint, their attributions indicated a reversal of correspondent inference for weak essays produced under high constraint, replicating an earlier, conceptually important result ( E. E. Jones, S. Worchel, G. R. Goethals, & J. Grumet, Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 1971 , 7, 59–80). It was suggested that the attribution error need not reflect general misunderstandings about, or the low salience of, situational factors, but rather is based on the perceiver's inclination to adopt a diagnostic judgmental set in the attitude attribution paradigm.
Domain-Independent Abstract Generation for Focused Meeting Summarization

We address the challenge of generating natural language abstractive summaries for spoken meetings in a domain-independent fashion. We apply Multiple-Sequence Alignment to induce abstract generation templates that can be used for different domains. An Overgenerateand-Rank strategy is utilized to produce and rank candidate abstracts. Experiments using in-domain and out-of-domain training on disparate corpora show that our system uniformly outperforms state-of-the-art supervised extract-based approaches. In addition, human judges rate our system summaries significantly higher than compared systems in fluency and overall quality.
TOPO TA is A-OK: a test of phylogenetic bias in fungal environmental clone library construction

TA cloning methods are widely used in analyses of environmental microbial diversity, yet the potential of TA methods to yield phylogenetically biased results has received little attention. To test for a TA bias, we constructed clone libraries of fungal amplicons spanning the ribosomal internally transcribed spacer (ITS) and partial large subunit (LSU) from 92 boreal forest soil DNA extracts using two contrasting methods: the Invitrogen TOPO-TA system and the Lucigen PCR-SMART system. The Lucigen system utilizes blunt-ended rather than TA cloning and transcription terminators to reduce biases due to toxicity of expressed inserts. We analysed 588 clone sequences from the two libraries. Species diversity estimators applied to operational taxonomical units (OTUs) were slightly higher for Invitrogen than Lucigen, but confidence intervals for accumulation curves overlapped. Abundances of OTUs were correlated between the libraries (r(2) = 0.5, P < 0.0001), but certain OTUs had contrasting abundances in the two libraries and a likelihood ratio test rejected homogeneity of the OTU counts. We constructed parsimony and Bayesian trees from aligned LSU regions, and the 'phylogenetic test' revealed that lineage representation was not significantly different between the two libraries. We conclude that characterization of this fungal community was fairly robust to cloning method and no biases due to TA cloning were found.
Theoretical Notes on Certain Features of Television Receiving Circuits

Four main items are treated in these notes. The first is the determination of the product of capacity and resistance required in a television amplifier in order that the distortion of low-frequency flat-topped waves shall not exceed a specified percentage, the wave being passed through a single stage of resistance coupled amplification. The influence of multiple-spiral scanning systems is mentioned. The second item deals with the addition of small amounts of inductance to the circuit of a resistance coupled amplifier. A set of generalized graphs are presented for the purpose of greatly expediting computation of the best amount of inductance to use for given conditions. One pair of curves shows results for a simple case, without inductance, corresponding to the resistance couplied amplifier. One curve of the pair is used for the amount of amplification, the other for the phase shift which corresponds to this. A second pair of curves deals with the condition of added inductance best suited to minimum phase shift, while a third pair deals with the condition obtained with the amount of inductance best suited to constant amplification. The third item shows the use of these curves by applying them to specific cases. The fourth item refers to the use of a type of push-pull detector circuit useful for minimizing the by-passing of desired high-frequency currents in the output of a detector.
COMPARISON OF MORPHOLOGICAL VARIATION INDICATIVE OF PLOIDY LEVEL IN PHRAGMITES AUSTRALIS (POACEAE) FROM EASTERN NORTH AMERICA

Variation in ploidy levels in Phragmites australis is a well- documented phenomenon although North American populations are less studied than European ones. It has been suggested, based on morphological measurements, that native and introduced P. australis subspecies in North America represent different ploidy levels. The objectives of this study were to assess whether guard cell size and stomatal density, morphological differences indicative of variation in ploidy level between native and introduced P. australis, are truly associated with different ploidy levels as measured by flow cytometry. Significant differences in guard cell size and stomatal densities were found between subspecies, with native plants having larger guard cells and lower stomatal density. However, no differences in 2C DNA content were found. Although these morphological measurements are significantly correlated with subspecies and can be added to the list of useful morphological characters distinguishing the two subspecies, it does not appear that they are accurate indicators of ploidy levels. Potential implications of these differences on the invasion biology of introduced P. australis are discussed.
female figurines in early christian egypt: reconstructing lost practices and meanings

AbstractThis paper addresses the great diversity of female figurines produced during the Christian period (iv–vii ce) in Egypt, from Aswan to Karanis to the Abu Mina pilgrimage city. While not documented in any texts, by their sheer number the figurines offer important evidence of local religious practices performed under the aegis of Christianity (e.g., at saints’ shrines) yet without any ostensible connection to Christian liturgy or mythology. Their usage seems to have been predominantly votive, signifying a desired procreative body to deposit in hope, while the diversity of figurines points to an autochthonous, rather than imported or imposed, ritual tradition. The paper, part of a larger project on the local sites of Christianization, uses these figurines and their forms to reconstruct the iconographic strategies of the workshop, the ritual procedures of the client or ritual subject (at shrine or tomb), and the nature of domestic altars as stages for images.
Precise Multi-level Inclusive Cache Analysis for WCET Estimation

Multi-level inclusive caches are often used in multi-core processors to simplify the design of cache coherence protocol. However, the use of such cache hierarchies poses great challenges to tight worst-case execution time (WCET) estimation due to the possible invalidation behavior. Traditionally, multi-level inclusive caches are analyzed in a level-by-level manner, and at each level three analyses (i.e. must, may, and persistence) are performed separately. At a particular level, conservative decisions need to be made when the behaviors of other levels are not available, which hurts analysis precision. In this paper, we propose an approach which analyzes a multi-level inclusive cache by integrating the three analyses for all levels together. The approach is based on the abstract interpretation of a concrete operational semantics defined for multi-level inclusive caches. We evaluate the proposed approach and also compare it with two state-of-the-art approaches. From the experimental results, we can observe the proposed approach can significantly improve the analysis precision under relatively small cache size configurations.
Is Tourism Allowing Entrepreneurs to Have a Higher Likelihood of Evading Poverty in St. Lucia

The Caribbean islands have long been associated with sun, sea and sand, i.e. a prime vacation destination. Indeed, tourism can be boasted as one of, if not the key economic- growth engines for many of the islands. Furthermore, it has been argued that it actually helps to keep the self-employed survive above the poverty line. If this is the case, then it is interesting to know what are the key components that capitalize on the opportunities that tourism provide, and transforms them into economic growth. The island of St. Lucia is a perfect example for such an investigation. The many attractions including the world renowned St. Lucia Jazz festival held annually in April and May, the Carnival in July, along with the island’s many picturesque sights: The Grand Piton & Petite Piton, the sulphur springs and the rain forest, all contribute in drawing much tourist appeal. With the new direct flight on American Airlines from New York’s JFK added in November 2007, along with to the existing direct flight on Air Jamaica, as well as flights on American from Miami and Atlanta not forgetting British Airways and Virgin Airlines from the UK, the island is burgeoning with tourists. In the 2005 Budget address made by the Prime Minister of St. Lucia, Dr. the Honourable Kenny Anthony, to Cabinet asserted that the Government was fully aware of the economic potential of the tourism sector, and as such, has made moves to develop incentives aimed at encouraging investments and on-going advancements within the industry. These moves included loans on preferential terms to entrepreneurs starting up businesses within the range of entertainment, accommodations and the restaurant business. Additionally, since the economy of St. Lucia has been long sustained by agriculture, Dr. Anthony made it a point to clarify that the tourism industry is positioned not to over-throw the agricultural industry, but rather to establish a symbiotic relationship. Dr. Anthony succinctly described this symbiotic relationship the following way: “The tourism sector requires a vibrant but diversified agricultural sector. The agricultural sector needs a buoyant but responsive tourism sector. We need to ensure that agriculture derives greater value added from the tourism sector. The fact is that annually, we have over 500,000 tourists to feed and the opportunities for agriculture are obvious.” Indeed, while confirming that tourism holds the greatest potential for growth and development, the Government of St. Lucia has also agreed that unemployment is one of its greatest concerns. If this is the case, it becomes obvious that the tourism sector is the one which, consequently, has the greatest potential to help in reducing unemployment (as well as lifting many persons out of poverty). Noting this, the need for the analyses and discussion is surrounded by investigating ways in which the tourist industry can contribute to the growth of the St. Lucian economy.
Mental health diagnostic considerations in racial/ethnic minority youth.

Misdiagnoses of racial/ethnic minority youth's mental health problems can potentially contribute to inappropriate mental health care. Therefore, we conducted a systematic review that focuses on current theory and empirical research in an attempt to answer the following two questions: 1) What evidence exists that supports or contradicts the idea that racial/ethnic minority youth's mental health problems are misdiagnosed? 2) What are the sources of misdiagnoses? Articles were reviewed from 1967 to 2014 using PsychINFO, PubMed, and GoogleScholar. Search terms included "race", "ethnicity", "minority", "culture", "children", "youth", "adolescents", "mental health", "psychopathology", "diagnosis", "misdiagnosis", "miscategorization", "underdiagnosis", and "overdiagnosis". Seventy-two articles and book chapters met criteria and were included in this review. Overall, evidence was found that supports the possibility of misdiagnosis of ethnic minority youth's emotional and behavioral problems. However, the evidence is limited such that it cannot be determined whether racial/ethnic differences are due to differences in psychopathology, mental health biases, and/or inaccurate diagnoses. Cultural and contextual factors that may influence misdiagnosis as well as recommendations for research and practice are discussed.
Abstract 18263: Poor Handgrip Strength and Outcomes in Heart Failure. The Atlanta Cardiomyopathy Consortium

Background: Handgrip strength test quantifies the amount of static force that the hand can squeeze around a dynamometer and is associated with increased mortality in middle-aged and older adults, and in patients with chronic diseases. The prognostic role of handgrip strength in heart failure (HF) has not been fully investigated. Methods: A hydraulic hand dynamometer was used to measure handgrip strength in 317 outpatients with HF enrolled in The Atlanta Cardiomyopathy Consortium (TACC) cohort study. Patients repeated the test 3 times in each hand and the average from both hands was used. We defined poor handgrip strength based on age- and gender-specific normative data. We evaluated the association between poor handgrip strength and major clinical event (death, heart transplant, left ventricular assist device) and healthcare resource utilization. Results: Baseline patient characteristics are presented in Table 1; 228 patients (71.9%) had poor handgrip strength. Total follow-up was 911 patient-years; 55 patients (17.4%) experienced a major clinical event. There was a total of 836 all-cause hospitalizations with an average length of stay of 4.7 days. Poor handgrip strength was not significantly associated with major clinical events (hazard ratio (HR) 1,19; 95% CI: 0.64 to 2,21; P=0.59). However, patients with poor strength had 42% higher hospitalization rate (95% CI: 1.3% to 98%; P=0.042) and spent 85% (95% CI: 10% to 210%; P=0.020) more days in the hospital. Average length of stay among patients with poor handgrip strength was 4.9 days vs. 4.2 days in those with preserved strength. Conclusion: Poor handgrip strength is highly prevalent among HF patients and is associated with higher healthcare resource utilization and length of stay.
Impact of Sleep Telemedicine Protocol in Management of Sleep Apnea: A 5-Year VA Experience

Abstract Background: There is growing evidence that demonstrates an important role for telemedicine technologies in enhancing healthcare delivery. A comprehensive sleep telemedicine protocol was implemented at the Veterans Administration Medical Center (VAMC), Milwaukee, WI, in 2008 in an effort to improve access to sleep specialty care. The telemedicine protocol relied heavily on sleep specialist interventions based on chart review (electronic consult [e-consult]). This was done in response to long wait time for sleep clinic visits as well as delayed sleep study appointments. Since 2008 all consults are screened by sleep service to determine the next step in intervention. Based on chart review, the following steps are undertaken: (1) eligibility for portable versus in-lab sleep study is determined, and a sleep study order is placed accordingly, (2) positive airway pressure (PAP) therapy is prescribed for confirmed sleep apnea, and (3) need for in-person evaluation in the sleep clinic is determined, and t...
Crystallization of In-Situ SiC-Mullite Composites from Multicomponent Alumina-Silica Gels

Silica and alumina gels were mixed to make a hybrid of a mullite precursor gel and a silicon carbide precursor gel. The crystallization of these above 1400 °C, to form in-situ composites of silicon carbide whiskers in a matrix of mullite, cristobalite and a glassy phase, was studied for different processing conditions.
Legal Briefs: Forceps Delivery and a Lifeless Infant

A 37-weeks'-gestation infant whose birthweight was 3,572 g was born in 1991 to a 23-year-old G2P1 woman. A previous pregnancy with a 3-kg infant was complicated by the need for a cesarean delivery secondary to cephalopelvic disproportion (CPD). The mother was 5 ft 3 inches tall and weighed 160 pounds before the current pregnancy. After contractions began, she was admitted to the hospital. Her membranes ruptured spontaneously and resulted in clear fluid. After several hours of labor, an internal monitor was placed and an epidural was provided. The second stage of labor was 1 hour and 15 minutes. Forceps were applied. The medical records indicated mid and low forceps. The treating obstetrician denied using midforceps. Shortly after the forceps were applied, the fetal heart rate declined to ∼90 with the development of several deep variable decelerations. Shoulder dystocia developed. According to the plaintiff obstetrician, the treating obstetrician should have known about the CPD with the previous pregnancy and recognized that the pelvis was untested. The treating obstetrician stated that previous knowledge of CPD would not have influenced his decision because operative deliveries carry risks, and, because the pelvis was not tested, he considered it was good judgment to allow a vaginal delivery. The plaintiff obstetrician pointed to the record that the infant was too high when forceps were applied, and it was a risky maneuver that is known to be associated with shoulder dystocia. The fetal heart monitor was removed 5 minutes before the vaginal delivery. The infant was delivered lifeless. Resuscitation consisted of intubation, positive pressure ventilation, chest compressions, two doses of Narcan, three doses of epinephrine via the endotracheal tube, an umbilical arterial line placed at 6 minutes, as well as 6 mEq of bicarbonate at 13 minutes. The chest compressions were discontinued at 15 minutes. Apgar Scores …
Probing the Dynamics of a His73–Heme Alkaline Transition in a Destabilized Variant of Yeast Iso-1-cytochrome c with Conformationally Gated Electron Transfer Methods

The alkaline transition of cytochrome c involves substitution of the Met80 heme ligand of the native state with a lysine ligand from a surface Ω-loop (residues 70 to 85). The standard mechanism for the alkaline transition involves a rapid deprotonation equilibrium followed by the conformational change. However, recent work implicates multiple ionization equilibria and stable intermediates. In previous work, we showed that the kinetics of formation of a His73–heme alkaline conformer of yeast iso-1-cytochrome c requires ionization of the histidine ligand (pKHL ∼ 6.5). Furthermore, the forward and backward rate constants, kf and kb, respectively, for the conformational change are modulated by two auxiliary ionizations (pKH1 ∼ 5.5, and pKH2 ∼ 9). A possible candidate for pKH1 is His26, which has a strongly shifted pKa in native cytochrome c. Here, we use the AcH73 iso-1-cytochrome c variant, which contains an H26N mutation, to test this hypothesis. pH jump experiments on the AcH73 variant show no change in ko...
UNDERSTANDING AND ACCELERATING ENVIRONMENTALLY-INDUCED DEGRADATION AND MICROCRACKING

Degradation and microcracking in hygrothermal cycling environments seen by advanced systems are problems for composite materials. The problems are complex, in both their physical mechanisms and in the analysis and testing necessary to understand them. An existing understanding of degradation mechanisms, founded on mechanism-based models, is used here to simulate the response of composite laminates to two aspects of a typical use environment: moisture cycling that affects only thin layers near the surface and edges of exposed laminates, and thermal cycles that affect the entire laminate. In each case, results of models are compared to existing data, and, via parametric analyses, the models are used to design tests to accelerate the degradation.
Resource Cooperative Organized Mechanism Based on SOA Bus

This paper discusses some concepts on Service-oriented Architecture(SOA),insists that SOA is a developing methodology rather than a specific technology.Moreover,the paper designs the service cooperative mechanism based on SOA.Many functions are supported,including service dynamics,the load-aware self-adaptation and fault tolerance.According to simulations and applications,this mechanism has low bandwidth,fast convergence and the ability to recover from emergencies quickly.