cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Dual probe methods for determining soil thermal properties: numerical and laboratory study

Dual-proije methods which implement analytical solutions of the conduction heat transfer equation provide a means to simultaneously determine volumetric heat capacity, thermal conductivity and thermal diffusivity of soil. Thermal properties are determined from temperature monitored by a sensing probe over time at a known distance from a line heatsource. This study applies the dual-probe method to aqueous a-alumina colloidal suspensions and aqueous solutions of glycerol which have known or independently determined thermal properties to validate the method. Good agreement was found between the measured temperature distribution and the temperature described by the infinite line-source analytical solution using the known or independently determined thermal properties. The thermal properties were also estimated using nonlinear least-squares curve fitting. Relative error of the estimated heat capacity and thermal conductivity was less than 2 percent and 6 percent, respectively. Signal noise cim be a problem in cases when the maximum temperature increase at the sensing probe is less than 0.5 °C. Good agreement was found when dual-probe temperature measurements performed on a saturated sand were compared with estimated temperature using curve fitted properties and using a mechanistic model. INTRODUCTION Soil is an agglomeration of constituents of various forms which are conjoined by mass and energy balances. An understanding of this dynamic system is dependent upon the ability to discern the properties used to describe the fundamental relationships which govem the balances. Though much progress has occurred in recent years, techniques which allow scientists and engineers to confidently quantify soil properties in a direct or indirect fashion are deficient for many of the soil properties. These deficiencies persist as constraints toward our understanding of soil systems. The determination of soil thermal properties is one such area that needs improved measurement techniques. A description of the thermal regime is necessary to evaluate
Master Clinician Review: Saving Holden Caulfield: Suicide Prevention in Children and Adolescents.

Objective The rate of adolescent suicide and suicidal behavior has risen dramatically in the past decade. The title of this article comes from the classic coming-of-age novel by J.D. Salinger, The Catcher in the Rye. Its protagonist, Holden Caulfield, is a precocious adolescent who, in the face of his inability to cope with his own self-destructives urges, imagines himself saving “little kids playing some game in this big field of rye.” He is standing on the edge of a cliff trying to catch “thousands of little kids” before they fall to their demise. This vignette from The Catcher in the Rye provides a useful metaphor for the relationship between mental health professionals and youth at risk for suicide, and suggests more efficient and effective alternative interventions to prevent youth suicide compared to standing by a cliff. Method These four alternative approaches are described, namely: (1) leading youth away from the cliff (ie, prevention); (2) going to where youth are (ie, improving access to care); (3) working with others to change the rules in the field (ie, changing the way care is delivered); and (4) putting a fence around the cliff (ie, restriction of access to lethal agents). The evidence to support the utility and cost-effectiveness of each of these approaches is reviewed. Conclusion There are extant, empirically supported, cost-effective approaches to the prevention and management of adolescent suicidal behavior that, if implemented widely, are likely to significantly reverse the decade-long rise in adolescent suicide.
Office-Based Anesthesia and Surgery: Unique Aspects

Office-based anesthesia and surgery have become increasingly popular over the past few decades. With the advancement in technology, improved available equipment, increased cost of in-hospital healthcare, and decreased overhead costs of office-based procedures; more and more procedures are being performed in a freestanding office. Advantages of office-based surgery include ease of scheduling procedures, convenience for both the patient and the surgeon, decreased costs, and improved patient privacy. With the increasing number of office-based surgery procedures, there has been concern for patient safety. Careful patient selection, obtaining accreditation, staffing facilities with qualified personnel, and having properly functioning equipment, are some measures that can enhance patient safety.
Toxin-Induced Acid-Base Disorders

In Chapters 5 and 6, lactic acidosis and ketoacidosis were discussed. These acidoses are characterized by high anion gap (AG). Other causes of high AG metabolic acidosis include ingestion of alcohols, glycols, salicylates, acetaminophen (paracetamol), toluene, and paraldehyde. This chapter focuses on the following toxins that cause acid-base disorders:
The vectorial parameterization of motion

This paper presents a vectorial parameterization of motion that generalizes the vectorial parameterization of rotation. The Plucker coordinates of an arbitrary material line of a rigid body subjected to a screw motion are shown to transform by the action of a motion tensor. The proposed vectorial parameterization completely describes an arbitrary motion by means of two vectors that constitute an eigenvector of the motion tensor associated with its positive unit eigenvalue. The first vector is conveniently selected as the vectorial parameterization of rotation, and the second is related to the displacement of a point of the rigid body. A complete description of motion is presented in terms of a generic vectorial parameterization. Relevant formulae for specific parameterizations of this class can then be easily obtained. More details are given for three parameterizations that present desirable properties: the Euler, Cayley-Gibbs-Rodrigues, and Wiener-Milenkovic motion parameters.Copyright © 2003 by ASME
Chapter 21 – Electrophoresis

Publisher Summary Electrophoresis is an experimental technique used in protein chemistry; it can be productive, quick, and inexpensive but must be used carefully. Electrophoresis is used routinely to screen or check materials such as blood serum profiles or purity checks in protein preparations. This chapter discusses the technique of sodium dodecyl sulfate (SDS) polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis. SDS is a soap; it unfolds proteins and wraps them in a soap micelle. SDS is an ionizable sodium salt giving a negatively charged micelle. The chapter further discusses isoelectric focusing. In isoelectric focusing, special materials—ampholytes—are used to create a pH gradient in the acrylamide gel or in agarose gels. The ampholines are small organic compounds that have been designed to maintain various fixed pH values. They easily migrate in gel and set up the appropriate pH gradient. The electrophoresis is then done such that each protein migrates to the point that is equivalent to its own isoelectric point.
PuffPacket: A Platform for Unobtrusively Tracking the Fine-grained Consumption Patterns of E-cigarette Users

The proliferation of e-cigarettes and portable vaporizers presents new opportunities for accurately and unobtrusively tracking e-cigarette use. PuffPacket is a hardware and soft-ware research platform that leverages the technology built into vaporizers, e-cigarettes and other electronic drug delivery devices to ubiquitously track their usage. The system piggybacks on the signals these devices use to directly measure and track the nicotine consumed by users. PuffPacket augments e-cigarettes with Bluetooth to calculate the frequency, intensity, and duration of each inhalation. This information is augmented with smartphone-based location and activity information to help identify potential contextual triggers. Puff-Packet is generalizable to a wide variety of electronic nicotine,THC, and other drug delivery devices currently on the mar-ket. The hardware and software for PuffPacket is open-source so it can be expanded upon and leveraged for mobile health tracking research.
By the Numbers Analysis of Effect of COVID-19 on a Neurosurgical Residency at the Epicenter.

Background The severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 pandemic has created challenges to neurosurgical patient care. Despite editorials evaluating neurosurgery responses to 2019 novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19), data reporting effects of COVID-19 on neurosurgical case volume, census, and resident illness are lacking. The aim of this study was to present a real-world analysis of neurosurgical volumes, resident deployment, and unique challenges encountered during the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 outbreak peak in New York City. Methods Daily census and case volume data were prospectively collected throughout the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 outbreak in spring 2020. Neurosurgical census was compared against COVID-19 system-wide data. Neurosurgical cases during the crisis were analyzed and compared with 7-week periods from 2019 and early 2020. Resident deployment and illness were reviewed. Results From March 16, 2020, to May 5, 2020, residents participated in 72 operations and 69 endovascular procedures compared with 448 operations and 253 endovascular procedures from January 2020 to February 2020 and 530 operations and 340 endovascular procedures from March 2019 to May 2019. There was a 59% reduction in neurosurgical census during the outbreak (median 24 patients, 2.75 average total cases daily). COVID-19 neurosurgical admissions peaked in concert with the system-wide pandemic. Three residents demonstrated COVID-19 symptoms (no hospitalizations occurred) for a total 24 workdays lost (median 7 workdays). Conclusions These data provide real-world guidance on neurosurgical infrastructure needs during a COVID-19 outbreak. While redeployment to support the COVID-19 response was required, a significant need remained to continue to provide critical neurosurgical service.
Orientation-specific long-term neural adaptation of the visual system in keratoconus.

Abstract Eyes with the corneal ectasia keratoconus have performed better than expected (e.g. visual acuity) given their elevated levels of higher-order aberrations that cause rotationally asymmetric retinal blur. Adapted neural processing has been suggested as an explanation but has not been measured across multiple meridional orientations. Using a custom Maxwellian-view laser interferometer to bypass ocular optics, sinusoidal grating neural contrast sensitivity was measured in six eyes (three subjects) with keratoconus and four typical eyes (two subjects) at six spatial frequencies and eight orientations using a two-interval forced-choice paradigm. Total measurement duration was 24 to 28 hours per subject. Neural contrast sensitivity functions of typical eyes agreed with literature and generally showed the oblique effect on a linear-scale and rotational symmetry on a log-scale (rotational symmetry was quantified as the ratio of the minor and major radii of an ellipse fit to all orientations within each spatial frequency; typical eye mean 0.93, median 0.93; where a circle = 1). Mean sensitivities of eyes with keratoconus were 20% to 60% lower (at lower and higher spatial frequencies respectively) than typical eyes. Orientation-specific neural contrast sensitivity functions in keratoconus showed substantial rotational asymmetry (ellipse radii ratio: mean 0.84; median 0.86) and large meridional reductions. The visual image quality metric VSX was used with a permutation test to combine the asymmetric optical aberrations of the eyes with keratoconus and their measured asymmetric neural functions, which illustrated how the neural sensitivities generally mitigated the detrimental effects of the optics.
Design with Fourth Nature

This article posits designing with Fourth Nature as an alternative to dominant modes of practice in restoration ecology, heritage management and landscape architecture. We explore the contours of r...
Hurricane harvey: equal opportunity storm or disparate disaster?

In the wake of Hurricane Harvey, multiple media sources claimed the event was an “equal opportunity” storm. These claims challenge existing social vulnerability research that finds marginalised gro...
Prospects for metal halide perovskite-based tandem solar cells

Over the past decade, metal halide perovskite photovoltaics have been a major focus of research, with single-junction perovskite solar cells evolving from an initial power conversion efficiency of 3.8% to reach 25.5%. The broad bandgap tunability of perovskites makes them versatile candidates as the subcell in a tandem photovoltaics architecture. Stacking photovoltaic absorbers with cascaded bandgaps in a multi-junction device can potentially overcome the Shockley–Queisser efficiency limit of 33.7% for single-junction solar cells. There is now intense activity in developing tandem solar cells that pair perovskite with either itself or with a variety of mature photovoltaic technologies such as silicon and Cu(In,Ga)(S,Se)2 (CIGS). In this review, we survey recent advances in the field and discuss its outlook. A discussion of the evolution, present status and future outlook for tandem solar cells employing perovskite materials.
Mucoadhesive Biopolymer Nanoparticles for Encapsulation of Lipophilic Nutrients With Enhanced Bioactivity

Biopolymer-based nanoparticles, prepared from stearic acid-chitosan derivative, sodium caseinate (NaCas) and oxidized dextran (Odex), have been shown to have high biocompatibility and exceptional gastrointestinal (GI) stability. However, the mucoadhesive properties of such nanoparticles have yet to be analyzed. Therefore, interactions between the nanoparticles and mucin, the major protein of the mucus layer, were evaluated through rheological studies, quartz crystal microbalance with dissipation (QCM-D) analysis, and adsorption testing. There was an increase in the elastic and viscous properties of mucin when complexed with the nanoparticles during the frequency sweep, denoting rheological synergism. The nanoparticles exhibited rapid decreases in frequency and increases in dissipation during the QCM-D analysis, denoting successful adsorption onto the mucin layer. Following adsorption testing, peak adsorption (91 %) was found to be at a ratio of 1:4 at mucin/nanoparticles (weight/weight). Once the role of the nanoparticles’ mucoadhesive properties in GI stability was determined, astaxanthin (ASTX) was utilized as a model nutrient for enhanced bioavailability via encapsulation. The effect of encapsulation on ASTX was determined through measuring particulate properties. Encapsulated ASTX exhibited enhanced antioxidant activity compared to free ASTX in ABTS and DPPH antioxidant assays. This study suggests that the as-prepared biopolymer nanoparticles exhibit mucoadhesive properties that could beneficially interact with the mucus layer of the GI tract. Given their enhanced mucoadhesive properties, the nanoparticles make an excellent candidate for the encapsulation of nutrients with low bioavailability such as the lipophilic ASTX.
Word and World: Practice and the Foundations of Language

This important book proposes a new account of the nature of language, founded upon an original interpretation of Wittgenstein. The authors deny the existence of a direct referential relationship between words and things. Rather, the link between language and world is a two-stage one, in which meaning is used and in which a natural language should be understood as fundamentally a collection of socially devised and maintained practices. Arguing against the philosophical mainstream descending from Frege and Russell to Quine, Davidson, Dummett, McDowell, Evans, Putnam, Kripke and others, the authors demonstrate that discarding the notion of reference does not entail relativism or semantic nihilism. A provocative re-examination of the interrelations of language and social practice, this book will interest not only philosophers of language but also linguists, psycholinguists, students of communication and all those concerned with the nature and acquisition of human linguistic capacities.
Fast algorithm for computing a primitive /2 to power p + 1/p-th root of unity in GF/q squared/

A quick method is described for finding the primitive (2 to power p + 1)p-th root of unity in the Galois field GF(q squared), where q = (2 to power p) - 1 and is known as a Mersenne prime. Determination of this root is necessary to implement complex integer transforms of length (2 to power k) times p over the Galois field, with k varying between 3 and p + 1.
Analyzing and predicting news popularity on Twitter

HighlightsThe spreading of news published by popular news agencies is more time sensitive than general retweets.Retweets of the news burst in few seconds, while general retweets burst in a relatively long time.No previous works focus on the specific type of tweets (news) and news agencies.We study the mechanism behind how news is spreading on news agencies in Twitter. Twitter is not only a social network, but also an increasingly important news media. In Twitter, retweeting is the most important information propagation mechanism, and supernodes (news medias) that have many followers are the most important information sources. Therefore, it is important to understand the news retweet propagation from supernodes and predict news popularity quickly at the very first few seconds upon publishing. Such understanding and prediction will benefit many applications such as social media management, advertisement and interaction optimization between news medias and followers. In this paper, we identify the characteristics of news propagation from supernodes from the trace data we crawled from Twitter. Based on the characteristics, we build a news popularity prediction model that can predict the final number of retweets of a news tweet very quickly. Through trace-driven experiments, we then validate our prediction model by comparing our predicted popularity and real popularity, and show its superior performance in comparison with the regression prediction model. From the study, we found that the average interaction frequency between the retweeters and the news source is correlated with news popularity. Also, the negative sentiment of news has some correlations with retweet popularity while the positive sentiment of news does not have such obvious correlation.
Massively parallel simulation of flow and transport in variably saturated porous and fractured media

This paper describes a massively parallel simulation method and its application for modeling multiphase flow and multicomponent transport in porous and fractured reservoirs. The parallel-computing method has been implemented into the TOUGH2 code and its numerical performance is tested on a Cray T3E-900 and IBM SP. The efficiency and robustness of the parallel-computing algorithm are demonstrated by completing two simulations with more than one million gridblocks, using site-specific data obtained from a site-characterization study. The first application involves the development of a three-dimensional numerical model for flow in the unsaturated zone of Yucca Mountain, Nevada. The second application is the study of tracer/radionuclide transport through fracture-matrix rocks for the same site. The parallel-computing technique enhances modeling capabilities by achieving several-orders-of-magnitude speedup for large-scale and high resolution modeling studies. The resulting modeling results provide many new insights into flow and transport processes that could not be obtained from simulations using the single-CPU simulator.
Does a Good Workforce Influence Restaurant Performance or Does Good Restaurant Performance Influence the Workforce

Workforce focus is one of the Baldrige Award's criteria, and it consists of two factors: workforce environment and workforce engagement. This study develops unit-level measures of workforce environment and workforce engagement and tests whether they affect two important outcomes, namely, intent to quit and unit sales per customer. Using a time-lagged research design, the results show that workforce environment and workforce engagement lead to unit results.
Bargaining over Sons and Daughters: Child Labor, School Attendance and Intra-Household Gender Bias in Brazil

In this paper we examine intra-household gender differences and the incidence of child labor and childreni?½s school attendance in Brazil to test whether the unitary model of household allocations is suitable in the child labor context. We begin by building an intra-household allocation model where fathers and mothers may affect the education investment and the child labor participation of their sons and daughters differently due to differences in the children's human capital technologies and/or differences in parental preferences. Using the 1996 Brazilian Household Survey, we estimate the impact of a parenti?½s education, non-labor income and child labor experience on the labor market status and school attendance of their sons and daughters separately. We find that, for childreni?½s labor status, the fatheri?½s education, non-labor income and the age at which he first began working in the labor market has a greater impact on the labor status of sons than of daughters, while the opposite is true for motheri?½s education, non-labor income and the age at which she first began working in the labor market, which have a greater impact on the labor status of daughters than of sons. In addition, when it comes to schooling decisions, both fathers and mothers education and non-labor income appear to have a greater positive impact on sons than on daughters.
The underside of arabic panegyric: Ibn Quzmān's (unfinished?) «Zajal no. 84»

Ibn Quzmān's «Zajal No. 84» has hitherto been viewed as a poem lacking its final, panegyrical section, due to an assumed accident in the manuscript's transmission. According to such a view, the poem has come down to us in an incomplete form. By analyzing certain prominent thematic features contained in the poem, and showing that they fit closely together, exhibiting a complex but carefully organized structure of the kind known as ring-composition, the following article attempts to suggest that there are strong reasons why «Zajal No. 84» may not be incomplete, but that it may, instead, have been composed with the deliberate omission of the ending one would normally expect in an Arabic panegyric. This strategy may have been adopted by the poet, the article proceeds to suggest, in order to stimulate the reader/listener to consider deeper theological, philosophical, and moral implications in a work that, on the surface, deceptively appears to be nothing more than an exercise in buffoonery, devoid of any social concerns. Ultimately, the article attemps to explore the literary value of the poem, and the extraordinary merits of its author.
Operation of TFTR neutral beams and heavy ions

Moderate atomic number neutral atoms have been injected into TFTR (Tokamak Fusion Test Reactor) plasma in an attempt to enhance plasma confinement through modification of the edge electric field. TFTR ion sources have extracted 9 A of 62-keV Ne/sup +/ for up to 0.2 s during injection into deuterium plasmas, and for 0.5 s during conditioning pulses. Approximately 400 kW of Ne/sup 0/ have been injected from each of two ion sources. Operation under these conditions was at full bending magnet current, with the Ne/sup +/ just contained on the ion dump. Modifications to permit operation up to 120 keV with krypton and/or xenon are described. Such ions are too massive to be deflected up to the ion dump with the beamlines as designed. The plan is to procure a 3600-A power supply and pulse it into the magnet for initial Kr/Xe experiments. Information relevant to heavy ion operation was acquired during the course of ion source operation with small water leaks. Spectroscopic analysis of certain pathological pulses indicates that up to 6% of the extracted ions were water. After dissociation in the neutralizer, water produces oxygen ions which, as with Ne/sup +/, Kr/sup +/, and Xe/sup +/, are underdeflected by the magnet. Damage to a calorimeter scraper, due to the focal properties of the magnet, resulted. A power density of 6 kW/cm/sup 2/ for 2 s, from approximately 90 kW of O/sup +/, is the probable cause. >
Syncytial Cells in Canine Parathyroid Glands

Multinucleated syncytial cells consisting of clusters of closely apposed, darkly staining nuclei and densely eosinophilic cytoplasm were present in parathyroid glands from 25 of 36 dogs (69%). They...
Numerical analysis of electric field enhancement in ZnO film with plasmonic au quantum dots

ZnO nanostructures have generated interest for a wide range of applications due to their unique optical and electrical properties. Especially, the spontaneous polarization in the ZnO nanostructure which produces a permanent strong static electric field that can be applied to many studies. Also, their strong polarizability makes them potential candidates for many applications such as ion channel modulation, photodetector and LEDs in UV range. In this paper, the plasmonic enhancement of the induced electric field produced from ZnO nanostructures is computed by numerical analysis.
Cell synchrony techniques. I. A comparison of methods.

Selected cell synchrony techniques, as applied to asynchronous populations of Chinese hamster ovary (CHO) cells, have been compared. Aliquots from the same culture of exponentially growing cells were synchronized using mitotic selection, mitotic selection and hydroxyurea block, centrifugal elutriation, or an EPICS V cell sorter. Sorting of cells was achieved after staining cells with Hoechst 33258. After synchronization by the various methods the relative distribution of cells in G1, S, or G2 + M phases of the cell cycle was determined by flow cytometry. Fractions of synchronized cells obtained from each method were replated and allowed to progress through a second cell cycle. Mitotic selection gave rise to relatively pure and unperturbed early G1 phase cells. While cell synchrony rapidly dispersed with time, cells progressed through the cell cycle in 12 hr. Sorting with the EPICS V on the modal G1 peak yielded a relatively pure but heterogeneous G1 population (i.e. early to late G1). Again, synchrony dispersed with time, but cell-cycle progression required 14 hr. With centrifugal elutriation, several different cell populations synchronized throughout the cell cycle could be rapidly obtained with a purity comparable to mitotic selection and cell sorting. It was concluded that, either alone or in combination with blocking agents such as hydroxyurea, elutriation and mitotic selection were both excellent methods for synchronizing CHO cells. Cell sorting exhibited limitations in sample size and time required for synchronizing CHO cells. Its major advantage would be its ability to isolate cell populations unique with respect to selected cellular parameters.
Integrating quality management principles into sustainability management

This paper develops conceptual frameworks that are derived from quality management principles and uses them as the building block on how sustainability management (SM) system can be implemented. These frameworks help organisations to understand the complexities of quality-driven SM systems. Organisations of all sizes along supply chains can use guidelines presented in this paper to develop a more sustainable practice and effective systems that are value-adding and sustainable result-oriented.
The dependence of polymer chain configuration in the collapsed-state region

Abstract The intrinsic viscosity of polystyrene in cyclohexane is measured as a function of molecular weight at the critical temperature, 32.9°C. The results are plotted in the form of [η] 1 3 versus N 1 3 ([η] = intrinsic viscosity, N = number of links in a polymer molecule). The scaling law for the collapsed state in the form of R ∼ N 1 3 (R = end-to-end distance) seems to have been obeyed.
Physician Knowledge and Awareness of CA-125 as a Screen for Ovarian Cancer in the Asymptomatic, Average-Risk Population

Effective early detection strategies for ovarian cancer do not exist. Current screening guidelines recommend against routine screening using CA-125 alone or in combination with transvaginal ultrasonography (TVS). In this study, the authors used the 2008 DocStyles survey to measure clinician beliefs about the effectiveness of CA-125 and TVS in the asymptomatic, average-risk population in the United States. To assess the need for provider education, the authors used the 2008 HealthStyles survey to examine public awareness of CA-125. Of 1,250 physician respondents, 40.4% said both CA-125 and TVS were effective screens, and 28.3% said neither was an effective ovarian cancer screen in the asymptomatic, average-risk population. Obstetrician/gynecologists [OB/GYNs] more often had responses consistent with current guidelines: 56.5% of OB/GYNs, compared with 34.4% and 29.8% of family/general practitioners and internists, respectively, said neither CA-125 nor TVS was an effective screen. Almost one third of women surveyed reported having heard of CA-125, and about one tenth said they had the CA-125 test. These findings support the need for additional provider education. Educational efforts should include lack of evidence for, as well as the potential harms of, screening for ovarian cancer with CA-125.
Design of sparse grooming networks for transporting dynamic multi-granularity sub-wavelength traffic

A sparse grooming network (SGN) is a cost-effective solution to provision multi-granularity sub-wave length connections with stringent budget constraints. We address the design of SGNs by proposing efficient sparse grooming algorithms and G-node placement heuristics.
The microwave spectrum, dipole moment and ring planarity of 1,2-dimethylenecyclobutane

Abstract The microwave spectrum of 1,2-dimethylenecyclobutane has been studied in the range 26.5–40 GHz using a Hewlett-Packard 8400C Stark-modulated spectrometer. The rigid rotor constants have been derived for the ground state (in MHz: A = 4925.22, B = 4089.88, C = 2301.67) and four excited states of the ring-puckering vibration. That the ring skeleton is planar is indicated by the smooth variation of the rotational constants with vibrational state and by the value of 1/2(Ia + Ib − Ic) which is consistent with only 4 hydrogen atoms out of the plane of the remaining atoms. Analysis of the Stark effect yields a dipole moment lying along the b-axis; μb = 0.457 ± 0.002D. A physically reasonable set of structural parameters which reproduce the ground state rotational constants has been derived by adjustment of the carbon skeleton parameters by a diagnostic least-squares procedure.
¿Hay un mal en morir? Consideraciones éticas y jurídicas sobre la muerte inducida

Se analizan los dilemas morales asociados a la muerte, para reflexionar sobre los interrogantes que surgen al calificarla como un hecho banal desde la perspectiva de quien muere. Se estudian, ademas, las consecuencias eticas y juridicas de reconocer autonomia moral a quienes deciden, en circunstancias extremas, tomar por si mismos la decision de cuando y como morir.
Eating Disorders in Children and Adolescents: State of the Art Review

Despite their high prevalence, associated morbidity and mortality, and available treatment options, eating disorders (EDs) continue to be underdiagnosed by pediatric professionals. Many adolescents go untreated, do not recover, or reach only partial recovery. Higher rates of EDs are seen now in younger children, boys, and minority groups; EDs are increasingly recognized in patients with previous histories of obesity. Medical complications are common in both full and subthreshold EDs and affect every organ system. No single cause of EDs has emerged, although neurobiological and genetic predispositions are emerging as important. Recent treatment paradigms acknowledge that they are not caused by families or chosen by patients. EDs present differently in pediatric populations, and providers should have a high index of suspicion using new Diagnostic and Statistical Manual, 5th edition diagnostic criteria because early intervention can affect prognosis. Outpatient family-based treatment focused on weight restoration, reducing blame, and empowering caregivers has emerged as particularly effective; cognitive behavioral therapy, individual therapy, and higher levels of care may also be appropriate. Pharmacotherapy is useful in specific contexts. Full weight restoration is critical, often involves high-calorie diets, and must allow for continued growth and development; weight maintenance is typically inappropriate in pediatric populations. Physical, nutritional, behavioral, and psychological health are all metrics of a full recovery, and pediatric EDs have a good prognosis with appropriate care. ED prevention efforts should work toward aligning with families and understanding the impact of antiobesity efforts. Primary care providers can be key players in treatment success.
Reproductive health counseling and practices: a cross-sectional survey of bariatric surgeons.

Abstract Background Nearly 50% of bariatric surgery patients are women of reproductive age. Both obstetric and gynecology and surgery professional guidelines recommend a delay of fertility 1–2 years postbariatric surgery. Methods We sought to assess bariatric surgeons’ perioperative reproductive counseling and contraceptive provision for women of reproductive age. We conducted a cross-sectional, national 32-question mail survey of bariatric surgeons. Survey topics included demographic factors, contraceptive counseling and provision, and method preference. Descriptive statistics were reported and Χ2 tests compared results among respondent demographic characteristics. Results A total of 574 of 1,935 physicians returned surveys (30%). After excluding 41 surveys due to missing data, we analyzed 533 (27%) surveys. Mean respondent age was 48.1 years. Most respondents were male (89%), white (78%), and completed residency training ≥10 years ago (72%). The majority of respondents’ bariatric surgery patients were female (77%), 63% of which were of reproductive age. Most respondents recommended that their female patients delay pregnancy 12–24 months (87%). Whereas 70% of respondents did not require preoperative contraception, 52% always required postoperative contraceptive use. Although the majority of respondents (64%) referred patients to an obstetrician-gynecologist or primary care physician to obtain contraception, 35% did not know how their female patients obtained contraception. Female respondents were more likely than male respondents to always require a medicine consultation and preoperative contraception, P Conclusion Despite consistently recommending a delay in pregnancy, bariatric surgeons inconsistently address perioperative contraceptive needs of women of reproductive age. These findings highlight the need for greater collaboration between bariatric surgeons and women’s healthcare providers to address the reproductive health needs of women having bariatric surgery.
Scaling Textual Inference to the Web

Most Web-based Q/A systems work by finding pages that contain an explicit answer to a question. These systems are helpless if the answer has to be inferred from multiple sentences, possibly on different pages. To solve this problem, we introduce the Holmes system, which utilizes textual inference (TI) over tuples extracted from text. Whereas previous work on TI (e.g., the literature on textual entailment) has been applied to paragraph-sized texts, Holmes utilizes knowledge-based model construction to scale TI to a corpus of 117 million Web pages. Given only a few minutes, Holmes doubles recall for example queries in three disparate domains (geography, business, and nutrition). Importantly, Holmes's runtime is linear in the size of its input corpus due to a surprising property of many textual relations in the Web corpus---they are "approximately" functional in a well-defined sense.
Manufacturing Scarcity: Online Poker, Digital Writing, and the Flow of Intellectual Property

Abstract In this article, I draw on data from a digital ethnography of the writing lives of professional online poker players to argue that localized intellectual property regimes can manifest themselves in the literate activity of textual production and circulation. These writers manipulate their composing practices, their writing spaces, and their relationships with readers in order to protect intellectual property and increase the value of texts by manufacturing scarcity. The writers considered here, many of whom are recent college graduates, have started online instruction businesses through which they self-publish and sell articles and ebooks that articulate poker theory using psychology, probability, statistics, and game theory. I show how their writing practices have changed as online poker instruction shifted from collaborative peer production of strategy texts to a more proprietary model of formalized instruction. As instructors and their students changed their online writing habits to protect information, issues of copyright protection became conflated with “idea protection” and started to permeate almost every aspect of textual production. Intellectual property concerns have influenced the mediums and modes in which these online writers have engaged as they have self-published work. Further, the measures they have taken to “protect” their intellectual property have depended on their relationships with students, their attitudes toward copyright, and their conception of the way information spreads.
College Library Technology and Cooperation Grants Program: An Overview.

The general purpose for the II‐A program is to assist college and university libraries in acquiring technological equipment and in conducting research in information technology. This is done mainly through accessing and sharing of library and information resources across institutional lines. The Department of Education discretionary grant cycle, from legislation through close‐out, is presented, as is an overview of each step. The clearest trend in the Research and Demonstra‐tion projects proposed under the II‐A program is toward the development and testing of the “virtual library” or aspects of it.
MicroRNA-100 regulates IGF1-receptor expression in metastatic pancreatic cancer cells.

AbstractPatients with pancreatic adenocarcinoma have the lowest 5 year survival rate and yearly rates of incidence are nearly equal to the mortality rates. Long term cure rates by standard therapies are disappointing owing to disseminated disease at diagnosis and chemotherapeutic resistance. New therapeutic targets are necessary to decrease the progression of pancreatic cancer and the ability to identify targets specific to metastasis would improve patient care. We evaluated the levels of microRNA of metastatic and non-metastatic cell lines. The expression levels of microRNAs and mRNAs were determined using microarray analysis to examine and compare five pancreatic cancer cell lines, two that can metastasize in vivo (S2VP10 and S2CP9) and three that do not metastasize (MiaPaCa2, Panc-1 and ASPC-1). MicroRNA analysis indicated an increase in miR-100 and a decrease in miR-138 expression in metastatic cancer cells. Microarray analysis of different expressions of mRNAs in metastatic and non-metastatic pancrea...
Neutron total cross section of /sup 240/Pu below 6 eV and the parameters of the 1. 0-eV resonance

Measurements of the low-energy neutron transmission of five different /sup 240/Pu samples have been made using the Oak Ridge Electron Linear Accelerator (ORELA) pulsed-neutron source and the time-of-flight technique in an attempt to resolve discrepancies between the evaluated low-energy cross section of this nuclide and the observed production of heavier Pu isotopes in light-water reactors (LWRs). Three ''thin'' samples consisting of Pu metal foils containing 0.73 at. % /sup 240/Pu were measured above 0.4 eV in order to derive the parameters of the 1.056-eV resonance, which is responsible for most of the observed 2200-m/s cross section. Two ''thick'' samples of 99.97 at. % /sup 240/Pu metal were measured from 0.003 eV to about 6 eV to obtain the 2200-m/s cross section and the cross-section shape in the low-energy region. A consistent set of resonance parameters was derived from the above data sets.
Saturated permeability measurements on pumice and welded-tuffaceous materials

Fluid flows in consolidated porous media of volcanic origin are being investigated to support such diverse efforts as the modeling of thermal/outgassing phenomena at Mount St. Helens and the hydrological modeling of tuffaceous rocks in support of the Department of Energy’s (DOE) Nevada Nuclear Waste Storage Investigations Project An experimental apparatus was designed and built to allow water-saturated permeabilities as low as 10−18 m2 to be measured on cores of diameter 5 cm and length 10 cm under steady-state flow conditions. This same apparatus can also be utilized in a transient (pressure-decay) mode in order to measure permeabilities several orders of magnitude lower than the steady-state limit. Tests were conducted on samples of pumice, fractured welded tuff, and welded tuff, representing a permeability range of seven orders of magnitude Pumice was found to have a permeability of ∼3×10−12 m2, sufficiently high to allow the complete Darcy-to-Ergun regime to be investigated Welded (unfractured) tuff was tested in the transient mode, yielding a permeability of ∼5×10−19 m2. Two, long-time-scale, steady-flow experiments were conducted on a core of welded tuff containing a single, through-going fracture. For the first experiment, the core was an integral cylinder containing a naturally occurring fracture. For the second experiment, the core was separated into two pieces along the existing fracture plane, then rejoined. Effects of essentially constant, as well as rapidly varied, circumferential stress were studied in both tests. Results showed core permeability to decay to 2×10−18 m2 in both cases, independent of the initial fracture state (closed versus open). With a naturally occurring fracture, core permeability decreased by a factor of 2 over a 200-h test period. With an initially open fracture, core permeability decreased by a factor of 4 under the influence of a comparable 200-h load-time history, after 700 h of testing, core permeability was reduced by an order of magnitude from its initial level. Final effective hydraulic fracture aperture was calculated to be 10−6 m, corresponding to a calculated effective fracture permeability of 10−13 m2 Fracture flow was thus estimated to account for 80% of the total flow rate through this core under final test conditions.
Effects of passive immunization against morphine on heroin self-administration

Antimorphine antibodies produced in Rhesus monkeys immunized with morphine-6-hemisuccinate-BSA were passively administered to recipient monkeys trained to self-administer heroin and cocaine. Following antibody administration, changes in heroin self-administration behavior were observed which were similar to those achieved with low doses of naloxone. Both manipulations increased heroin self-administration without affecting cocaine responding.
Nitrogen-broadened lines of ethane at 150 K☆

Spectral transmittance has been measured in the nu9 fundamental band of C2H6 at 150 K using a Fourier transform spectrometer with apodized spectral resolution of 0.06/cm. Comparison of observed spectral transmittance with a line-by-line computation using the spectral catalog of Atakan et al. (1983) has yielded N2-broadened half-widths at 150 K.
Effectiveness of a provider-focused intervention to improve HPV vaccination rates in boys and girls

a b s t r a c t Background: HPV vaccination is universally recommended for boys and girls, yet vaccination rates remain low nationwide. Methods: We conducted a provider-focused intervention that included repeated contacts, education, indi- vidualized feedback, and strong quality improvement incentives to raise HPV vaccination rates at two federally qualified community health centers. To estimate the effectiveness of the intervention, rates of initiation of vaccination, and completion of the next needed HPV vaccination (dose 1, 2 or 3) among boys and girls ages 11-21 were compared at baseline and two follow-up periods in two intervention health cen- ters (n — 4093 patients) and six control health centers (n — 9025 patients). We conducted multivariable logistic regression accounting for clustering by practice. Results: Girls and boys in intervention practices significantly increased HPV vaccine initiation during the active intervention period relative to control practices (girls OR 1.6, boys OR 11; p < 0.001 for both). Boys at intervention practices were also more likely to continue to initiate vaccination during the post- intervention/maintenance period (OR 8.5; p < 0.01). Girls and boys at intervention practices were more also likely to complete their next needed HPV vaccination (dose 1, 2 or 3) than those at control practices (girls OR 1.4, boys OR 23; p < 0.05 for both). These improvements were sustained for both boys and girls in the post-intervention/maintenance period (girls OR 1.6, boys OR 25; p < 0.05 for both). Conclusions: Provider-focused interventions including repeated contacts, education, individualized feed- back, and strong quality improvement incentives have the potential to produce sustained improvements in HPV vaccination rates.
Patch test results from the Mayo Clinic Contact Dermatitis Group, 1998-2000.

Background Patch testing is a diagnostic tool for the evaluation of patients with suspected allergic contact dermatitis. A standard series of allergens similar to that used by the North American Contact Dermatitis Group (NACDG) is used at Mayo Clinic. Objective Our aim was to report the results of patch testing with a standard series at Mayo Clinic from July 1, 1998, to Dec 31, 2000 and to compare our findings with those of the NACDG during the same period. Methods The results of patch testing with the standard series at Mayo Clinic were examined. Positive reaction rates were compared between Mayo Clinic and the NACDG. Results During the 30-month period, 1324 Mayo Clinic patients were patch tested with a standard series of allergens (mean, 60 allergens), whereas the NACDG standard series during this period included 50 allergens. Overall, 917 patients (69.3%) had at least one positive reaction and 606 patients (45.8%) had two or more positive reactions. The 10 allergens used both by Mayo Clinic and by the NACDG that most frequently caused positive reactions were nickel sulfate hexahydrate, balsam of Peru (Myroxylon pereirae), neomycin sulfate, cobalt chloride, fragrance mix, potassium dichromate (0.25%), thimerosal, bacitracin, formaldehyde, and glutaraldehyde. Statistically significant differences in positive reaction rates (P Conclusion With large standard patch test series, one can identify commonly encountered and potentially relevant contact allergens.