cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Impact of clinical history and electrophysiologic characterization of accessory pathways on management strategies to reduce sudden death among children with Wolff-Parkinson-White syndrome

Abstract Objectives . This study sought to determine whether the clinical and electrophysiologic criteria developed in adults also identify children with Wolff-Parkinson-White syndrome at risk for sudden death. Background . In adults with Wolff-Parkinson-White syndrome, a shortest RR interval Methods . We retrospectively evaluated 60 children ≤18 years old who underwent comprehensive electrophysiologic evaluation between 1979 and 1989 before undergoing operation for Wolff-Parkinson-White syndrome. Clinical and electrophysiologic data were analyzed after patients had been grouped by ther clinical presentation: high risk (cardiac arrest), intermediate risk (syncope or atrial fibrillation) or low risk (orthodromic reciprocating tachycardia alone). Results . Ten children had a clinical cardiac arrest (high risk); only one had a prior history of syncope or atrial fibrillation. Compared with the intermediate (n = 19) and low risk groups (n = 31), there were no differences in age ([mean ± SD] 14.8 ± 0.6 vs. 14.7 ± 0.6 vs. 14.5 ± 1.7 years), duration of symptoms (1.9 ± 0.5 vs. 4.1 ± 1.1 vs. 5.2 ± 0.8 years), incidence of congenital heart disease (30% vs. 26% vs. 32%), presence of multiple pathways (20% vs. 16% vs. 16%) or accessory pathway location. A shortest pre-excited RR interval Conclusions . Cardiac arrest was the only distinguishing clinical feature between high and low risk groups and the first manifestation in 80% of the children of an accessory pathway that can precipitate a life-threatening arrhythmia. In this series, the largest reported to date of children with Wolff-Parkinson-White syndrome having a cardiac arrest, a shortest pre-excited RR interval
Comparative studies in vivo and in vitro of rat-liver enzymes.

The stability of a number of enzymes which have a very short half-life as assessed by measurements in vivo, namely ornithine decarboxylase, serine dehydratase, tyrosine aminotransferase and 5-aminolevulinate synthase, and the stability of enzymes with a moderate half-life i.e. glutamate dehydrogenase, alanine aminotransferase and lactate dehydrogenase, were studied in whole liver and in tissue fractions thereof. While in general the measurements in vitro are in agreement with the data obtained in vivo, indicating the power of the simple technique herein described, there was enough variation in stability to indicate that in addition to their intrinsic basic stability due to the particular genetically determined structure of the protein, environmental factors must play an important role in the half-life of these enzymes. For example, tyrosine aminotransferase and particularly serine dehydratase are less stable in the tissue than in the homogenate and supernatant fractions and consequently are less stable in vitro than in vivo. Lactate dehydrogenase and alanine amino-transferase are stable for as long as 18 h in the homogenate and supernatant; however alanine aminotransferase activity in tissues decreases after 6 h incubation. The half-life of inactivation in the homogenate for glutamate dehydrogenase is 3–4 h. Interestingly, the activity in the tissue increases up to 6 h, while with longer periods of incubation the bulk of the enzyme leaked out into the medium and remained constant for 24 h. Experiments with “washed-residue” fractions show that the enzyme is inactivated by cytosol components. No clear difference between inactivation in vitro before and after starvation, following a high-protein diet or after injection of inhibitors was found for any of the enzymes studied.
Design and synthesis of self-checking VLSI circuits

Self-checking circuits can detect the presence of both transient and permanent faults. A self-checking circuit consists of a functional circuit that produces encoded output vectors and a checker that checks the output vectors. The checker has the ability to expose its own faults as well. The functional circuit can be either combinational or sequential. A self-checking system consists of an interconnection of self-checking circuits. The advantage of such a system is that errors can be caught as soon as they occur; thus, data contamination is prevented. Methods for the cost-effective design of combinational and sequential self-checking functional circuits and checkers are examined. The area overhead for all proposed design alternatives is studied in detail. >
Fluorine geochemistry of quaternary volcanic rocks from Southwestern British Columbia: Some petrogenetic implications

Fluorine contents in 38 Quaternary volcanic rocks, representing calc-alkaline andesite eruptive groups from the Garibaldi Lake area, were determined by a selective ion-electrode method. A close relationship is evident between F abundance and the type of ferromagnesian phenocrysts present in the andesitic rocks. Hypersthene andesites have the lowest F contents (142–212 ppm), whereas hornblende-biotite andesites exhibit the highest F values (279–368 ppm); hornblende andesites have intermediate F contents (238–292 ppm). The hornblende-free Desolation Valley basaltic andesite has a lower F content than the hornblende-bearing Sphinx Moraine basaltic andesite (122 ppm versus 317–333 ppm).
Proteases of human brain

Growing appreciation of the multiple functions of proteolytic enzymes in intracellular protein degradation and post-translational modification, in the release of biologically active macromolecules and peptides from precursors and in cellular protein regulation and quality control has stimulated interest in proteases in neurobiology and neuropathology. In this article, the proteinases and peptidases thus far studied in the human central nervous system are reviewed with respect to their enzymology, anatomical and cytological distributions and contributions to neurological and psychiatric disease states. Though information concerning brain proteases in man is fragmentary, it suffices to establish the importance of these complex systems for advancing knowledge of human cerebral function in health and disease.
The Spectra of Tin and Their Zeeman Effects

Analysis of the spectra of Sn, Sn I, Sn II, Sn III.\char22{}(1) Zeeman effects of the lines of the tin spectrum have enabled the authors to classify the spectra of tin in the neutral state and in two stages of ionization. (2) The spectrum of neutral tin has 5 low levels, $^{3}P_{012}$, ${^{1}D_{2}}^{\ensuremath{'}}$, ${^{1}S_{0}}^{\ensuremath{'}}$, due to the configuration ${5}_{2}$${5}_{2}$. The configuration ${5}_{2}$${6}_{1}$ yields ${^{3}P_{012}}^{\ensuremath{'}}$ and ${^{1}P_{1}}^{\ensuremath{'}}$. The configuration ${5}_{2}$${5}_{3}$ yields twelve terms of which the four lowest are definitely established. Pauli's $g$-sum rule is found to be valid. The ionization potential of SnI is calculated as 7.37\ifmmode\pm\else\textpm\fi{}.05 volts and the resonance potential 4.30 volts. (3) The spectrum of Sn II is a doublet spectrum like In I and the principal doublet separation found from some results of Lang is found to be 4253 ${\mathrm{cm}}^{\ensuremath{-}1}$. Several series are noted, including lines due to abnormal states, the electrons having the configuration ${5}_{1}$ ${5}_{2}$ ${5}_{2}$. The ionization potential is computed as approximately 14.5 volts and the resonance potential 6.5 volts. (4) The spectrum of Sn III consists of singlets and triplets, like that of Cd I. Several series are noted, and the ionization potential calculated as about 30 volts, and the resonance potential as 6.81 volts. A very strong group in the extreme ultra-violet is classified as a $p{p}^{\ensuremath{'}}$ group. (5) Application of the regular doublet law leads to possible classifications in the spectra of In II, and Ge II.
Conformational and Functional Differences between Recombinant Human Lens αA- and αB-Crystallin

Human and other mammalian lens proteins are composed of three major crystallins: α-, β-, and γ-crystallin. α-Crystallin plays a prominent role in the supramolecular assembly required to maintain lens transparency. With age, the crystallins, especially α-crystallin, undergo posttranslational modifications that may disrupt the supramolecular assembly, and the lens becomes susceptible to other stresses resulting in cataract formation. Because these modifications occur even at a relatively young age, it is difficult to obtain pure, unmodified crystallins for in vitro experiments. α-Crystallin is composed of two subunits, αA and αB. Before the application of recombinant DNA technology, these two α-crystallin subunits were separated from calf lens in the denatured state and reconstituted by the removal of the denaturant, but they were not refolded properly. In the present studies, we applied the recombinant DNA technology to prepare native, unmodified αA- and αB-crystallins for conformational and functional studies. The expressed proteins from Escherichia coli are in the native state and can be studied directly. First, αA and αB cDNAs were isolated from a human lens epithelial cell cDNA library. The cDNAs were cloned into a pAED4 expression vector and then expressed in E. coli strain BL21(DE3). Pure recombinant αA- and αB-crystallins were obtained after purification by gel filtration and DEAE liquid chromatography. They were subjected to conformational studies involving various spectroscopic measurements and an assessment of chaperone-like activity. αA- and αB-crystallins have not only different secondary structure, but also tertiary structure. 1-Anilino-8-naphthalene sulfonate fluorescence indicates that αB-crystallin is more hydrophobic than αA-crystallin. The chaperone-like activity, as measured by the ability to protect insulin aggregation, is about 4 times greater for αB- than for αA-crystallin. The resulting data provide a base line for further studies of human lens α-crystallin.
Cholera toxin promotes the proliferation of anti-μ antibody-prestimulated human B cells☆

The predominant effect of cholera toxin (CT) on cell growth has been postulated to be inhibitory as a result of its induction of intracellular cAMP. We have recently reported that CT selectively enhances surface DR expression while it inhibits anti-mu antibody-induced B lymphocyte proliferation. In the present series of experiments we studied the effect of CT on in vitro preactivated highly purified (greater than 95% CD20+) human B cells. Cholera toxin enhanced thymidine incorporation of anti-mu antibody-preactivated but not of Staphylococcus aureus Cowan I or PMA + ionomycin-preactivated B cells. Concentrations of 100 pg/ml CT stimulated an enhancement of thymidine incorporation equivalent to that of optimal doses of BCGF. The growth factor-like effect of CT required the complete molecule, since binding of purified B subunit (B-CT) to GM1 ganglioside by itself did not reproduce the holotoxin effect. Moreover, B-CT pretreatment of anti-mu antibody-primed cells completely neutralized the holotoxin-enhancing effect. Both PGE2, a physiological agent that stimulates intracellular cAMP elevation, and the cAMP analogue, 8-bromo-cAMP, mimicked the growth-promoting effect of CT. However, the ED50 of CT required to augment proliferation in anti-mu antibody-preactivated human B cells was approximately 100 times less than the ED50 for cAMP formation. These results demonstrate a specific growth factor-like promoting effect of CT on sIg-preactivated highly purified human B cells that may be mediated at least in part through elevation in intracellular cAMP levels. Increased DR expression and stimulation of growth of sIg preactivated B cells may explain some of the adjuvant properties of CT following orally or parenterally administered antigens.
Double sampling for exact values in the normal discriminant model with application to binary regression

Increasing attention is being given to problems involving binary outcomes with covariates subject to measurement error. Here, we consider the two group normal discriminant model where a subset of the continuous variates are subject to error and will typically be replaced by a vector of surrogates, perhaps of different dimension. Correcting for the measurement error is made possible by a double sampling scheme in which the surrogates are collected on all units and true values are obtained on a random subset of units. Such a scheme allows us to consider a rich set of measurement error models which extend the traditional additive error model. Maximum likelihood estimators and their asymptotic properties are derived under a variety of models for the relationship between true values and the surrogates. Specific attention is given to the coefficients in the resulting logistic regression model. Optimal allocations are derived which minimize the variance of the estimated slope subject to cost constraints for the ...
A rigorous method for fundamentally eliminating the low-frequency breakdown in full-wave finite-element-based analysis: Combined dielectric-conductor case

It has been observed that a finite-element based solution of full-wave Maxwell's equations breaks down at low frequencies. Existing approaches have not rigorously solved the problem yet since they rely on low-frequency approximations. Moreover, little work has been reported for overcoming the low-frequency breakdown for realistic circuit problems in which dielectrics and non-ideal conductors coexist. In this work, we develop a rigorous method to fundamentally eliminate the low-frequency breakdown for the analysis of general problems involving both dielectrics and conductors. Its rigor has been validated by the analysis of realistic on-chip VLSI circuits at frequencies as low as DC. Furthermore, the proposed method is applicable to any frequency, hence constituting a universal solution of Maxwell's equations in a full electromagnetic spectrum. In addition, given an arbitrary integrated circuit and package structure, the proposed method can be used to quantitatively and rigorously answer critical design questions such as at which frequency full-wave effects become important and etc.
Beam-based measurements of persistent current decay in the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider

The two rings of the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider are equipped with superconducting dipole magnets. At injection, induced persistent currents in these magnets lead to a sextupole component. As the persistent currents decay with time, the horizontal and vertical chromaticities change. From magnet measurements of persistent current decays, chromaticity changes in the machine are estimated and compared with chromaticity measurements.
Polymer Silicon Hybrid Systems: A Platform for Practical Nonlinear Optics†

Nonlinear optical polymers can provide a unique and powerful platform for building a number of useful optical devices. Traditionally, they have been used in all-polymer waveguiding systems, which have had a number of severe practical limitations. Silicon has recently become a popular material for integrated optical systems, but it lacks strong nonlinear properties. By combining nonlinear optical polymer claddings and silicon waveguides in a hybrid system, we show that a number of significant advantages are obtained. In particular, fabrication can be done using conventional CMOS processing, with the polymer added as part of back-end processes (after all of the high-temperature processing is completed), and the waveguide structure can also serve as an ultracompact set of electrodes. We discuss some optical devices that have recently been built into this system, which already show superior performance to anything achieved in silicon or polymer alone. We also propose using second-order nonlinear polymers with...
eFindSite: Enhanced Fingerprint‐Based Virtual Screening Against Predicted Ligand Binding Sites in Protein Models

A standard practice for lead identification in drug discovery is ligand virtual screening, which utilizes computing technologies to detect small compounds that likely bind to target proteins prior to experimental screens. A high accuracy is often achieved when the target protein has a resolved crystal structure; however, using protein models still renders significant challenges. Towards this goal, we recently developed eFindSite that predicts ligand binding sites using a collection of effective algorithms, including meta-threading, machine learning and reliable confidence estimation systems. Here, we incorporate fingerprint-based virtual screening capabilities in eFindSite in addition to its flagship role as a ligand binding pocket predictor. Virtual screening benchmarks using the enhanced Directory of Useful Decoys demonstrate that eFindSite significantly outperforms AutoDock Vina as assessed by several evaluation metrics. Importantly, this holds true regardless of the quality of target protein structures. As a first genome-wide application of eFindSite, we conduct large-scale virtual screening of the entire proteome of Escherichia coli with encouraging results. In the new approach to fingerprint-based virtual screening using remote protein homology, eFindSite demonstrates its compelling proficiency offering a high ranking accuracy and low susceptibility to target structure deformations. The enhanced version of eFindSite is freely available to the academic community at http://www.brylinski.org/efindsite.
Gramicidin-D-stimulated influx of monovalent cations into plant roots.

Gramicidin D and nigericin were found to stimulate K+ influx into oat roots. Valinomycin and nonactin had little effect on K+ influx. The region of the root most sensitive to gramicidin was the elongation zone. Monocot roots were more sensitive to gramicidin than dicot roots. At 0.2 mM KCl, gramicidin stimulated K+ influx by 4- to 8fold over a 30-min absorption period. Although a gramicidin response is detectable within one minute, maximum stimulation occurred after a slight (approximately 2-min) lag period. The gramicidin effect was much greater at 0.2 mM KCl than at 20 mM KCl. Respiratory inhibitors reduced the gramicidin-stimulated K+ influx by 50–80%. The results are discussed in terms of possible mechanisms of action of the various ionophores on ion transport in roots.
Self stresses and line tensions in dislocation loops

Abstract A thermodynamic analysis of the forces in an equilibrium shaped closed dislocation loop is made. On the basis of the thermodynamic argument, a particular method is suggested for computing the self stresses and self forces in closed dislocation loops having equilibrium shape. It is shown that the magnitude of the self forces acting on an equilibrium shaped loop are equal for all parts of the dislocation line. The line tensions which are obtained from the self forces are compared with the line tensions calculated by the method of Hirth, Jossang and Lothe.
Hot Mommas! Prewarming of Maternity Patients Undergoing Cesareans

Implementation, Outcomes, and Evaluation In 2006, concern was raised by our neonatology department that all women at risk of preterm delivery were not receiving antenatal steroids. A team of nurses, physicians, and system analysts routinely met to evaluate performance and assess for improvement opportunities. Since 2005, findings from our neonatal information system showed that 77.8% of the women who gave birth between 24 and 32 weeks gestation received at least one dose of antenatal steroids. Staff was educated and protocols established with some improvement realized (83.9% in the year 2008). Efforts to develop a key performance indicator to facilitate concurrent review of missed opportunities were initiated. In 2009, the National Quality Forum released the Perinatal Consensus Standard (PC03) supporting the National Institutes of Health recommendations to give a full course of corticosteroids to all expectant women between 24 and 32 weeks gestation. On further evaluation, numerous challenges surfaced, including the collection and accurate reporting of data (due to definitional issues of successful treatment), identification of barriers to treatment, and the need to clarify reporting parameters.
Norepinephrine and nitric oxide promote cell survival signaling in hippocampal neurons

Nitric oxide (NO), physical exercise and/or antidepressant drugs, through the increased release of norepinephrine and brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF), have been shown to exert profound protective, pro-survival effects on neurons otherwise compromised by injury, disease, prolonged stress, and subsequent depression in vivo. We sought, therefore, to evaluate such survival and neuroprotection in hippocampal neurons in culture, which, in an analogous model of in vivo cellular stress, was deprived of several vital nutrients. We assessed pro-survival outcomes following the application of norepinephrine or the noradrenergic partial agonist, clonidine, a general nitric oxide synthase inhibitor and NO donor, using a cell survival assay and quantitative Western blotting of the survival signaling molecules, BDNF, P-CREB, P-Akt, and P-MAPK in hippocampal neuronal lysates. We demonstrate that norepinephrine, clonidine, the NO donor and various combinations of these drugs increased cell survival and the immunoreactivity of the four survival signaling molecules in the face of nutrient deprivation stress, whereas the NO synthase inhibitor, and each of several survival signaling pathway inhibitors all decreased cell survival even below that of controls without nutrient supplementation. These results demonstrate that conditions that make cells vulnerable to environmental/toxic insult can be offset by norepinephrine and its related drugs or by NO donors and exacerbated by drugs that specifically inhibit a key survival signaling pathway. These results indicate that pharmacological intervention can promote neuroprotection and survival signaling in the face of nutrient withdrawal, but that this may require that several pathways remain intact.
Improving physicians’ HIV risk-assessment skills using announced and unannounced standardized patients

OBJECTIVES: To evaluate feasibility of and to validate a rating scale for two educational programs that use standardized patient-instructors (SPIs) in the office setting to improve physicians’ HIV risk communication skills. DESIGN: Pilot randomized trial of announced and unannounced SPIs. PARTICIPANTS/SETTINGS: Twenty four primary care physicians in the Rochester, NY, area. MEASUREMENTS: The Rochester HIV Interview Rating Scale (RHIRS), HIV test ordering, physician satisfaction questionnaire. RESULTS: Physicians found the intervention useful, and predicted a positive effect on their future HIV-related communication. HIV test ordering and RHIRS scores increased similarly in both intervention groups. Announced SPI visits were more convenient and preferred by physicians. Cost for each SPI visit was $75. CONCLUSIONS: A brief office-based intervention using SPIs was feasible, well-accepted, convenient, and inexpensive. Announced SPIs were preferred to unannounced SPIs. Pilot results suggesting improvement in HIV-related communication should be confirmed in a larger randomized trial.
Near-field antennas integrated with scanning probes for THz to visible microscopy: scale modeling and limitations on performance

A promising approach to localized spectroscopy at far-infrared (/spl lambda/ > 5 /spl mu/m) and terahertz frequencies (100-3000 GHz) is with scanning probe microscopes by transducing far-field radiation to the near field with a field confinement structure - a near-field antenna. We discuss the background of this idea and show encouraging results from a scale-model experiment using 3-GHz microwave radiation. We also present experiments to scale antennas to visible wavelengths and we discuss limits to scale modeling.
Possible Gatifloxacin-Induced Hypoglycemia

OBJECTIVE:To report a case of hypoglycemia in a patient receiving gatifloxacin for presumed exacerbation of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD).CASE SUMMARY:A 73-year-old white man with an extensive past medical history significant for type 2 diabetes mellitus and COPD was prescribed gatifloxacin 400 mg/d for a COPD exacerbation. After 2 days of therapy, the patient presented to the emergency department (ED) reporting worsening symptoms; he had a blood glucose concentration of 22 mg/dL. Because he had not eaten well for several days, the patient discontinued his oral antidiabetic medications prior to presenting to the ED, but continued to take gatifloxacin. The patient had never before experienced a symptomatic hypoglycemic episode during the years of taking his antidiabetic medications. In the ED, he received 1 last dose of gatifloxacin and was treated aggressively with intravenous dextrose. By the end of his hospitalization, antidiabetic medication was restarted to control hyperglycemia.DISCUSS...
Embodied communication: Speakers’ gestures affect listeners’ actions

We explored how speakers and listeners use hand gestures as a source of perceptual-motor information during naturalistic communication. After solving the Tower of Hanoi task either with real objects or on a computer, speakers explained the task to listeners. Speakers’ hand gestures, but not their speech, reflected properties of the particular objects and the actions that they had previously used to solve the task. Speakers who solved the problem with real objects used more grasping handshapes and produced more curved trajectories during the explanation. Listeners who observed explanations from speakers who had previously solved the problem with real objects subsequently treated computer objects more like real objects; their mouse trajectories revealed that they lifted the objects in conjunction with moving them sideways, and this behavior was related to the particular gestures that were observed. These findings demonstrate that hand gestures are a reliable source of perceptual-motor information during human communication.
Extended Interface Solutions for Musical Robotics

We present a framework for coupling musical robots with interfaces based on open-ended control architecture, allowing for new and expanded forms of expression. The MahaDeviBot allows for a single performer to simultaneously control up to 12 drums. The ESitar doubles both as a multi input control interface, and as a traditional sitar. Finally, the BricKTable represents a completely open-ended control interface possible of multi user interaction, and real-time control data feedback.
Experimental analysis of robot control: a performance standard for the PUMA-560

The tracking performance of a series of model-based control algorithms was evaluated experimentally, The model-based control issues of incomplete and/or asynchronous dynamic compensation, feedback, payload variation, and drive system interaction are analyzed. A model-based controller with complete knowledge of manipulator system dynamics and sliding mode feedback improved the tracking accuracy by a factor of five over feedback alone. The experimental results provide a baseline for a proposed standard trajectory and payload for evaluation of tracking accuracy for the first three links of the PUMA-560. A standard suite of trajectories and payloads will allow researchers to fairly compare the performance of their respective algorithms. >
Evidence of nonlinearity in digoxin pharmacokinetics

Six normal male volunteers received 0.5 mg label doses of digoxin as (a) a bolus intravenous injection over 2 min, (b) a constant rate intravenous infusion over 1 hr, (c) a constant rate intravenous infusion over 3 h, and (d) a solution in 5% dextrose given orally. Plasma concentrations of digoxin were measured by radioimmunoassay for a 4 day period and urinary excretion for a 6 day period after the single doses. The mean (coefficient of variation) total areas under the plasma concentration-time curves per 0.5 mg of digoxin were (a) 35.55 (14.8%), (b) 30.20 (27.7%), (c) 25.80 (35.5%), and (d) 15.47 (49.9%); the means differed significantly (0.01 greater than p greater than 0.005). The mean (coefficient of variation) total amounts excreted in the urine as a fraction of the dose were (a) 0.689 (6.31%), (b) 0.517 (20.4%), (c) 0.588 (16.8%), and (d) 0.374 (23.4%); the means differed significantly (p less than 0.001). Both the total clearance and the nonrenal clearance of digoxin differed significantly with the method of intravenous administration. The slower the rate of input of digoxin to the body, the greater were both the total clearance and the nonrenal clearance of the drug, which strongly suggests nonlinear pharmacokinetics.
EMPIRE: An Efficient and Compact Multiple-Parameterized Model-Order Reduction Method for Physical Optimization

Parameterized model-order reduction is useful for very large-scale integration VLSI physical design and optimization. In this paper, we propose an efficient yet accurate parameterized model-order reduction method EMPIRE for multiple parameters. It uses implicit moment matching to efficiently handle high-order moments of a large number of parameters. In addition, it can match the moments of different parameters with different accuracy according to their influence on the objective under study, and such influence is measured by the 2-norm of their coefficient matrix in the canonical form. It develops three algorithms to further suppress the size of the reduced model by finding a projection matrix that has a much smaller number of columns than the original one. Experimental results show that compared with the best existing algorithm CORE that uses explicit moment matching for the parameters, EMPIRE reduces waveform error by 47.8 × at a similar runtime.
Female sexual dysfunction after pelvic surgery: the impact of surgical modifications.

The truly international authorship every month in the Journal is reflected in the Mini-Review section in this issue. One from the USA, one from Canada, and two from Italy. It is a great pleasure to the Editor that this is so, and I hope also to the readership and to those who make such excellent contributions. The topics covered are female sexual dysfunction after pelvic surgery, zoledronic acid in prostate and renal cancers, intravesical gemcitabine for superficial bladder cancer, and the reduction of patient discomfort during TRUS-guided biopsy of the prostate.
Structure of the late Proterozoic Nakasib suture, Sudan

The Nakasib suture is a prominent structural belt in the central Red Sea Hills, Sudan. It is one of the ophiolite-decorated sutures along which the late Proterozoic (Pan-African) island arc/back arc terranes and continental micro-plates of the Arabian–Nubian Shield were welded together. It juxtaposes the 900–800 Ma Haya terrane in the south with the 830–700 Ma Gebeit terrane to the north. New structural data from the Nakasib suture show that the suture had evolved through three phases of deformation which gave rise to a fold and thrust belt. During the early two phases of deformation, SE-verging tight folds and thrusts were developed. The third phase of deformation refolded the earlier structures into NE-trending, upright, and horizontal antiforms and synforms and culminated in the development of NW-verging thrusts. The structural data are used, together with previous stratigraphic and geochemical data, to suggest a tectonic model for the evolution of the Nakasib suture. The suture followed a Wilson Cycle. This started with rifting of the Haya terrane, extrusion of rift volcanics and deposition of passive margin sediments, and development of a NW-dipping subduction zone over which the arc volcanics of the Gebeit terrane erupted. The closing of the oceanic basin gave rise to the Nakasib suture with the present structural configuration. The structural styles of other sutures of the Arabian-Nubian Shield are examined in light of structural data from the Nakasib suture. These sutures show a common feature of steepening of the early subhorizontal ophiolite-obduction structures during a late event of upright folding which may be related to collision between terranes.
Development of a novel confocal microscope for functional recording of fast neuronal activity

Currently available recording methods limit the study of fast neuronal signaling by forcing a tradeoff between spatial and temporal resolution. Fortunately, advanced optical imaging techniques can be used to overcome this limitation. Specifically, we are developing confocal microscopy schemes that allow multisite recordings of neuron function in live brain tissue with high spatial and temporal resolution. The first scheme that is currently being investigated involves the use of a digital micromirror device (DMD) to implement the light paths necessary for high-speed confocal imaging: addressable point illumination and spatial filtering via addressable point detection. The second scheme involves the use of acousto-optic deflectors (AODs) in the illumination path to increase the excitation intensity, along with the DMD or an addressable CMOS imager as the spatial filter in the detection path. Calculations of the signal-to-noise ratios and operating parameters of the three devices indicate that we will be able to study both calcium concentration and fast membrane potential changes at several sites within the dendritic tree of a neuron.
Forecasting US Presidential Elections Using Economic and Noneconomic Fundamentals

It commonly is said that presidential elections are determined by the fundamentals, and that the campaign brings these fundamentals to the voters (especially see Gelman and King 1993). But what exactly does this mean? As we describe in The Timeline of Presidential Elections (Erikson and Wlezien 2012a), the fundamentals come in two varieties: internal and external. Internal fundamentals are part of the voter’s political predispositions. The campaign reinforces the voter’s party identifi cation, ideological proclivities, and demographically based partisan loyalties. External fundamentals are environmental forces unique to the campaign, such as, but not limited to, the state of the economy. As voters consider the external fundamentals, which can change over the course of the campaign, the outcome diverges toward the unique outcome predicted by those factors. We can think of these two types of fundamentals as centripetal forces pushing the electorate toward 50-50 (a party line vote) and centrifugal forces pushing voters outward toward some unique outcome specifi c to the issues of the day. In this article we illustrate how this dynamic works. Via interpolation from available poll data, we estimate the presidential preferences of the electorate on a daily basis over the fi nal 200 days of each of the 15 elections from 1956 to 2012. (For details, see Erikson and Wlezien 2012a; 2014.) We also do the same for economic perceptions, specifi cally, about recent economic growth, as measured by the Survey of Consumers at the University of Michigan.1 Using these two resources, we divide daily presidential preferences in diff erent election years into two components—the portion that is predictable from economic perceptions on that date and the residual portion that is unrelated to those perceptions. This division, of course, does not precisely separate national aggregate preferences into external and internal fundamentals; it provides a rough approximation. We ask: how do the two sources of voter preference (predictable versus not predictable from economic perceptions) evolve over the fi nal 200 days of presidential campaigns?
The effect of Internet experience on consumer expectations of responsiveness and control in offline services marketing interactions

The Internet is an exciting innovation whose popularity continues to rapidly increase. As consumers use the Internet, the increase in their control may result in changing expectations of their interactions with businesses in general. The accumulation of successful experiences in obtaining information and negotiating terms during active, self-initiated and self-controlled online interactions may lead consumers to expect more responsiveness and control over offline marketing interactions. This paper reports a study conducted to examine the hypothesis that greater amounts of Internet experience would be associated with higher service expectations for offline transactions. The results of the study suggest that consumers with moderate levels of Web usage expertise have higher expectations than do consumers with low or high levels of Web usage expertise. In other words, this study finds an inverted "U" relationship between Web usage expertise and consumers' expectations of service providers.
Economic Impacts of the U.S. Gulf of Mexico Recreational For-Hire Fishing Industry

IMPLAN Version 3.0 was used with a 2008 IMPLAN data package to estimate the economic impacts of the recreational for-hire (RFH) fishing industry in the U.S. Gulf of Mexico (GOM). Initial, direct, indirect, and induced impacts were estimated. Impacts were estimated for head, charter, and guide boat operations for Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi, and Alabama (combined), and West Florida as individual state models, while introducing multiregional spillover effects that account for regional linkages between states. These updated data are necessary to meet national standards set forth by the Magnuson-Stevens Act, such that social and economic ramifications of proposed federal fishing regulations in the GOM can be made part of the overall decision- and policymaking process.
Investigating Travel Thresholds for Sports and Recreation Activities

Central to the practice of urban planning is the provision of services, which has potential public health and social welfare implications. However, service area analysis, typically, employs arbitrary travel-distance thresholds. Through this study we provide an empirical investigation into the durations and distances that respondents are willing to travel in order to engage in various sports and recreation activities. This research uses time-diary data, augmented with global positioning system information, to investigate individually based and objectively measured travel thresholds (which define travelsheds) for various sports and recreation activities in Halifax, Nova Scotia. Results accord with national time-diary data, and indicate that duration-based and distance-based travelsheds are generally in the order of 15–30 minutes and 4–20 km, respectively. Georeferenced time-diary data provide unique insights into travel thresholds, which may be used to help improve accessibility and thereby increase the fre...
Ab initio inclusion of polarization effects in the Schwinger multichannel formulation: Application to elastic e - H 2 scattering

To assess the accuracy with which polarization is represented in the Schwinger multichannel formulation, we have calculated elastic integral and differential scattering cross sections for e-H2 collisions from 1 to 10 eV. Our ab initio results are found to be in good agreement with other recent theoretical studies and with a variety of experimental data including measured differential cross sections. Our method is designed to be applicable to electronically inelastic collisions and to closed-shell targent molecules of arbitrary geometry.
Laser Ablations Reveal Functional Relationships of Segmental Hindbrain Neurons in Zebrafish

Abstract Segmentation of the vertebrate brain is most obvious in the hindbrain, where successive segments contain repeated neuronal types. One such set of three repeated reticulospinal neurons—the Mauthner cell, MiD2cm, and MiD3cm—is thought to produce different forms of the escape response that fish use to avoid predators. We used laser ablations in larval zebrafish to test the hypothesis that these segmental hindbrain cells form a functional group. Killing all three cells eliminated short-latency, high-performance escape responses to both head- and tail-directed stimuli. Killing just the Mauthner cell affected escapes from taildirected but not from head-directed stimuli. These results reveal the contributions of one set of reticulospinal neurons to behavior and support the idea that serially repeated hindbrain neurons form functional groups.
A More Perfect System: Distinguishing Offense Conduct and Offender Characteristics

The universe of sentencing considerations can be divided between offense conduct and offender characteristics. Historically, offense conduct (e.g., harms to victims, whether a weapon was used, the amount of money stolen or drugs trafficked) and offender characteristics (e.g., an offender's prior criminal history, employment record, family circumstances) have both played a significant role in sentencing decision-making, and both types of considerations remain central in modern sentencing systems. But the distinctive import and impact of offense conduct and offender characteristics at sentencing have not often been carefully and systematically examined. This Article, which is part of a special issue of the Stanford Law Review reflecting on 25 years of modern sentencing reforms, explores, both historically and normatively, the consideration of offense conduct and offender characteristics at sentencing. Part I outlines the shifts in sentencing theory and offense/offender focus, and Part II analyzes the Supreme Court's recent sentencing jurisprudence. These Parts spotlight numerous important and illuminating connections between the offense/offender distinction and sentencing theory, constitutional jurisprudence, and modern sentencing reforms. They also highlight that federal sentencing reforms, when examined with a particular focus on offense/offender issues, exhibit some disconcerting attributes. Part III offers a few basic recommendations that would enable the federal sentencing system to strike a sounder balance, as have many state sentencing systems, in the consideration of offense conduct and offender characteristics at sentencing. Many federal district judges have started to use the new discretion they possess in the wake of the Supreme Court's decision in Booker to consider and give effect to offender characteristics at sentencing. Congress and the U.S. Sentencing Commission should give particular attention to those offender characteristics (such as age and family circumstances) that are now being most frequently discussed by sentencing courts after Booker. As a result of the unique remedy developed by the Supreme Court in Booker, federal sentencing judges, guided by the sentencing mandates of section 3553(a) of the Sentencing Reform Act, are now able to develop a "common law of sentencing" through their fact-specific, case-by-case consideration of federal sentencing policy and practices. In keeping with both the original spirit and goals of the Sentencing Reform Act, Congress and the Sentencing Commission should seek to integrate the common-law wisdom being developed in the courts into all future federal sentencing reforms.
Predictors of perceptions of mental illness and averseness to help: a survey of elite football players.

BACKGROUND: Hypermasculinity may impact elite American football players' willingness to seek help for mental health problems. AIMS: This quantitative study sought to identify what set of characteristics, including hypermasculinity, best predicts elite football players' mental health attitudes. METHOD: The Attitude Scale for Mental Illness, Inventory of Attitudes toward Seeking Mental Health Services, and Athlete's Perception of Masculinity Scale were self-administered to 112 football players from the NFLPA and the Washington, DC metro area. RESULTS: Canonical correlation analysis was used to develop a regression model that best predicts elite football players' mental health attitudes. This study found that though the athletes have high levels of hypermasculinity (x = 19.66, SD = 7.43), other factors, including marital status and sport level lessen the effects of hypermasculinity and facilitate positive perceptions of mental illness and receptivity to help. CONCLUSIONS: Predictors suggest that therapeutic efforts targeted toward family and support networks, as well as intervention strategies for decreasing mental illness stigma are essential to encourage positive mental health attitudes in elite football players. Language: en
You Wouldn't Know It from SIGCSE Proceedings, but We Don't Only Teach CS1 (Abstract Only)

Let's talk about how we teach upper-division courses! CS pedagogical content knowledge - i.e., knowledge of how to teach computer science - is mostly undocumented. This is particularly true for upper-division courses and in some cases this upper-division content is much more difficult to teach than CS1 or CS2 content! CSTeachingTips.org is an NSF-sponsored project to help curate tips that allow teachers to anticipate students' difficulties and build upon students' strengths. The lightning talk will be a call to action: first to share tips on Twitter @CSTeachingTips and at our CSTeachingTips booth and second to create research directions that will help us develop pedagogical content knowledge that extends beyond CS1.
The epidemiology, evaluation, and management of stingray injuries.

A descriptive analysis and review of the world's salient scientific literature on stingray injuries was conducted in light of recent high-profile cases of fatal and near-fatal thoracic stingray injuries to guide clinicians in evaluating and managing stingray injuries. Data was extracted from observational and longitudinal studies over the period, 1950-2006, to permit (1) a stratification of stingray injuries as bites, penetrating lacerations with and without envenoming, and combinations of deeply penetrating and envenoming wounds; and (2) an assessment of new management strategies for thoracoabdominal penetrating trauma and non-healing, necrotic stingray wounds. Unlike their Chondrichthyes classmates, the sharks, stingrays are docile and non-aggressive; and will not attack with their spined tails, unless provoked. Although some occupations are predisposed to stingray injuries, most stingray injuries can be avoided by observing seafloors and adopting simple practices when wading, swimming, diving, or fishing in temperate oceans and some tropical freshwater river systems. All stingray injuries should be managed initially with wound irrigation to dislodge retained spine fragments and envenoming tissues and warm water immersion to inactivate heat-labile toxins. Language: en
Structural Defects in Laser Annealed Arsenic Implanted Silicon

Laser annealed arsenic implanted silicon specimens with doses ranging from 6x1015 to 7x1016 As/cm 2 have been investigated by transmission electron microscopy (TEM) and double crystal xray diffractometry (DCD). For the highest implant dose, laser powers ranging from 1.1 to 2.2 J/cm 2 have been used. Experimental observations show two new features for this kind of specimen. First, in some cases, TEM micrographs evidence small (∼5A diameter) precipitate-like defects and/or dislocation loops confined within the heavily doped region. Second, in some cases, DCD shows a positive strain in addition to the negative strain attributed to 90% As in substitutional sites. X-ray rocking-curve simulations reveal that the negative strain drops to zero around 1000A before the end of the As distribution. This might be related to the presence of Si interstitials in the deepest region of the As distribution.
Reactions in Omcvd: Detection of Gas Phase Radicals In Gaas Deposition Under Single Gas-Surface Collision Conditions

Laser ionization mass spectrometry has been used to study the deposition of gallium from trimethylgallium with and without AsH3. The apparent Arrhenius activation energy for the production of gas-phase methyl radicals from trimethylgallium is measured to be 28 ± 2 kcal/mol in the presence of AsH3, about the same value as measured in the absence of AsH3. At a substrate temperature of 1150 K where gallium desorption is substantial, addition of AsH3 is found to increase methyl radical yield but drastically decrease gallium atom desorption. A mechanism is presented to describe the deposition of GaAs at low pressures under single gas-surface collision conditions.
Spiritual Formation and Sexual Abuse: Embodiment, Community, and Healing

As a distortion of God's created designs, sexual abuse (SA) carries a unique devastation-factor. Abuse that is sexual in nature damages a spectrum of internal and external aspects of personhood. In...