cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Exact semiclassical calculation of eigenvalues for multidimensional systems using SOS

Abstract An exact method utilizing integration along invariant curves on Poincare surfaces of section is described for semiclassical calculation of eigenvalues. The surfaces of section (SOS) method has been shown to be easily applied to two- and three-dimensional quasiperiodic systems with degenerate or nondegenerate, bound or resonant types of states, with analytical or numerical force fields.
Informed consent to microsatellite instability and immunohistochemistry screening for Lynch syndrome.

Informed consent to microsatellite instability and immunohistochemistry screening for Lynch syndrome
Nursing practice: a primary care approach to intralesional injection therapy for Peyronies disease

Peyronie’s disease (PD) is defined pathologically as an inflammatory condition leading to the formation of a fibrous inelastic plaque of the tunica albuginea of the penis. Scar formation causes deleterious changes in the girth, length and shape of the penis with erection. PD has an unknown aetiology and was first attributed to a sexually transmitted disease. Proper diagnosis of PD includes a comprehensive medical history, focused physical examination, administration of the International Index of Erectile Function questionnaire, and, when indicated, diagnostic testing using penile duplex Doppler ultrasound with a vasoactive agent. Intralesional injection therapies with verapamil and interferon alpha-2b have shown efficacy in placebo-controlled studies. This minimally invasive therapy is applicable to patients with either acute or stable disease and for those patients who decide to defer surgical correction. After a confirmatory diagnosis of PD, intralesional injection therapy can be initiated in the primary care setting. Appropriate demonstration of penile injection technique on actual patients to the primary care physician and the nurse practitioner is the most effective means of education. This can be accomplished by an urologist or a nurse educator with prior experience in intralesional injection therapy.
Phenytoin-induced teratogenesis: a mouse model

Malformations associated with the fetal hydantoin syndrome have been reproduced in a mouse model. The occurrence of these defects was correlated with maternal serum concentrations, but not with maternal or fetal genotype or the presence of a seizure disorder.
A sparse RNS system

The residue number system, or RNS, has attracted increased attention recently. Using the concurrent processing capabilities of the RNS, high-speed digital filters have been designed. However, the RNS uses memory table lookup operations to perform its arithmetic. Therefore, the RNS can be a prodigious consumer of semiconductor memory chips. In this paper, a procedure is presented which will admit the design of an RNS filter with a reduced memory budget. This concept is called the sparse RNS.
Renormalization group analysis of quasi-one-dimensional quantum antiferromagnets

Abstract We present a renormalization group analysis of quasi-one-dimensional quantum antiferromagnets formed by d-dimensional hypercubic lattices of weakly coupled antiferromagnetic Heisenberg spin chains.
ZIP4 upregulates the expression of neuropilin-1, vascular endothelial growth factor, and matrix metalloproteases in pancreatic cancer cell lines and xenografts

We have recently found that a zinc transporter, ZIP4, is overexpressed in human pancreatic cancer and contributes to pancreatic cancer pathogenesis and progression. However, the detailed mechanism that how ZIP4 regulates pancreatic cancer growth is not clear. In this study, we further investigated the key molecules regulated by ZIP4 in pancreatic cancer angiogenesis and metastasis. We found that overexpression of ZIP4 caused significantly increased expression of NRP-1, VEGF, MMP-2 and MMP-9 in both pancreatic cancer cell lines and xenografts. Conversely, silencing of ZIP4 by short hairpin RNA (shRNA) was associated with decreased expression of NRP-1 and VEGF in pancreatic cancer xenografts. The ZIP4 expression and NRP-1 level are also correlated in established human pancreatic cancer cell lines. These results indicate that ZIP4-mediated pancreatic cancer growth might involve angiogenesis, invasion and metastasis pathways, and NRP-1, VEGF and MMPs are important intermediate molecules in transducing the ZIP4 initiated signal cascades in pancreatic cancer.
Response to "comment on 'structural determinants of drug partitioning in surrogates of phosphatidylcholine bilayer strata'".

We used the solvatochromic correlation to explain the influence of characteristics of studied compounds on the partition coefficients (P) measured using n-hexadecane (C16) and the novel headgroup surrogate (diacetyl phosphatidylcholine, DAcPC), and compared them with those in other systems, including the C16/water (W) system. The comment analyzes why our correlation for the C16/W system has the standard deviation (SD) higher than that published previously. The main reason is that in our, much smaller, data set the measured P values are complemented by the P values predicted by a reliable, unrelated method. We believe that this approach is acceptable for the aforementioned comparison. We did not use just experimental values, as suggested in the comment, because the solvatochromic correlation, although exhibiting 35% reduction in the SD, was accompanied by a sign change of one of the regression coefficients. The recommended use of special solvatochromic solute characteristics for a few compounds and replace...
Effects of cisplatin on mitochondrial function in Jurkat cells.

In this work, we measured the effects of pharmacological concentrations of cisplatin (cis-diaminedichloroplatinum II) on mitochondrial function, cell viability, and DNA fragmentation in Jurkat cells. The exposure of cells to 0−25 μM cisplatin for 3 h had no immediate effect on cellular mitochondrial oxygen consumption, measured using a palladium−porphyrin oxygen sensing phosphor. Similarly, the cell viability as measured by trypan blue staining was unchanged immediately following exposure to the drug, and no small DNA fragments, characteristic of drug-induced apoptosis, appeared. At 24 h after exposure to cisplatin, cellular respiration and viability decreased relative to controls and the amount of small DNA fragments, measured using quantitative agarose gel electrophoresis, was proportional to the concentration of cisplatin present during the drug exposure period. The small DNA fragments showed the banding pattern (with a spacing of ∼300 bp) characteristic of drug-induced cell death by apoptosis. The cha...
The role of radionuclide studies in pediatric gastrointestinal disorders.

Radionuclide techniques are currently used to fully evaluate many congenital and acquired abnormalities of the gastrointestinal tract of children. Frequently, the anatomic and functional data provided by the nuclear examination are definitive. In the study of many disease entities, tracer techniques have replaced more cumbersome or invasive procedures. Although the radiopharmaceuticals and instrumentation are similar as applied to both children and adults, the uniqueness of children and their disease entities requires special consideration when performing and interpreting their studies. In this review, the principle radionuclide examinations used in the evaluation of pediatric gastrointestinal disorders are detailed and examples, are illustrated.
A welfare comparison of intermediaries and financial markets in Germany and the US

Abstract There is wide variation in the structures of financial systems in different countries. We compare two polar extremes. In one, which we refer to as the ‘German model’, intermediaries predominate. In the second, which we refer to as the ‘U.S. model’, financial markets play the major role. Our objective is to contribute to a theoretical framework for the welfare analysis of comparative financial systems. The study is divided into two parts, which focus on financial services provided to households and firms, respectively. On the household side, we consider issues such as cross-sectional and intertemporal risk sharing, noise suppression and the provision of services. On the firm side, we consider information, financing, the market for corporate control, and diversity of opinion.
Presentation of words to separate hemispheres prevents interword illusory conjunctions.

We tested the hypothesis that division of inputs between the hemispheres could prevent inter-word letter migrations in the form of illusory conjunctions. The task was to decide whether a centrally-presented consonant-vowel-consonant (CVC) target word matched one of four CVC words presented to a single hemisphere or divided between the hemispheres in a subsequent test display. During half of the target-absent trials, known as conjunction trials, letters from two separate words (e.g., “tag” and “cop”) in the test display could be mistaken for a target word (e.g., “top”). For the other half of the target-absent trails, the test display did not match any target consonants (Experiment 1, N = 16) or it matched one target consonant (Experiment 2, N = 29), the latter constituting true “feature” trials. Bi- as compared to unihemispheric presentation significantly reduced the number of conjunction, but not feature, errors. Illusory conjunctions did not occur when the words were presented to separate hemispheres.
Insecticidal Activity of Common Reagents for Insect Foreign Bodies of the Ear

Objective Insects commonly present as painful and distressing foreign bodies of the external ear canal. Removing live insects can be challenging, especially for primary care physicians who have limited equipment. The purpose of this study is to compare the insecticidal activity of commonly available preparations for insects that are most frequently recovered from ear canals: cockroaches (German and American), ticks, beetles, and honeybees. Study Design Prospective, blinded. Methods One hundred seventy insects of each species were placed in test tubes and submerged in 17 test preparations (10 tubes per preparation, 1 insect per test tube). Insect activity was stimulated by agitation of the test tube. Responses were monitored, and the time until death was measured. Results Most test preparations exhibited some insecticidal activity against most insect species. Ticks were completely resistant to all of the test reagents. Ethanol killed the American cockroaches (mean time, 32.6 s), German cockroaches (mean time, 29.6 s), and honeybees (mean time, 19.6 s) the most rapidly. Conclusion Many commonly available reagents may be used to kill or immobilize insect foreign bodies of the ear.
DSC and DEA studies of underfill curing kinetics

Isothermal and non-isothermal differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) and dielectric analysis (DEA) techniques were used to study the curing kinetics of an epoxy-based underfill material used in electronic packaging. Based on the phenomenological kinetic analyses, the activation energy for the curing reaction determined from the non-isothermal DSC studies is similar to that obtained from the isothermal DSC experiments. DEA and rheological analyses demonstrated that the DEA loss factor peak can be used to monitor the gelation. In addition, our results reveal that the activation energy determined by DEA experiments (both isothermal and non-isothermal) correlates well with the DSC results.
Calcitonin secretion in normal human subjects.

A sensitive RIA for human calcitonin has been developed which can detect 1-2 pg hormone. This procedure permits the measurement of the low concentrations of calcitonin in the unextracted plasma of normal human subjects. In 55 normal adults, mean plasma calcitonin was 24 pg/ml with an SD of ±18 pg/ml, an SE of ±2 pg/ml, and a range of < 10–75 pg/ml. There were no discernible age or sex differences in basal hormone concentration. Infusions of calcium, pentagastrin, and glucagon stimulated plasma calcitonin, whereas food and oral calcium did not. The stimulatory effect of pentagastrin was greater in males than in females. These data demonstrate that the low concentration of calcitonin in humans can be stimulated by several secretagogues and suggest that females may have decreased calcitonin reserve.
Dental attitudes: proximal basis for oral health disparities in adults

– Objectives: Behavioral science postulates that underlying characteristics of populations, rather than sociodemographic groupings, are more proximal causes of oral health disparities through differing oral health behaviors. To our knowledge this is the first report in the literature that examines longitudinal correlates of oral health and dental care using groups of persons holding similar attitudes and beliefs. Methods: The subjects were 873 participants in the Florida Dental Care Study, a longitudinal study of oral health among dentate adults. Hierarchical cluster analysis identified four groups with similar dental attitudes that were labeled ‘favorable attitudes about dental care’, ‘frustrated believers in dental care’, ‘negative attitudes and cost concerns’, ‘pessimistic about personal and professional oral care’. Results: The attitudinal groups cut across race, sex, and age with race and educational status the best discriminators among sociodemographic and economic variables. The negative attitude group reported the least preventive care and the largest oral health decrements on clinical examination at baseline and 24 months. The group with favorable attitudes about dental care reported the highest number of preventive and restorative visits and the lowest point-prevalence of toothache pain, temperature sensitivity, and painful gums. The frustrated believers have access to dental care equivalent to the favorable attitude group, but may delay seeking dental care until oral disease becomes more severe, based on their pattern of preventive, restorative, and dental extraction visits. Additional group differences on oral health and dental care are reported. Conclusion: This study takes a novel approach to examining oral healthy disparities. Differences in oral health behaviors support the validity of the groups.
Injury: The Politics of Product Design and Safety Law in the United States. By Sarah S. Lochlann Jain

Injury: The Politics of Product Design and Safety Law in the United States. By Sarah S. Lochlann Jain. Princeton, NJ: Princeton Univ. Press, 2006. Pp. xii + 214. $55.00 cloth; $19.95 paper. Injury offers a challenging and provocative discussion of issues that are the subject of intense debate: tort law and product-caused injuries. Jain, a cultural anthropologist, challenges the reader to look at these familiar issues in a different way, "to step outside of the questions of frivolous cases and junk science" (p. 4). Instead, she encourages us to think more deeply about: the centrality and necessity of injury in the American economy; how injury and inequality are intertwined; and the promise, limits, and failures of law in dealing with injury in a way adequately recognizing the goal of human well-being. This goal, she says, "must have some rhetorical, if not material, purchase in any social economy that wants to pass as democratic" (p. 33). Jain's introduction ("Injury in U.S. Risk Culture"), first chapter ("American Injury Culture"), and conclusion lay out the challenge in presenting her theoretical argument. At its heart is the idea of "injury" in America: what counts as injury, what is recognized as a cause, and how responsibility is distributed. Hers is a broader view that starts by looking at injury as the wounding of the body in the vernacular rather than the legal sense. More, product-caused injury is an inevitable, central feature of American consumer-capitalism. It is so inevitable that its cost, discounted by its likelihood, is built into the design of products. To drive home the point of centrality, Jain even argues that whole areas of business and profit depend on there being a substantial amount of injury. In her view, these are crucial facts left out of most debates over injury law-facts that point to more fundamental issues that must be addressed. Focusing on injury offers a way to critique not only tort law, but also the system of American consumer-capitalism of which it is a part. Important for Jain, injury law offers one powerful discourse on what counts as an injury, what causes injury, and how the responsibility for injury is distributed. However, law fails in her estimation, because it does not fully comprehend the actuality of injury as it is suffered and its unequal distribution. Rather than seeing injury as a central, inevitable feature of the American economic system, the law-with its case-by-case approach-sees injury as an aberrant event. Consequently, "the law is ill-equipped to handle its [injury's] crucial socioeconomic challenges . . . [injury laws] narrow our modes of apprehension of what counts as injury, they divert attention away from other ways of understanding injury, and they miss the cultural implications of objects and the ways that objects are situated in networks of power" (p. …
Ab initio potentials and pressure second virial coefficients for CH4–H2O and CH4–H2S

Ab initio Hartree–Fock (HF) and second‐order many‐body perturbation theory (E2) were used to generate data for pair potentials of the mixtures CH4–H2S and CH4–H2O. The points were fit with site–site functions consisting of terms for interactions of the following types: exponential repulsion and R−6 and electrostatic attraction. The basis sets of Gaussian functions were developed by systematically adding polarization functions to maximize the zeroth‐order dipole polarizability; the counterpoise method was used to correct basis set superposition error. The best well depths calculated for CH4–H2S and CH4–H2O were −0.0227 and −0.0215 eV, respectively (with no experimental results available for comparison). The potentials were evaluated by examining errors in the dipole polarizabilities and pressure second virial coefficients.
A fragment of the yeast DNA repair protein Rad4 confers toxicity to E. coli and is required for its interaction with Rad7 protein

The RAD4 gene of Saccharomyces cerevisiae is required for the incision of damaged DNA during nucleotide excision repair. Plasmids carrying the wild-type RAD4 gene cannot be propagated in Escherichia coli. In this study, a rad4 mutant that can be grown in E. coli was isolated. This rad4 allele is deleted of a large positively charged segment of the RAD4 coding region which is toxic to E. coli when expressed alone. The deletion mutant retains its ability to interact with Rad23 protein but not with Rad7 protein and is defective in nucleotide excision repair. The smallest Rad4 fragment that is toxic to E. coli consists of 336 amino acids with a calculated pI=9.99.
Analysis of Movable Louvers for Temperature Control

Movable shutters or louvers are being employed on several spacecraft for active thermal control. The present analysis of an infinite louver array led to seven equations; six of them form a simultaneous set (three linear integral equations and three linear algebraic equations) which describes the heat-transfer characteristics of the array, and the seventh gives its relative thermal performance in terms of an effective emissivity. The equations are solved numerically, and effective emissivity is plotted as a function of louver blade position for various values of the dimensionless parameters that appear in the governing heat-transfer equations. The results are compared with experimental results obtained for the Mariner II spacecraft louver system; agreement is good when the test data are corrected for power dissipation from auxiliary hardware and the end losses of the finite array. The remaining 4.5% discrepancy at the full-open position is attributed to specular (rather than the assumed diffuse) reflection from the blades.
Foundations of memristor based PUF architectures

Hardware security has emerged as an important field of study aimed at mitigating issues such as piracy, counterfeiting, and side channel attacks. One popular solution for such hardware security attacks are physical unclonable functions (PUF) which provide a hardware specific unique signature or identification. The uniqueness of a PUF depends on intrinsic process variations within individual integrated circuits. As process variations become more prevalent due to technology scaling into the nanometer regime, novel nanoelectronic technologies such as memristors become viable options for improved security in emerging integrated circuits. In this paper, we provide an overview of memristor-based PUF structures and circuits that illustrate the potential for nanoelectronic hardware security solutions.
Contextualization cues in the classroom: Discourse regulation and social control functions

Under certain circumstances, contextualization cues become powerful means of achieving social order. The social organization of a daily group meeting in an American primary grade classroom is closely examined. Participants recurrently generate certain contexts within the meeting in varying sequence from day to day. Transitions from one to another regularly occur smoothly and unremarkably as interaction unfolds. On some occasions, however, this does not happen. Order breaks down, and the teacher and students implicitly negotiate what the context will be. On the surface, these contrasting patterns seem to arise unpredictably as students choose either to “behave” or “misbehave.” That is how the teacher accounts for them. Nevertheless, a closer analysis shows that they are explainable with reference to some subtle contextualization cues that the teacher, without being consciously aware of it, routinely provides but occasionally omits at context boundaries. Students routinely act on the presence and absence of these cues, which thus become a tacit, jointly constructed means of discourse regulation and social control. Their inadvertant “omission” becomes a recurrent source of interactional trouble. (Context, contextualization cues, classroom discourse, ethnography of speaking)
Identification of the 10-μm ammonia ice feature on Jupiter

Abstract We present the first detection of NH3 ice in the thermal infrared in Jupiter's atmosphere using Cassini CIRS observations in the 10-μm region obtained on 31 December 2000 and 1 January 2001. We identify a brightness temperature difference α T B (1040 cm −1 )−T B (1060 cm −1 ) as an indicator of spectrally identifiable NH3 ice, where 1040 cm −1 is an adjacent continuum region and 1060 cm −1 is the NH3 ice feature. Higher values of α imply a stronger NH3 ice signature in the spectrum. Using midlatitude zonally averaged CIRS spectra, we demonstrate systematic spatial variations in α, with the highest values at the equator and near 23°N. In one CIRS spectral average (covering 22–25°N and 140–240°W), our radiative transfer models are consistent with an optical depth of 0.75±0.25 for NH3 ice particles modeled as randomly oriented 4:1 prolate spheroids ( volume equivalent radius =0.79 μm ) . Particles larger or smaller than 1 μm by about a factor of 2 would be unable to duplicate the observed NH3 ice feature at 1060 cm −1 : absorption due to larger particles is excessively broadened, and absorption due to smaller particles is hidden by NH3 gas absorption at 1067 cm −1 . We also modeled an average spectrum for a second region on Jupiter (14–17°N and 10–70°W), finding an upper limit of τ=0.2 for the same NH3 ice particle type. The choice of prolate spheroid particles is based on laboratory studies of NH3 ice aerosols, although 1-μm Mie-scattering spheres would also have detectable signatures at 1060 cm −1 . We model the 1- μm NH 3 ice cloud with a particle-to-gas scale height ratio Hp/Hg=1. For both CIRS spectra analyzed, the spectrum at frequencies greater than 1100 cm −1 also requires a second cloud with essentially grey absorption, which we modeled using 10- μm NH 3 ice spheres distributed with Hp/Hg=1/8 and a cloud base at 790 mbar .
Upper-extremity interlimb coupling in persons with left hemiplegia due to stroke.

Abstract Rice MS, Newell KM. Upper-extremity interlimb coupling in persons with left hemiplegia due to stroke. Arch Phys Med Rehabil 2004;85:629–34. Objective To investigate interlimb coupling in an adult population with left hemiplegia and an age-matched control group to better understand the unique motor control issues in stroke rehabilitation. Design A chi-square analysis was performed to compare the distribution of participants adopting a given movement pattern ratio during 2 different bimanual movement tasks for both groups. The task involved oscillating the upper limbs at the elbow in asymmetric patterns, with 1 limb oscillating at twice the frequency of the other. Setting Testing was done in the subjects' residences or in an outpatient clinic. Participants Participants were between the ages of 45 and 75 years (mean ± standard deviation, 63±9.4y), right handed, and included 18 left hemiparetic and 18 control subjects. Selection criteria for the hemiparetic group included status after nonhemorrhagic stroke within the distribution area of the right middle cerebral artery (RMCA). Interventions Not applicable. Main outcome measure Relative phase of the upper extremities. Results The hemiplegic group produced predominantly an in-phase 1-to-1 movement pattern, whereas the control group exhibited antiphase, 2-to-1 movement harmonics and, to a lesser extent, in-phase movement patterns. Conclusions This study suggests that brain damage caused by stroke in the RMCA distribution area results in the reduction of selectable interlimb movement patterns. Specifically, bimanual upper extremity movement tended to be highly coupled in an in-phase movement pattern. Research is needed to examine the ability of stroke survivors to learn bilateral upper-extremity tasks at less stable levels of interlimb coupling.
Self-driven cooling loop for a large superconducting magnet in space

Pressurized cooling loops in which superfluid helium circulation is driven by the heat being removed have been previously demonstrated in laboratory tests. A simpler and lighter version which eliminates a heat exchanger by mixing the returning fluid directly with the superfluid helium bath was analyzed. A carefully designed flow restriction must be used to prevent boiling in this low-pressure system. A candidate design for Astromag is shown that can keep the magnet below 2.0 K during magnet charging. This gives a greater margin against accidental quench than approaches that allow the coolant to warm above the lambda point. A detailed analysis of one candidate design is presented.
Mindfulness in Patients With Gambling Disorders

This study explored facets of mindfulness between patients diagnosed with a gambling disorder (n = 26) and a community sample of non-gambling-disordered individuals (n = 33). Multivariate statistics comparing group differences showed the gambling-disordered patients exhibited significantly lower levels of mindfulness, emotional regulation, stress coping, and impulse control compared to the non-gambling-disordered group. Overall, gambling severity was negatively associated with higher levels of mindfulness and positively linked to indices of emotional dysregulation, stress proneness, and impulsivity. Correlations between mindfulness and emotional dysregulation and impulsivity were much stronger than those between mindfulness and the severity of disordered gambling behaviors as measured by the National Opinion Research Center DSM Screen for Gambling Problems (NODS). These findings are discussed in the context of possible implications for future directions in exploring mindfulness-based interventions as a pl...
Seasonal variation in the rate of evaporative water loss in the kangaroo rat, Dipodomys panamintinus

Abstract 1. 1. Evaporative water loss was measured as a function of temperature, season and grouping in the kangaroo rat, Dipodomys panamintinus for a one year period. 2. 2. Three groups of Panamint kangaroo rats were set up and studied during the various changes in season. The three groups were designated as field, exposed and control. These groups revealed the effects of acclimatization, captive acclimatization and laboratory acclimatization respectively. 3. 3. There is a highly significant difference in the rate of evaporative water loss in the Field Panamint kangaroo rats during the Fall, Winter and Spring. 4. 4. In general, the quantity of water loss via evaporation was higher in the female Panamint kangaroo rats. 5. 5. Water loss via evaporation in the control and exposed groups was least affected by seasonal change. 6. 6. In comparison to the other two groups, the field male and female Panimint kangaroo rats possessed the highest slope (rate) and mean (quantity) for all seasons. 7. 7. The combined effect of both grouping and season affects both the rate and quantity of evaporative water loss in the Panamint kangaroo rat.
Special Education Content Included in Regular Teacher Education Programs

If elementary and secondary teacher preparation programs are to be responsive to the needs of exceptional students in the schools, special education content must be included within the preservice curriculum and appropriate inservice training must be available to faculty. This article describes a research project involving a national survey of selected elementary and secondary teacher education programs within public and private institutions of higher education. The status of special education content included within these teacher education programs was assessed. Major findings reveal (a) public institutions are more advanced in integrating special education content within the curriculum and providing appropriate inservice training and field experiences than private institutions, (b) elementary preservice programs require special education courses and integrate special education content at a higher rate than secondary programs, and (c) at least a quarter of the elementary and secondary programs require som...
Movement of gold at cavosurface margins with finishing instruments.

Stones and finishing burs will not burnish gold and may produce weak margins. The width of the interface between tooth and casting can be reduced best by burnishing gold with smooth rotary instruments.
Pediatric external auditory canal foreign bodies: a review of 698 cases.

OBJECTIVE: The study goal was to determine the relationships between patient management factors and patient outcomes in pediatric patients with external auditory canal foreign bodies.STUDY DESIGN AND SETTING: Retrospective analysis was conducted of 698 consecutive cases of pediatric external auditory canal foreign bodies (n = 605 patients) who presented to a tertiary care pediatric referral center during a 6-year period.RESULTS: Emergency physicians frequently removed foreign bodies under direct visualization while otolaryngologists primarily used otomicroscopy. Both of these methods had high success rates overall (77% and 86%), but attempts under direct visualization had lower success rates with removing spherical objects, objects touching the tympanic membrane, and objects in the canal for more than 24 hours. Failed removal attempts resulted in higher complication rates.CONCLUSION: Certain foreign body and patient characteristics are associated with poor outcomes with removal attempts made under direct ...
Enable flexible spectrum access with spectrum virtualization

Enabling flexible spectrum access (FSA) in existing wireless networks is challenging due to the limited spectrum programmability - the ability to change spectrum properties of a signal to match an arbitrary frequency allocation. This paper argues that spectrum programmability can be separated from general wireless physical layer (PHY) modulation. Therefore, we can support flexible spectrum programmability by inserting a new spectrum virtualization layer (SVL) directly below traditional wireless PHY, and enable FSA for wireless networks without changing their PHY designs. SVL provides a virtual baseband abstraction to wireless PHY, which is static, contiguous, with a desirable width defined by the PHY. At the sender side, SVL reshapes the modulated baseband signals into waveform that matches the dynamically allocated physical frequency bands - which can be of different width, or non-contiguous - while keeping the modulated information unchanged. At the receiver side, SVL performs the inverse reshaping operation that collects the waveform from each physical band, and reconstructs the original modulated signals for PHY. All these reshaping operations are performed at the signal level and therefore SVL is agnostic and transparent to upper PHY. We have implemented a prototype of SVL on a software radio platform, and tested it with various wireless PHYs. Our experiments show SVL is flexible and effective to support FSA in existing wireless networks.
False alarm analysis of the envelope detection GO-CFAR processor

The greatest of constant false alarm rate processor (GO CFAR) is a useful architecture for adaptively setting a radar detection threshold in the presence of clutter edges. The GO CFAR input is often the envelope detected in-phase (I) and quadrature (Q) channels of the baseband signal (x/sub e/=/spl radic/(I/sup 2/+Q/sup 2/)). This envelope detection can also be approximated using x=a max{|I|,|Q|}+b min{|I|,|Q|} which requires less complex hardware (a and b are simple multiplying coefficients). The envelope GO CFAR processor and several envelope approximation GO CFAR processors are compared in terms of the probability of false alarm (PFA) performance. Closed-form expressions which describe the PFA performance are given and their accuracy evaluated. It is shown that for all cases, the PFA is proportional to the number of reference cells n for small threshold multiplier T and inversely proportional to n for large T. A region of intersection occurs where the PFA is the same for two different values of n. For example, at T'=1.68 in the |I|+|Q| GO CFAR (a=1, b=1) the PFA for n=1 is equal to the optimal n=/spl infin/ fixed-threshold PFA (PFA=0.112). >
Thermal and thermomechanical effects in dry sliding

Developments in the study of interrelated thermal and mechanical phenomena in sliding systems are reviewed. The topics reviewed include mechanisms of frictional heating and the distribution of heat during sliding friction, the experimental measurement and analysis of surface and near-surface temperatures resulting from frictional heating, thermal deformation around sliding contacts and the changes in contact geometry caused by thermal deformation and thermoelastic instability, and the thermomechanical stress distribution around the frictionally heated and thermally deformed contact spots. The influence of the thermal and thermomechanical contact phenomena on friction and wear, surface melting, softening, chemical deterioration, and thermocracking are discussed. The phenomena have important implications in the design and application of sliding or sliding-rolling mechanical components such as dynamic seals, brakes, clutches, plastic bearings, solid or boundary-lubricated bearings, and gears.
Responsibility at work: how leading professionals act (or don’t act) responsibly

Howard Gardner (Ed.), 2008 San Francisco, CA, Jossey‐Bass $27.95 (hbk), 368 pp. ISBN 978‐0‐787994‐75‐4 Susan Neiman, 2008 Orlando, FL, Harcourt $27.00 (hbk), 480 pp. ISBN 978‐0‐151011‐97‐1 Readers ...
Architecting Storage for the Cloud Computing Era

Rapid changes in hardware technology and system requirements are opening up a variety of exciting lines of research that could dramatically change the design of future computer systems. This article presents the first in a periodic series of prolegomena brief introductions to recent and exciting research topics, in which the main challenges and vision for future research are outlined. The goal of this feature is to facilitate discussion and collaboration. In this first prolegomenon, Sudhanva Gurumurthi, an assistant professor of computer science at the University of Virginia, discusses the storage challenges posed by datacenter-scale workloads.
International Patterns of Intellectual Property Protection and Commodity Trade: An Economic Perspective

This article provides an economic perspective on the cross-country patterns of intellectual property protection and commodity trade, and the linkages between these patterns. The objectives are to describe the characteristics of countries in relation to the strength of their intellectual property protection and to describe the relationship between the strength of country protection of intellectual property and U.S. exports to these countries. An economic framework for thinking about these relationships is provided, and data are examined for their consistency with the economic interpretations. Findings show that country protection of intellectual property is positively related to the level of country development and that U.S. bilateral exports are positively related to the strength of intellectual property protection in the recipient importing country.
Rheology of lava flows on Mercury: An analog experimental study

We experimentally determined the rheological evolution of three basaltic analog compositions appropriate to Mercury's surface, during cooling, and crystallization. Investigated compositions are an enstatite basalt, and two magnesian basalts representing the compositional end-members of the northern volcanic plains with 0.19 wt % (NVP) and 6.26 wt % Na2O (NVP-Na). The viscosity-strain rate dependence of lava was quantified using concentric cylinder viscometry. We measured the viscosities of the crystal-free liquids from 1600°C down to the first detection of crystals. Liquidus temperatures of the three compositions studied are around 1360°C, and all three compositions are more viscous than Hawaiian basalt at the same temperature. The onset of pseudoplastic behavior was observed at crystal fractions ~0.05 to 0.10, which is consistent with previous studies on mafic lavas. We show that all lavas develop detectable yield strengths at crystal fractions around 0.20, beyond which the two-phase suspensions are better described as Herschel-Bulkley fluids. By analogy with the viscosity-strain rate conditions at which the pahoehoe to `a`a transition occurs in Kilauea basalt, this transition is predicted to occur at ~1260 ± 10°C for the enstatite basalt, at ~1285 ± 20°C for the NVP, and at ~1240 ± 40°C for the NVP-Na lavas. Our results indicate that Mercury lavas are broadly similar to terrestrial ones, which suggests that the extensive smooth lava plains of Mercury could be due to large effusion rates (flood basalts) and not to unusually fluid lavas.
AAA and CS 1: the applied apprenticeship approach to CS 1

We have developed an application-based approach to introductory courses in computer science. This approach follows an apprenticeship model of learning, where students begin by reading, studying, and extending programs written by experienced and expert programmers. Applications play a central role since programming constructs are motivated and introduced in the context of applications, not the other way around as is the tradition in most texts and courses. Under our applied approach, (1) students are able to learn from interesting real-world examples, (2) the synthesis of different programming constructs is supported using incremental examples, and (3) good design is stressed vis code and concept reuse. In this paper, we provide several examples of our method as well as pointers to all the material we have developed which is freely available electronically. The philosophy underlying this method transcends a particular programming language, but we present our examples using C++ since that is the language used in the CS 1 and CS 2 courses at Duke. This method has been used with equal success using ISETL at Dickinson.
The effect of oxygen in diamond deposition by microwave plasma enhanced chemical vapor deposition

High quality diamond thin films were deposited on different substrates at temperatures from 300 to 1000 °C by the microwave plasma enhanced chemical vapor deposition (MPCVD) system. The quality of deposited diamond films was improved by adding oxygen in the gas mixtures. Different ratios of methane to oxygen concentration in hydrogen at different temperatures have been studied. At high temperatures (800–1000 °C), the addition of oxygen will not only enhance the growth rate of deposited films but also extend the region of diamond formation. At low temperatures ( 900 °C) were either graphitic or diamond containing a large amount of graphitic or amorphous carbon and at low temperatures (<500 °C) were white, soot-like coatings which were easily scraped off. The quality of the deposited films was characterized by Raman spectroscopy and scanning electron microscopy.
Shear Stress Causes Nuclear Localization of Endothelial Glucocorticoid Receptor and Expression From the GRE Promoter

We tested the hypothesis that steady laminar shear stress activates the glucocorticoid receptor (GR) and its transcriptional signaling pathway in an effort to investigate the potential involvement of GR in shear stress-induced antiatherosclerosis actions in the vasculature. In both bovine aortic endothelial cells (BAECs) and NIH3T3 cells expressing GFP-GR chimeric protein, wall shear stress of 10 or 25 dynes/cm 2 caused a marked nuclear localization of GFP-GR within 1 hour to an extent comparable to induction with 25 μmol/L dexamethasone. The shear mediated nuclear localization of GFP-GR was significantly reduced by 25 μmol/L of the MEK1 inhibitor (PD098059) or the PI 3-kinase inhibitor (LY294002). Also, Western blots demonstrated translocation of endogenous GR into nucleus of sheared BAECs. Promoter construct studies using glucocorticoid response element (GRE)-driven expression of secreted alkaline phosphatase (SEAP) indicated that BAECs exposed to shear stress of 10 and 25 dynes/cm 2 for 8 hours produced >9-fold more SEAP (n=6; P P
Decentralized Environmental Modeling by Mobile Sensor Networks

Cooperating mobile sensors can be used to model environmental functions such as the temperature or salinity of a region of ocean. In this paper, we adopt an optimal filtering approach to fusing local sensor data into a global model of the environment. Our approach is based on the use of proportional-integral (PI) average consensus estimators, whereby information from each mobile sensor diffuses through the communication network. As a result, this approach is scalable and fully decentralized, and allows changing network topologies and anonymous agents to be added and subtracted at any time. We also derive control laws for mobile sensors to move to maximize their sensory information relative to current uncertainties in the model. The approach is demonstrated by simulations including modeling ocean temperature.
Polarization analysis of high-frequency, three-component seismic data

Abstract We present a method to determine the polarization of body waves from three-component, high-frequency data and examples of its application. The method is based on the principal component approach. One advantage of this approach is that the polarization state can be determined for small time windows compared with the predominant period of the wave. This is particularly useful for identifying converted waves within the crust. The stability of the result is analyzed with synthetic cases by adding simultaneous arrivals from waves and random noise. The method works well with both synthetic and local data in the detection of the polarization of the wave by separating arrivals from different directions. From the local data, some seismic phases related to crustal conversions are observed that require strong lateral variations.
Median and Radial Nerve Compression About the Elbow

It is important for physicians who treat upper extremity disorders to understand motor palsy or pain syndromes caused by compression of the median and radial nerves about the elbow and forearm. Patients with anterior interosseous nerve syndrome may report hand weakness, whereas those with pronator syndrome may present with pain and paresthesia that can be confused with carpal tunnel syndrome. Patients with posterior interosseous nerve syndrome report hand weakness, whereas those with radial tunnel syndrome report pain in the lateral elbow and forearm, which may be confused with lateral epicondylitis. Because each syndrome has overlapping symptoms, serial examinations are needed to determine the correct diagnosis.
Capturing Alzheimer's disease genomes with induced pluripotent stem cells: prospects and challenges

A crucial limitation to our understanding of Alzheimer's disease (AD) is the inability to test hypotheses on live, patient-specific neurons. Patient autopsies are limited in supply and only reveal endpoints of disease. Rodent models harboring familial AD mutations lack important pathologies, and animal models have not been useful in modeling the sporadic form of AD because of complex genetics. The recent development of induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) provides a method to create live, patient-specific models of disease and to investigate disease phenotypes in vitro. In this review, we discuss the genetics of AD patients and the potential for iPSCs to capture the genomes of these individuals and generate relevant cell types. Specifically, we examine recent insights into the genetic fidelity of iPSCs, advances in the area of neuronal differentiation, and the ability of iPSCs to model neurodegenerative diseases.
The acoustic startle reflex in stiff‐man syndrome

We studied the EMG response to loud noise in eight patients with stiff-man syndrome (SMS). Audiogenic muscle jerks originated in the acoustic startle reflex. Patients demonstrated excessive, poorly habituating motor activity predominantly in axial and leg muscles. Exaggerated startle in SMS probably reflects segmental hyperexcitability of axial and lumbar spinal motor neurons.
An Analysis of Alternate Paths Used by Non-US Firms to List in US Markets: Revisiting the Bonding Hypothesis

We compare non-US firms that go public using reverse mergers to those using foreign initial public offerings and capital-raising American Depositary Receipts. We find that foreign reverse merger firms do not bond with minority shareholders. We also find that the repeated accessing of US capital markets, mainly through private investments in public equity, does not signal better performance, higher transparency, or enhanced governance structures. Further, we show that foreign reverse mergers originate from countries with higher strength of minority shareholder protection when compared to foreign initial public offerings and capital-raising American Depositary Receipts. We argue that the decision to enlist in the US capital markets by foreign reverse merged companies is driven by the need to finance operations at an early stage of their lifespan rather than the bonding with their minority shareholders.
Transmission Electron Microscopy of Annealed ZrO2+8 Mol% Sc2O3

The influence of heat treatment (800°C for 200 h) on the micro-structure of 8 mol% Sc2O3-ZrO2 was investigated by XRD and TEM. The starting material was initially characterized and found to contain predominantly cubic-fluorite phase grains, with <5% of the grain containing the rhombohedral β phase. The β phase was positively identified by the analysis of electron diffraction pattern and by quantitative energy dispersive X-ray analysis. On aging, the relative amount of β phase was found to increase to about 15 to 20% by XRD measurement; this was confirmed by TEM observation. The orientation relation between the different variants of the β phase within a grain was determined to be (100)r||(010)r, and the geometrical arrangement of these variants within the grain was deduced using a 21/2D imaging electron microscopy technique.