cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Syncing Up for a Good Conversation: A Clinically Meaningful Methodology for Capturing Conversational Entrainment in the Speech Domain

Purpose Conversational entrainment, the phenomenon whereby communication partners synchronize their behavior, is considered essential for productive and fulfilling conversation. Lack of entrainment could, therefore, negatively impact conversational success. Although studied in many disciplines, entrainment has received limited attention in the field of speech-language pathology, where its implications may have direct clinical relevance. Method A novel computational methodology, informed by expert clinical assessment of conversation, was developed to investigate conversational entrainment across multiple speech dimensions in a corpus of experimentally elicited conversations involving healthy participants. The predictive relationship between the methodology output and an objective measure of conversational success, communicative efficiency, was then examined. Results Using a real versus sham validation procedure, we find evidence of sustained entrainment in rhythmic, articulatory, and phonatory dimensions of speech. We further validate the methodology, showing that models built on speech signal entrainment measures consistently outperform models built on nonentrained speech signal measures in predicting communicative efficiency of the conversations. Conclusions A multidimensional, clinically meaningful methodology for capturing conversational entrainment, validated in healthy populations, has implications for disciplines such as speech-language pathology where conversational entrainment represents a critical knowledge gap in the field, as well as a potential target for remediation.
ACUTE TYPE A AORTIC DISSECTION: PHYSICIAN EXERCISE RESTRICTION VARIABILITY POST-REPAIR AND PATIENT INVOLVEMENT IN THOSE DECISIONS

Type A aortic dissection (AD) can be precipitated, in at risk patients, by the hemodynamic stress of exercise. There are no robust data to guide exercise recommendations post AD and survivors often express a fear of exercise despite its benefit. Therefore, patients should be provided guidelines on
The Use of Tissue Flaps in the Management of Urinary Tract Fistulas

Urinary tract fistulas represent a complex group of pathologies that present significant management challenges. While most such fistulas ultimately require definitive surgical management, compromised local tissue quality or other factors often render straightforward simple one layered closure challenging with a substantial risk of failure. Interpositional tissue flaps have become a mainstay of treatment in these circumstances, enabling the delivery of healthy tissue from other locations to the site of pathology. Herein, we present an overview of the assessment and management of complex urinary tract fistulas involving the reproductive and gastrointestinal organs, and the decision to utilize flaps. We review the underlying principles of tissue flaps and classify different types of flaps. We conclude with a discussion of the indications, advantages, disadvantages, and harvesting techniques for the most commonly utilized flaps in urinary tract fistula repair.
A conundrum in cancer quality measurement: Performance on long-term survival reflects performance a long time ago.

e18222Background: Long term outcomes, such as five-year survival following cancer treatment, are widely accepted as important metrics of cancer care quality. But because they take years to accrue, ...
Magnetic field tunable capacitive dielectric:ionic-liquid sandwich composites

We examined the tunability of the capacitance for GaFeO3–ionic liquid–GaFeO3 composite material by external magnetic and electric field. Up to 1.6 folds of capacitance tunability could be achieved at 957 kHz with voltage 4 V and magnetic field 0.02 T applied. We show that the capacitance enhancement is due to the polarization coupling between dielectric layer and ionic liquid layer.
DeepFakes: uncovering hardcore open source on GitHub

In November 2017, a subreddit dedicated to ‘DeepFakes’ brought the work of machine-learning video face-swapping to widespread attention: the new ease of pornographic fakeswapping (focused primarily...
Prevalence of ‘one and done’ in adenoma detection rates: results from the New Hampshire Colonoscopy Registry

Background and study aims Adenoma detection rate (ADR), the proportion of an endoscopist’s screening colonoscopies in which at least one adenoma is found, is an established quality metric. Several publications have suggested that a technique referred to as “one and done,” where less attention is paid to additional polyp detection following discovery of one likely adenoma, may be occurring 1 2 3 . To investigate whether this practice occurs and provide additional context to the significance of ADR, we examined ADR by single and multiple adenomas in the statewide New Hampshire Colonoscopy Registry (NHCR). Patients and methods A total of 25,324 NHCR patients receiving screening colonoscopies between 2009 and 2014 by 69 endoscopists were analyzed. ADR was dichotomized into high (≥ 20 %) and low ( 1 adenoma) was dichotomized at mean values into high (≥ 1.5) and low ( Results Among endoscopists with an ADR ≥ 20 %, only 5 (7.2 %) had low ADR-plus values and were classified as “one and done.” Results for serrated polyp detection were similar. ADR and ADR-plus decreased monotonically with increasing years since residency (P values for trend ADR = 0.02; ADR-plus = 0.003) after adjusting for patient risk factors. Conclusion “One and done” infrequently occurred among endoscopists with high ADR in a large statewide registry. The need to replace ADR with other polyp detection metrics (such as ADR-plus) to accurately ascertain performance quality is not supported by these findings.
Incidence of Altered Sensation after Mandibular Premolar and Molar Periapical Surgery.

Abstract Introduction Altered sensation is a rare but disturbing adverse event after mandibular premolar and molar periapical surgery procedures, and its incidence is not known. The aim of this study was to determine the incidence of altered sensation after periapical surgery procedures in mandibular premolars and molars. Methods This retrospective study includes patients who received periapical surgery in endodontic clinics of a university hospital in the United States. Data were obtained by review of the records for patients who met the inclusion criteria, and statistical analysis of possible predictive factors was performed using the 2-tailed Fisher exact test (α = 0.05). Results Sixty-two patients (63 teeth, 13 premolars and 50 molars) met the inclusion and exclusion criteria and were analyzed in the study. The first follow-up visit occurred 3 to 37 days after surgery. Altered sensation was observed in 9 patients. Observation of altered sensation was significantly higher (odds ratio = 7.19) after premolar surgeries (5/13) compared with molar surgeries (4/50). Conclusions Despite the limited size and retrospective nature of this study, it was concluded that the incidence of altered sensation after periapical surgery appears to be relatively high (14%), with a higher incidence found in premolars compared with molars.
Beneficial role of simvastatin in experimental autoimmune myositis

Abstract Objective Statins have immunomodulatory potential in autoimmune diseases but had not been studied as a disease-modifying agent in inflammatory myopathies. The objective of this study is to assess the effect of simvastatin in an experimental model of autoimmune myositis in mice on muscle strength and histopathology. Methods Four groups of mice (n = 5 per group) were selected for experimentally induced myositis. Mice were immunized with 1.5 mg myosin in complete Freund’s adjuvant weekly for two times and injected with 500 ng pertussis toxin twice immediately after each immunization. From day 1 before immunization to 10 days after the last immunization, mice were treated with oral simvastatin (10 or 20 or 40 mg/kg) diluted in DMSO. The control group mice were injected with complete Freund’s adjuvant weekly for two times and did not receive treatment. Non-immunized mice (n = 5 per group) were treated either with simvastatin (5 mg/kg or 20 mg/kg or 40 mg/kg of simvastatin diluted in DMSO) or with DMSO. Results Inflammation was observed in myositis groups with positive myositis-specific antibodies. Muscle strength dropped significantly after immunization. Immunized simvastatin 20 mg/kg treated group had significantly higher muscle strength versus non-treated myositis mice and versus other simvastatin doses. Besides, a trend toward higher serum Th17 percentage population was found in immunized non-treated mice, versus immunized simvastatin- treated mice, without significant difference. Conclusion Simvastatin at 20 mg/kg decreases the severity of myositis in experimental autoimmune myositis and is a candidate of being a disease-modifying agent in inflammatory myopathies.
Comparing effects of acceptance training and psychoeducation on hoarding symptoms

Abstract Hoarding symptoms include difficulty letting go of possessions, excessive acquisition, and clutter that precludes use of active living spaces. The current study compared the effect of acceptance training to that of psychoeducation on hoarding severity in a sample of college students with elevated hoarding symptoms. Participants (N = 47) completed self-report measures at baseline, posttest, and one-week follow-up and an in vivo discarding behavioral task at posttest. There were no differences in self-reported outcomes between conditions over time, suggesting acceptance training was not more effective than psychoeducation. Significant and large effect sizes for hoarding severity and maladaptive hoarding cognitions were found from baseline to one-week follow-up, indicating both interventions improved hoarding symptoms in our sample. There was a medium and marginally significant effect favoring acceptance training for number of items discarded (p = .05). These findings tentatively support the utility of acceptance-based techniques and psychoeducation in the treatment of hoarding. In addition, brief early interventions may be effective for people who present with moderate hoarding severity. Limitations of the study include lack of a true control group to estimate placebo effects, lack of assessment of multiple processes of change, and use of a nonclinical, demographically homogeneous sample.
Virtual Big Data for GAN Based Data Augmentation

Researchers deal with the class imbalanced problem in many real-world applications and GAN based data augmentation is considered as an efficient approach to address this problem. GANs need a huge training data to generate efficient augmented data. However, the required sufficient training data is not available in many research areas. In this paper, we introduce a new concept called virtual big data to address this problem. We prove that, virtual big data can provide the GANs sufficient training data to generate efficient augmented data with less mode collapse and vanishing generator gradients problems. We show that, the curse of dimensionality which is considered as a negative factor in machine learning can play a positive role to solve vanishing generator gradients via making discriminator less perfect. First, we transform the training data from n dimensional space into m dimensional space where, $\mathrm{m}=\mathrm{c}*\mathrm{n}$ and c is concatenation factor. To do so, c different training instances are selected and concatenated to each other to form a $\mathrm{c}*\mathrm{n}$ dimensional instance. Increasing the dimension of training data from n to $\mathrm{c}*\mathrm{n}$ is key to increase the number of training instances from N to $\mathrm{C}(\mathrm{N}, \mathrm{c})$. Transformed training data are called virtual big data since they differ original training instances in terms of size and dimension. Our experiments show that, V-GAN, a GAN trained by virtual big data can outperform standard GANs when it comes to deal with extremely scarce training data. Furthermore, V-GAN can outperform traditional oversampling techniques in terms of precision, F1 score and Area Under Curve (AUC) score.
CHAPTER 7 – Analytic Trigonometry

Publisher Summary This chapter presents analytic trigonometry. A trigonometric identity is true for all values of the variable, whereas a trigonometric equation is true for only some values of the variable. Trigonometric identities are useful for two reasons: (1) for simplifying expressions and (2) for verifying other identities. Two angles whose sum is 90 (π/2) are called complementary angles. The sine of an acute angle α is equal to the cosine of its complement, that is, sin α = cos (90 − α); similarly, cos α = sin (90 − α) and tan α = cot (90 − α). Functions satisfying this basic concept are called cofunctions. The secant and cosecant is another pair of cofunctions. There are eight product–sum formulas in analytic trigonometry. A trigonometric equation is an equation involving a trigonometric function. Because of the periodic nature of the trigonometric functions, if a trigonometric equation has a solution, it will have an infinite number of solutions. This is generally resolved by seeking the solutions only for values of the variable between 0 and 2π.
Pharmacological read-through of R294X Mecp2 in a novel mouse model of Rett syndrome

Rett syndrome (RTT) is a neurodevelopmental disorder primarily caused by mutations in Methyl-CpG-binding Protein 2 (MECP2). More than 35% of affected individuals have nonsense mutations in MECP2. For these individuals, nonsense suppression has been suggested as a possible therapeutic approach. To assess the viability of this strategy, we created and characterized a mouse model with the common p.R294X mutation introduced into the endogenous Mecp2 locus (Mecp2R294X). Mecp2R294X mice exhibit phenotypic abnormalities similar to those seen in complete null mouse models; however, these occur at a later time point consistent with the reduced phenotypic severity seen in affected individuals containing this specific mutation. The delayed onset of severe phenotypes is likely due to the presence of truncated MeCP2 in Mecp2R294X mice. Supplying the MECP2 transgene in Mecp2R294X mice rescued phenotypic abnormalities including early death and demonstrated that the presence of truncated MeCP2 in these mice does not interfere with wild-type MeCP2. In vitro treatment of a cell line derived from Mecp2R294X mice with the nonsense suppression agent G418 resulted in full-length MeCP2 protein production, demonstrating feasibility of this therapeutic approach. Intraperitoneal administration of G418 in Mecp2R294X mice was sufficient to elicit full-length MeCP2 protein expression in peripheral tissues. Finally, intracranial ventricular injection of G418 in Mecp2R294X mice induced expression of full-length MeCP2 protein in the mouse brain. These experiments demonstrate that translational read-through drugs are able to suppress the Mecp2 p.R294X mutation in vivo and provide a proof of concept for future preclinical studies of nonsense suppression agents in RTT.
The Effect of Microstructure Morphology on Indentation Response of Ta/Ti Nanocomposite Thin Films

We investigated the indentation response of Ta/Ti nanocomposite thin films with widely differing morphologies of the constituent phases, ranging from particulate to bicontinuously interpenetrating, but comparable characteristic dimensions of microstructure features. We find no influence of microstructure morphology on stiffness or hardness. However, we see a systematic dependence of indentation pileup height on microstructure morphology, with the largest pileups observed in composites with connected, Ta-rich networks and lowest for highly connected, Ti-rich networks. We attribute this dependence to an influence of microstructure morphology on strain hardening rates and propose mechanisms to explain it.
Physically Inspired Circuit Model for Systematic Analysis of Resonant Ion Sensor

Ions play a significant role in biological, industrial, and agricultural processes. Noninvasive, real-time detection of their presence and concentration has become of vital importance in a multitude of processes. In this paper, we present a lumped-element circuit model for an Archimedean spiral inductor based resonant sensor which accurately detects and quantifies ionic concentration of aqueous solutions. The development of the model is guided by observed physical phenomena caused by changing a solution's ionic concentration. The system's response to different concentrations of aqueous potassium chloride is measured, and the model parameters are extracted from measured data. The model parameters are extrapolated to obtain expressions that model the system's response over a wide range of concentrations. There is good agreement between the model and measured data, making it valid for concentrations ranging from 1.66 mmol/L to 1 mol/L. The model helps generate insight into the behavior of the physical system, could be used to systematically optimize the sensor design, and could be extended to other analytes.
Effects of Labile Mesogens on the Morphology of Liquid Crystalline Block Copolymers in Thin Films

The self-assembly of liquid crystals (LCs) in small volumes is mediated by the anchoring conditions of the constituent mesogens at the confining surfaces. In hierarchically ordered systems such as ...
Effectiveness and Cost-effectiveness of Mailed FIT in a Safety Net Clinic Population.

Mailed fecal immunochemical testing (FIT) can increase colorectal cancer (CRC) screening rates, including for vulnerable patients, but its cost-effectiveness is unclear. We sought to examine the effectiveness and cost-effectiveness of the initial cycle of our mailed FIT program from November 2017 to July 2019 in a federally qualified health center (FQHC) system in Central Texas. Single group intervention and economic analysis Eligible patients were those ages 50–75 who had been seen recently in a system practice and were not up to date with screening. The program mailing packet included an introductory letter in plain language, the FIT itself, easy to read instructions, and a postage-paid lab mailer, supplemented with written and text messaging reminders. We measured effectiveness based on completion of mailed FIT and cost-effectiveness in terms of cost per person screened. Costs were measured using detailed micro-costing techniques from the perspective of a third-party payer and expressed in 2019 US dollars. Direct costs were based on material supply costs and detailed observations of labor required, valued at the wage rate. Of the 22,838 eligible patients who received program materials, mean age was 59.0, 51.5% were female, and 43.9% were Latino. FIT were successfully completed by 19.2% (4395/22,838) patients at an average direct cost of $5275.70 per 500-patient mailing. Assuming completed tests from the mailed intervention represent incremental screening, the direct cost per patient screened, compared with no intervention, was $54.83. Incorporating start-up and indirect costs increases total costs to $7014.45 and cost per patient screened to $72.90. Alternately, assuming 2.5% and 5% screening without the intervention increased the direct (total) cost per patient screened to $60.03 ($80.80) and $67.05 ($91.47), respectively. Mailed FIT is an effective and cost-effective population health strategy for CRC screening in vulnerable patients.
Intensity diffraction tomography with a non-paraxial multiple-scattering model

We demonstrate a new intensity diffraction tomography reconstruction algorithm based on the split-step non-paraxial method for imaging multiple-scattering biological samples.
Environmental Racism and Climate Change - Missed Diagnoses.

Environmental Racism and Climate Change A subtype of structural racism, environmental racism includes the use of racist practices in determining which communities receive health-protective, and whi...
On the Geometry of Stable Steiner Tree Instances

In this note we consider the Steiner tree problem under Bilu-Linial stability. We give strong geometric structural properties that need to be satisfied by stable instances. We then make use of, and strengthen, these geometric properties to show that $1.562$-stable instances of Euclidean Steiner trees are polynomial-time solvable. We also provide a connection between certain approximation algorithms and Bilu-Linial stability for Steiner trees.
Demographic Analysis of Financial Hardships Faced by Brain Tumor Survivors.

OBJECTIVE Quantitative analysis of the financial hardship faced by patients with brain tumors is lacking. The present study sought to conduct a longitudinal analysis of responses to the National Health Interview Survey by patients diagnosed with brain tumors and characterize the impact of demographic factors on financial hardship indices. METHODS National Health Interview Survey respondents between 1997 and 2018 who reported previous diagnosis with cancer of the brain and who responded to 4 survey questions that assessed financial stress were included. Sociodemographic exposures included age, ethnicity/race, marriage status, insurance status, and degree of highest educational attainment. RESULTS Educational attainment, marital status, and insurance status were the most significant risk factors for temporary or indefinite delays to necessary medical care. Those with only a high-school diploma had 9.6 times higher odds (adjusted odds ratio, 9.68; 95% confidence interval, 2.96-31.70; P < 0.001) of reporting that, in the past 12 months, one of their family members had to limit their medical care in an effort to save money. Similarly, patients with brain tumors who were not married had 3.94 times greater odds (adjusted odds ratio, 3.94; 95% confidence interval, 1.49-10.44; P = 0.009) of avoiding necessary medical care because of an inability to afford it. CONCLUSIONS Given this variation in self-reported financial burden, demographics clearly have an impact on a patient's holistic experience after a brain cancer diagnosis. Therefore, by using the comparisons in this study, we hope that medical institutions and neurosurgical societies can more accurately predict which patients are most susceptible to significant financial stress and distribute resources accordingly.
Cell and Molecular Aging

Discussions of aging invariably begin by establishing a satisfactory definition for the term aging and the related word senescence. Although the term aging is commonly used to refer to postmaturational processes that lead to diminished homeostasis and increased organismic vulnerability, the more correct term for this is senescence (derived from the Latin word “senescere,” meaning to grow old or to diminish), which explicitly refers to the process of growing old and sustaining related deterioration. Aging on the other hand can refer to any time-related process. We will use senescence to refer to cellular phenomena and aging to refer to changes, as organisms grow old.
Tansley Review No. 111: Possible roles of zinc in protecting plant cells from damage by reactive oxygen species.

Zinc deficiency is one of the most widespread micronutrient deficiencies in plants and causes severe reductions in crop production. There are a number of physiological impairments in Zn-deficient cells causing inhibition of the growth, differentiation and development of plants. Increasing evidence indicates that oxidative damage to critical cell compounds resulting from attack by reactive O2 species (ROS) is the basis of disturbances in plant growth caused by Zn deficiency. Zinc interferes with membrane-bound NADPH oxidase producing ROS. In Zn-deficient plants the iron concentration increases, which potentiates the production of free radicals. The Zn nutritional status of plants influences photooxidative damage to chloroplasts, catalysed by ROS. Zinc-deficient leaves are highly light-sensitive, rapidly becoming chlorotic and necrotic when exposed to high light intensity. Zinc plays critical roles in the defence system of cells against ROS, and thus represents an excellent protective agent against the oxidation of several vital cell components such as membrane lipids and proteins, chlorophyll, SH-containing enzymes and DNA. The cysteine, histidine and glutamate or aspartate residues represent the most critical Zn- binding sites in enzymes, DNA-binding proteins (Zn-finger proteins) and membrane proteins. In addition, animal studies have shown that Zn is involved in inhibition of apoptosis (programmed cell death) which is preceded by DNA and membrane damage through reactions with ROS. contents Summary 185 I. introduction 186 II. effect of zinc on production of reactive oxygen species 186 III. membrane damage by reactive oxygen species 193 III. membrane damage by reactive oxygen species 193 V. involvement of zinc in plant stress tolerance 199 VI. conclusions 199 Acknowledgements 200 References 200.
Use of rumen–reticulum fill to examine nutrient transfer and factors influencing food intake in white-tailed deer (Odocoileus virginianus)

Estimating relationships of gut fill in mammalian herbivores is useful to understanding digestive functions. Large animals might have more fluid in the gut to facilitate nutrient transfer between the gut lumen and the gut wall. Furthermore, relationships between concentrations of dietary refractory and indigestible fiber (CRIF) and gut fill might indicate whether chemostatic factors or physical distension of the gut affects food intake. We collected white-tailed deer (Odocoileus virginianus (Zimmermann, 1780); 122 males, 152 females) from three sites in central and south Texas that varied in diet quality as indexed by rumen-reticulum crude protein concentrations. Large animals did not have more fluid in their rumina-reticula than small animals because the scalar between body mass and wet mass of rumen-reticulum contents was not greater than the scalar estimated for dry mass of rumen-reticulum contents. We expected a positive or an inverse relationship when rates of forage comminution, digestion, and particle passage were high or low, respectively. At the site where deer had access to a high-quality pelleted diet, we detected a positive relationship between CRIF and dry mass. At sites with free-ranging deer and lower quality diets, relationships between CRIF and dry fill were inversely related. Food intake of deer was probably influenced by chemostatic factors at the site with a high-quality pelleted diet and by physical distension of the gut at the other two sites.
Working politically amongst professional knowledge landscapes to implement gender-sensitive physical education reform

Background: As the conversation regarding gender and physical education has evolved, a great many suggestions have been offered that reflect ways of designing more gender sensitive environments. The problem now turns the transformation of theoretical suggestions into real change in the practices of schools. Purpose: The purpose of this study was to use Clandinin and Connelly's theories of professional knowledge landscapes; and sacred, secret and cover stories to analyze one physical education teacher's political maneuvering through her patriarchal school culture in support of gender sensitive physical education. Participants and setting: One female physical educator teaching at an upper-middle class, primarily White, high school (ages 13–18) in the Southeastern United States. Research design: The study used interpretivist, non-participant observation to study this teacher's thinking and behaviors in her local context. Data collection: Data were collected during 20 school days over five months through inte...
Characterization and Aero-Optic Correction of a Forced Two-Dimensional Weakly Compressible Shear Layer

Experimental data are presented consisting of fluid mechanic and optical measurements made in a forced two-dimensional weakly compressible subsonic shear layer. The measurements were made in the University of Notre Dame's compressible shear-layer facility that mixes high- and low-speed flows with speeds up to M = 1.0. The forcing was performed using voice-coil actuators mounted at the trailing edge of the splitter plate separating the high- and low-speed flows at the inlet to the mixing section. The experimental results are used to develop a simple yet effective feedforward adaptive-optic correction strategy for the optical aberrations imposed by the shear layer on a traversing laser beam.
Guest Editorial: Special Section on Physical Design Techniques for Advanced Technology Nodes

Advanced technology nodes have engendered new challenges in the design of integrated circuits (ICs), which can only be addressed through innovations in physical design techniques and algorithms. These challenges stem from factors such as increasingly complex manufacturing design rules, cell pin access in technologies utilizing multiple patterning and FinFETs, various types of restrictions and blockages on the routing layers, and complexity of the physical floorplan, for example due to irregular shapes of placeable areas.
Regional disparities in pricing strategies of electric utilities

There has been considerable disparity in pricing practices across electricity markets in the United States over the past two decades. The greatest contrast in environment which produces different pricing strategies exists between the Midwest and the East. Electric utilities have used promotional rates for reasons either to stimulate the local economy, to reduce excess capacity, or to attract new industry. The purpose of this paper is to identify factors affecting pricing strategies of electric utilities. We also attempt to identify the differences in pricing strategies between electricity firms in the East and in the Midwest.
Energy savings through embedded processing on disk system

Many of today's data-intensive applications manipulate disk-resident data sets. As a result, their overall behavior is tightly coupled with their disk performance. Unfortunately, most of these applications quickly become disk bound since disk I/O times, the communication latencies, and energy consumption required to transfer disk data to the host machine can be very large. A promising solution to this problem is to embed computational power into the disk storage system. This paper concentrates on such a smart disk based architecture and proposes an automated approach that partitions a given application code between the host machine and the smart disk. The main goal is to perform data filterings, identified at compile time, on the smart disk, thereby reducing the energy spent in communicating disk data to the host unit for processing. To achieve this, the proposed approach uses integer linear programming to identify the code fragments that perform significant data filtering and assigns such fragments to the smart disk for execution. In addition to the communication energy benefits of the proposed approach, we show in this paper that this approach can also help us better exploit the low-power management capabilities provided by the system. Our experiments with four data-intensive applications indicate significant energy savings.
A Study of Planetary Waves in the Southern Winter Troposphere and Stratosphere. Part I: Wave Structure and Vertical Propagation

Abstract Planetary wave propagation in the southern winter troposphere and stratosphere is studied in an attempt to trace the origins of upward propagating disturbance. Daily geopotential girds from 1000 to 1 mb are analyzed for two 120-day winter seasons. A cross-correlation analysis technique is developed which allows coherent wave structure to be traced in time. Significant correlations are observed between the troposphere and stratosphere at finite time lags, indicative of vertically propagating waves. The observed vertical propagation time scales between the middle troposphere and middle stratosphere are on the order of 4 days for zonal wavenumber 1 (k=1), 1–2 days for k=2, and 1 day for k=3. The cross-correlation analysis also delineates the meridional and vertical structures of the transient (in time) planetary waves. Zonal wavenumber 1 fluctuations exhibit a vertical out-of-phase relationship between the midlatitude troposphere and atmosphere. Three out-of-phase maxima in latitude are observed in ...
An improved horizontal slab gel electrophoresis apparatus for dna separation

Abstract An improved horizontal slab gel electrophoresis apparatus was developed for the separation of DNA restriction fragments. The apparatus was designed for both analytical and preparative runs. The use of agarose or polyacrylamide wicks rather than paper wicks simplifies the use of and increases the capabilities of horizontal slab gel electrophoresis.
Diseases Diagnosed in Red Foxes from the Southeastern United States

Diagnostic findings on 51 red foxes (Vulpes vulpes) from the southeastern United States examined from 1967 to 1995 were reviewed. Etiologic diagnoses included sarcoptic mange (n = 33), traumatic injury and associated complications (n = 5), suspected canine distemper (n = 2), capture myopathy (n = 1), congenital absence of guard hairs (n = 1), intradermal tick infestation (n = 1), otodectic mange (n = 1), and toxicosis (n = 1). The cause of morbidity was not determined for three of the foxes, and three others were classified as normal animals. Sarcoptic mange was diagnosed in 65% of the red foxes, was found in foxes submitted from four of the eight southeastern states represented, and was seen in 19 of 29 yr covered by this study.
Enantioselective transaminations by dendrimeric enzyme mimics

PAMAM dendrimers have been constructed with a pyridoxamine core and chiral capping amino groups. Transamination to form phenylalanine and alanine from their related keto acids produced enantioselectivities induced by the formally remote chiral caps, supporting computer models that indicate folding of the dendrimer chains back into the core region.
Three-dimensional mapping of microcircuit correlation structure.

Great progress has been made towards understanding the properties of single neurons, yet the principles underlying interactions between neurons remain poorly understood. Given that connectivity in the neocortex is locally dense through both horizontal and vertical con-nections, it is of particular importance to characterize the activity structure of local popula-tions of neurons arranged in three dimensions. However, techniques for simultaneously measuring microcircuit activity are lacking. We developed an in vivo 3D high-speed, ran-dom-access two-photon microscope that is capable of simultaneous 3D motion tracking. This allows imaging from hundreds of neurons at several hundred Hz, while monitoring tissue movement. Given that motion will induce common artifacts across the population, accurate motion tracking is absolutely necessary for studying population activity with ran-dom-access based imaging methods. We demonstrate the potential of this imaging tech-nique by measuring the correlation structure of large populations of nearby neurons in the mouse visual cortex, and find that the microcircuit correlation structure is stimulus-dependent. Three-dimensional random access multiphoton imaging with concurrent mo-tion tracking provides a novel powerful method to characterize the microcircuit activity in vivo.
Characteristics and Contributions of the Three Major United States Toroidal Magnetic Fusion Facilities

This is Volume 1 of the report of a panel established by the U.S. Department of Energy Fusion Energy Sciences Advisory Committee (FESAC) and submitted in July 2005. The panel was charged to answer the following questions: What are the unique and complementary characteristics of each of the major U.S. fusion facilities? How do the characteristics of each of the three U.S. fusion facilities make the U.S. toroidal research program unique as a whole in the international program? How well do we cooperate with the international community in coordinating research on our major facilities and how have we exploited the special features of U.S. facilities in contributing to international fusion research, in general, and to the ITER design specifically? How do these three facilities contribute to fusion science and the vitality of the U.S. Fusion program? What research opportunities would be lost by shutting down one of the major facilities?
Vanishing powers of the Euler class

Abstract Let H =Homeo + S 1 be the discrete group of orientation preserving homeomorphisms of the circle S1, and let G be a subgroup. In this work the Euler Class [e(G)] for discrete G-bundles is studied in order to determine the range of powers for which [e(G)] vanishes. A new invariant is introduced, the orbit class of G, as well as an integer associated to it, its holonomy. The first vanishing power of the Euler Class results from the non-vanishing of the holonomy of the orbit class. The highest non-vanishing power of the Euler Class is a consequence of the vanishing of the holonomy. Applications focus on the Based Mapping Class Groups, M g . These can be represented as subgroups of H which exhibit a certain degree of transitivity of their actions depending on their genus g. This leads to a vanishing/non-vanishing result for the powers of the Euler Class of the M g 's. The vanishing theorem and its application to Mapping Class Groups: the k-th power of the Euler Class [e k ( M g )] is zero for k⩾g, is described in this article. The non-vanishing theorem will appear in a sequel.
Pediatric Intramedullary Spinal Cord Tumors

Pediatric intramedullary spinal cord tumors (IMSCTs) are rare and account for only 4% to 6% of all central nervous system (CNS) tumors [1]. Approximately 100 to 200 cases are diagnosed each year in the United States [2], representing an incidence of less than 1 in 100,000. IMSCTs in children are usually located in the cervical or thoracic spine (46%) and occur infrequently in the lumbar spine [3,4]. There is equal male and female distribution in the reported pediatric series [5–7]. Astrocytomas and ependymomas represent most IMCSTs in children. Other less frequent tumors in this location include gangliogliomas, oligodendrogliomas, subependymomas, neurocytomas, hemangioblastomas and, rarely, metastases. Presenting symptoms can be subtle in the pediatric population, often leading to delay in recognition. Parents usually report that mild symptoms were present for months to years before diagnosis. Signs and symptoms include pain, weakness, paresthesias, spinal deformity, sphincter disturbance, and cervicomedullary symptoms [4]. Slow deterioration of neurologic function can also occur [8]. Because of their rarity, treatment recommendations are extrapolated from those for similar tumor types in other CNS locations or from small cohort studies. Nevertheless, it seems that the definitive treatment, if possible, for primary IMSCTs is surgical resection. This approach may leave a patient with severe neurologic
The incorporation and removal of large amounts of strontium by physiologic mechanisms in mineralized tissues of the rat

The incorporation and removal of strontium from the bones and teeth of rats under conditions of low and high dietary levels of strontium were investigated. In an otherwise satisfactory diet, an amount of strontium equimolar to that of calcium seriously debilitates the young growing rat and may culminate in death. The pathology due to strontium was found by the methods used only in the hard tissues. The excess osteoid formed originally in the presence of large amounts of dietary strontium is removed during a subsequent period of feeding on a low strontium regimen. Strontium removal from participation in physiologic processes appears to be of two types, (a) excretion from the body, and (b) incarceration within the hard tissues. The translocation of strontium to the incisor teeth has been demonstrated. Differences of sodium and potassium contents of the hemi-mandibulae of the experimental and control groups were also observed.
Photodegradation of antibiotics under simulated solar radiation: implications for their environmental fate.

Abstract Roxithromycin, erythromycin, ciprofloxacin and sulfamethoxazole are frequently detected antibiotics in environmental waters. Direct and indirect photolysis of these problematic antibiotics were investigated in pure and natural waters (fresh and salt water) under irradiation of different light sources. Fundamental photolysis parameters such as molar absorption coefficient, quantum yield and first order rate constants are reported and discussed. The antibiotics are degraded fastest under ultraviolet 254 nm, followed by 350 nm and simulated solar radiation. The composition of the matrix (pH, dissolved organic content, chloride ion concentration) played a significant role in the observed photodegradation. Under simulated solar radiation, ciprofloxacin and sulfamethoxazole degrade relatively quickly with half-lives of 0.5 and 1.5 h, respectively. However, roxithromycin and erythromycin, macrolides are persistent (half-life: 2.4–10 days) under solar simulation. The transformation products (15) of the targeted antibiotics produced under irradiation experiments were identified using high resolution mass spectrometry and degradation pathways were proposed.
The Refractive Index in Electron Optics

The application of methods of geometrical optics for the investigation of electron trajectories requires the knowledge of the refractive index $\ensuremath{\mu}$ of the equivalent optical problem. A general formula for $\ensuremath{\mu}$ in terms of the electrostatic potential $V$ and of the magnetic vector potential A is known. If $\mathbf{A}\ensuremath{\ne}0$ this formula contains a unit vector s parallel to the electron velocity, which is not known in general. It is therefore important that s be eliminated. This can be done only if a suitable integral of the equations of motion of the electron is known. If $V$ and A are symmetric about an axis, s may be eliminated from $\ensuremath{\mu}$ by means of a momentum integral (Glaser). This elimination is generalized in the present paper to include cylindrical fields (not necessarily symmetrical) as well as some more general fields with a transversal field component. The result is reached by interpreting the magnetic scalar potential $U$ as a velocity potential of an ideal fluid and by making use of the corresponding stream function $w$ to obtain an expression for $\ensuremath{\mu}$.
Interactive visual analysis of location reporting patterns

Interactive visualization methods are often used to aid in the analysis of large datasets. We present a novel interactive visualization technique designed specifically for the analysis of location reporting patterns within large time-series datasets. We use a set of triangles with color coding to indicate the time between location reports. This allows reporting patterns (expected and unexpected) to be easily discerned during interactive analysis. We discuss the details of our method and describe evaluation both from expert opinion and from a user study.
An SOS MEMS interferometer

The function of a large number of MEMS and NEMS devices relies critically on the transduction method employed to convert the mechanical displacement into electrical signal. Optical transduction techniques have distinct advantages over more traditional capacitive and piezoelectric transduction methods. Optical interferometers can provide a much higher sensitivity, about 3 orders of magnitude, but are hardly compatible with standard MEMS and microelectronics processing. In this paper, we present a scalable architecture based in silicon on sapphire (SOS) CMOS 1 for building an interferometric optical detection system. This new detection system is currently being applied to the sense the motion of a resonating MEMS device, but can be used to detect the motion of any object to which the system is packaged. In the current hybrid approach the SOS CMOS device is packaged with both vertical cavity surface emitting lasers (VCSELs) and MEMS devices. The optical transparency of the sapphire substrate together with the ultra thin silicon PIN photodiodes available in this SOS process allows for the design of both a Michelson type and Fabry Perot type interferometer. The detectors, signal processing electronics and VCSEL drivers are built on the SOS CMOS for a complete system. We present experimental data demonstrating interferometric detection of a vibrating device.
Effects of progestational compounds on the reproductive processes of the human male.

4 steroids progesterone 17alpha-ethyl-19-nortestosterone (Nilevar) 17alpha-ethinyl-19-nortestosterone (Norlutin) and 17-alpha-e thinyl-17-hydroxyestren-3-one (Enovid) were each given to groups of normal adult males to assess their effect upon spermatogenesis and the urinary excretion of gonadotropins estrogens 17-ketosteroids and pregnanediol. All 4 steroids induced a state of azoospermia in all of the 19 subjects. Within a relatively brief period following the withdra wal of therapy the sperm count of most subjects returned to or exceeded pretreatment levels. Testicular biopsies obtained at a time when all subjects were at azoospermia levels showed damage compatible wi th the finding of azoospermia in the Norlutin and Enovid therapy groups. The biopsies obtained from subjects of the progesterone and Nilevar therapy groups presented a picture of moderately active spermatogenesis. A complete loss of libido was noted by every subject during the latter part of the therapy period and during the early part of the recovery period. Total urinary gonadotropin titers were found to be unaltered by progesterone Norlutin and Enovid. Nilevar suppressed urinary gonadotropin titers although the magnitude of suppression could not be quantitated. By their clinical and hormonal effects Norlutin and Enovid manifested nearly identical activity. Progesterone and Nilevar appeared to influence hormonal excretion patterns in a different manner. Gross observations indicate that Norlutin and Enovid may possess and anabolic activity similar to that of Nilevar. 17-ketosteroid excretion was uniformly suppressed by all 4 steroids whereas pregnanediol excretion was found to be unaltered.(AUTHORS MODIFIED)
Long Term Outcome in Working and Homemaking Alcoholic Women

Retrospective and outcome data were examined for 48 homemaking and 24 working women who came for treatment for alcoholism to an Addiction Recovery Unit at an inpatient psychiatric hospital. Outcome was assessed at the end of each of 4 years following treatment via personal interview by an experienced social worker and was corroborated by at least one source. At admission, the homemakers had been drinking for significantly more years (p less than 0.05) than working women. Occupation at admission did not directly relate to outcome. However, for a small subgroup comprised of both homemaking and working women, a change in occupation following treatment was associated with improvement.
Studies on the cell-free biosynthesis of CNS membrane proteins.

: The biosynthesis of CNS membrane proteins was studied in cell-free systems containing membrane-bound polysomes (rough endoplasmic reticulum; RER) or free polysomes from rat forebrain. In previous studies of CNS membrane proteins using two-dimensional gel electrophoretic analysis, five proteins (mol. wt.-pI: 75K 5.4, 68K 5.6, 61K 5.1, 58K 5.1, and 36K 5.6) were found in ceil membrane fractions including preparations enriched in RER, smooth endoplasmic reticulum, and plasma membranes. One of these proteins, 68K 5.6, was also present in cytosol and comigrated with a microtubule-associated protein. In our present study, cell-free systems containing RER were found to synthesize the 75K 5.4, 61K 5.1, and 58K 5.1 proteins. A protein, 34K 5.65, similar (but not identical) to the 36K 5.6 protein was also synthesized. After cell-free synthesis, the 75K 5.4 and 58K 5.1 proteins could be purified by concanavalin A affinity chromatography. Of the five common membrane proteins previously identified, only the 68K 5.6 protein was synthesized by the free polysome population. The free polysomes were also found to synthesize cyclic AMP binding proteins at 48K and 54K, known from previous studies to be present in both cytosol and plasma membrane fractions in mammalian brain tissue. In conclusion, RER synthesized proteins found exclusively in CNS membrane fractions, whereas free polysomes synthesized those proteins found in both soluble and membrane compartments.