cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Functional Outcomes and Cam Recurrence After Arthroscopic Treatment of Femoroacetabular Impingement in Adolescents

Purpose To compare the functional outcomes after arthroscopic treatment of femoroacetabular impingement (FAI) in adolescent patients and non-adolescent patients, and to report on the rate of cam recurrence within 2 years after femoral osteoplasty in a limited sample of the adolescent group. Methods From 2010 to 2014, patients younger than 18 years with symptomatic FAI (alpha angle >50°) who underwent hip arthroscopy with minimum 2-year follow-up or reoperation were identified. A group of non-adolescent patients with identical inclusion criteria, except age of 18 years or older, was also identified for comparison. In addition, a separate group of adolescent patients with 2-year postoperative radiographs was reviewed for cam recurrence. Demographic data, operative data, and radiographic and clinical outcomes (modified Harris Hip Score [mHHS], Hip Outcome Score–Activities of Daily Living [HOS-ADL], Hip Outcome Score–Sport-Specific Subscale [HOS-SSS], and International Hip Outcome Tool 33 [iHOT-33] score) were collected. Results We identified 34 adolescent patients (38 hips) with an average age of 16 years (range, 13-17 years). The mean clinical follow-up period was 36.1 ± 11.6 months (range, 24.1-71.7 months) and 29.6 ± 2.4 months (range, 27.9-31.3 months) without and with reoperation, respectively. A control group of 296 non-adolescent patients (306 hips), with a mean age of 31 years (range, 18-59 years), was identified as our non-adolescent group. The mean clinical follow-up period was 34.1 ± 11 months (range, 24.0-77.4 months) and 15.1 ± 9.1 months (range, 3.6-34.6 months) without and with reoperation, respectively. Significant improvement was noted in adolescents in the changes in outcome scores (mHHS, 22.2 [95% confidence interval (CI), 15.4-29.0]; HOS-ADL, 18.6 [95% CI, 11.9-25.2]; HOS-SSS, 33.5 [95% CI, 24.5-42.5]; and iHOT-33 score, 30.5 [95% CI, 21.8-39.2]; P P P > .203). Revision surgery was required in 2 adolescent hips (5.3% [95% CI, 1.5%-17.3%]) and 19 non-adolescent hips (6.2% [95% CI, 4.0%-9.5%]). Minimum 2-year radiographs were available for review in 24 adolescent patients (30 hips). The alpha angle (mean ± standard deviation) was reduced from 55.4° ± 12.1° preoperatively to 38.7° ± 4.9° at 6 weeks postoperatively (mean difference, −16.4° [95% CI, −19.8° to −12.9°]; P P = .784). There were no cases of cam recurrence (0% [95% CI, 0%-11.4%]). Conclusions Significant improvement in clinical outcomes can be anticipated after arthroscopic treatment of FAI in adolescents. From a limited sample of our adolescent population, the risk of cam recurrence appears low; however, further follow-up is needed to ensure this does not represent a biased sample of the initial population. Level of Evidence Level III, retrospective comparative study.
Design and ASIC acceleration of cortical algorithm for text recognition

Cortical algorithms, inspired by the neocortex, promise to outperform conventional algorithms in unsupervised learning tasks, i.e. with unlabeled data. The aim of the work reported in this paper was to design and implement an application specific integrated circuit (ASIC) having a massive speedup of a cortical algorithm, as compared with a CPU baseline. This ASIC is designed to implement a scaled-down version of Sparsey, an algorithm based on structural and functional properties of the brain's cortex. The design was benchmarked on the Short Message Service (SMS) spam collection dataset from the UCI machine learning repository. It was found that the synthesis area and power consumption of a single column (i.e., mac or PE) are 0.122 mm2 and 5.15 mW using 45 nm technology and 0.171 mm2 and 7.94 mW using 65 nm technology. The processing time for a single frame was 3.075 µs (learning) and 0.675 µs (recognition). The performance speedup in learning and recognition modes of ASIC implementation was 203× and 843× times that of software implementation on a CPU based platform.
Abstract 241: Acetylomic and Metabolomic Alterations in Aged Hearts: Role for Silent Information Regulator (SIRT) 3

Introduction: SIRT3 is a mitochondrial metabolic regulator, and a decline in function of SIRT3 may play a role in age-related mitochondrial alterations. The aim of this study was to investigate the...
General Theory of Subsonic Flow

The law of conservation of matter and the condition of irrotationality lead to two well-known equations $$ (\varrho u)_x + (\varrho v)_y = 0,\,u_y - v_x = 0, $$ (1.1.1) where the known notations are used and subscripts denote partial differentiation. These equations are satisfied if the notions of a potential Φ and a stream-function Ψ are introduced such that $$ u = \,\Phi _x \, = \varrho ^{ - {\text{1}}} \Psi _y ,\,v\, = \,\Phi _y = - \varrho ^{ - {\text{1}}} \Psi _x . $$ (1.1.2)
Holistic Segmentation of Intermuscular Adipose Tissues on Thigh MRI

Muscular dystrophies (MD) cause muscles to gradually degenerate into fat. In order to effectively study and track disease progression, it is important to quantify both muscle and fat volumes, especially the intermuscular adipose tissue (IMAT). Existing methods were mostly based on unsupervised pixel clustering and morphological models. We propose a method integrating two holistic neural networks (one for edges and one for regions) and a dual active contour model to accurately locate the fascia lata and segment multiple tissue types on thigh MRIs. The proposed method is robust to image artifacts and weak boundaries, and thus it performs well for severe MD cases. Our method was tested on 104 data sets and achieved Dice coefficients 0.940 and 0.943 for muscle and IMAT in challenging severe cases, respectively.
Optimizing Sequential and Combined Anabolic and Antiresorptive Osteoporosis Therapy

As osteoporosis therapy options have expanded, and clinical guidelines have begun to embrace the concept of limited treatment courses and "drug holidays," the choices that physicians must make when initiating, electing to continue, or switching therapies have become more complex. As a result, one of the fundamental issues that must be carefully considered is whether, when, and in what sequence anabolic therapies should be utilized. This review evaluates the current evidence supporting the optimal sequence for the use of anabolic and antiresorptive drugs and assesses the expanding number of clinical trials favoring the initial use of anabolic therapy followed by an antiresorptive agent. This review also explores the evidence suggesting that the effectiveness of anabolic medications are diminished when used in patients that have been previously treated with specific antiresorptive drugs for prolonged periods. Finally, the recent advances in designing combination antiresorptive/anabolic treatment approaches are detailed, with a focus on combined denosumab/teriparatide regimens, which appear to provide the most substantial and clinically relevant skeletal benefits to patients with established osteoporosis. © 2018 The Authors. JBMR Plus is published by Wiley Periodicals, Inc. on behalf of the American Society for Bone and Mineral Research.
Preserving the Environment: New Strategies for Behavior Change. By E. Scott Geller, Richard A. Winett, Peter B. Everett

(1982). Preserving the Environment: New Strategies for Behavior Change. By E. Scott Geller, Richard A. Winett, Peter B. Everett. Journal of Leisure Research: Vol. 14, No. 4, pp. 365-366.
Tweeting #Ferguson: Affective Publics, Boundary Maintenance, and Journo-Activism in a Mediatized Field

Combining digital ethnographic content analysis with social network analysis and link analysis, this chapter examines uses of Twitter by a small cohort of journalists and activists in the aftermath of the police shooting of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri. After providing context about the case and reviewing literature on networked journalism and activism, the chapter compares tweets from each cohort. While the traditions of objective journalism and affective activism persisted, notable exceptions occurred, particularly following acts of police suppression. These findings demonstrate the adaptability of some journalistic norms in the era of mediatization. Furthermore, the networked communities of professional and activist Twitter users were overlapping and interactive, suggesting hybridity at the margins of the journalistic field.
Linking the defence of territory to food sovereignty: Peasant environmentalisms and extractive neoliberalism in Guatemala

Food sovereignty and the defence of territory are increasingly influential environmental paradigms for rural social movements in opposition to free market hegemony in the global south. These paradigms propose radical alternatives to growth based economies, unequal property regimes, and the absolute territorial sovereignty of nation states. Drawing on fieldwork in rural Guatemala with progressive NGOs and social movements, this essay describes these tendencies' origins and characteristic discourses and demands, examines their links to traditional peasant politics and indigenous rights movements, and assesses their divergences, limitations, and possibilities for synergy. Building on Joan Martinez‐Alier' conception of the “environmentalism of the poor”, I show how these “peasant environmentalisms” converge and reinforce one another while responding to different aspects of neoliberalism's threat to lives, livelihoods, and territories during Guatemala's conflict‐ridden transition to neoliberal democracy. I also discuss how their convergence has expanded thinking about territorial alternatives and suggest that holding these paradigms in tension is vital to build broad coalitions among a fragmented peasantry. I propose food sovereignty as the economic model of the plurinational state.
The Relevance of Robot Research to Artificial Intelligence

A major review of research in artificial intelligence (Feigenbaum, 1968) recently stated that “The intensive effort being invested on the development of computer-controlled hand-eye and eye-cart devices is … the most unexpected occurrence in A.I. research in the 1963-68 period.” This paper takes the contrary view, which is that interest in the development of such robot-like devices is both a natural consequence of past developments, and a necessary stimulant to future research in the evolution of artificial intelligence and non-numerical problem solving.
The Limits of Mobilization: Turnout Evidence from State House Primaries

Many analysts have lamented the decline of political mobilization efforts. They suggest that the cause of worsening voter turnout may be traceable to the failure of political candidates and political parties to target and activate nonvoters. This research explores the effects of face-to-face mobilization efforts in a sample of September 5, 2000, Florida state house primary races. Controlling for their voting history, the face-to-face mobilization effort did increase turnout by about 8% among those contacted. However, the effects were weakest among those who voted least regularly. The results suggest that implementing more face-to-face mobilization efforts would increase turnout—mostly by encouraging occasional voters to go to the polls. However, those same mobilization efforts would not substantially affect the turnout of chronic nonvoters.
SALINITY REDISTRIBUTIONS IN DEEPENED ESTUARIES

Physical model tests were conducted in a distorted-scale model of Chesapeake Bay to determine the effect of deepening the Norfolk Harbor approach channels on salinity distributions in the lower bay. This model study used a repetitive, 28-lunar day, 56-cycle source tide that was based on 12 harmonic constituents, and a weekly-stepped, 2.5-year historical hydrograph for freshwater input. Sufficient numbers and locations of salinity stations were used to predict lateral as well as longitudinal salinity redistributions. Channel deepening resulted in increased salinity intrusion and vertical stratification. The increased intrusion was confined largely to the deepened channel areas. Shallow waters adjacent to the deepened channels experienced negligible salinity increases and in some cases a freshening. Changes in the shape of the neap-spring salinity response were detected in the form of damped variations in the bottom salinity record, primarily in the deepened channel areas.
R. G. Collingwood’s Place in the History of Ideas (1900–1925)

In order to place early Collingwood in his century, it will be useful to bring together comparisons with other thinkers scattered throughout this study. By reviewing what Collingwood endorsed and what he rejected, we can plot more precisely where he stood amid intellectual currents of his time.
Counting the Costs: Informal Costs and Corruption Expenses of Education in Post-Soviet Tajikistan

Since the collapse of the Soviet Union, educational attainment in Tajikistan has markedly fallen. Interview subjects overwhelmingly cite the high cost of education as a deterrent to school enrollment and attendance, but by state law education at all levels is provided free of charge for all citizens. The interviews expose a number of informal costs and corruption expenses that significantly increase the cost of education.
Ecosystem and transportation infrastructure resilience in the great lakes

The impacts of climate change on transportation infrastructure and ecosystems have garnered growing attention over the past decades. Owing to systemic changes in average and extreme weather events,...
Exploring and Comparing Cognitive Moral Reasoning of Millennials and Across Multiple Generations

This research builds on previous investigations seeking to understand how individuals reason about moral problems. Our research includes a preliminary investigation about Millennials and a cross‐generational analysis using secondary research data to understand this emerging generation's moral reasoning and assess trends in moral reasoning over time. This study addresses content‐bias in moral reasoning by using a new instrument with business‐based dilemmas, the Moral Recognition Interview, based on the well‐established moral reasoning framework of Lawrence Kohlberg. Results show that the Millennials in this study exhibit differences in moral reasoning based on gender, intelligence, work experience, and academic major, however not necessarily in an expected manner. Differences in moral reasoning were found when the context or "story pull" of the ethical dilemmas presented is considered. In addition, a comparison to other studies shows that business student Millennials tend to reason at lower levels of cognitive moral reasoning than non‐business college students, as well as college students in the 1960s–1970s (Baby Boomers) and in the 1980s–1990s (Generation Xers).
You go before me, please: Behavioral politeness and interdependent self as markers of Simpatía in Latinas.

OBJECTIVES Previous research has documented that Latinos/as value the cultural script Simpatia, a tendency to be kind, polite, and focus on others. No previous study has been able to capture the behavioral markers of Simpatia in a naturalistic environment. METHOD Behavioral cross-sectional audio data were collected on the daily interactions between Latina and White European mothers with their partners and other adults using a digital audio recorder across 4 days. A mixed-methods approach was used to analyze the data. RESULTS Latinas exhibited increased behavioral Simpatia when talking to other adults compared to White European counterparts. Additionally, Latina mothers chose as a main character of their conversations other people rather than themselves. Conversely, White European mothers chose themselves as a main character of their conversations instead of other people. CONCLUSIONS These results show that core features of Simpatia (kindness and focus on others) can be found at the behavioral level in the environment that Latina mothers face on a daily basis. Implications for the cultural self and future research are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2019 APA, all rights reserved).
Soy de aquí, soy de allá: DACAmented homecomings and implications for identity and belonging

This article is based on in-depth interviews with deferred action for childhood arrivals (DACA) beneficiaries from California and Arizona who traveled to Mexico, their country of origin, for the first time since they had immigrated to the US as small children. Although DACA travelers have acculturated to the US, this article begins to uncover the complexities of national identification and belonging in the US, a country that has not allowed for a legal pathway to citizenship for them. We show how visiting their homeland served to highlight their American markers of identity and their hidden privilege, as DACA travelers were often treated as foreigners while in Mexico. However, encounters with their home country and family members in their hometowns allowed for reflection and reconciliation of both their Mexican and American identities.
Claes H. Dohlman’s Legacy in Corneal Research

Claes Dohlman’s early research and leadership mark the beginning of the field of corneal research and the corneal specialty within ophthalmology. Upon establishing a cornea research department at the then Retina Foundation, then a clinical cornea service at the Massachusetts Eye and Ear Infirmary, he recruited basic researchers and corneal fellows to the laboratory, and the findings that ensued contributed significantly to our knowledge of corneal function and physiology. He applied these findings to clinical disease and to development of the keratoprosthesis. He was an exceptionally productive pioneer in the field and continues to this day as the ultimate “translational” scientist.
A combined viscoelasticity-viscoplasticity-anisotropic damage model with evolving internal state variables applied to fiber reinforced polymer composites

A thermodynamically-consistent large strain viscoelasticity-viscoplasticity-damage Internal State Variable (ISV) constitutive material model integrated with a mixture theory combining each individu...
Painful Legacy of Historical African American Culture

African Americans continue to experience significant difficulty integrating into mainstream American society. Research literature demonstrates that after decades of legislation designed to address ...
Quasigeostrophic Controls on Precipitating Ascent in Monsoon Depressions

AbstractSouth Asian monsoon depressions are convectively coupled cyclonic vortices that form and intensify in a region of easterly vertical shear of the horizontal wind. Observations of maximum pre...
Correction: Magnon-drag thermopower in antiferromagnets versus ferromagnets

Correction for ‘Magnon-drag thermopower in antiferromagnets versus ferromagnets’ by Md. Mobarak Hossain Polash et al., J. Mater. Chem. C, 2020, 8, 4049–4057, DOI: 10.1039/C9TC06330G.
Emerging Adult Military-Connected Students Express Challenges Transitioning into Higher Education: Implications for Helping Professionals

Emerging adult (EA; aged 18–29) military-connected students experience major developmental changes, often coupled with the transition into the civilian sector and higher education. This conglomerat...
Water Right Exactions

Water rights and their associated infrastructure support human needs and wants, from agriculture to drinking water to industrial uses, but also impose significant external costs, including impacts on infrastructure, ecosystems, food production, and other human uses. In some cases, these costs can be partially abated through careful flow management, physical habitat improvement, and other direct actions, but mitigation requires funding and dedicated water, both of which typically are in short supply. Some state water rights allocation systems include consideration of the public interest when deciding whether to grant a water right, but even water rights that pass a public interest test could impose significant external costs. Current approaches do not adequately address the external public costs associated with water withdrawals, leading to over consumption of water and subsequent loss of the goods and services provided by intact water systems. Current approaches also raise distributive concerns, in that those paying the price of water development do not reap most of the benefits. In this article, I argue that the exactions framework, long used by local governments to manage or mitigate public costs associated with a particular land use, offers a better approach for water rights permitting. Local governments that issue discretionary permits for land use changes often condition the permits on exactions, either the dedication of land or the payment of funds to offset public costs associated with the land use change. Other authors have argued for applying the exactions framework to climate change and to the energy demands of new developments. Here, I make the case that imposing water rights exactions would improve water right permitting by: (1) internalizing the public costs of water withdrawals; (2) producing fairer, more efficient outcomes for other water users and ecosystems; (3) mitigating existing distributive concerns; (4) allocating dedicated funding and water for management of public costs associated with water rights, and (5) allowing regulators to condition water use with requirements and restrictions that might be a taking outside of the exactions context.
Effect of LPS on Carbohydrate and Lipid Metabolism

Administration of endotoxin, a lipopolysaccharide (LPS) extracted from cell walls of gram-negative bacteria, elicits alterations in various metabolic parameters in many mammalian species, including man. Studies of the mechanism of metabolic alterations induced by LPS are important because release of endotoxin may contribute to the effects of sepsis, and clinical or experimental infections may alter the course of other types of trauma, shock, or injury. The overall metabolic and endocrine effects of endotoxicosis are predominantly catabolic. In general, the endocrine changes appear to be directed toward water and salt conservation, maintenance of blood pressure, and the mobilization of fuel primarily from carbohydrate stores. Eventually the breakdown of muscle protein follows, providing additional substrate for gluconeogenesis and satisfying the energy requirements of peripheral tissues and the brain.
Dynamic data reorganization for energy savings in disk storage systems

High performance computing (HPC) systems utilize parallel file systems that are striped over large number of disks to address the I/O performance requirement of data intensive applications. These large number of disks are typically configured into RAID groups for resiliency. Such arrangements of on-line disk storage systems constitutes one of the major consumers of power in HPC centers. Many disk power management (DPM) schemes have been suggested where by the power consumed by these disks is reduced by spinning them down after they experience long idle periods. Spinning the disks down and up results in additional energy and response time costs. For that reason, DPM schemes are effective only if the disks experience relatively long idle periods and the scheme does not introduce a severe response time penalty. In this paper we focus on RAID storage systems where by, depending on the RAID level, a group of disks are formed into RAID units. We introduce a dynamic block exchange algorithm which switches data between such units based on the observed workload such that frequently accessed blocks end up residing on a few "hot" units thus allowing the majority of RAID groups to experience longer idle periods. We validated the effectiveness of the algorithm with several real-life and synthetic traces showing power savings of up to 50% with very small response time penalties.
Model-Based Steganography

This paper presents an information-theoretic method for performing steganography and steganalysis using a statistical model of the cover medium. The methodology is general, and can be applied to virtually any type of media. It provides answers for some fundamental questions which have not been fully addressed by previous steganographic methods, such as how large a message can be hidden without risking detection by certain statistical methods, and how to achieve this maximum capacity. Current steganographic methods have been shown to be insecure against fairly simple statistical attacks. Using the model-based methodology, an example steganography method is proposed for JPEG images which achieves a higher embedding efficiency and message capacity than previous methods while remaining secure against first order statistical attacks.
Prevention of Recurrent Urinary Tract Infections in Girls

Eighteen girls between the ages of 3 and 13 years--with a history of at least three culture-documented episodes of bacteriuria in the previous year, but without radiologic evidence of major urinary tract abnormality--were placed on a double-blind, crossover study comparing the effectiveness of nitrofurantoin macrocrystals against a placebo in preventing the recurrence of bacteriuria. Each child was placed on a daily low dose of nitrofurantoin (1.2 to 2.4 mg/kg/day) or an identical-appearing placebo for six months. Each child was then placed on the opposite capsule for a similar period. There were 35 episodes of bacteriuria (4.2 episodes/patient/yr) in the patients taking the placebo, which compared with a rate of 3.8 episodes/patient/yr during the year prior to the study. Only two episodes (0.2 episodes/patient/yr) occurred in the patients taking the drug. The difference in the rate of recurrent bacteriuria between the girls on placebo and on medication is significant at the 0.01 level using the Wilcoxin matched-pairs test. There were no adverse reactions to the drug. Nitrofurantoin macrocrystals in a single daily low dose appear to be a safe, effective method of preventing recurrent bacteriuria in girls at high risk.
Cytosolic BMAL1 moonlights as a translation factor

It is widely recognized that BMAL1 is an essential subunit of the primary transcription factor that drives rhythmic circadian transcription in the nucleus. In a surprising turn, Lipton et al. now show that BMAL1 rhythmically interacts with translational machinery in the cytosol to stimulate protein synthesis in response to mTOR signaling.
Variability in serpentinite mudflow mechanisms and sources: ODP drilling results on Mariana forearc seamounts

Samples of metamorphic rock were collected from drilled holes on ODP Leg 195 and in piston/gravity cores collected with the Jason 2 remotely operated vehicle from S. Chamorro Seamount, a serpentinite mud volcano on the Mariana forearc. The recovered muds are approximately 90% serpentinite, including grit- to boulder-sized clasts of serpentinized peridotites, but also contain a wide variety of small fragments of metabasic rocks. These metabasic fragments include high-pressure, low-temperature rocks derived from the subduction zone. Other serpentinite seamounts also have yielded metabasic rock fragments as small clasts in the serpentinite mudflows, but none have as wide a variety of rock types as S. Chamorro Seamount. The sources of the rock clasts, both serpentinized peridotites and metabasic schists, vary with the eruptive episodes of the mud volcanoes. Swath mapping of S. Chamorro Seamount shows that a sector collapse of its southeastern flank has resulted in debris flows from the summit region of the seamount that have traveled more than 70 km eastward toward the trench. These debris flows, however, have a very different morphology from mudflows observed at the summit. High-resolution seafloor mapping of the summit shows both thin, presumably highly fluid- (or gas-) charged serpentinite mudflows and a relatively viscous protrusion that has formed the main summit knoll. By comparison, the summit of Conical Seamount drilled on ODP Leg 125 lacks a distinct summit knoll and has numerous, relatively thin and widespread mudflows covering the flanks of the edifice. The style of eruption at a given seamount probably varies with time and with the amount of fluid or gas incorporated in a given pulse of mud. The greater diversity of metabasic rocks at S. Chamorro Seamount may be a consequence of recycling of forearc materials through tectonic erosion and subduction in the southern part of the forearc.
Maternal Alcohol Abuse and Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder

Abstract Many common misconceptions about prenatal exposure to alcohol still exist in the minds of bom the public and professional communities. Many of these misconceptions possess striking similarities to misperceptions about women who abuse alcohol. This paper attempts to do away with some widespread erroneous ideas related to alcohol abuse and its effects. Research results in the areas of drug treatment and developmental outcomes are reviewed and recommendations for service provision to both mothers with alcohol abuse problems and individuals with Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder are made.
Posterior lamellar keratoplasty for treatment of deep stromal absesses in nine horses

OBJECTIVE: To describe and evaluate the use of posterior lamellar keratoplasty as a surgical treatment for deep corneal stromal abscesses in horses. Animals studied Nine horses of various breeds and ages that presented with corneal stromal abscesses located in the posterior one-third of the cornea. Procedure Retrospective medical record study. RESULTS: Nine horses had deep corneal stromal abscesses that were treated with posterior lamellar keratoplasty. Median patient age was 3 years. Six patients were females and three were geldings. Medical therapy alone had been attempted prior to surgery in all nine animals. Corneal abscess culture and histopathology were performed in 8/9 horses. Cultures were positive for an infectious etiology in 4/8 (50%). Histopathology was positive for an infectious etiology in 5/8 (62.5%). Mean surgical time was 71.0 +/- 18.8 min and the average healing time was 23.7 +/- 5.2 days. Visual outcome was positive in 8/9 cases. Conclusion Posterior lamellar keratoplasty is a promising procedure for treatment of deep corneal stromal abscesses in horses. The procedure resulted in considerable shorter surgery time and healing time than had been observed with full-thickness penetrating keratoplasty. Scar formation with this procedure was not significantly different than with penetrating keratoplasty.
Global trade rules, competition law and patent rights: competition law and access to medicines

Approximately two billion people in the world lack regular access to essential medicine. Worse, in parts of Africa and Asia, about 50% of the population lack access to essential medicine. Thus, more than seven years after the adoption of the Doha Declaration on TRIPS and Public Health, Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome ('AIDS'), together with malaria and tuberculosis, are still wrecking havoc in the world and millions still lack access to essential medicine. This paper examines how competition law can be and is being used to address the problem of excessive pricing in some developing countries. In countries like South Africa, India and Thailand, competition law is proving useful in addressing the access problem. The author argues that because competition law aims to protect competition and the competitive process and also protect consumers from deceptive, unfair or anticompetitive conduct, it can be an effective mechanism in addressing the problem of drug availability and affordability.
Parallel solver for the time-dependent linear and nonlinear Schrödinger equation.

A solution of the time-dependent Schrodinger equation is required in a variety of problems in physics and chemistry. These include atoms and molecules in time-dependent electromagnetic fields, time-dependent approaches to atomic collision problems, and describing the behavior of materials subjected to internal and external forces. We describe an approach in which the finite-element discrete variable representation (FEDVR) is combined with the real-space product (RSP) algorithm to generate an efficient and highly accurate method for the solution of the time-dependent linear and nonlinear Schrodinger equation. The FEDVR provides a highly accurate spatial representation using a minimum number of grid points while the RSP algorithm propagates the wave function in operations per time step. Parallelization of the method is transparent and is implemented here by distributing one or two spatial dimensions across the available processors, within the message-passing-interface scheme. The complete formalism and a number of three-dimensional examples are given; its high accuracy and efficacy are illustrated by a comparison with the usual finite-difference method.
Allogeneic Hematopoietic Cell Transplantation following Reduced Intensity Conditioning for Treatment of Myelofibrosis

Abstract This report describes our experience with reduced intensity conditioning (RIC) allogeneic hematopoietic cell transplantation (HCT) using matched sibling and unrelated donors (MUDs) for treatment of myelofibrosis (MF). Nine patients with MF (median age, 54 years) were treated with RIC allogeneic HCT using MUDs for 7 of the 9 patients and sibling donors for 2 patients. By the Lille classification, 4 patients were characterized as having high risk, 4 as having intermediate risk, and 1 as having low risk. The RIC regimen consisted of fludarabine and a single dose of total body irradiation for the first patient and fludarabine/melphalan for the remaining 8 patients. Granulocyte colony-stimulating factor-primed peripheral blood stem cells (PBSCs) were used for all but 1 patient who received a total of 3 products because of graft failure, of which 2 were bone marrow cells and the third was PBSCs. Prophylaxis against graft-versus-host disease consisted of cyclosporin/mycophenolate with or without methotrexate. Seven patients were successfully engrafted with white blood cells, with an absolute neutrophil count ≥500 by a median of day +15 (range, 10-21 days). At the time of final fluorescence in situ hybridization and/or short tandem repeat analysis, 8 of 9 patients were chimeric, with 96%-100% donor cells and/or DNA. Five of the 9 patients were alive at the time of final contact, with a median follow-up of 32.2 months for the living patients. Overall survival probability at 1 year was 55.6% (95% confidence interval, 31.3%-77.4%). These results suggest that RIC MUD HCT using PBSCs can be an effective treatment for older patients with MF.
Toward a model of female political action: The case of Manya Shohat, founder of the first kibbutz

Abstract This article presents the account of one woman's political praxis which culminated in the establishment of the first kibbutz in Palestine in 1907. The purpose of the article is twofold: to offer a descriptive study of the origins of her ideas in the turmoil of late 19th century Russian Jewish life, and to illustrate that the pendular swings of her ideological commitments reflected in part the deep relationships she had with numerous relatives and friends. The study offers new knowledge about a woman's contribution to the creation of kibbutzim, one of the longest-lasting collective forms of settlement that are entirely voluntary. The case of Manya Wilbushewitz Shohat, finally, is used to hypothesize that women's praxis may have a different quality than men's in that there is an everchanging interplay among ends, means, and group commitments. This hypothesis may be helpful in avoiding the sometimes sterile debates about how to classify in a single term the political ideology of some women activists.
Meniscal Movement During the Gait Cycle Is Sensitive to the Attachment Properties of the Meniscal Horns

The menisci are integral structures within the knee that help provide conforming surfaces between the femoral and tibial cartilage by moving as the knee flexes and thus reducing the contact stresses on the articular cartilage in the knee throughout the knee’s wide range of motion [1]. The menisci are firmly rooted in the tibial plateau at the anterior and posterior horns with more lax attachment in central regions. Thus, the stiffness of these meniscal attachments at the horns is an important consideration when evaluating meniscal function. Hence it is crucial to properly represent the attachment of the menisci at the anterior and posterior horns when evaluating normal motion of the menisci during knee movement. While finite element (FE) models of the tibio-menisco-femoral joint have been useful tool in evaluating meniscal function, previous FE models [2–5] of the knee joint that include the meniscus have not addressed the movement of the menisci during daily activities. Yet it is precisely this mobility of the menisci that permits them to adapt to the movement of the articular surfaces during typical activities and prevent injuries. Thus, the objective of this study was to simulate meniscal motion during a portion of the gait cycle and investigate the sensitivity of meniscal attachment stiffness using a finite element model. A previously established method [4] for attaching the meniscal horns to the tibia was used and its material properties were varied to determine the sensitivity of the movement of the menisci to the properties of the attachments at the horns.Copyright © 2009 by ASME
Bearings-only tracking with nonGaussian measurement errors

In passive sonar, bearing tracks that are used for bearings-only tracking (BOT) are sometimes contaminated by erroneous measurements or outliers which may severely degrade performance of BOT when standard unweighted least squares are used. Robustness versus outliers can be significantly improved by Huber's (1964) minimax robust approach or by an efficient discarding of outliers based upon a Viterbi dynamic programming algorithm. Results of computer simulation are shown and discussed. >
Local insulin-zinc injection accelerates skin donor site wound healing

Background Systemically administered insulin has been shown to accelerate wound healing. To minimize the hypoglycemic and hypokalemic effects of insulin, we investigated a new route of insulin administration by local injection into skin wounds. Materials and methods Partial thickness skin donor site wounds were created on the backs of adult rabbits with a dermatome set at 0.015 inch. The wounds were covered by Aquaphor gauze (Smith and Nephew, Largo, FL), and OpSite membrane (Smith and Nephew, Hull, United Kingdom) and protected by rabbit jackets. Long-acting insulin-zinc suspension was selected for local injection. In study 1, insulin was injected into the wound at different doses, and the concentrations of blood glucose and wound insulin were measured to determine the proper dose and injection frequency. In study 2, wound healing days were compared between two groups ( n = 7 each) receiving local injection of either insulin-zinc or zinc alone as control. Based on the results from study 1, a dose of 0.25 units of long-acting insulin-zinc suspension was injected into the wound every other day in the insulin group. Results After injection, 0.25 units of insulin decreased blood glucose concentration (minimum 60 mg/dL) during the first 3 h, which then returned to the preinjection level (80 mg/dL). One injection maintained wound insulin concentration above 50 μU/mL for more than 24 h. With local injection of 0.25 units insulin-zinc every other day, the wound healing time was 11.2 ± 2.3 d, which was faster ( P = 0.02) than 15.1 ± 4.1 d in the control group. Conclusion Local injection of long-acting insulin-zinc suspension accelerated skin wound healing without major systemic side effects, demonstrating its potential usefulness in burn treatment.
Evidence for colchicine-dependent protease activity in human platelets

Abstract Incubation of washed platelets in the presence of 32PO4 and protease inhibitors results in the presence of prominent phosphorylated peptide peaks of 30–35,000 and 50–55,000 M.W. Incubation of washed platelets in the presence of 32PO4 and absence of protease inhibitors results in the relative loss of the higher M.W. peptides and the increase of a smaller molecular weight peptide(s) of 10,000–15,000 M.W. which is resistant to further protease degradation. Colchicine, at 10−8M appears to activate a protease which eliminates this resistant peptide as well as the incompletely degraded other peptides. The colchicine effect is reversed by the presence of D20, a microtubule stabilizing agent. The colchicine effect was not noted in the presence of protease inhibitors. A soluble platelet extract has protease (caseinolytic) activity which is enhanced 30% by 10−6M colchicine. These data provide evidence for the presence of a soluble platelet protease which is modulated by microtubule assembly-dissassembly.
Semantics-driven frequent data pattern mining on electronic health records for effective adverse drug event monitoring

Continued surveillance of post-marketing Adverse Drug Events (ADEs) is considered essential for patient safety, and Electronic Health Records (EHRs) serve as a critical source for identifying relevant information. But effective EHR knowledge discovery and data mining is not trivial because involved data usually have significantly different semantics among each other. Semantic technologies are believed to greatly assist in this regard; unfortunately, semantic technologies and conventional data mining remain largely separate disciplines, and the fusion of these two disciplines is still in its infancy. This position paper explores two semantics-driven frequent data pattern mining algorithms for EHR knowledge discovery, aiming at more effective ADE monitoring in a population. By effectively utilizing human knowledge formally encoded in EHR domain ontologies, our proposed algorithms will enhance the identification of the drug ADE causality out of large amounts of heterogeneous data sets. Through mining a large corpus of representative EHRs at semantic level, we will be able to compile a comprehensive list of ADE endpoints by obtaining critical, but originally hidden and implicit, frequent data patterns. Ultimately, our software to be developed will significantly facilitate effective ADE monitoring and prediction. Moreover, our research is expected to produce broader impacts on the pharmaceutical industry by reducing the R & D cost for new drug discovery and on transforming current pharmacovigilance methods to reduce adverse events and hence improve human health.
Effect of order of administration of health-related quality of life interview instruments on responses.

Purpose: To determine the effect on patient responses from the order in which the generic health-related and vision-targeted instruments are administered in a set of randomized clinical trials of intraocular surgery. Patients and methods: Patients who agreed to enroll in the Submacular Surgery Trials (SST) completed baseline quality of life interviews prior to random assignment to surgery or observation. Interviews were conducted by trained interviewers located at the SST Coordinating Center, via a computer-assisted telephone interview system that randomly assigned the order of instrument administration. Either the generic health-related instruments were administered first, the SF-36 Health Survey (SF-36) followed by the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale (HADS), followed by the vision-targeted instruments, National Eye Institute-Vision Function Questionnaire (NEI-VFQ) followed by the SST-Vision Preference Value Scale, or the vision-targeted questions were asked first, followed by the generic health instruments. The four instruments have 25 subscales total. Results: Of the 1015 patients enrolled in the SST, 992 patients had all four instruments administered in random order: 483 (49%) patients responded to the generic instruments first and 509 (51%) patients responded to the vision-targeted instruments first. Order of administration produced significantly different scores for three health status subscales: SF-36 mental health, HADS depression and HADS anxiety (p≤0.05, Wilcoxon rank sum test). Conclusions: Overall, the order of administration did not have a large effect on responses to the baseline interviews in this study. However, three mental health subscales were affected by order, though the order effect was small in magnitude. When the generic health instruments followed the vision-targeted instrument the HADS depression and anxiety scores were higher and the SF-36 mental health scores were lower, both suggesting poorer mental health status. Thus, the order of administration in other settings in which both a generic health-related instrument and a condition-targeted instrument are used may be decided based on individual study goals and priorities but order of administration should be consistent throughout the study.
Increased sensitivity of the Plio-Pleistocene northwest Pacific to obliquity forcing

Abstract Insolation-driven changes in poleward heat transport and changes in greenhouse gas concentrations can explain aspects of the rise of obliquity-paced climate variability during the Pliocene–Pleistocene transition. Based on an alkenone-based sea surface temperature (SST) reconstruction of the Kuroshio Current Extension (KCE), we propose here that emergence of this region as the primary locus of ocean–atmosphere heat transfer in the Pacific Ocean promoted Northern Hemisphere Glaciation (NHG). Our record shows that with intensification of NHG at 2.7 Ma, the KCE cooled 2–4 °C during glacial intervals, likely in NH winter/spring. These high-amplitude 41-kyr SST cycles slightly lead δ O 18 variations, ruling out global ice-volume changes as the primary cause. The lead of SST over δ O 18 cycles matches the phasing between these two proxies observed in the tropics, supporting changes in CO2 concentrations as a unifying mechanism of ocean surface temperature change. However, the amplitude of the KCE SST cycle is twice that of the tropical records, pointing to an additional, regional process. We infer that cooling of the North Pacific sea surface by the East Asian winter monsoon and associated westerlies intensified during glacial intervals. This transfer of heat and moisture from the ocean to the atmosphere potentially furthered glacial formation by accelerating snow fall in North America. Therefore, these results might also support a role for tropical–extratropical heat balance in enhancing glacial growth via the obliquity pacing.
A Review of Group Process Designs for Facilitating Communication in Problem-Solving Groups

Group process designs are prescriptions for facilitating group problem solving. They provide practices for maximizing the task and maintenance functions of group communication. The examination of s...