cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Contraception Without Romance: The Entangled Political Economy of State and Federal Contraceptive Insurance Mandates

Even though effective contraception has been widely available and used in the U.S. since the 1960s, access to affordable contraception became a political issue in the early 1990s and culminated in the adoption of the federal contraceptive insurance mandate in 2011. This paper analyses the emergence of contraceptive mandates in the context of Virginia Political Economy, focusing on James M. Buchanan’s distinction between a productive and a redistributive state. Buchanan would surely view insurance mandates as an expansion of a welfare state and an activity indicative of constitutional anarchy. To understand the coordinated patterns of societal coordination within constitutional anarchy I employ Richard E. Wagner’s framework of Entangled Political Economy. I conclude that the push for state and federal contraceptive mandates was driven by a rent-seeking effort oriented at increasing the demand for more profitable forms of contraception.
Radtools: R utilities for convenient extraction of medical image metadata

The radiology community has adopted several widely used standards for medical image files, including the popular DICOM (Digital Imaging and Communication in Medicine) and NIfTI (Neuroimaging Informatics Technology Initiative) standards. These file formats include image intensities as well as potentially extensive metadata. The NIfTI standard specifies a particular set of header fields describing the image and minimal information about the scan. DICOM headers can include any of >4,000 available metadata attributes spanning a variety of topics. NIfTI files contain all slices for an image series, while DICOM files capture single slices and image series are typically organized into a directory. Each DICOM file contains metadata for the image series as well as the individual image slice. The programming environment R is popular for data analysis due to its free and open code, active ecosystem of tools and users, and excellent system of contributed packages. Currently, many published radiological image analyses are performed with proprietary software or custom unpublished scripts. However, R is increasing in popularity in this area due to several packages for processing and analysis of image files. While these R packages handle image import and processing, no existing package makes image metadata conveniently accessible. Extracting image metadata, combining across slices, and converting to useful formats can be prohibitively cumbersome, especially for DICOM files. We present radtools, an R package for convenient extraction of medical image metadata. Radtools provides simple functions to explore and return metadata in familiar R data structures. For convenience, radtools also includes wrappers of existing tools for extraction of pixel data and viewing of image slices. The package is freely available under the MIT license at GitHub and is easily installable from the Comprehensive R Archive Network.
Adam Mansplains Everything: White-Hipster Masculinity as Covert Hegemony

ABSTRACTThe series Adam Ruins Everything (ARE) provides an opportunity to contemplate White, hipster masculinity and its professed progressivism in U.S. culture. As seen in ARE, hipster masculinity...
Incremental Prognostic Value of Exercise Stress Testing in Primary Prevention.

In primary prevention, addition of C-reactive protein and family history to standard risk factor assessment (Reynolds Risk Score or RRS) provides superior risk stratification for future cardiovascular (CV) events. We sought to assess whether addition of functional capacity to RRS provided incremental prognostic value. This was a prospective observational cohort study of 3,964 consecutive asymptomatic adults without documented CV disease (mean age 51 years, 78% men) evaluated between 2005 and 2013, who underwent clinical and treadmill stress testing at baseline. RRS was calculated; % age-gender predicted metabolic equivalents (AGP-METs) achieved and heart rate recovery (HRR) were recorded. End point was death and myocardial infarction. Findings were tested in derivation (n = 1,982) and validation samples (n = 1,982). Mean RRS and C-reactive protein were 3.7 ± 4 and 2 ± 4 mg/dl. Nine percent had family history of premature CV disease. %AGP-METs achieved, and HRR were 113 ± 20 and 24 ± 8 beats/min. Forty-six percent achieved 3 and %AGP-METs
Priority Matters: Lessons from Tort Law for Proving Causation of Wildlife Harm and Allocating ESA Responsibility Between Water Users

The backbone of western water law is the basic notion of first-in-time-is-first-in-right. Beginning water law students have long been taught that under the law of prior appropriation, if there is not enough water in a stream to satisfy the reasonable uses of all diverters, junior users are obligated to close their headgates and pray for rain. Such occurrences have been rare because historically western states have built so much water storage (read dams) that short-term drought can be covered for even the most junior diverter. Although the assertion of priority is rare, it would be hard to imagine a more fixed principle in water law. It is increasingly evident, however, that this fixed principle of priority is being ignored when the Endangered Species Act (ESA) is used to curtail diversions to assure sufficient instream flow for threatened and endangered species. Rather than impose the regulatory burden on junior appropriators, the federal wildlife agencies charged with enforcing the ESA—the Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) within the Department of Interior and the recently renamed NOAA Fisheries, formerly and still more commonly called the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS), within the Department of Commerce—have exercised discretion to pursue whichever appropriator they prefer. In several agency enforcement efforts, senior water rights holders have borne the brunt of obligations to provide more water. Although such efforts have been relatively infrequent, in part because the ESA has not been vigorously applied to harms caused by instream flow
Homomorphisms between fundamental groups of Kähler manifolds

We construct a group homomorphism, which can be realized as the induced homomorphism of fundamental groups from a holomorphic map between compact Kahler manifolds, but cannot be realized by a holomorphic map between smooth projective varieties. It is also proved that there exists no such example between abelian groups.
Automated Extraction of Drainage Channels and Roads through Deep Learning

Abstract. The National Map provides geospatial data that support various uses such as resource management, disaster response, and science investigations. To properly support these needs, data themes of the National Map must be regularly updated and spatially integrated as the features on the ground change because of environmental or man-made events. The elevation theme of the National Map is managed through the 3D Elevation Program (3DEP), which is currently (2019) coordinating collection of high resolution (HR) elevation data for the United States over an eight-year period (Sugarbaker et al. 2014). Through this program, lidar point-cloud data are being collected for the conterminous United States, Hawaii, and U.S. territories, with coarser resolution interferometric synthetic aperture radar (ifsar) data being collected for the remote areas of Alaska. HR digital elevation models (DEMs) can be generated at 1 and 3 meter resolution from the lidar point-cloud data and are also furnished by 3DEP. This research develops automated methods to update the hydrography and transportation themes of the National Map in a manner that integrates with the HR elevation and image layers. Surface water drainage networks can be extracted from a HR DEM using flow-direction and flow-accumulation modelling, but results of these methods vary depending on environmental conditions and the existence of anthropogenic features that may affect the accuracy of the elevation model, such as vegetative cover, roads, bridges, and other urban structures. Hydrologic conditioning or enforcement of a HR DEM overcome some of these issues and improve flow modelling for drainage network extraction through techniques such as filtering (Passalaqua et al. 2010), filling sinks (Tarboton 1997), cutting channels through embankments at culvert and bridge locations (Poppenga et al. 2012), or burning-in existing streams (Maidment 1996). However, drainage network extraction results can vary substantially with these techniques and the methods generally require some manual intervention and/or tuning of parameters (Poppenga et al. 2013). Consequently, additional work is needed to streamline and further automate such methods for the various landscape conditions within the United States.
Continuous-Time Analysis of the Bitcoin and Prism Backbone Protocols.

Bitcoin is a peer-to-peer payment system proposed by Nakamoto in 2008. Based on the Nakamoto consensus, Bagaria, Kannan, Tse, Fanti, and Viswanath proposed the Prism protocol in 2018 and showed that it achieves near-optimal blockchain throughput while maintaining a similar level of security as bitcoin. Previous probabilistic security guarantees for the bitcoin and Prism backbone protocols were either established under a simplified discrete-time model or expressed in terms of exponential order results. This paper presents a streamlined and strengthened analysis under a more realistic continuous-time model. A fully rigorous model for blockchains is developed with no restrictions on adversarial miners except for an upper bound on their aggregate mining rate. The only assumption on the peer-to-peer network is that all block propagation delays are upper bounded by a constant. A new notion of "t-credible blockchains" is introduced, which, together with some carefully defined "typical" events concerning block production over time intervals, is crucial to establish probabilisitic security guarantees in continuous time. A blockchain growth theorem, a blockchain quality theorem, and a common prefix theorem are established with explicit probability bounds. Moreover, under a certain typical event which occurs with probability close to $1$, a valid transaction that is deep enough in one credible blockchain is shown to be permanent in the sense that it must be found in} in all future credible blockchains.
Effects of heated water-based versus land-based exercise training on vascular function in individuals with peripheral artery disease

Peripheral artery disease (PAD) is an atherosclerotic disease that is associated with poor vascular function, walking impairment, and reduced quality of life. Land-based exercise therapy (LBET) is frequently recommended to improve walking and reduce symptoms. Recently, evidence has suggested that heated-water exercise therapy (HWET) is an effective intervention for PAD. However, the efficacy of LBET versus HWET in PAD patients had not been elucidated. Therefore, we sought to compare effects of LBET with HWET on cardiovascular function, exercise tolerance, physical function, and body composition in PAD patients. PAD patients (n = 53) were recruited and randomly assigned to a LBET group (n = 25) or HWET group (n = 28). The LBET group performed treadmill walking, whereas the HWET group performed walking in heated water for 12 wk. Leg (legPWV) and brachial-to-ankle arterial stiffness (baPWV), blood pressure (BP), ankle-brachial index (ABI), 6-min walking distance (6MWD), claudication onset time (COT), physical function, and body composition were assessed before and after 12 wk. There were significant group-by-time interactions (P < 0.05) for legPWV, BP, 6MWD, COT, body composition, and resting metabolic rate (RMR). Both groups significantly reduced (P < 0.05) legPWV, BP, and body fat percentage, and HWET measures were significantly lower than LBET measures. Both groups significantly increased 6MWD, COT, and RMR, and HWET group measures were significantly greater than LBET measures. A time effect was noted for baPWV reduction in both groups (P < 0.05). These results suggest that both LBET and HWET improve cardiovascular function, exercise tolerance, and body composition, and HWET showed considerably greater improvements compared with LBET in patients with PAD.NEW & NOTEWORTHY The results of this study reveal for the first time that although land-based exercise therapy is effective for reducing arterial stiffness and blood pressure in patients with peripheral artery disease (PAD), heated-water exercise therapy demonstrates greater benefits on vascular function. The greater improvements in muscular strength, time to onset of claudication, and exercise tolerance after heated-water exercise therapy may have clinical implications for improving quality of life in patients with PAD. The heated-water exercise therapy intervention demonstrated relatively higher exercise training adherence (∼88%) compared with the land-based exercise intervention (∼81%).
Barriers to prescribing targeted therapies for NSCLC patients with highly actionable gene variants in the VA National Precision Oncology Program.

2005Background: Next-Generation Sequencing (NGS) gene panels are often completed to guide therapeutic decisions for patients with advanced stage non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). Patients with hi...
Reducing Cognitive Load and Improving Warfighter Problem Solving With Intelligent Virtual Assistants

Recent times have seen increasing interest in conversational assistants (e.g., Amazon Alexa) designed to help users in their daily tasks. In military settings, it is critical to design assistants that are, simultaneously, helpful and able to minimize the user's cognitive load. Here, we show that embodiment plays a key role in achieving that goal. We present an experiment where participants engaged in an augmented reality version of the relatively well-known desert survival task. Participants were paired with a voice assistant, an embodied assistant, or no assistant. The assistants made suggestions verbally throughout the task, whereas the embodied assistant further used gestures and emotion to communicate with the user. Our results indicate that both assistant conditions led to higher performance over the no assistant condition, but the embodied assistant achieved this with less cognitive burden on the decision maker than the voice assistant, which is a novel contribution. We discuss implications for the design of intelligent collaborative systems for the warfighter.
BIG SCIENCE, BIG BUREAUCRACY, AND PRIVATIZATION : Complications in Contracting for the Management of the Brookhaven National Laboratory

The change in the contractor for management of Brookhaven National Laboratory illustrates complications that can arise in the contracting process. Public concerns about the safety of the lab contributed to an abrupt cancellation of the contract with the long-term contractor, and the installation of a new contractor for management. In interviews, numerous scientists pointed out that a sharp increase in safety and security training and procedures accompanied the change. They tended to consider the changes justifiable for public relations purposes, but hindrances to scientific research. The contracting process did not bring competition for a contract that led to debureaucratization and enhanced efficiency. Rather, it led to tightening of hierarchical controls by the Department of Energy and to increased internal bureaucratic controls and procedures.
Cognitive feedback in GDSS: improving control and convergence

Cognitive feedback in group decision making is information that provides decision makers with a better understanding of their own decision processes and that of the other group members. It appears to be an effective aid in group decision making. Although it has been suggested as a potential feature of group decision support systems (GDSS), little research has examined its use and impact. This article investigates the effect of computer generated cognitive feedback in computer-supported group decision processes. It views group decision making as a combination of individual and collective activity. The article tests whether cognitive feedback can enhance control over the individual and collective decision making processes and can facilitate the process of convergence among group members. In a laboratory experiment with groups of three decision makers, 15 groups received online cognitive feedback and 15 groups did not. Users receiving cognitive feedback maintained a higher level of control over the decision-making process as their decision strategies converged. This research indicates that (1) developers should include cognitive feedback as an integral part of the GDSS at ever level, and (2) they should design the human-computer interaction so there is an intuitive and effective transaction across the components of feedback at all levels. Researchers should extend the concepts explored here to other models of conflict that deal with ill-structured decisions, as well as study the impact of cognitive feedback over time. Finally, researchers trying to enhance the capabilities of GDSS should continue examining how to take advantage of the differences between individual, interpersonal, and collective decision making.
Innovative practices session 7C: Mixed signal test and debug

The traditional focus of work in test has been innovation and efficiency for high volume manufacturing test. However, in reality, a significant amount of effort is expended on design validation and debug prior to deeming analog and high speed serial IO test stimuli content production worthy. In this presentation we emphasize the importance of widening the post-silicon envelope to include early design validation and debug in addition to manufacturing test. The impact on DFX architecture is considered in which in order to be efficient the architecture has to be scalable across a wider set of post-silicon stages. We also discuss the need for establishing quick correlation between design validation and manufacturing test measurements and the time-to-market savings it brings for analog and IO content designed essentially on a digital process technology.
Outcomes of Social Work Education: The Case for Social Work Self-Efficacy

This article describes the development and testing of the Social Work Self-Efficacy Scale, which assesses social workers’ confidence regarding a broad range of social work tasks. Pre-post data from two cohorts of social work students are presented showing significant positive change in MSW students’ self-efficacy, suggesting a new approach to outcomes assessment in social work education.
Extended generalized linear models: Simultaneous estimation of flexible link and variance functions

I describe a command that simultaneously solves the extended estimating equations estimator for parameters in the link and variance functions along with those of the linear predictor in a generaliz...
The Relationship of Demographics to Consumers' Use of an Extended Range of E-health Services

E-health usage is often studied at the level of online health portals, which is invaluable in understanding how these important portals are utilized by various health consumers. However, this approach does not provide information about usage of the underlying e-health services, which is crucial in improving the overall success of e-health portals. In this study, we examine variations in use of 12 distinct e-health services based on five demographic factors: age, gender, race/ethnicity, income, and education. Our results highlight the need for examining usage of distinct e-health services. They also show that demographic factors can play a significant role in how these services are used. Because the results of our study provide a fine-grained picture of e-health usage, they extend those studies and observations that are based on overall use of e-health portals or personal health records. Hence, our results provide important insights for the design, development, and management of specific e-health services, which in turn can improve the overall success of e-health portals.
The Mughal Empire

The Mughal empire was one of the largest centralised states in pre-modern world history. It was founded in the early 1500s and by the end of the following century the Mughal emperor ruled almost the entire Indian subcontinent with a population of between 100 and 150 millions. The Mughal emperors displayed immense wealth and the ceremonies, music, poetry, and exquisitely executed paintings and objects of the imperial court created a distinctive aristocratic high culture. In this volume, Professor John Richards traces the history of this magnificent empire from its creation in 1526 to its breakup in 1720. He stresses the dynamic quality of Mughal territorial expansion, their institutional innovation in land revenue, coinage and military organisation, ideological change and the relationship between the emperors and Islam. Professor Richards also analyses institutions particular to the Mughal empire, such as the jagir system, and explores Mughal India's links with the early modern world.
Charge-Exchange and X-ray Processes with Nanodust Particles

The interaction of nanodust particles with X-ray photons and solar wind ions is considered in detail. Collisions of nanoparticles with solar wind protons and heavy ions are investigated as a semiclassical process. Cross sections of the ion charge-exchange collisions, which reduce ion charges and increase grain charges, are calculated. The production rate of energetic neutral hydrogen atoms, the neutral H wind, and the intensity of the He flux are computed for the inner heliosphere and results are compared with observations. Collisions with highly charged solar wind ions may dramatically modify the electronic structure of nanodust particles and lead to fragmentation of nanograins. The yield of X-ray photons and energetic Auger-electrons produced in collisions of heavy ions and nanograins is calculated. The dependence of the charge-exchange X-ray intensity on the dust size, ion charge, and collision velocity is analyzed. Scattering and fluorescence of X-ray photons by nano-size particles are investigated inside 1AU. Fluxes of scattered X-ray photons with energies between 350eV and 1keV are computed, and the calculated intensities of the diffuse X-ray emission are compared with other mechanisms of production of the heliospheric X-ray background. Sensitivity of the scattered X-ray flux to spatial distributions of nanograins and to solar conditions is investigated.
Piaget, Meet Lilly: Understanding Child Development through Picture Book Characters

Picture books appeal to readers of all ages for many different reasons. As instructors of child development, we use them as one strategy to help students conceptualize the physical, cognitive, and socioemotional growth of children. We use picture books to introduce principles, explain vocabulary, and encourage students to make connections between theory and practice in early childhood education. In this article, we provide examples of picture books that can be used to understand children from infancy (birth–2 years) to early childhood (2–6 years). Twenty-four suggested titles accurately narrate and illustrate early development.
Cortical amino acid neurotransmitter release is altered by CCK perfused in frontal region of unrestrained aged rats.

Abstract The purpose of this study was to investigate in the aged animal the functional interaction between cholecystokinin (CCK) and amino acid neurotransmitter activity in the frontal cortex, a structure of importance in age-related disabilities. Guide cannula for repeated push-pull perfusion were implanted bilaterally in the superficial frontal cortex of male Sprague-Dawley rats. Two groups of animals were selected on the basis of their age at the time of stereotaxic surgery: 90 days and two years. Following post-operative recovery, an artificial CSF solution was perfused repeatedly within the cortex of each animal for a 5.0 min interval. The rate of perfusion was 25 μl/min and a 5.0 min period elapsed between the collection of each sample of perfusate. After the initial control perfusions, CCK octapeptide was incorporated in a concentration of 6.0 or 18.0 ng/μl in the CSF and perfused for 5.0 min under identical conditions. Each sample of perfusate was assayed by high performance liquid chromatography with electrochemical detection (HPLC-EC) for its content of glutamate (Glu), aspartate (Asp), glutamine (Gln), glycine (Gly), taurine (Tau) and gamma-amino-butyric acid (GABA) with homoserine used as an internal standard. Although CCK in the lower 6.0 ng/μl concentration failed to alter significantly the profile of amino acids in the frontal cortex, the higher 18.0 ng/μl solution of CCK enhanced the efflux of Glu as well as Asp, but only in the aged rats. Both concentrations of CCK tended also to augment the release of Gln in the older animals but these changes were not statistically significant. Both Gly and Tau were unaffected by CCK in either dose in both the young and old groups. GABA was not detectable in any of the samples of perfusate throughout the experiments. These results suggest that CCK-8 exerts a selective effect on amino acid neurotransmitter activity in the frontal cortex which is clearly age-dependent. In the older animal, this sensitivity of the cortical cells to CCK may reflect a functional attribute of the peptide in the aging process.
Analytical and Numerical Observations on the Hetényi Solution for Buckling of Beams on Elastic Foundations

AbstractThis paper considers the minimum buckling load and mode shape of a simply supported beam on an elastic foundation. Solutions are obtained by solving the eigenvalue problem delivered by a finite-element formulation and by using the analytical solutions involving (1) trials and (2) rounding of real numbers to integers as described by Hetenyi [Hetenyi, M. (1946). Beams on Elastic Foundations, University of Michigan Press, Ann Arbor, MI]. The comparison shows that the solution by rounding can lead to overestimation of the buckling load close to the transition zone between mode shapes. The paper explains the reason for the overestimation and offers a simple direct algorithm that always leads to the correct mode shape and minimum buckling load.
Lattice Shock Waves in Nonlinear Waveguide Arrays

We experimentally study dispersive shock waves in nonlinear waveguide arrays. We directly observe Bloch mode coupling, both within and between bands, by recording intensity in position space and power spectra in momentum space.
Some properties of cycle-free directed graphs and the identification of the longest path☆

Abstract A number of interesting properties of a cycle free directed graph are presented By making use of these properties an efficient algorithm is deduced which identifies the longest path, or the Hamiltonian path of any, between every pair of vertices. The properties are expressed in terms of the “terminal connection matrix” which compactly describes the connectedness of the graph. Examples of practical applications of the results are given.
Theoretical and experimental characterization of the in-plane tip force and deflection achieved with asymmetrical polysilicon electrothermal microactuators

Several microactuator technologies have recently been investigated for positioning individual elements in large-scale microelectromechanical systems (MEMS). Electrostatic, magnetostatic, piezoelectric and thermal expansion are the most common modes of microactuator operation. This research focuses on the design and experimental characterization of two types of asymmetrical MEMS electrothermal microactuators. The motivation is to present a unified description of the behavior of the electrothermal microactuator so that it can be adapted to a variety of MEMS applications. Both MEMS polysilicon electrothermal microactuator design variants use resistive (Joule) heating to generate thermal expansion and movement. In a conventional electrothermal microactuator, the hot arm is positioned parallel to a cold arm, but because the hot arm is narrower than the cold arm, the electrical resistance of the hot arm is higher. When an electric curren passes through the microactuator (through the series connected electrical resistance of the hot and cold arms), the hot arm is heated to a higher temperature than the cold arm. This temperature increase causes the hot arm to expand along its length, thus forcing the tip of the device to rotate about a mechanical flexure element. The new thermal actuator design eliminates the parasitic electrical resistance of the cold arm by incorporating an additional hot arm. The second hot arm results in an improvement in electrical efficiency by providing an active return current path. Additionally, the rotating cold arm can have a narrower flexure than the flexure in a conventional single-hot arm device because it does not have to pass an electric current. The narrower flexure element results in an improvement in mechanical efficiency. Deflection and force measurements of both actuators as a function of applied electrical power are presented.
Rat liver nuclear N-acetyltransferases: Separation of two enzymes with both histone and spermidine acetyltransferase activity

Abstract Two similar histone acetyltransferases have been separated from rat liver nuclei and purified 500-fold. Both enzymes also acetylate spermidine and spermine but diamines are not acetylated. Both enzymes preferentially acetylate histone 3; among the remaining histones H2A and H2B are good substrates, whereas H1 and histone 4 are poor substrates. Apparent Michaelis constants for spermidine were about 2 × 10−4 m ; apparent Michaelis constants for acetyl coenzyme A were 1.5 × 10−5 and 10−5 m for enzymes A and B, respectively. At low concentrations DNA inhibits histone acetylation by enzyme A (50% inhibition at 25 μg/ml DNA). Enzyme B is relatively insensitive to DNA. This suggests the possibility of separate intranuclear localization of the two enzymes.
Interactions between metals separated by single atom bridges

Abstract For a wide variety dimeric and polymeric complexes in which the paramagnetic metal centers are linked by one or more single atom bridges, it is well established that the magnetic properties are in large part determined by the structure of the bridging unit. The precise nature of this magneto-structural correlation, which would in principle allow the use of magnetochemistry as a proble of molecular structure in complex biomolecules, continues to be the subject of intense research activity. While data exist for complex of many metal ions, the majority of the data are for two related systems. In what may be both synthetically and magnetically the simplest case, that of the copper(II) dimers [L 2 CuOH] 2 in which the copper centers are bridged by two hydroxo groups, early results from our laboratory and elsewhere suggested that a linear correlation exist between the isotropic ground state exchange coupling parameter (J) and CuOCu bridging angle (φ). This general concept was supported by a simple qualitative MO description, and subsequently by semi-quantitative calculations based on EHT and AOM formalisms. Recent work involving more complex structures, however, has demonstrated that the original correlation obtains for only a limited subset of possible structures, and that the complete expression relating J to structural parameters includes other angular deformations. In the case of chromium(III), the complexes most extensively studied are again the di-hydroxo bridged species. In addition, however, the singly bridged rhodo and erythro complexes and their analogues, which can exist in equilibrium with the doubly bridged systems, have also been studied in detail. Early work focussed on the relationship between J and φ, in analogy with the copper(II) result, and it was soon apparent that no linear relationship exists. However, a simple qualitative view of this system suggests that the observed results are broadly consistent with the expected correlation. More recent work has shown that the CrO distance R is of significance, and a correlation between J and φ/R has been suggested. Two separate groups have stressed the significance of a third structural parameter, the dihedral angle θ between the OH vector and the Cr 2 O 2 bridging plane. The importance of this has been established by studies on alkoxo-bridged systems, and by sinlge crystal spectroscopic investigations of related series of complexes of this type. This work has led to the formulation of a model for J which includes terms in R, θ, and φ The results obtained with other metal ions and other structural types, while less extensive than these, are consistent with the pattern which has emerged from the copper and chromium studies.
Intermediate range order in amorphous solids

Abstract Information about local atomic arrangements in amorphous solids is derived by a variety of techniques, X-ray RDF's, vibrational spectroscopy, NMR and EXAFS's; however, there is a scarcity of information about intermediate range order, in particular the distribution of dihedral angles. We show that this information can frequently be obtained from an analysis of polarized features in the Raman response.
Laparoscopy Using the Left Upper Quadrant as the Primary Trocar Site

Abstract Laparoscopic surgery was performed on 41 patients who were at high risk for subumbilical adhesions because of either previous midline incisions through the umbilicus or umbilical hernias. Insuffiation was performed using a Veress needle placed in the left upper quadrant in the 9th intercostal space. The primary trocar was placed in the left upper quadrant adjacent to the subcostal margin. Sixty-eight percent (28/41) of patients had subumbilical adhesions. One patient required laparotomy because of an enterotomy created when an 11-mm trocar was used. There were no complications in the remaining 40 patients, in whom smaller primary trocars were used. This is a safe location for primary trocar placement in patients at high risk for subumbilical adhesions, provided certain guidelines are followed.
Prospective reports of chronic life stress predict decreased grey matter volume in the hippocampus

Chronic stress in non-human animals decreases the volume of the hippocampus, a brain region that supports learning and memory and that regulates neuroendocrine activity. In humans with stress-related psychiatric syndromes characterized by impaired learning and memory and dysregulated neuroendocrine activity, surrogate and retrospective indicators of chronic stress are also associated with decreased hippocampal volume. However, it is unknown whether chronic stress is associated with decreased hippocampal volume in those without a clinical syndrome. We tested whether reports of life stress obtained prospectively over an approximate 20-year period predicted later hippocampal grey matter volume in 48 healthy postmenopausal women. Women completed the Perceived Stress Scale repeatedly from 1985 to 2004; in 2005 and 2006, their hippocampal grey matter volume was quantified by voxel-based morphometry. Higher Perceived Stress Scale scores from 1985 to 2004 - an indicator of more chronic life stress - predicted decreased grey matter volume in the right orbitofrontal cortex and right hippocampus. These relationships persisted after accounting for age, total grey matter volume, time since menopause, use of hormone therapy, subclinical depressive symptoms, and other potentially confounding behavioral and age-related cerebrovascular risk factors. The relationship between chronic life stress and regional grey matter volume - particularly in the hippocampus and orbitofrontal cortex - appears to span a continuum that extends to otherwise healthy individuals. Consistent with animal and human clinical evidence, we speculate that chronic-stress-related variations in brain morphology are reciprocally and functionally related to adaptive and maladaptive changes in cognition, neuroendocrine activity, and psychiatric vulnerability.
Labial salivary gland biopsy in sjögren's syndrome

Xerostomia is an unsatisfactory diagnostic criterion for the salivary component of Sjogren's syndrome (SS). To determine the diagnostic usefulness of the presence of focal sialadenitis in labial salivary gland (LSG) biopsy specimens, 362 patients suspected of having SS prospectively underwent a unique LSG biopsy procedure. The pattern and severity of LSG inflammation were compared with measurements of parotid flow rate, and the presence or absence of symptomatic xerostomia, major salivary gland enlargement, keratoconjunctivitis sicca (KCS), and other connective tissue diseases (CTD). LSG biopsy focus scores of >1 correlated more closely with the diagnoses of KCS alone and with KCS plus a CTD than did either reduced parotid flow rate or symptoms of xerostomia (P < 0.0005 and P < 0.05, respectively). Focal sialadenitis in an adequate LSG specimen is an objective criterion and a more disease-specific feature of SS than xerostomia or any other feature of salivary disease. The salivary component of SS should be redefined as the presence of LSG focal sialadenitis.
On the correspondence between multivariate risk aversion and risk aversion with state-dependent preferences

Abstract This paper establishes the correspondence between multivariate risk aversion and risk aversion with state-dependent preferences. It shows that the prerequisite for comparability of risk aversion in the multivariate case, namely, identical ordinal preferences on the commodity space, corresponds to identical, properly defined, reference sets in the case of state-dependent preferences. For comparable decision makers the condition that the utility function of one is a concave transformation of that of the other on the commodity space corresponds to the condition that the expected utility of one is a concave transformation of that of the other on the reference set.
Religion and gender differences in the perception of success

This study was conducted to investigate differences between men and women in how they perceive success. It was hypothesized that men would perceive success more in terms of self-development and mat...
Hydrogen purification by the multibed pressure swing adsorption process

Abstract Model simulations are performed for gas separation by the most widely used pressure swing adsorption (PSA) process: the multibed procedd with internal product recovery. The performance of the multibed process is simulated by equilibrium theory using a single bed. The specific separation being considered is hydrogen purification using zeolite 5A as the sorbent. The effects of the following PSA variables on separation are quantitatively discussed: H2 purge-to-feed ratio, total cycle time, end pressure of cocurrent blowdown, and the ambient temperature.
Treatment of varicella‐zoster virus and postherpetic neuralgia

: Chickenpox is mostly a disease of childhood; shingles usually affects the elderly, but any age group may be afflicted. Although several proved pharmacologic agents are known to be efficacious in the acute phase of varicella-zoster infections, only three are FDA approved for use in immunocompetent zoster patients and one for the use in primary varicella infections. Ongoing studies with immunocompromised patients are determining whether higher doses of newer oral antivirals will be effective. While a cure for postherpetic neuralgia has not been found, effective treatment to reduce its duration and severity means early implementation of newer antiviral agents. While corticosteroids do not prevent postherpetic neuralgia, they do improve the quality of life when used in combination with acyclovir. Often, symptomatic relief with narcotics, topical anesthetics, and tricyclic antidepressants are necessary.
Liquid crystal surface anchoring of mesophase pitch

Abstract Mesophase pitch, in common with other liquid crystalline substances, exhibits preferred angles of molecular orientation at its boundaries with other phases. These orientations, or surface anchoring states, are important because they influence the ultimate graphene layer arrangement in a variety of carbon materials where the pitch precursor encounters a composite filler, a free surface, a bubble cavity, or the surfaces of processing equipment such as a fiber spinneret. This paper presents experimentally determined anchoring states for two mesophase pitches at free surfaces, and on twenty solid substrates. Edge-on anchoring is found to be the most common state, occurring on the free surface, on some metals, on PTFE, and on all oxides with the exception of the lamellar material mica. The optical texture associated with the edge-on films is observed to be stable during carbonization up to 1200 °C. Face-on anchoring is observed on carbon graphene planes, mica and the metals Pt, Ni, and Ag. Trends in the data are discussed in terms of the strength of pitch/substrate intermolecular forces relative to π–π bonding between large discotic mesogens within the pitch. The implications for the structure and properties of carbon materials are discussed.
The Effects of Anisotropic Gaussian Diffusion in Scale Invariant Feature Detection

Many feature detection algorithms use Gaussian scale space in order to locate scale-invariant and rotationally invariant keypoints in an image, including the Scale-Invariant Feature Transform (SIFT) algorithm. During the creation of this scale space, edge information and fine details in an image are often degraded or lost as a result of the Gaussian smoothing operation. In this paper, we study the effects of using edge preserving anisotropic diffusion during the creation of a scale space for use in the SIFT algorithm. We find that preserving edge information and fine details during the creation of a scale space allows SIFT to gather a much larger set of keypoints from images, and these keypoints tend to be far more robust towards scaling and rotation.
Structural insights into the stereochemistry of the cyclooxygenase reaction

Cyclooxygenases are bifunctional enzymes that catalyse the first committed step in the synthesis of prostaglandins, thromboxanes and other eicosanoids1,2,3. The two known cyclooxygenases isoforms share a high degree of amino-acid sequence similarity1,2,3,4, structural topology5,6,7 and an identical catalytic mechanism1,2,3. Cyclooxygenase enzymes catalyse two sequential reactions in spatially distinct, but mechanistically coupled active sites8,9,10,11. The initial cyclooxygenase reaction converts arachidonic acid (which is achiral) to prostaglandin G2 (which has five chiral centres). The subsequent peroxidase reaction reduces prostaglandin G2 to prostaglandin H2. Here we report the co-crystal structures of murine apo-cyclooxygenase-2 in complex with arachidonic acid and prostaglandin. These structures suggest the molecular basis for the stereospecificity of prostaglandin G2 synthesis.
Isolation and properties of polysomes from human placenta

Abstract Conditions have been investigated for obtaining free and membrane-bound polysomes from human placenta that can incorporate free amino acids into peptide bonds in a cell-free protein-synthesizing system. Optimum recoveries of polysomes were obtained when ribonuclease activity was inhibited by addition of 0.5 mM EDTA to the homogenization medium, along with 150 mM KCl, 200 mM NH4Cl and 10 mM MgCl2. Conditions of homogenization and centrifugation to provide optimum yields of free and bound polysomes were also established. About 20 % of the polysomes recovered from human placentas were membrane-bound. They were more active than free polysomes in an amino acid incorporating system.
Ethics and Epidemiology: Residual Health Inequalities

This paper examines the fairness of avoidable inequalities in health. It contrasts two approaches to this question, a direct approach and an indirect approach. Most of the discussion focuses on the indirect approach advocated by Daniels, Kennedy and Kawachi (2000). Their argument that avoidable inequalities in health are not unfair when their causes are otherwise fair is criticised on two counts. First, it encounters a surprising difficulty when one attends carefully to the point at which ethics intersects with epidemiology here. Second, it fails to address the fundamental issue, which is whether any version of the direct approach is valid.
New insights into the growth mechanism and surface structure of palladium nanocrystals

This paper presents a systematic study of the growth mechanism for Pd nanobars synthesized by reducing Na2PdCl4 with L-ascorbic acid in an aqueous solution in the presence of bromide ions as a capping agent. Transmission electron microscopy (TEM) and high-resolution TEM analyses revealed that the growth at early stages of the synthesis was dominated by particle coalescence, followed by shape focusing via recrystallization and further growth via atomic addition. We also investigated the detailed surface structure of the nanobars using aberration-corrected scanning TEM and found that the exposed {100} surfaces contained several types of defects such as an adatom island, a vacancy pit, and atomic steps. Upon thermal annealing, the nanobars evolved into a more thermodynamically favored shape with enhanced truncation at the corners. Open image in new window
Partial equilibrium in the reaction zone of methane-air diffusion flames☆

Abstract Analysis of the temperature and composition profiles obtained by probing a confined, axisymmetric-laminar methane-air diffusion flame suggests that a state of partial equilibrium exists in the high-temperature primary reaction zone. Free-radical concentrations were estimated to be several orders of magnitude in excess of the full-equilibrium values.
Editorial: Interfaces: Fact or Fiction

Editorial about Interfaces and the reviewing process and its specific, often humorous, style.
Less Than Full-Text Indexing Using a Non-Boolean Searching Model.

The relative effectiveness of indexing using full-text or less than full-text was tested using a non-Boolean, chaining type of file structure and searching method. Indexing was done using titles, abstracts, full-text, references, and various combinations of these surrogates and then Goffman's indirect method of information retrieval was used to structure and search the file. The database consisted of 733 documents and 38 queries were searched. The hypothesis of the study was that by using a particular non-Boolean method as a file structuring and searching technique, full-text indexing is not essential to optimum information retrieval effectiveness. The outcome of the study was positive.
Improved instrumentation to facilitate laparoscopic ureteroureterostomy

SummaryVarious technical advances have been investigated in an attempt to simplify reconstructive laparoscopic surgery. We report the initial use of a non-perforating, titanium vascular closure staple (VCS) (US Surgical Corp., Norwalk, CT) in combination with a tissue approximator device for performing laparoscopic ureteroureterostomy (UU). 12 female, Yucatan mini-pigs were prospectively randomised to undergo laparoscopic ureteral transection at the level of the lower pole of the kidney. An end-to-end UU was performed using only the VCS clips in six animals and using VCS clips and a newly-designed tissue approximator (TA) in six animals. The ureteral stent was removed 10–12 days after UU. Retrograde pyelography and differential creatinine clearances (CrCI) were performed at 6 and 12 weeks following UU. At 12 weeks, the animals were euthanised and the site of the UU was examined grossly and histopathologically. A histological healing score [0 (excellent) to 15 (poor)] was determined for each UU. An average...