cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Assessing the effects of manufacturing infrastructure preparation prior to enterprise information-systems implementation

Reports on the success or failure of enterprise information system (EIS) implementation have been decidedly mixed. In this study, we focus on manufacturing infrastructure preparation prior to EIS implementation and report the results of a survey of 152 US manufacturing companies that have implemented EIS. We have provided four major findings in this study: (1) the requirements from customers and trading partners are more powerful drivers motivating US manufacturing firms to implementing enterprise systems than internal business planning needs; (2) one manufacturing infrastructural issue often has implications for other infrastructural items in implementing technology, so various manufacturing infrastructural issues should be prepared simultaneously; (3) manufacturing infrastructure preparation prior to EIS implementation has significant positive effects on customer-focused performance, production/operations performance, and financial performance; and (4) better customer-focused performance contributes to ...
Brain Health Knowledge in Community-Dwelling Older Adults.

Aging and its effects on a person's quality of life are a growing health concern and burden for many Americans. Recently, studies have shown that adopting certain healthy behaviors may help maintain and or prevent age-related health issues such as cognitive decline. However, many people are unaware of these newfound facts. Furthermore, there is insufficient research evidence to understand how older adults view brain health and the differences between diverse groups of older adults. This study examines brain health knowledge and behaviors among Caucasian and African-American community-dwelling older adults in North Carolina. Findings were significant for level of education and total brain health knowledge scores, though there were no significant differences between races. In addition, there was a significant association between total number of health conditions and total brain health knowledge scores that warrants further study.
Cost‐Benefit Analysis of All‐Terrain Vehicles at the CPSC1

The present value of the costs of injuries and deaths associated with each unit of a product is a useful number in conducting cost-benefit analysis at the CPSC. Before a remedy is known, this value indicates the approximate amount that it is worth spending on a fix; similarly, if a fix is proposed, this number indicates whether it is cost-justified. The method of analysis is applied to all-terrain vehicles. Injury costs per vehicle are estimated. Determinants of accidents are estimated using a logit regression model applied to surveys of users and of accident victims; this indicates factors associated with accidents, and is used to estimate marginal probabilities. Costs of various vehicle components are estimated using a hedonic price index. This information (injury costs, accident probabilities, and component cost) is combined in a benefit–cost analysis of proposed remedies.
When Distance Doesn't Really Matter: Effects of Geographic Dispersion on Participation in Online Enterprise Communities

Research on small team collaboration repeatedly shows that 'distance matters'. More recent work has refined this concept of distance to develop geographic dispersion measures to explain the negative effects that team configuration has on productivity and interaction. Dispersion measures explain why teams distributed across multiple time zones, or across multiple sites, have more coordination difficulties than collocated teams with a single remote member. Although larger online communities are increasingly used in enterprises, few studies have examined the effects of dispersion on community behavior. We studied 1206 online enterprise communities (OECs), each using a set of collaborative tools. We present new data showing counter-intuitively that OEC dispersion does not affect content generation or contribution inequality, even when restricting community size to those that most resemble small teams (with 3-12 members). We found that previously documented negative effects of geographic dispersion seem to be reduced in enterprise communities regardless of size. Our results provide additional support to prior case studies suggesting that online communities can mitigate geographic dispersion by providing resources that support coordination and resource sharing.
Dietary and Density Dependent Factors in the Induction of Population Autocide of Flour Beetles, Tribolium confusum

The response of the adult Tribolium confusum Jacquelin duVal to stress imposed by malathion and crowding was investigated. Stress imposed by malathion concentrations of 1.0 ppm or greater with population densities of 75 or more adult beetles per 3 grams of flour was adequate to initiate the production of a gas with resulting death of all beetles. A color change in the flour (white to pink) was a secondary effect resulting from the presence of the quinone gas.
Development of a Haptic Interface for Natural Orifice Translumenal Endoscopic Surgery Simulation

Natural orifice translumenal endoscopic surgery (NOTES) is a minimally invasive procedure, which utilizes the body's natural orifices to gain access to the peritoneal cavity. The NOTES procedure is designed to minimize external scarring and patient trauma, however flexible endoscopy based pure NOTES procedures require critical scope handling skills. The delicate nature of the NOTES procedure requires extensive training. Thus, to improve access to training while reducing risk to patients, we have designed and developed the VTEST, a virtual reality NOTES simulator. As part of the simulator, a novel decoupled 2-DOF haptic device was developed to provide realistic force feedback to the user in training. A series of experiments were performed to determine the behavioral characteristics of the device. The device was found capable of rendering up to 5.62N and 0.190 Nm of continuous force and torque in the translational and rotational DOF, respectively. The device possesses 18.1 and 5.7 Hz of force bandwidth in the translational and rotational DOF, respectively. A feedforward friction compensator was also successfully implemented to minimize the negative impact of friction during the interaction with the device. In this work, we have presented the detailed development and evaluation of the haptic device for the VTEST.
Alkylidene Mechanism for the Fischer-Tropsch Synthesis

Copyright: © 2014 Shi B. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. The Fischer-Tropsch synthesis (FTS) has become an attractive industrial process to produce fuels and chemicals from coal, natural gas and biomass. It has also been invoked to explain the formation of abiogenic hydrocarbons in the Earth’s crust, the formation of organic matters in the nebula, and the production of precursors of life-essential building blocks. The question of how the long chain hydrocarbons are formed from two simplest compounds CO and H2 is of fundamental importance in chemistry and has challenged researchers for many years.
Organizing for brand protection and responding to product counterfeit risk: An analysis of global firms

Product counterfeiting represents a large, growing risk to many global firms, albeit one whose dimensions are not easily measured. While firms increasingly recognize the need to address the threat of counterfeiting, there has been little research, typically highly specific case studies, on how they do so. To advance analysis of how firms respond to product-counterfeiting issues, we interviewed representatives of 10 large global firms providing goods and services in a wide variety of industries. Our interviews covered organization for brand protection, measurement of counterfeiting and its effects, practices the organization uses for brand protection, success of brand-protection efforts and other issues related to brand-protection efforts. All these firms report a multifaceted approach to counterfeit risks. Most report multiple measures to assess prevalence and impact of counterfeit products. Programs claiming success attribute management support and adequate funding and understanding of counterfeiting problems. Respondents also agree that constant communication is a key determinant of success. Though having the shortcomings of any study with a limited sample, this work finds several common themes in brand-protection efforts, identifies several lessons for firms and identifies issues for further exploration.
Momentum for Change: The Impact of the Colorado Civil Access Pilot Project

In 2011, the Colorado Supreme Court authorized the Civil Access Pilot Project Applicable to Business Actions in District Court (CAPP) and designated IAALS — the Institute for the Advancement of the American Legal System — to study its effects.This report contains the final results of IAALS’ systematic data collection, which took place over the course of more than two years. It is intended to provide feedback on CAPP’s new set of rules for pleading, disclosure, discovery, and case management in civil cases. IAALS hopes that information about this particular innovation will be helpful to decisionmakers, in Colorado and elsewhere, who are committed to improving the legal process.This report follows a preliminary report released in April of 2014. Since that time, more cases within the study sample have resolved, and the results in this Final Report have been adjusted to reflect the inclusion of these new data, as well as additional analyses conducted. The overall conclusions remain substantially unchanged.
Framing Strategies to Avoid Mother-Blame in Communicating the Origins of Chronic Disease

Evolving research in epigenetics and the developmental origins of health and disease offers tremendous promise in explaining how the social environment, place, and resources available to us have enduring effects on our health. Troubling from a communications perspective, however, is the tendency in framing the science to hold mothers almost uniquely culpable for their offspring’s later disease risk. The purpose of this article is to add to the conversation about avoiding this unintended outcome by (1) discussing the importance of cognitive processing and issue frames, (2) describing framing challenges associated with communicating about developmental origins of health and disease and offering principles to address them, and (3) providing examples of conceptual metaphors that may be helpful in telling this complex and contextual story for public health.
Classical Liberalism: Globalization as the Logic of Freedom

This book now sets out to examine the meanings of globalization that can be identified within conceptual arrangements of major ideological families. The analysis takes off by advancing an argument according to which the currently hegemonic discourse of globalization can be unpacked as integral to a long-established logic of classical liberalism.
Simulation for undergraduates: is there a worthy return on investment?

to the editor: in the September 2016 issue of Advances in Physiology Education , Chen et al. ([1][1]) describe a study in which high-fidelity patient simulators (HFPS) are used in a human pathophysiology course with undergraduate science students. Survey data were very positive, supporting the use
A comparative study of standard intensity-modulated radiotherapy and RapidArc planning techniques for ipsilateral and bilateral head and neck irradiation

The purpose of this study was to investigate class solutions using RapidArc volumetric-modulated arc therapy (VMAT) planning for ipsilateral and bilateral head and neck (H&N) irradiation, and to compare dosimetric results with intensity-modulated radiotherapy (IMRT) plans. A total of 14 patients who received ipsilateral and 10 patients who received bilateral head and neck irradiation were retrospectively replanned with several volumetric-modulated arc therapy techniques. For ipsilateral neck irradiation, the volumetric-modulated arc therapy techniques included two 360° arcs, two 360° arcs with avoidance sectors around the contralateral parotid, two 260° or 270° arcs, and two 210° arcs. For bilateral neck irradiation, the volumetric-modulated arc therapy techniques included two 360° arcs, two 360° arcs with avoidance sectors around the shoulders, and 3 arcs. All patients had a sliding-window-delivery intensity-modulated radiotherapy plan that was used as the benchmark for dosimetric comparison. For ipsilateral neck irradiation, a volumetric-modulated arc therapy technique using two 360° arcs with avoidance sectors around the contralateral parotid was dosimetrically comparable to intensity-modulated radiotherapy, with improved conformity (conformity index = 1.22 vs 1.36, p < 0.04) and lower contralateral parotid mean dose (5.6 vs 6.8Gy, p < 0.03). For bilateral neck irradiation, 3-arc volumetric-modulated arc therapy techniques were dosimetrically comparable to intensity-modulated radiotherapy while also avoiding irradiation through the shoulders. All volumetric-modulated arc therapy techniques required fewer monitor units than sliding-window intensity-modulated radiotherapy to deliver treatment, with an average reduction of 35% for ipsilateral plans and 67% for bilateral plans. Thus, for ipsilateral head and neck irradiation a volumetric-modulated arc therapy technique using two 360° arcs with avoidance sectors around the contralateral parotid is recommended. For bilateral neck irradiation, 2- or 3-arc techniques are dosimetrically comparable to intensity-modulated radiotherapy, but more work is needed to determine the optimal approaches by disease site.
Protein Induced Membrane Remodeling Assayed in Vitro using Lipid Multilayer Micro- and Nanostructures

The dynamic self-organization of lipids in biological systems is a highly regulated process that enables the compartmentalization of living systems at cellular and sub-cellular scales. Lipid multilayer micro- and nanostructures on surfaces are a promising new tool with the ability of quantitatively assaying membrane remodeling activity in vitro. This approach combines capabilities of assays based on vesicles in solution, which allow 3D compartmentalization and remodeling, with surface based assays such as supported lipid bilayers that allow rapid optical characterization and microarray compatibility. Here we expose lipid multilayer nanostructures and microstructures to membrane binding and remodeling proteins Sar1 and NDPK. These proteins are found to inflate the multilayers into vesicular compartments. Sar1 inflates them to form giant unilamellar vesicles, while NDPK produces a new inflated phase composed of hemifused vesicles which we refer to as a “foam phase”. A model fit to the data allows quantification of binding affinity and both binding and remodeling kinetics. The lipid multilayer micro- and nanostructures can be easily made by nanointaglio stamping and demonstrate critical dimensions for unique remodeling capabilities. The results suggest implications for the in vivo function of these proteins in vesicle trafficking and lipid transfer between membranes.
Characterization of a Thiol-Ene/Acrylate-Based Polymer for Neuroprosthetic Implants

Thiol-ene/acrylate shape-memory polymers can be used as base substrates for neural electrodes to treat neurological dysfunction. Neural electrodes are implanted into the body to alter or record impulse conduction. This study characterizes thiol-ene/acrylate polymers to determine which synthesis methods constitute an ideal substrate for neural implants. To achieve a desired Tg between 50 and 56.5 °C, curing conditions, polymer thickness, monomer ratios, and water uptake were all examined and controlled for. Characterization with dynamic mechanical analysis and thermal gravimetric analysis reveals that thin, thiol-ene/acrylate polymers composed of at least 50 mol % acrylate content and cured for at least 1 h at 365 nm are promising as substrates for neural electrodes.
Inferential language use by school-aged boys with fragile X syndrome: Effects of a parent-implemented spoken language intervention.

Abstract This study examined the impact of a distance-delivered parent-implemented narrative language intervention on the use of inferential language during shared storytelling by school-aged boys with fragile X syndrome, an inherited neurodevelopmental disorder. Nineteen school-aged boys with FXS and their biological mothers participated. Dyads were randomly assigned to an intervention or a treatment-as-usual comparison group. Transcripts from all pre- and post-intervention sessions were coded for child use of prompted and spontaneous inferential language coded into various categories. Children in the intervention group used more utterances that contained inferential language than the comparison group at post-intervention. Furthermore, children in the intervention group used more prompted inferential language than the comparison group at post-intervention, but there were no differences between the groups in their spontaneous use of inferential language. Additionally, children in the intervention group demonstrated increases from pre- to post-intervention in their use of most categories of inferential language. This study provides initial support for the utility of a parent-implemented language intervention for increasing the use of inferential language by school aged boys with FXS, but also suggests the need for additional treatment to encourage spontaneous use.
Nerve Transfer Surgery for Penetrating Upper Extremity Injuries

Context Nerve transfer surgery is an option for repair of penetrating injuries of the upper extremity. In the right setting, it has advantages over tendon transfers and nerve grafting. Objective To review our experience since 2006 of nerve transfer surgery in the upper extremities. Design We included cases performed to repair penetrating trauma within three months of injury with at least three years' follow-up. Main outcome measures Preoperative and postoperative muscle strength of the affected extremity. Results All 16 patients were males aged 16 to 43 years. Six patients underwent nerve transfer surgery because of elbow flexion; 5, finger extension; 3, finger flexion; and 2, wrist pronation. Nine patients (56%) had associated vascular injury, and 4 (25%) had fractures. Average follow-up was 6 years. No perioperative complications occurred. Patients had a mean of 3.7 operations after the initial trauma. All patients received physical therapy. All patients improved from 0 of 5 muscle strength preoperatively to a mean of 3.8 (range = 2/5 to 5/5) within 1 year after surgery. In all cases, strength was maintained, and 8 (50%) had continued improvement after Year 1. Ten (63%) returned to their previous employment level. Mean Disabilities of the Arm, Shoulder and Hand score improved from 68 to 83 postoperatively. Conclusion Nerve transfer is a safe, effective technique for correcting penetrating trauma-related nerve injury. In appropriate patients it offers advantages over other techniques. Outcomes can be maintained long term, and many patients can return to their previous level of function.
ForkTail: a black-box fork-join tail latency prediction model for user-facing datacenter workloads

The workflows of the predominant user-facing datacenter services, including web searching and social networking, are underlaid by various Fork-Join structures. Due to the lack of understanding the performance of Fork-Join structures in general, today's datacenters often resort to resource overprovisioning, operating under low resource utilization, to meet stringent tail-latency service level objectives (SLOs) for such services. Hence, to achieve high resource utilization, while meeting stringent tail-latency SLOs, it is of paramount importance to be able to accurately predict the tail latency for a broad range of Fork-Join structures of practical interests.In this paper, we propose ForkTail, a black-box Fork-Join tail latency prediction model that covers a wide range of Fork-Join structures. In ForkTail, all Fork nodes are treated as black boxes, admitting both homogeneous and inhomogeneous cases, and different requests in the request flow are allowed to spawn different numbers of tasks forked to different numbers of Fork nodes. On the basis of the central limit theorem for queuing models under heavy load, we are able to arrive at a highly computational effective, empirical expression for the tail latency as a function of the means and variances of the task response times. Since this expression can be applied to request sub-flows at any granularities, it can be used for tail-latency prediction for services in a consolidated environment, where different services and applications may share the same datacenter cluster resources. Our extensive testing results based on model-based and trace-driven simulations, as well as a real-world case study in a cloud environment demonstrate that the expression can consistently predict the tail latency within 20% and 15% prediction errors at 80% and 90% load levels, respectively. Moreover, our sensitivity analysis demonstrates that such errors can be well compensated for with no more than 5% and 3% resource overprovisioning at these two load levels, respectively. This, together with its extremely low computational complexity, makes ForkTail a viable tool for both offline and online job scheduling and resource provisioning for user-facing datacenter applications.
SDYM Hierarchies and Classical Soliton Systems

We introduce a hierarchy of integrable equations in which the self-dual Yang-Mills equation is embedded naturally. This hierarchy reduces to the known soliton hierarchies in 1 + 1 and 2 + 1 dimensions when appropriate coordinate symmetries are imposed. Examples are given to illustrate the reduction scheme.
A Y/15 translocation in a 45,X male with Prader-Willi syndrome

We report a male neonate with a 45 X karyotype; the long arm of a chromosome 15 was translocated onto the proximal long arm of the Y chromosome. Breakpoints were identified by in situ fluorescence hybridization (FISH) on the proximal 15q13 and Yq11.2. The derivative chromosome has no primary centromere. Clinical features were compatible with Prader-Willi syndrome. This is the first report case ofmonosomy 15q and Yq deletion with Prader-Willi syndrome.
Essay: The Administrative Process from the Bottom Up: Reflections on the Role, If Any, for Judicial Review

This Essay offers a bottom-up analysis of judicial review in the administrative state that focuses on the dynamics of participation. A bottom-up perspective supplements the more conventional top-down analysis of agencies and the courts by drawing attention to the important role that different constellations of participants play in the functioning of the system. This pattern of participation helps determine the behavior of the political and administrative processes. It also helps determine the behavior of the adjudicative process and, therefore, of judicial review. As with the analysis of judicial review of the political process under the Constitution, participatory realities must be taken seriously in analyzing the judicial review of the administrative process. After drawing out the primary variables and forces that shape participation in agencies and courts, the essay considers various reforms and adjustments that might improve bottom-up institutional functioning in the future.
Polarizing Currents within Purple America

The ideology of average Americans has changed little since the 1970s. Then as now around 30 percent identify liberal or conservative and 40 percent are moderates. In contrast to this stable “purple” distribution political parties have become more polarized into “red” and “blue” ideological camps with much less overlap than in the past. This paper contributes to the literature that seeks to reconcile these divergent trends by examining changes in the policy preferences within ideological categories. I analyze answers to a stable set of questions in the General Social Survey. The key finding is that liberals and conservatives have mainly moved further apart on a wide variety of policy issues. The divergence is substantial quantitatively and in its plausible political impact: intra party moderation has become increasingly unlikely.
Neutron Scatter Camera Using Two Arrays of Diamond Detectors

In this paper, we present on the simulated performance of a diamond-based neutron scatter camera (DNSC) for both source location and spectral reconstruction. The DNSC consists of two $4 \times 4$ planes of diamond detectors, each with a $4 \times 4$ array of pixels. The various parameters were investigated to gauge their effect on the performance ofa DNSC, including both uncertainties in energy deposition and timing. The DNSC can accurately localize at least two neutron sources located very close to each other, and can reconstruct the energy spectrum of a $^{252}Cf$ neutron source to $\sim 250 \mathrm {k}\mathrm {e}\mathrm {V}$, contingent on chosen performance parameters of each diamond detector in the array. Details of DNSC design, reconstruction techniques, and current results are presented.
Developing a Delphi survey in MD/APP’s for distress level after supportive care inpatient consults.

125Background: Physicians caring for patients with terminal cancer are at particular risk for compromised well-being due to the nature and intensity of the clinical stresses they face. The factors contributing to professional burnout severity included younger age, working in isolation, and working longer hours a shown by a survey conducted by Kamal et al. For patient encounter distress multiple factor have been mention as a source of distress for providers including patient factors, physician factors and environmental factors. No documented evidence of the distress level in palliative care (PC) providers after patient encounter is available. We intend to identify the most common predictors for high distress level after patient encounter in order to identify ways to support our staff. Methods: A group of 28 PC faculty physicians and mid-level providers in the Department of PC at the M. D. Anderson Cancer Center were invited to participate in the study by email with Qualtrics link e-online questionnaire. Th...
Eating disorders and academic performance among college students.

Objective: There is a paucity of research exploring eating disorders (EDs) and academic performance (AP). This study aimed to understand the effect of ED treatment on AP, hypothesizing that student...
Piloting a structured developmental tool to assess transition readiness for youth with special health-care needs: A mixed-methods exploration of health-care provider experiences.

This mixed-methods study examined providers’ experiences using a structured developmentally sensitive tool to assess transition readiness for youth with special health-care needs moving from pediat...
Design of a Tapered Final Focusing Magnet for eRHIC

Presently, the electron-ion collider electron relativistic heavy ion collider (eRHIC) is under design. It aims to provide a facility with a peak luminosity of 10 34 cm -2 sec -1 . In terms of magnet design, the IR magnets are particularly challenging due to the close proximity of the electron and hadron beams. This paper outlines the design for the so-called Q1 rear side magnet, which is a double aperture quadrupole magnet, 7.2 m from the interaction region. Due to space restrictions, both magnets are housed in the same iron yoke. The aperture of the hadron quadrupole is relatively small, but requires high gradients. While the required gradient for the electron quadrupole is relatively small, the aperture of this magnet needs to accommodate the beam and allow the synchrotron radiation fan to pass through. To accomplish this, both quadrupole magnets have a tapered aperture. To keep the gradients constant along the length of the magnets, a special winding pattern has been identified, which is described in this paper.
Open-boundary spectral and flux-balance Vlasov simulation

Simulations of one-dimensional Vlasov–Maxwell solutions with non-periodic boundary conditions are discussed. Results obtained using a recently developed filtered flux-balance simulation system are compared to those obtained using a filtered, Fourier–Fourier transformed system. Excellent agreement is confirmed except for the appearance of the Gibbs phenomenon on the discontinuous simulated solutions of the transformed system. Recovery of the flux-balance results from the Fourier transformed results using the inverse polynomial reconstruction method is demonstrated.
Intimate Partner Violence in Transgender Populations: Systematic Review and Meta-analysis of Prevalence and Correlates

Background: Transgender individuals experience unique vulnerabilities to intimate partner violence (IPV) and may experience a disproportionate IPV burden compared with cisgender (nontransgender) in...
Olfactory genomics of eusociality within the Hymenoptera

Abstract Olfaction arguably represents one of the most important sensory modalities for insects. This is especially true for Hymenoptera which engage in a variety of complex olfactory-mediated social behaviors that distinguish them from other insect orders such as Diptera. Indeed, while model insects such as Drosophila melanogaster have played fundamental roles in advancing our understanding of the molecular, cellular, and organismal components of insect olfaction in general, the extension of these studies to a Hymenopteran model species has provided an opportunity to address a broader range of questions related to insect pheromone biology, especially as it pertains to social behavior and evolution.
BitLight: Turning DLP Projections into an Interactive Surface through Bit-level Light Encoding

This paper presents BitLight, a novel paradigm that uses the rapid flashing of a digital light processing (DLP) projector to encode an imperceptible mask temporally that, when sensed by a photodiode, uniquely specifies where the photodiode is located on the projected image. BitLight is inspired by the psychophysical phenomenon that the human visual system (HVS) cannot resolve rapid temporal changes in optical signals, so redundant optical signals could be inserted for tracking with some or little compromise on the original human perceived visual content. BitLight is the first to devise a bit-level temporal encoding to display RGB colors while also embedding tracking signals in a digital fashion. Compared to traditional visible-light-communication (VLC) systems that use frame-level encoding techniques such as luminance changes [10, 25, 26, 32] and alpha channel [16], the bit-level encoding of BitLight makes better use of the ultra-fine temporal division capabilities of DLP projectors to embed a much higher tracking data throughput and thus achieve faster localization speed. With our current prototype hardwares of a low-end microcontroller, cheap photodiodes, and a commercial off-the-shelfDLP projector, evaluation results have demonstrated an average of only 9.5ms to localize the sensor, versus 200ms by a comparison testbed that uses simple frame-level encodings.
Bedside Diagnostic Techniques in Dermatology

To review bedside diagnostic techniques in the modern dermatologic landscape. Microscopy has been a commonly used bedside technique for the diagnosis of various fungal, parasitic, and bacterial infections. Tzanck smears are another useful technique often used for diagnosing herpesvirus lesions, but evidence shows that its use could be expanded to include other conditions as well. Wood’s light fluorescence is a simple non-invasive technique that has often been utilized to diagnose various bacterial, fungal, and pigmentation disorders, although its list of uses has not been exhausted. Cellophane tape scraping can provide a scalpel-free alternative to traditional scrapings. With the ever-decreasing costs of technologies such as PCR, swabbing for PCR may become a more common method of diagnosing more infectious skin pathologies. Bedside diagnostic techniques in dermatology are a useful adjunct to the dermatologic physical exam to confirm a diagnosis rapidly, affordably, and accurately.
Hippa on Privacy: Its Unintended and Intended Consequences

This paper critiques the elaborate system of privacy safeguards that are found in the 1996 Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA). On the more specific level, it explains how the detailed rules for the protection of privacy interests are likely to impact the ability to organize new medical research projects or to pursue follow-up with long-term studies already in place. On the more general level, it criticizes the requirement for individuated consent for discrete medical or financial transactions as an impediment to freedom of contract by precluding the use of generalized consent at the formation of the health care provider/patient relationship. The extreme set of ex ante regulatory provisions might make some sense if the current systems in place for the protection of medical privacy had shown some demonstrated failure that more limited after-the-fact remedies could not correct in individual cases. As no such showing has been made, the current explosion in regulation is best understood as the aggrandizement of regulatory power under the large grant of delegation contained in the original statute.
Electric and Magnetic Fields: An Engineer’s Perspective

Much has been written and discussed about electric and magnetic fields. Extensive programs are underway to discover whether these fields can affect our health.
The existence of an unusual reversible deactivation phenomenon associated with preferential surface segregation in bimetallic systems

When samples of certain bimetallic catalysts were heated in a carbon containing gas mixture an unusual form of deactivation was observed that was completely reversible in nature. It was found that the activity of the bimetallic catalyst was extremely sensitive to the reaction conditions. At temperatures in excess of 725°C the system underwent appreciable deactivation and if hydrogen was added to the reactant the lifetime of the catalyst could be extended up to 800°C. Previous studies have favored the argument that under these circumstances the formation of an encapsulating layer of graphite is responsible for blocking the active metal sites on the surface. In order to restore the activity of the spent catalyst it would be necessary to gasify the carbonaceous overlayer in an oxidizing environment at elevated temperature before re-introduction of the initial reactant mixture. In the present systems it was evident that this form of deactivation was not operative since the activity of the “spent catalyst” could readily be restored to its original level by merely lowering the temperature to a previously active regime, indicating the reversible nature of the deactivation process. It is suggested that this phenomenon is related to the preferential wetting action by one of the metal components of the solid carbon filament deposit and this behavior results in a concomitant enrichment of the exposed particle surface in contact with gas phase by the other metal. When this pattern of behavior results in the formation of a surface that does not favor dissociative chemisorption of ethylene or carbon monoxide, deactivation of the catalyst particles will be observed.
Central pupillary light reflex circuits in the cat: II. Morphology, ultrastructure, and inputs of preganglionic motoneurons.

Preganglionic motoneurons supplying the ciliary ganglion control lens accommodation and pupil diameter. In cats, these motoneurons make up the preganglionic Edinger-Westphal population, which lies rostral, dorsal and ventral to the oculomotor nucleus. A recent cat study suggested that caudal motoneurons control the lens and rostral motoneurons control the pupil. This led us to examine the morphology, ultrastructure and pretectal inputs of these populations. Preganglionic motoneurons retrogradely labeled by introducing tracer into the cat ciliary ganglion generally fell into two morphologic categories. Fusiform neurons were located rostrally, in the anteromedian nucleus and between the oculomotor nuclei. Multipolar neurons were found caudally, dorsal and ventral to the oculomotor nucleus. The dendrites of preganglionic motoneurons within the anteromedian nucleus crossed the midline, providing a possible basis for consensual responses. Ultrastructurally, several different classes of synaptic profiles contact preganglionic motoneurons, suggesting their activity may be modified by a variety of inputs. Furthermore, there were differences between the synaptic populations contacting the rostral and caudal populations, supporting the contention that these populations display functional differences. Anterogradely labeled pretectal terminals were observed in close association with labeled preganglionic motoneurons, particularly in the rostral population. Ultrastructural analysis revealed that these terminals, packed with clear, spherical vesicles, made asymmetric synaptic contacts onto motoneurons in the rostral population indicating these cells serve the pupillary light reflex. Thus, the preganglionic motoneurons found in the cat display morphologic, ultrastructural and connectional differences suggesting that this rostral preganglionic population is specialized for pupil control, while more caudal elements control the lens.
Robotic visual servoing in a flexible manufacturing workcell

The tracking and grasping of an object is carried out. The position of a robot, which has a camera mounted on its end-effector, is controlled using visual feedback. A static "look-and-move" control structure is implemented. The system includes a vision system, robot, and a workstation. The robot tracks an object on a moving conveyor belt, and then grasps the object while the conveyor belt is still moving.
MicroRNAs and PARP: co-conspirators with ROS in pulmonary hypertension. Focus on "miR-223 reverses experimental pulmonary arterial hypertension".

PULMONARY ARTERIAL HYPERTENSION (PAH) is a progressive disease manifested by maladaptation of the pulmonary vasculature. The development of PAH can be influenced by genetic predisposition and/or by diverse endogenous or environmental stimuli. Regardless of the initial pathogenic factors, pulmonary vascular remodeling, sustained pulmonary vasoconstriction, in situ thrombosis, and increased pulmonary vascular wall stiffness are the major contributors to elevated pulmonary vascular resistance (PVR). The increase in PVR can lead to right ventricular failure and death in patients with PAH. While treatments for this disease are improving, it continues to be a life-threatening condition. MicroRNAs (miRNAs) have been implicated in the development and progression of PAH. MiRNAs are small, noncoding RNAs that regulate gene and protein expression by promoting degradation or suppressing translation of target mRNAs. Several studies have demonstrated aberrant expres
Road Grade Measurement Using In-Vehicle, Stand-Alone GPS with Barometric Altimeter

Real-world vehicle fuel use and emission rates are sensitive to road grade. There is a need for a practical method for measuring road grade in combination with on-board measurement of vehicle activity, energy use, and emissions using portable emissions measurement systems (PEMS). This paper focuses on quantification of the accuracy and precision of a low-cost method using a stand-alone global positioning system (GPS) receiver with an in-built barometric altimeter. Approximately 100 one-way runs were made on each of several study routes. The sensitivity of average grade estimates to the averaging distance over which grade is estimated is quantified. The repeatability of vehicle location and distance traveled is quantified. The run-to-run variability and confidence intervals for average estimates of grade are quantified. The accuracy of the grade estimates is evaluated in comparison to LIDAR-based estimates. The low-cost method is shown to be accurate, but imprecision in the measurements leads to a need for typically at least 10 or more repeated runs, depending on the desired precision of the average estimate of grade.
Serving unfair customers

Abstract Companies commonly adopt “the customer is always right” maxim as a basic premise for delivering quality service. A close examination of customer behavior, however, reveals that customers can be not only wrong but also blatantly unjust. Unfair customers take advantage of being “always right” by demanding unwarranted privileges and compensation, adversely affecting companies and, in some cases, employees and other customers. Companies can actually strengthen their ability to deliver quality service by dealing effectively with unfair customers.
Integrating research training and the teaching of positive psychology

Faculty hoping to add a Positive Psychology course into the undergraduate curriculum as a regularly taught stand-alone course may face multiple hurdles: finding the time to develop the course, and once it is developed, attaining approval by departmental level as well as college level curriculum committees. In addition, even after the approval process, faculty might find that the ability to regularly offer the course may be limited due to the demand for the teaching of other basic courses. On the other hand, most undergraduate Psychology curriculums require students to successfully complete at least one course on research methodology. We describe two courses, a 200-level and an upper-level course, that integrates positive psychology topics into the teaching of research methods and hands-on research experience.
Adoptively transferred human lung tumor specific cytotoxic T cells can control autologous tumor growth and shape tumor phenotype in a SCID mouse xenograft model

Background The anti-tumor efficacy of human immune effector cells, such as cytolytic T lymphocytes (CTLs), has been difficult to study in lung cancer patients in the clinical setting. Improved experimental models for the study of lung tumor-immune cell interaction as well as for evaluating the efficacy of adoptive transfer of immune effector cells are needed.
Model Discrimination and Mechanistic Interpretation of Kinetic Data in Protein Aggregation Studies

Given the importance of protein aggregation in amyloid diseases and in the manufacture of protein pharmaceuticals, there has been increased interest in measuring and modeling the kinetics of protein aggregation. Several groups have analyzed aggregation data quantitatively, typically measuring aggregation kinetics by following the loss of protein monomer over time and invoking a nucleated growth mechanism. Such analysis has led to mechanistic conclusions about the size and nature of the nucleus, the aggregation pathway, and/or the physicochemical properties of aggregation-prone proteins. We have examined some of the difficulties that arise when extracting mechanistic meaning from monomer-loss kinetic data. Using literature data on the aggregation of polyglutamine, a mutant β-clam protein, and protein L, we determined parameter values for 18 different kinetic models. We developed a statistical model discrimination method to analyze protein aggregation data in light of competing mechanisms; a key feature of the method is that it penalizes overparameterization. We show that, for typical monomer-loss kinetic data, multiple models provide equivalent fits, making mechanistic determination impossible. We also define the type and quality of experimental data needed to make more definitive conclusions about the mechanism of aggregation. Specifically, we demonstrate how direct measurement of fibril size provides robust discrimination.
A functional equation for a segment of the He´non map unstable manifold

On etudie l'application de Henon en considerant les orbites des courbes sous τ. En introduisant un operateur de troncature τ sur un espace complet de courbes on montre que τ admet un point fixe non trivial
Effects of dietary lithium carbonate on body and organ weights of adult rats

Abstract Adult male Sprague-Dawley rats (307±1 g) were fed for 21 days one of five diets (n=6 for each diet) to which different levels of lithium carbonate were added (0, 100, 500, 1000 and 2000 ppm). Mean body weight changes were 56, 54, 46, 27 and −27 g and mean feed intakes were 390, 377, 371, 333 and 282 g for rats fed diets containing 0, 100, 500, 1000 and 2000 ppm lithium carbonate, respectively. Feed efficiencies were similar for rats fed the four lower lithium carbonate levels, with feed efficiencies for rats fed the highest level being significantly lower. Mean hematocrit level for rats fed the highest lithium carbonate level was significantly higher than those fed the four lower levels. Lithium was not detected in the serum of rats fed the diet without added lithium carbonate. The mean serum lithium concentrations were 0.06, 0.23, 0.36 and 0.81 meq/L for rats fed 100, 500, 1000 and 2000 ppm lithium carbonate, respectively. There were no significant differences due to dietary treatment in the weights of brain, adrenal or thyroid glands, but dietary treatment did affect the weights of heart, liver, kidney and spleen. When expressed as grams per 100 g body weight, the weights of all organs studied except the kidney and thyroid glands were affected by dietary treatment. The results of this study show that diets containing lithium carbonate effected body and organ weights of adult rats even though serum lithium levels were not markedly increased.
Separation anxiety and panic disorder in clinically referred youth.

Abstract This study examined whether youngsters with separation anxiety disorder (SAD) and panic disorder (PD) had experienced more separation-related events than youngsters with SAD (without comorbid PD). We also examined whether age of onset of SAD and comorbidity with other psychological disorders was related to the occurrence of PD. We compared youngsters who were diagnosed with SAD and PD (N = 31) with youngsters who were diagnosed with SAD without comorbid PD (N = 63) for the number of separation-related events, severity of psychopathology, and parent and child CBCL ratings, age of onset of SAD, and the number of comorbid diagnoses. The findings indicate that youngsters with SAD and PD had a later age of onset of SAD and more extensive psychopathology and functional impairment than youngsters with SAD (without comorbid PD). Contrary to hypothesis, there were no differences between the groups in the occurrence or number of separation-related events.
Myocardial ischemia during cardiovascular surgery as detected by an ST segment trend monitoring system.

The incidence of intraoperative myocardial ischemia was determined in 312 patients undergoing cardiovascular surgery using ECG recordings obtained from a prototype system that trends ST segment changes. Prior to cardiopulmonary bypass, ischemic ECG changes were observed in 11.9% of patients, the incidence being lower during coronary artery bypass grafting (CABG) procedures (8.1 %) than in patients undergoing repeated CABG (23.5%), valve replacement (25.9%), or concomitant valve replacement and CABG (35.3%). The occurrence of intraoperative myocardial ischemia was statistically greater in patients with a history of hypertension, two or more previous myocardial infarctions, or kidney disease. The incidence of ischemia was also significantly greater in patients with left ventricular end-diastolic pressures of 15 mm Hg or higher at cardiac catheterization. The incidence during induction was significantly reduced by the addition of hypnotics to narcotics, and, during maintenance, by the addition of an inhalational agent. The majority of ischemic events were temporally related to some hemodynamic disturbance, and many coincided with surgical manipulation. The incidence of intraoperative myocardial ischemia was substantially less than that reported in comparable studies. Since the incidence decreased significantly following clinical acceptance of the prototype system, the authors conclude that such capability increases sensitivity to small ST segment changes. This heightened awareness and prompt remedial action reduced the incidence of ischemia during CABG to 6% during the final 2 years of the study.