cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Effects of temperature dependence of electrical and thermal conductivities on the heating of a one dimensional conductor

Joule heating limits the operation of most current carrying components and devices, especially in nanoscale circuits such as carbon nanofiber based field emitters, graphene electronics, and nanolasers [1]. For many materials of interest it is important to consider the temperature dependence of the thermal and electrical conductivities when calculating the effects of Joule heating. We examine the effects of linear temperature dependence of the electrical and thermal conductivities on the heating of a one-dimensional conductor by solving the coupled non-linear steady state electrical and thermal conduction equations. We find that there are conditions under which no steady state solution exists. In the special case in which the temperature dependence of the electrical conductivity may be neglected, we have obtained explicit expressions for these conditions. The maximum temperature and its location within the conductor are examined for various boundary conditions. We note that the absence of a steady state solution may indicate the possibility of thermal runaway [2].
Discovery of third category of bionanomotor by revolution mechanism without rotation and development of high efficient antibacterial drug targeting to biomotors

B have been classified into two categories: Linear and rotation motor. For decades, viral DNA-packaging motors have been believed to be the rotation motor. Recently, we discovered a third type of biomotor using the revolution mechanism without rotation. It was found that many dsDNA translocation biomotors use a common revolution mechanism. Rotation is similar to the Earth rotating around its own axis, while revolution is like Earth revolving around the Sun. Acquired drug resistance has become a major threat for bacterial infection. To combat the evolution of drug resistance, new approached in drug design are highly desired. Many biomotors contain a high stoichiometrical number, such as displaying as a hexamer, of components. Our study revealed that drugs targeting a biomotors holding high stoichiometry could cause an exponentially stronger inhibitory effect than targeting complex with low stoichiometry. Bacteria contain many biomotors that can serve as excellent target for the development of high efficient antibacterial drugs. The new methods in drug design reported here can accelerate next generation of potent drugs to remedy drug-resistant of bacterial infection.
Institutional Context for IT Use in the Automotive Industry: A Case Study on the Market Leader in India’s Passenger Vehicle Sector

This study explores the use of IT in the automotive industry. It examines the institutional context of India’s passenger vehicle sector by conducting a value chain analysis of the automotive industry. Additionally, the usage of IT at Maruti Udyog, India’s market leader in the passenger vehicle sector, is investigated. The study evaluates to what extent IT has contributed to Maruti Udyog’s market growth in India and in other, similar countries.
Visual Ethnography and the City: On the Dead Ends of Reflexivity and Gentrification

LaDue examines two critical methodological turns: the reflexive turn in ethnographic methods as an attempted methodological fix for colonialist relationships in anthropology, and the gentrification critique of urban development as an attempted discursive and theoretical fix for pro-growth development. The chapter gives a brief overview of the reflexive turn, and emphasizes its limitations. Next it describes how the critical lens of gentrification is analogous to reflexivity and why it is productive to understand this mirrored relationship as part of a structural positionality of power and whiteness. Taking off from here, the chapter presents a possible methodological approach to break with this orientation. The clarity in understanding these propositions is based on LaDue’s qualitative research on a community organization in Durham, USA.
Thirty-Month Complete Response as a Surrogate End Point in First-Line Follicular Lymphoma Therapy: An Individual Patient-Level Analysis of Multiple Randomized Trials

Purpose Follicular lymphoma (FL) is an indolent cancer, with effective but rarely curative treatment options. As a standard study end point for first-line FL therapy, progression-free survival (PFS) requires extended follow-up (median PFS, > 7 years). To provide patients with earlier access to newer therapies, an earlier end point to expedite clinical trials is needed. Our objective was to formally assess the complete response rate at 30 months (CR30) after initiation of induction therapy as a potential surrogate end point for PFS in first-line FL therapy. Patients and Methods We analyzed individual patient data from 13 randomized multicenter trials of induction and maintenance regimens in first-line FL therapy published after 1990 and with sufficient data to evaluate whether CR30 could predict treatment effects on PFS. Correlation of the CR30 odds ratio with the PFS hazard ratio was evaluated by both linear regression (R2WLS) and bivariate copula (R2Copula) models. Prespecified criteria for surrogacy required either R2WLS or R2Copula ≥ 0.80, with a lower-bound 95% CI > 0.60. Results Data from eight induction and five maintenance randomized trials in 3,837 evaluable patients were analyzed. The prespecified surrogacy threshold was met, with an R2WLS of 0.88 (95% CI, 0.77 to 0.96) and an R2Copula of 0.86 (95% CI, 0.72 to 1.00). Multiple sensitivity and supplemental analyses supported the robustness of the findings. A minimum 11% absolute improvement in CR30 from a 50% control rate predicted a significant treatment effect on PFS (hazard ratio, 0.69). Conclusion This large, prospective, pooled analysis of randomized chemotherapy, immunotherapy, and chemoimmunotherapy trials demonstrates that CR30 is a surrogate end point for PFS in first-line FL treatment trials. Use of this end point may expedite therapeutic development with the intent of bringing novel therapies to this patient population years before PFS results are mature.
The Quality Movement in U.S. Health Care: Implications for Anthropology

A growing trend in U.S. health care may provide unprecedented opportunity for introducing many of Anthropology's concerns and concepts within the clinical setting. Faced with increasing competition, plus demands from payers and accrediting entities that they prove their quality, hospitals are attempting to apply principles of Total Quality Management (TQM) to improve performance. TQM stresses the systemic (functionally integrated) nature of hospital organization, as well as the impact of organizational culture on the effectiveness of policies and processes. It is argued that these principles (coupled with hospital administrators' growing familiarity with the concept of "culture") fit neatly with anthropology's core paradigm. Several short term consulting examples reflect the susceptibility of hospital quality issues to anthropological insight. It is suggested that Anthropology is uniquely qualified to contribute to the evoling "quality movement." By so participating, we may be able to introduce and perhap...
Photonic switching platform for datacenters enabling rapid network reconfiguration

Over the last decade, datacenter networks have leveraged CMOS scaling alongside extensible architectures to provide steady gains in performance. Now, the end of CMOS scaling threatens to dramatically increase energy in next-generation datacenters. A scalable, efficient photonic switching platform that enables fast network reconfiguration may shatter conventional electronic switch power-versus-performance scaling trends and decouple the ties between bandwidth and lithography node. The key metric is the nanosecond-scale switching time. However, the rapid reconfiguration also introduces challenges into the switch and network design. Nevertheless, several key technical innovations may help fast photonic switching technologies make a substantial impact on future datacenters.
Microstructural refinement in an ultra-high strength martensitic steel via equal channel angular pressing

Abstract In this work, a CALPHAD thermodynamic model is used to assess the thermodynamic stability of austenite in an Ultra-High Strength Martensitic Steel (i.e., Eglin Steel) in order to refine parent austenite-grain sizes, via high temperature equal-channel angular pressing (ECAP). The parent austenite-grain sizes are reduced from 188 µm to 14.8 µm, which in turn, led to the refinement of martensite lath sizes. This approach produced a yield strength of 1.68 GPa, ultimate strength of 1.98 GPa, and an elongation of 16.1%. Overall, this method reduced development cycle times and achieved alloy performance on par with Ni-Co secondary hardening steels.
Can Reward Systems Influence the Creative Individual

Publisher Summary This chapter examines the role that rewards play in stimulating creativity. One begins by discussing the role of reward systems in existing models of creativity in organizations. The use of reward systems to stimulate creativity is a complex and equivocal topic. Although most managers in today's organizations ostensibly rely upon reward systems to drive creative performance, there is a paucity of empirical evidence of widespread success in using reward systems for this purpose. A number of empirical studies demonstrate that rewards can have both positive and negative influences on both developing and facilitating creative performance. Real-world case studies and other qualitative, anecdotal, organizational examples provide us with a clearer view of the value of developing creativity through reward systems. Studies of the most creatively successful organizations exhibit a definite avoidance of traditional reward systems. Rather than focusing on linking rewards to positive outcomes, these organizations use the indirect strategy of creating an environment in which creativity can flourish.
A quantitative petrofabric characterization of metamorphic rocks

Adequate and reliable estimation of the nature of rocks is a primary requirement in engineering geology. Of crucial concern in the characterization of metamorphic rocks in particular is their intrinsic anisotropic fabric, foliation.
Wednesday, September 26, 2018 9:00 AM – 10:00 AM Best Papers: 3. Epidemiologic and survival trends in primary malignant osseous tumors of the spine: a National Cancer Database study

BACKGROUND CONTEXT Primary malignant osseous spinal tumors (PMOST) are rare and difficult to manage tumors with poor outcomes despite multimodal treatment regimes. The rarity of these neoplasms makes it difficult to perform large studies comparing epidemiologic, survival, and treatment trends. We investigated the largest registry of primary bone tumors, the National Cancer Database (NCDB), to compare epidemiologic and survival trends between these tumors. PURPOSE To describe epidemiologic, survival, and treatment trends with primary malignant osseous spinal tumors. STUDY DESIGN/SETTING Retrospective. PATIENT SAMPLE N=941. OUTCOME MEASURES Length of survival. METHODS We retrospectively reviewed 941 patients in the NCDB from 2004 through 2015 with histologically confirmed primary osteosarcoma, chondrosarcoma, Ewing's sarcoma, or chordoma of the spine. Demographic, clinical, and outcomes data were compiled and compared using chi-squared tests and ANOVA. Long-term survival was compared using the Kaplan-Meier (KM) method with statistical comparisons based on the log-rank test. Multivariate analysis was performed to determine survival determinants. Study variables included age, sex, race, Hispanic ethnicity, insurance status, comorbidity score, year of diagnosis, grade of tumor, size of tumor, stage of tumor, surgical resection, chemotherapy, and radiation therapy. RESULTS The cohort included 941 patients; histological diagnosis was chordoma (n=407), chondrosarcoma (n=243), Ewing's sarcoma (n=164), and osteosarcoma (n=127). The average age at diagnosis was younger in Ewing's sarcoma (p CONCLUSIONS This study provides the most comprehensive comparison of epidemiologic, survival, and management trends in PMOST. Surgical resection is the most common form of treatment for all PMOST. Ewing's sarcoma was treated with adjuvant chemotherapy and radiation therapy more often than other tumor types. Osteosarcoma has the worst 5-year survival prognosis of 32.9%, which did not improve from 2004 to 2015. Radiation therapy did not provide a survival benefit when looking at all PMOST. FDA DEVICE/DRUG STATUS This abstract does not discuss or include any applicable devices or drugs.
Hybrid plasmonic Au–TiN vertically aligned nanocomposites: a nanoscale platform towards tunable optical sensing

Tunable plasmonic structure at the nanometer scale presents enormous opportunities for various photonic devices. In this work, we present a hybrid plasmonic thin film platform: i.e., a vertically aligned Au nanopillar array grown inside a TiN matrix with controllable Au pillar density. Compared to single phase plasmonic materials, the presented tunable hybrid nanostructures attain optical flexibility including gradual tuning and anisotropic behavior of the complex dielectric function, resonant peak shifting and change of surface plasmon resonances (SPRs) in the UV-visible range, all confirmed by numerical simulations. The tailorable hybrid platform also demonstrates enhanced surface plasmon Raman response for Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) and photoluminescence (PL) measurements, and presents great potentials as designable hybrid platforms for tunable optical-based chemical sensing applications.
Special Interests and Institutional Change in State Supreme Courts

In this paper, I argue that variation in the methods across states for selecting state supreme court justices is best understood as an equilibrium reflecting efficiency considerations by special interest groups for achieving favorable rulings in state courts. I develop a simple model showing how an interest group's expectations about the ideological preferences of a state's officials and electorate can prompt the group to campaign to change the selection method in that state. The key result of the model shows that a loss of agency between elector and elected can benefit special interests, such that interest groups, depending on their ideological preferences, may have an incentive to exploit this agency loss by changing court selection methods. Using a novel dataset of bills introduced in state legislatures, I find support for this proposition. I argue that these findings suggest, in contrast to assertions by reformers, that appointive selection systems are just as susceptible to interest group influence as are elective systems.
Factors Associated With Pickup of Pediatric Discharge Prescriptions.

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: Lack of medication pickup is associated with worse clinical outcomes for select patients. Identification of risk factors for not picking up discharge medications or approaches to this problem have received little study. We sought to identify factors associated with medication pickup rates after hospitalization at a tertiary care children’s hospital. METHODS: We conducted a retrospective cohort study of 178 discharges from a children’s hospital. We contacted pharmacies that received electronic prescriptions to ascertain whether patients and families picked up medications. The principal outcome was pickup of all medications within 48 hours of discharge. Covariates included demographic data, insurance type, discharge diagnosis, home zip code median income, medication number and/or class, and pharmacy type (on-site versus off-site). We performed a multivariable logistic regression analysis. RESULTS: Overall, 142 of 178 (80%) discharges involved medication pickup. Patient age and sex, diagnosis, discharge day, primary language, and hospitalization length had no statistically significant association with medication pickup. On the multivariable analysis, a higher home zip code median income (P = .045; highest versus lowest groups) had a statistically significant association with increased medication pickup. Private insurance had a statistically significant association with higher pickup rate on the univariable analysis (P = .01) but not on the multivariable analysis, which included zip code income (P = .072). On-site pharmacy use (P = .048) and prescription of an anti-infective (P = .003) had statistically significant associations with higher medication pickup rates. CONCLUSIONS: Certain factors are associated with rates of medication pickup after discharge. Use of an on-site hospital pharmacy may represent a strategy to improve medication pickup rates in children who are hospitalized.
Plastic strains and energy density in cracked plates

A technique is presented which allows separation of the principal plastic strains within an enclave at a crack tip in relatively thin plates. For plates with a number of crack lengths, several degrees of tensile loading are applied to five ductile materials with widely varying mechanical properties. Principal plastic strain distributions, plastic distortional strain energy density and total plastic energy are determined within the resulting plastic encalves. It is shown that the degree of loading and strain hardening greatly affect the principal plastic strain and energy density distributions and that this is reflected in the amount of strain energy that can be plastically absorbed at a crack tip.
Introducing Data Science Techniques by Connecting Database Concepts and dplyr

Early exposure to data science skills, such as relational databases, is essential for students in statistics as well as many other disciplines in an increasingly data driven society. The goal of th...
Success and efficiency of phase 2/3 adjunctive trials for MDD funded by industry: a systematic review

To review the success rate and efficiency of industry-sponsored phase 2/3 clinical trials for adjunctive therapies for antidepressant partial- and non-responders with major depressive disorder (MDD), a systematic search of Pubmed/Medline was conducted, in addition to abstracts of major psychiatric meeting held since 2010, of randomized, placebo-controlled adjunct oral pharmacotherapy trials in this patient population. Forty-six (n = 33,900; 70 drug compactor arms) trials were pooled, yielding only three approved drugs. Twenty-two (31.4%) drug-placebo comparisons were successful. Numerically, success rates for treatment arms from studies with one versus more than one drug-placebo comparison were higher (39.3% versus 26.2%). The antidepressant lead-in employing single-blind placebo and the sequential-parallel comparison design (SPCD) were successful in 50% and 40% of cases, respectively. The direct randomization (no lead-in) design yielded positive results in one third of cases. The success rate of open-label antidepressant lead-ins without placebo or using double-blind placebo was very poor (<15%). There was also a pronounced discrepancy in terms of efficiency across study designs. Accounting for sample size requirements, a phase 3 program using SPCD would have a higher cumulative chance of yielding two positive trials (50%) than a phase 3 program using a single-blind placebo lead-in (40%). Future programs should carefully weigh the need for a lead-in, which is time-consuming, expensive and, in some cases (i.e., open-label antidepressant without placebo or with double-blind placebo) nearly futile. Instead, more effort should involve the use of studies where patients are directly randomized, such as the SPCD, with more investment shifted towards the accurate and independent vetting of subject eligibility.
Creating boundaries and stops in German: An analysis in Universal Boundary Theory

This paper discusses the nature of prosodic representations, focusing on a case study from the phonology of Standard High German. This language displays devoicing, previously argued to be sensitive to syllables, and glottal stop epenthesis, previously argued to be sensitive to feet. This seems to require at least two prosodic constituents, the syllable and the foot. However, I show that the data can be analyzed straightforwardly in Universal Boundary Theory (UBT), a non-hierarchical theory of prosodic representations using only a single boundary symbol |. I introduce the central assumptions of UBT, and show that the theory can handle the syllable- and foot-level phonology of German, including affix-specific behavior and phase-based interactions between the syntax and phonology. I argue that UBT provides a better account of devoicing than a class of earlier analyses based on syllables. Moving beyond German, UBT predicts the existence of a new prosodic universal which cannot be captured by a traditional prosodic hierarchy: phonological processes apply top-down, from larger to smaller prosodic units. Future typological work will shed light on the crosslinguistic validity of this prediction.
An Observational Study of the Impact of COVID-19 and the Transition to Telehealth on Community Mental Health Center Providers

Background The COVID-19 pandemic has swiftly and remarkably altered community mental health service delivery and evidence-based practice (EBP) implementation. This study reports provider perspectives on the impact that COVID-19 had on their work and EBP implementation. Methods Providers (n = 93) completed online surveys with quantitative measures and open-ended items targeting their responses and/or reactions to COVID-19, and to the transition to providing services via telehealth. Results Perceptions of personal risk and rumination around COVID-19 were low, while telehealth was viewed positively by providers. Three major themes emerged regarding the major impacts of COVID-19 on work: 1) the altered nature of interactions between patient/client and provider, 2) changes in provider expectations regarding productivity, and 3) challenges maintaining work-life balance. In regard to the major impacts of COVID-19 on EBP implementation, three themes emerged: 1) increased difficulty delivering certain therapies via telehealth, 2) potential limitations to session confidentiality, and 3) challenge of engaging children in telehealth. Conclusions In the context of the COVID-19 pandemic, community mental health providers continued to engage with clients and implement EBPs while navigating a number of changes related to the transition to telehealth. This study highlights the need for further work on what supports providers need to effectively engage with clients and deliver EBPs via telehealth and has implications for how telehealth is sustained or de-implemented in response to COVID-19.
Free Flap Inset Techniques in Salvage Laryngopharyngectomy Repair: Impact on Fistula Formation and Function

OBJECTIVE To characterize pharyngocutaneous fistula (PCF) rates and functional outcomes following microvascular free tissue transfer (MVFTT) reconstruction of salvage total laryngectomy (STL) with a review of two different flap inset techniques and a review of the literature. METHODS Retrospective review. RESULTS Review of the literature revealed 887 patients who underwent STL MVFTT from 14 references. Ninety-six STL MVFTTs were performed by the authors, with 36 (38%) patients undergoing multilayer fascial underlay (MLFU) closure and 60 (62%) a standard single layer closure (SLC). One (3%) PCF occurred in the MLFU group compared to 12 (20%) in the SLC cohort (P = .03). Postoperative gastrostomy (G)-tube dependence was lower following MLFU closure compared to SLC (25% vs. 57%, P .05). Compared to pooled rates from the literature, patients who underwent a MLFU MVFTT inset technique demonstrated significantly lower PCF incidence (3% vs. 23%, P < .01) without significant differences in PES (28% vs 23%, P = .55), G-tube dependence (25% vs. 23%, P = .25), or TEP placement (42% vs. 59%, P = .09). CONCLUSION Despite MVFTT reconstruction after STL, G-tube dependence, PCF formation, and limitations of speaking rehabilitation (TEP) remain a significant issue. Modification of MVFTT inset may provide an opportunity to reduce PCF incidence without affecting other functional outcomes. LEVEL OF EVIDENCE 4 Laryngoscope, 131:E875-E881, 2021.
Bringing Powerful Machine-Learning Systems to Daily-Life Devices via Algorithm-Hardware Co-Design

While the recent breakthroughs achieved by machine learning (ML) systems promise to dramatically transform the way we live and work by enhancing our ability to recognize, analyze, and classify the world around us, such a transformation has yet to be unleashed. This is because powerful ML algorithms come at a cost of prohibitive complexity and energy requirements, whereas most daily-life devices, such as drones, wearables, self-driving cars, and smartphones, have limited energy, computation and storage resources. Towards bringing powerful ML systems into our daily-life devices, the Efficient and Intelligent Computing (EIC) Lab at Rice University explores techniques to empower daily-life devices with intelligence. In this talk, 1 will share some promising techniques we recently developed and exciting projects that we are working on.
How Safe Is a Native Kidney Biopsy

Kidney biopsies are performed to investigate the cause of suspected parenchymal disease. Although these biopsies provide important diagnostic and prognostic information guiding therapeutic decisions, the benefits must be weighed against the potential harms of the biopsy procedure. As the kidneys
On the accept-reject mechanism for Metropolis-Hastings algorithms.

This work develops a powerful and versatile framework for determining acceptance ratios in Metropolis-Hastings type Markov kernels widely used in statistical sampling problems. Our approach allows us to derive new classes of kernels which unify random walk or diffusion-type sampling methods with more complicated "extended phase space" algorithms based around ideas from Hamiltonian dynamics. Our starting point is an abstract result developed in the generality of measurable state spaces that addresses proposal kernels that possess a certain involution structure. Note that, while this underlying proposal structure suggests a scope which includes Hamiltonian-type kernels, we demonstrate that our abstract result is, in an appropriate sense, equivalent to an earlier general state space setting developed in [Tierney, Annals of Applied Probability, 1998] where the connection to Hamiltonian methods was more obscure. Altogether, the theoretical unity and reach of our main result provides a basis for deriving novel sampling algorithms while laying bare important relationships between existing methods.
Public employment and economic growth

This paper shows that there is an inverted U-shaped relationship between public employment and economic growth. The government allocates workers to the production of public goods, which reduces operational costs, increasing the number of firms in the market, and creating incentives to innovate. Conversely, large public sectors crowd out the labor market, reducing the number of firms and the incentives to innovate. An extension of the model shows that the average human capital of public workers has the same relationship with economic growth. Therefore, even countries with small public sectors can hinder economic growth by hiring many high-productivity workers. The paper also provides empirical evidence of an inverted U-shaped correlation between the share of public workers and economic growth using data from the Worldwide Bureaucracy Indicator and the Penn World Tables. Numerical exercises show that the model replicates the inverted U-shaped relationship between public employment and economic growth found in the data.
Chemical-genetic CRISPR-Cas9 screens in human cells using a pathway-specific library.

Summary The development of CRISPR-Cas9 screening techniques coupled with chemical inhibition of specific biological processes enables high-throughput investigation into many areas of molecular biology. We present a protocol to conduct ubiquitin proteasome system-specific chemical-genetic CRISPR-Cas9 screens in the human HAP1 cell line. This protocol can be adapted for use in other cell lines, with other compounds and types of treatments, and with any other sgRNA library. For complete details on the use and execution of this protocol, please refer to Hundley et al. (2021) .
Tidal Volume Selection in the ICU

Background: Tidal volume (VT) selection for adult patients should be based on ideal body weight (IBW); however, this method is not routinely practiced. Instead, the VT is often set arbitrarily or calculated based on actual body weight (ABW). Inappropriate selection of VT may result in hypoventilation and patient-ventilator asynchrony (VT ≤ 6 mL/kg) or can induce lung injury (VT ≥10 mL/kg). A low tidal volume ventilation (LTVV) or lung protective strategy has been defined as VT 6-8 mL/kg based on IBW. The aim of this study was to evaluate if selection of VT in a group of mechanically ventilated subjects was based on a LTVV strategy. The secondary aim was to determine if there was a correlation between VT selected and higher oxygen requirement. Methods: This was a retrospective cohort study performed on subjects admitted to a medical ICU at a level-1 trauma center in San Antonio, Texas during the month of March of 2021. The study evaluated subjects ≥18 years of age, intubated, and mechanically ventilated ≥ 48 h. Ventilator parameters recorded included: VT, respiratory rate (RR), fraction of inspired oxygen (FIO2), minute volume (MV), PEEP, and IBW. Higher oxygen requirement was arbitrarily defined as PEEP ≥ 5 cm H2O and FIO2 ≥ 0.5. Descriptive statistics (mean/SD) were used to report results and a Pearson test to report correlation. IRB approval was obtained. Results: A total of 50 subjects meeting criteria were selected for analysis. Using IBW, the VT selected was 7.2 ± 1.6 mL/kg (range: 5.3 - 9.8). Eight subjects (16%) received a VT 8 mL/kg (8.94 ± 0.58). The mean VT selected for these patients based on ABW was 5.6 mL/kg (± 1.86). The single most often selected VT ranged from 450 and 500 mL (n = 36; 72%). Fifteen patients (30%) had a PEEP > 5 cm H2O while 38 patients (76%) required FIO2 > 0.5. Patients on high oxygen requirement represented 28% (n = 14) of the study population. There was no correlation between high-oxygen requirement and VT selected (r = 0.08). Conclusions: This study suggests that a LTVV-strategy was routinely used to select the VT in patients admitted to the medical ICU. This probably explains why patients with high oxygen requirements did not require additional adjustments on VT. Although utilizing LTVV in lungs without injury appears theoretically attractive, more support from large-scale trials is necessary.
Toward Understanding School Psychology Around the Globe: Economical, Educational, and Professional Factors

Although the field of school psychology continues to develop rapidly, few recent studies have examined how it is directly affected by a country's economy and education. This study examined the effect of gross domestic product, public spending on education, and public support for education on the ratio of school psychologists to students, level of degree offered, and status of school psychologists. Data from 43 countries were obtained from the School Psychology International Survey (one survey per country), Central Intelligence Agency World Factbook, and World Bank Group. Logistic regression results indicated that none of the variables significantly predicted the ratio of school psychologists to students, level of degree offered, and status of school psychologists. The discussion explores the results considering the extant literature and identifies directions for further research.
Biologically Inspired Visual Motion Detection in VLSI

Visual motion detection is a fundament component of vision, and plays a vital role in scene analysis and understanding for behaving organisms. In computer vision, motion detection requires considerable resources to obtain real-time results. Very Large Scale Integration (VLSI) technology offers a convenient substrate upon which both photosensitive elements and motion extracting circuits can be implemented, thus allowing real-time motion detection. This paper presents two approaches for implementing real-time visual motion detection in VLSI. The two approaches mimic the two primary methods found in biological organisms. Insect motion detection employs local correlation and is implemented very close to the photoreceptors. In contrast, primate motion detection is performed in cortex, using spatiotemporally oriented neural filters. The analysis, construction and results of the hardware models of insect and primate visual motion detection are presented.
Blood glucose in anaesthetised children. Comparison of blood glucose concentrations in children fasted for morning and afternoon surgery.

Summary Blood glucose levels were measured immediately after induction of anaesthesia and again intra-operatively in 26 children fasted overnight for operations in the morning and 28 children fasted from 8.00 a.m. for afternoon surgery. The mean post-induction glucose concentration of the afternoon surgery group was significantly lower than that of the morning group. However, no child in either group was hypoglycaemic. Anaesthesia and surgery caused significant increases in blood glucose levels. It is concluded that pre-operative fasting is well tolerated in healthy pre-school children. regardless of the timing of surgery.
Dry nitrogen deposition estimates over a forest experiencing free air CO2 enrichment

The quantification of atmospheric additions of nitrogen (N) to an ecosystem is often desirable, but difficult for many locations including many ecological manipulation experiments. Ideal methodologies for the complete and chemically speciated quantification of dry N deposition (e.g. tunable diode laser absorption spectrometer, thermaldissociation laser-induced fluorescence) are expensive, technologically challenging to maintain, and rarely colocated with important global change manipulation experiments. Here we present an alternative method for obtaining an approximation of total N deposition using short-term eddy flux and concentration measurements, annual regional concentration estimates, and modeling for the Duke Experimental Forest. The motivation for generating estimates for this location was to inform the long-term elevated CO2 experiment conducted at Duke Forest. We estimated the total annual atmospheric N deposition to the forest to be 13.7kgNha � 1 . Of this total, � 58% was in dry-deposited forms. Surprisingly, and contrary to some previous predictions, nitric acid (HNO3) was not the dominant portion of the total dry-deposited N, implying strongly that other forms of gaseous N like organic peroxy and alkyl nitrate compounds are a significant portion of the total flux. Furthermore, this study sheds light on the completeness of the estimates derived from Clean Air Status and Trends Network (CASTNet) and other dry deposition networks. CASTNet does not measure organic forms of dry deposition. In fact, CASTNet only quantifies HNO3 in the gas phase and may significantly underestimate total N deposition in many environments.
Decentralized Estimation Algorithms for Formation Flying Spacecraft

Several space missions are being planned with large fleets of spacecraft at GEO and beyond where relative navigation using GPS will either be impossible or insufficient. Onboard local ranging devices will be required to replace or augment the available GPS measurements to perform relative navigation for these missions. The vast amounts of distributed data and the computational load limitations suggest that these navigation algorithms should be highly distributed, but the nonlinear local range measurements couple the states of the vehicles, which greatly complicates this decentralization. This paper investigates several estimator architectures and the associated algorithms for determining the fleet state, and then compares the resulting performance, computation, and communication requirements. This analysis shows that the proposed decentralized reducedorder filters provide near optimal estimation results without excessive communication or computation. Embedding these reduced-order estimators within the hierarchic architecture presented should permit scaling of the relative navigation to very large fleets.
Psychological Test and Demographic Variables Associated with Retention of Narcotic Addicts in Treatment

The relationships of psychological and demographic variables to retention in treatment of narcotic addicts were examined. Age and race were not related to retention. The IQ's of subjects retained longer seemed to be higher but the relationship did not reach statistical significance with this sample size. Legal pressure was clearly associated with longer retention as were higher scores on the Suitable for Treatment Scale. Legal pressure seemed to exert its major influence early in treatment. Treatment center variables and patient variables probably interact to determine retention.
Rates of nitrification along an estuarine gradient in Narragansett Bay

Rates of pelagic nitrification, measured using N-Serve-sensitive [14C]bicarbonate uptake, varied by as much as an order-of-magnitude among three sites along the salinity gradient of Narragansett Bay (Rhode Island, United States). Rates were always higher at the Providence River estuary site (0.04–11.2 μmol N I−1 d−1) than at either the lower Narragansett Bay site (0.02–0.98 μmol N I−1d−1) or the freshwater Blackstone River site (0.04–1.7 μmol N I−1d−1). Although temperature was the most important variable regulating the annual cycle of nitrification, ammonium concentrations were most likely responsible for the large differences in rates among the three sites in summer. At the levels found in this estuarine system, salinity and concentrations of oxygen or total suspended matter did not appear to have a direct measurable effect on nitrification and pH did only occasionally. Nitrification played an important role in the nitrogen cycle at all three sites. In Narragansett Bay, nitrification contributed 55% of the NO2 − and NO3 − entering annually, and was the major source during spring and summer. Water from offshore was the only other large source of NO2 − and NO3 −, contributing 34%. High summer rates of nitrification could support much of the phytoplankton uptake of NO2 − and NO3 −. In the Providence River estuary, the largest annual input of NO2 − and NO3 − was from rivers (54%), although nitrification (28%) and water from lower portions of the bay (11%) also made large contributions. Again, nitrification was most important in the summer. The high rates of nitrification in the Providence River estuary during summer were also likely to be important in terms of oxygen demand, and the production of nitric and nitrous oxides. In the Blackstone River, NO2 − and NO3 − concentrations increased as the river flowed through Rhode Island, and nitrification was a possible source.
RGD-Conjugated Human Ferritin Nanoparticles for Imaging Vascular Inflammation and Angiogenesis in Experimental Carotid and Aortic Disease

Purpose Inflammation and angiogenesis are important contributors to vascular disease. We evaluated imaging both of these biological processes, using Arg–Gly–Asp (RGD)-conjugated human ferritin nanoparticles (HFn), in experimental carotid and abdominal aortic aneurysm (AAA) disease.
Dominant richness and improvement of performance of robust adaptive control

Abstract Several recent robust adaptive control schemes guarantee stability and residual tracking errors which are “small” in the mean for any bounded initial conditions, independent of any persistence of excitation condition. Since smallness in the mean does not always guarantee small bounds for the tracking error at steady state, the tracking performance of these robust schemes may not be acceptable. In this paper, we show that the convergence and the tracking performance of these globally stable adaptive control schemes can be considerably improved if the reference input signal is chosen to be dominantly rich. We show that dominantly rich signals maintain a high level of persistence of excitation, relative to the level of the modeling error, which guarantees exponential convergence and small bounds for the tracking and parameter error at steady state.
The influence of gender role on the prediction of antisocial behaviour and somatization.

Background:Previous research has demonstrated a sex-differentiated relationship between antisocial behaviour and somatization. One explanation posited is that societal expectations about male and f...
Management of the difficult pediatric airway with Shikani Optical Stylet

The airways of children with many craniofacial and mandibulofacial malformations often present unique challenges to the anesthesiologists. We report the application of Shikani Optical Stylet (SOS) in facilitating the tracheal intubation of four children with history of difficult airway management. The SOS combines the benefits of the lightwand and fiberoptic bronchoscope.
Mesodermal cell fate decisions in Drosophila are under the control of the lineage genes numb, Notch, and sanpodo.

Abstract In Drosophila, much has been learned about the specification of neuronal cell fates but little is known about the lineage of mesodermal cells with different developmental fates. Initially in development, individual mesodermal precursor cells are singled out to become the founder cells for specific muscles. The selection of muscle founder cells is thought to employ a Notch-mediated process of lateral inhibition, similar to what is observed for the specification of neural precursors. These muscle founder cells then seem to fuse with the surrounding, uncommitted myocytes inducing the formation of muscle fiber syncytia. In contrast, the differentiated progeny of neural precursor cells are usually the result of a fixed pattern of asymmetric cell divisions which are directed, in part, by interactions between Numb, a localized intracellular-receptor protein, Sanpodo (Spdo), a potential tropomodulin homolog, and Notch, a transmembrane receptor protein. Here, we have investigated the role of these neural lineage genes in the cell fate specification of muscle and heart precursors. In particular, we have focused on a progenitor cell that is likely to produce a mixed lineage, generating both a pericardial heart cell and a somatic muscle founder cell. We show that the asymmetric segregation of Numb into one of these daughter cells antagonizes the function of Notch and spdo by preventing the presumptive muscle founder from assuming the same fate as its cardiac sibling. Our results suggest that asymmetric cell divisions, in addition to the previously-documented inductive mechanisms, play a major role in cardiac and somatic muscle patterning and that additionally the cytoskeleton may have a role in the asymmetrical localization of cell fate determinants.
Decentralization of Care for Adults with Congenital Heart Disease in the United States: A Geographic Analysis of Outpatient Surgery

Background Guidelines recommend that adults with congenital heart disease (CHD) undergo noncardiac surgery in regionalized centers of expertise, but no studies have assessed whether this occurs in the United States. We hypothesized that adults with CHD are less likely than children to receive care at specialized CHD centers.
Microstructures and Mechanical Properties of Directionally Solidified Intermetallic Composites

This paper reviews two kinds of well-aligned fibrous microstructures produced by directional solidification of NiAl-Mo and Fe-Fe2Ta eutectics. In both these composites, fiber size and spacing decrese inversely as the square root of the growth rate. Tensile tests as a function of temperature showed that the NiAl-Mo composite has a higher yield strength and lower ductile-to-brittle transition temperature than the NiAl matrix. For the Fe-Fe2Ta composite, yield strengths in excess of 700 MPa were obtained at temperatures to 600°C, with elongations to fracture of ~3% which remained roughly constant at temperatures to 950°C.
Studies on Agrobacterium tumefaciens VI. α-DNA polymerases of crown-gall tumor and normal cells, and of the bacterium

No consistent differences were found in the specific activities of DNA polymerase-α in normal and crown-gall tumor cell lines of both Vinca rosea and Nicotiana tabacum, suggesting that abnormally high DNA polymerase activity is not necessarily associated with the transformed state per se. No major differences in template preferences were observed between the enzymes of normal and tumor cell lines, both of which prefer denatured DNA as template. Only the 6 S DNA polymerase (α-enzyme) with a molecular weight of 110 000 could be isolated from tumor and normal cell lines; β-polymerase (nuclear, 3·5 S) and deoxynucleotidyl terminal transferase were not detected. The misincorporation frequency of the purified 6 S polymerase from V. rosea tumors was less than 2 × 10−4 incorrect nucleotide per mole dTTP incorporated using the copolymer poly (dA–dT)n. (dA–dT)n as template, approximately the same level of incorporation found for polymerase from the normal cell line. RNA-dependent DNA polymerase (reverse transcriptase) activity was not detected in tissue extracts and in fractions separated by column chromatography. Partially purified 6·5 S bacterial DNA polymerase (mol. wt = 150 000) prefers both denatured and activated DNA over native DNA as template and no reverse transcriptase activity is associated with it.
Public relations measurement finally coming of age: A US perspective

This opinion piece reviews the forces driving the growth of public relations measurement between the mid‐1980s and the present day. Looking to the future, it discusses the increasing importance of reputation as a key intangible corporate asset and discusses the emerging efforts to measure reputation and the effectiveness of public relations in building reputation.
Generic Global Aerodynamic Model for Aircraft

Multivariate-orthogonal-function modeling was applied to wind-tunnel databases for eight different aircraft to identify a generic global aerodynamic model structure that could be used for any of the aircraft. For each aircraft database and each nondimensional aerodynamic coefficient, global models were identified from multivariate polynomials in the nondimensional states and controls, using an orthogonalization procedure. A predicted-square-error criterion was used to automatically select the model terms. Modeling terms selected in at least half of the analyses, which totaled 45 terms, were retained to form the generic global aerodynamic model structure. Least squares was used to estimate the model parameters and associated uncertainty that best fit the generic global aerodynamic model structure to each database. The result was a single generic aerodynamic model structure that could be used to accurately characterize the global aerodynamics for any of the eight aircraft, simply by changing the values of t...
Statistical named entity recognizer adaptation

Named entity recognition (NER) is a subtask of widely-recognized utility of information extraction (IE). NER has been explored in depth to provide rapid characterization of newswire data (Sundheim, 1995; Palmer and Day, 1997). The NER task involves both identification of spans of text referring to named entities, and categorization of these entities into classes based on the role they fill in context. The sentence "Washington announced that Washington ate seven hotdogs in Washington" provides an example in which a single name can arguably refer to three different entities: an organization, a person, and a location.