cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Structure and bonding in the parent hydrides and multiply bonded silicon and germanium compounds : from MHn to R2M=M'R2 and RM≡M'R

Publisher Summary The chapter describes the structure and bonding in the parent hydrides and multiply bonded silicon and germanium compound. Experimental and theoretical studies of unsaturated silicon and germanium compounds have produced a wealth of new and unexpected phenomena, and more is sure to come. Foremost among those already recognized is the enhanced stability of divalent isomers in these systems, but we should include, as well, the trans-bent nature of double- and triple-bonded systems, the curious inversion of single- and double-bond dissociation energies, and the emergence of low lying stable or ground state bridged isomers. Many of these new phenomena are foreshadowed by the properties of the parent hydrides. The reversal of the patterns in the sequential bond dissociation energies of CH, compared to SiH, and GeH, already gives a clue to the lack of any special stability associated with sp2 hybridized bonding environments. Furthermore, the pyramidal nature of silyl and germyl radicals, and the large barriers to linearity in SiH, and certainly GeH, as well, presages the instability of the planar and linear bonding environment customarily seen in alkenes and alkynes, respectively.
E-commerce network with price comparator sites

E-commerce relationships can generally be modeled using a bipartite graph. One part of this chart is made up of customers and the other part consists of e-shops (dealers). Edges show customer activity when visiting websites of various online stores. These links, however, enter online price comparison sites (PCS, comparators, shopbots), such as Heureka. PCS makes it easy to compare the prices of the desired product in different online stores. These comparative pricing not only show the price in different e-shops, but also the assessment of the relevant e-shop made by customers. The issues that this paper addresses are the strategy chosen by the pricing comparator for entering the market, when it is worth closing down online pricing comparison services, etc. In this paper we use network analyzes and simulation methods to model network dynamics to address these issues.
Imprecise evidence without imprecise credences

Does rationality require imprecise credences? Many hold that it does: imprecise evidence requires correspondingly imprecise credences. I argue that this is false. The imprecise view faces the same arbitrariness worries that were meant to motivate it in the first place. It faces these worries because it incorporates a certain idealization. But doing away with this idealization effectively collapses the imprecise view into a particular kind of precise view. On this alternative, our attitudes should reflect a kind of normative uncertainty: uncertainty about what to believe. This view refutes the claim that precise credences are inappropriately informative or committal. Some argue that indeterminate evidential support requires imprecise credences; but I argue that indeterminate evidential support instead places indeterminate requirements on credences, and is compatible with the claim that rational credences may always be precise.
Threat, Prejudice, and White Americans’ Attitudes toward Immigration and Syrian Refugee Resettlement

The literature on immigration is divided between theories that highlight the importance of prejudice and theories that emphasize realistic threat as the primary driver of anti-immigration attitudes. This study examines how prejudice and realistic threat impact White Americans’ attitudes toward accepting refugees and immigrants in general. Using data from the 2016 American National Election Study and the 2016 Chicago Council Survey, I show that even though refugees differ from other immigrants in terms of their legal status and the rhetoric pertaining to them, attitudes toward immigration policies relating to both refugees and immigrants in general are primarily driven by prejudice.
Conceit and deceit: Lying, cheating, and stealing among grandiose narcissists

Abstract The personality of leaders has been shown to have important effects on their followers. Recently, organizational researchers have become increasingly concerned with the potentially destructive consequences of narcissistic leadership. Evidence indicates that grandiose narcissists both aspire to and frequently achieve leadership roles in organizations. However, because narcissists are principally motivated to pursue their own interests, have lower ethical standards, and are willing to transgress social norms, they can put the institutions they lead at risk. We report three studies showing that individuals who are more narcissistic are more willing to lie, cheat, and steal than those who are less narcissistic. We discuss the implications of these results for organizations.
Insights in Public Health: Trapped in a Sea of Uncertainty: Limitations in Unintentional Injury Research in the Philippines and Interdisciplinary Solutions to Reduce Fatal Box Jellyfish Stings.

This editorial presents the perspectives of allies - a group of governmental, university and public health organizations that support the creation of a professional association for CHWs in Hawai'i. We support the efforts of CHWs as they organize and move towards establishing a professional association. Hawai'i CHWs have held monthly meetings starting in 2017 to discuss variety of issues around their work and share information and experiences. A group of CHWs and allies developed a strategic plan in 2018 in preparation to establish a professional association. They shared the results with colleagues from across the state. One desirable outcome for many was a professional CHW association. Such an association could be a forum of shared learning, information sharing, networking, and advocating for workforce and professional development issues, such as training, reimbursement for services, credentials, and certifications. Furthermore, allies support CHW-led efforts to develop an association, for instance, by securing diversified funding sources for CHW trainings, networking, and planning activities. Allies also help by informing supervisors, employers, and policymakers about the importance of trainings and other workforce and professional development for CHWs. A professional association for CHWs in Hawai'i could be useful to many. This editorial provides more insights into this topic.
Effects of Acute Dietary Polyphenols and Post-Meal Physical Activity on Postprandial Metabolism in Adults with Features of the Metabolic Syndrome

Approximately 22% of U.S. adults and 25% of adults globally have metabolic syndrome (MetS). Key features, such as dysglycemia and dyslipidemia, predict type 2 diabetes, cardiovascular disease, premature disability, and death. Acute supplementation of dietary polyphenols and post-meal physical activity hold promise in improving postprandial dysmetabolism. To our knowledge, no published review has described the effects of either intervention on postprandial glucose, insulin, lipids, and markers of oxidative damage and inflammation in adults with features of MetS. Thus, we conducted this review of controlled clinical trials that provided dietary polyphenols from oils, fruits, teas, and legumes during a dietary challenge, or implemented walking, cycling, and stair climbing and descending after a dietary challenge. Clinical trials were identified using ClinicalTrials.gov, PubMed, and Google Scholar and were published between 2000 and 2019. Dietary polyphenols from extra virgin olive oil, grapes, blackcurrants, strawberries, black tea, and black beans improved postprandial glucose, insulin, and markers of oxidative damage and inflammation, but results were not consistent among clinical trials. Freeze-dried strawberry powder distinctly improved postprandial insulin and markers of oxidative damage and inflammation. Post-meal physical activity attenuated postprandial glucose, but effects on postprandial lipids and markers of oxidative damage and inflammation were inconclusive. Consuming dietary polyphenols with a meal and completing physical activity after a meal may mitigate postprandial dysmetabolism in adults with features of MetS.
Handover Practices in Trauma and Acute Care Surgery: A Multicenter Survey Study.

Abstract Background The handover period has been identified as a particularly vulnerable period for communication breakdown leading to patient safety events. Clear and concise handover is especially critical in high-acuity care settings such as trauma, emergency general surgery, and surgical critical care. There is no consensus for the most effective and efficient means of evaluating or performing handover in this population. We aimed to characterize the current handover practices and perceptions in trauma and acute care surgery. Methods A survey was sent to 2265 members of the Eastern Association for the Surgery of Trauma via email regarding handoff practices at their institution. Respondents were queried regarding their practice setting, average census, level of trauma center, and patients (trauma, emergency general surgery, and/or intensive care). Data regarding handover practices were gathered including frequency of handover, attendees, duration, timing, and formality. Finally, perceptions of handover including provider satisfaction, desire for improvement, and effectiveness were collected. Results Three hundred eighty surveys (17.1%) were completed. The majority (73.4%) of respondents practiced at level 1 trauma centers (58.9%) and were trauma/emergency general surgeons (86.5%). Thirty-five percent of respondents reported a formalized handover and 52% used a standardized tool for handover. Only 18% of respondents had ever received formal training, but most (51.6%) thought this training would be helpful. Eighty-one percent of all providers felt handover was essential for patient care, and 77% felt it prevented harm. Seventy-two percent thought their handover practice needed improvement, and this was more common as the average patient census increased. The most common suggestions for improvement were shorter and more concise handover (41.6%), different handover medium (24.5%), and adding verbal communication (13.9%). Conclusion Trauma and emergency general surgeons perceive handover as essential for patient care and the majority desire improvement of their current handover practices. Methods identified to improve the handover process include standardization, simplification, and verbal interaction, which allows for shared understanding. Formal education and best practice guidelines should be developed.
A scalable graph generation algorithm to sample over a given shell distribution.

Graphs are commonly used to model the relationships between various entities. These graphs can be enormously large and thus, scalable graph analysis has been the subject of many research efforts. To enable scalable analytics, many researchers have focused on generating realistic graphs that support controlled experiments for understanding how algorithms perform under changing graph features. Significant progress has been made on scalable graph generation which preserve some important graph properties (e.g., degree distribution, clustering coefficients). In this paper, we study how to sample a graph from the space of graphs with a given shell distribution. Shell distribution is related to the k-core, which is the largest subgraph where each vertex is connected to at least k other vertices. A k-shell is the subset of vertices that are in k-core but not (k + 1)-core, and the shell distribution comprises the sizes of these shells. Core decompositions are widely used to extract information from graphs and to assist other computations. We present a scalable shared and distributed memory graph generator that, given a shell decomposition, generates a random graph that conforms to it. Our extensive experimental results show the efficiency and scalability of our methods. Our algorithm generates 233 vertices and 237 edges in less than 50 seconds on 384 cores.
Fine needle aspiration of an intranodal follicular dendritic cell sarcoma: A case report with molecular analysis and review of the literature.

Follicular dendritic cell sarcoma (FDCS) is a rare malignant neoplasm of follicular dendritic cell origin which can present a diagnostic challenge. Due to the rarity of this neoplasm, its molecular pathogenesis has not been fully elaborated. A previous series of 13 cases reported that 38% contained mutations of genes encoding proteins involved in negative regulation of NF-κB. NF-κB is a family of transcription factors regulated through multiple cellular processes known as the canonical and noncanonical pathways. Here we present the case of a 62-year-old man who presented with abdominal pain and systemic symptoms and was found to have a mass in the porta hepatis. Fine needle aspiration cytology demonstrated a spindle cell neoplasm with vesicular chromatin and prominent nucleoli with admixed lymphocytes. Surgical resection showed an intranodal, 7.3 × 5.5 × 3.5 cm, solid mass composed of plump, spindle to histiocytoid cells with ovoid nuclei and small, prominent nucleoli arranged in a whorled and fascicular pattern. The lesional cells stained positively for CD21, CD23, and CD35 by immunohistochemistry, consistent with a diagnosis of FDCS. Next-generation sequencing revealed pathologic mutations in three genes involved in NF-κB regulation pathways: NFKBIA, TNFAIP3, and TRAF3. A pathologic TP53 mutation was also identified. This case report supports prior associations of the NF-κB pathway dysregulation and FDCS. Additionally, it is the first reported FDCS case with TRAF3 mutation as well as the first reported case to suggest disruption in both the canonical and noncanonical NF-κB pathways in the same lesion.
A Few Words From the Editor: On the Flourishing Use of Ultrasound in Brain Imaging and Therapy

Looking back at the history of medical ultrasonics, the 1950s has been a pivotal era of William and Francis Fry and their pioneering attempts to perform neurosurgeries using confocal four ultrasound transducer system. The Fry brothers demonstrated the feasibility of applying high-intensity (“intense”) focused ultrasound to treat patients suffering from Parkinson’s disease. The outcome of their experiments also indicated the critical need to develop tools to provide image guidance and subsequently spurred the development of brightness-mode (B-mode) ultrasound imaging that is widely used in today’s clinical practice. In the light of these seminal contributions, it is fair to say that early developments of ultrasound applications for the brain represent a major turning point in the medical ultrasound field that is now ubiquitous in both diagnostic and therapeutic applications.
RMSE is not enough: Guidelines to robust data-model comparisons for magnetospheric physics

Abstract The magnetospheric physics research community uses a broad array of quantitative data-model comparison methods (metrics) when conducting their research investigations. It is often the case, though, that any particular study will only use one or two metrics, with the two most common being Pearson correlation coefficient and root mean square error (RMSE). Because metrics are designed to test a specific aspect of the data-model relationship, limiting the comparison to only one or two metrics reduces the physical insights that can be gleaned from the analysis, restricting the possible findings from modeling studies. Additional physical insights can be obtained when many types of metrics are applied. We organize metrics into two primary groups: 1) fit performance metrics, often based on the data-model value difference; and 2) event detection metrics, which use a discrete event classification of data and model values determined by a specified threshold. In addition to these groups, there are several major categories of metrics based on the aspect of the data-model relationship that the metric assesses: 1) accuracy; 2) bias; 3) precision; 4) association; 5) and extremes. Another category is skill, which is a measure of any of these metrics against the performance of a reference model. These can be applied to a subset of either the data or the model values, known as reliability and discrimination assessments. In the context of magnetospheric physics examples, we discuss best practices for choosing metrics for particular studies.
Marrow Stimulation Has Relatively Inferior Patient-Reported Outcomes in Cartilage Restoration Surgery of the Knee: A Systematic Review and Meta-analysis of Randomized Controlled Trials:

Background:Multiple cartilage repair techniques are available for chondral defects in the knee. Optimal treatment is controversial.Purpose:To evaluate change from baseline in the 5 Knee injury and ...
Evidence for unconscious memory processing during elective cardiac surgery.

BACKGROUND Many anesthetic drugs have been shown to disrupt conscious recall (explicit memory) in volunteers. However, unconscious processing (implicit memory) of intraoperative auditory material may occur during general anesthesia and may provide an opportunity for intraoperative therapeutic intervention. In this study, we examined patients undergoing elective cardiac surgery for evidence of intraoperative implicit and explicit memory. METHODS AND RESULTS Twenty-five subjects provided written informed consent and underwent general anesthesia and cardiopulmonary bypass for cardiac surgery. During the operation, patients were randomized to receive 1 of 2 different audiotapes of associated word pairs. Postoperatively, a blinded observer conducted a standardized interview to determine the extent of intraoperative implicit and explicit memory. With the use of free association, significant intraoperative implicit memory was found. In contrast, no patient had spontaneous or directed recall of intraoperative events, and we did not find evidence of intraoperative explicit memory with a recognition task. CONCLUSIONS Patients undergoing general anesthesia for cardiac surgery were reliably able to reinforce associations between word pairs solely on the basis of their intraoperative presentation. This provides further evidence that patients are capable of processing intraoperative auditory information.
Dependence of single particle distributions on rapidity and centrality in d + Au collisions at sNN=200 GeV

Abstract Measurements of identified single particle distributions in d + Au collisions at s NN = 200 GeV at the RHIC collider are described. The dependence of these distributions on the centrality of the collisions, as well as the rapidity of the detected particles are emphasized in this report.
Tree traversal scheduling: a global instruction scheduling technique for VLIW/EPIC processors

Global scheduling in a treegion framework has been proposed to exploit instruction level parallelism (ILP) at compile time. A treegion is a single-entry / multiple-exit global scheduling scope that consists of basic blocks with control-flow forming a tree. Because a treegion scope is nonlinear (includes multiple paths) it is distinguished from linear scopes such as traces or superblocks. Treegion scheduling has the capability of speeding up all possible paths within the scheduling scope. This paper presents a new global scheduling algorithm using treegions called Tree Traversal Scheduling (TTS). Efficient, incremental data-flow analysis in support of TTS is also presented. Performance results are compared to the scheduling of the linear regions that result from the decomposition of treegions. We refer to these resultant linear regions as linear treegions (LT) and consider them analogous to superblocks with the same amount of code expansion as the base treegion. Experimental results for TTS scheduling show a 35% speedup compared to basic block (BB) scheduling and a 4% speedup compared to LT scheduling.
Deriving fully efficient systolic arrays by quasi-linear allocation functions

We address the problem of deriving systolic arrays in which the processor utilization is 100%. We first address this problem in the context of synthesis from Uniform Recurrence Equations (UREs), and then generalize our result to deal with arbitrary systolic arrays (outside the context of synthesis). We show that in a systolic array, it is always possible to merge a parallelepiped of neighboring processors which are active at different clock cycles. The new array is fully efficient and its processors have almost the same cost as the original one. Such merging corresponds exactly to the transformation by a quasi-linear function. When the original array is derived by integral linear projections of systems of UREs, we give a method to mechanically determine the quasi-linear allocation function which yields the efficient array. The technique can also be extended to any (piece-wise) systolic array to derive a fully efficient array by “post-processing” it with a (piece-wise) quasi-linear function.
We Should Not Rely on Commercial Bar Reviews to Do Our Job: Why Labor-Intensive Comprehensive Bar Examination Preparation Can and Should Be a Part of the Law School Mission

Increasingly, law school bar passage rates are an important concern for faculty and administration, as well as students. The July 2014 bar exam saw a precipitous drop nationally in bar passage rates, including declines ranging from four to over twenty percentage points. At the same time, there have been declines in applications to law schools, declines in admissions statistics (LSAT and undergraduate GPA), and an empirically demonstrable decline in student preparedness for law school. The confluence of these events portends even greater declines in bar passage if law schools do not rethink how they prepare students for the bar exam. This Article examines developments in academic support and bar preparation programs with an eye toward suggesting models for effective in-house bar preparation programs. Specifically, this Article examines: (1) the evolution of academic support programs in law schools to include bar passage programs, with a brief description of the types of programs that traditionally have been available; (2) the particular difficulty posed by the California Bar Exam; (3) the existing types of supplemental programs, and concerns posed by programs that are limited to “bar tips” or even limited practice exams or substantive lectures, given the increased numbers of “at risk” students due to the increase in underpreparedness; (4) the supplemental program at Chapman University’s Fowler School of Law, including the intensity of effort required of both faculty and students in a comprehensive program applicable to all students; and finally, (5) the bar passage results at Chapman University’s Fowler School of Law since adoption of a comprehensive supplemental bar passage program, that have been significantly better than would be expected by some commentators, given its ranking and relative youth as a law school. This Article suggests that the traditional focus of academic support programs, including bar preparation programs, that focus largely on perceived “at risk” students, is insufficient in light of the increased numbers of underprepared students. In order to avoid further calamitous declines in bar passage rates, law schools will have to move from traditional academic support models to models that encourage the entire cohort of students to work together, cooperatively, and that apply extensive time and effort to ensure that all students receive the benefit of these programs.
Cadmium zinc sulfide films for heterojunctions devices

Polycrystalline films of Cd/sub 1-x/Zn/sub x/S have been deposited on glass and TCS-coated glass substrates by metalorganic chemical vapor deposition (MOCVD). The deposition rate, bandgap energy, resistivity, and doping of Cd/sub 1-x/Zn/sub x/S films depend on the substrate temperature and composition and flow rate of the reaction mixture. The effect of the reaction mixture composition on the bandgap energy of Cd/sub 1-x/Zn/sub x/S has been determined. The dark lateral resistivity of ZnS-rich Cd/sub 1-x/Zn/sub x/S films is 10/sup 6/ Omega -cm or higher, and can be reduced by using octyl chloride as a dopant. The extent of dopant incorporation becomes increasingly difficult as the Zn content in the film increases. >
Lubiprostone vs Senna in postoperative orthopedic surgery patients with opioid-induced constipation: a double-blind, active-comparator trial.

AIM: To investigate the efficacy of lubiprostone compared to Senna on bowel symptoms and constipation in post-operative orthopedic patients treated with opioids. METHODS: In this double blind, randomized, active comparator trial, adults who required opioids for analgesia following orthopedic procedures and who were admitted in inpatient rehabilitation were randomized following baseline assessments to lubiprostone (Amitza®), orally twice a day or Senna (generic) two capsules administered daily for six days. Subjects were assessed using the patient assessment of constipation (PAC)-symptoms (PAC-SYM) and the PAC-quality of life (PAC-QOL) scales measured at baseline and Day 7; Subjects were assessed daily for secondary measures included the Bristol stool scale bowel consistency, specific bowel symptom score (Nausea, cramping, straining, completeness, abdominal pain, time per lavatory attempt, assistance needed), adverse events and rescue medications required. Function was measured using the functional independence measure (FIM) at admission and discharge; length of stay (LOS) and missed treatments due to gastrointestinal symptoms were also assessed. RESULTS: 64 adults were enrolled; 56 participants (28 in each group) had baseline and follow up measures and were included in the intention to treat (ITT) analyses. 43 participants completed the study, 21 in the active lubiprostone and 22 in the active Senna group. The mean age of the participants was 71.5 years (SD = 11.4 years, range: 28-96 years). In the ITT analyses, participants showed significant improvement in bowel symptoms as measured by the PAC-SYM (mean ± SD, -0.28 ± 0.60, range: -1-2.33) and PAC-QOL (mean ± SD, 0.33 ± 0.81, range: -1.5-2.0) over time, but there were no significant differences between the lubiprostone and Senna groups in mean change in the PAC-SYM (-0.20 ± 0.60 vs -0.36 ± 0.61, P = 0.61 respectively) or the PAC-QOL (0.29 ± 0.76 vs 0.37 ± 0.87, P = 0.61 respectively). The mean change in each bowel symptom also did not significantly differ between treatment groups on ITT analyses, except for completeness of bowel movement, with the Senna group showing greater negative mean change in bowel movement completeness (-0.56 ± 1.01 vs -2.00 ± 1.41, P = 0.03) and for reduction of abdominal pain, favoring Senna (-0.14 ± 0.73 vs -0.73 ± 1.08, P = 0.04). Fifteen (75%) participants in the lubiprostone and in the Senna group requested rescue treatments. Participants made significant functional improvement from admission to discharge over a median LOS of 12 d, with a mean FIM change of 29.13 ± 13.58 and no significant between group differences (27.0 ± 9.2 vs 31.5 ± 16.6, P = 0.27). CONCLUSION: Both lubiprostone and Senna improved constipation-related symptoms and QOL in opioid-induced constipation, with no significant between-group differences.
A Photometric Approach to Detecting Earth-Sized Planets

The photometric method of searching for planets around stars depends on observing the decrease in light flux produced by the transit of a planet across the stellar disk. The magnitude of this reduction is proportional to the ratio of the planet’s area to that of the star. For the solar system, the decrease in light amounts to 0.01 per cent for terrestrial-sized planets. To overcome the effects of scintillation and variable extinction in the Earth’s atmosphere, it will be necessary to operate the photometric system on a space platform. The photometric method works only for planets whose orbital plane is near our line of sight. Thus many stars must be monitored to insure that some stars with appropriately-oriented orbital planes are observed. If every solar-type star has a planetary system similar to our solar system, then a photometer that monitors 1000 stars with the requisite precision should detect at least 10 transits per year of observation. Thus a 3-year observation period should allow meaningful statements to be made about the frequency of solar-type planetary systems. A state-of-the-art photometer is being developed to test components and concepts. The goal is the development of a photometer that can routinely measure the relative brightness of stars to a precision of 1 part in 100,000. Such precision should be achievable using “quantum perfect” detectors. Results of field tests of a prototype photometer are promising.
Growth Phases of Mycoplasma in Liquid Media Observed with Phase-Contrast Microscope

Abstract Razin, Shmuel (University of Connecticut, Storrs), and Benjamin J. Cosenza. Growth phases of Mycoplasma in liquid media observed with phase-contrast microscope. J. Bacteriol. 91:858–869. 1966—Growth of 11 Mycoplasma strains in liquid media was followed by phase-contrast microscopy. A similar pattern of development was common to all strains. Branching filaments, 0.3 to 0.4 μ thick, characterized the early logarithmic phase of growth. The length of the filaments varied according to the strain tested and the growth medium. Addition of oleic acid to the medium induced the formation of very long filaments by M. laidlawii strain B. Upon aging, the filaments were found to break up into chains of coccoid elements. These chains further fragmented to yield shorter chains and single coccoid elements, which characterized the stationary and decline phases of growth. The size of the coccoid elements increased from 0.3 to 0.4 μ, when formed in the filaments, to 0.6 to 0.8 μ after being released from the chains. Further increase in the size of the cells took place at the decline phase of growth, leading to the formation of very large cells reaching a diameter of 10 to 20 μ. However, these large cells had the appearance of empty vesicles and were apparently nonviable as indicated by viable-count experiments.
Kinetics of the Ferrous/Ferric Electrode Reaction in the Absence of Chloride Catalysis

The kinetics of the ferrous ferric redox electrode reaction has been investigated by many workers as a simple, uncomplicated charge transfer reaction which seems ideal for testing experimental techniques and charge transfer theories. However, it has only recently been understood that very small traces of chloride can have a considerable effect on the reaction rate. The relation between the chloride content of the solution and the rate constant of the ferrous/ferric reaction on a gold electrode in perchloric acid solutions is confirmed in this work. The chloride effect free apparent standard rate constant is found to be 2.2 x 10/sup -5/ cm s/sup -1/, which is two to three orders of magnitude smaller than the rate constants normally reported for this reaction if the chloride content of the solution is not scrupulously controlled. Measurements were carried out by using two different in situ methods for cleaning the working electrode surface rather than employing extensive solution purification. In the first method the measuring electrode was potentiostated at sufficiently negative potentials to desorb the chloride from the surface followed by a potential step to the equilibrium potential and a pulse measurement of the kinetics. In the second method chloride ions were removedmore » from the surface before and during the kinetic measurement by continuous oxidation of chromous ions added in small concentration to the test solution. Good agreement was found among the rate constants determined by these methods and a reported rate constant determined in ultraclean solution.« less
On optimal protocols for combinations of chemo- and immunotherapy

An optimal control problem for combinations of cancer chemotherapy with immunotherapy in form of a boost to the immune system is considered as a multi-input optimal control problem. In the objective, a weighted average of several quantities that describe the effectiveness of treatment is minimized that includes the number of cancer cells at the terminal time, a measure for the immunocompetent cell densities at the terminal point as a negative term, the overall amount of therapeutic agents given as a measure for the side effects of treatment and a small penalty on the terminal time which is free. In the dynamics, a pharmacokinetic model for the concentrations of the pharmaceutical agents is included. The focus of the paper is on the structure of singular arcs. Their local optimality properties will be investigated analytically and then illustrated through numerically obtained results. The resulting geometric structure of optimal controlled trajectories provides some insights into the design of optimal protocols, especially the sequencing of the drugs in these combination treatments.
Relationships between vocalization forms and functions in infancy: preliminary implications for early communicative assessment and intervention.

Purpose This preliminary study explored relationships between form and function in prelinguistic vocalizations to increase our understanding of early communicative development and to provide potent...
Leadership style, dimensions of superior's upward influence and participative budgeting

Abstract This paper reports the results of an empirical study to assess the relationship between budgetary participation and satisfaction with job and budget among middle level managers in a multinational manufacturing firm. It was hypothesized that a superior's leadership style and upward influence in work-related decisions mediate the effect of participation on job and budget satisfaction. The results confirmed the hypothesis.
Refractive Differences in Foveal and Parafoveal Vision

Abstract A report of experimental studies made in the Laboratory of Physiology, Leland Stanford University, comparing foveal and parafoveal vision by strong or feeble light, with a discussion of the causes of the phenomena observed, including nine tables, with bibliography.
Erratum to: Outliers in the spectrum of iid matrices with bounded rank perturbations

The demonstration of a key lemma in this is only valid in the sense of convergence in probability instead of in the almost sure sense. However, a refinement of the argument, which we give here, can be used to give convergence in the almost sure sense. In this erratum we report an issue in the originally published article that was pointed out to us by David Renfrew and Sean O’Rourke. Specifically, Lemma 2.3 of that paper asserts a bound 〈( 1 √ n Xn )m un, vn 〉 = o(1)
“Wasting disease” and other dynamic phenomena in Zostera beds

Abstract The greatest decline of seagrass beds that is known is certainly the almost simultaneous breakdown of the North Atlantic populations of Zostera marina L., due to the “wasting disease”. Several explanations have been presented for this ecological disaster; however, none of those is satisfactory. It appears that for several localities a local explanation can be given. Apart from this general decline, it appears that, at least in Western Europe, there is a great variation in the temporal and spatial development cycles of the intertidal Zostera -beds. These variations can be ascribed to a number of factors, such as winter temperature (frost or no frost), grazing by birds (grazing or no grazing) and the balance between sedimentation (including sanding) and erosion. The combination “frost-grazing” leads to an annual cycle of the biomass, and a homogeneous bed structure. The combination “no frost-no grazing” causes raising of the seagrass bed, due to sedimentation up to a level where the environmental conditions become less favourable to seagrass; then breakdown sets in. These beds are heterogeneous and show a pluriannual developmental cycle.
Fluorine-19 nuclear magnetic resonance and biochemical characterization of fluorotyrosine-labeled-thymidylate-synthetase

Abstract Fluorotyrosine has been incorporated into thymidylate synthetase from Lactobacillus casei by growth of the bacterium in media containing 3-fluorotyrosine. The enzyme exhibited a specific activity 70% of that of the normal enzyme and formed a covalent binary complex with pyrimidine nucleotides, as well as a covalent ternary complex with 5-fluorodeoxyuridylate and 5,10-methylenetetrahydrofolate. 19F nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy has been used to follow the formation of these complexes. 5-Fluorodeoxyuridylate, dUMP, dTMP and dCMP produced identical conformational changes in the enzyme as monitored by the fluorotyrosyl resonances. Ternary complex formation of the fluorotyrosine-containing enzyme with 5-fluorodeoxyuridylate and 5,10-methylenetetrahydrofolate resulted in further spectral changes.
Total quality management and physicians' clinical decisions

INCREASING concerns about the quality of health care have led to experimentation with and deployment of many new technologies designed to monitor, compare, and improve the clinical performance of health care providers. 1 Among the newest and most controversial of these approaches is industrial quality management science (IQMS), also known as continuous quality improvement (CQI), the quality improvement process (QIP), and total quality management (TQM). 2-4 Evidence of the rapid spread of IQMS as an approach to managing quality in health care institutions is plentiful. The Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations has adopted IQMS as an important standard in its reviews of health care institutions. 5 Based on a recent national survey, Hospitals magazine estimates that 3100 US hospitals with more than 50 beds now have programs in TQM. 6 An increasing anecdotal literature describes the success of IQMS in analyzing, ameliorating, or solving particular health care problems.
Ahıska Refugee Families’ Configuration of Resettlement and Academic Success in U.S. Schools:

In this article, we report on an ethnographic study of figured worlds of resettlement and identities that Muslim refugee youth from the Russian Federation coconstructed in an urban school at the Southwestern U.S. border. In the school, multiple cultural-historical discourses came together within a glocal context: refugee families, a global Islamic movement, and deficit-oriented educational ideologies. Three empirically derived themes emerged: Glocal adaptation, multiple literacies, and sticking together. The overall impact of this study derives from two aspects of the analysis: The cultural-historical analysis of refugee resettlement and the hybrid identities of refugee students.
The influence of storage conditions on various properties of potatoes

Change in weight and, to a lesser degree, in specific gravity of tubers during storage was much more dependent on relative humidity than on temperature. Katahdin usually lost more weight and showed a greater increase in specific gravity than Russet Burbank. The increase in weight loss of cured tubers in the course of the storage period was nearly always linear. The increase in specific gravity was often particularly pronounced at the end of the storage period.
Guide catheter exchange techniques : Bi-coaxial and other methods

Maintaining the position of a guidewire across coronary artery lesions during angioplasty is important to allow rapid and reliable access. Stabilizing these small caliber angioplasty guidewires during guide catheter replacement is often difficult, if not impossible at times. This article reviews the techniques for exchanging guide catheters while maintaining coronary guidewire position. It also introduces the bi-coaxial guide catheter exchange technique.
Long-term isovolumetric leaching of aluminum from rocks during weathering: Implications for the genesis of saprolite

Abstract Isovolumetric geochemical analyses of 26 weathering profiles (saprolites) on crystalline rocks in Brazil and South Carolina indicate that, on average, Si and Al are leached from rocks in a long-terms molar ratio of 8.3. Hewever, with the exception of the Rio Negro River, the molar ratio of Si to Al in rivers draining these regions is about 100. If saprolites are still forming, the large discrepancy in Al mobilization between the saprolite record and modern river chemistry may be due to degassing of dissolved CO2 from soil water entering streams with attendant increase in pH and Al precipitation. If saprolites are relic, the Rio Negro basin may be a model for the environmental conditions under which they form. These conditions are 1) low relief, 2) abundant rainfall and intense leaching and 3) organic rich soils which produce large concentrations of CO2 and dissolved organic acids in the soil. Abundant rainfall maintains dilute soil water; large CO2 pressure lowers pH; dissolved organic matter complexes Al (and Fe) and thus enhances the solubility of secondary clays. All of these effects hinder the precipitation of secondary weathering products and thus promote rock dissolution that is more nearly congruent. The problem with the Rio Negro model is to reconcile the low relief of the basin (which inhibits rapid groundwater movement) with the short contact time indicated by the diluteness of its chemistry.
How do earthworms affect microfloral and faunal community diversity

Much of the work regarding earthworm effects on other organisms has focused on the functional significance of microbial-earthworm interactions, and little is known on the effects of earthworms on microfloral and faunal diversity. Earthworms can affect soil microflora and fauna populations directly and indirectly by three main mechanisms: (1) comminution, burrowing and casting; (2) grazing; (3) dispersal. These activities change the soil's physico-chemical and biological status and may cause drastic shifts in the density, diversity, structure and activity of microbial and faunal communities within the drilosphere. Certain organisms and species may be enhanced, reduced or not be affected at all depending on their ability to adapt to the particular conditions of different earthworm drilospheres. A large host of factors (including CaCO3, enzymes, mucus and antimicrobial substances) influence the ability of preferentially or randomly ingested organisms to survive (or not) passage through the earthworm gut, and their resultant capacity to recover and proliferate (or not) in earthworm casts. Small organisms, particularly microflora and microfauna, with limited ability to move within the soil, may benefit from the (comparatively) long ranging movements of earthworms. Microflora and smaller fauna appear to be particularly sensitive to earthworm activities, and priming effects enhancing nutrient release, particularly in casts, are common. Larger fauna such as microarthropods, enchytraeids and Isopods may be enhanced under some conditions (e.g., in earthworm middens), but in other cases earthworm activity may lead to a decrease in their populations due to competition for food (microbes and organic materials), and spatial and temporal changes in food abundance. Nevertheless, considering the presently available data, the beneficial interactions of earthworms and microflora and fauna appear to far outweigh the potential negative effects. However, much is still unknown regarding the interactions of earthworms of different ecological categories on the diversity and function of microfloral and faunal communities, and much more interdisciplinary research is needed to assess the potential role of earthworms in regulating the diversity of microflora and fauna in soil systems and the potentially beneficial or harmful effects this regulation may have on ecosystem function and plant growth in different ecosystems.
Almost sure uniform convergence rates for M-smoothers with non-monotone score functions

Abstract Almost sure uniform convergence rates for M-smoothers have been obtained by Hardle, Janssen and Serfling (1988) in the case of bounded, continuous and monotone score functions. In this paper, we show that if there is an initial estimator whose error is a.s. uniformly bounded, then the same rate result holds without the boundedness assumption on the score function ψ( y, t ) and with the assumptions of continuity and monotonicity in t replaced by a.s. continuity at each t and a.s. piecewise monotonicity. Since such initial estimators are easy to construct in most situations, this considerably enlarges the scope of the rate result.
Factors affecting outcome of coronary reperfusion with intracoronary streptokinase in acute myocardial infarction

Aggressive interventional therapy in acute myocardial infarction (AMI) is expensive, time-consuming and not without significant risk. To determine which patients are most likely to benefit from such therapy, the effects of patient age, reperfusion success, admission left ventricular (LV) function, infarct location, admission clinical class, time from onset of pain to reperfusion and admission electrocardiographic findings on the outcome of coronary reperfusion in AMI were assessed in 292 prospectively studied, sequential patients from August 1980 to January 1984. Two hundred ten patients received intracoronary streptokinase (SK) therapy on admission and 82 patients, who either refused the protocol or met exclusion criteria, served as control subjects. Patients older than 65 years showed little improvement in 1-year mortality risk and no significant improvement in LV function during hospitalization after treatment with intracoronary SK. The remaining patients, 178 treated with SK and 48 control, were well matched and served as the basis for further comparisons. In this subgroup of patients, reperfusion success was associated with improved survival and LV function (mortality rate 3%, vs 17% in control subjects; increase in ejection fraction [EF] 18% vs 4%). Patients with an EF of less than 45% on admission showed a 21 +/- 30% increase in EF, compared with an increase in control subjects of 8 +/- 19%, and a lower 1-year mortality rate than controls (6% vs 21%, p = 0.01). Patients with anterior AMI had a significant increase in EF in the SK group (22 +/- 31%) and lower mortality compared with control subjects (5% vs 25%, p = 0.003).(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)
Differentiation of myocardial scar from potential pitfalls and artefacts in delayed enhancement MRI

Delayed enhancement cardiac magnetic resonance (DE-CMR) imaging is used increasingly to identify and quantify focal myocardial scar. Our objective is to describe factors used in the interpretation of DE-CMR images and to highlight potential pitfalls and artefacts that mimic myocardial scar. Inversion recovery gradient recalled echo sequence is commonly accepted as the standard of reference for DE-CMR. There are also alternative sequences that can be performed in a single breath-hold or with free breathing. Radiologists need to be aware of factors affecting image quality, and potential pitfalls and artefacts that may generate focal hyperintense areas that mimic myocardial scar.
Transverse beam stacking injection system for synchrotron light source booster synchrotrons

Beam intensity is a key performance parameter for particle accelerators. Modern high-performance storage rings demand injectors that can deliver large currents per injection cycle, which translates to an increase in machine size and consumed power. Therefore, it is justifiable to look for ways to increase the injector's performance while minimizing the size increase. We have investigated a number of ways to accumulate charge in a booster synchrotron and applied one of them to the NSLS-II booster. We have designed a scheme to transversely stack two bunch trains from the injector linac in the booster. In this paper we discuss this stacking scheme. The relevant booster dynamics are studied. The charge transport efficiency of the stacking scheme is studied in detail at injection and through a full booster ramp. Pulsed magnet requirements for the injection system and methods to achieve them are discussed. We show that the charge transport efficiency of the stacking scheme is similar to a single bunch train in the booster. This has become a critical design feature of the NSLS-II booster.