cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Laser-induced modifications and the mechanism of intrinsic damage in wide gap optical materials

Abstract A brief outline of our previous investigations into the mechanism of intrinsic bulk laser induced damage and our main conclusions serve as the introduction to exciting new results obtained by Shen et al. [Phys. Rev. Lett. (June 5. 1989)]: who measured the free electron absorption of 1064 nm photons photoacoustically in NaCl and SiO2. The electrons were generated with a 266 nm pump pulse by two- or three-photon transitions from the valence band. For a given pump energy which is chosen sufficiently low to avoid heating of the interaction volume by itself, the dependence of the photoacoustic signal and temperature rise were observed as a function of the energy of the 1064 nm pulse and found to be in agreement with the theory of free carrier heating by Epifanov et al. Temperatures approaching the melting point were produced in the materials under prebreakdown conditions. This work provides direct experimental proof that free electron absorption is the primary mechanism for heating wide-gap optical materials by intense laser pulses in the visible and near infrared, confirming the indirect measurements reported earlier by us. No evidence of electron impact ionization and ensuing avalanche formation is found up to the intrinsic damage threshold, throwing doubt onto the commonly held belief that it is responsible for free electron generation and eventual breakdown at 1064 nm.
Tailoring the properties of dielectric resonator-based metamaterials

Dielectric resonators represent a promising path toward low loss metamaterials at optical frequencies. In this paper we describe a methodology for tailoring the design of metamaterial resonators as well as recovering their polarizibilies. Examples are provided spanning the range from an isolated resonator with designed scattering properties, to two- and three-dimensional metamaterial arrays exhibiting artificial magnetic properties.
Compensation for classes of distributed hysteresis operators and representation of active structural systems

A class of integral, hysteretic control influence operators are derived for the representation of structural systems exhibiting hysteresis due to active materials. The hysteretic control influence operator is defined in terms of a probability distribution, or more generally a measure, that describes the concentration of a particular hysteresis kernel. Two types of hysteresis kernels are studied in detail; the ideal relay kernel leading to a Preisach integral hysteresis operator, and a generalized play kernel leading to a Krasnosel'skii-Pokrovskii operator. When combined with the thermal and structural dynamics equations, the governing equations are history-dependent integropartial differential equations, coupled in a cascade structure. Existence, uniqueness and convergence of Galerkin approximation methods have been derived for the forward simulation and model identification. The cascade structure of the coupled, nonlinear partial differential equations is advantageous in that model reference control, and model reference adaptive control strategies, can be derived for the systems under consideration. Numerical and experimental results that validate the theoretical developments in the paper are presented. (Author)
Effects of supplemental long-chain omega-3 fatty acids and erythrocyte membrane fatty acid content on circulating inflammatory markers in a randomized controlled trial of healthy adults

The long-chain omega-3 polyunsaturated (n-3 PUFA), eicosapentaenoic (EPA) and docosahexaenoic acid (DHA), may have anti-inflammatory effects. We evaluated the dose-response effect of EPA+DHA supplementation on circulating TNF-α, IL-6, and CRP and explored associations between red blood cell (RBC) membrane PUFA content and TNF-α, IL-6, and CRP. Young adults with low fish intake (n=116) received one of five doses (0, 300, 600, 900, or 1,800 mg/d EPA+DHA) for 5 months. There were no significant effects of supplemental EPA+DHA on IL-6 or CRP; however, there was a marginal treatment effect for TNF-α (p<0.08). At baseline, higher quartiles of RBC DHA were associated with lower TNF-α (p=0.001); higher quartiles of arachidonic acid were associated with higher TNF-α (p=0.005). EPA+DHA supplementation had no dose-response effect on TNF-α, IL-6, or CRP in healthy young adults; however, associations between inflammatory markers and RBC PUFA warrant further investigation.
Enacting Project-Based Science

Recommendations for reform in science education place a premium on students' understanding of scientific concepts and their ability to identify problems, conduct inquiry, and use information flexibly. They call for an appreciation for how ideas evolve and are validated. In this article we discuss changes in ideas about learning that underpin the reforms. We then describe our experiences with project-based science, a pedagogy that addresses the reform recommendations. Project-based science focuses on student-designed inquiry that is organized by investigations to answer driving questions, includes collaboration among learners and others, the use of new technology, and the creation of authentic artifacts that represent student understanding. Finally, we illustrate the challenges this type of innovation poses for teachers' classroom practice, for professional development, and for policy.
Conditioned jaw movement in the rabbit: Deprivation procedure and saccharin concentration

A new deprivation procedure produced an asymptotic increase over a previous study of 10–13% conditioned jaw movement. Effects of saccharin were not quite significant, but in the expected direction. In acquisition nonreinforced trials reduced response probability on the succeeding trial by 5–10%, with no changes over days or groups.
Enhanced cytotoxicity of monoclonal anticancer antibody 2C5-modified doxorubicin-loaded PEGylated liposomes against various tumor cell lines

Doxorubicin-loaded long-circulating liposomes (Doxil, ALZA Corp.) were additionally modified with the nucleosome-specific monoclonal antibody 2C5 (mAb 2C5) recognizing a broad variety of tumor cells via the tumor cell surface-bound nucleosomes. These mAb 2C5-modified PEGylated liposomes demonstrated 3-8-fold increase in the in vitro binding and internalization by multiple cancer cell lines of diverse origins (murine LLC, 4T1, C26 and human BT-20, MCF-7, and PC3), as shown by flow cytometry (FACS) and epi and confocal microscopy. As a result, mAb 2C5-modified Doxil demonstrated significantly higher cytotoxicity towards various cancer cells, including those resistant to doxorubicin, than all control preparations. The specific internalization of the mAb 2C5-Doxil into cytosol, along with the nuclear localization of their drug load, inside the target cancer cells were mainly responsible the superior anticancer activity. The IC50 values of mAb 2C5-Doxil with various murine and human cancer cells were 5-8-fold lower than those of control doxorubicin-loaded liposomes, Doxil or Doxil modified with a nonspecific IgG.
Mechanisms of transcriptional dysregulation in Huntington's disease

Abstract Recent studies have provided strong evidence for transcription-related deficits in Huntington's disease (HD). These discoveries include consistent changes in steady-state mRNA levels, direct interactions between huntingtin and known transcription factor proteins, sequestration of transcription-related factors into polyglutamine aggregates, and inhibition of enzymes involved in chromatin remodeling. Also, there is increasing evidence that huntingtin itself may be a transcriptional regulator. This review discusses the cumulative body of evidence for transcriptional dysregulation as a mechanism of HD pathogenesis and possible implications for disease progression and treatment.
Platinum Kirkpatrik-Baez mirrors for a hard x-ray microfocusing system made by profile coating

We report a successful fabrication and testing of the first set of Platinum (Pt)-coated Kirkpatrik-Baez (KB) mirrors for a submicrofocusing x-ray polychromatic beam from a conventional beamline (64 m long) at the 34-ID of Advanced Photon Source (APS). The set includes one 80 mm long mirror and one 40 mm short mirror fabricated by depositing Pt on finely polished spherical Silicon (Si) substrates using the APS-developed profile coating technique with the magnetron sputtering system. Profile coating masks were calculated through the coating profile data from metrology measurements acquired using interferometric stitching technique. Instead of flat substrates, spherical substrates (with shapes approximately mimicking the tangential profiles of the desired ellipses) were used, reducing the coating thickness and, thus, stress. The mirror pair was commissioned on the beamline and generated a 2-D spot with full width at half maximum (FWHM) 280 nm (V) x 150 nm (H). The detailed fabrication methods, metrology measurements, and calculations are discussed.
Doubly stochastic graph matrices, II

If G is a graph on n vertices, its Laplacian matrix L(G) = D(G) - A(G) is the difference of the diagonal matrix of vertex degrees and the adjacency matrix. The main purpose of this note is to conti...
Ultrafiltration of the Virus of Infectious Avian Encephalomyelitis

ConclusionThe virus-particles of infectious avian encephalomye-litis as present in suspension of brain of chickens affected by the experimental disease were found to have a diameter of 20 to 30 mμ as determined by ultrafiltration through gradocol membranes.
Gender Roles in Children's Literature: A Review of Non-Award-Winning "Easy-to-Read" Books.

Abstract This study replicates the work of Crabb and Bielawski (1994), who analyzed gender differences in character representation found in Caldecott award-winning children's literature, in relation to the utilization of production, household, and leisure artifacts. This study examines non-award-winning “easy-to-read” books. The data showed that both female and male characters are most likely to be pictured in a leisure activity. Otherwise, male characters are apt to be seen with a production artifact, while few are shown with a household artifact. For female characters, if they are not in a leisure activity, they are equally likely to be seen with either a household or production artifact. The real difference in character depiction lies with male characters not being featured in household activities. These findings were different from Crabb and Bielawski's study. They found that female characters were most likely represented utilizing a household artifact, while male characters were primarily depicted wi...
Discrediting the notion "working with 'crazies' will make you 'crazy'": addressing stigma and enhancing empathy in medical student education.

People with mental illness around the world continue to suffer from stigmatization and limited care. Previous studies utilizing self-report questionnaires indicate that many medical students regard clinical work with psychiatric patients as unappealing, while the professionalism literature has documented a general decline in students’ capacity for empathy over the course of medical school. Through in-depth interviews, this study attempts to better understand the formation of medical students’ perceptions of psychiatry and the implications of that process for a more general understanding of the impact of emotionally-laden experiences on medical students’ capacity for empathy. Forty-seven fourth-year medical students who had expressed interest or performed well in psychiatry were asked a series of questions to elicit their perceptions of the field of psychiatry. Interview transcripts were systematically coded using content analysis and principles of grounded theory. Stigma, stereotypes, and stressfully intense emotional reactions seemed to adversely affect the students’ expected satisfaction from and willingness to care for the mentally ill, despite enjoying psychiatry’s intellectual content and the opportunity to develop in-depth relationships with patients. Teaching faculty need to directly address the stigma and stereotypes that surround mental illness and actively help medical students cope with the stress that they report experiencing during their psychiatry clerkship in order to improve the recognition and treatment of psychiatric illness by newly graduating physicians. More generally, the relationships that we identify among stress, stigmatization, and stereotyping along an empathic spectrum suggest that increased attention should be paid to the stress that empathy can entail. This perspective may allow for the creation of similarly targeted interventions throughout the medical school curriculum to counteract the decline in empathy, the so-called “hardening of the heart,” associated with physician-training worldwide.
Constants of motion for superconducting Josephson arrays

Abstract We show that series arrays of N identical overdamped Josephson junctions have extremely degenerate dynamics. In particular, we prove that such arrays have N − 3 constants of motion for all N ⩾ 3. The analysis is based on a coordinate transformation that reduces the governing equations to an ( N − 3)-parameter family of low-dimensional systems. In the weak-coupling limit, the reduced equations can be analyzed completely. Either all solutions approach the synchronous state or they converge to a continuous family of incoherent oscillations, depending on a certain parameter value. At the transitional value of this parameter, the system becomes completely integrable. Then the phase space is foliated by invariant two-dimensional tori, for any N ⩾ 3. The infinite- N limit of the system is an integro-partial differential equation with rigorously low-dimensional dynamics. It supports solitons in the integrable case, and chaotic waves in the non-integrable case.
Rate-distortion optimization of hierarchical displacement fields

The displacement vector field for motion-compensated coding of image sequences is represented and coded using a hierarchy of displacement vector fields over successively finer sampling grids. An efficient method based on the generalized Breiman-Friedman-Olshen-Stone (BFOS) tree-pruning algorithm is used to find a variable-depth hierarchy that satisfies a given bit rate or distortion constraint. The variable-depth hierarchy corresponds to using a nonuniformly sampled displacement field for motion-compensation. The proposed scheme is compared with conventional fixed-block-size block-matching motion-compensation. The motion information bit rate or the motion-compensation residual energy of the conventional scheme serves as the constraint. Simulation results show that the proposed scheme reduces the residual energy by between 0.6-1.5 dB, or the bit rate by 19-54%, while using only 40-100% of the computational complexity of the conventional scheme. The prediction image sequence produced by the hierarchical scheme offers much better viewing quality.
Molecular therapy of the intervertebral disc.

Abstract Background context Currently, no biologic treatment is available for disc degeneration. However, many different molecules of potential therapeutic benefit are being investigated. Purpose Review and categorize the molecules under investigation for potential therapy in preventing or reversing disc degeneration. Study design Review article. Methods Review of published articles on molecules that may be useful in biologic therapy of the intervertebral disc. Results The list of molecules under investigation for potential benefit in biologic therapy of the intervertebral disc repair continues to grow. These molecules are so diverse that they no longer all fall into the classic terminology of “growth factor.” Some of these molecules are not growth factors at all and some are not even cytokines. At least four different classes of molecules may be effective in disc repair. These include anticatabolics (eg, tissue inhibitors of metalloproteinase [TIMPs]), mitogens (eg, insulin-like growth factor-1 [IGF-1], platelet-derived growth factor [PDGF]), chondrogenic morphogens (transforming growth factor β [TGF-β] and bone morphogenetic proteins [BMPs]), and intracellular regulators (LIM mineralization protein-1 [LMP-1] and Sox9). Although some in vitro data are available on all of these molecules, few of these molecules have been tested in vivo with an animal model of disc degeneration. Conclusions As the current screening experiments are concluded, more definitive in vivo systems involving a more realistic degeneration model will be a necessary step before attempting human studies.
Structural studies of Fe(III) and Cu(II) complexes of salycylaldehyde benzoyl hydrazone, a synthetic chelating agent exhibiting diverse biological properties

Salicylaldehyde benzoyl hydrazone (SBH) is a Schiff base that can function as a tridentate chelating agent [l-3]. Some thirty years ago, it was shown that this compound has modest bacteriostatic properties when tested in vitro against microorganisms such as Mycobacten’um tuberculosis, Mycobacterium smegmatis, Candida albicans and Aspergillus niger, although these effects were not sufficiently marked to encourage further study at that time [4, 51. Recently, however, interest in the biological properties of SBH has been renewed with the recognrtion that aroylhydrazones of this type are able to induce iron excretion in mammals and thus are potentially of use in the treatment of iron overload on man [6, 71. SBH itself can mobilize iron from iron-loaded reticulocytes in vitro [8] and produces high levels of iron excretion when administered to rats [9] . preliminary studies have also shown that SBH is an unusually potent inhibitor of DNA synthesis in a variety of cultured human and rodent cells and that the complex [CuCl(SBH)]*H,O produces significant inhibition of tumor growth when given to mice bearing a transplanted fibrosarcoma [lo-121. The common mechanism underlying these various biological effects of SBH appears to be an ability to penetrate cell membranes and disrupt the intracellular metabolism of essential metal ions. The exact nature of such disruptions, and the extent to which they may be exploited for therapeutic purposes, require much additional study, including detailed elucidation of the chemical properties of complexes formed between SBH and physiologically-important transition metals. This paper reports single crystal X-ray diffraction studies of two such complexes, [FeCla(SBH)(CHsOH)] and [CuCl(SBH)]~H,O. TABLE I. Selected Bond Distances, in A.
An analysis of long‐term relationships among count statistics and metrics of synthetic tropical cyclones downscaled from CMIP5 models

In a changing climate, the impact of tropical cyclones on the United States Atlantic and Gulf Coasts will be affected both by how intense and how frequent these storms become. The observational record of tropical cyclones in the Atlantic Basin is too short (A.D. 1851 to present) to allow for accurate assessment of low-frequency variability in storm activity. In order to overcome the limitations of the short observational record, we downscale four Coupled Model Intercomparison Project Phase 5 models to generate synthetic tropical cyclone data sets for the Atlantic Basin that span the interval of A.D. 850–2005. Using these long-term synthetic tropical cyclone data sets, we investigate the relationship between power dissipation and ocean temperature metrics, as well as the relationship between basin-wide and landfalling tropical cyclone count statistics over the past millennium. Contrary to previous studies, we find only a very weak relationship between power dissipation and main development region sea surface temperature in the Atlantic Basin. Consistent with previous studies, we find that basin-wide and landfalling tropical cyclone counts are significantly correlated with one another, lending further support for the use of paleohurricane landfall records to infer long-term basin-wide tropical cyclone trends.
From Webspace to Workspace and Back Again: Seamless Instantiation, Composition, and Use of Interactive Project Objects

Nonprogrammers who wish to construct and share online resources for a group (e.g., discussion boards, calendars, multi-media documents) may do so by using end-user web construction tools such as BaseCamp, MSN Group, and CommunityZero to create group or community websites. Others may prefer collaborative tools like Groove to support a more synchronous style of composition and interaction. However there is little if any support for combining these two approaches to build, refine, and use shared resources using either a web browser or real-time collaborative tools. In this short paper we use two user interaction scenarios to illustrate our current work on integrating these two styles of collaboration.
Changes ahead! implications of the Vail Conference

Counseling practice is heavily influenced by psychological models. The summer 1973 conference at Vail, Colorado, examined the role of the applied psychologist. The recommendations of this conference are new and powerful and are likely to reverberate throughout the helping professions. The authors, both of whom were delegates to that conference, discuss major conference recommendations and their implications for professional counseling practice.
The characterization of Salmonella enterica serotypes isolated from the scalder tank water of a commercial poultry processing plant: Recovery of a multidrug-resistant Heidelberg strain

Abstract The recent multistate outbreak of a multidrug-resistant (MDR) Salmonella Heidelberg strain from commercial poultry production highlights the need to better understand the reservoirs of these zoonotic pathogens within the commercial poultry production and processing environment. As part of a larger study looking at temporal changes in microbial communities within the major water tanks within a commercial processing facility, this paper identifies and characterizes Salmonella enterica isolated from the water in a final scalder tank at 3 times during a typical processing day: prior to the birds entering the tank (start), halfway through the processing day (mid), and after the final birds were scalded (end). Over 3 consecutive processing days, no Salmonella were recovered from start-of-day water samples, while a total of 56 Salmonella isolates were recovered from the mid-day and end-of-day scalder water samples. Traditional and newer PCR-based serotyping methods eventually identified these isolates as either group C3 S. Kentucky (n = 45) and group B S. Heidelberg (n = 11). While none of the S. Kentucky isolates possessed any resistances to the antimicrobials tested, all S. Heidelberg isolates were found to be multidrug resistant to 5 specific antimicrobials representing 3 antimicrobial classes. Due to the potential public health impact of S. Heidelberg and the recent nationwide poultry-associated outbreak of multidrug-resistant S. Heidelberg, future studies should focus on understanding the transmission and environmental growth dynamics of this serotype within the commercial poultry processing plant environment.
Small subset queries and bloom filters using ternary associative memories, with applications

Associative memories offer high levels of parallelism in matching a query against stored entries. We design and analyze an architecture which uses single lookup into a Ternary Content Addressable Memory (TCAM) to solve the subset query problem for small sets, i.e., to check whether a given set (the query) contains (or alternately, is contained in) any one of a large collection of sets in a database. We use each TCAM entry as a small Ternary Bloom Filter (each 'bit' of which is one of {0,1,wildcard}) to store one of the sets in the collection. Like Bloom filters, our architecture is susceptible to false positives. Since each TCAM entry is quite small, asymptotic analyses of Bloom filters do not directly apply. Surprisingly, we are able to show that the asymptotic false positive probability formula can be safely used if we penalize the small Bloom filter by taking away just one bit of storage and adding just half an extra set element before applying the formula. We believe that this analysis is independently interesting. The subset query problem has applications in databases, network intrusion detection, packet classification in Internet routers, and Information Retrieval. We demonstrate our architecture on one illustrative streaming application -- intrusion detection in network traffic. Be shingling (i.e., taking consecutive bytes of) the strings in the database, we can perform a single subset query and hence a single TCAM search, to skip many bytes in the stream. We evaluate our scheme on the open source CLAM anti-virus database, for worst-case as well as random streams. Our architecture appears to be at least one order of magnitude faster than previous approaches. Since the individual Bloom filters must fit in a single TCAM entry (currently 72 to 576 bits), our solution applies only when each set is of a small cardinality. However, this is sufficient for many typical applications. Also, recent algorithms for the subset-query problem use a small-set version as a subroutine
THE NATURE OF SINGULARITIES IN MEAN CURVATURE FLOW OF MEAN-CONVEX SETS

Let K be a compact subset of R, or, more generally, of an (n+1)-dimensional riemannian manifold. We suppose that K is mean-convex. If the boundary of K is smooth and connected, this means that the mean curvature of ∂K is everywhere nonnegative (with respect to the inward unit normal) and is not identically 0. More generally, it means that Ft(K) is contained in the interior of K for t > 0, where Ft(K) is the set obtained by letting K evolve for time t under the level set mean curvature flow. As K evolves, it traces out a closed set K of spacetime: K = {(x, t) ∈ R ×R : x ∈ Ft(K)}. Also, there is associated to K a Brakke flow M : t 7→Mt of rectifiable varifolds. We call the pair (M,K) a mean-convex flow. Let X = (x, t) be a point in spacetime with t > 0. Suppose (xi, ti) is a sequence of points converging to X and λi is a sequence of positive numbers tending to infinity. Translate the pair M and K in spacetime by (y, τ) 7→ (y − xi, τ − ti) and then dilate parabolically by (y, τ) 7→ (λiy, λi τ) to get new flows Mi and Ki. The sequence (Mi,Ki) is called a blow-up sequence at X . General compactness theorems guarantee that this sequence will have subsequential limits. A subsequential limit (M′,K′) is called a limit flow. Here M′ : t ∈ (−∞,∞) 7→M ′ t
The Mediation Formula: A Guide to the Assessment of Causal Pathways in Nonlinear Models

Mediation analysis aims to uncover causal pathways along which changes are transmitted from stimulus to response. Recent advances in causal inference have given rise to a general and easy-to-use estimator for assessing the extent to which the effect of one variable on another is mediated by a third, thus setting a causally-sound standard for mediation analysis of empirical data. This estimator, called Mediation Formula, is applicable to nonlinear models with both discrete and continuous variables, and permits the evaluation of path-specific effects with minimal assumptions regarding the data-generating process. We demonstrate the use of the Mediation Formula in simple examples and illustrate why parametric methods of analysis yield distorted results, even when parameters are known precisely. We stress the importance of distinguishing between the necessary and sufficient interpretations of “mediated-effect” and show how to estimate the two components in systems with categorical variables, including logistic, probit, and nonparametric regressions.
The challenge of caring for the severely disabled

Caring for the severely disabled is challenging. More than a dozen years ago, a colleague of mine left our group family practice to practice full-time geriatrics. His leaving had a great impact on me. He was quite skilled in caring for the disabled; I was not. When he left, I assumed the care of a
Liver Lipid Content in Broilers as Affected by Time Without Feed or Feed and Water

Abstract The purpose of this study was to determine if length of time of feed withdrawal of broilers prior to slaughter could affect the lipid content of their livers. Seven-week-old male broilers were allocated to three treatments: 1) no feed and water, 2) no feed, and 3) feed and water ad libitum. Those in the first treatment were held in plastic coops and those in the latter two treatments were kept in floor pens. Eight birds were randomly sampled initially and eight birds from each treatment at 4, 8, 12, 16, and 24 hr after the start of the study. The birds were weighed, killed, and the livers removed and analyzed for lipid content. The regression slopes of the two treatments without feed for body weight, liver weight, liver weight per unit body weight, and liver fat per unit body weight were significantly different from the control treatment. The slopes for liver fat were not significantly different among treatments. No obvious differences in the gross appearance of the livers were detected. The occasional problems with fatty livers in commercial broilers apparently cannot be accounted for by the length of time of feed withdrawal before slaughter.
Defining the translational velocity of the reference frame of Earth

SUMMARY Earth’s centre is fundamental to geodesy and geoscience because motions of sites on the surface are estimated relative to it. International Terrestrial Reference Frames ITRF2000 and ITRF2005 are defined by the centre of mass of Earth’s system (CM), consisting of solid Earth, the ice sheets, the oceans, and the atmosphere. Satellite LAGEOS rotates about CM; satellite laser ranging (SLR) is used to estimate the velocity of CM relative to sites on the surface. However, ITRF2000 and ITRF2005 differ by 1.8 mm yr −1 , suggesting that the velocity of CM is constrained poorly by SLR. In this study, we define Earth’s reference frame with the centre of mass of solid Earth (CE). Site velocities estimated using SLR, VLBI, GPS and DORIS are corrected for a postglacial rebound model and inverted for the rotational velocities of the plates and the rotational and translational velocities of the four space techniques. Because the postglacial rebound predictions are relative to CE, the velocity of CE relative to sites on the surface is estimated. Because the input SLR site velocities are relative to CM, the output SLR translational velocity is the velocity of CM relative to CE. The estimated velocity of CE does not depend strongly on the postglacial rebound model corrected for. Equal within uncertainties and having a root mean square of 0.5 mm yr −1 are estimates of the velocity of CE determined assuming that plate interiors are deforming radially as predicted by three postglacial rebound models and an estimate of the velocity of CE determined assuming that parts of plate interiors neither beneath nor along the margins of the late Pleistocene ice sheets are not deforming laterally. The velocity of CE equals within uncertainties (probability greater than 5 per cent) the velocity of CM in ITRF2000. The velocity of CE differs significantly (0.05 per cent probability) from the velocity of CM in ITRF2005. Earth’s reference frame (and, we believe, ITRF’s) should be defined with the tightly constrained velocity of CE, not with the poorly constrained velocity of CM. Because CE is believed to be moving relative to CM no faster than 0.5 mm yr −1 , the velocity of CE estimated in this study is likely to be nearer the true velocity of CM than is the velocity of CM estimated using SLR.
Resource-Aware Distributed Stream Management Using Dynamic Overlays

We consider distributed applications that continuously stream data across the network, where data needs to be aggregated and processed to produce a 'useful' stream of updates. Centralized approaches to performing data aggregation suffer from high communication overheads, lack of scalability, and unpredictably high processing workloads at central servers. This paper describes a scalable and efficient solution to distributed stream management based on (1) resource-awareness, which is middleware-level knowledge of underlying network and processing resources; (2) overlay-based in-network data aggregation; and (3) high-level programming constructs to describe data-flow graphs for composing useful streams. Technical contributions include a novel algorithm based on resource-aware network partitioning to support dynamic deployment of data-flow graph components across the network, where efficiency of the deployed overlay is maintained by making use of partition-level resource-awareness. Contributions also include efficient middleware-based support for component deployment, utilizing runtime code generation rather than interpretation techniques, thereby addressing both high performance and resource-constrained applications. Finally, simulation experiments and benchmarks attained with actual operational data corroborate this paper's claims
METHODS OF QUANTITATIVE MICROBIOLOGICAL ANALYSES THAT SUPPORT THE DIAGNOSIS, TREATMENT, AND PROGNOSIS OF HUMAN INFECTION

The microorganisms responsible for the production of an infection may be considered to be in two classes: classical microbes and host-defined microbes. Classical microbes are those pathogens which fulfill the Koch-Henle postulates, and their isolation from a host indicates infection. They are not normally part of the body's normal flora, although they may be acquired by the host and enter into a passive relationship known as the carrier state. Examples of this type of microbe are Bacillus anthracis (anthrax), Yersinia pestis (plague), and Bordetella pertussis (whooping cough). Pathogens that require specific hosts have largely replaced the classical pathogen as a cause of infection in hospitalized patients. Especially in recent years, with the advent of new modes of anticancer treatment and the general ability of the medical community to extent a patient's life span by chemotherapy and innovative surgery, the contribution to morbidity and mortality by microbes has substantially increased. These host-specific pathogens are largely part of the body's normal flora. It is incumbent upon the clinical microbiologist to be able to distinguish the patient's normal microbial load, an increased load due to physiological factors, but not representing infection, and a significant change from normal which should be considered infection. The ability to distinguish infection from noninfection is one of the prime responsibilities of the clinical microbiology laboratory and has contributed to the development of the infectious disease subspecialty of internal medicine. This article will examine a critical question: Is there a relationship between the numbers of microorganisms isolated from a specimen and the production of infection, and, if so, does this relationship vary for the different anatomical sites of the body?
Optical fiber rotary displacement sensor.

Shafts are needed in the operation and control of a broad range of manufacturing systems. Angular position of a shaft is one of the most common parameters measured in industrial and manufacturing systems. In this work, we report a class of a simple, multimode fiber intensity sensors developed to serve as a viable alternative to conventional rotary sensors. The basic structure of the twist sensor is a multimode fiber with a large core and/or a high numerical aperture (N.A.) sandwiched between two fibers with a small core and/or a low N.A. The sensor works by exciting selected modes in the multimode section of fiber. As the multimode section is twisted, mode coupling occurs, resulting in a redistribution of power in the multimode fiber. Power remaining in the selected modes is received by a pickup fiber. Fibers are joined with the aid of small capillary tubes. The usable range is about 135° to 160° depending on the length of twisted section. No evidence of hysteresis has been found. Based on the noise level of the detector used in the experiment and the slope of the measured sensor response, a sensitivity of 0.029′ is estimated for the prototype twist sensors.
Who Cares about Mumps? You Should!

Until the 1970s, mumps was one of the most common pediatric infectious diseases. Childhood mumps, which most often manifested as fever and bilateral parotitis, was generally not very severe but could result in meningoencephalitis, and in adult men, it could lead to painful orchitis. Fortunately, this latter complication was generally unilateral and rarely led to decreased fertility [1]. With the advent of a live, attenuated mumps virus vaccine in 1967, there was a very rapid decrease in the number of mumps cases, such that only 266 cases were reported to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in 2001. Along the way to what seemed like total elimination of the disease, there were occasional resurgences in mumps cases, primarily among teenagers and young adults who had gone through primary school before the mandate for childhood immunization with the trivalent measles, mumps, and rubella (MMR) vaccine. This resurgence was thought to occur primarily among persons who had received an earlier killed virus vaccine preparation or who had not been vaccinated during childhood, either because of family religious beliefs or because the threat was, by that time, deemed to be so minor that vaccination did not seem to be necessary. The unvaccinated population had presumably escaped e rlier infection because of herd immunity and the resultant paucity of opportunity for exposure to the wild-type virus. High school and college immunization programs were instituted, and again the i cidence of mumps plummeted. However, during the winter-spring of 2006, an outbreak originally involving 219 people occurred in the United States, with its epicenter in Iowa, where, up to that time, the average annual number of reported cases reported was 5 [2]. The outbreak that started in Iowa spread to 45 other states and ultimately involved almost 5800 confirmed or probable cases in the subsequent 10 months [3]. Air travel was implicated as an important element in the breadth and rapidity of infection transmission [4]. The strain of mumps virus isolated was found to have the same
A study of numerical methods for the level set approach

The computation of moving curves by the level set method typically requires reinitializations of the underlying level set function. Two types of reinitialization methods are studied: a high order ''PDE'' approach and a second order Fast Marching method. Issues related to the efficiency and implementation of both types of methods are discussed, with emphasis on the tube/narrow band implementation and accuracy considerations. The methods are also tested and compared. Fast Marching reinitialization schemes are faster but limited to second order, PDE based reinitialization schemes can easily be made more accurate but are slower, even with a tube/narrow band implementation.
LIBERALISM AND EMPIRE IN A NINETEENTH-CENTURY ALGERIAN MIRROR *

Le Miroir, published in Paris in 1833 by Hamdan ben Othman Khodja (c.1773–1842), was the first Algerian contribution to French public deliberation about France's emerging empire in North Africa. A work of a self-consciously liberal cosmopolitan, and modernizing, perspective, the Miroir was almost alone in French debates in making a principled argument for a complete French withdrawal from Algeria—what Khodja called a “liberal emancipation” of the country. The Miroir argued for an independent Algeria that might take its place in a nineteenth-century Europe of emerging nations, and that might engage with European states as a diplomatic equal. The work illustrates the constraints on those who sought to preserve some independence, discursive as well as political, in the face of European expansion, as well as the critical possibilities of liberal discourse at a moment when it was being marshaled in France and Britain in the service of empire.
Runtime support for user-level ultra lightweight threads on massively parallel distributed memory machines

Ultra-lightweight Thread (uThread) is a library package designed and optimized for user-level management of parallelism in a single application program running on distributed memory computers. Existing process management systems incur an unnecessarily high cost when used for the type of parallelism exploited within an application. By reducing the overhead of ownership protection and frequent context switches, uThread encourages both simplicity and performance. In addition, uThread provides various scheduling support to balance the system load. The uThread package reduces the cost of parallelism management to nearly the lower bound. This package has been successfully running on most distributed memory computers, such as Intel iPSC/860, Touchstone Delta, NCUBE, and TMC CM-5. >
New hope for the voluntary contributions mechanism: The effects of context☆

Abstract This research examines how three common contextual factors can affect contributions in the linear voluntary contributions mechanism (VCM). Using business student subjects and a low marginal per capita rate of return, the results show that contributions in the last of ten rounds range from 18% for the traditional VCM with no initial cheap talk, no voting, and a status quo of not giving to 94% in a VCM with initial cheap talk, voting, and a status quo of giving. The results demonstrate that context can make the VCM produce sustained efficiencies similar to incentive-compatible public-good mechanisms.
Potassium-induced release of endothelium-derived relaxing factor from canine femoral arteries

Experiments were designed in a bioassay system to analyze the effect of elevated (from 5.9 mM to 7.5-45.9 mM) extracellular K+ concentration on the release of endothelium-derived relaxing factor. Segments of canine femoral artery with endothelium (donor segment) were mounted in an organ bath and perfused with modified Krebs-Ringer bicarbonate solution; the effluent from the donor segment was used to superfuse a canine coronary artery ring without endothelium (bioassay tissue). Elevation of perfusate K+ concentration by 1.6-15 mM by intraluminal infusion of potassium chloride upstream of the donor segment evoked further contractions of bioassay rings contracted with prostaglandin F2 alpha. In contrast, the bioassay rings progressively relaxed when increasing concentrations of potassium chloride (10-40 mM) were added extraluminally to the organ bath where the perfused segment was mounted. Extraluminal application of phenylephrine or prostaglandin F2 alpha did not evoke relaxations in the bioassay ring. Removal of the endothelium from the donor segment or selective exposure of the segment (but not the bioassay ring) to Ca2+-deficient solution prevented the K+-induced relaxations. Treatment of the donor segment and the bioassay ring with inhibitors of known endogenous vasoactive substances (acetylcholine, norepinephrine, adenine nucleotides, and prostanoids) had no significant effect on the relaxation of the bioassay ring evoked by extraluminal application of potassium chloride. Simultaneous measurements of changes in isometric force in the donor segment and bioassay ring revealed that extraluminal elevation of K+ concentration relaxed the segments as well and that the relaxations could not be prevented by simultaneous intraluminal infusion of potassium chloride.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)
A alienação e o humanismo retratados na figura dos personagens Paulo Honório e Madalena na obra São Bernardo, de Graciliano Ramos

St. Bernard isconsidereda historical novelmarkedbysocial changesin the year1934.The society,at the time,suffered fromconcerns andlosses.Thisarticle analyzesthe trajectory of theprotagonist of that work, Paulo Honorio. The character hasa life markedby greed andthesearch for power, and your figureis opposed to his wife, Madalena, an idealistwho fightsfor the common asset of humanity.
Love, Language and the Dramatization of Ethical Worlds in Deleuze

Dramatization has been conceived by some Deleuze scholars as ‘dramatizing’ the mode of existence of a subject. This paper argues, on the contrary, dramatization involves the very creation of a viewpoint on the world. The ethical significance of dramatization is not the ability to ‘evaluate’ certain subjective modes of existence, but to produce ways of unfolding the world in which we do not ‘imprison’ others and in which multiple perspectives are allowed to unfold. Love is incapable of such a truly ethical comportment, because the lover is always thrown back onto their own world, trapped within subjectivity, unable to see from two viewpoints at once. A world is most precisely a set of signs, a set of relationships between ‘things’ and ‘meanings’ (senses); therefore, in order to produce more ‘ethical’ worlds, worlds in which we do not ‘explicate’ or imprison ourselves and others too much, we must turn to art. Art is precisely a ‘unity’ in which multiple perspectives are allowed to unfold at their own rhythm...
Pretesting Advertising with the Differential Attitude Technique

The results obtained with the advertising pretest procedure presented in this article indicate that the differential effect on readers' attitudes of print ads (and probably other types of advertising as well) can be satisfactorily measured by a fairly simple scalar technique. Thus, an ad can be evaluated prior to publication in terms of its impact on attitudes rather than in terms of the recall of specific aspects of the ad. ADVERTISING pretesting (that is, the evaluation of advertisements prior to their publication as an aid in selection and improvement) is an important aspect of advertising research. However, it is an area that reports relatively little in the way of new procedures or techniques of analysis. The standard advertising texts devote very little space to pretesting and tend to report the same approaches. The psychologically-oriented texts provide more detail but cover essentially the same ground. While it is true that much advertising research is of a confidential nature and consequently goes unreported formally, what is heard in informal conversations reveals surprisingly little new. The commonly used and described approaches to pretesting print advertisements rely primarily on some measure of message recall, overall popularity, attraction, comprehension, etc. Although not without some value, these techniques have limited usefulness for the evaluation of life insurance advertisements where the goal is not to spark an immediate purchase, but rather to maintain high company prestige and to create a favorable climate in which the agent can function successfully. Lucas and Britt emphasize the point that it is dangerous to approach the evaluation of this type of advertising in the same manner as direct-selling copy.1 Canter objects in general to the traditional methods of pretesting on the grounds that what they measure is not necessarily related to the objective of most advertising, which is the establishment of attitudes favorably disposing the consumer toward the advertised product.2 Dunn points out that although sales are the ideal test of an ad's effectiveness, an ad may also have long-range effectiveness, in that it preconditions a reader toward a brand for a purchase at a future point in time.3 It would seem that such preconditioning is better indicated by the attitudes toward a brand resulting from reading an ad than by the copy points remembered. Moreover, numerous studies have shown that facts can be communicated without the occurrence of desired attitude changes,4 so that measuring the memory or comprehension of the explicit message could be easily misleading. Also, an ad may well communicate ideas and influence attitudes by its overall tone (its Gestalt), apart from the actual message presented.
Adenocarcinoma of the vaginal vault following prolonged unopposed oestrogen hormone replacement therapy.

(2005). Adenocarcinoma of the vaginal vault following prolonged unopposed oestrogen hormone replacement therapy. Journal of Obstetrics and Gynaecology: Vol. 25, No. 2, pp. 220-221.