cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Innervation of the supinator muscle and its relationship to two-incision distal biceps tendon repair: an anatomic study.

Reinsertion of the ruptured distal biceps tendon has been performed using either a single-anterior incision or a two-incision approach. A systematic review of these two repair methods has identified a higher incidence of supination weakness following the two-incision approach. The objective of this study was to describe the innervation of the supinator muscle and its implications regarding a two-incision distal biceps repair. Twelve fresh upper extremity specimens from 12 males were dissected with the forearm in full pronation. The number of branches of the posterior interosseous nerve (PIN) to the supinator, their site of exit from the PIN trunk, and their distance from a variety of known anatomic landmarks were recorded. Specimens were characterized as high ( 10 mm) risk of nerve branch injury depending on the proximity of nerve branches to the bicipital tuberosity. In general, we found the innervation of the supinator to be highly variable. There were from two to nine branches of the PIN which supplied the supinator, with 0-3 arising from the ulnar side of the nerve. Four specimens were at low, five at moderate, and three at high risk of nerve branch injury during dorsal exposure of the bicipital tuberosity. We conclude that there is a substantial amount of variability in the innervation of the supinator, with certain patterns being at higher risk of nerve branch injury if dissection of the supinator is carried out over the bicipital tuberosity.
Reduction and Anticancer Activity of Platinum(IV) Complexes

A series of PtIV anticancer complexes with chloro leaving groups have been investigated for the effects of axial and carrier ligands on the reduction and cytotoxicity. The reduction rates of the PtIV complexes such as Pt(d,l)(1,2-(NH2)2C6H10)Cl4 (tetraplatin, Pt(dach)Cl4; dach = diaminocyclohexane), cis,trans,cis-[Pt((CH3)2CHNH2)2(OH)2Cl2] (iproplatin, Pt(ipa)(OH)2Cl2; ipa = isopropylamine), cis,trans,cis-[Pt(NH3)(C6H11NH2)(OCOCH3)2Cl2] (JM-216, Pt(a,cha)(OCOCH3)2Cl2; a = ammine, cha = cyclohexylamine), cis,trans,cis-[Pt(NH3)(C6H11NH2)(OCOC3H7)2Cl2] (JM-221, Pt(a,cha)(OCOC3H7)2Cl2), cis,trans,cis-[Pt(en)(OH)2Cl2], Pt(en)Cl4 (en = ethylenediamine), cis,trans,cis-[Pt(en)(OCOCH3)2Cl2], and cis,trans,cis-[Pt(en)(OCOCF3)2Cl2] by ascorbate and cathodic reduction potentials strongly depend on the electron-withdrawing power and the steric hindrance of the axial and carrier ligands. Beginning with PtIV complexes bearing en carrier ligands, reduction rates and reduction potentials increase in the following order of...
Analysis of interfacial cracks in a TBC/superalloy system under thermal loading

Abstract Thermal barrier coatings (TBCs) provide thermal insulation to high temperature superalloys. Residual stresses develop in TBCs during cool down from processing temperatures and subsequent thermal cyclic loading due to the thermal expansion mismatch between the different layers (substrate, bond coat, and TBC). These residual stresses can initiate microcracks at the bond coat/TBC interface and can lead to debonding at the bond coat/TBC interface. The highest residual stresses occur at the interfaces. The effect of voids or crack like flaws at the interface can be responsible for initiating debonding and accelerate the oxidation process. The effect of interfacial microcracks has been investigated using the fracture mechanics approach. In particular, J-integral and the energy release rate G, for both mode I and mode II using the virtual crack extension method were evaluated. Two types of specimens were studied. The specimens were cooled down from processing temperature of 1000°C to 0°C. The variation of the properties as a function of temperature were used for the analysis. It was found that the use of temperature dependent properties in contrast to constant properties provide significantly different values of J-integral and G. For the stepped-disc specimen with an edge crack, crack growth is only due to mode II, while for the cylinder specimen with an internal crack, crack growth is due to mixed-mode loading. An important implication of this result is that edge delaminations in a disk specimen may only grow due to mode II conditions under pure thermal loading. Shear fracture characteristics of interfacial crack thus become important in the failure of the TBC.
Hugging and Bridging: What It Is And Why You Should Be Doing It! (Abstract Only)

Computational Thinking (CT), now widely recognized as a necessary skill for today's generation of learners, is typically being introduced to students in middle and high school (and even at the college level) in the context of programming in visual, block-based, drag-drop environments such as Scratch, Alice, Blockly, Tynker, Agentsheets and Kodu. How well are these first experiences preparing students to apply their learning successfully to future computational experiences, which are likely to be in the context of higher-order, text-based programming languages? How can we teach so as to facilitate successful 'transfer of learning' to future contexts? The art of teaching for transfer, or mediating transfer, has been actively studied for decades in education research. Pedagogies such as 'bridging', 'hugging', and 'preparation for future learning' (PFL) have shown promise in the context of education research in STEM domains at the secondary level. This fun lightning talk will shed light on these very pertinent ideas that CS education will benefit from, and share concrete strategies that can be employed in K-12 and college-level introductory programming classrooms to prepare students for better success with future computational experiences. The broader goal is to get CS educators and researchers thinking about an important aspect of teaching introductory programming and get a conversation started.
Compressive sensing based classification of intramuscular electromyographic signals

Upper extremity prosthetic limbs have succeeded in providing people affected by disabilities such as amputation or paralysis the ability to perform simple manual tasks. Typically, prosthetic limbs are controlled by electromyography (EMG) signals read from the muscles of the patient. As the capabilities of prosthetic hands improve toward those of the intact human hand, their mechanical complexity increases, making the development of advanced techniques for reading and interpreting these EMG signals, while pushing down the power consumption of the sensing device is becoming more critical. In this work, we investigate the classification EMG signals acquired using the technique of compressive sensing, which provides solutions for reducing sensor power and complexity by relaxing the constraints posed by the Shannon sampling theorem on the rate at which the analog signals, in general, should be sampled for preserving the signal's information. We show that using compressive sensing, we can reduce the sampling rate by at least 10 times while maintaining classification accuracy higher than 95%.
Percutaneous mitral valvuloplasty in an adult patient with calcitic rheumatic mitral stenosis

A 75 year old man with long-standing rheumatic mitral stenosis who refused surgical intervention was treated with percutaneous balloon valvuloplasty. Prevalvuloplasty evaluation revealed a heavily calcified mitral valve, a mean transvalvular gradient of 18 mm Hg, a Fick cardiac index of 1.7 liters/min per m2, a mitral valve area of 0.6 cm2and 1+ mitral regurgitation. After transseptal catheterization and balloon dilation of the interatrial septum with an 8 mm angioplasty balloon, a 25 mm valvuloplasty balloon was advanced over a guide wire across the interatrial septum and positioned across the mitral anulus. Subsequent balloon inflation at 3 atm pressure resulted in a reduction of the mean mitral valve gradient to 12 mm Hg, an increase in cardiac index to 2.5 liters/min per m2, an increase in mitral valve area in 1.4 cm2and an increase in mitral regurgitation from 1+ to 2+. Valvuloplasty was well tolerated without embolization of clot or valvular debris, and resulted in marked clinical improvement with decreased dyspnea and increased exercise tolerance. Repeat catheterization 2 months after valvuloplasty showed further resolution of pulmonary hypertension and no evidence of valvular restenosis or worsening mitral regurgitation, but detected a small atrial septal defect with a pulmonary to systemic blood flow ratio of 1.8. It is concluded that percutaneous valvuloplasty is possible in the adult patient with calcific rheumatic mitral stenosis, and may result in a significant improvement in valvular function without producing life-threatening complications.
Optimal loading of satellite systems with subchannel gain-state control

This paper presents satellite loading methodologies for the wideband global system (WGS) satellites in which the gains of the subchannels are set differently to optimize the aggregate transponder and terminal powers. The methodologies employ classical optimization techniques to iteratively determine both the transponder gain of each subchannel and the transmit powers of the participating terminals. Given the transponder behavior with nonhomogeneous gain state, interference, and intermodulation (IM), efficient loading algorithms are devised to solve the optimal subchannel gains and link transmission powers based on the developed analytical methods. The optimal satellite loading can be achieved in a finite number of iterations to minimize the combined satellite and terminals powers simultaneously and to close involved links. A practical example in computing the optimum gains and transmission powers is also presented.
The human side of organizational agility

Organizational agility may be considered the integration of organizational processes, characteristics, and members with advanced technology. Agility enhances the organization’s ability to provide high quality products and services and is, therefore, crucial to organizational competitiveness. Integrates the production/operations, general management, and sociotechnical views to develop a model of organizational agility. Briefly reviews the literature in these fields and offers a model of agility based on suppliers, organizational members, and customers united through information technology. It is proposed that these connections rest on a foundation of leadership, organization culture, and employee reward systems that create a relationship between people and technology. These relationships include involving people in decision making, creating process and product quality by offering enriched jobs, training in technology, and providing a reward system which reinforces agility‐promoting efforts.
Application of the Cavalieri Principle in Volume Estimation Using Laser Confocal Microscopy

The Cavalieri principle, a well-established stereological technique, uses interpolation between samples to estimate volume of three-dimensional (3D) objects. Serial optical sectioning with the confocal microscope resembles certain aspects of the Cavalieri principle, albeit with no interpolation. However, reconstruction and analysis of finely spaced optical sections can be cumbersome and time consuming. Application of the Cavalieri principle to confocal sections may be advantageous in reducing the size of the data set required to obtain reliable estimates of volume. In the present study, somal volumes of phrenic motoneurons were estimated by applying the Cavalieri principle to confocal images. These estimates were compared to measurements of somal volume using on interpolation of confocal sections. Phrenic motoneurons in adult rats were retrogradely labeled with a fluorescent rhodamine dye. Confocal optical sections of 0.6 micron thickness were then obtained from 150-micron-thick spinal cord slices containing labeled neurons. These image sets were reoriented to represent transverse sections. The Cavalieri principle was applied to these confocal image sets at selected sampling intervals from 1.2 to 3.0 microns. Planimetric measurements of motoneuron somal cross-sectional area in the selected sections were made using a point-counting method. At sampling intervals less than 2.4 microns, individuals motoneuron somal volume estimates were similar for the noninterpolated confocal and the interpolated Cavalieri methods. At these sampling intervals, the distributions of motoneuron somal volumes were also similar for the two methods. At a sampling interval of 2.4 microns or greater, there was a greater variability in individual motoneuron somal volume estimates, although the population mean and median were similar to the noninterpolated confocal measurements. Therefore, a satisfactory agreement between noninterpolated confocal measurements and the Cavalieri estimates suggests that less-stringent optical sectioning parameters may suffice for individual cell volume measurements when using confocal microscopy, thus making it significantly more efficient.
The permanent electric dipole moments and magnetic hyperfine interaction in the A2Π state of yttrium monosulfide

Abstract The optical Stark effect in the (0,0) A 2 Π –X 2 Σ + band systems of a yttrium monosulfide, YS, supersonic molecular beam sample have been analyzed to produce the magnitude of the permanent electric dipole moments, |μ|, for the A 2 Π 3/2 , and A 2 Π 1/2 states of 5.9(2), and 6.8(1) D, respectively. Small splittings in the field free A 2 Π 3/2 –X 2 Σ + and A 2 Π 1/2 –X 2 Σ + spectra were analyzed to produce the magnetic hyperfine spectroscopic parameters a=−36(6), c=111(7), and d=−107(6) MHz for the A 2 Π state. Transition frequencies of the low rotational lines in the (0,0) A 2 Π r –X 2 Σ + band system were measured and analyzed to produce the first complete set of fine structure parameters for the A 2 Π r state. A comparison with YO and other isovalent molecules is made.
Gendered giving: the influence of social norms on the donation behavior of men and women

We study if men and women are subject to different influences when determining their level of charitable giving. In particular, we examine differential sensitivities to social norms among donors to a public radio station. Our survey of 975 donors finds that male donors are more likely than female donors to use social norms to inform their own behavior. We conduct a laboratory experiment to investigate the influence of social information on social norm formation and giving. Our results suggest that temporarily created social norms influence giving by men significantly more than by women. This result replicates and establishes the causal relationship between social norms and donations suggested by our field findings. We conclude with a discussion of theoretical and practical implications of these results. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Prevalence of carpal tunnel syndrome among employees at a poultry processing plant

Abstract Objective To determine prevalence of carpal tunnel syndrome (CTS) among poultry processing employees while taking into account non-occupational factors and assess any association between CTS prevalence and exposure groups. Methods Performed a cross-sectional survey to assess CTS (n = 318). A CTS case was defined as an employee with self-reported CTS symptoms, an abnormal hand symptom diagram, and an abnormal nerve conduction study (NCS). Log-binomial regression was used to estimate prevalence ratios. Results Three hundred and one participants had sufficient symptom information or NCS data to be classified. 126 (42%) of 301 participants had evidence of CTS. In the adjusted analysis, the highest exposure group had CTS prevalence that was significantly higher than that for the lower exposure group [PR: 1.61; 95% CI = (1.20, 2.17)]. Conclusions Increasing levels of hand activity and force were associated with increased CTS prevalence among participants. Recommendations were provided to reduce exposure to these risk factors.
Interactions between endogenous and exogenous attention on cortical visual processing

Sensory processing is affected by both endogenous and exogenous mechanisms of attention, although how these mechanisms interact in the brain has remained unclear. In the present study, we recorded event-related potentials (ERPs) to investigate how multiple stages of information processing in the brain are affected when endogenous and exogenous mechanisms are concurrently engaged. We found that the earliest stage of cortical visual processing, the striate-cortex-generated C1, was immune to attentional modulation, even when endogenous and exogenous attention converged on a common location. The earliest stage of processing to be affected in this experiment was the late phase of the extrastriate-cortex-generated P1 component, which was dominated by exogenous attention. Processing at this stage was enhanced by exogenous attention, regardless of where endogenous attention had been oriented. Endogenous attention, however, dominated a later, higher-order stage of processing indexed by an enhancement of the P300 that was unaffected by exogenous attention. Critically, between these early and late stages, an interaction was found wherein endogenous and exogenous attention produced distinct, and overlapping, effects on information processing. At the same time that exogenous attention was producing an extended enhancement of the late-P1, endogenous attention was enhancing the occipital-parietal N1 component. These results provide neurophysiological support for theories suggesting that endogenous and exogenous mechanisms represent two attention systems that can affect information processing in the brain in distinct ways. Furthermore, these data provide new evidence regarding the precise stages of neural processing that are, and are not, affected when endogenous and exogenous attentions interact.
Chevon quality enhancement: Trends in pre- and post-slaughter techniques

Goat meat (chevon) consumption has increased in the US primarily due to the growing immigrant population. Chevon preference among mainstream consumers, however, has suffered from the misperception that it is inferior in quality to beef, lamb, or pork. Researchers have studied several pre- and post-slaughter techniques to enhance chevon quality. This paper will briefly review techniques that show promise to further improve quality characteristics of chevon. Among preslaughter factors, minimizing animal stress is an important step to quality chevon production, as stress can result in inferior meat quality characteristics. Diet can have a marked effect on nutritional properties of chevon, particularly fatty acid profile. Feeding goats a concentrate diet results in a higher level of oleic acid, but lower linolenic acid in the longissimus muscle, compared to feeding a hay diet. Dietary brown seaweed extract supplementation in goats results in increased color stability of chevon cuts because of higher antioxidant levels. Administration of a low dose of bovine somatotropin in goats does not influence meat quality characteristics or pre-rigor μ-calpain, m-calpain, and calpastatin activities. Several post-slaughter techniques have been studied and proven to be beneficial. It is well-established that aging chevon retail cuts significantly improves tenderness, and the caselife of chevon cuts is comparable to that of beef, lamb, and pork cuts. Postmortem electrical stimulation has been reported to significantly accelerate muscle glycolysis and improve tenderness of chevon. Subjecting deboned chevon cuts to hydrodynamic pressure processing or calcium chloride injections has been shown to significantly improve quality characteristics, particularly tenderness. With emerging markets for chevon in the US, there is a critical need for further research on pre- and post-slaughter techniques in goats to further improve product quality.
Neural network control of a class of nonlinear discrete time systems with asymptotic stability guarantees

In this paper, a single and multi-layer neural network (NN) controllers are developed for a class of nonlinear discrete time systems. Under a mild assumption on the system uncertainties, which include unmodeled dynamics and bounded disturbances, by using novel weight update laws and a robust term, local asymptotic stability of the closed-loop system is guaranteed in contrast with all other NN controllers where a uniform ultimate boundedness is normally shown. Simulation results are presented to show the effectiveness of the controller design.
The biology of depression in cancer and the relationship between depression and cancer progression

The prevalence of depressive symptoms in patients with cancer exceeds that observed in the general population and depression is associated with a poorer prognosis in cancer patients. The increased prevalence is not solely explained by the psychosocial stress associated with the diagnosis. Pro-inflammatory cytokines, which induce sickness behaviour with symptoms overlapping those of clinical depression, are validated biomarkers of increased inflammation in patients with cancer. A growing literature reveals that chronic inflammatory processes associated with stress may also underlie depression symptoms in general, and in patients with cancer in particular. Therapeutic modalities, which are frequently poorly tolerated, are used in the treatment of cancer. These interventions are associated with inflammatory reactions, which may help to explain their toxicity. There is evidence that antidepressants can effectively treat symptoms of depression in cancer patients though the database is meager. Novel agents with anti-inflammatory properties may be effective alternatives for patients with treatment-resistant depression who exhibit evidence of increased inflammation.
Chemical Strategies for Functional Proteomics

With complete genome sequences now available for several prokaryotic and eukaryotic organisms, biological researchers are charged with the task of assigning molecular and cellular functions to thousands of predicted gene products. To address this problem, the field of proteomics seeks to develop and apply methods for the global analysis of protein expression and protein function. Here we review a promising new class of proteomic strategies that utilizes synthetic chemistry to create tools and assays for the characterization of protein samples of high complexity. These approaches include the development of chemical affinity tags to measure the relative expression level and post-translational modification state of proteins in cell and tissue proteomes. Additionally, we discuss the emerging field of activity-based protein profiling, which aims to synthesize and apply small molecule probes that monitor dynamics in protein function in complex proteomes.
Managing static leakage energy in microprocessor functional units

Static energy due to subthreshold leakage current is projected to become a major component of the total energy in high performance microprocessors. Many studies so far have examined and proposed techniques to reduce leakage in on-chip storage structures. In this study, static energy is reduced in the integer functional units by leveraging the unique qualities of dual threshold voltage domino logic. Domino logic has desirable properties that greatly reduce leakage current while providing fast propagation times. However due to the energy cost of entering the low leakage current state (sleep mode), domino logic has thus far been used only for leakage reduction in the longterm standby mode. We examine the utility of the sleep mode (while considering the aforementioned costs) when idle times are relatively short, one to a few hundred cycles, as is often the case for functional units. Using an analytical energy model suitable for architecture-level analysis, we explore the interaction of the application and technology, and the effect on energy and performance as the underlying parameters are varied, on a set of benchmarks. Our results show that if the leakage approaches the magnitude as projected in the literature, even for short idle intervals as few as ten cycles, an aggressive policy of activating the sleep mode at every idle period performs well and a more complex control strategy may not be warranted. We also propose a simple design, called Gradual Sleep, to reduce the energy impact of using the sleep mode for smaller idle periods.
A time marker at 17.5 kyr BP detected throughout West Antarctica

Deep radar soundings as part of the International Trans-Antarctic Scientific Expedition (US-ITASE) traverses in West Antarctica have revealed a bright internal reflector that we have imaged throughout widespread locations across the ice sheet. The layer is seen in traverses emanating from Byrd Station in four directions and has been traced continuously for distances of 535 km toward the Weddell Sea drainage, 500 km toward South Pole, 150 km toward the Executive Committee Range and 160 km toward Kamb Ice Stream (former Ice Stream C). The approximate area encompassed by the layer identified in these studies is 250 000 km 2 . If the layer identification can also be extended to Siple Dome where we have additional radar soundings (Jacobel and others, 2000), the approximate area covered would increase by 50%. In many locations echo strength from the layer rivals the bed echo in amplitude even though it generally lies at a depth greater than half the ice thickness. At Byrd Station, where the layer depth is 1260 m, an age of � 17.5 kyr BP has been assigned based on the Blunier and Brook (2001) chronology. Hammer and others (1997) note that the acidity at this depth is >20 times the amplitude of any other part of the core. The depiction of this strong and widespread dated isochrone provides a unique time marker for much of the ice in West Antarctica. We apply a layer-tracing technique to infer the depth-time scale at the inland West Antarctic ice sheet divide and use this in a simple model to estimate the average accumulation rate.
Thin-Plate Spline Analysis of Mandibular Growth

Abstract The analysis of mandibular growth changes around the pubertal spurt in humans has several important implications for the diagnosis and orthopedic correction of skeletal disharmonies. The purpose of this study was to evaluate mandibular shape and size growth changes around the pubertal spurt in a longitudinal sample of subjects with normal occlusion by means of an appropriate morphometric technique (thin-plate spline analysis). Ten mandibular landmarks were identified on lateral cephalograms of 29 subjects at 6 different developmental phases. The 6 phases corresponded to 6 different maturational stages in cervical vertebrae during accelerative and decelerative phases of the pubertal growth curve of the mandible. Differences in shape between average mandibular configurations at the 6 developmental stages were visualized by means of thin-plate spline analysis and subjected to permutation test. Centroid size was used as the measure of the geometric size of each mandibular specimen. Differences in siz...
Elevated prolactin levels in patients with schizophrenia: mechanisms and related adverse effects.

The neurologic processes involved in schizophrenia are complex and diverse and the mechanisms through which antipsychotic agents exert their effects have been only partly elucidated. Hyperprolactinemia is a common side effect of treatment with many antipsychotics and is particularly associated with conventional ('typical') agents as well as the atypical antipsychotic risperidone. In contrast, other atypical agents introduced over the last decade do not elevate prolactin levels. This article discusses the regulatory mechanisms involved in prolactin secretion, the physiologic role of prolactin, and the etiology of hyperprolactinemia. Elevated prolactin levels may play important roles, both direct and indirect, in various pathologic states, including breast cancer, osteoporosis, cardiovascular disorders, and sexual disturbances. Antipsychotic-induced hyperprolactinemia may be associated with similar clinical manifestations; these are examined with particular reference to patients with schizophrenia.
Quantification of scattering from fiber surface irregularities

A quantitative description of the effects of fiber endface defects such as scratches and digs does not exist in the literature. We show, by considering surface scattering from the fiber endface, that such a description can be given in terms of a single parameter, which is a measure of the increase in backscattering due to the defect. We present our results in terms of some assumed values of this parameter.
Current Role of Pharmacogenomics in Cardiovascular Medicine

Pharmacogenomics holds the promise of transforming patient care by allowing providers to tailor therapy to each individual patient based on his or her genetic information. Although no established pharmacogenomic applications in cardiovascular medicine yet exist, there are at least three emerging applications that may ultimately become routine clinical practice; these are related to warfarin, clopidogrel, and statins. Of the three, warfarin pharmacogenomics has been the most rigorously evaluated to date, with several clinical trials either completed or underway. Clopidogrel pharmacogenomics has a growing body of supporting scientific evidence and warrants evaluation in prospective clinical trials. Statin pharmacogenomics remains the least developed application, with controversy surrounding a widely marketed genetic test whose validity has been questioned by recent evidence. Providers are advised to take a “wait and see” approach to pharmacogenomics at the present time, with the expectation that it will be a few years before any cardiovascular pharmacogenomic application is unequivocally proven to be both cost-effective as well as of clinical benefit.
Unsupervised Syntactic Alignment with Inversion Transduction Grammars

Syntactic machine translation systems currently use word alignments to infer syntactic correspondences between the source and target languages. Instead, we propose an unsupervised ITG alignment model that directly aligns syntactic structures. Our model aligns spans in a source sentence to nodes in a target parse tree. We show that our model produces syntactically consistent analyses where possible, while being robust in the face of syntactic divergence. Alignment quality and end-to-end translation experiments demonstrate that this consistency yields higher quality alignments than our baseline.
Plane waves in FDTD simulations and a nearly perfect total-field/scattered-field boundary

The total-field/scattered-field (TFSF) boundary has been successfully used for a number of years to introduce energy into finite-difference time-domain (FDTD) grids. If the propagation of the incident field is grid-aligned, a perfect TFSF implementation can be realized by using an auxiliary one-dimensional FDTD simulation which models propagation of the incident field. Here "perfect" implies the incident field propagation exactly matches the way in which the field propagates in the FDTD grid. However, for propagation which is not grid-aligned, no similarly perfect implementation has previously been presented. This work provides a framework for a perfect TFSF boundary for pulsed plane waves which do not propagate in a grid-aligned fashion. To achieve this, homogeneous plane-wave propagation is rigorously quantified. Using this knowledge and a specification of the desired incident field, the dispersion relation is used to ascertain the incident field at any point in the grid. It is required to account for, unlike in the continuous world, the electric field, the magnetic field, and the wavenumber vector not forming a mutually orthogonal set. Group velocity is also considered because of its relevance to the implementation.
Properties and applications of reflective-array devices

The use of reflective arrays in surface-wave devices has yielded new devices such as resonators in addition to an enlarged parameter range for devices such as radar pulse expanders and compressors. A number of different grating geometries, substrates, and types of reflectors have been employed in resonators, band-pass filters, filter banks, oscillators, and dispersive delay lines. Simple, yet accurate, models have been developed for design and analysis of reflection gratings in these applications. The major application of reflective arrays has been in radar pulse compressors wherein low spurious levels and precise phase and amplitude response have been achieved in devices with time-bandwidth products as large as 104. Other signal-processing applications such as chirp-z transforms can exploit the large time-bandwidth products available in reflective-array devices.
Addition of plasmapheresis decreases the incidence of acute antibody-mediated rejection in sensitized patients with strong donor-specific antibodies.

Background and objectives: The objective of this study was to investigate the effects of desensitization protocols using intravenous Ig with or without plasmapheresis in patients with donor-specific anti-HLA antibodies on prevention of antibody-mediated rejection and downregulation of donor-specific antibodies. Design, setting, participants, & measurements: Thirty-five complement-dependent cytotoxicity T cell cross-match–negative but complement-dependent cytotoxicity B cell and/or flow cytometry cross-match–positive kidney transplant recipients were treated with high-dosage intravenous Ig plus Thymoglobulin induction treatment. Donor-specific antibody strength was stratified as strong, medium, or weak by Luminex flow beads. Group 1 patients had weak/moderate and group 2 strong donor-specific antibodies Results: Whereas no group 1 patients had acute rejection, 66% of group 2 had acute rejection (44% antibody-mediated rejection, 22% cellular rejection). The protocol was then changed to the addition of peritransplantation plasmapheresis to patients with strong donor-specific antibodies (group 3). This change resulted in a dramatic decrease in the acute rejection rate to 7%. During a median 18 mo of follow-up, patient survival was 100, 100, and 93% and graft survival was 100, 78, and 86% in groups 1, 2, and 3, respectively. During follow-up, 17 (52%) patients lost donor-specific antibodies completely, and 10 (30%) lost some of donor-specific antibodies and/or decreased the strength of existing donor-specific antibodies. Conclusions: These results indicated that in patients with strong donor-specific antibodies, the addition of plasmapheresis to high-dosage intravenous Ig decreases the incidence of acute rejection. The majority of the patients, whether they received intravenous Ig alone or with plasmapheresis, lost their donor-specific antibodies during follow-up.
Collection-based persistent archives

The supercomputer center, digital library, and archival storage communities have common persistent archival storage requirements. Each of these communities is building software infrastructure to organize and store large collections of data. An emerging common requirement is the ability to maintain data collections for long periods of time. The challenge is to maintain the ability to discover, access, and display digital objects that are stored within the archive, while the technology used to manage the archive evolves. We propose an approach based upon the storage of the digital objects that comprise the collection, augmented with the meta-data attributes needed to dynamically re-create the data collection. This approach builds upon the technology needed to support extensible database schema, which in turn enables the creation of data-handling systems that support replicated data sets within federated archives.
Application of higher order boundary conditions to scattering by multilayered coated cylinders

Second-order boundary conditions are used to simulate a three-layer coating on perfectly conducting cylindrical structures. Both E and H polarizations are considered, and integral equations are presented based on the derived conditions. A moment method implementation of the resulting integral equations is given, and results are presented for various coatings in order to illustrate the accuracy of the higher-order conditions. The improvement that can be achieved with the proposed second-order generalized impedance boundary conditions over the standard boundary conditions is shown. >
Capital Gains Taxation and Stock Market Activity: Evidence from IPOs

Prior to the Tax Reform Act of 1986 (TRA '86), long-term capital gains were taxed at a lower rate than short-term gains, presenting investors with an opportunity to increase their after-tax return by delaying the sale of appreciated assets until after they qualified for long-term status and selling depreciated assets prior to long-term qualification. Using a sample of Initial Public Offerings, I find that stocks that appreciated prior to long-term qualification exhibit increased volume and decreased returns just after their qualification date, while stocks that depreciated prior to long-term qualification exhibit these effects just prior to their qualification date. IT IS GENERALLY ACKNOWLEDGED that capital gains taxes influence investor behavior. Slemrod (1982), Dyl (1979), Chaplinsky and Seyhun (1990), and others agree that "individuals rationally respond to specific provisions of the tax code in attempting to reduce the tax liability of investment income." Recently, this view has entered the public policy debate concerning the effective date of a proposed capital-gains tax cut. For example, The Wall Street Journal reported that Congress has considered making proposed capital gains tax cuts retroactive "to avoid possible market disruptions that might come from investors delaying transactions in anticipation of a future effective date" (WSJ, February 19, 1997). Despite the consensus view that capital gains taxes influence investment behavior, specific distortions in behavior are difficult to document empirically. One reason for the lack of evidence regarding the distortionary effect of capital gains taxes is that it is extremely difficult for researchers to determine the initial cost and the date of purchase of an asset. Without that information, it is impossible for the investigator to know when an investor is trading a longterm or short-term asset, and whether he is realizing a gain or a loss. One class of assets for which it is possible to obtain this information is initial public offerings of common stock (IPOs). By definition, IPOs are not available for purchase prior to their offer date. On the offer date, shares are
14-3-3 Proteins Are Part of an Abscisic Acid–VIVIPAROUS1 (VP1) Response Complex in the Em Promoter and Interact with VP1 and EmBP1

Protein‐DNA complexes were formed when nuclear extracts from embryogenic rice suspension cultures or maize embryos were incubated with an abscisic acid‐VIVIPAROUS1 (VP1) response element (Em1a) from the Em promoter. Monoclonal antibodies generated to GF14, a 14-3-3 protein from plants, resulted in gel retardation of the Em1a‐protein complexes. Antibodies generated to the C and N termini of GF14 detected protein isoforms in rice nuclear and cytoplasmic extracts, but no differences in distribution of the GF14 isoforms were recognized between the nucleus and cytoplasm or when abscisic acid‐treated and untreated tissues were compared. When recombinant GF14 fusion proteins from rice were added to nuclear extracts, novel complexes were formed that required the dimerization domain of GF14. Chemical cross-linking showed that GF-14 interacted with the basic leucine zipper factor EmBP1, which binds specifically to Em1a, and with VP1, which transactivates Em through Em1a. GF14 proteins from rice were shown to interact with VP1 in yeast through the dimerization domain of GF14. Our results indicated that GF14 interacts with both site-specific DNA binding proteins (i.e., EmBP1) and tissue-specific regulatory factors (i.e., VP1) and may provide a structural link between VP1 and the Em1a transcriptional complex.
Progress in approximate nash equilibria

It is known [5] that an additively e-approximate Nash equilibrium (with supports of size at most two) can be computed in polynomial time in any 2-player game with e=.5. It is also known that no approximation better than .5 is possible unless equilibria with support larger than logn are considered, where n is the number of strategies per player. We give a polynomial algorithm for computing an e-approximate Nash equilibrium in 2-player games with e ≈ .38; our algorithm computes equilibria with arbitrarily large supports.
Adjustment of GCM precipitation intensity over the United States

Abstract A regression equation is developed to adjust the simulated monthly averaged intensity of hourly precipitation over the continental United States using air temperature at the first model level (about 80 m above ground) simulated by a revised version of NCAR’s Community Climate Model version 2 coupled with the Biosphere–Atmosphere Transfer Scheme. The adjusted precipitation intensity is in much closer agreement with the locally observed precipitation intensity, both in pattern and magnitude, than is the simulated intensity produced by climate models. The multiresponse randomized block permutation analysis shows that the authors’ adjustment method is statistically significant. The equation is robust with respect to seasonal and interannual variations, as demonstrated by applying it to independent months of different years. The relationship between precipitation intensity and near-surface air temperature likely reflects a linkage among precipitation, precipitable water, and vertical velocity. It can ...
A New Vascular Coupler Design for End-to-End Anastomosis: Fabrication and Proof-of-Concept Evaluation

Traditional hand-suturing for vascular connection techniques is time consuming, expensive, and requires highly complex instruments and technical expertise. The aim of this study is to develop a new vascular coupler that can be used in end-to-end anastomosis surgery in an easier and more efficient way for both arteries and veins. The vascular coupler has four rotatable wings and one translatable spike in each wing. Prototypes were manufactured using polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE) and high-density polyethylene (HDPE). A set of installation tools was designed to facilitate the anastomosis process. Proof-of-concept testing with the vascular coupler using plastic tubes and porcine cadaver vessels showed that the coupler should work as designed. A simplified finite element (FE) model assisted in the evaluation of the tearing likelihood of human vessels during installation of the coupler. Results of tests on the coupler showed that the vascular coupler could be efficiently attached to blood vessels, did not leak after the anastomosis was performed, had sufficient joint strength, and had little impact on flow in the vessel. The entire anastomosis process can be completed in 3 min when using the vascular coupler to join porcine cadaver vessels.
Non-Intrusive System-Level Fault Tolerance for an Electronic Throttle Controller

This paper describes the methodology used to add nonintrusive system-level fault tolerance to an electronic throttle controller. The original model of the throttle controller is a hybrid system created at a major automotive company. We use Gurkh as a framework within which we translate the hybrid model into a set of timed automata and perform analysis using formal methods. The first step of the translation process is to transform the hybrid model and its static schedule into Gurkhs preemptive tasking paradigm. Using the UPPAAL tool, we then check the correctness of the resulting set of timed-automata by formally verifying reachability and timing properties. We also propose a method for quantifying the quality of the translation by estimating the amount of jitter thence introduced. The final step is the implementation of a Monitoring Chip based on the formal system model. The chip provides non-intrusive "out-of-path" and timing error detection which in turn allows for fault tolerance at a system level.
Throwing motion generation using nonlinear optimization on a 6-degree-of-freedom robot manipulator

A 6-degree-of-freedom rigid robot arm and its throwing motion generation is described in this paper. The trajectories for the joint variables are generated off-line as a cubic spline obtained using general constrained nonlinear optimization, taking into consideration limitations (position, speed, acceleration and jerk) of the joint actuators, and the current limit of the whole structure. The obtained trajectories are previously checked to avoid collisions using oriented bounding boxes and their separating axis theorem tests. The trajectory tracking of the individual joint is done using a discrete-time constrained optimal control technique.
Perivascular Demyelinization of Cochlear Neurons in Two Neonates

Localized perivascular demyelinization of the peripheral processes of cochlear neurons was observed in surface preparations of the osseous spiral lamina in two neonates, one a premature infant with erythroblastosis fetalis, the other a full-term infant with cyanotic congenital heart disease. In both cases the cause of the demyelinization was unknown. Both infants had severe edema as a result of congestive heart failure and anoxia. The serum bilirubin level in the erythroblastotic child appeared too low to have caused injury to the nerve fibers. The demyelinization was most striking in the lower half of the basal turn. It was observed only in the immediate vicinity of meandering stretches of capillaries as they crossed the nerve fibers. In the premature infant there was hair cell loss throughout the cochlea; in the other there was no hair cell loss, but a malformed labyrinth of the Mondini type.
Using focus groups to evaluate and strengthen public health nursing population-focused interventions.

Nebraska Health Connection Access Medicaid’s(NHC AM) public health nursing (PHN) population-focused practice model is designed to provide enrollment, education, and PHN case management interventions for the Medicaid Managed Care population. Evaluation and continuous improvement of these interventions are, in part, completed through a collaborative effort between NHC AM and a quality management team at the University of Nebraska Medical Center College of Nursing. Focus group methodology was used to access non-English-speaking populations to evaluate and strengthen population-focused PHN interventions.
RF telemetry powering and control of hermetically sealed integrated sensors and actuators

An RF telemetry system for powering and control of microminiature integrated transducers packaged in a hermetically sealed custom-made glass capsule is described. A class-E power amplifier is utilized to energize and control a single-channel microstimulator for neuromuscular applications. The transmitter can deliver 1.5 W of power through a solenoid antenna using a 12-V rechargeable battery, while achieving efficiencies greater than 90%. The microstimulator antenna is a 1.5-mm-diameter, 4-5-mm-long ferrite-cored solenoid coil which can generate peak voltages of up to 50 V, and up to 50 mW of power. A custom-made glass capsule electrostatically bonded to the microstimulator's silicon carrier provides a hermetic package for the implant. Lead transfer into the sealed chamber is achieved using thin films of iridium insulated with low-pressure chemical vapor deposition (LPCVD) thin films. Helium leak tests on these structures show leak rates below 10/sup -9/ cm/sup 3//s. >