cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Robotic Ureteroureterostomy and Correction of Ureteral Defects

The first reports of laparoscopy were published in the early twentieth century [1]. The introduction of improved instrumentation and advances in optical systems has led to not only increased use of minimally invasive surgery but also an expansion of the types of procedures that can be done laparoscopically. With the increasing use of minimally invasive techniques in urology over the past decade, the feasibility of pediatric laparoscopic reconstructive urologic surgery with and without robot assistance has been demonstrated [2, 3]. The da Vinci® surgical robot has now become widely utilized in adult and pediatric urology. In adults, radical prostatectomy and pyeloplasty are the most popular robotic procedures, although virtually all major urologic procedures involving the genitourinary tract have been performed with the robot.
Techno-Economic Potential of Large-Scale Solar Deployment in the US

PV system generates electricity with minimum environmental impact than conventional fossil fuel sources. Large-scale solar deployment reduces greenhouse gas emission and consequently reduces the effects of global warming. In late of 2014, the Indian government announced an ambitious target of 100 GW installation capacity of solar PV systems by 2022. Since then, India has achieved notable progress towards this goal and has installed 20 GW cumulative solar capacity with 9.6 GW in 2017 alone. Based on the 2015 MIT Energy Initiative, by 2050, a major fraction of the world’s electric power will come from solar sources. However, this poses many technical and economic challenges on the electrical infrastructure. In this chapter, we focus on the US case, by studying the technical and economic potentials of large-scale deployment of the most commonly recognized types of solar; photovoltiac (PV) and concentrated solar power (CSP) at different locations in the US. The technical potential is assessed based on grid interconnection topologies, and solar system performance. The economic potential is evaluated based on several metrics such as the levelized avoided cost of energy (LACE) and levelized cost of electricity (LCOE), and the possibility of integration into the electricity markets. The economic potential also covers the subsidies, taxes, policies, and incentives for large-scale solar deployment. Two simulation case studies are implemented on two large-scale solar PV and CSP projects at different locations in the US to evaluate their techno-economic potentials.
Age-related genomic demethylation in non-small cell lung cancer.

e22068 Background: Little information about biological indicators of tumor metabolism associated with non small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) in younger patients (<50 years) exists. We have previously o...
Single-mode self-suspended microdisk lasers (Conference Presentation)

Small semiconductor lasers have attracted a wide interest in academia owing to their potential as highly integrated components in photonic circuits. Particularly, microdisk lasers exploiting whispering gallery modes have been regarded as a good candidate because of ultrasmall modal volume and low threshold property. To exploit large index difference between gain and surrounding medium, microdisk resonators with an underlying post using undercut etching have been proposed and widely investigated in many previous studies. However, it has been challenging in microdisk laser to operate single mode due to the large number of exsiting whispering gallery modes. Here, we propose and demonstrate a novel subwavelength scale microdisk laser. InGaAsP multi-quantum wells microdisk is self-suspended in air by connecting bridges. The behavior of TE-like whispering gallery modes, which belong to most dominant class of mode in thin disk configuration, is both numerically and experimentally investigated. We highlight that bridge does not only provide mechanical stability, but the number of bridges can be an important factor to improve or suppress wave confinement of whispering gallery modes by protecting or breaking spatial symmetry of mode. Moreover, a suitable choice of bridges increases quality factor by up to 79% comparing to the microdisk resonator without bridges. Using this scheme, we numerically and experimentally investigate mode selectivity and further demonstrate single mode microdisk lasers operating at near-infrared telecommunication wavelength.
Pressure- and Temperature-Dependent Viscosity Measurements of Lubricants With Polymeric Viscosity Modifiers

The pressure–viscosity coefficient, α, is a measure of the pressure dependence of the viscosity of the liquid in elastohydrodynamic lubrication (EHL). There seems to be confusion around the understanding of the pressure–viscosity response in the inlet zone. In this paper the values of α were obtained from measurements of viscosity as a function of pressure and offers a understanding on the piezoviscous effect at various inlet pressures for those liquids. Moreover, the viscosities of several commercial engine oils and laboratory blends of mineral and synthetic base oils with polymer additives were measured at pressures up to 1 GPa and at temperatures of 40°C, 75°C, and 100°C. It was observed in some of these materials The significant changes within viscosity are temperature- and pressure-dependent. Analysis of the experimental results indicated that the solidification (significant increase viscosity) is due to liquid-solid phase transitions occurring in the lubricant’s polymer additives. Thus, this paper gives evidence on the role of molecular weight and concentration of polymer and its influence on the pressure- and temperature-dependent onset of the phase transitions. This transition has not been discussed in the open literature and is not accounted for in current bearing design using the Barus equation or the modified Yasatomi equation and may be the cause of some bearing damage modes.
Nuclear Weapons Policies

Nuclear weapons created a revolution in military strategy, but the character of that revolution has yet to be fully determined. Nuclear weapons threatened to annihilate the very societies that they were intended to defend if actually used in warfare. Therefore, the purpose of nuclear weapons became primarily the threat of use with the object of deterrence, instead of the actual employment of those weapons for the attainment of victory in combat. The U.S. and the Soviet Union faced down one another during the Cold War by using tacit and explicit threats of nuclear escalation but also by forbearance in crisis management and coercive diplomacy. The post-Cold War “second nuclear age” presents new challenges in the control of nuclear weapons, especially the prevention of nuclear weapons spread among new state and non-state actors.
Characteristics of Violent Restrained Patients in a Children’s Hospital

Behavioral emergencies occur when patients engage in dangerous behaviors. Children’s hospital’s staff may have may have little experience with these rare events. Patients may need to be physically restrained for safety. No published data exists regarding the characteristics of pediatric patients restrained for violent behavior in a children’s hospital. To better understand behavioral emergencies and the circumstances leading to violent restraints, we performed a 5 year retrospective chart review of patients restrained for violent behaviors in a free standing Children’s Hospital. Patients were identified through the …
Effects of Internalized Homonegativity and Face Visibility on HIV-Risk-Taking Behaviour in Gay Men Who Had Casual Sex Using Online-Dating Applications

Objective: To examine how internalized homonegativity (IH) and face visibility on online-dating applications relate to HIV risk-taking in gay men. Methods: Gay men (n = 277) completed an online sur...
Cardiac Transplantation for Cancer Involving the Heart: Results from 35 Years of Transplants from the ISHLT Registry

Purpose Cancer of the heart is rare but lethal. For those few patients with primary or metastatic cardiac malignancy, options for treatment are limited. Heart transplantation as a treatment for cardiac malignancy has been suggested by several small case series but outcomes data are scarce. We present a series of 104 heart transplants performed for any cancer involving the heart from 1982 to 2017 from the International Society of Heart and Lung Transplant (ISHLT) Thoracic Organ Transplant Registry. Methods 104 heart recipients were identified with cancer as the indication for transplant. We performed Kaplan-Meier survival analyses matching the 104 cancer patients with 104 patients receiving heart transplants for hypertrophic cardiomyopathy (HCM) because both cohorts are young with few co-morbidities. Matching was based on age, gender and transplant year. Results Median survival in the cancer cohort was 3.6 years (95% Confidence Interval (CI) = 1.2,7.2) compared to 17.5 (CI 16.6, 19.0) years in the matched HCM group (Table). Mortality was not significantly different at 30 days, but at the end of 5 years, more than half of the cancer patients were dead (Figure). 27 of these deaths were due to cancer. In the Cox-proportional hazards model, transplant for cardiac malignancy correlated with mortality (HR=1.8 (CI=1.1-3.1), p=0.02). Conclusion This study presents the largest retrospective series to date of heart transplantations performed for cancer. These patients had significantly increased mortality due to tumor recurrence. This raises a concern about allocating donor hearts for malignancy.
Chapter 5 – Emotion

This chapter begins with a historical overview of scholarly work on emotion. It then presents the contemporary cognitive perspective that emotion is caused and mediated by cognition. Anatomical evidence is presented that falsifies this view. Research regarding the use of Localized Electrical Stimulations of Specific Neural Systems (LESSNS) and direct chemical injection into brain centers conclusively demonstrates that emotions arise directly from subcortical structures in animals and from homologous brain centers in humans. The connection between emotion and facial expressions is discussed. The discovery that emotions form a circular rather than linear scale led to the development of circumplex models and the emotion wheel and cone analogy to the color wheel and cone. Eight basic emotions are presented that can be combined in pairs to produce primary, secondary, and tertiary emotional dyads analogous to how colors can be combined. This provides a way to represent emotions in connectionist neural network models that may improve our understanding of how cognitions and emotions interact to produce behavior. The relationship between emotions and illness is considered.
Progress in the 2009 H1N1 influenza A

In March 2009,a new influenza A H1N1 virus was identified in Mexico.It is a quadruple-reassortant influenza A virus, which is composed of a combination of swine, avian strains and human. The clinical symptoms of the 2009 new influenza A (H1N1) are similar with the seasonal influenza.The severe illness could happened in youth and middle-aged without underlying diseases that differs from seasonal influenza. The risk groups are individuals with underlying diseases,pregnancy and obesity which has not been considered as risk factor in previous. Although oseltamivir-resistant variant influenza A ( H1N1 ) were reported, strain is susceptible to oseltamivir. This review summarizes the current information concerning viral genom,clinical features and treatment of the new pandemic influenza virus A H1N1 infection. Key words: Influenza A; C, Genom; Clinical features; Treatment
Earth Education, Interbeing, and Deep Ecology

We believe that the current environmental crisis can be addressed by changing our relationship with the Earth that sustains us. This entails a reorientation of the idea of self to include an understanding that one is integrally and relationally part of everyone and everything else. Grounded on the ideologies of deep ecology and interbeing, we propose an Earth Education paradigm for art education and learning in the arts. In this article, we describe the crisis of environmental degradation and its root causes that have estranged people from the natural world. We suggest changes that may result in reconnection and address the potential role of art education in effecting these changes.
Sarcoidosis in a time of pandemic.

Sarcoidosis patients treated with immunosuppressants have a higher risk of serious, recurrent infection. The high morbidity and mortality associated with COVID-19 require a cautious re-evaluation of short- and long-term sarcoidosis treatments.https://bit.ly/2YwZ9wb
The Robotic Transthoracic Approach for Venous Thoracic Outlet Syndrome

First rib resection is performed as a component of the treatment strategy for patients with venous thoracic outlet syndrome. In this chapter, the emerging robotic transthoracic approach to first rib resection is described with particular considerations for the venous type of TOS.
Complexity in Simplifying Accounting Standards: The Case of ASU 2016-09

The current standard for accounting for stock-based compensation to employees and executives has proved to be increasingly complex. This results in accounting information less relevant and useful. To address this issue, the accounting standard setting body, Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB) issued the Accounting Standard Update (ASU) 2016-09. The new standard aims to simplify the accounting standards on stock based compensation. It changes the way that companies recognize tax benefits arising from gains employees realize from exercising stock option. Using a random sample of 48 software companies, this study examines the impact of the ASU on a company’s reported net income, effective tax rate, operating cash flow, and owner’s equity. Empirical evidence suggests that the accounting standard change has varying effects on companies’ financial performance measures in the same industry. It remains unclear whether the accounting standard has the intended effects of improving usefulness of accounting information.
In-Situ Scanning Tunneling Microscopy of Ir(100) Electrodes with Adsorbed Nitric Oxide and Carbon Monoxide

A Summary Report to The Electrochemical Society for a 1998 Department of Energy Summer Research Fellowship.
Computational Fermi level engineering and doping-type conversion of Mg:Ga2O3 via three-step synthesis process

Gallium oxide (Ga2O3) is being actively explored for electronics that can operate at high power, temperature, and frequency as well as for deep-ultraviolet optoelectronics and other applications due to its ultra-wide bandgap (UWBG) and low projected fabrication cost of large-size and high-quality crystals. Efficient n-type doping of monoclinic beta-phase of Ga2O3 has been achieved, but p-type doping faces fundamental obstacles due to compensation, deep acceptor levels, and the polaron transport mechanism of free holes. However, aside from the challenges of achieving p-type conductivity, plenty of opportunity exists to engineer the position of the Fermi level for improved design of Ga2O3-based devices. We use first-principles defect theory and defect equilibrium calculations to simulate a three-step growth-annealing-quench synthesis protocol for hydrogen-assisted Mg doping in β-Ga2O3. The simulations take into account the gas phase equilibrium between H2, O2, and H2O, which determines the H chemical potential. We predict Ga2O3 doping-type conversion to a net p-type regime after growth under reducing conditions in the presence of H2 followed by O-rich annealing, which is a similar process to Mg acceptor activation by H removal in GaN. For equilibrium annealing with re-equilibration of compensating O vacancies, there is an optimal temperature that maximizes the Ga2O3 net acceptor density for a given Mg doping level; the acceptor density is further increased in the non-equilibrium annealing scenario without re-equilibration. After quenching to operating temperature, the Ga2O3 Fermi level drops below mid-gap down to about 1.5 eV above the valence band maximum, creating a significant number of uncompensated neutral MgGa0 acceptors. The resulting free hole concentration in Ga2O3 is very low even at elevated operating temperature (∼108 cm−3 at 400 °C) due to the deep energy level of these Mg acceptors, and hole conductivity is further impeded by the polaron hopping mechanism. However, the Fermi-level reduction and suppression of free electron density in this doping-type converted (NA > ND) Ga2O3 material are important for improved designs of Ga2O3 electronic devices. These results illustrate the power of computational predictions not only for new materials but also for their synthesis science.
Peroneal neuropathy following successful bariatric surgery: Case report and review of the literature

Peroneal neuropathy has been observed in starvation, anorexia, and other situations of extreme weight loss. The authors report a case in which sequential bilateral peroneal neuropathies developed after successful bariatric surgery resulting in a weight loss of 114 lbs over 12 months. The diagnosis was confirmed using nerve conduction studies and electromyography. Clinical improvement occurred with decompressive surgery at the level of the knee.
Stream Computations Organized for Reconfigurable Execution (SCORE)

A primary impediment to wide-spread exploitation of reconfigurable computing is the lack of a unifying computational model which allows application portability and longevity without sacrificing a substantial fraction of the raw capabilities. We introduce SCORE (Stream Computation Organized for Reconfigurable Execution), a stream-based compute model which virtualizes reconfigurable computing resources (compute, storage, and communication) by dividing a computation up into fixed-size "pages" and time-multiplexing the virtual pages on available physical hardware. Consequently, SCORE applications can scale up or down automatically to exploit a wide range of hardware sizes.We hypothesize that the SCORE model will ease development and deployment of reconfigurable applications and expand the range of applications which can benefit from reconfigurable execution. Further, we believe that a well engineered SCORE implementation can be efficient, wasting little of the capabilities of the raw hardware. In this abstract, we highlight the key components of the SCORE system.
Blood transcriptomics: applications in toxicology

The number of new chemicals that are being synthesized each year has been steadily increasing. While chemicals are of immense benefit to mankind, many of them have a significant negative impact, primarily owing to their inherent chemistry and toxicity, on the environment as well as human health. In addition to chemical exposures, human exposures to numerous non-chemical toxic agents take place in the environment and workplace. Given that human exposure to toxic agents is often unavoidable and many of these agents are found to have detrimental human health effects, it is important to develop strategies to prevent the adverse health effects associated with toxic exposures. Early detection of adverse health effects as well as a clear understanding of the mechanisms, especially at the molecular level, underlying these effects are key elements in preventing the adverse health effects associated with human exposure to toxic agents. Recent developments in genomics, especially transcriptomics, have prompted investigations into this important area of toxicology. Previous studies conducted in our laboratory and elsewhere have demonstrated the potential application of blood gene expression profiling as a sensitive, mechanistically relevant and practical surrogate approach for the early detection of adverse health effects associated with exposure to toxic agents. The advantages of blood gene expression profiling as a surrogate approach to detect early target organ toxicity and the molecular mechanisms underlying the toxicity are illustrated and discussed using recent studies on hepatotoxicity and pulmonary toxicity. Furthermore, the important challenges this emerging field in toxicology faces are presented in this review article.
Myeloid-Derived Suppressor Cells in Cancer: Mechanisms and Therapeutic Perspectives

Patients with cancer have an impaired T cell response that can decrease the potential therapeutic benefit of cancer vaccines and other forms of immunotherapy. l-Arginine (l-Arg) is a nonessential amino acid that is fundamental for the function of T lymphocytes. Recent findings in tumor-bearing mice and cancer patients indicate that the increased metabolism of l-Arg by myeloid-derived suppressor cells (MDSC) producing Arginase I inhibits T lymphocyte responses. Here, we discuss some of the most recent concepts of how MDSC expressing Arginase I may regulate T cell function in cancer and other chronic inflammatory diseases, and suggest possible therapeutic interventions to overcome this inhibitory effect.
Taxation of the Medical Device Industry for Health Care Reform: An Ethical Analysis

Throughout the congressional debate over healthcare reform in 2009-2010, the sources of funding for the bill were hotly contested. Often lost amid these politicized discussions, however, was the question of whether the methods selected to finance the reform are actually the most ethically defensible. Upon evaluation, it becomes apparent that, while efforts to expand healthcare access are justified, a tax on the medical device industry is not the most equitable way to finance this goal. Such a tax would impede important innovations in medicine; even without the tax, the medical device industry might still be harmed by reform efforts. Thus, the negative consequences outweigh the benefits.
The Return of the Fifties?: Value Trends at the University of Michigan, 1952 to 1989

Thirty-one items on six identical surveys of University of Michigan undergraduate men between 1952 to 1989 help assess if there has been a “return of the fifties.” Several elements of the fifties have returned—privatism, concern about loyalty and subversion, and conservatism in some personal morals. Other elements have not—the 1952 levels of other-direction, traditional religious commitment, and trust in human nature. The 1980s had a unique combination of political conservatism and personal individualism.
Posttranslational Processing of Gut Peptides

The sections in this article are: 1 Initial Events in Peptide Synthesis 2 Processing in the Endoplasmic Reticulum 3 Processing in the Golgi Complex 4 Processing in Secretory Vesicles 4.1 Acetylation 4.2 Dibasic Cleavage 4.3 Monobasic Cleavage 4.4 Amidation 5 Posttranslational Processing of Progastrin
Visualizing user experience through perceptual maps: concurrent assessment of perceived usability and subjective appearance in car infotainment systems

Users' perceptions of the appearance and the usability of an interactive system are two integral parts that contribute to the users' experience of the system. "Actual usability" represents a system value that is revealed either during usability testing and related methods by experts or during use by the target users. Perceived usability is an assumption about a systems' usability that has been made prior to, or independent of, its use. The appearance of a product can inadvertently affect its perceived usability; however, their relationship has not been systematically explored. We describe an approach that uses "perceptual maps" to visualize the relationship between perceived usability and subjective appearance. A group of professional designers rated representative car infotainment systems for their subjective appearance; a group of usability experts rated the same models for their perceived usability. We applied multidimensional scaling (MDS) to project the ratings into the same Euclidean space. The results show certain overlap between the perceptions of product appearance and usability. The implications of this approach for designing interactive systems are discussed.
PARABOLIC VECTOR BUNDLES AND HERMITIAN-YANG-MILLS CONNECTIONS OVER A RIEMANN SURFACE

We study a certain moduli space of irreducible Hermitian-Yang-Mills connections on a unitary vector bundle over a punctured Riemann surface. The connections used have non-trivial holonomy around the punctures lying in fixed conjugacy classes of U (n) and differ from each other by elements of a weighted Sobolev space; these connections give rise to parabolic bundles in the sense of Mehta and Seshadri. We show in fact that the moduli space of stable parabolic bundles can be identified with our moduli space of HYM connections, by proving that every stable bundle admits a unique unitary gauge orbit of Hermitian-Yang-Mills connections.
Dynamically oriented group therapy with alcoholics: Making it work despite the prevailing bias

A bias exists in the psychiatric community against dynamically oriented group therapy with alcoholics. The basis for this bias lies primarily in negative experiences of practitioners who have attempted to use traditional therapy with alcoholic patients who continued to drink. At Appleton Outpatient Clinic, we have found that dynamically oriented group therapy is a highly suitable treatment modality for alcoholic patients when negative biases of treators can be addressed and when initial preparatory work is done with patients. This preparatory work includes: (a) building a working alliance around abstinence and providing adequate supports to make this possible; (b) explicit contracting that establishes clear treatment goals and consequences should the goals not be met; (c) preparatory short-termgroup experiences.
Estimating dynamic properties of objects from appearance

To interact with objects effectively, a robot can use model-based or model-free control approaches. The superior performance typical of model-based control comes at the cost of developing or learning an accurate model of the system to be controlled. In this paper, we suggest an approach that generates models for novel objects based on visual features of those objects. These models can then be used for anticipatory control. We demonstrate this approach by replicating an infant experiment on a pneumatic humanoid robot. Infants seem to use visual information to estimate the mass of rods, and when they are presented a rod with an unexpected length-to-mass relationship, infants produce a large overcompensating arm movement when compared to an object with an expected mass. Our replication shows that the visual model-based control approach qualitatively replicates the behavior observed in the infant experiment, whereas a popular model-free approach, PID control, does not.
Thurstone's Scaling Model Applied to the Assessment of Self-Reported Depressive Severity.

Thurstone's scaling based on judgments of 527 students and 37 clinical faculty members was applied to the Beck Depression Inventory, the Zung Depression Scale, and the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory-D30 and had a good fit to the observed data. A 4-unit unidimensional psychological continuum for depressive severity (Subjective Depression Severity Continuum [SDSC]) ranging from positive affect to severe depression as derived. Scale values (SVs) for each item's response options estimate their location on the SDSC and were shown to be face valid, stable, and unbiased by gender, race, depression level, or clinical training
Footprint Determination for Reusable Launch Vehicles Experiencing Control Effector Failures

Abstract : The ability to compute the maximum area on the earth's surface (footprint) reachable by an autonomous air vehicle can be useful in planning for the vehicle's safe operations. The information can be important when the vehicle experiences subsystem failures causing it to be unable to maintain its nominal performance. In this paper, we present a method to calculate the footprint of a reusable launch vehicle that experiences a failure in one or more of its aero-control surfaces. During a control effector failure, the maximum attainable moments of the vehicle are reduced, which may decrease the range of conditions that the vehicle can maintain a trimmed condition. Additionally, the lift and drag characteristics of the vehicle can change when control effectors are moved to off-nominal positions to correct for moment imbalance caused by failures or damage. As a result, the footprint of the vehicle is reduced. A technique for calculating the available effectiveness of the aero-control surfaces is used in conjunction with a footprint generation algorithm to include the effects of rotational trim on the vehicle footprint.
SU‐GG‐I‐100: A Mesh‐Based Anatomical Deformation Method for Creating Size‐Adjustable Whole‐Body Patient Models

Purpose: Whole‐body patient models are needed for the assessment of organdoses in various CTimaging and external‐beam radiation treatment procedures. The Boundary REPresentation (BPRE) type of geometry offers greater control over the anatomical shapes and tissue/organ surfaces could be flexibly deformed. Currently tedious and time‐consuming manual adjustment is necessary. This paper discusses an automatic modeling method recently developed to create two adjustable adult male and female mesh models with dynamically deformable organs.Method and Materials: The algorithm for the development of the deformable RPI Adult Male/Female phantoms was implemented by MATLAB® 7.4. The anatomical mesh models were based the Anatomium™ 3D models whose organ geometries were morphed to agree within 0.5% with the ICRP reference male and female organ volume/mass data. These mesh morphing algorithms were used to automatically pre‐modify the dataset to have unique mesh information in each of organ boundaries and deform the whole meshes based on the ICRP volume/mass reference without unwanted surface overlapping through the special mesh overlap avoiding process. After the deformations, the RPI Adult Male/Female mesh models were transformed to the solid geometries through the voxelization process with 3.2 mm and 3.0 mm, respectively. Results: These phantoms have been used by transforming the solid geometries into the voxel domain that is compatible with well‐validated Monte Carlo radiation transport simulations such as MCNP, EGSnrc and GEANT4codes. Through these mesh deformation algorithms, complicated bone (cavity, spongiosa, and cortical bones) and muscle structures have been described in the RPI Adult Male/Female mesh models. Conclusion: This study has demonstrated the feasibility to create deformable RPI Adult Male/Female phantoms. These phantoms will be applied to various applications of including person specific adjustments depended on age, weight, and height changes.
Depo-provera in adolescents: Continuation rates and characteristics of long-term users

Background Adolescents frequently discontinue hormonal contraception resulting in unintended pregnancy. Depo medroxyprogesterone acetate (DMPA, Depo-Provera) is an effective long-acting contraceptive, which requires quarterly injections. The objective ofthis study is to identify continuation rates of DMPA in adolescents and characteristics of long-term users. Methods A standardized review was conducted of 153 randomly selected charts of 13–20 yr. old females (x=16.7 yrs., 67% Hispanic, 31% African American. 2% white) initiating DMPA from 8/93–6/96 at an inner-city adolescent clinic. Subjects had a mean menarcheal age of 11.7 yrs., coital age of 13.9 yrs., and 2.7 sex partners. 32% had ever used oral contraceptives, 73% condoms, and none implants. 54% had ever bad abnormal Pap smears and 23% chlamydia infection. 135 subjects (88%) had been pregoant; 112 had a child. Life table analysis was used to measure DMPA continuation rates and to compare variables. Result DMPA continuation rates: 68% received two or more injections; 49% three or more; and 38% four or more injections. Continuation of DMPA was more likely, if coital age was Conclusions Although only about one third of adolescents continued DMPA for four or more injections almost half restarted DMPA indicating ambivalence toward this form of contraception. In this inner-city group both young age at first intercourse and older age at menarche were associated with better continuation rates. The former may reflect a longer experience with sexual activity and contraception whereas the latter may be a result of other psychosocial variables associated with pubertal timing.
Properties of the Witch of Agnesi—Application to Fitting the Shapes of Spectral Lines

The witch of Agnesi, y=ha2/(a2+x2) is of importance to physicists because it approximates the spectral energy distribution of spectral lines, particularly x-ray lines. This paper reviews the known properties of the witch such as graphical construction, parametric form of the equation and nth derivatives. New series for these derivatives are developed which are better adapted for use in correcting experimental curves by the method derived by the author. The points on the curve whose ordinates are 14,12 and 34 of the maximum have special properties which are described.
Materials analysis by ultrasonics: Metals, ceramics, composites

Research results in analytical ultrasonics for characterizing structural materials from metals and ceramics to composites are presented. General topics covered by the conference included: status and advances in analytical ultrasonics for characterizing material microstructures and mechanical properties; status and prospects for ultrasonic measurements of microdamage, degradation, and underlying morphological factors; status and problems in precision measurements of frequency-dependent velocity and attenuation for materials analysis; procedures and requirements for automated, digital signal acquisition, processing, analysis, and interpretation; incentives for analytical ultrasonics in materials research and materials processing, testing, and inspection; and examples of progress in ultrasonics for interrelating microstructure, mechanical properties, and dynamic response.
Glycogenolytic effect of dibutyryl cyclic adenosine 3',5'-monophosphate in perfused rat liver.

Abstract The glycogenolytic action of the N 6 -2'- O -dibutyryl derivative of cyclic adenosine 3',5'-monophosphate was demonstrated in isolated perfused rat liver. The initial hyperglycemic response induced by the dibutyryl derivative exceeded that of the monobutyryl derivative and the parent compound in equimolar doses. The dibutyryl derivative was especially potent during the first 30 min of infusion and produced a 70 per cent greater glycemic response compared to the monobutyryl derivative. Near maximal glycogenolysis was demonstrated as early as 2 hr. The findings support the hypothesis that the dibutyryl derivative penetrates the liver cell more readily, or is less susceptible to hydrolysis by phosphodiesterase, than the monobutyrl derivative or the parent compound.
Mashing the real world with virtual worlds a monetizing opportunity

Virtual worlds and social networks in general are emerging phenomena which can benefit from information in the real world. For example, since its introduction in 2003, Second Life has grown explosively, and today is inhabited by nearly 10 million residents from around the globe. A fair number of the residents make part of or their entire real world living by running business on Second Life. Communications in this vast digital continent happen between avatars and make use of web facilities. Leveraging context aware capabilities such as presence, location, identity, anchored in the real world opens monetizing opportunities for the service providers. Services on the real word were mashed with Second Life used here as a typical example of a 3D virtual world. The authors present in this paper how the integration of these two worlds was achieved. This integration leveraged rapid application prototyping, development and deployment and brings the potential of a dramatic reduction in service lifecycle costs.
The feedback view of business policy and strategy

A combination of administrative theory and traditional system dynamics modeling promises a flexible model-based tool to assist businesses in designing policies and programs to support new strategic moves. Administrative theory helps clarify the firm's organization and decision-making structure. System dynamics highlights feedback loops in the decision-making structure and shows how structure is related to business behavior. With this dual conceptual framework, a business policy modeling project divides into two distinct phases, each of which has a value in policy analysis. Phase 1 is a descriptive survey of the firm's decision-making structure, rather like traditional conceptualization but made richer by use of administrative theory. Phase 2 is conventional simulation modeling that builds on the phase 1 survey. Several business cases illustrate the kinds of policy insights that a phase 1 survey can provide. The article also comments on the value that a full-fledged simulation model adds to the phase 1 analysis.
Influence of the modern light environment on mood

Humans and other organisms have adapted to a consistent and predictable 24-h solar cycle, but over the past ~130 years the widespread adoption of electric light has transformed our environment. Instead of aligning behavioral and physiological processes to the natural solar cycle, individuals respond to artificial light cycles created by social and work schedules. Urban light pollution, night shift work, transmeridian travel, televisions and computers have dramatically altered the timing of light used to entrain biological rhythms. In humans and other mammals, light is detected by the retina and intrinsically photosensitive retinal ganglion cells project this information both to the circadian system and limbic brain regions. Therefore, it is possible that exposure to light at night, which has become pervasive, may disrupt both circadian timing and mood. Notably, the rate of major depression has increased in recent decades, in parallel with increasing exposure to light at night. Strong evidence already links circadian disruption to major depression and other mood disorders. Emerging evidence from the past few years suggests that exposure to light at night also negatively influences mood. In this review, we discuss evidence from recent human and rodent studies supporting the novel hypothesis that nighttime exposure to light disrupts circadian organization and contributes to depressed mood.
Focus Issue: TGF-β and the Mesenchymal Transition in Physiology and Disease

The ability of cells to alter their phenotypic and morphological characteristics, known as cellular plasticity, is critical in normal embryonic development and adult tissue repair and contributes to the progression of diseases like organ fibrosis and cancer. Signaling mediated by the transforming growth factor–β (TGF-β) superfamily of extracellular protein ligands is one pathway that is integral to these processes. Content published in Science Signaling highlights the roles and complexities of TGF-β signaling in physiology and disease.
The PP2A-Associated Protein α4 Is an Essential Inhibitor of Apoptosis

Despite evidence that protein kinases are regulators of apoptosis, a specific role for phosphatases in regulating cell survival has not been established. Here we show that alpha4, a noncatalytic subunit of protein phosphatase 2A (PP2A), is required to repress apoptosis in murine cells. alpha4 is a nonredundant regulator of the dephosphorylation of the transcription factors c-Jun and p53. As a result of alpha4 deletion, multiple proapoptotic genes were transcribed. Either inhibition of new protein synthesis or Bcl-xL overexpression suppressed apoptosis initiated by alpha4 deletion. Thus, mammalian cell viability depends on repression of transcription-initiated apoptosis mediated by a component of PP2A.
Shot noise in double barrier quantum structures

Shot noise is calculated in a Double Barrier Resonant Tunneling Structure (DBRTS) by taking the space charge accumulated inside the quantum well into account. The calculation is self-consistent in nature and is obtained by simultaneously solving the Schrodinger and Poisson's equations. The calculation shows the suppression of shot noise in the positive differential resistance (PDR) region and an enhancement in the negative differential resistance region (NDR) of the DBRTS. This behavior is explained in terms of the auto-and cross-power density spectrum of current in the presence of space charge in the quantum well. Calculated shot noise factor shows a suppression in the PDR region (γ = 0.31) and an enhancement in the NDR region (γ = 9) as observed experimentally.
A novel synthesis of some anhydrous rare earth acetylacetonates

(Recelv~ 7 S~tember •967) A number of methods have been reported for the preparation of rare earth acetylacetonates (i). Most of these methods are variations of the procedure reported by Stites (2) in 1948, and depend on the precipitation of the trichelate from a rare earth salt solution by treatment with a buffered alkaline solution of acetylacetone. The products thus obtained are invariably hydrates containing one to three water molecules per metal ion (1,3). Conventional methods of drying fail to remove this water completely and often lead to partial decomposition of the chelate (3). We have developed a method which yields anhydrous rare earth acetylacetonates directly and have applied it ~uccessfully to the preparation of the dysprosium, holmium and erbium chelates. Our method depends on the reaction of a rare earth hydride with pure acetylacetone and precludes contamination of the product by water or other Lewis bases. While the physical properties of rare earth hydrides have been extensively studied very little has been reported concerning the chemical properties of these compounds (4). No report of their reaction with acetylacetone or related compounds has previously been published.
Hierarchical routing for large networks Performance evaluation and optimization

Abstract Distributed adaptive routing has proven to be useful in packet switching networks. However, the storage and updating cost of this routing procedure becomes prohibitive as the number of nodes in the network gets large. This paper deals with the specification, analysis and evaluation of some hierarchical routing procedures which are effective for large store-and-forward packet-switched computer networks. The procedures studied are an extension of present techniques and rely on a hierarchical clustering of the network nodes. In particular, optimal clustering structures are determined so as to minimize the length of the routing tables required. A price for reducing the table length is the increase in the average message path length in the network. Bounds are derived to evaluate the maximum increase in path length for a given table length. From this we obtain our key result, namely, that in the limit of a very large network, enormous table reduction may be achieved with essentially no increase in network path length.
Iconic figures in African football: from Roger Milla to Didier Drogba

The rise of celebrity culture is a theme that has attracted a significant amount of attention within the realm of sport and culture related studies in sociology. Indeed sportsmen and women were the pioneers of celebrity status in ancient Greek society. Associating sporting accomplishments with celebrity has now been magnified by the media and the ensuing debate on the celebrity–media nexus and the cultural changes due to globalization have acquired considerable significance in academic studies. In this essay, I endeavour to focus on Roger Milla and Didier Drogba who captured the hearts of soccer-lovers worldwide in the late twentieth and early twenty-first centuries. I will try to capture the essence of the celebrity status of these two soccer icons by evaluating their images in relation to debates surrounding African soccer, sports labour migration and the state of the domestic game. It is my argument that the two rose to iconic status because they ventured outside the continent to compete at the highest...
Energy Homeostasis in Hypopituitary Children and Controls

27 children aged 4-16 yrs with hypopituitarism were studied before (I) and after 6 months of growth hormone therapy (II) and compared with 15 endocrinologically normal children aged 2-12 yrs (8 short stature & 7 suspected hypoglycemia) (III). Plasma glucose (G), insulin (IRI), glucagon (IRG), free fatty acids (FFA) and β-hydroxybutyrate (BOH) were measured serially during a fast and following intravenous glucagon administration which terminated the fast after a maximum of 24 hrs. The mean G nadir during the fast was 51 mg% in I, 44 mg% in II and 44 mg% in III. The glucagon stimulated G rise was significant (35 mg% in I, 33 mg% in II and 35 mg% in III). The FFA concentrations at 0 time were .59, .57 & .67 meq/1 in I, II and III respectively. In all 3 groups there was a significant increase of FFA to 1.67, 1.70 & 2.06 meq/1 in I, II & III resp. There were no intergroup differences in any of these results. BOH rose equally in groups I & II. There was a significant IRG rise during the fast of 200 pg/ml in I, 197 pg/ml in II & 234 pg/ml in III. Basal IRI values and IRI responses to glucagon were not different in I & II, but significantly higher than III at both times. The higher IRI values in I & II reflect the frequently associated obesity, particularly in older children. We conclude that energy homeostasis in hypopituitarism during fasting is associated with appropriate fat mobilization, ketone production and IRG responses. In 4 patients in I & 2 in III who became hypoglycemic (G<40 mg%) responses were similar.
Endogamy in settlement populations of semai senoi: Potential mate pool analysis and simulation

Abstract Two methods have been used to evaluate potential endogamy in three settlement populations of a swidden farming group, the Semai Senoi of Malaysia. One method involved determining the number of potential mates available to individuals in each population based on demographic structure and cultural rules concerning appropriate mates. A Monte Carlo simulation of Semai settlement populations was also carried out under two different regimes of mate choice. Both procedures suggest that individuals in the largest Semai settlements are potentially able to marry endogamously but that in smaller groups few potential mates are available and many persons must marry exogamously or remain unmarried. The relatively high rate of marital migration required among small settlement populations implies that newly founded small groups would be unlikely to become sufficiently isolated to form distinct breeding populations.
SECONDARY REINFORCEMENT FOR SLOPES

Secondary reinforcement in slopes is typically designed without any stability considerations. A rational stability analysis is attempted in this paper, based on shallow collapse mechanisms confined to the neighborhood of the slope face. The kinematic theorem of limit analysis is used to arrive at the necessary spacing of the secondary reinforcement and its strength and length. Analysis of a collapse limited to the soil between the layers of reinforcement is used to determine the required soil cohesion necessary to maintain stability. Since this cohesion depends on the size of the mechanism, the spacing of the secondary geosynthetic can be determined from this analysis. Some cohesion is usually present in the zone close to the slope face because of moisture in the soil, cementation due to a small amount of fine particles, or vegetation. Even a small amount of cohesion may have a significant effect on the stability. The strength and length of secondary reinforcement are determined from shallow collapse mechanisms engaging secondary reinforcement in tension. The slope face becomes most susceptible to failure when the soil becomes saturated, because of the seepage and buoyancy forces, and because of the loss of apparent cohesion. A more approximate analysis based on an infinite slope model is also shown. Its description is limited to the presentation of the concept. This method relies heavily on the cohesion distribution in the zone close to the slope face. Because an estimation of this distribution is difficult, the infinite slope model may be difficult to apply in practice.