cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Posttraumatic stress disorder symptoms improve after an integrated brief alcohol intervention for OEF/OIF/OND veterans.

OBJECTIVE Although brief alcohol interventions (BAIs) that incorporate personalized feedback demonstrate efficacy for reducing the frequency and quantity of alcohol consumption in veteran samples, little research has explored the influence of BAIs in reducing symptoms of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD). The goal of this investigation was to understand whether PTSD symptom severity and diagnostic status changed after exposure to an intervention that targeted alcohol misuse and integrated feedback on PTSD. METHOD Sixty-eight combat veterans (8.8% female; 27.9% African American) who screened positive for hazardous drinking were recruited from a Veterans Affairs Medical Center. Participants received a 1-session brief intervention that primarily targeted alcohol misuse but also included personalized feedback and psychoeducation on PTSD symptoms and coping. Participants were randomized to receive personalized written feedback either with or without a motivational interview. RESULTS A mixed-model repeated measures analysis revealed that PTSD symptom severity was significantly lower at the 6-week (M = 41.47, SD = 28.94) and 6-month (M = 35.56 SD = 26.99) follow-up appointments relative to baseline (M = 51.22, SD = 26.67), F(2, 127.24) = 38.32, p < .001. Regression analyses demonstrate that the percent change in alcohol use was related to the change in PTSD severity. Further, results indicated that a motivational-interviewing-style counseling session accompanying the feedback was not significantly more efficacious than receiving feedback only. CONCLUSION A brief alcohol intervention that integrates information on PTSD has the potential to reduce PTSD severity. Personalized alcohol and PTSD feedback may be useful as an opportunistic intervention for OEF/OIF veterans. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2019 APA, all rights reserved).
Aspects of symmetry: Selected Erice lectures: Renormalization and symmetry: a review for non-specialists

Introduction I suppose that as good a way as any of explaining the contents of this lecture is to explain the title. By ‘renormalization’ I mean the removal of infinities for Feynman amplitudes, in perturbation theory, for Lagrangian field theories with polynomial interactions. In particular non-perturbative renormalization (the work of Jaffe, Glimm, etc.) is outside the scope of this lecture, as are the properties of non-polynomial interactions (the work of Efimov, Salam, Lehmann, etc.). By ‘renormalization and symmetry’ I mean that we will be concerned not only with the renormalization of scattering amplitudes, but also with the renormalization of the matrix elements of conserved and partially conserved currents. In particular, we will discuss some fairly recent results of Symanzik, Benjamin Lee, Preparata, Weisberger, and others. By ‘a review for non-specialists’ I mean that I hope that this talk will be intelligible to people who can do nothing more complicated than remove the divergences from the self-energy of the electron. Since renormalization theory has a well-deserved reputation for complexity, it is obvious that I will be able to do all this in a single lecture only by cheating. To be precise, I will explain a very powerful theorem due to Klaus Hepp, but not prove it (this is the cheat); then I will show how a wide variety of results can be obtained from this master theorem by elementary methods.
Candidate and Program Characteristics Associated with EdTPA Performance

Educator preparation programs across the United States are increasingly adopting performance-based assessments, including edTPA, as a mechanism to measure candidates’ development of the knowledge a...
Socioecological Production of Parks in Atlanta, Georgia's Proctor Creek Watershed: Creating Ecosystem Services or Negative Externalities?

For decades, grassroots activists have engaged in efforts to resurrect the integrity of Atlanta, Georgia's Proctor Creek Watershed, by creating a narrative about the value of the ecological and soc...
Systematic review and meta-analysis of imaging characteristics in Chiari I malformation: does anything really matter?

Previous studies have attempted to evaluate the utility of preoperative magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) parameters in predicting outcomes in Chiari I malformation. We performed a systematic review and meta-analysis to determine what preoperative imaging features (if any) predict (1) presence of preoperative symptoms or associated findings, (2) need for surgical decompression, or (3) improvement after surgical decompression. All publications through June 2018 on PubMed, Embase, and Cochrane Library databases were searched using the keywords “Chiari I malformation” AND “decompression” OR “imaging.” One thousand two hundred ten publications were identified, and 20 were included for our systematic review; nine were included in the meta-analysis. Tonsil position, clivus gradient, and scoliotic curve of > 20° were all associated with the presence of preoperative syrinx. Degree of scoliotic curve was associated with length of syrinx. Pre-operative findings of central syrinx morphology, shorter syrinx, and scoliotic curve < 20° were associated with post-operative stability/improvement. Post-operative symptomatic improvement was associated with preoperative pB-C2 line ≥ 3 mm, absence of scoliosis, and presence of syrinx. By meta-analysis, there was no significant difference in post-operative improvement between patients with and without syrinx (OR = 0.89; 95% CI 0.58–1.37). Meta-analysis showed no significant difference in post-operative improvement between patients with and without basilar invagination (OR = 1.31; 95% CI 0.72–2.36). Multiple studies have attempted to identify preoperative imaging parameters to predict post-operative improvement, but no consistently reliable criteria have been defined. This review and meta-analysis highlight the importance of considering each patient’s clinical history and physical exam within the context of associated radiographic abnormalities.
Heat-shock proteases promote survival of Pseudomonas aeruginosa during growth arrest

When nutrients in their environment are exhausted, bacterial cells become arrested for growth. During these periods, a primary challenge is maintaining cellular integrity with a reduced capacity for renewal or repair. Here, we show that the heat-shock protease FtsH is generally required for growth arrest survival of Pseudomonas aeruginosa, and that this requirement is independent of a role in regulating lipopolysaccharide synthesis, as has been suggested for Escherichia coli. We find that ftsH interacts with diverse genes during growth and overlaps functionally with the other heat-shock protease-encoding genes hslVU, lon, and clpXP to promote survival during growth arrest. Systematic deletion of the heat-shock protease-encoding genes reveals that the proteases function hierarchically during growth arrest, with FtsH and ClpXP having primary, nonredundant roles, and HslVU and Lon deploying a secondary response to aging stress. This hierarchy is partially conserved during growth at high temperature and alkaline pH, suggesting that heat, pH, and growth arrest effectively impose a similar type of proteostatic stress at the cellular level. In support of this inference, heat and growth arrest act synergistically to kill cells, and protein aggregation appears to occur more rapidly in protease mutants during growth arrest and correlates with the onset of cell death. Our findings suggest that protein aggregation is a major driver of aging and cell death during growth arrest, and that coordinated activity of the heat-shock response is required to ensure ongoing protein quality control in the absence of growth.
Winkelabstand: Sphärische und Hyperbolische Geometrie

Die Geometrie der Sphare (Kugelflache) ist uns vertraut, aus dem Alltag wie aus der Geographie. Sie ist ein Teil der Metrischen Geometrie des Raumes, stellt darin aber doch etwas Eigenes dar. Die Entfernung von zwei Punkten auf der Einheitssphare ist ihr Winkel, gemessen vom Mittelpunkt aus; damit erhalt der Winkel eine ganz neue Bedeutung. Es gibt eine zweite Geometrie, die ahnlich definiert ist, aber in vieler Hinsicht genau entgegengesetzte Eigenschaften hat: Dabei wird der umgebende euklidische Raum ersetzt durch die Raumzeit der Speziellen Relativitatstheorie. Die „Sphare“ darin ist ein Modell der Nichteuklidischen Geometrie von Lobachevski und Bolyai, die zu Beginn des 19. Jahrhunderts Aufsehen erregte, weil sie der Uberzeugung widersprach, die Euklidische Geometrie sei die einzig denkbare.
Measurement of Semantic Textual Similarity in Clinical Texts: Comparison of Transformer-Based Models

Background: Semantic textual similarity (STS) is one of the fundamental tasks in natural language processing (NLP). Many shared tasks and corpora for STS have been organized and curated in the general English domain; however, such resources are limited in the biomedical domain. In 2019, the National NLP Clinical Challenges (n2c2) challenge developed a comprehensive clinical STS dataset and organized a community effort to solicit state-of-the-art solutions for clinical STS. Objective: This study presents our transformer-based clinical STS models developed during this challenge as well as new models we explored after the challenge. This project is part of the 2019 n2c2/Open Health NLP shared task on clinical STS. Methods: In this study, we explored 3 transformer-based models for clinical STS: Bidirectional Encoder Representations from Transformers (BERT), XLNet, and Robustly optimized BERT approach (RoBERTa). We examined transformer models pretrained using both general English text and clinical text. We also explored using a general English STS dataset as a supplementary corpus in addition to the clinical training set developed in this challenge. Furthermore, we investigated various ensemble methods to combine different transformer models. Results: Our best submission based on the XLNet model achieved the third-best performance (Pearson correlation of 0.8864) in this challenge. After the challenge, we further explored other transformer models and improved the performance to 0.9065 using a RoBERTa model, which outperformed the best-performing system developed in this challenge (Pearson correlation of 0.9010). Conclusions: This study demonstrated the efficiency of utilizing transformer-based models to measure semantic similarity for clinical text. Our models can be applied to clinical applications such as clinical text deduplication and summarization.
Physical Disability in British Romantic Literature

The modern concept of disability did not exist in the Romantic period. This study addresses the anachronistic use of 'disability' in scholarship of the Romantic era, providing a disability studies theorized account that explores the relationship between ideas of function and aesthetics. Unpacking the politics of ability, the book reveals the centrality of capacity and weakness concepts to the egalitarian politics of the 1790s, and the importance of desert theory to debates about sentiment and the charitable relief of impaired soldiers. Clarifying the aesthetics of deformity as distinct from discussions of ability, Joshua uncovers a controversy over the use of deformity in picturesque aesthetics, offers accounts of deformity that anticipate recent disability studies theory, and discusses deformity and monstrosity as a blended category in Frankenstein. Setting aside the modern concept of disability, Joshua cogently argues for the historical and critical value of period-specific terms.
Compost and Biochar to Promote Soil Biological Activities under Sweet Potatoes Cultivation in a Subtropical Semiarid Region

South Texas is located in a subtropical semiarid climate, and due to high temperature and irregular precipitation, farmers opt to leave their fields fallow during the summer months jeopardizing overall soil health. We evaluated whether sweet potato (Ipomoea batatas) cultivation coupled with drip irrigation could restore soil biological activities compared with bare fallow. Additionally, because sweet potatoes have high demand of soil nutrients, especially potassium (K), we evaluated the nutrient supply of locally sourced soil amendments. Sweet potato was cultivated during summer 2018 in McAllen, Texas, under control (no fertilizer), NPK (synthetic fertilizer), RC (yard-waste compost), and AC (compost produced under an enhanced composting process), and biochar (gasified walnut shell at 900°C), each with three replicates. Soil amendments were applied at different amounts to result in a rate of 80 kg K ha−1. Soil biological indicators were microbial biomass phosphorous, phosphatase activity, and the rate of fluorescein diacetate hydrolysis (FDA). Available nitrogen, phosphorus, potassium, and sodium were also quantified. Aboveground biomass and storage root yield estimated sweet potato’s agronomic performance. Cultivation and irrigation stimulated soil enzyme activities and microbial biomass-phosphorous. Sweet potato yields were the highest in NPK treatment but still 2.8 times lower than variety’s potential yield. Storage root yield was inversely related to aboveground biomass, suggesting that growing conditions benefited the production of shoot versus roots. Both biochar and AC treatments stimulated FDA rates and K availability. Soil pH and sodium concentration increased in all treatments over the growing season, possibly due to river-sourced irrigation water. Together, these findings show that crop cultivation promoted soil biological activities and the maintenance of nutrient cycling, compared to bare-fallow conditions. For a better agronomic performance of sweet potato, it would be necessary to identify management practices that minimize increase in soil pH and salinity.
Resilience building in service firms during and post COVID-19

The COVID-19 pandemic has affected millions of service firms worldwide; therefore, they must be resilient during these uncertain economic times. This paper develops a new conceptual framework of re...
Diaphragm Preservation Reduces Respiratory Failure After Extent I Thoracoabdominal Aneurysm Repair.

Background We sought to evaluate the impact of surgical approach (thoracophrenolaparotomy vs thoracotomy crura splitting) on the outcomes of extent I thoracoabdominal aortic aneurysm repair. Methods Patient data were extracted from our aortic surgery database. The primary endpoint was need for tracheostomy, and secondary endpoints were operative mortality, myocardial infarction, stroke, spinal cord injury, de novo dialysis, and major adverse events (composite of secondary endpoints and tracheostomy). Freedom from death and reoperation during follow-up were calculated. Risk adjustment was obtained with propensity score matching and multivariable regression. Results Three hundred twenty-five patients underwent extent I repair. Compared with thoracophrenolaparotomy patients (n = 226), thoracotomy crura-splitting patients (n = 99) had a higher rate of previous coronary revascularization (27.3% vs 14.2%, P = .005), valvular disease (64.6% vs 50.4%, P = .018), and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (61.6% vs 28.3%, P = .000) and a lower forced expiratory volume in 1 second (46% vs 69%, P = .000). In a matched sample thoracotomy crura splitting was associated with a decreased need for tracheostomy (4.0% vs 13.1%, P = .035). The need for tracheostomy was predicted by female gender (odds ratio, 3.11; 95% confidence interval, 1.17-8.30; P = .023), forced expiratory volume in 1 second (odds ratio, 0.95; 95% confidence interval, 0.91-0.98; P = .003), and thoracophrenolaparotomy (odds ratio, 3.66; 95% confidence interval, 1.14-11.73; P = .029). Five-year freedom from mortality and reoperation were similar. Conclusions In patients undergoing extent I thoracoabdominal aortic aneurysm repair, thoracotomy crura splitting was associated with decreased need for tracheostomy.
Do Mandalas Exhibit Archetypal Patterns Based on Kellogg’s MARI? A Pilot Study

The Mandala Assessment Research Instrument (MARI) can be used to assess mandalas drawn by participants as part of the therapeutic process. This study investigated whether a set of 85 mandalas drawn over 15 years by the first author depicts archetypal patterns as defined by Kellogg’s Great Round of archetypal stages in mandalas in the MARI and if these patterns relate to significant events in the person’s life. The research questions are: (a) “Do archetypal patterns and MARI stages, as depicted in the MARI Great Round, appear in this dataset?” (b) “Do archetypal patterns correspond to significant events in the first author’s life?” and (c) “Do certain archetypal patterns relate to certain significant events?” The results demonstrated that archetypal patterns exist in mandalas. With the appropriate training, counsellors could use mandalas and the MARI throughout the therapeutic process.
In vitro efficacy of a 0.2% polyhexamethylene biguanide-impregnated gauze dressing against pathogenic bacterial isolates found in horses.

OBJECTIVE To determine the ability of 0.2% polyhexamethylene biguanide (PHMB)-impregnated gauze to inhibit the growth of bacteria isolated from equine infected sites. STUDY DESIGN In vitro study. METHODS Nine bacterial isolates were obtained from cultures submitted from equine patients presenting with penetrating injuries of the hoof (n = 4), septic osteitis (n = 1), synovial sepsis (n = 1), wounds (n = 2), and incisional infection following laparotomy (n = 1). Two standardized strains were also included. A standard inoculum of each isolate was placed on 12 Muller-Hinton agar plates. Squares (2.5 cm × 2.5 cm) of 0.2% PHMB-impregnated (n = 6) and nonimpregnated control gauze (n = 6) were placed on inoculated agar plates. Bacterial growth under each gauze square was assessed after a 24-h incubation period and areas of inhibition were measured to a standardized scale, using image-processing software. Mean ± SD growth inhibition (%) using 0.2% PHMB-impregnated gauze was compared to the nonimpregnated gauze for each isolate using Student's t test (p < .05). RESULTS The 0.2% PMHB-impregnated gauze inhibited the growth of Staphylococcus spp. (n = 4) by 33%-83.1% and that of Escherichia coli spp. (n = 4) by 6.5%-37%. There was no inhibition of growth of Pseudomonas aeruginosa or either Enterococcus spp. CONCLUSION The 0.2% PHMB-impregnated dressing tested here inhibited the growth of staphylococcal and E. coli isolates, but the magnitude of inhibition varied between strains. CLINICAL RELEVANCE These results justify in vivo studies to evaluate the ability of the dressing to reduce the bacterial growth of common equine bacterial pathogens in clinical practice.
The impact of expanding gynecologic oncology care to ovarian cancer patients in small cities and rural communities

Abstract Objective Patients with ovarian cancer from smaller cities and rural communities face unique challenges in accessing comprehensive care. This study compares management strategies, outcomes, and access to care for patients in a small city and surrounding rural communities before and after establishing a full-time gynecologic oncology (GO) office. Methods A local tumor registry was used to identify patients diagnosed with ovarian cancer before and after a full-time GO office was established. Quantitative analyses were used to compare disease characteristics, management strategies, overall survival, and distance traveled for care between cohorts. Results Out of 381 patients, 171 women were diagnosed prior to establishing a full-time GO office (pre-GO) and 210 after (post-GO). Post-GO patients were more likely to undergo surgery by a GO specialist (97.1% versus 53.2%, p Conclusion After establishing a full-time GO office within a small city, local patients had significantly improved overall survival and access to care. These results highlight the benefit of expanding GO care into small cities with surrounding rural communities and may be used to address public health discrepancies for women across the country.
Forecasting and Backtesting of Market Risks in Emerging Markets

Emerging markets often go through periods of financial turbulence and the estimation of market risk measures may be problematic. Online search queries and implied volatility may (or may not) improve the model estimates. In these situations a step-by-step analysis with R and Russian market data is provided. Four classes of models are considered (GARCH, HAR, ARFIMA, and realized-GARCH), and a detailed forecasting and backtesting investigation is performed.
Two-tiered medicine: the increasing disparity in medical care in the UK.

One of the many impacts of the coronavirus pandemic has been on the already complex interplay between the NHS and the private sector. During the worst of the lockdown in March, significant government funding underpinned the finances of the main private providers in order to purchase additional capacity for treating public-sector patients. All of the funding for ‘NHS’ Test and Trace has gone into the private sector, preventing development of a sustainable legacy for COVID-19 testing capacity in the health service, and delivering lucrative contracts to Serco and Deloittes.1 Even now, after the NHS should be returning to business as usual, in some parts of the country it is possible only to access screening for malignancy through private referral, including for patients who fall into groups where regular monitoring is recommended owing to genetic risk or previous malignancy. From the letters that cross my desk, there is also an increase in private activity where patients are starting …
High Temporal Resolution 3D Live-Cell Imaging of Budding Yeast Meiosis Defines Discontinuous Actin/Telomere-Mediated Chromosome Motion, Correlated Nuclear Envelope Deformation and Actin Filament Dynamics

Chromosome movement is prominent at mid-meiotic prophase and is proposed to enhance the efficiency and/or stringency of homolog pairing and/or to help prevent or resolve topological entanglements. Here, we combine fluorescent repressor operator system (FROS) labeling with three-dimensional (3D) live-cell imaging at high temporal resolution to define the detailed kinetics of mid-meiotic prophase motion for a single telomere-proximal locus in budding yeast. Visual inspection of 3D images taken at 500 ms intervals reveals three qualitatively different motion "phenotypes": "straight", in which the telomere moves very rapidly in a straight or curvilinear path; "pauses", in which the telomere jiggles in place, as in premeiotic cells; and "directed", in which telomere movement is directional but zig-zag in nature and slower than during "straight" motion. Telomeres remain nuclear envelope-associated throughout, and straight motions can be accompanied by elongation of the nuclear shape, nucleated at the point of telomere association. Integration with earlier findings suggests that the critical event for mid-meiotic prophase chromosome dynamics is sporadic, transient movement telomere/Linker of Nucleoskeleton and Cytoskeleton (LINC) complexes along actin filaments mediated by myosin motor protein Myo2, manifested here as "straight" motion. Notably these straight movements are very transient (~2 s duration). We speculate that resistance from the associated nuclear envelope limits the duration/track length of Myo2-mediated telomere movement. Directed movement likely occurs primarily as an indirect consequence of motion driven by another telomere, perhaps as an effect of nuclear envelope deformation. Overall, the biological consequences of motion for chromosome function can be attributed to sequential and simultaneous events of this nature as nucleated at different telomeres. The presented methodology and findings provide opportunities for future exploration of these and other phenomena.
Laughing Mad: The Black Comic Persona in Post-Soul America

Prior to the civil rights movement, comedians performed for audiences that were clearly delineated by race. Black comedians performed for black audiences and white comedians performed for whites. Yet during the past forty-five years, black comics have become progressively more central to mainstream culture. In "Laughing Mad", Bambi Haggins looks at how this transition occurred in a variety of media and shows how this integration has paved the way for black comedians and their audiences to affect each other. Historically, African American performers have been able to use comedy as a pedagogic tool, interjecting astute observations about race relations while the audience is laughing. And yet, Haggins makes the convincing argument that the potential of African American comedy remains fundamentally unfulfilled as the performances of blackness must be made culturally digestible for mass consumption. Rather than presenting biographies of individual performers, Haggins focuses on the ways in which the comic persona is constructed and changes across media, from stand-up, to the small screen, to film. She examines the comic televisual and cinematic personae of Dick Gregory, Bill Cosby, Flip Wilson, and Richard Pryor and considers how these figures set the stage for black comedy in the next four decades. She reads Eddie Murphy and Chris Rock as emblematic of the first and second waves of post - civil rights era African American comedy, and she looks at the socio-cultural politics of Whoopi Goldberg's comic persona through the lens of gender and crossover. "Laughing Mad" also explores how the comedy of Dave Chappelle speaks to and for the post-soul generation. A rigorous analytic analysis, this book interrogates notions of identity, within both the African American community and mainstream popular culture. Written in engaging and accessible prose, it is also a book that will travel from the seminar room, to the barbershop, to the kitchen table, allowing readers to experience the sketches, stand-up, and film comedies with all the laughter they deserve.
The Importance of Species Differences in the Development of Mathematical Models of California Grasslands

Mathematical models have had a short, but highly visible, history in ecology. In early attempts to build a general theory in ecology highly simplified analytical models were dominant (e.g., Lotka 1925; MacArthur and Levins 1967; May and MacArthur 1972). As the role of stochastic variation and disturbance became recognized as an important influence on ecological systems, simulation models of greater complexity but less generality became important (e.g., Holling 1965; Royama 1971; Innis 1978). However, unfulfilled promise in the aftermath of the Biome Modeling program in the US IBP has created questions about the future potential of large mathematical models in ecology (Watt 1975; Pielou 1981).
Voltammetric and Amperometric Probes for Single Cell Analysis.

Abstract : The use of voltammetry and amperometry to monitor chemical dynamics at single nerve cells and nerve cell model systems has provided information about intracellular neurotransmitter dynamics and a means to directly monitor exocytosis. It is important, however, to emphasize that these techniques can as yet be used only for easily oxidized neurotransmitters and concentration sensitivity is an issue. It is not yet possible to voltammetrically detect submicromolar levels of catecholamine in the cytoplasm of a cell. Finally, these techniques have as yet only been used on cells in culture and large identified cells in invertebrates. A large step in technology is needed to fabricate smaller electrode sizes and manipulation techniques before voltammetric measurements will be made in individual synapses.
The de Rham Theorem

The topological invariance of the de Rham groups suggests that there should be some purely topological way of computing them. There is indeed: in this chapter, we prove the de Rham theorem, which says that the de Rham groups of a smooth manifold are naturally isomorphic to its singular cohomology groups, which are algebraic-topological invariants that measure “holes” in a rather direct sense. First we give a very brief introduction to singular homology and cohomology, and prove that they can be computed by restricting attention only to smooth simplices. In the final section of the chapter, we prove the de Rham theorem by showing that integration of differential forms over smooth simplices induces isomorphisms between the de Rham groups and the singular cohomology groups.
Testability of oracle automata

An oracle finite automaton (OFA) is a finite/Buchi automaton augmented with a finite number of unbounded, one-way, and writable query tapes. By each transition, an OFA can read an input symbol, append a symbol to the end of a query tape, erase the content of a query tape, or query an oracle with the content of a query tape (called a query string). Here, an oracleO is a language in some language class $\mathcal{O}$ (all oracles in the OFA must be in the same language class $\mathcal{O}$, and we denote such OFAs with OFA$^\mathcal{O}$. The name of “oracle” comes from the fact that, except for its language class, the definition of O is not given. However, the oracle O can always be queried with the answer whether a query string w is in O.
Development of a deployment course for graduating military internal medicine residents

ABSTRACT Graduates of military internal medicine residency programs are required to have the necessary knowledge and skills to function as internists, military physicians, and military medical leaders. The global war on terrorism has increased the role internists are playing in combat theaters as they fill multiple different military medical positions including battalion, brigade, and division surgeons as well as physicians in echelon I, II, and III medical facilities. Along with general internists, internal medicine subspecialists, pediatricians, and family physicians also fill these roles. Although internal medicine training provides a broad-based knowledge to care for adults, it does not provide significant training in combat casualty care, detainee health care, or environmental health. To overcome many of these perceived shortfalls, we developed the 3-day deployment course for graduating internal medicine residents outlined in this article. Through a combination of didactic and hands-on training, mili...
The Ergative System in Balochi from a Typological Perspective

For the Western Iranian languages the transition from the Old Iranian to the Middle-Iranian period is characterised by – among other things – the loss of word-final syllables. This loss had a far-reaching impact on the nominal and verbal systems since it caused the loss of categories which had been expressed by suffixes. The consequences include the emergence of the so-called ergative system. Although descriptions of the ergative construction in Balochi do exist, there is no treatment yet which takes into account the material of the different dialects. Furthermore, the ergative construction in Balochi has been compared with data from Old Iranian, but not with data from Middle Iranian languages, and the development from the Middle Iranian stage to the different types found in present-day Balochi has also not yet been studied. The aim of this paper is therefore to present the data from the Balochi dialects as far as they are known today and to update, complete (and in some points, correct) previous descriptions of the matter.
Accurate Extraction of Early-/Late-Time Responses Using Short-Time Matrix Pencil Method for Transient Analysis of Scatterers

We present a new efficient technique for accurately distinguishing the early-time and late-time modes of the transient response from multiscatterer targets. In multiple resonant-based scatterers where the complex natural resonances (CNRs) are used as the ID of the target, the early-time response of the second scatterer might overlap with the late-time of the first, introducing some difficulties in the detection of the second scatterer and additionally, identification of the first one. In such circumstances, the separation of the late-time CNRs (ID of the scatterer) from the early-time poles (scattering centers) is challenging. The smaller the distance between two scatterers, the more difficult the detection process is. Here, by sliding a window along the time axis and applying short-time matrix pencil method (STMPM), the poles corresponding to the early-time and late-time responses are distinguished. It will be shown that when the early-time response is located at the center of the sliding window, its CNRs are located on the imaginary axis of the pole diagram. By monitoring the zero-crossing points in time damping-factor diagram, the locations of the early-time responses (or equivalently scattering centers) can be detected. Some scenarios are discussed, simulated, and confirmed by measurement results to show the effectiveness of the proposed technique in practical applications.
Trans-ethylphosphine and selected deuterated isotopomers: prediction of infrared spectra and potential energy distribution determination

Abstract The normal mode frequencies of isotopomers of trans - and gauche -ethylphosphine and its deuterated species are determined using the gaussian 98 quantum chemistry code. The calculations were performed at the Hartree–Fock, second-order Moller–Plesset and density functional levels with the 6-311G** basis set. The trans conformer was more stable than the gauche conformer by 2.24 kJ/mol at the DFT level theory. At 25 °C, Δ G 0 for the trans → gauche equilibrium is 2.06 kJ/mol and the relative population of gauche : trans conformers is 46.6%. The effect of deuterations of the hydrogen atoms in each functional group, separately and in combination, is studied. A comparison was made with the experimental infrared spectra for trans and gauche conformers of CH 3 CH 2 PH 2 and CH 3 CH 2 PD 2 . For the trans conformer of eight isotopomers of ethylphosphine, potential energy distributions were determined using the program MOLVIB and Kim's Correspondence Rules of unified group theory. The PED results were used to assign predominant vibrational motions for the trans conformer. The RMS deviation of calculated frequencies from experimental values is reported. The average scaling factors for all vibrational motions for CH 3 CH 2 PH 2 and CH 3 CH 2 PD 2 are 0.9197 for HF, 0.9534 for MP2 and 0.9860 for DFT. These average scaling factors are very similar to those previously determined for methylphosphine.
Sex and diet affect the behavioral response of rats to chronic mild stressors

To investigate the interaction between sex, stressors, and dietary choice in rats, a preferred diet under the influence of chronic mild stressors was empirically determined to consist of soybeans and cookies in addition to lab chow. This preferred mixed diet was then tested for its influence on several behavioral tests at the end of prolonged exposure to the potential stressors. Rats of both sexes decreased their frequency of rearing but increased their attention to novelty in response to stressors. In the elevated plus maze, diet interacted with exposure to stressors to influence time spent in the open arm in females but not males. In the forced swim test, females but not males fed the mixed diet showed increased immobility, whether exposed to stressors or not. Finally, females but not males showed a differential effect of diet under stressors on the sucrose preference test, but this result was confounded by estrus cycling, demonstrating the importance of this factor in analyzing behavior in females. These results suggest that male and female rats differ in their susceptibility to the behavioral-modifying influences of stressors. And to the extent that diet serves as a coping mechanism, it does so differently in males and females.
Transtalar retrograde drilling of medial osteochondral lesions of the talar dome

Abstract Osteochondral lesions of the medial talar dome can cause prolonged ankle disability. Chronic symptomatic lesionshave traditionally been debrided with transarticular approaches using arthrotomy, malleolar osteotomy, or arthroscopy. All of these techniques require removal of cartilage to access the underlying bone. The use of arthroscopy combined with percutaneous retrograde transtalar drilling through the sinus tarsi allows healing of the bone lesion and sparing of intact articular cartilage. Short-term results have shown high patient satisfaction.
Weighted time-frequency and time-scale transforms for nonstationary signal detection

Maximum likelihood detectors of narrowband, non-stationary random echos in Gaussian noise can be efficiently implemented in the time-frequency domain. When the transmitted signals have large time-bandwidth products, the natural implementation of estimators and detectors is the time-scale or wavelet transform domain implementation. This paper extends the wavelet transform implementations to include weighted time-frequency or time-scale (TF/TS) transforms. We define weighted TF/TS transforms using Reproducing Kernel Hilbert Space inner products. Inverses of these weighted TF/TS transforms are also given. The particular case of the weight being the inverse noise covariance is presented. We show how weighted transforms are used in the estimator-correlator detection statistic for complex scattering environments in conjunction with cascaded scattering functions so that the resulting detection statistic is much more robust. The weighted TF/TS transform turns out to be a natural transform for solving nonstationary detector, estimation, and filtering problems and has important applications to transient signal estimation in multipath channels with colored non-stationary Gaussian noise.
UNA METODOLOGÍA PARA LA IDENTIFICACIÓN INTEGRADA CON EL DISEÑO DE CONTROLADORES IMC-PID

This paper describes, in tutorial fashion, an integrated identification and control design methodology that begins with dynamic modeling from plant data and concludes with parameter settings for high performance PID controllers. By integrating identification with PID controller design, the method displays functionality that is often demanded by the practicing engineering community. The major steps in this integrated methodology are: experimental design, high-order ARX estimation, and control-relevant model reduction leading to models that comply with the IMC-PID tuning rules. When a persistently exciting input is applied, high-order ARX model estimation is consistent, which makes it an attractive intermediate model for control-relevant model reduction purposes; furthermore, the low computational effort associated with ARX estimation means that simple statistical tools (such as crossvalidation) can be used to efficiently determine a suitable structure for the ARX model without substantial user intervention. The methodology is illustrated for the case of a delayed plant subject to a disturbance displaying significant drift.
Longitudinal Nuclear Magnetic Relaxation in Ferromagnetic Iron, Cobalt, and Nickel

The longitudinal nuclear relaxation time ${T}_{1}$ has been measured in ferromagnetic iron, cobalt, and nickel. A model is presented to account for the measured values. In the Bloch walls, the relaxation is due mainly to domain wall fluctuations. In the domains, the relaxation is due to interaction of the conduction electrons with nuclei via spin waves. The expression for ${T}_{1}$ due to this process is $\frac{1}{{T}_{1}}=\frac{(\frac{\mathrm{kT}}{h}){(\frac{\ensuremath{\omega}}{{\ensuremath{\omega}}_{d}})}^{2}{a}^{2}\ensuremath{\Sigma}}{(32{\ensuremath{\pi}}^{3}{S}^{2})}$, where $\ensuremath{\omega}$ is the nuclear resonant frequency, $a$ is the lattice constant, ${\ensuremath{\omega}}_{d}$ is the parameter describing the spin wave spectrum $E(k)=\ensuremath{\hbar}{\ensuremath{\omega}}_{d}{a}^{2}{k}^{2}$, $S$ is the average spin per atom, and $\ensuremath{\Sigma}$ is the area of the Fermi surface per cubic unit cell. If the experimental value of ${T}_{1}$ is used in this formula to determine $\ensuremath{\Sigma}$, then in cobalt, $\ensuremath{\Sigma}$ will agree closely with the area of a spherical surface containing about one electron per atom. In iron and nickel, $\ensuremath{\Sigma}$ will be about three times larger.
Near-Term Deployment of Advanced Light Water Reactors

New nuclear power plants incorporating advanced light water reactor (ALWR) technology must overcome a number of regulatory, economic, technical, and social barriers prior to licensing, construction and successful start-up. Many of these barriers can be addressed through technical products and targeted tools that minimize deployment risks. EPRI’s Advanced Nuclear Technology (ANT) Program has been initiated to complement — and help accelerate — industry activities aimed at enabling and building confidence in new nuclear plant deployment through coordinated work on cross cutting issues. The program is built around three core elements: transferring technology to new plant designs, developing effective tools for performance management, and providing robust planning and evaluation tools for new plant deployment. This paper discusses the projects EPRI is working on with industry to enable and build confidence in new nuclear plant deployment.Copyright © 2008 by Electric Power Research Institute, Inc.
Low-Lying 0 + States and ( p , t ) Strengths in the Actinides

We present a noncollective description of the low-lying ${0}^{+}$ states strongly excited in ($p,t$) reactions in the actinides. The description is based on the possible weakness of the oblate-prolate pairing force, suggested by Griffin, Jackson, and Volkov, and the low density of oblate states near the Fermi surface in these nuclei.
Silicon grisms and immersion gratings produced by anisotropic etching: testing and analysis

Because they can vastly reduce the required collimated beamsize at a given diffraction-limited resolution, silicon immersion gratings and grisms are an enabling technology for high resolution infrared spectroscopy from space and are highly useful in a range of ground-based and airborne instruments. We have used anistropic etching techniques to produce diffraction gratings on bulky silicon substrates. These devices can serve as high resolution grisms (when used in transmission), as coarse front-surface gratings, or as very high resolution immersion gratings. We have been able to produce devices with high optical efficiency by insuring that their entrance faces and groove surfaces are optically flat and that the groove positions are correct to within tolerance appropriate to the wavelength where the gratings will be used. We report here on testing and evaluation of high resolution Si gratings both in transmission (grism) and in reflection (immersion) mode.
Predicting and interpreting identification errors in military vehicle training using multidimensional scaling

We compared methods for predicting and understanding the source of confusion errors during military vehicle identification training. Participants completed training to identify main battle tanks. They also completed card-sorting and similarity-rating tasks to express their mental representation of resemblance across the set of training items. We expected participants to selectively attend to a subset of vehicle features during these tasks, and we hypothesised that we could predict identification confusion errors based on the outcomes of the card-sort and similarity-rating tasks. Based on card-sorting results, we were able to predict about 45% of observed identification confusions. Based on multidimensional scaling of the similarity-rating data, we could predict more than 80% of identification confusions. These methods also enabled us to infer the dimensions receiving significant attention from each participant. This understanding of mental representation may be crucial in creating personalised training th...
Host Preference and Learning in Muscidifurax zaraptor (Hymenoptera: Pteromalidae)

Muscidifurax zaraptor Kogan & Legner was reared in the laboratory on either Musca domestica L. pupae or on Fannia canicularis (L.) pupae. After rearing on their respective hosts for 23 generations and in the absence of oviposition experience, parasites reared on M. domestica and F. canicularis preferred to oviposit on M. domestica (71% of total progeny) rather than on F. canicularis (29% of total progeny) when given a choice of equal numbers of both host species simultaneously. The sex ratio of parasite progeny was the same on both host species. However, ovipositional experience by parasites on M. domestica or on F. canicularis significantly biased subsequent host species preference in favor of the host on which experience occurred. Significantly more female parasites were produced on large M. domestica pupae than on small M. domestica pupae, when both host sizes were offered simultaneously to parasites in equal numbers. Numbers of male progeny from both host sizes were not significantly different. Parasites produced similar numbers of total progeny (males + females) on small M. domestica pupae and on F. canicularis pupae when both species were offered simultaneously to individual parasites.
NAD+-dependent DNA Ligase Encoded by a Eukaryotic Virus

We report the production, purification, and characterization of an NAD+-dependent DNA ligase encoded by the Amsacta moorei entomopoxvirus (AmEPV), the first example of an NAD+ ligase from a source other than eubacteria. AmEPV ligase lacks the zinc-binding tetracysteine domain and the BRCT domain that are present in all eubacterial NAD+ ligases. Nonetheless, the monomeric 532-amino acid AmEPV ligase catalyzed strand joining on a singly nicked DNA in the presence of a divalent cation and NAD+. Neither ATP, dATP, nor any other nucleoside triphosphate could substitute for NAD+. Structure probing by limited proteolysis showed that AmEPV ligase is punctuated by a surface-accessible loop between the nucleotidyltransferase domain, which is common to all ligases, and the N-terminal domain Ia, which is unique to the NAD+ ligases. Deletion of domain Ia of AmEPV ligase abolished the sealing of 3′-OH/5′-PO4 nicks and the reaction with NAD+ to form ligase-adenylate, but had no effect on phosphodiester formation at a pre-adenylated nick. Alanine substitutions at residues within domain Ia either reduced (Tyr39, Tyr40, Asp48, and Asp52) or abolished (Tyr51) sealing of a 5′-PO4 nick and adenylyl transfer from NAD+without affecting ligation of DNA-adenylate. We conclude that: (i) NAD+-dependent ligases exist in the eukaryotic domain of the phylogenetic tree; and (ii) ligase structural domain Ia is a determinant of cofactor specificity and is likely to interact directly with the nicotinamide mononucleotide moiety of NAD+.
Creative thought as blind-variation and selective-retention: Combinatorial models of exceptional creativity

Campbell (1960) proposed that creative thought should be conceived as a blind-variation and selective-retention process (BVSR). This article reviews the developments that have taken place in the half century that has elapsed since his proposal, with special focus on the use of combinatorial models as formal representations of the general theory. After defining the key concepts of blind variants, creative thought, and disciplinary context, the combinatorial models are specified in terms of individual domain samples, variable field size, ideational combination, and disciplinary communication. Empirical implications are then derived with respect to individual, domain, and field systems. These abstract combinatorial models are next provided substantive reinforcement with respect to findings concerning the cognitive processes, personality traits, developmental factors, and social contexts that contribute to creativity. The review concludes with some suggestions regarding future efforts to explicate creativity according to BVSR theory.