cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Microbial Control of Soil Carbon Accumulation in Turfgrass Systems

Turfgrass is a major component of urban and suburban landscapes. It appears that large amounts of carbon (C) can be sequestered in turfgrass systems, making them, potentially, important contributors to CO2 mitigation efforts. The chronosequences in the present study and those published by others indicate that soil organic matter (SOM) accumulation beneath turfgrasses is non-linear, progressively moving towards stability over time, which is a pattern typical of restored ecological systems. With this hyperbolic accumulation, SOM and C accumulation rates steadily decline as turfgrass systems age, and rates approach minima after 25–40 years. Because turfgrass growth and generation of C generally do not decline over time, decreasing accumulation rates must result from increased SOM degradation by soil microbes. The size of soil microbial population and its activity increase with the accumulation of SOM; the highest activity being near the soil surface. Examinations of microbial diversity using fatty acid methyl ester and community-level physiological profiling have shown that a diverse community is present soon after turfgrass systems are established and the community is sustained, with little change, for periods of up to 100 years. Little impact from continual use of fertilizers and pesticides can be detected. Soil enzymes are abundant in turfgrass systems. Hydrolytic and oxidative enzyme activities contribute to the microbial degradation process.
Proceedings of the 2012 workshop on Cloud services, federation, and the 8th open cirrus summit

Welcome to the Workshop on Cloud Services, Federation, and the 8th Open Cirrus Summit held in conjunction with the International Conference on Autonomic Computing 2012 in San Jose, on 21 September 2012. This workshop brings together researchers and practitioners to discuss the newest ideas and challenges in cloud services and federated cloud computing. The workshop consists of the presentation of peer reviewed papers to the workshop participants and the active discussion of topics related to the topic. Furthermore, we have planned a panel discussion. The services offered by clouds are becoming critical for a wide variety of applications used by industry, education and government. There are now many examples of successful cloud services offered by public, private and community clouds. Many efforts exist that are creating cloud toolkits and frameworks to simplify the development and delivery of cloud services. The main purpose of this workshop is to bring together those responsible for designing, managing, and operating clouds services so that they can share experiences with each other. The workshop also welcomes users with requirements for new cloud services. We are particularly interested in cloud services that can be used for federating clouds. Topics of interest include: Experiences, best practices, and lessons learned from operating cloud services; Testbeds for designing new cloud services; Cloud services for federating clouds; Management and provisioning of cloud services; Health and status monitoring of cloud services; Security of cloud services; Requirements for new cloud services; Reliability and fault tolerance of cloud services; Cloud services that span public and private clouds including the design of cloud services, Intercloud services, Federation services Identity services Cloud bursting services, Cloud services for emerging applications; Applications utilizing such services; Cloud Software and Tools for IaaS, PaaS, Hadoop, and others. This workshop builds upon the success of the prior Open Cirrus events and the prior Open Cloud Consortium and FutureGrid events but was expanded to include other organizations. The goal is to help building a community for those responsible for operating clouds and cloud testbeds, as well as those interested in designing new cloud services.
Less is more when it comes to ketorolac for pain.

Review of: Motov S, Yasavolian M, Likourezos A, et al. Comparison of intravenous ketorolac at three single-dose regimens for treating acute pain in the emergency department: a randomized controlled trial. Ann Emerg Med 2017;70:177-184.
Meaning of presence

Conversation about expected translation into Ukrainian of Gumbrecht's book Production of Presence. What Meaning Cannot Convey (Stanford UP: Stanford, 2004).
A Review of Triarius Jacoby, 1887 (Coleoptera: Chrysomelidae: Galerucinae: Luperini), with Descriptions of a New Genus and Four New Species

Triariodes Clark and Anderson, new genus, is described, and Triarius vittipennis (Horn, 1893), new combination, is transferred to this genus. Triariodes admiratio Clark and Anderson, new species, Triariodes segonku Clark and Anderson, new species, and Triarius novoleonis Clark and Anderson, new species, are described from Mexico. Triarius texanus Clark and Anderson, new species, is described from Texas. All known species in Triariodes and Triarius are diagnosed, illustrated, and included in keys to species. Diabrotica neotropica Clark and Anderson is proposed as a replacement name for Triarius tropicusWeise, 1921.
Sterilization performance comparison between an autosampler-ready microporous filter vial and a syringe-based filter.

Abstract Herein we report that the Thomson Standard and eXtreme/FV® filter vials (0.2 μm polyvinylidene difluoride filter membrane) are as effective as gold standard microporous membrane-based syringe filters at removing bacteria, such as Klebsiella pneumonia, from media samples produced in the microbiological laboratory.
Determining grasp selection from arm trajectories via deep learning to enable functional hand movement in tetraplegia.

Cervical spinal cord injury severely affects grasping ability of its survivors. Fortunately, many individuals with tetraplegia retain residual arm movements that allow them to reach for objects. We propose a wearable technology that utilizes arm movement trajectory information and deep learning methods to determine grasp selection. Furthermore, we combined this approach with neuromuscular stimulation to determine if self-driven functional hand movement could be enabled in spinal cord injury participants. Two cervical SCI participants performed arbitrary and natural reaching movements toward target objects in three-dimensional space, which were recorded using an inertial sensor worn on their wrist. Time series classifiers were trained to recognize the trajectories using either a Dynamic Time Warping (DTW) algorithm or a Long Short-Term Memory (LSTM) recurrent neural network. As an initial proof-of-concept, we demonstrate real-time classification of the arbitrary movements using DTW only (due to its implementation simplicity), which when used in combination with a high density neuromuscular stimulation sleeve with textile electrodes, enabled participants to perform functional grasping. Participants were able to consistently perform arbitrary two-dimensional and three-dimensional arm movements which could be classified with high accuracy. Furthermore, it was found that natural reaching trajectories for two different target objects (requiring two different grasp types) were distinct and also discriminable with high accuracy. In offline comparisons, LSTM (mean accuracies 99%) performed significantly better than DTW (mean accuracies 86 and 83%) for both arbitrary and natural reaching movements, respectively. Type I and II errors occurred more frequently for DTW (up to 60 and 15%, respectively), whereas it stayed under 5% for LSTM. Also, DTW achieved online accuracy of 79%. We demonstrate the feasibility of utilizing arm trajectory information to determine grasp selection using a wearable inertial sensor along with DTW and deep learning methods. Importantly, this technology can be successfully used to control neuromuscular stimulation and restore functional independence to individuals living with paralysis. NCT, NCT03385005 . Registered September 26, 2017
Pneumonia Severity in Children: Utility of Procalcitonin in Risk Stratification.

OBJECTIVES: To determine if serum procalcitonin, an indicator of bacterial etiology in pneumonia in all ages and a predictor of severe pneumonia in adults, is associated with disease severity in children with community-acquired pneumonia. METHODS: We prospectively enrolled children 2 months to RESULTS: The study included 488 children with pneumonia; 30 (6%) were classified as very severe, 106 (22%) as severe, 327 (67%) as moderate, and 25 (5%) as mild. Median procalcitonin in the very severe group was 5.06 (interquartile range [IQR] 0.90–16.83), 0.38 (IQR 0.11–2.11) in the severe group, 0.29 (IQR 0.09–1.90) in the moderate group, and 0.21 (IQR 0.12–1.2) in the mild group. Increasing procalcitonin was associated with increasing severity (range of aORs: 1.03–1.25) and increased LOS (range of aORs: 1.04–1.36). All comparisons were statistically significant. CONCLUSIONS: Higher procalcitonin was associated with increased severity and LOS. Procalcitonin may be useful in helping clinicians evaluate pneumonia severity.
Distinguishing the Correlates of Being Mindfully vs. Mindlessly Coupled: Development and Validation of the Attentive Awareness in Relationships Scale (AAIRS)

The current study developed a psychometrically optimized measure of mindful attentive relationship awareness. Items of existing scales (e.g., the Relationship Awareness Scale; RAS; the Relationship Mindfulness Measure; RMM) were combined with items written by the authors to create a pool of 54 items given to online samples of 2109 and 1752 participants. Using correlational analyses and item response theory, we developed the Attentive Awareness in Relationships Scale (AAIRS). Results suggested that the AAIS measures the construct of relationship awareness comprised of two distinct facets: attentive awareness and inattention/distraction. The AAIRS demonstrated convergent and discriminant validity with existing measures (e.g., relationship communication/talk, trait mindfulness) and offered researchers higher precision and power for detecting differences among individuals. The AAIRS demonstrated adequate internal consistency across a wide range of demographic subgroups and displayed strict measurement invariance across genders, relationship stages, and current meditation frequencies. Bifactor analyses highlighted that the subscales of the AAIRS shared a large proportion of common variance, supporting the use of a total score to represent mindful attentive relationship awareness. However, the bifactor analyses also revealed unique variance associated with each subscale, and longitudinal analyses suggested that those facets of relationship awareness changed fairly independently across time and were both uniquely linked to corresponding change in relationship satisfaction, suggesting the possibility that each of the AAIRS subscales might also contribute novel explanatory variance (i.e., incremental validity). The AAIRS offers researchers and clinicians a psychometrically-optimized tool for assessing the construct of relationship awareness.
The Confidence Earthquake: Seismic Shifts in Trust

Using data from a variety of public opinion sources, we explore changes in trust in the vote count. A historic gap in confidence between Democrats and Republicans has grown, caused by two reasons: (1) an unusually big increase in Democratic confidence coupled with a modest decrease in Republican confidence and (2) a pre-election trust gap that already placed Democrats more confident than Republicans. Looking at confidence that votes in one’s state were counted as intended, there is a sharp discontinuity in Republican responses at the 50% point in Trump two-party vote share. In addition, Republicans in states Trump lost were much less confident when more votes were cast by mail.
High-speed, cortex-wide volumetric recording of neuroactivity at cellular resolution using light beads microscopy

Two-photon microscopy has enabled high-resolution imaging of neuroactivity at depth within scattering brain tissue. However, its various realizations have not overcome the tradeoffs between speed and spatiotemporal sampling that would be necessary to enable mesoscale volumetric recording of neuroactivity at cellular resolution and speed compatible with resolving calcium transients. Here, we introduce light beads microscopy (LBM), a scalable and spatiotemporally optimal acquisition approach limited only by fluorescence lifetime, where a set of axially separated and temporally distinct foci record the entire axial imaging range near-simultaneously, enabling volumetric recording at 1.41 × 108 voxels per second. Using LBM, we demonstrate mesoscopic and volumetric imaging at multiple scales in the mouse cortex, including cellular-resolution recordings within ~3 × 5 × 0.5 mm volumes containing >200,000 neurons at ~5 Hz and recordings of populations of ~1 million neurons within ~5.4 × 6 × 0.5 mm volumes at ~2 Hz, as well as higher speed (9.6 Hz) subcellular-resolution volumetric recordings. LBM provides an opportunity for discovering the neurocomputations underlying cortex-wide encoding and processing of information in the mammalian brain. Light beads microscopy is a two-photon microscopy approach that allows high-speed volumetric imaging of neuronal activity at the mesoscale.
A S-C- / K-band Reconfigurable GaAs MMIC Power Amplifier for 5G Applications

This work presents a power amplifier design approach for frequency reconfiguration between two arbitrarily-spaced bands. The method uses two parallel matching networks whose designs are de-coupled through the topology choice. The low-band matching network is constrained to consist of a shunt reactive element connected through quarter-wavelength transmission lines at the higher frequency. A shunt switch is placed in parallel to the matching reactance to enable isolation of this path from the high-frequency response when the switch is on. The architecture is demonstrated in a GaAs MMIC operating at C and K bands appropriate for a multi-function 5G transmitter. In CW operation at 5.8 / 22 GHz, the power amplifier achieves a power-added efficiency of 29.5 / 28 % with a corresponding output power of 20 / 20.5 % dBm and a single-stage gain of 8 / 6 dB. The amplifier is characterized with a 100-MHz LTE-like signal over a 2.8-6.8 and 18–23 GHz range.
Form and Function Predict Acoustic Transmission Properties of the Songs of Male and Female Canyon Wrens

To function effectively, animal signals must transmit through the environment to receivers, and signal transmission properties depend on signal form. Here we investigated how the transmission of multiple parts of a well-studied signal, bird song, varies between males and females of one species. We hypothesized that male and female songs would have different transmission properties, reflecting known differences in song form and function. We further hypothesized that two parts of male song used differentially in broadcast singing and aggressive contests would transmit differently. Analyses included male and female songs from 20 pairs of canyon wrens (Catherpes mexicanus) played and re-recorded in species-typical habitat. We found that male song cascades used in broadcast singing propagated farther than female songs, with higher signal-to-noise ratios at distance. In contrast, we demonstrated relatively restricted propagation of the two vocalization types typically used in short-distance aggressive signaling, female songs and male ‘cheet’ notes. Of the three tested signals, male ‘cheet’ notes had the shortest modeled propagation distances. Male and female signals blurred similarly, with variable patterns of excess attenuation. Both male song parts showed more consistent transmission across the duration of the signal than did female songs. Song transmission, thus, varied by sex and reflected signal form and use context. Results support the idea that males and females of the same species can show distinctly different signal evolution trajectories. Sexual and social selection pressures can shape sex-specific signal transmission, even when males and females are communicating in shared physical environments.
An Exploration into Individual Development Accounts as an Anti-Poverty Strategy

A non-random, cross-sectional sampling procedure was utilized in this study to determine what factors are related to households choosing to utilize Individual Development Accounts (IDAs) as a means to escape poverty. Surveys from 111 households were collected from September 1997, to April 1999, in seven Ohio counties to elucidate the relationship between the level of assets in working poor households and selected household demographic variables, and the decision on whether or not to actually participate in an IDA program. Findings revealed that households 1) with more than one wage earner and 2) with higher levels of education are more likely to join an Individual Development Account and benefit from a matched savings account. The implications of an asset-based social welfare policy strategy will be discussed.
Sterilization and eugenics

I N THIS sphere of thought it is easy to be dogmatic, difficult to be right. For only fifty years has man been conscious of his own evolutionary development, and already many begin to realize that he will soon reach out toward conscious direction of that development. It is doubtful if as yet our brains are big enough, or our knowledge deep enough, to direct properly so gigantic an adventure. We would seem to have achieved our unique position of supremacy in the animal world by some inner power forbiding us, at any evolutionary crossroads, to take the path of specialization. We can see, but less well than an eagle-hear and jump, less well than a cat-swim less well than do fishes, and jump nimbly in the tree tops less well than our ancient collateral cousin, the ghostly Tarsius. If we really were to succeed in breeding for perfection as we do milch cows, we would be tempted to specialize, and to what end would we do so? What quality would we pick? Our figures show that of the children of a manic depressive, mated to a normal, one-third are manic depressive and of the children of a manic depressive mated to a manic depressive, two-thirds have the disease. One might say that this is prima facie evidence for sterilizing manic depressive individuals; but again one must look a.t the question from another point of view. We do not advance from century to century, from civilization to civilization, by reason of the mass of mediocre people, but by the ideas springing from the minds of the brilliant few. These brilliant few have often been cyclothymic persons who, afflicted often in their lives by periods of desperate depression, illuminate the world by flashing thoughts which come when energies and mental quickness are enormously increased during their periods of elation. Sparta practiced infanticide more widely than other states for a military end. The Lacedaemonians were perfect, as a pack of wolves is perfect, but the glory of Grecian thought did not come out of Sparta. Julian Huxley has lately pointed out that it is improbable that human altruism will very greatly increase unless we entirely change our habits of procreation, setting aside individuals solely for this purpose, as do the insects, who have established thereby a rigid caste system. It is surely doubtful if man is ready to act on biologic truth when he is clearly content politically to live under a biologic lie. Germany at present has ordained that persons with schizophrenia and manic depressive insanity should be sterilized. When we consider that no man living knows anything of the pat,hology underlying these two conditions, it would seem premature and improper to lay unwitting hands upon them. However there is something to be said for the idea, not just of sterilization, but of castration of the criminal insane, in that eunuchs retain their intellect but lose initiative and emotionally are ideal seconds-in-command.
Order Restricted Inference

A wide variety of statistical techniques have proven useful in biological and environmental studies. Frequently, these techniques can be improved upon and/or made more powerful if the prior knowledge that certain parameters satisfy an order restriction can be incorporated into the analysis. Moreover, since the existence and implications of orderings can be easily grasped and interpreted by even casual readers and observers, the ability to identify such structure can be especially important. Such structure may exist in many ways. Two possibilities that have been widely discussed are the presence of ordered parameters and the identification of ordered distributions.
Uterus duplex with transverse septum of the vagina.

Abstract A case of transverse vaginal septum with a uterus duplex is described. The embryological significance of this in the light of the origin of the upper third of the vagina is discussed. The injection of Lipiodol into one uterus and an aqueous contrast medium into the other showed no difference of opacity.
Improved dissolution and chemical separation methods for Lu-Hf garnet chronometry

[1] Garnet-based Lu-Hf geochronology using conventional (HF-HNO3) dissolution methods may be compromised by full or partial digestion of Hf-rich zircon inclusions. This study integrates two complimentary methods to substantially reduce zircon digestion while assuring complete digestion of garnet and sample-spike equilibration. Handpicked garnet fractions are heat treated to >1000°C in an evacuated silica glass ampoule to anneal zircon inclusions and then dissolved with 12 M HCl at 210°C and cold 28 M HF. Analyses of heat-treated garnet (and their high-temperature breakdown products orthopyroxene-spinel-quartz) from Gore Mountain, New York, demonstrate the method is capable of complete dissolution of garnet and routinely achieving sample-spike equilibration. Independent analyses of annealed and unannealed zircons dissolved by HCl – cold HF demonstrate the benefit of heat treatment prior to dissolution. Analyses of zircon-rich garnets from peletic paragneisses of Labrador, Canada, show the potential of this method by returning Lu-Hf ratios commensurate with the degree of heat treatment. Finally, a complementary chemical separation method for Lu and Hf is presented that supports analysis of garnet by MC-ICP-MS.
DATALOG with Constraints: A Foundation for Trust Management Languages

Trust management (TM) is a promising approach for authorization and access control in distributed systems, based on signed distributed policy statements expressed in a policy language. Although several TM languages are semantically equivalent to subsets of Datalog, Datalog is not sufficiently expressive for fine-grained control of structured resources. We define the class of linearly decomposable unary constraint domains, prove that DATALOG extended with constraints in any combination of such constraint domains is tractable, and show that permissions associated with structured resources fall into this class. We also present a concrete declarative TM language, RT1C, based on constraint DATALOG, and use constraint DATALOG to analyze another TM system, KeyNote, which turns out to be less expressive than RT1C in significant respects, yet less tractable in the worst case. Although constraint DATALOG has been studied in the context of constraint databases, TM applications involve different kinds of constraint domains and have different computational complexity requirements.
The New Globalisation of Intellectual Property Rights: What's New This Time?

The period since the mid-1990s has seen sweeping and globalised reforms in the laws and standards protecting intellectual property rights. This paper sets those changes into historical context, noting their important antecedents but emphasising their major and comprehensive new directions. Empirical evidence suggests that these reforms are not having much impact on innovation in the developing world but are improving the processes and efficiency of technology diffusion. However, stronger patents and copyrights also raise concerns about how they will affect the ability of poor countries to access technologies for dealing with public and social objectives. The paper concludes with observations about the sustainability of the new globalised system.
Reducing the Activity and Secretion of Microbial Antioxidants Enhances the Immunogenicity of BCG

Background In early clinical studies, the live tuberculosis vaccine Mycobacterium bovis BCG exhibited 80% protective efficacy against pulmonary tuberculosis (TB). Although BCG still exhibits reliable protection against TB meningitis and miliary TB in early childhood it has become less reliable in protecting against pulmonary TB. During decades of in vitro cultivation BCG not only lost some genes due to deletions of regions of the chromosome but also underwent gene duplication and other mutations resulting in increased antioxidant production.
A comparison study of ionic polymer-metal composites (IPMCs) fabricated with Nafion and other ion exchange membranes

Ionic polymer-metal composites (IPMCs) have been and still are one of the best candidates with great potential to be used as actuators and sensors particularly in bioengineering where the environmental conditions are in an aqueous medium. Each component of an IPMC is important. However, the ion exchange membrane should be more emphasized because it is where ions migrate when electrical stimulation is applied and eventually it produces deformation of the IPMC. So far, the most commonly used ion exchange membrane is Nafion and many studies have been conducted with it for IPMC applications. There are a number of other commercially available ion exchange membranes now, but only a few studies have been done on those membranes to be used in IPMC applications. In this study, four commercially available membranes, (1) Nafion N115 (DuPont), (2) CMI7000S (Membranes International Inc.), (3) F-14100 (fumatech), (4) GEFC-700 (Golden Energy Fuel Cell) were selected and fabricated in IPMCs and their potentials as actuators were examined by conducting various characterizations such as water uptake, ion exchange capacity, SEM, DSC, blocking force and bending displacement.
Conceptual Integration and Measurement of Epistemological and Ontological Beliefs in Educational Research

This paper examines the conceptualization and measurement of epistemological and ontological phenomena and makes recommendations for improving the conceptual framework and methodological assessment of these phenomena. I discuss the ways educational researchers have studied beliefs and how this research can be improved through a comprehensive conceptual framework and better measurement. This paper provides definitions of epistemological and ontological beliefs and world views, discusses six complementary strategies for assessing these beliefs, compares the strengths of these strategies, and provides examples of how they have been used in the research literature. This paper discusses challenges related to the development of a comprehensive theoretical framework for beliefs, as well as ways to improve measurement of these beliefs and summarizes six emergent themes.
Reply by the authors to the discussion by F. Qin

We are more than happy to reference the paper by F. Qin et al. Both their paper and the “fast marching” method build on Dijkstra’s famous 1959 method for finding minimal costs and shortest paths in weighted networks. Dijkstra’s approach introduces the idea of expanding wavefronts to build a running cost outwards from a starting point, and introduces much of the stardard terminology in such algorithms, including the ideas of accepting smallest values in the expanding fronts and building solutions outwards in steps from these smallest values (see Dijkstra, E. W., “A note on two problems in connection with graphs,” Numerische Mathematic, 1:269–271, 1959). The terminology and approach are well‐known. They form a core part of undergraduate computer sciences courses, and are common to a variety of techniques for approximating shortest paths and expanding fronts, including the “fast marching” method.
An investigator-blind study of the efficacy and safety of azithromycin versus cefadroxil in the treatment of skin and skin structure infections of the foot

Abstract This randomized investigator-blinded study compared the short course therapy of azithromycin (500 mg once a day, 250 mg once a day for 48 days) with cefadroxil (500 mg twice a day for 10 days) in the treatment of podiatric skin and skin-structure infections of bacterial origin. Forty patients entered the study and 26 were evaluated for efficacy. The main causative pathogens were Staphylococcus aureus and Streptococcus agalactiae B . On completion of therapy both treatments eradicated 100% of pathogens. Clinical cure and improvement rates for both therapies were comparable: 100% ( n =12) for cefadroxil and 90% ( n =9) for azithromycin. This study shows that a 5 day course of once-daily treatment with azithromycin is as effective as a 10 day course with cefadroxil in the treatment of podiatric skin and skin-structure infections.
Relationships between the denitrification capacities of soils and total, water-soluble and readily decomposable soil organic matter

The relationships between the denitrification capacities of 17 surface soils and the amounts of total organic carbon, mineralizable carbon, and water-soluble organic carbon in these soils were investigated. The soils used differed markedly in pH, texture, and organic-matter content. Denitrification capacity was assessed by determining the N evolved as N2 and N2O on anaerobic incubation of nitrate-treated soil at 20°C for 7 days, and mineralizable carbon was assessed by determining the C evolved as CO2 on aerobic incubation of soil at 20°C for 7 days. The denitrification capacities of the soils studied were significantly correlated (r = 0·77∗∗∗) with total organic carbon and very highly correlated (r = 0·99∗∗∗) with water-soluble organic carbon or mineralizable carbon. The amount of nitrate N lost on anaerobic incubation of nitrate-treated soils for 7 days was very closely related (r = 0·999∗∗∗) to the amount of N evolved as N2 and N2O. The work reported indicates that denitrification in soils under anaerobic conditions is controlled largely by the supply of readily decomposable organic matter and that analysis of soils for mineralizable carbon or water-soluble organic carbon provides a good index of their capacity for denitrification of nitrate.
Erratum to: Collaborative Partnerships and the Future of Global Orthopaedics

The Orthopaedic Healthcare Worldwide column entitled, Collaborative Partnerships and the Future of Global Orthopaedics (DOI 10.1007/s11999-013-3145-x) should have had the Column Editor’s Note at the beginning of the column in its entirety. The note said: A Note From the Column Editor: The practice of medicine is no longer constrained by geographical borders. Innovative technologies have dramatically improved our ability to share ideas and learn from colleagues from around the world. Although North American surgeons have increasingly demonstrated a willingness to share their time, expertise, and knowledge with healthcare providers from resource-poor countries through surgical and educational missions, we also have much to learn from our colleagues in the developing world regarding strategies and tactics for preventing and treating musculoskeletal disease with limited resources. This type of knowledge transfer will become increasingly important as our own healthcare system is challenged to do more with less. In this article, Morshed et al. describe the current state of interaction between surgeons across the globe, and provide a roadmap for future collaboration that will enhance all of our abilities to improve the value of care we provide for our patients. — Kevin J. Bozic MD, MBA The editors regret this error.
A saddle-point theorem with application to structural optimization

The relaxation for optimal complicance design is independent of whether the underlying elastic problem is formulated in terms of displacements or strains. For the purposes of numerical experimentation and computation, it may be advantageous to formulate optimal design problems in terms of displacements as is done in Ref. 1. The relaxed problem delivered by the displacement-based formulation is of min-min-max type. Because of this, efficient numerical implementation is hampered by the order of the last two min-max operations. We show here that the last two min-max operations may be exchanged, facilitating an efficient numerical algorithm. We remark that the rigorous results given here corroborate the numerical methods and experiments given in Ref. 1.
Percolation modeling of foam generation in porous media

A foam is a dispersion of a large volume of gas in a continuous liquid phase, stabilized by surfactant. Foams can improve sweep efficiency and oil recovery in gas-injection enhanced oil recovery projects. An important issue for these foam processes is the ease of foam generation in porous media. Previously, Rossen and Gauglitz (1990) derived a percolation model for foam generation in steady gas-liquid flow in porous media. More recent advances in percolation theory require modification of this model, as described in this note. Briefly, Rossen and Gauglitz assumed that the liquid films or lamellae present in foam block a randomly selected fraction (1 [minus] f) of the pore throats in the medium. Creating the large number of lamellae that define a foam from the relatively few present initially requires displacing these lamellae from their pore throats so they can multiply by the processes of lamella division and repeated snapoff. Displacing lamellae from pore throats to initiate the generation process requires imposing a pressure difference across the throat of order one or a few kPa (a few tenths of a psi). Generating'' foam, therefore, depends on lamella mobilization, which depends on the magnitude of the pressure drop [Delta]P across individualmore » pore throats blocked by lamellae. Rossen and Gauglitz's model predicts that the minimum pressure gradient for foam generation [del]P[sup min] decreases nearly linearly, as f approaches f[sub c], the percolation threshold for the pore network, from either direction.« less
Requirement for the PDZ Domain Protein, INAD, for Localization of the TRP Store-Operated Channel to a Signaling Complex

Abstract In Drosophila, the store-operated Ca 2+ channel, TRP, is required in photoreceptor cells for a sustained response to light. Here, we show that TRP forms a complex with phospholipase C-β (NORPA), rhodopsin (RH1), calmodulin, and the PDZ domain containing protein INAD. Proteins with PDZ domains have previously been shown to cluster ion channels in vitro. We show that in InaD mutant flies, TRP is no longer spatially restricted to its normal subcellular compartment, the rhabdomere. These results provide evidence that a PDZ domain protein is required, in vivo, for anchoring of an ion channel to a signaling complex. Furthermore, disruption of this interaction results in retinal degeneration. We propose that the TRP channel is linked to NORPA and RH1 to facilitate feedback regulation of these upstream signaling molecules.
Abstract 5174: Novel signaling interactions of type XV collagen: Implications for tumor suppression

Proceedings: AACR 103rd Annual Meeting 2012‐‐ Mar 31‐Apr 4, 2012; Chicago, IL Most clinical therapeutics used to date depend on specific targeting of cellular components to treat cancers. However, the environment outside the tumor cell is also critical since it may provide new targets to treat malignant and resistant cancers, independent of the tumor. We aim to advance the understanding of the early stages of cancer, prior to metastasis by determining the role of a non-fibrillar collagen (Type XV) and its interactions with the tumor stroma and extracellular environment. Type XV collagen (COLXV) is found in basement membrane zones where it assumes a pretzel-like structure but unlike the majority of fibrillar collagens does not form tight lattice networks surrounding the cell. Loss of COLXV during progression of aggressive cancers (including breast, pancreas, and ovarian carcinomas and melanomas) precedes basement membrane invasion and metastasis. Moreover, the loss of COLXV from the distal side of basement membrane zones and the resulting deficit in its interactions with other proteins may determine its specific function in tumor progression and eventual metastasis. In this context we have identified critical collagen-binding cell surface receptors on the tumor cell, which interact with COLXV and appear to mediate its functions. These receptors have also been reported to show altered signaling in cancer. We previously showed that over-expression of COLXV in cervical cancer cells alters the growth properties of these cells both in vitro and in vivo, and showed that type XV collagen is a dose-dependent suppressor of tumorigenicity in vivo. We now show that over-expression of COLXV inhibits epithelial to mesenchymal transition (EMT) in vitro and has a dramatic effect on the associated signaling events. We are now further investigating the mechanisms of tumor/stroma crosstalk that are impacted by COLXV and subsequently by its depletion. Citation Format: {Authors}. {Abstract title} [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the 103rd Annual Meeting of the American Association for Cancer Research; 2012 Mar 31-Apr 4; Chicago, IL. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2012;72(8 Suppl):Abstract nr 5174. doi:1538-7445.AM2012-5174
Human intrusion monitor for special nuclear material storage facilitites

A radiation detector has been assembled that monitors human intrusion in rooms containing kilogram quantities of special nuclear material (SNM). The detector is fabricated from scintillating glass fibers that contain 6 Li as the neutron absorber. The detector is designed to consume a minimum of power and to be placed in a standing position, thereby presenting a minimum profile and allowing placement in existing facilities. A small footprint is achieved by using intrinsically-thin fiber optics and by undermoderating the system. The detector operates by alarming on a rapid change in the thermal neutron count rate, which corresponds to albedo neutrons that are thermalized or absorbed in the hydrogen and carbon of human body tissues when someone enters the existing neutron flux found in SNM storage rooms.
Midwall Left Ventricular Mechanics An Independent Predictor of Cardiovascular Risk in Arterial Hypertension

Background An appreciable proportion of asymptomatic hypertensive patients have depressed left ventricular (LV) performance that is identified by midwall shortening/end-systolic stress relations but not by indexes that use endocardial shortening. It has not been established, however, whether depressed midwall ventricular performance has prognostic implications. Methods and Results Echocardiographic endocardial and midwall LV fractional shortening/circumferential end-systolic stress relations in 294 hypertensive patients were analyzed as predictors of the occurrence of cardiovascular morbid events that occurred in 50 patients (including 14 deaths) during a 10-year mean follow-up. Patients with initially lower midwall but not endocardial shortening, either in absolute terms or as a percentage of predicted from observed end-systolic stress, were more likely to suffer morbid events than those with initially normal values (P<.004). Cardiovascular events occurred in 29 of 100 patients (29%) and death in 10 of 1...
Optical key distribution system using atmospheric turbulence as the randomness generating function: classical optical protocol for information assurance

We describe an experimental laboratory system that generates and distributes random binary sequence bit streams between two optical terminals (labeled Alice and Bob). The random binary sequence is generated through probing the optical channel of a turbulent atmosphere between the two terminals with coincident laser beams. The two laser beams experience differential phase delays while propagating through the atmospheric optical channel. The differential phase delays are detected and sampled at each terminal to yield raw random bit streams. The random bit streams are processed to remove bit errors and, through privacy amplification, to yield a bit stream known only to Alice and Bob. The same chaotic physical mechanism that provides randomness also provides confidentiality. The laboratory system yielded secret key bit rates of a few bits/second . For external optical channels over longer channel lengths with atmospheric turbulence levels, secret bit rates of 10 s of bits/second are predicted.
Some aspects of small firm purchasing activities

Studies purchasing responses of small firms to the introduction of a new product. Indicates, from results, that search and evaluation phases of the decision are severely abbreviated – also small firms exist in informationally‐barren environments. States that academic interest in organisational behaviour has been increasing rapidly since the Second World War, in particular with regard to decision making. Posits that the nature of small firms' formalised buying procedures requires more research, as they are often marginalised with regard to important areas of market information such as that provided by agents and vendors. Summarises that the role of specialisation of the parts of the organisation and the complex interaction between these parts needs further study.
Regularized multichannel restoration using cross-validation

Abstract Multichannel images are the multiple image planes (channels) obtained by imaging the same scene using multiple sensors, The validity of multichannel restoration where both within- and between-channel relations are incorporated has already been established using both stochastic and deterministic restoration filters, However, it has been demonstrated that stochastic multichannel filters are extremely sensitive to the estimates of the between-channel statistics, In this paper we avoid the problems associated with multichannel stochastic filters by proposing deterministic multichannel filters that do not require any prior knowledge about either the statistics of the multichannel image or the noise, Regularization based on the multichannel cross-validation function is used to obtain these filters, We examine their relation to multichannel linear minimum mean square error restoration filters and we propose a technique to estimate the variance of the noise, Finally, we show experiments where we test the proposed filters and noise variance estimator using color images.
Collaborative Online Learning in Non-Formal Education Settings in the Developing World: A Best Practice Framework

In the present knowledge economy, individuals, particularly working adults, need to continuously acquire purposeful knowledge and skills so they can better contribute towards addressing societyâ€™s ever-changing developmental challenges. In the developing world however, few opportunities exist for working adults to acquire such new learning experiences through the formal education sector, and this makes it imperative for organizations to develop non-formal education and training programs to help address this need. With the proliferation of Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) worldwide, this article recommends the adoption of Collaborative Online Learning (COL) by non-formal learning organizations as a means of helping address the education and training needs of working adults. The article thus provides an overview of COL, and then draws on the research literature on relevant theories to recommend best-practice strategies for designing and delivering effective and workable COL initiatives within non-formal education settings, particularly in the developing world.
Men with diabetes may require more aggressive treatment for erectile dysfunction.

Diabetes mellitus (DM) and erectile dysfunction (ED) are common health problems that markedly increase in prevalence and incidence with advancing age. DM is a known risk factor for developing ED; however, among men with ED it is unknown if DM alters the need for more invasive therapies. We sought to determine whether DM is associated with increased ED severity, reduced effectiveness of first-line (oral) therapies, and therefore higher utilization of second- and third-line therapies. The Inovus I3 database was queried to identify men with ED. Claims were followed for 48 months. Men with incomplete follow-up data and those diagnosed with DM after ED diagnosis were excluded from analysis. Rates of second-line (penile suppositories or injectables) and third-line (penile prostheses) ED therapies were compared between men with and without preexisting DM. Risk of progressing to second- and third-line therapies associated with DM was assessed with logistic regression and Kaplan–Meier analysis. From 1 January 2002 to 31 December 2006, 136 306 men were identified with prevalent and incident ED. Among this group, 19 236 men had DM that preceded their ED diagnosis. Men with DM were more than 50% more likely to be prescribed secondary ED treatments over the 2-year observation period, and more than twice as likely to undergo penile prosthesis surgery. Among a large population-based cohort of men with ED, those with DM are more likely to require more aggressive treatments. These data suggest that ED among men with diabetes may be less responsive to first-line treatments (oral agents), worsen more rapidly, or both.
Three-level median filters for digital mammography

A class of non-linear filters, consisting of median filters in a three-level (tree-like) structure, is proposed for mammographie image processing which has more robust characteristics for noise suppression and image detail preservation than single median filters. The tree-structured filters combine the output of subfilters which are based on median operations with linear and curved windows so as to preserve a mammographic feature in one direction. Four variations of the three-level filter were applied to normal and abnormal mammographic images and the results were compared to a single median filter based on simulated noise criteria.
Radiation properties of soot from diffusion flames

The spectral extinction coefficients kλ of soot from flame transmission data are obtained for small pool diffusion flames of various fuels including solid polystyrene and plexiglas; foam polystyrene and polyurethane; and liquid isooctane and toluene. Good agreement between experimental and predicted kλ from Mie theory and soot optical properties throughout the visible and infrared ranges substantiates the general applicibility of these optical properties. On the other hand, the determination of soot sizes and volume fractions from visible range data and optical properties requires the form of the size distribution be known. The effect of using different size distributions on these soot results is evaluated by using the three-parameter distribution for the particle number density N(r) = arb exp (−br/rm), with b varied to create different functional dependence on radius r. The most probable radius rm is found to increase by about 80% as b is changed from 2 to 6, while the volume fraction changes by less than 10%. Hence, the most probable radius is rather sensitive to this functional dependence, while the volume fraction is only slightly affected.
A Three-Year Chemistry Seminar Program Focusing on Career Development Skills

An innovative, three-year seminar program was developed for undergraduates at The College of New Jersey (TCNJ) that supplements the core chemistry curriculum by teaching the auxiliary skills necessary for life as a professional chemist. Advising, good laboratory practice, and information literacy are the strategic components of this program that function as building blocks to support sequential learning objectives and outcomes for students while enriching the chemistry program at TCNJ. Although the seminar program model is not unique to the TCNJ campus, this program has novel components, including a strong faculty-embedded-librarian partnership, a three-year approach that builds new skills onto the foundation of those previously acquired, a mentoring relationship between faculty and students that is reinforced by sustained faculty interaction, a peer mentor component that builds throughout the students’ time at TCNJ, and assessment of knowledge retention at the start of each course. Details pertaining to ...