cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Quenched Asymptotics for the Discrete Fourier Transforms of a Stationary Process

In this dissertation, we show that the Central Limit Theorem and the Invariance Principle for Discrete Fourier Transforms discovered by Peligrad and Wu can be extended to the quenched setting. We show that the random normalization introduced to extend these results is necessary and we discuss its meaning. We also show the validity of the quenched Invariance Principle for fixed frequencies under some conditions of weak dependence. In particular, we show that this result holds in the martingale case. The discussion needed for the proofs allows us to show some general facts apparently not noticed before in the theory of convergence in distribution. In particular, we show that in the case of separable metric spaces the set of test functions in the Portmanteau theorem can be reduced to a countable one, which implies that the notion of quenched convergence, given in terms of convergence a.s. of conditional expectations, specializes in the right way in the regular case when the state space is metrizable and second-countable. We also collect and organize several disperse facts from the existing theory in a consistent manner towards the statistical spectral analysis of the Discrete Fourier Transforms, providing a comprehensive introduction to topics in this theory that apparently have not been systematically addressed in a self-contained way by previous references.
Pragmatism and Pluralism Revisited

In 2005, we published a jointly authored article arguing that pragmatists must reject pluralism. As certain pragmatists describe themselves as pluralists, the essay received its share of criticism;...
The current status of angiotensin converting enzyme inhibitors in the management of patients with chronic heart failure

Angiotensin converting enzyme (ACE) inhibitors are the only therapeutic agents used in the treatment of chronic heart failure that have been shown to both improve symptoms and prolong life. These agents produce long-term haemodynamic and clinical benefits in about 60-65% of patients. The only reliable means of determining which patients are most likely to respond favourably to treatment is by a therapeutic trial; the response cannot be predicted by demographic factors, pretreatment left ventricular function or plasma renin activity. In addition to their symptomatic benefits, ACE inhibitors reduce the mortality of patients with chronic heart failure, possibly by decreasing ventricular wall stress and decreasing the frequency and complexity of ventricular arrhythmias. The most serious adverse effects of treatment, hypotension, functional renal insufficiency and potassium retention, occur most commonly in patients with the most advanced disease [New York Heart Association (NYHA) class III and IV heart failure] and when efforts are made to block the formation of angiotensin (Ang) II continuously (as with the use of long-acting ACE inhibitors). The unique characteristics of the ACE inhibitors support their use as first-line agents in patients with chronic heart failure.
Experience with the Electrohydraulic Disintegrator

AbstractExperience with the electrohydraulic lithotrite in treating 14 cases of bladder calculi is reported. This revolutionary lithotrite is applicable to most bladder stones and is associated with few complications.
The pharmacology and use of oxytocin.

Historically, oxytocin has allowed the obstetrician to pharmacologically induce uterine contractions and to reduce rates of maternal and perinatal morbidity and mortality. However, serious side effects can occur when oxytocin is used to terminate a gestation with a viable fetus. The surveillance systems which can help to avoid these potential complications are described.
Building IoT applications with accessors in CapeCode: demo abstract

We demonstrate CapeCode, a tool for composing actor-oriented building blocks for applications in the Internet of Things design space.
Etoposide Sensitivity Does Not Predict MLL Rearrangements or Risk of Therapy-Related Acute Myeloid Leukemia.

Therapy-related acute myeloid leukemia (t-AML) can arise from topoisomerase II-directed agents such as etoposide and teniposide, most likely via drug-induced MLL gene fusions. MLL cleavage in its breakpoint cluster region has been linked to apoptosis caused by etoposide and other agents. It has been speculated that the degree of myelotoxicity caused by agents such as etoposide may predispose to t-AML. However, whether drug-induced MLL rearrangements (rMLL) and subsequent leukemogenesis are inextricably linked to the desired drug-induced cytotoxic effects remains a matter of uncertainty. To directly address this question, we compared rMLL in blood samples from and epipodophyllotoxin-related clinical toxicity in children with acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) who did and did not develop t-AML, as well as the level of rMLL in cell lines that were sensitive or resistant to etoposide. In 7 t-AML cases and 7 identically-treated matched controls, rMLL were detectable following etoposide treatment in both cohorts, but at a slightly greater frequency in the former group (P = 0.04, Wilcoxon signed-rank test). However, there was no correlation between the cumulative etoposide dose and the degree of rearrangements (P = 0.5, r2=0.039, Spearman rank correlation). Secondly, etoposide or teniposide-related acute toxicities to the host tissues did not differ between the 14 t-AML cases and the 14 matched controls. The drug-induced reduction in neutrophil and leukocyte counts was not greater among t-AML cases than controls (P>0.17, Wilcoxon signed-rank test), nor was the incidence of infection and gastrointestinal toxicity during epipodophyllotoxin treatment (P>0.22, McNemar’s test). Finally, in 25 human lymphoid cell lines, MLL fusions were more common after etoposide treatment (at equitoxic concentrations) compared to untreated controls (P
Graded prognostic assessment index for renal cell carcinoma with brain metastases.

e15537 Background: The GPA is a commonly used prognostic index based on RTOG protocols in patients with brain metastases (BM). The purpose of this study was to evaluate the utility of GPA index in ...
GIS and Placemaking Using Social Media Data

Where is more popular and vibrant in the city? Analyzing human activity pattern in space has always been the key part of data analysis in urban studies. With the rise of big data era, there are more and more available data could be utilized for this topic. In this chapter, the article introduces a set of newly emerged methods to analyze the spatial distribution of human activity using social media data to identify where is the most vibrant place in the city. Using Twitter data in Chicago downtown as an example, this chapter will discuss how to collect social media data, how to visualize the data and how to identify the most vibrant region in the city using it. The process is replicable for the most area in the world as long as the social media service is viable, therefore provide the urban analysts a new tool to have a better understanding of the city.
On-Chip monitors of supply noise generated by system-level ESD

Two supply noise monitor circuits are demonstrated on a 130-nm test chip. These monitors are capable of providing quantitative measurements of on-chip supply voltage perturbations resulting from system-level ESD. Circuit-level simulations reproduce all trends found in the measurement results.
Abundance of Bacteria, Fungi, and Sclerotinia homoeocarpa in the Thatch and Soil of Golf Courses

Thatch management in turfgrass has been recommended as part of integrated pest management; however, there is limited understanding of the microbial community in thatch. Previous studies on the turf...
20 – Basic Molecular Biological Methods in Surgical Research: Genetic Library Construction, Screening, and DNA Sequencing

Surgical research encompasses any research performed in a surgical department, conducted by surgeons, conceived by surgeons, or financed by surgeons. Thus, surgical research is simply medical research that benefits from the views and experience of surgeons as well as from the financial resources of surgical departments. Consequently, surgical research is now in direct competition with all facets of medical research conducted by medical and basic science departments. Given that medical research is increasingly focusing on molecular analysis, the surgical researcher must contend with the rapidly developing field of molecular biology. Embracing molecular biological techniques and embarking on a research plan that involves cloning of a novel gene or cDNA are ambitious steps for any investigator who is not a trained molecular biologist. On the other hand, when successful, the rewards of such a plan are great. Cloning and studying a novel gene, mRNA, and protein will be viewed as novel and unique research, two key ingredients for obtaining research funding. Fortunately, the advent of molecular biology kits and service companies has made this process easier and more expedient. However, it is crucial to understand the principles and methods used to complete the many tasks that must be accomplished before bringing such a research plan to fruition.
Diabetes in Pregnancy

The increasing rate of obesity has led to a higher number of cases with diabetes during pregnancy. Recent studies describe a linear relationship between glycemia and fetal outcomes and suggest a need to adjust screening strategies and diagnostic criteria. Furthermore, the time period for treatment during pregnancy is limited and pharmacologic details on currently used treatments are limited. Insulin remains the standard therapy but is more burdensome than oral drugs and less favored by patients. Recently, oral hypoglycemics have gained popularity and are more commonly used for the treatment of gestational diabetes. However, recent pharmacokinetic studies suggest a need for dose adjustment of oral hypoglycemics to account for physiologic and metabolic changes during pregnancy. The chapter reviews available treatments and outlines therapeutic regimens for diabetes during pregnancy.
Implementation of a modern web search engine cluster

Yuntis is a fully-functional prototype of a complete web search engine with features comparable to those available in commercial-grade search engines. In particular, Yuntis supports page quality scoring based on global web linkage graph, extensively exploits text associated with links, computes pages' keywords and lists of similar pages of good quality, and provides a very flexible query language. This paper reports our experiences in the three-year development process of Yuntis, by presenting its design issues, software architecture, implementation details, and performance measurements.
Cognitive strategies in dynamic modeling: case studies of opportunities taken and missed

New technologies offer new opportunities for engaging students in performances of higher-level thinking [Perkins 1985; Salomon, Perkins & Globerson 1991]. The increasing presence of sophisticated computers in classrooms, their expanding computational power, and advances in software interface design [Jackson, Stratford, Krajcik, & Soloway in press] bring opportunities closer to every student, and make it possible for them to engage in more sophisticated and technology-intensive activities such as dynamic modeling. Computer-based dynamic modeling has long been recognized as a scientific activity that promotes deep system analysis, careful cause-and-effect reasoning, and synthesis, along with articulating explanations about phenomena and testing and debugging. With the development of dynamic modeling environments for learners, we're investigating the extent to which students who construct dynamic models take advantage of those opportunities for cognitive engagement. Technology can play a supportive role in helping learners accomplish unfamiliar or cognitively difficult tasks [Guzdial 1995; Jackson et al. in press]. In this paper we present two case studies of pairs of students who, while creating models of their own design, engaged in a range of cognitive activities. The cases we present represent students in the middle range of abilities and performance: they did not struggle as they created their model, nor was what they produced exemplary.
Combined system immunodeficiency with Digeorge syndrome and dissociation of PHA-MLC responses.

Recent evidence of interactions between cells subserving the functions of the thymus-dependent cell-mediated immune system (T-cells) and cells of the bursal-dependent humoral immune system (B-cells) suggests cooperation between the two systems in immune responses to various antigenic stimulae (1). For this reason, a thorough evaluation of immunologic status of patients with the III-IV pharyngeal pouch syndrome of DiGeorge (2–7) is both timely and important in extending our understanding of T-cell/B-cell interaction in the immune response (3). As we sought to answer questions implicit in the T- and B-cell interactions in an infant with DiGeorge syndrome, it became apparent that our patient did not fit the immunologic criteria of this disorder. Instead, the picture encountered was one which has not been previously described. While this patient displayed all of the signs, symptoms and immunological abnormalities common to the DiGeorge syndrome, he also lacked plasma cells, immunoglobulins and all humoral immune responses were poor prior to transplantation.
Auditory Distress Signals Potentiate Attentional Bias to Fearful Faces: Evidence for Multimodal Facilitation of Spatial Attention by Emotion

Unimodal emotionally salient visual and auditory stimuli capture attention and have been found to do so cross-modally. However, little is known about the combined influences of auditory and visual threat cues on directing spatial attention. In particular, fearful facial expressions signal the presence of danger and capture attention. Yet, it is unknown whether human auditory distress signals that accompany fearful facial expressions potentiate their capture of attention. It was hypothesized that the capture of attention by fearful faces would be enhanced when co-presented with auditory distress signals. To test this hypothesis, we used a modified multimodal dot-probe task where fearful faces were paired with three sound categories: no sound control, non-distressing human vocalizations, and distressing human vocalizations. Fearful faces captured attention across all three sound conditions. In addition, this effect was potentiated when fearful faces were paired with auditory distress signals. The results provide initial evidence suggesting that emotional attention is facilitated by multisensory integration.
Exploring the relationship between Lead Users and collaborative orientation in the design of a functional running garment

While some users have great potential to increase product novelty and customer benefit, some do not, making user collaborations risky as they can lead to loss of time and money for the apparel company. If apparel professionals can find the "right" users to involve in the design process, they can reduce the risks while obtaining the benefits of collaborating with users. Past research has shown that Lead Users (LUs) develop product ideas that represent the needs of traditional consumers and can generate commercially successful products. The study design used an entrance survey, design session, exit survey, and online evaluation where users (runners) developed and evaluated concepts for a base layer garment. Sixty-five runners were sorted into seven LU groups and ten NLU groups. The design sessions resulted in 17 base layer design concepts. In the online survey,183 evaluated each of the 17 design concepts between 108-114 times. The highest scoring base layer concept was produced by the highest scoring LU group. Three of the five top-rated concepts developed by LU groups. Garment scores were moderately positively correlated to the group's usership score, further supporting previous research that LUs develop commercially attractive products and, therefore, should be considered as collaborators when designing new apparel concepts. From the literature, we expected there to be a significant relationship between higher levels of usership and CO, but no such relationship was found collaborative orientation was not correlated with any of the three LU traits, but rather, it was negatively correlated to technical expertise. Groups who ran more per week were more likely to develop a highly-rated garment. Industry professionals should seek people who score high on LU traits, especially TE, over people who are collaboratively oriented. People who are willing to collaborate and work well in a team may be less likely to produce a commercially attractive garment. This finding is critical to understand how to optimize user collaborations. Apparel professionals may accommodate LUs by working with LUs individually or allowing LUs to have time to work alone to find a solution to their needs. The next steps of this research are to test the output of LU in nominal groups of one.
A high-throughput system to probe and direct biological functions driven by complex hemodynamic environments

Abstract One of the most critical challenges in modeling physiological and pathological disease states is the requirement for incorporating dynamic effects into the cellular microenvironment. In particular, vascular biology research has been limited by the inability to culture endothelial and other vascular cells in the presence of a hemodynamic waveform, which is critical to recapitulation of the in vivo microenvironment and to the realization of physiologically relevant phenotypic and genotypic expression. Here we describe technologies capable of applying precise hemodynamic waveforms to cultured endothelial and other cell types in multiwell plates using micromechanical motor-driven cones spinning in each of 96 microwells. Physiological responses are demonstrated, including atherogenic and atheroprotective morphologic and gene expression profiles. This technology has the capability to enable rapid and efficient biological screening for a wide range of drug development applications.
ARTERIOSCLEROSIS AND ARTERITIS IN TWO COLUBRID SNAKES

Abstract This case series describes arteriosclerosis and arteritis with secondary rupture and exsanguination in 2 colubrid snakes, a 3-year-old female Okeetee morph corn snake (Pantherophis guttatus guttatus) and a 14-year-old female Sinaloan milk snake (Lampropeltis triangulum sinaloae). The cases represent a description of arteritis with chronic degenerative arterial remodeling, leading to arterial fragility and eventual rupture, resulting in severe morbidity and acute death. These cases contribute to the understanding of cardiovascular disease in snakes, for which little has been documented.
Adaptive Predictive Energy Management Strategy for Integrating Intermittent Resources in Power Systems

In this paper, we develop a power system adaptive and predictive management strategy for integrating large-scale renewable energy penetration in the power systems. The variability and uncertainty of renewable energy increase the difficulty of the power system management extremely. Also, the problem becomes more challenging if the variable energy has large penetration. The proposed strategy depends on robust optimization under unforeseen contingencies and uncertain changes in intermittent resources output. Adaptive model predictive control is used to manipulate the power system energy unit's set-points to maximize profit at maximum security. Simulation studies are conducted to validate the effectiveness of the introduced strategy. The results show that the proposed strategy is successfully able to maximize profit not only in normal operation case but also in the case of severe contingencies. In addition to, the management strategy is flexible for customized plans of the grid operator and it is scalable for system extensions. The developed strategy helps the management system to increase the free renewable energy sources share at the minimum cost with maximum security.
Getting Our Universities Back on Track: Reflections and Governance Paradigms from My Vice-Chancellorship by N. Oluwafemi Mimiko

Mimiko, N. Oluwafemi. Getting Our Universities Back on Track: Reflections and Governance Paradigms from My Vice-Chancellorship . Austin, TX: Pan-African University Press, 2017.
The tubulin mutation database: A resource for the cytoskeleton community

Over the last 40 years, the phenotypic consequences of point mutations to tubulin genes have been described in a wide variety of eukaryotes. A publicly available web-based catalog of all published point mutations to tubulin was assembled. Each entry records a specific substitution to a discrete tubulin, the species where the mutation was described, the associated phenotype, and provides hyperlinks to the parental amino acid sequence and citation(s) for the original research. The data is represented in individual tables for the universal tubulin families (α-, β-, and γ-tubulins) with the smaller datasets for point mutations to δ-, e-, and ζ-tubulins individually appended to the γ-tubulin mutation table. Because tubulins are highly conserved proteins, the benefit of organizing the database tables in order of amino acid position is that comparison between equivalent residues in different isotypes or species is straightforward. For example, it was shown that seven substitutions which are associated with human brain malformations known as tubulinopathies were previously identified in other contexts that suggest that they influence microtubule stability. It was anticipated that this resource will simplify evaluation of the role of specific amino acids or domains in microtubule function.
Psychological Aspects of Stair Use: A Systematic Review:

Stair use, a common lifestyle activity, is a moderate-to-vigorous physical activity that, despite often being brief in duration, may contribute to psychological health. A systematic literature revi...
Model-Based Robot Imitation with Future Image Similarity

We present a visual imitation learning framework that enables learning of robot action policies solely based on expert samples without any robot trials. Robot exploration and on-policy trials in a real-world environment could often be expensive/dangerous. We present a new approach to address this problem by learning a future scene prediction model solely from a collection of expert trajectories consisting of unlabeled example videos and actions, and by enabling action selection using future image similarity. In this approach, the robot learns to visually imagine the consequences of taking an action, and obtains the policy by evaluating how similar the predicted future image is to an expert sample. We develop an action-conditioned convolutional autoencoder, and present how we take advantage of future images for zero-online-trial imitation learning. We conduct experiments in simulated and real-life environments using a ground mobility robot with and without obstacles in reaching target objects. We explicitly compare our models to multiple baseline methods requiring only offline samples. The results confirm that our proposed methods perform superior to previous methods, including 1.5 $$\times $$ and 2.5 $$\times $$ higher success rate in two different tasks than behavioral cloning.
Who is at risk for palliative care misconceptions and how do we address them? A mixed-methods study of metastatic lung cancer patients.

67Background: A major misperception of palliative care (PC) is that it is only for people who are about to die. We recently identified this misperception as a barrier to PC in metastatic non-small ...
Multiple dimensions of dietary diversity in large mammalian herbivores.

Theory predicts that trophic specialization (i.e. low dietary diversity) should make consumer populations sensitive to environmental disturbances. Yet diagnosing specialization is complicated both by the difficulty of precisely quantifying diet composition and by definitional ambiguity: what makes a diet 'diverse'? We sought to characterize the relationship between taxonomic dietary diversity (TDD) and phylogenetic dietary diversity (PDD) in a species-rich community of large mammalian herbivores in a semi-arid East African savanna. We hypothesized that TDD and PDD would be positively correlated within and among species, because taxonomically diverse diets are likely to include plants from many lineages. By using DNA metabarcoding to analyse 1,281 faecal samples collected across multiple seasons, we compiled high-resolution diet profiles for 25 sympatric large-herbivore species. For each of these populations, we calculated TDD and PDD with reference to a DNA reference library for local plants. Contrary to our hypothesis, measures of TDD and PDD were either uncorrelated or negatively correlated with each other. Thus, these metrics reflect distinct dimensions of dietary specialization both within and among species. In general, grazers and ruminants exhibited greater TDD, but lower PDD, than did browsers and non-ruminants. We found significant seasonal variation in TDD and/or PDD for all but four species (Grevy's zebra, buffalo, elephant, Grant's gazelle); however, the relationship between TDD and PDD was consistent across seasons for all but one of the 12 best-sampled species (plains zebra). Our results show that taxonomic generalists can be phylogenetic specialists, and vice versa. These two dimensions of dietary diversity suggest contrasting implications for efforts to predict how consumers will respond to climate change and other environmental perturbations. For example, populations with low TDD may be sensitive to phylogenetically 'random' losses of food species, whereas populations with low PDD may be comparatively more sensitive to environmental changes that disadvantage entire plant lineages-and populations with low dietary diversity in both taxonomic and phylogenetic dimensions may be most vulnerable of all.
Live-Streaming Surgery for Medical Student Education - Educational Solutions in Neurosurgery During the COVID-19 Pandemic.

Objective The COVID-19 pandemic significantly altered medical student education. The ability for students to be a part of the operating room team was highly restricted. Technology can be used to ensure ongoing surgical education during this time of limited in-person educational opportunities. Design We have developed an innovative solution of securely live-streaming surgery with real-time communication between the surgeon and students to allow for ongoing education during the pandemic. Results We successfully live-streamed multiple different types of neurosurgical operations utilizing multiple video sources. This method uses inexpensive, universal equipment that can be implemented at any institution to enable virtual education of medical students and other learners. Conclusions This technology has facilitated education during this challenging time. This technological set-up for live-streaming surgery has the potential of improving medical and graduate medical education in the future.
Socially-isolated neighborhoods and the risk of all-cause mortality among nursing home residents in the United States: A multilevel study

The total number of Americans age 65 and older is expected to nearly double by 2060, and the number of Americans admitted to nursing homes is likewise anticipated to escalate Studies have found living alone to be an important risk factor for mortality Yet little is known about possible spillover health effects of living in a community where many elderly residents live alone Even less is known about whether these risks persist after entering nursing homes Our study population consisted of 874,162 US elderly adults newly admitted to nursing homes in 2011, as identified from the 3 0 Minimum Data Set Data on these individuals were linked to Medicare claims and 2010 Census data In this cohort study, we estimated multivariable-adjusted hazard ratios for the associations between the quartiles of county-level percentage of households with those age 65 or older living alone and the individual-level risks of all-cause mortality until December 31, 2013, controlling for county-, nursing home facility-, and individual-level factors Older adults in counties belonging to the highest quartile of elderly single-occupancy households had a 8% higher risk of dying (HR = 1 08;95% CI = 1 04-1 12, p < 0 001) after entering nursing homes compared to those in counties belonging to the lowest quartile There was evidence of a linear trend (p for trend < 0 001) Should these findings be confirmed in future studies, it would suggest that living arrangements in elderly communities may have spillover health effects onto their residents Programs and interventions that modify such living arrangements may yield more favorable health trajectories among older Americans, who are increasingly aging in place and at growing risk of entering nursing homes
Isolated Photons at Hadron Colliders at O(\alpha alpha_s^2) (II): Spin Dependent Case

The cross section for inclusive prompt photon production with polarized hadron beams is calculated at order $\alpha\alpha_s^2$ using the phase space slicing or analytic/Monte Carlo method. Isolation cuts are placed on the photon and the results are compared to a previous fully analytic calculation. Numerical results for the isolated cross section are presented for for $\vec{p}\vec{p}\rightarrow \gamma+X$ at RHIC center-of-mass energies with plausible isolation parameters using the most modern polarized parton densities evolved in next-to-leading order QCD. The perturbative stability of the asymmetries and scale dependence of the results are briefly discussed.
Formation and Release of Nitrous Oxide from Terrestrial and Aquatic Ecosystems

Soil nitrogen (N) is in a constant state of flux, moving and changing chemical forms. Nitrification and denitrification are the main processes to remove reactive N (Nr) from the environment. Both are predominantly microbial processes that provide energy to specialized groups of microorganisms. Nitrification oxidizes reduced N, generally NH3 or NH 4 + to NO 3 − via nitrite under aerobic conditions. Denitrification is the process under which oxidized N is reduced back into N2 under anaerobic conditions. Autotrophic nitrification and heterotrophic denitrification are the major N2O forming processes in terrestrial and aquatic forming in terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems. Major factors regulating nitrification and denitrification are the availability of reactive N, the availability of reductant (mostly labile organic carbon compounds), and oxygen concentration. These three factors are in turn governed by many other factors such as water content, pH, porosity, and the presence of inhibitory compounds, which may act to cause accumulation of ionic (nitrite) or gaseous (nitric oxide, nitrous oxide) intermediates. It has been estimated that soils under terrestrial ecosystems denitrify ~124 Tg N year−1 or about 35–40% of total land based reactive N. Arable soils receiving high inputs of N are hot spots for denitrification and dominant sources of anthropogenic N2O emissions.
Fault-tolerant quantum computer architectures using hierarchies of quantum error-correcting codes

Quantum computers have been shown to efficiently solve a class of problems for which no efficient solution is otherwise known. Physical systems can implement quantum computation, but devising realistic schemes is an extremely challenging problem largely due to the effect of noise. A quantum computer that is capable of correctly solving problems more rapidly than modern digital computers requires some use of so-called fault-tolerant components. Code-based fault-tolerance using quantum error-correcting codes is one of the most promising and versatile of the known routes for fault-tolerant quantum computation. This dissertation presents three main, new results about code-based fault-tolerant quantum computer architectures. The first result is a large new family of quantum codes that go beyond stabilizer codes, the most well-studied family of quantum codes. Our new family of codeword stabilized codes contains all known codes with optimal parameters. Furthermore, we show how to systematically find, construct, and understand such codes as a pair of codes: an additive quantum code and a classical (nonlinear) code. Second, we resolve an open question about universality of so-called transversal gates acting on stabilizer codes. Such gates are universal for classical fault-tolerant computation, but they were conjectured to be insufficient for universal fault-tolerant quantum computation. We show that transversal gates have a restricted form and prove that some important families of them cannot be quantum universal. This is strong evidence that so-called quantum software is necessary to achieve universality, and, therefore, fault-tolerant quantum computer architecture is fundamentally different from classical computer architecture. Finally, we partition the fault-tolerant design problem into levels of a hierarchy of concatenated codes and present methods, compatible with rigorous threshold theorems, for numerically evaluating these codes. The methods are applied to measure inner error-correcting code performance, as a first step toward elucidation of an effective fault-tolerant quantum computer architecture that uses no more than a physical, inner, and outer level of coding. Of the inner codes, the Golay code gives the highest pseudothreshold of 2 × 10-3. A comparison of logical error rate and overhead shows that the Bacon-Shor codes are competitive with Knill's C 4/C6 scheme at a base error rate of 10 -4. (Copies available exclusively from MIT Libraries, Rm. 14-0551, Cambridge, MA 02139-4307. Ph. 617-253-5668; Fax 617-253-1690.)
The Mensing Conundrum: Litigating Generic Drug Injuries in California

As long as there have been prescription drugs, people have suffered injuries caused by those drugs. While a perfect level of safety is just not possible, state tort laws have long provided protection to injured drug consumers and incentive to drug manufacturers to improve and maintain the safety of their products. However, the United States Supreme Court has recently revealed an alarming gap in this supposed consumer protection and safety incentive scheme. A series of cases now reveals that some state claims of injury resulting from a prescription drug are not preempted by federal law if the drug is a brand name, but are preempted if the drug is a generic. This incongruity in federal law may leave a consumer injured by a generic drug without a viable civil remedy. Consumers are likely to be completely unaware of the protections they are giving up when they accept a cheaper, generic prescription, leaving them at a significant legal disadvantage. Generic drugs continue to capture an increased market share of prescriptions, so the number of consumers affected by federal preemption will grow. This article will provide a brief history of generic drugs, outline the recent United States Supreme Court cases that have revealed the consumer protection problem related to generics, and address potential solutions for litigating generic prescription drug injury claims in California.
Modified ear canal ablation and lateral bulla osteotomy for management of otitis media in an alpaca.

Otitis media is an uncommon condition in South American camelids and is thought to occur more commonly as a consequence of upper respiratory disease rather than an extension of otitis externa as reported in dogs.1–3 Medical treatment of chronic otitis media in alpacas can be challenging because of the sigmoid shape of the external acoustic meatus, which prohibits evaluation of the tympanic membrane, and the multicompartmental tympanic bulla that does not allow for easy surgical drainage.2, 4, 5 Total ear canal ablation (TECA) with lateral bulla osteotomy (LBO) is a widely accepted surgical treatment for end-stage otitis externa, otitis media, and masses confined to the external or middle ear in dogs and cats.6–13 Although surgical treatment for otitis is well described in dogs and cats, there are only sparse reports describing surgical treatment of otitis media in South American camelids.2, 3 These reports document complications including hemorrhage, lack of improvement, and euthanasia2 or involve removal of the pinna,3 which may result in behavioral and social consequences in camelids.3 A modified technique (subtotal ear canal ablation) has been described for dogs and cats with otitis or neoplasia with minimal distal ear canal involvement.14 This technique would be ideal in camelids with otitis media, where the distal ear canal is typically not involved. We report a surgical technique for subtotal ear canal ablation and LBO in an alpaca, modified from that described in dogs. Computed tomography (CT) was used to confirm otitis media and provide relevant anatomy of the external and middle ear canal to guide surgical exploration.
Human gingiva-derived mesenchymal stromal cells inhibit graft-versus-host disease through CD39 and IDO (THER5P.844)

Mesenchymal stem cells have the capacity to maintain immune homeostasis and prevent autoimmunity. We recently reported that human-derived gingival mesenchymal stem cells (GMSCs) have strong capacity to suppress immune responses and T cell-mediated collagen-induced arthritis in animals. However, it is unclear whether these cells can suppress human T cell-mediated diseases. Here, we used a xeno-GVHD model to investigate the interventional role of human GMSCs in NOD/SCID mouse, which is a best animal model to study human cell therapy prior to a clinical trial. We found that GMSCs potently suppressed the proliferation of PBMC and T cells in vitro. Co-transfer of GMSC and human PBMC significantly prolonged the mouse survival. Moreover, we demonstrated that GMSCs inhibited human PBMCs-initiated xenogenic responses via CD39 and IDO signals. Thus, GMSCs can suppress human immune responses and immune system-mediated diseases, offering a potential clinical option to be used for modulating GVHD and other autoimmune diseases.
SHAPE AND BEHAVIOR OF WAVE PULSES

The shape of pulses resulting from correlated stimulated emissions is studied as a function of the decay time of the process and the bandwidth. The limit imposed by the uncertainty principle on the pulse shape and coherence is derived. The effect of phase relationships among a small number of emitters is studied. Formulas for fluctuation and coherence are given. The general effect of pulse shapes is discussed.
Preparative countercurrent chromatography for isolation of charge density-fractionated heparin.

Abstract A preparative method is described for continuous flow fractionation of heparin according to charge density in two-phase systems of butanol-hexadecylpyridinium chloride/aqueous NaCl. The separation is carried out on a “Slowly-Rotating Coil” device for countercurrent chromatography with 6 coil units and a sample capacity of 80 mg heparin. A turbidometric method is described which can be used to rapidly quantify the distribution of heparin. Characterization of fractions showed that linear charge density, binding constant for acridine orange, and specific activities in a “global” plasma anticoagulant assay and in a specific biochemical thrombin-inhibition assay varied with the NaCl concentration in the eluting phase. Some partial resolution of the two functional activities was observed. The fractions are much more homogeneous in composition than are the usual heparin preparations and may be useful as standards or in structure-function studies.
Breeding of crystal nuclei by classical nucleation: Theory and some observations and experiments

Abstract The process of the formation of new crystals at the interface between a crystal and its supercooled melt, by classical, heterogeneous nucleation, is examined theoretically and is suggested as a possible explanation for a number of crystal growth phenomena. Nucleation of new crystals at large angle lattice mismatches with the old, but at orientations such that the lattices “fit” across the interface is illustrated. Nucleation of new crystals appears to be responsible for the development of preferred orientations in deposits built up by the accretion of supercooled droplets, is advanced as an explanation for curved crystal growth, and is a possible explanation for some features of spherulites.
Thermal Efficiency of Coated Fins

The surfaces of a fin from which heat is rejected solely by radiation may have to be coated to obtain high values of thermal emissivity. In order to determine the influence of the conductive resistance of a coating on the thermal performance of a fin, an analysis was undertaken. Two equations are derived to describe the heat-transfer characteristics of a coated fin: One, a differential equation for the temperature profile on the radiating surfaces of the coating; and two, an equation for the relative thermal performance of the fin in terms of fin efficiency. The equations are solved numerically, and the fin efficiencies are plotted as a function of two dimensionless parameters which appear in the differential equation. These efficiencies are compared with those for fins in which the conductive resistance of the coating is ignored.
Culture and the environment in Italy

This essay evaluates the historical development and current background of human-environment relationships in Italy. The Italian landscape consists of very varied terrain, and periodically suffers from all kinds of natural hazard, especially earthquakes, landslides, floods, and accelerated soil erosion. Some measure of environmental conservation was achieved by the Etruscans and Romans, but the Classical period also marked the beginning of serious lowland waterlogging, malarial infestation, upland soil erosion, and deforestation, which all increased during the Middle Ages. From the Renaissance to the 18th century, there was a diffusion of planned landscapes and carefully managed estates; but by the 20th century, many rural areas could not support growing populations and much land was in need of improvement. Underdevelopment and latifundium agriculture increased the vulnerability to environmental hazards of the Mezzogiorno (Italian South), while the subsequent disappearance of the peasant culture seems not to have led to greatly improved conservation or land management. Poorly farmed or managed landscapes and poorly maintained historic towns have undergone some virtually irreversible degradation, especially with respect to landslides and earthquake damage. Elsewhere in Italy, unchecked urbanization, weak planning laws, and their inadequate enforcement have helped both to reduce environmental quality, by overdevelopment of valued landscapes, and to increase natural disaster vulnerability, by encouraging occupance of natural hazard zones. Although there are signs that the government is beginning to respond to the cumulative effect of environmental degradation, the measures are insufficient to reverse the overall trend toward decadence that characterizes human-land relationships in Italy.
Adrenocorticotropic Hormone Stimulates a Transient Calcium Uptake in Rat Lymphocytes

Freshly isolated rat lymphocytes were tested for corticotropin (ACTH)-dependent calcium uptake. Physiological levels of corticotropin (0.01-1 nM) were found to stimulate both an uptake of 45Ca2+ and a rise in cAMP. The calcium uptake was delayed by 2 min after ACTH addition, but was rapid and transient after the onset of uptake. The extent of calcium uptake was dose dependent on the corticotropin concentration and reached a maximum by 1 nM. Several fragments of corticotropin were tested for activity; both full-length 1-39 and a functional truncated form, 1-25, had equivalent effects on 45Ca influx at 1 nM; however, alpha MSH-(1-13), ACTH-(11-24), or a mixture of alpha MSH and ACTH-(11-24) had no effect on 45Ca influx. Extracellular calcium uptake was blocked by the calcium channel blockers lanthanum, diltiazem, nifedipine, and omega-conotoxin. Splenic lymphocytes that express ACTH receptors had ligand-dependent calcium uptake, but thymocytes that lack ACTH receptors had no ligand-dependent calcium uptake. A mouse adrenal cell line, Y-1, showed the same 45Ca uptake kinetics. These findings demonstrate that both lymphocytes and adrenal cells have a functional ACTH-dependent calcium uptake mechanism.
RADIATION PRESSURE ON A TEST PARTICLE IN GENERAL RELATIVITY.

RADIATION pressure is believed to be the dominant force on gas in or near quasi-stellar objects (QSOs) under some conditions1,2, and I have studied the acceleration of a particle to relativistic velocities by radiation pressure in an inverse-square (1/r2) radiation field with the gravitational force neglected2. But although arguments have been given3,4 that the line emission regions of QSOs are not close to Schwarzschild singularities, it is nevertheless possible that a small portion of the redshifts of QSOs may be gravitational, and it is also likely that highly ionized or stripped material lies close to the central source, where the effects of general relativity are larger. In Newtonian theory, both the radiation pressure and the gravitational force vary as r−2, so that a particle of constant cross-section σ released at rest is either swallowed up or driven out, independent of its initial location. Here, I show that according to general relativity the result is different. For stationary particles the force of radiation pressure varies more rapidly than that of gravity with changing distance r to the central source. This makes stable equilibria possible. Collective effects, the effects of time variations in the strength of the radiation field and the changing opacity of the gas may well dominate the general relativistic effect discussed here. Thus, I am not proposing that the emission or absorption clouds of QSOs are necessarily stabilized in this way, but rather pointing out the, presence of this stabilizing effect, in contrast with a previous suggestion in the literature5. Although Fowler and Hoyle5 do not explicitly state that stabilization could not occur in the relativistic case, they imply this by favourably comparing the stabilization in their model with that of a point source in the Newtonian approximation.
Behind the Fence: Buying and Selling Stolen Merchandise

Fences and other theft demand centers motivate and enable theft by converting goods to cash or to other valuables such as drugs. Property crime is a system of supply and demand. Fences have existed for centuries, with many today simultaneously owning or operating both licit and illicit businesses, such as beauty salons, small shops and websites. Theft demand centers or illicit supply chain fences may be temporary or ad hoc—set up to push or pull hot products or commodities from vulnerable locations to willing buyers. Buyers of stolen goods are typically young males looking for cheap prices. Prices for stolen goods range from one-third to three-quarters of the retail price.
Subarachnoid hemorrhage from intraspinal intradural vertebral artery aneurysm (case report and review of the literature)

A patient with subarachnoid hemorrhage (SAH) due to rupture of a saccular aneurysm arising at the origin of the intradural intraspinal vertebral artery is presented. This case shows that aneurysms at this site may be a rare cause of SAH and reinforces need for 4-vessel angiography after SAH.