cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Laser in situ keratomileusis-induced (presumed) neurotrophic epitheliopathy.

Abstract Objective To evaluate tear production, corneal topography, accuracy of refractive correction, and best spectacle-corrected visual acuity in eyes that had moderate to severe rose bengal staining develop on the flap compared with eyes with little or no staining on the flap, the first few months after laser in situ keratomileusis (LASIK). None of the eyes in this study had significant preoperative dry eye disease. Design Retrospective case control study. Participants Individual eyes of 19 consecutive patients with moderate to severe punctate epithelial erosions and rose bengal staining on the flap 1 to 3 months after LASIK were compared with eyes of 19 concurrent patients who did not have punctate epithelial erosions or more than trace staining on the flap develop. Methods Nonparametric statistical analyses were used to compare tear secretion, corneal topographic irregularity, spherical equivalent, and visual acuity 3 and 6 months after surgery. Some eyes in both groups also had analysis of tear secretion 1 month after surgery. Main outcome measures Schirmer’s test without anesthesia, the topographic corneal irregularity measurement (CIM), the difference between attempted and achieved spherical equivalent, and the loss of best spectacle-corrected visual acuity. Results There was no difference in tear production 1, 3, or 6 months after LASIK in patients who had punctate epithelial erosions and rose bengal staining on the flap develop and those who did not. There was no significant difference in the CIM or mean accuracy of the refractive correction in the two groups, but some patients had a transient decrease in best spectacle-corrected visual acuity. Flap rose bengal staining resolved by 6 months after LASIK in most affected patients. Conclusions LASIK-induced rose bengal staining in patients without preexisting dry eye is likely neurotrophic epitheliopathy, because there is no difference in mean tear production between patients who have significant punctate epithelial erosions and rose bengal staining develop on the flap and those who do not. The signs and symptoms of LASIK-induced (presumed) neurotrophic epitheliopathy tend to resolve approximately 6 months after surgery. This disorder tends to be more common and severe in patients with pre-existing dry eye disease.
The hanging meniscus rotating disk (HMRD)

A new method for mounting cylindrical samples for use as rotating disk electrodes which eliminates many of the problems associated with more conventional techniques has been developed
Visualizing a biological clockwork's cogs.

Recent structural studies of KaiA and KaiB, two bacterial biological clock proteins, mark the beginning of a new phase in the analysis of circadian clock mechanisms.
The vascular response to nerve crush: relationship to Wallerian degeneration and regeneration.

Abstract The response of the endoneurial vasculature in rat sciatic nerve following crush injury was investigated by morphometric analysis of serial nerve transverse sections at the site of injury and in distal segments at 1, 2, 3, 6, and 9 weeks after injury. Quantitative analysis included determination of the number of vessels, vessel radius, vessel perimeter, and transfascicular area. The vascular response to crush injury consisted of two phases: an early phase, which peaked at 1 week after crush, consisted of an increase in vessel size but not vessel number. The second phase, which peaked at 6 weeks after crush, consisted of an increase in the number of vessels and in their density. This two-phase response was also evident as a dual peak in the total endoneurial vessel perimeter, a measure of vascular surface area, when this variable was plotted against time. The first phase of the vascular response was temporally related to the recruitment of macrophages and the clearance of degenerating axonal and myelin tissue during the early phase of Wallerian degeneration. The second phase involved an increase in the number of blood vessels and was associated with cellular proliferation, neurite elongation, and myelination during the subsequent period of nerve regeneration.
A Simulation-based Performance Analysis of Multicast Routing in Mobile Ad hoc Networks

In an earlier work, we had proposed an algorithm, referred to as OptTreeTrans, to determine a sequence of long-living stable multicast trees for mobile ad hoc networks (MANETs) such that the number of tree transitions is the theoretical minimum. In this paper, we study the performance of representatives from three different classes of on-demand source-tree based distributed multicast routing protocols vis-a-vis the centralized OptTreeTrans algorithm with respect to metrics such as the multicast tree lifetime, number of links per multicast tree and the hop count per source-receiver path. Appropriately, the distributed routing protocols considered are the minimum-links based BandwidthEfficient Multicast Routing Protocol (BEMRP), minimum hop-based Multicast Ad Hoc On-Demand Distance Vector (MAODV) routing protocol and the stability-oriented Associativity-Based Ad hoc Multicast (ABAM) routing protocol. Simulation results reveal a tradeoff between the three metrics: we observe that the three classes of distributed multicast routing protocols discover trees that have significantly smaller lifetime than those discovered using OptTreeTrans; on the other hand, the number of links per multicast tree and the hop count per source-receiver path incurred by the stable mobile multicast trees of OptTreeTrans are relatively larger than those discovered by the three classes of distributed multicast routing protocols.
CdSe Quantum Rod Formation Aided By In Situ TOPO Oxidation

In-situ TOPO decomposition was accomplished by applying a vacuum at elevated temperatures to a precursor solution in the presence of oxygen, leading TOPO to oxidize to di-n-octylphosphinic acid (DOPA) and octylphosphonic acid (OPA). The mixed ligand system of tetradecylphosphonic acid (TDPA), DOPA and OPA produced CdSe QRs on the order of 4 nm in diameter and 20 nm in length. Solvent and ligand identification was performed by mass spectrometry and (31)P nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy. Transmission electron microscopy (TEM) was utilized to determine the morphology, size and crystal growth of the CdSe QRs. This method of CdSe QR synthesis is unique in that the phosphonic acids responsible for anisotropic growth are formed in situ, prior to the nucleation and growth of the nanorods. Without the oxidation of TOPO, CdSe quantum dots (QDs) were synthesized instead, as reported previously. This discovery reinforces the efficacy of DOPA and OPA molecules as critical ligands in the formation of 1-dimensional (1D) nanostructures.
Economic Study of the Tunable Electron Beam Plasma Reactor for Volatile Organic Compound Treatment.

ABSTRACT A tunable electron beam generated plasma system has been developed for selective cold plasma treatment of dilute concentrations (1-3,000 ppm range) of hazardous compounds in gaseous waste treatment. This system, referred to as the Tunable Hybrid Plasma (THP), has shown a high degree of efficiency and effectiveness in both laboratory and field tests. Decomposition energy requirements are in the 100 eV per molecule range for treatment of carbon tetrachloride and 10 eV for treatment of trichloroethylene. A cost comparison has been made between the Tunable Hybrid Plasma (THP) technology and three conventional technologies used for emission control of volatile organic compounds (VOCs): granular activated carbon, thermal incineration, and catalytic oxidation. In addition to its environmentally attractive features, THP technology has the potential to be lower cost than other technologies over a range of concentrations and flow rates. Cost projections for the THP system for decomposition of trichloroet-h...
Moeheid: diagnoses, beloop en prognose

Nijrolder I. Moeheid: diagnoses, beloop en prognose. Huisarts Wet 2011;54(6):304–9. Hoewel patienten vaak met de aspecifieke klacht moeheid bij de huisarts komen, is er tot nu toe weinig longitudinaal onderzoek gedaan onder vermoeide huisartspatienten. In het Moeheidsonderzoek Eerstelijn (MOE) hebben we 642 patienten uit 147 huisartsenpraktijken een jaar na het eerste consult voor moeheid vragenlijsten laten invullen over hun moeheid en diverse gezondheidsgerelateerde factoren. Daarnaast brachten we in het HIS genoteerde diagnoses over dezelfde periode in kaart. De meeste deelnemers (60%) waren op het moment van het consult al langer dan een half jaar moe. Van de 571 mensen van wie gegevens uit het HIS beschikbaar waren, kreeg de helft een diagnose die mogelijk de moeheid kon verklaren. Deze diagnoses waren voornamelijk symptoomdiagnoses, vooral van het bewegingsapparaat (19%). Bij 8% stelde de huisarts een somatische aandoening vast en bij 16% een aandoening van psychische of sociale aard. Het beloop van de moeheid was erg variabel: 26% had een chronisch beloop en 17% herstelde snel. De overige patienten hadden een wisselend beloop of herstelden langzamer. Patronen in het beloop van de moeheid lieten een duidelijke samenhang zien met functioneren, (werk)verzuim, slaapproblemen, psychische klachten en pijn. Factoren die samenhingen met een ongunstig beloop waren grotere moeheid, negatieve verwachtingen over het beloop, vrouwelijk geslacht, het ervaren van langdurige moeilijkheden of een slechtere gezondheid, pijn en minder sociale steun. Het lijkt van belang dat de huisarts bij patienten met moeheid aandacht besteedt aan een verstoring van de balans in draaglast en draagkracht, en aan gedachten over de moeheid.
Effects of the RAF/MEK/ERK and PI3K/AKT signal transduction pathways on the abrogation of cytokine-dependence and prevention of apoptosis in hematopoietic cells

The Raf/MEK/ERK kinase cascade is pivotal in transmitting signals from membrane receptors to transcription factors that control gene expression culminating in the regulation of cell cycle progression. This cascade can prevent cell death through ERK2 and p90(Rsk) activation and phosphorylation of apoptotic and cell cycle regulatory proteins. The PI3K/Akt kinase cascade also controls apoptosis and can phosphorylate many apoptotic and cell cycle regulatory proteins. These pathways are interwoven as Akt can phosphorylate Raf and result in its inactivation, and Raf can be required for the antiapoptotic effects of Akt. In this study, the effects of activated Raf (Raf-1, A-Raf and B-Raf) and PI3K/Akt proteins on abrogation of cytokine dependence in FL5.12 hematopoietic cells were examined. Activated Raf, PI3K or Akt expression, by themselves, did not readily relieve cytokine dependence. The presence of activated Raf and PI3K/Akt increased the isolation of factor-independent cells from 400- to 2500-fold depending upon the particular combination examined. The individual effects of activated Raf and Akt on proliferation, apoptosis and autocrine growth factor synthesis were further examined with hormone-inducible constructs (Delta Raf-1:AR and Delta Akt:ER*(Myr(+)). Activation of either Raf or Akt hindered cell death; however, both proliferation and maximal synthesis of autocrine cytokines were dependent upon activation of both signaling pathways. The effects of small molecular weight inhibitors on DNA synthesis and cytokine gene expression were also examined. The PI3K inhibitor, LY294002, inhibited growth and cytokine gene expression. This effect could be synergistically increased by addition of the MEK inhibitor UO126. These cells will be useful in elucidating the interactions between Raf/MEK/ERK and PI3K/Akt cascades in proliferation, apoptosis, and leukemogenesis, as well as evaluating the efficacy of signal transduction inhibitors that target these cascades.
Explaining our Choices: Reid on Motives, Character and Effort

Libertarians, like Thomas Reid, hold that motives do not causally necessitate our choices. The problem that arises is to explain how the agent decides to act according to one motive and not the other. In light of some objections brought up by Leibniz and Edwards but also by contemporary compatibilists such as Haji and Goetz, I examine Thomas Reid's possible answer to this problem. I argue that to explain our choices Reid would appeal not only to motives and character traits but also to the amount of effort needed to choose what is best. I also address Reid's criticism of the implicit presupposition of the Principle of Suffi cient Reason. My aim is therefore to explore, clarify and defend Reid's account of agency in choicemaking.
A GIS and indexing scheme to screen brownfields for area-wide redevelopment planning

In this study, we present an indexing scheme to screen large numbers of brownfield sites in wide areas (municipalities, counties, states or other types of districts) in order to develop initial planning strategies for fund allocation and redevelopment. The scheme entails three dimensions, socioeconomic, smart growth and environmental, for each of which an index is constructed on the basis of location-specific variables irrespective of the target end use. Socioeconomic variables include population density, property values and unemployment which collectively represent the potential contribution of brownfield redevelopment to economic growth. The smart growth or livability index was developed on the basis of the LEED ND evaluation scheme of the U.S. Green Building Council, isolating location-specific features. Finally, the environmental index incorporates variables that represent the potential source of contamination (past use), pathway of exposure (soil permeability) and receptors (zoning, proximity to water bodies, parks, critical habitats, open spaces, wetlands and floodplains). The application of the indices to the City of New Haven, Connecticut as a case study yielded four priority sites out of 47 in the city inventory. Even though the indices were sensitive to the chosen weights, prioritization of sites in clusters reduced the effect; the top four sites were identical in the case study and 31 out of 47 sites were present in the same cluster regardless of the weighting scheme.
On the mechanism of protein binding of the carcinogen N-2-fluorenylacetamide by rat liver. Ion exchange chromatography of the soluble fraction☆

Abstract Following a single intraperitoneal injection of N-2-fluorenylacetamide-9-C14, the protein-bound radioactivity of rat liver reached a maximum at 8–12 hr. and declined thereafter. The soluble fraction attained the highest specific radioactivity. The proteins of the rat liver soluble fraction and of serum were chromatographed on diethylaminoethylcellulose columns. Recoveries of material absorbing at 280 mμ ranged from 85 to 98%, and of protein-bound radioactivity from 88 to 98%. Evidence for fractionation of the liver-soluble fraction has been presented. The evidence is based on the quantitative recoveries, in restricted fractions, of alcohol and lactic dehydrogenase, rhodanese, and arginase, as well as of hemoproteins and ribonucleic acid. The reproducibility of the procedure was tested by rechromatography of certain effluent fractions with no change in the elution pattern. The protein-bound radioactivity was distributed throughout the eluted soluble proteins. A significant increase in specific radioactivity occurred primarily in the first four retention volumes, which contained proteins of neutral and basic isoelectric point. No radioactivity was found in the ribonucleic acid fractions. The protein-bound radioactivity in the serum proteins was concentrated in the albumin fraction. The significance of the results for the isolation of the protein-bound metabolite(s) of N-2-fluorenylacetamide from liver has been discussed.
TUNNELING ZERO-BIAS ANOMALY IN THE QUASIBALLISTIC REGIME

We study the tunneling density of states (DOS) of the interacting electron gas beyond the diffusive limit. A strong correction to the DOS persists even at electron energies exceeding the inverse transport relaxation time, which could not be expected from the well-known Altshuler-Aronov-Lee (AAL) theory. This correction originates from the interference between the electron waves scattered by an impurity and by the Friedel oscillation this impurity creates. Account for such processes also revises the AAL formula for the DOS in the diffusive limit.
Pharmacogenetic predictors of nausea and vomiting of pregnancy severity and response to antiemetic therapy: a pilot study

Nausea and vomiting of pregnancy (NVP) is a common condition. The objective of this study was to evaluate the association between response to antiemetics in the treatment of NVP and genetic polymorphisms in the serotonin receptor subunit genes HTR3A and HTR3B. Pregnant women ≥18 years of age with NVP starting antiemetic therapy with promethazine, prochlorperazine, metoclopramide, or ondansetron at ≤ 16 weeks gestational age were eligible. The study recruited 29 women with complete data and sampling who returned for their one week follow-up and were genotyped for HTR3A and HTR3B polymorphisms. Severity of NVP was captured (using Pregnancy Unique Quantification of Emesis (PUQE) and Quality of Life (QOL) tools) upon enrollment and after one week of antiemetic therapy. These measures were correlated with pharmacogenetic variability. Subjects with genotype associated with high serotonin affinity of the 5-HT3B receptor (rs1176744, CC) required more antiemetic medications (p < 0.001) than other subjects. Those with genotypes associated with increased expression of the 5-HT3A receptor subunit (rs1062613, CT or TT) had worse final PUQE scores (p = 0.01) than other subjects while rs3782025 variants carriers had significantly better initial (p = 0.02) and final (p = 0.02) PUQE scores than other subjects. HTR3B and HTR3A gene variants may contribute to variability in response to antiemetic therapy for NVP.
Calculation of the force between planar electrical double layers containing counterion mixtures

The distribution of ions about a planar surface of fixed charge density can be solved within the hypernetted chain (HNC)/mean spherical approximation (MSA) by a simplest yet very accurate method based on the calculus of variations. Here we present an application of that work, the calculation of the potential of mean force and the net pressure for two charged planar surfaces immersed in a salt solution. The expression for the potential of mean force is derived from the Ornstein-Zernike relation for a homogenous fluid by taking the planar geometry limit and employing the conventional HNC approximation. This method requires as input only the distribution of ions about an isolated planar double layer. Though this simple method of pressure calculation is more approximate than some other schemes utilizing the HNC approximation, under many circumstances the agreement among the different theories is excellent. We present results for 1:1 and 1:2 salts as well as mixtures of monovalent and divalent counterions for ...
Synthesis and study of a calixpyrrole-texaphyrin chimera: A new oligopyrrolic chloride anion receptor

Reported here is the synthesis and characterization of a new class of macrocycle that represents a hybrid between texaphyrin and calixpyrrole. These polypyrrolic macrocycles were prepared in one step by the acid-catalyzed condensation between diformyl dipyrromethanes and o-phenylenediamines in high yields. The X-ray crystal structure of one of these new “chimeras” was solved. It reveals that the diprotonated Schiff-base macrocycle has a V-shape in which one chloride anion is bound. Isothermal titration calorimetry (ITC) studies served to confirm the ability of the hybrid macrocycles to bind chloride anion in acetonitrile solution. These compounds may be useful as easy-to-make anion receptors.
Low-Dimensional Approximations of Multiscale Epitaxial Growth Models for Microstructure Control of Materials

The desire to control the microstructure of materials during growth has recently led to the development of multiscale models combining molecular information from microscopic scales with continuum-type information at macroscopic scales. Such multiscale models for epitaxial growth are here reduced through proper orthogonal decomposition to obtain low-dimensional approximations that can be useful for on-line control. The approach is illustrated in a stagnation flow microreactor by examining the effects of substrate temperature and inlet composition on film morphology. Numerically, this is the first attempt to describe the dynamics of coupled deterministic partial differential equations and stochastic partial differential equations (a master equation) with a small set of ordinary differential equations. Reduction is carried for both the fluid phase and the film morphology at different operating conditions. It is found that while information generated by molecular models can be represented by relatively low-dimensional deterministic models, the minimum necessary reduced model dimension for description of microscale features of epitaxial films is higher than that needed for fluid phase species concentrations. Trained models obtained from model reduction can be used for nearby parameter changes.
Indomethacin and inhibition of protein kinase reactions.

Indomethacin, an inhibitor of prostaglandin biosynthesis, is useful in studies aimed at understanding the metabolism and physiological function of prostaglandins1. A recent report2 showing that indomethacin at 10–7 M potently inhibits the cyclic AMP-dependent protein kinases (cAMP-PrK) from ileal mucosa in the presence or absence of cyclic AMP, suggests how indomethacin may antagonize prostaglandin action on ileal mucosa. It also suggests that indomethacin might be useful in studying the properties and functions of protein kinase reactions. Inhibitors of prostaglandin biosynthesis, such as sodium salicylate and acetylsalicylate, at concentrations near 10–2 M, have been shown to inhibit bovine diaphragm protein kinase only in the presence of cAMP, while stimulating it in the absence of cAMP3. We report here that complete inhibition of cAMP-PrKs by indomethacin requires a concentration of 10–3 M and is not tissue-specific, and that the effect of indomethacin is concentration dependent above 2 × 10–4 M for the cAMP-dependent, and above 10–3 M for cAMP-independent PrKs. These results contrast previous ones2.
Building structural similarity database for metric learning

We propose a new approach for constructing databases for training and testing similarity metrics for structurally lossless image compression. Our focus is on structural texture similarity (STSIM) metrics and the matched-texture compression (MTC) approach. We first discuss the metric requirements for structurally lossless compression, which differ from those of other applications such as image retrieval, classification, and understanding. We identify “interchangeability” as the key requirement for metric performance, and partition the domain of “identical” textures into three regions, of “highest,” “high,” and “good” similarity. We design two subjective tests for data collection, the first relies on ViSiProG to build a database of “identical” clusters, and the second builds a database of image pairs with the “highest,” “high,” “good,” and “bad” similarity labels. The data for the subjective tests is generated during the MTC encoding process, and consist of pairs of candidate and target image blocks. The context of the surrounding image is critical for training the metrics to detect lighting discontinuities, spatial misalignments, and other border artifacts that have a noticeable effect on perceptual quality. The identical texture clusters are then used for training and testing two STSIM metrics. The labelled image pair database will be used in future research.
Abuse, Torture, Frames, and the Washington Post

W. Bennett, R. Lawrence, and S. Livingston (2006, 2007) argue that the press-and the Washington Post in particular-acquiesced to Bush administration framing of the mistreatment of prisoners at Abu Ghraib. The administration, they say, framed the events as the isolated abuse of prisoners by "a few bad apples" unreflective of higher responsibility or administration policy. Absent-or near absent, Bennett et al. maintain, was a Post counterframe of the mistreatment as a systematic effect of high level policy, better captured by the word torture. Such pattern of framing, Bennett et al. conclude, supports the Indexing model of U.S. press behavior. This article shows that Bennett et al. understate the strength and consistency of Post counterframing. When articles in the Post are searched not for individual words but for more extended frames, it becomes clear that the Post did in fact engage in considerable counterframing even in the absence of elite political opposition. This case, it is therefore concluded, does not in fact support the Indexing model as Bennett et al. maintain but is rather the kind of case described by R. M. Entman (2004) in which the press exercises greater independence of elite political opinion than the Indexing model admits.
Thermal analysis and management of lithium-titanate batteries

Abstract Battery electric vehicles and hybrid electric vehicles demand batteries that can store large amounts of energy in addition to accommodating large charge and discharge currents without compromising battery life. Lithium–titanate batteries have recently become an attractive option for this application. High current thresholds allow these cells to be charged quickly as well as supply the power needed to drive such vehicles. These large currents generate substantial amounts of waste heat due to loss mechanisms arising from the cell's internal chemistry and ohmic resistance. During normal vehicle operation, an active cooling system must be implemented to maintain a safe cell temperature and improve battery performance and life. This paper outlines a method to conduct thermal analysis of lithium–titanate cells under laboratory conditions. Thermochromic liquid crystals were implemented to instantaneously measure the entire surface temperature field of the cell. The resulting temperature measurements were used to evaluate the effectiveness of an active cooling system developed and tested in our laboratory for the thermal management of lithium–titanate cells.
Effect of Gaseous Preslaughter Environment on Chicken Broiler Meat Quality

Abstract The effect of preslaughter exposure to ammonia, carbon dioxide, or carbon monoxide on broiler carcass quality was studied in specially designed environmental chambers. Seventy-five birds were randomized into 15 treatments with 5 birds/treatment group and replicated, giving a grand total of 150 birds. The ammonia study included a control group, 25, 50, 75, and 100 ppm of ammonia exposure for 7 days prior to slaughter. Carbon dioxide treatments included a control group and 2,500, 5,000, 7,500, and 10,000 ppm exposure for 7 days. Carbon monoxide preslaughter exposure was for 2 hr using a control and 250, 500, 750, and 1,000 ppm of carbon monoxide. When compared to the control treatments, the following results were noted. Preslaughter exposure to ammonia of 75 ppm, or carbon dioxide of 5,000 ppm or greater, and carbon monoxide at 750 ppm significantly increased breast muscle shear values. Breast muscle pH was significantly increased at all levels of carbon dioxide, or 1,000 ppm of carbon monoxide, and significantly decreased at 25 ppm ammonia. The expressible moisture of the breast muscle was significantly increased at carbon monoxide exposures of 250, 500, and 750 ppm. Hunterlab aL values in the raw breast muscle were significantly higher at all levels of carbon monoxide exposure. Reflectance spectra of the thigh muscle from the 1,000-ppm carbon monoxide preslaughter treatment indicated a shift in the 580-nm oxymyoglobin peak to 570 nm, which likely corresponds to carboxymyoglobin. As shown by these data, the preslaughter gaseous environment influences muscle characteristics.
Got silicon? The non-essential beneficial plant nutrient

Research on a possible nutritional role for the element silicon has been hampered by the diverse beneficial effects that it has on monocots and dicots, and the subsequent difficulties in focusing studies on a single genetic model system. Although deemed a non-essential nutrient for the majority of plants, the benefits of silicon include increasing pest and pathogen resistance, drought and heavy metal tolerance, and the quality and yield of agricultural crops. Although the pathways and molecular mechanisms by which silicon is absorbed and deposited in plants are still unclear, recent progress has been achieved through the use of rice mutants that are deficient in silicon uptake. Additionally, the application of electron-energy-loss spectroscopy (EELS) allows one to determine the composition of silica deposits conclusively. Thereby shedding light upon the role of silicon in heavy metal tolerance. With the complete sequence of the genomes for a dicot (Arabidopsis) and a monocot (rice) available for large-scale genetic analysis, the future bodes well for a more complete understanding of the biological role of silicon and its mode of transport into and through plants.
Experimental investigation of the ion surfing transport method

Abstract The “ion surfing” method proposed earlier [G. Bollen, Int. J Mass Spectrom. 299 (2011) 131] for transporting ions in helium buffer gas has been demonstrated experimentally through detailed measurements with rubidium and potassium ions. These elements were found to be efficiently transported over distances of up to 40 cm in gas pressures reaching 200 mbar. Transport speeds as high as 75 m/s were reached for rubidium ions at a gas pressure of 80 mbar. The measured ion speed and transport efficiencies are found to be in good agreement with results from detailed ion transport simulations. This study validates “ion surfing” as a viable transport method for ions in gas that will benefit future devices for the thermalization of energetic ion beams.
The preparation and maintenance of standards of radioactivity

Abstract A historical survey is made of the preparation and measurement of international radium standards. The need for standards of other radioisotopes is explained. Standardization is subdivided into primary and secondary methods; 4πβ counting, β-γ and γ-γ coincidence counting, gas counting, and microcalorimetry are discussed as primary methods, and the maintenance of standards thus obtained is considered. The present state of international comparison of several radioisotopes is reported and discussed together with a policy for wider international standardization.
European Bloc Imperialism

The US forced the EU to liberalize the Lome Conventions, but the EU fired back with the EPAs, characterized by supposedly free market policies but which in reality yokes the ACP countries trade to the EU and excludes the US.
Collaborations between Public Health and Computer Science: A Path Worth Pursuing

Collaboration between public health and computer science shows much promise. The history of the two disciplines is discussed. Examples of recent efforts at collaboration are described to give a flavor of where this path may be going. These studies ranged from some showing effectiveness to others demonstrating the infancy of the collaboration at this point in time. Technology and computer science offer public health many new technological advances by making further use of the internet, enhancements in public health informatics, using computer science to accomplish clinical work gathered by physicians to name a few examples. Still other computer science research concentrations such as animation and virtual reality deserve further exploration. Pursuing this path is certainly worth taking to further advance knowledge and the mission of public health primarily through collaborative efforts taken by individuals/teams in the two disciplines. A collaboration with computer science will help bring public health to meet the 21st century both in terms of challenges and technology.
Understanding the Tumor Microenvironment and Radioresistance by Combining Functional Imaging With Global Gene Expression

The objective of this review is to present an argument for performing joint analyses between functional imaging with global gene expression studies. The reason for making this link is that tumor microenvironmental influences on functional imaging can be uncovered. Such knowledge can lead to (1) more informed decisions regarding how to use functional imaging to guide therapy and (2) discovery of new therapeutic targets. As such, this approach could lead to identification of patients who need aggressive treatment tailored toward the phenotype of their tumor vs those who could be spared treatment that carries risk for more normal tissue complications. Only a handful of papers have been published on this topic thus far, but all show substantial promise.
Translation under pressure and the Web: a parallel corpus-study of Obama´s Inaugural speech in the online media

During the last decade, the effects of time pressure in translation have been studied from an empirical-experimental approach (Jensen, 1999, 2000; De Rooze, 2003, 2008; Sharmin, Spakov, Raiha, and Jakobsen, 2008). At the same time, the immediacy of the WWW has contributed increasing time pressures for some translation processes, especially those associated with web digital genres. This paper researches this issue following a product-based corpus methodology: in the twelve hours after President Obama's inaugural speech, a parallel corpus of ten different translations into Spanish was collected from online media outlets around the world. The analysis concentrates on the effects on quality through a combination of error-based metrics and a corpus-based analysis of creativity. The results were later contrasted with the empirical process-oriented data from professional translators obtained by De Rooze (2003). Despite the difficulties in inferring cognitive processing from translation products, the objective of this analysis is to attempt to map certain features of translations under pressure that might appear in actual published translations, thus shedding some light into strategies and procedures in the professional world to deal with time pressure.
Risk and protective factors associated with gang-involved youth in Trinidad and Tobago

OBJECTIVES: To examine the prevalence of gang involvement, the risk and protective factors associated with gang involvement, and the association between gang involvement and exposure to multiple risk and protective factors among school-aged youth in Trinidad and Tobago. METHODS: A survey instrument was administered to 2 206 students enrolled in 22 high-risk, urban public schools, from March-June 2006. It measured 30 risk factors and 13 protective factors within four domains: community, school, family, and peer-individual, plus levels of alcohol/drug use and delinquency. RESULTS: About 7.7% of youth reported being a gang associate; 6.8%, a former gang member; and 6.2%, a current gang member. Gang involvement was associated with perceived availability of handguns, residential mobility, having parents who favor antisocial behavior, early initiation of antisocial behavior, intention to use drugs, having antisocial peers, and having peers who use drugs. Those with social skills, belief in moral order, and interactions with prosocial peers were significantly less likely to self-report gang membership. Additionally, the probability of gang involvement increased as the number of risk factors increased. CONCLUSIONS: Gang membership among public school youth is about as prevalent in Trinidad and Tobago as it is in the United States, Canada, and Western Europe, but further research is needed. Although risk factors associated with gang involvement were present in all four domains, peer-individual risk factors were disproportionately likely to be associated with gang status. The most effective gang prevention strategies might be those that focus on multiple risk factors, with an emphasis on peer-individual factors and promoting a "belief in moral order."
Intergenerational Occupational Mobility in the Late 19th Century United States

Focusing on white U.S. men aged 25-34, this paper compares the patterns of intergenerational occupational mobility in a late 19th century sample to those found in the well-known 1962 and 1973 surveys of Occupational Change in a Generation (OCGI and OCGII). While the overall pattern of mobility indicates less upward mobility and greater occupational inheritance among the 19th century men, the differences are small when comparisons are restricted to the nonfarm sector. Results from association models indicate a stronger relationship between origins and destinations in 1962 than in the late 1800s. In contrast, the 1973 OCGII data shows a virtually identical relationship between origins and destinations to that found in our 19th century sample. This paper sheds new light on the historical pattern of U.S. social mobility by examining father to son occupational mobility for a national sample of white men who were 25 to 34 years old in 1900. We study the relationship between the occupations of these men as reported in the 1900 census manuscripts and the occupations of their fathers (or, in a few cases, the household head), as reported in the 1880 census manuscripts. The -mobility of this sample will be compared with analogous men in two well-known post-World War II surveys of U.S. stratification pat*Revised version of a paper presented at the 1986 meetings of the Population Association of America. This research has been supported by grants from NICHD, "A National Panel Study" and "Cohort Changes in Personal Attributes, 1880-1900." We are grateful to Thomas W. Pullum and Charles D. Rice for their technical help, and to Michael Hout, R. S. Oropesa, and Ross M. Stolzenberg for their helpful comments on a previous version of this paper. Direct correspondence to Avery M. Guest, Department of Sociology, University of Washington, Seattle, WA 98195. i The University of North Carolina Press Social Forces, December 1989, 68(2):351-378
Managing Organizational Conflict: A Model for Diagnosis and Intervention:

Summary.-Conflicts occurring in or as a result of membership in organizations can be classified into three major categories: intrapersonal, intragroup, and intergroup. Conflicts in each category result from various personal-cultural and organizational structure factors. These factors may be identified through appropriate diagnosis and their effects on and implications for each of the three levels of conflicts established. Such a diagnosis is a prerequisite for the appropriate development and implementation of intervention strategies. The management of organizational conflicts involves diagnosis and intervention to maintain a moderate amount of conflict and help the organizarional members learn various styles for effective handling of different conflict situations. Even though conflict is often said to be functional for organizations, most recommendations for those relating to organizational conflict still fall within the "conflict resolution," reduction, or minimization realm. Insofar as we could determine, the literamre on organizational conflict is deficient on several points. ( 1) There is no diagnostic tool or method for the identification, typology, or taxonomy of conflicts occurring within an organization or its participants. (2) There is no clear set of rules to suggest when conflicts ought to be maintained at a certain level, when reduced, and when ignored. (3) There is no clear set of guidelines to suggest how interpersonal conflicts ought to be handled in different situations. This paper attempts to address these issues to develop a design for the management of conflict at the individual, group, and intergroup levels. It has been suggested that the management of organizational conflict involves the maintenance of a moderate amount of conflict at these levels by altering the behavioral and structural sources of conflict and enabling che organizational participants to learn the various conflict-handling styles to deal with different conflict situations effectively.
National Science Education Standards: A Political Document.

The National Science Education Standards provides a vision teaching and learning science for the science education system and criteria to measure progress toward that vision. The document contains standards for content, teaching, assessment, three major levers of change identified by policy analysts. The Standards also include program standards for schools and districts and system standards. This article describes how the Standards were developed within a political context, through a process with political aspects and includes political intents. It closes with recommendations about why and how science education researchers might engage in the political process. © 1998 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. J Res Sci Teach 35: 711–727, 1998.
Direct measurement of dark-bright exciton splitting in individual single-walled carbon nanotubes

We have performed low-temperature micro-photoluminescence studies on individual single-walled carbon nanotubes in magnetic fields up to 5 T and directly measured the dark-bright exciton splitting magnitude through the observation of magnetic brightening.
Tumour–stromal interactions generate emergent persistence in collective cancer cell migration

Cancer cell collective migration is a complex behaviour leading to the invasion of cancer cells into surrounding tissue, often with the aid of stromal cells in the microenvironment, such as macrophages or fibroblasts. Although tumour–tumour and tumour–stromal intercellular signalling have been showntocontributetocancercellmigration,welackafundamentaltheoretical understanding of howaggressive invasion emerges from the synergy between these mechanisms. We use a computational self-propelled particle model to simulate intercellular interactions between co-migrating tumour and stromal cells and study the emergence of collective movement. We find that tumour–stromal interaction increases the cohesion and persistence of migrating mixed tumour–stromal cell clusters in a noisy and unbounded environment, leading to increased cell cluster size and distance migrated by cancer cells. Although environmental constraints, such as vasculature or extracellular matrix, influence cancer migration in vivo, our model shows that cell–cell interactions are sufficient to generate cohesive and persistent movement. From our results, we conclude that inhibition of tumour–stromal intercellular signalling may present a viable therapeutic target for disrupting collective cancer cell migration.
Solder Fatigue Problems in Power Packages

The fatigue of solder connections in power packaging has been investigated. Power devices use large bond areas which lead to fatigue life problems. Three different types of structures consisting of silicon diodes attached to copper heatsinks have been thermally cycled and the integrity of the bonds compared. The thermal resistance from the silicon diode to its heatsink has been used to measure bond quality. Use of n BeO strain buffer between the silicon chip and the copper heatsink (Type II) improved the solder cycle life. Further addition of a layer of structured copper between the BeO and the copper sink (Type III resulted in marked additional improvement in cycle life. Fatigue failure was indicated by a rapid rise in the thermal resistance that suggested a crack or tear in one of the bonds between the silicon and the heat sink. This model has been confirmed by an ultrasonic microscope scan. Solder fatigue life was also extended by the use of hard solders, compressive forces, and hermeticity.
The effect of smoke-free homes on smoking behavior in the U.S.

Background Evidence from longitudinal population surveys is needed to establish whether smoke-free homes might influence smoking behavior. Methods The Tobacco Use Supplement of the nationally representative U.S. Current Population Survey (TUS-CPS) interviewed 3292 adult recent smokers in 2002 and again 12 months later. Both surveys measured smoking status, rules on smoking in the home, and the number of cigarettes smoked per day (cpd). For the main study outcome, an early marker of successful cessation (≥90 days quit) was used. Analysis was completed in 2008. Results In the 12 months ending February 2003, the prevalence of smoke-free homes among recent smokers increased from 33% to 39%. A smoke-free home at baseline was associated with ≥90 days cessation at follow-up (10.9% vs 6.2%, AOR=1.44; 95% CI=0.97, 2.21), and those who maintained a smoke-free home were more likely to be ≥90 days quit than those who did not (12.9% vs 5.7%, AOR=1.99; 95% CI=0.93, 4.25). However, adopting a smoke-free home during the year was associated with a nearly fivefold increase in the percentage of ≥90 days quit (AOR=4.81; 95% CI=3.06, 7.59). This increase was seen among all smokers, including moderate-to-heavy smokers (≥90 days quit: a smoke-free home=13.0% vs no smoke-free home=2.9%, p Conclusions This study provides strong evidence that the adoption of a smoke-free home is associated with successful quitting among smokers in the U.S.
Towards resilient multicore architectures for real-time controls

The DOD community is interested in multicore system-on-a-chip architectures to host Multi-Level Secure (MLS) command and control systems. These systems must be secure and resilient, not unlike hardened real-time control systems used in critical infrastructures. In this paper we discuss how Smart Grid features will fundamentally change our power grid and communication infrastructures, and suggest that resilient multicore systems-on-a-chip may offer a solution to the increased complexity of our critical infrastructure control systems, if those architectures can be suitably hardened. We showcase two vulnerabilities in the Cell Broadband Engine and show how those vulnerabilities can be mitigated using changes to the Linux kernel. Similar problems can been found in the Intel Nehalem architecture and the Freescale P4080 architecture. We conclude that multicore architectures are only suitable for MLS and resilient real-time controls if, and only if, designers pay close attention to mitigating the inherent firmware and software vulnerabilities.