cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Penetration of ruthenium red into peripheral nerve fibers.

Living peripheral nerves immersed in ruthenium red-Ringer solution in vivo or in vitro and subsequently fixed for electron microscopy reveal dye in the axon and myelin-Schwann sheath. There is rapid penetration into the agranular reticulum of the axon first at the node of Ranvier and later in the internodal region. Dye is also sequestered in the Schwann cell body, Schmidt-Lanterman cleft and adaxonal and paranodal Schwann cytoplasm. Moreover, dye is deposited in the major electron dense line of the myelin wrapping.
Choice in Free-Ranging Wild Pigeons

A flock of free-ranging wild pigeons were trained to peck at buttons which, when operated, allowed brief access to grain. Although only one bird at a time could have access to the buttons, the pecks of the group were treated as an aggregate. When they chose between two buttons, each of which could occasionally produce grain, the ratios of pecks at the buttons approximately equaled the ratios of the grain presentations obtained from them. This accords with a relation well substantiated in the laboratory, the matching law. It suggests that the matching law may apply to the behavior of higher organisms in natural environments.
PITUITARY EXTRACT IN SIMMONDS’S DISEASE

It is desired to report briefly two cases of hypopituitary syndrome, each of which has been followed for long periods, and had pituitary extract administered over long periods of time, together with an attempt to evaluate clinically the results of such therapy. No attempt will be made to review the voluminous literature; be it sufficient to say that, compared with experimental work, there is a scarcity of data on the clinical application and results of such therapy.
Percutaneous cardiopulmonary bypass: Application and indication for use

Percutaneous cardiopulmonary bypass (CPB) was used in 22 patients: 7 patients with cardiac arrest due to acute myocardial infarction; 4 patients in cardiac arrest because of failed angioplasty; 1 patient for high-risk elective angioplasty; 1 patient with massive pulmonary emboli; 2 patients with hypothermia; 2 pediatric patients (1 with sepsis and 1 in combination with extracorporeal membrane oxygenator support); 1 patient with refractory arrhythmia; and 4 patients with trauma. Percutaneous CPB involves a modified Seldinger technique that is easily applied. All patients except those with massive trauma were resuscitated with the use of percutaneous CPB. One patient requiring a very difficult proposed angioplasty received percutaneous CPB support while triple-vessel angioplasty was performed. Percutaneous CPB appears to be beneficial in resuscitating patients with refractory cardiac arrest or other forms of circulatory collapse except trauma. Limited use for brief periods in high-risk patients having elective angioplasty might be applicable.
Effect of structured visual environments on apparent eye level

Each of 12 subjects set a binocularly viewed target to apparent eye level; the target was projected on the rear wall of an open box, the floor of which was horizontal or pitched up and down at angles of 7.5 degrees and 15 degrees. Settings of the target were systematically biased by 60% of the pitch angle when the interior of the box was illuminated, but by only 5% when the interior of the box was darkened. Within-subjects variability of the settings was less under illuminated viewing conditions than in the dark, but was independent of box pitch angle. In a second experiment, 11 subjects were tested with an illuminated pitched box, yielding biases of 53% and 49% for binocular and monocular viewing conditions, respectively. The results are discussed in terms of individual and interactive effects of optical, gravitational, and extraretinal eye-position information in determining judgements of eye level.
Where Governmentality Ends: Border Control Officers and Deportations of Sojourners in Israel

This paper will shed light on the deportation process of visaless sojourners staying and working in Israel. I will explain how state bureaucrats, specifically border control officers of the Enforcement Unit of the Interior Ministry (in Hebrew, hamemune al bikoret hagvulot beyekhidat ha'akhifa, misrad hapnim ) are able to conduct activities that cause suffering to sojourners while still viewing themselves as moral human beings, by breaking down the decision-making process into a series of dichotomic categories, by defining Zionism as a context that justifies deportation, and by governing their emotions. I claim that in Israel, state bureaucrats view sojourners as unmanageable and incorrigible. Consequently, deportation becomes a logical course of action. Such an approach, which stresses the bureaucratic aspect of national projects, enables a better understanding of how the “State” is able to perform large-scale projects that cause suffering to individuals.
A Modified Suction Potential Method for Measuring the Three-Phase Contact Angle

Abstract The suction potential method for measuring the three-phase contact angle was modified and used to determine the oil-water-solid contact angle for various samples of coal. The method involves measuring the pressure changes required to draw an oil/water interface and then an oil/air interface into a packed bed of solid particles. Before the latest modification, the method was very time consuming and difficult to control. These problems were overcome by modifying the apparatus and measuring technique. Values of the contact angle determined with the new technique were very similar and as reproducible as those determined with the older method. Also, measurements of the contact angle for a series of oxidized coal samples were consistent with other surface property measurements. In addition, for this series of samples, the recovery of coal from an aqueous suspension by oil agglomeration was found to correlate very well with the contact angle.
Coral-associated micro-organisms and their roles in promoting coral health and thwarting diseases.

Over the last decade, significant advances have been made in characterization of the coral microbiota. Shifts in its composition often correlate with the appearance of signs of diseases and/or bleaching, thus suggesting a link between microbes, coral health and stability of reef ecosystems. The understanding of interactions in coral-associated microbiota is informed by the on-going characterization of other microbiomes, which suggest that metabolic pathways and functional capabilities define the ‘core’ microbiota more accurately than the taxonomic diversity of its members. Consistent with this hypothesis, there does not appear to be a consensus on the specificity in the interactions of corals with microbial commensals, even though recent studies report potentially beneficial functions of the coral-associated bacteria. They cycle sulphur, fix nitrogen, produce antimicrobial compounds, inhibit cell-to-cell signalling and disrupt virulence in opportunistic pathogens. While their beneficial functions have been documented, it is not certain whether or how these microbes are selected by the hosts. Therefore, understanding the role of innate immunity, signal and nutrient exchange in the establishment of coral microbiota and in controlling its functions will probably reveal ancient, evolutionarily conserved mechanisms that dictate the outcomes of host–microbial interactions, and impact the resilience of the host.
Sirtuin mechanism and inhibition: explored with N(ε)-acetyl-lysine analogs.

Silent information regulator 2 (Sir2) enzymes or sirtuins are a family of intracellular protein deacetylases that can catalyze the β-nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide (β-NAD(+))-dependent deacetylation of N(e)-acetyl-lysine on protein substrates, with the formation of lysine N(e)-deacetylated protein species and small molecule products, i.e. nicotinamide and 2'-O-acetyl-ADP-ribose (2'-O-AADPR). These enzymes are evolutionarily conserved among all the three kingdoms of life, with the yeast Sir2 being the founding family member. In humans, seven sirtuins, i.e. SIRT1-7, have been identified. The past a few years have witnessed a tremendous interest in investigating the unique mechanism for the sirtuin-catalyzed deacetylation reaction. We have also seen a lot of research employing different strategies to identify different types of the inhibitors for this enzymatic deacetylation reaction. These inhibitors hold great potential toward a fuller exploration of sirtuin biology and pharmacology as well as toward developing novel therapeutics for metabolic and age-related diseases and cancer. Here we would like to review the significant contributions that the judicious use of a variety of N(e)-acetyl-lysine analogs has been able to make toward our enhanced mechanistic understanding and capability of pharmacological exploitation of the sirtuin-catalyzed deacetylation reaction.
Targeted issue advertising and legislative strategy: The inside ends of outside lobbying

Interest group spending on issue advertising is growing dramatically, but we know very little about its deployment and purpose in legislative advocacy. This article begins to fill the gap, examining where, when, and why interest groups run television issue advertisements. We start from the premise that issue advertising is a form of outside lobbying, but we argue that it can serve two legislative ends. We hypothesize, first, that group strategists will target areas represented by committee allies they want to mobilize more than pivotal members they want to convert. When a roll call is approaching and the vote is likely to be close, however, groups will expand their advertising targets to include floor voters near the chamber pivot. Our statistical tests use data on television issue ads concerning the 2003 Medicare prescription drug bill. The analysis provides consistent support for the first hypothesis and mixed support for the second.
Neural responses to meaningless pseudosigns: Evidence for sign-based phonetic processing in superior temporal cortex

To identify neural regions that automatically respond to linguistically structured, but meaningless manual gestures, 14 deaf native users of American Sign Language (ASL) and 14 hearing non-signers passively viewed pseudosigns (possible but non-existent ASL signs) and non-iconic ASL signs, in addition to a fixation baseline. For the contrast between pseudosigns and baseline, greater activation was observed in left posterior superior temporal sulcus (STS), but not in left inferior frontal gyrus (BA 44/45), for deaf signers compared to hearing non-signers, based on VOI analyses. We hypothesize that left STS is more engaged for signers because this region becomes tuned to human body movements that conform the phonological constraints of sign language. For deaf signers, the contrast between pseudosigns and known ASL signs revealed increased activation for pseudosigns in left posterior superior temporal gyrus (STG) and in left inferior frontal cortex, but no regions were found to be more engaged for known signs than for pseudosigns. This contrast revealed no significant differences in activation for hearing non-signers. We hypothesize that left STG is involved in recognizing linguistic phonetic units within a dynamic visual or auditory signal, such that less familiar structural combinations produce increased neural activation in this region for both pseudosigns and pseudowords.
Analysis of order-statistic CFAR threshold estimators for improved ultrasonic flaw detection

In the pulse-echo method using broadband transducers, flaw detection can be improved by using optimal bandpass filtering to resolve flaw echoes surrounded by grain scatterers. Optimal bandpass filtering is achieved by examining spectral information of the flaw and grain echoes where frequency differences have been experimentally shown to be predictable in the Rayleigh scattering region. Using optimal frequency band information, flaw echoes can then be discriminated by applying adaptive thresholding techniques based on surrounding range cells. The authors present order-statistic (OS) processors, ranked and trimmed mean (TM), to robustly estimate the threshold while censoring outliers. The design of these OS processors is accomplished analytically based on constant false-alarm rate (CFAR) detection. It is shown that OS-CFAR and TM-CFAR processors can detect flaw echoes robustly with the CFAR of 10/sup -4/ where the range cell used for the threshold estimate contains outliers. >
Drawing Power Law Graphs Using a Local/Global Decomposition

It has been noted that many realistic graphs have a power law degree distribution and exhibit the small-world phenomenon. We present drawing methods influenced by recent developments in the modeling of such graphs. Our main approach is to partition the edge set of a graph into "local" edges and "global" edges and to use a standard drawing method that allows us to give added importance to local edges. We show that our drawing method works well for graphs that contain underlying geometric graphs augmented with random edges, and we demonstrate the method on a few examples. We define edges to be local or global depending on the size of the maximum short flow between the edge's endpoints. Here, a short flow, or alternatively an � -short flow, is one composed of paths whose length is at most some constant � . We present fast approximation algorithms for the maximum short flow problem and for testing whether a short flow of a certain size exists between given vertices. Using these algorithms, we give an algorithm for computing approximate local subgraphs of a given graph. The drawing algorithm we present can be applied to general graphs, but it is particularly well suited for small-world networks with power law degree distribution.
Topology-Preserving Tissue Classification of Magnetic Resonance Brain Images

This paper presents a new framework for multiple object segmentation in medical images that respects the topological properties and relationships of structures as given by a template. The technique, known as topology-preserving, anatomy-driven segmentation (TOADS), combines advantages of statistical tissue classification, topology-preserving fast marching methods, and image registration to enforce object-level relationships with little constraint over the geometry. When applied to the problem of brain segmentation, it directly provides a cortical surface with spherical topology while segmenting the main cerebral structures. Validation on simulated and real images characterises the performance of the algorithm with regard to noise, inhomogeneities, and anatomical variations
Detection of access control flaws in a distributed database system with local site autonomy

We address the authorization of access privileges to users in a local database management system (DBMS) that is interoperating in a distributed database system (DDBMS). Our focus is on the potential in a next generation security system for delegation access concepts such as role hierarchy delegation to violate the security policy in a local database system that is part of the distributed system. This kind of violation can be categorized as a violation of local autonomy. We propose a labeled graph model to detect such a problem.
Pattern-based behavior synthesis for FPGA resource reduction

Pattern-based synthesis has drawn wide interest from researchers who tried to utilize the regularity in applications for design optimizations. In this paper we present a general pattern-based behavior synthesis framework which can efficiently extract similar structures in programs. Our approach is very scalable in benefit of advanced pruning techniques that include locality sensitive hashing and characteristic vectors. The similarity of structures is captured by a mismatch-tolerant metric: graph edit distance. The edit distance between two graphs is the minimum number of vertex/edge insertion, deletion, substitution operations to transform one graph into the other. Graph edit distance can naturally handle various program variations such as bit-width variations, structure variations and port variations. In addition, we apply our pattern-based synthesis system to FPGA resource optimization with the observation that multiplexors are particularly expensive on FPGA platforms. Considering knowledge of discovered patterns, the resource binding step can intelligently generate the data-path to reduce interconnect costs. Experiments show our approach can, on average, reduce the total area by about 20% with 7% latency overhead on the Xilinx Virtex-4 FPGAs, compared to the traditional behavior synthesis flow
Isochronous communications in an integrated circuit/packet metropolitan area network

A simple protocol is presented for establishing and terminating circuit-switched communications within a metropolitan area network (MAN) that supports both circuit-switched communication (for voice and video) and packet-switched communication (for data and file transfers). A mathematical model of the MAN is used to study its performance with respect to the circuit-switched communication and its effects on the pocket-switched communication. The models are numerically solved by the mean-value-analysis algorithm. >
Carpal tunnel syndrome in patients who are receiving long term renal hemodialysis

In forty-six (9 per cent) of 485 patients who were receiving long-term renal hemodialysis, a carpal tunnel syndrome developed in at least one hand. A total of sixty-four surgical procedures were performed for this problem in forty-one patients. All of the forty-one patients reported symptomatic relief, although three had recurrent symptoms. There was no correlation between the time of onset of the carpal tunnel syndrome and such factors as the patient's age, sex, or race; the cause of renal failure; the site of vascular access for hemodialysis; or a history of parathyroidectomy. There was a correlation, however, between the development of the carpal tunnel syndrome, the side of the longest functional vascular access, and the presence of arterial calcifications. In all eleven patients in whom a radial steal syndrome developed, an ipsilateral carpal-tunnel syndrome also developed. It was concluded that factors other than those involving the site of vascular access must have important etiological roles.
Missing Links: Foreign Investment and Industrial Development in Costa Rica and Mexico

This article offers an analytical framework for understanding the missing links between FDI and development, and applies it to the high technology sectors of Costa Rica and Mexico, the two countries in Latin America that have attracted the highest percentage of FDI in manufacturing. Since the advancement of knowledge-based assets in this sector is at the heart of structural change and development, we focus specifically on the conditions that enable or prevent positive knowledge spillovers from FDI. We identify two main reasons for the missing links between high-tech FDI and the development of indigenous knowledge-based assets in Costa Rica and Mexico. First, their governments did not have a coherent strategy, which would have spelled out the needed government policies to advance national capabilities, overcome market failures, and support the integration of national producers into TNCs’ global production networks. Second, there were limitations on the spillover potential from FDI. In Costa Rica and Mexico, technology or scale requirements for inputs made it difficult for large TNCs to source domestically beyond simple inputs like packaging materials. In Mexico, fundamental changes in the organization of global production chains in the computer industry led TNCs to rely on their global contract manufacturers rather than work with potential Mexican input suppliers.
A systematic approach to simulate power electronic circuits on digital computers

It is shown that switching devices can be modeled as variable inductors which are controlled by independent off-on controllers. As the topology of the circuit changes due to closing and opening of the switches, it is shown that only one set of linear state-space equations is needed to characterize a power electronic circuit mathematically. Therefore, a system of converters with a large number of randomly variable-switched topologies can be simulated methodically. Based on this approach, the digital simulation of a resonant inverter is presented. >
Instrumentation and control of the AGS booster vacuum system

The Alternating Gradient Synchrotron (AGS) Booster is a synchrotron for the acceleration of both protons and heavy ions. A pressure of low 10/sup -11/ torr is required for the acceleration of the partially stripped, low beta , very heavy ions. The authors describe the power supplies and controls for this ultra-high vacuum system, with the emphasis on the operation of the ion gauge system over long cable length and on equipment interlock. >
Disorders of Bone Remodeling

The skeleton provides mechanical support for stature and locomotion, protects vital organs, and controls mineral homeostasis. A healthy skeleton must be maintained by constant bone modeling to carry out these crucial functions throughout life. Bone remodeling involves the removal of old or damaged bone by osteoclasts (bone resorption) and the subsequent replacement of new bone formed by osteoblasts (bone formation). Normal bone remodeling requires a tight coupling of bone resorption to bone formation to guarantee no alteration in bone mass or quality after each remodeling cycle. However, this important physiological process can be derailed by a variety of factors, including menopause-associated hormonal changes, age-related factors, changes in physical activity, drugs, and secondary diseases, which lead to the development of various bone disorders in both women and men. We review the major diseases of bone remodeling, emphasizing our current understanding of the underlying pathophysiological mechanisms.
Horn fly (Diptera: Muscidae) control on cattle with insecticide ear tags attached to backrubbers and dust bags.

Fenvalerate- or stirofos-impregnated cattle ear tags attached to rope or chain-type back rubbers and to bags containing sand were made available to yearling steers as self-applicating devices. Stirofos tags controlled Haemolobia irritans (L.) for at least 6 weeks and fenvalerate tags remained effective for up to 18 weeks (when tests were terminated). Backrubbers containing plastic resin impregnated with insecticide should provide efficient, long-term, low-maintenance control of the horn fly on cattle.
Large scale data analysis and modelling in online services and advertising

The last five years have seen a tremendous growth in online search, advertising and gaming services. Today, it is extremely important to analyse large collections of user interaction data as a first step in building predictive models for these services. These collections pose challenges not only in their size—often exceeding tera-bytes (TB) of data—but also in their heterogeneity. We report on two applications of large scale data analysis performed at Microsoft Research and how data analysis guided model development:
STATISTICAL METHODS IN (MOLECULAR) EVOLUTION1

Statistical Methods in Molecular Evolution, edited by Ras-mus Nielsen, contains a wide survey of current research inmolecular evolution. It is organized into sections—introduc-tion, program ‘‘tutorials,’’ models, and inference—a setupthat constitutes a gentle introduction to the topic for math-ematically inclined readers. For practical biologists, the startmight be somewhat more challenging, although the intro-duction is tailored to a mixed audience. All chapters arewritten by researchers with active research projects in theareas they write about. I address each chapter with a shortcomment.Introduction. The introductory material sets the stage forall further chapters. Without going into too much depth, theauthors give a broad overview of topics such as Markovchain-based substitution models, likelihood concept, Markovchain Monte Carlo (MCMC) methods, and population geneticaspects of molecular evolution. (1) ‘‘Markov Models in Evo-lution:’’ Galtier, Gascuel, and Jean-Marie give a crash courseon Markov models that will leave mathematicians happilyhumming along and many biologists struggling with themathematical syntax. The discussion of population modelsof DNA, RNA, and protein sequence evolution is concise butlacks the presentation of the transition probabilities for someof the models. Readers who want to familiarize themselveswith these models still need to read Felsenstein (2004) andSwofford et al. (1996). (2) ‘‘Introduction to Applications ofthe Likelihood Function in Molecular Evolution:’’Buschbomand von Haeseler give an overview of the likelihood prin-ciple. Several examples of application of the maximum-like-lihood principle—from simple one-parameter inferences tocomplicated many-parameter problems, such as ﬁnding thebest tree given a set of sampled sequences—are given. Thedifﬁculties inherent in likelihood ratio testing receive toolittle attention. It would have been useful to read about dif-ﬁculties with testing of hypotheses, taking into accountboundary conditions of the parameters. For example, howshould one test if a branch length in a phylogenetic tree iszero? And should this be used as a means of judging supportfor the tree? Given that this book will have a much higherproﬁle than a single paper, coverage of such topics wouldhave been helpful to many readers. (3) ‘‘Introduction to Mar-kov Chain Monte Carlo Methods in Molecular Evolution:’’Larget gives a brief introduction to MCMC sampling, usinga Bayesian approach exclusively. The Gibbs sampler, a spe-cial case of the Metropolis-Hastings (MH) sampler, is ex-plained in detail. Regarding phylogenetics and population
Direct Photon Production in pp and \(\overline{p}\)p Collisions

The simplicity of the leading-order production processes for direct (single) gamma production in pp and \(\overline{p}\)p collisions, i.e. the QCD-Compton process qg → γq and the annihilation process \(\overline{q}\)q → γg, is appealing, since the photon carries all the pT of the parton collision, and there is no confusion from fragmentation. Furthermore the ratio R = σ(\(\overline{p}\)p → γX)/σ(pp → γX) should be sensitive to the hardness of the gluon structure function of the nucleon. Since \(\overline{q}\)q annihilation is clearly more important in \(\overline{p}\)p than pp, due to the valence \(\overline{q}\) quarks, R is expected to be larger than one, and since the gluon structure function is known to be relatively soft so that \(\overline{q}\)q should become increasingly favoured over qg as pT increases, R is expected to increase with the pT of the emitted gamma ray.
Which came first, the frailty or the heart disease?: exploring the vicious cycle.

Frailty is the accumulation of subclinical physiologic insults across multiple organ systems, leading to a state of heightened vulnerability in the face of stress. Although initially conceived of as a geriatric syndrome most applicable in the primary care setting, over the past decade frailty has
Cycles of Subsistence Stress, Warfare, and Population Movement in the Northern San Juan

Archaeological data pertaining to warfare and to the unpredictability of subsistence farming among the ancestral Pueblo Indians of the northern Southwest have mushroomed during the past few decades and have revealed crucial connections between these important cultural dynamics. Prehistoric farming in the northern San Juan region was negatively impacted by unpredictable climatic factors such as the amount and timing of precipitation and the length of the growing season. Residents were compelled to settle within a variable farming belt that shifted during droughts and periods of cooler temperatures. Data for the early 800s C.E. in the Ridges Basin area of the northern San Juan contain evidence of drought and subsistence stress co-occurring with indicators of violent death and with intensely processed human remains. These conditions and events occurred just before the Basin was permanently vacated by Pueblo farmers. Similar data for many settlements across the region that date from the mid-1100s C.E. link violence and processed remains with a relentless 50-year drought and with partial regional depopulation. Village-wide lethal attacks have been documented for such thirteenth-century settlements as Castle Rock, Sand Canyon, and Goodman Point Pueblos. Occupation of those villages ended immediately after fatal attacks and the processing of human remains shortly after the onset of severe drought in 1276 C.E. The northern San Juan region was permanently depopulated by Pueblo peoples about 1280 C.E. The cited cases establish explicit associations between episodic drought, subsistence stress, warfare, processing of human remains, and consequent population movement among ancestral Pueblo populations.
Species-Specific Modification of Depth Resolution in Sputtering Depth Profiles by Oxygen Adsorption

Ion-beam mixing can significantly degrade depth resolution in sputtering depth profiles. Given a composition profile with an initially abrupt interface between an overlayer and the substrate, mixing produces a measured profile with a characteristic exponential decay of the overlayer signal. Mixing redistributes the overlayer species over a depth comparable to the primary ion range. This redistribution leaves only a fraction of the residual overlayer atoms exposed to sputtering in the outer atomic layer, leading to a removal rate much lower than would be expected if all the overlayer material remained at the surface [1]. Mixing effects have been modelled for isotopic markers (i.e. no chemical effects) by several groups [2-5] offering hope of deconvolution procedures to improve depth resolution. However, WILLIAMS [1] showed that mixing decay lengths are element-specific, varying over a factor of ~5 for overlayer elements ranging in mass from H to Pt, sputtered under identical conditions from silicon.
Case Report: Chronic Tricuspid Regurgitation Bifascicular Block Due to Blunt Chest Trauma

ABSTRACT Closed-chest trauma in a young man was followed by rupture of a right ventricular papillary muscle and bifascicular block. This produced signs and symptoms of tricuspid regurgitation and recurrent syncope. Treatment by valve replacement and pacemaker implantation was successful. Review of 30 cases of traumatic tricuspid regurgitation reveals that this patient had characteristic findings: adult onset of isolated tricuspid regurgitation, a history of trauma, right bundle branch block, and cardiomegaly without signs of left ventricular failure. In addition, right atrial hypertension of longstanding may produce cyanosis because of right–left shunting through a patent foramen ovale.
Computation of reduced energy input current stimuli for neuron phase models

A regularly spiking neuron can be studied using a phase model. The effect of an input stimulus current on the phase time derivative is captured by a phase response curve. This paper adapts a technique that was previously applied to conductance-based models to discover optimal input stimulus currents for phase models. First, the neuron phase response θ(t) due to an input stimulus current i(t) is computed using a phase model. The resulting θ(t) is taken to be a reference phase r(t). Second, an optimal input stimulus current i(*)(t) is computed to minimize a weighted sum of the square-integral `energy' of i(*)(t) and the tracking error between the reference phase r(t) and the phase response due to i(*)(t). The balance between the conflicting requirements of energy and tracking error minimization is controlled by a single parameter. The generated optimal current i(*)t) is then compared to the input current i(t) which was used to generate the reference phase r(t). This technique was applied to two neuron phase models; in each case, the current i(*)(t) generates a phase response similar to the reference phase r(t), and the optimal current i(*)(t) has a lower `energy' than the square-integral of i(t). For constant i(t), the optimal current i(*)(t) need not be constant in time. In fact, i(*)(t) is large (possibly even larger than i(t)) for regions where the phase response curve indicates a stronger sensitivity to the input stimulus current, and smaller in regions of reduced sensitivity.
A New Cercospora on Lippia Cardiostegia

The species of Cercospora described herein was found among unidentified fungous collections made by Dr. W. A. Kellerman in Guatemala in 1906 on Lippia cardiostegia Benth. An examination shows this to be specifically distinct from Cercosporae described on this or closely related genera. The Guatemalan Cercospora differs from C. Lippiae described by Ellis and Everhart 3 on Lippia nodiflora (L.) Michx. in the indefinite spots produced in its hypophyllous fruiting, dark colored conidiophores, and wide, colored conidia (FIG. 1). The following name is proposed:
Pathways for Foreign-Trained Dentists to Pursue Careers in the United States

With the U.S. population growing ever more diverse and the need for dentists in many areas of the United States, there is increasing opportunity for foreign-trained dentists to pursue dental careers in this country. This article provides a broad overview of dental education and career pathways available for foreign-trained dentists in the United States. Educational opportunities include pursuing advanced standing dental degree programs and advanced graduate education (residency programs). Career pathways include working in academic and private practice settings. This article also describes the licensure and visa requirements foreign-trained dentists must satisfy to work legally in the United States.
‘There Very Children were Soe Full of Hatred’: Royalist Clerical Families and the Politics of Everyday Conflict in Civil War and Interregnum England

In Ugborough, Devonshire, in the mid-1640s, the young son of Emmanuel Sharp, the former Royalist rector of Bathealston, Somerset, joined a group of children at a bonfire. As people gathered to hear news of another battle won by Parliament, a local tailor spotted one child and denounced him as a ‘priest’s bastard’. Mrs Sharp flew to the defence of her son’s legitimacy and her own marital honour. Heavily pregnant, Mrs Sharp miscarried as a result of the commotion. The involuntary abortion was allegedly acclaimed by local Puritans, who purportedly celebrated ‘[t]hat ye calf was dead, & if ye cow had died also they would have made a Bonfire… [up] to Heaven’.
Power, Egoism and the « Open » Self in Nietzsche and Hegel

Conscience et volonte (de puissance) chez Hegel et chez Nietzsche. Comment N. ne peut accepter l'idee hegelienne (et chretienne) que la conscience humaine puisse ceder sur la primaute qu'elle accorde a son vouloir
Analysis and Design of Energy Efficient Time Domain Signal Processing

Time domain signal processing (TDSP) encodes information into time rather than voltage with higher efficiency than conventional digital design. This paper performs systematical analysis on the design principle and energy efficiency of TDSP. Variation impact, which poses significant challenges to TDSP, is evaluated and a variation driven design methodology is proposed to achieve an optimum tradeoff between energy efficiency and design robustness. Several novel circuit level design techniques such as dual encoding strategy and bit-scalable design are also proposed in this work to significantly improve the energy efficiency of TDSP. Design example on a critical building block of facial recognition application was used to demonstrate the potential of the technique. The result in a 45nm technology shows 3.3X energy-delay product reduction and 34% area saving can be achieved using TDSP compared with conventional digital design technique.
Bacterial Meningitis; Presenting Complaints

The presenting complaints and their relation to age were investigated in 110 cases of childhood bacterial meningitis diagnosed at the Depts of Pediatrics, Universities of Oulu, Helsinki, and Turku, Finland.
Reflections on LMS: exploring front-end alternatives

Metaprogramming techniques to generate code at runtime in a general-purpose meta-language have seen a surge of interest in recent years, driven by the widening performance gap between high-level languages and emerging hardware platforms. In the context of Scala, the LMS (Lightweight Modular Staging) framework has contributed to ``abstraction without regret''--high-level programming without performance penalty--in a number of challenging domains, through runtime code generation and embedded compiler pipelines based on stacks of DSLs. Based on this experience, this paper crystallizes some of the design decisions of LMS and discusses potential alternatives, which maintain the underlying spirit but differ in implementation choices: specifically, strategies for realizing more flexible front-end embeddings using type classes instead of higher-kinded types, and strategies for type-safe metaprogramming with untyped intermediate representations.
A GSM/GPRS receiver front-end with discrete-time filters in a 90 nm digital CMOS

An RF receiver front-end for a GSM/GPRS radio system-on-chip in a 90 nm digital CMOS technology is presented. The circuit consisting of low noise amplifier, transconductance amplifier and switching mixer, offers 32.5 dB dynamic range with digitally-configurable voltage gain of 40 dB down to 7.5 dB. A series of decimation and discrete-time filtering follows the mixer and performs a highly-linear second-order low-pass filtering to reject close-in interferers. The front-end gains can be configured with an automatic-gain-control to select an optimal setting to form a trade-off between noise figure and linearity and to compensate the process and temperature variations. Even under the digital switching activity, noise figure at the 40 dB maximum gain is 1.8 dB and +50 dBm IIP/sub 2/ at the 34 dB gain. The variation of the input matching versus multiple gains is less than 1 dB. The circuit in total occupies 3.1 mm/sup 2/. The LNA, TA and mixer consume less than 15.3 mA at a supply voltage of 1.4 V.
Association of Mannose Binding Lectin (MBL-2) Deficiency with Pulmonary Infection after Allogeneic Hematopoietic Stem Cell Transplantation (HSCT).

Background: Low MBL2 concentration and MBL2 genotype variants have been associated with an increased risk of infection in various clinical settings. Pulmonary infection is a major complication of HSCT. We examined the relationship of MBL genotypes with post-engraftment bacterial (B-PNA) and fungal (F-PNA) pneumonia Methods: Retrospective review of 236 non-consecutive, non-selected patients who underwent HSCT at MSKCC from 1/1/2000–4/30/2007. Microbiologically confirmed infections and pneumonias were recorded. Antifungal prophylaxis consisted of fluconazole 400 mg daily. Patients at high risk for mold infection received mold-active prophylaxis. After 1/1/2006 voriconazole was the first line anti-mold prophylaxis. Genotype was determined by PR-Melting Curve Analysis on blood or buccal swab specimens. MBL genotype was classified as wild-type: A/A (MBL-sufficient, MBL-S) or variant-type: A/O, O/O (MBL deficient, MBL-D). Patients were followed for up to 2 years. Statistical analysis: Fisher’s Exact test was used to compare the incidence rate between MBL-S and MBL-D patients. Multivariate logistical regression models were used to investigate the relationship between bacterial or fungal pneumonia and MBL genotype, matched related donor (MRD), myeloablative conditioning (MC) peripheral blood as stem cell source (PBSC), acute GVHD grade 2–4 (aGVHD). The results from Maximum Likelihood Estimates were summarized. Results: Transplant characteristics: 80% MC, 76% PBSC, 48.6% MRD. Incidence of aGVHD: 22.4%. MBL genotypes: One-hundred and forty-two (60%) patients were homozygous for wild-type MBL2 (AA), 85(36%) were heterozygous (A/0) and 9 (3.8%) were homozygous for variant genotypes (OO). Transplant characteristics, rates of GVHD, relapse-free and overall survival were similar between MBL-D and MBL-S. There was higher incidence of overall bacterial infections in MBL-D compared to MBL-S pts (47.87% vs 36.62%, p=0.1049). MBL-D had a higher incidence of B-PNA (12.7% vs 4.9%, p=0.048). In multivariate logistic regression analysis, MBL-D(p=0.04) and aGVHD(p=0.06) were likely associated with B-PNA. Rates of overall fungal infections and F-PNA were similar [among MBL-D and MBL-S pts (12.77% vs 9.86%, p=0.5277) and (8.51% vs 7.75%, p=0.1049) respectively]. In multivariate logistic regression analysis only aGVHD was statistically significantly associated with F-PNA p=0.0002. Conclusions: 1) MBL-D genotype was likely associated with increased risk of bacterial pneumonia. 2) MBL-D and aGVHD were risk factors for B-PNA. 3) Further analyses are in progress to evaluate the effect of MBL-D on fungal pneumonia in patients who received mold prophylaxis versus patients who did not receive mold prophylaxis. 4) Prospective studies are needed to assess the relative contribution of MBL-D genotype on the risk of pulmonary infection in HSCT.
Sonographic Evaluation of Intrathyroid Metastases.

Objectives Intrathyroid metastases from extrathyroid primary tumors are rare. Clinical findings may be subtle, but detection of intrathyroid metastases has improved with sonography. The objective of this study was to evaluate the sonographic appearance of intrathyroid metastases. Methods Patients with thyroid masses with cytopathologic features matching those of an extrathyroid primary tumor were retrospectively identified. The appearances of intrathyroid metastases on sonography were reviewed for the following features: size, margin regularity, echogenicity, echotexture, vascularity on power or color Doppler ultrasonography, and the presence or absence of any associated cervical adenopathy. Results The study included 52 patients. The most frequent primary tumor sites were lung, head and neck, and breast. Intrathyroid metastases presented as a discrete nodule in 34 patients and as diffuse infiltration of the gland in 18 patients. The discrete nodules ranged in size from 1.1 to 5.6 cm (mean ± SD, 2.5 ± 1.2 cm). Thirty-three lesions (63%) had irregular margins, and 19 (37%) had well-defined margins. Most of the lesions were heterogeneously hypoechoic (n = 50, 96%). Vascularity was present in 32 of 50 measured lesions (64%) that were evaluated with Doppler sonography. Cervical adenopathy was present in 37 patients (71%). Conclusions Intrathyroid metastases have sonographic characteristics similar to those described for both benign and malignant thyroid diseases. In patients with a previous or current extrathyroid malignancy, thyroid nodules or diffuse infiltration of the thyroid gland on sonography should be viewed as a potential intrathyroid metastasis and evaluated via ultrasound-guided fine-needle aspiration regardless of the site of the primary tumor.
Clinical Informatics and Patient Safety at the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality.

In 1998, the Institute of Medicine (IOM) issued a report on medical errors, which estimated that up to 98,000 people die in U.S. hospitals each year from errors. This report raised concerns that medical errors have become a national public health problem that should be addressed in the same manner as other epidemics such as heart disease, diabetes, and obesity. In 2001, the IOM released a follow-up report encompassing a broader range of quality issues. They concluded that the U.S. healthcare system is outmoded and incapable of providing consistent, high-quality care. They outlined a strategy for redesigning U.S. healthcare delivery to achieve safe, dependable, high-quality care, which emphasizes information technology as an integral part of the solution. AHRQ's fiscal year 2001 appropriation included $50 million dollars for initiatives to reduce medical errors and improve patient safety. AHRQ responded to this mandate by developing a series of research solicitations that form an integrated set of activities to design and test best practices for reducing errors in multiple health care settings. This paper discusses the components of this program and the central role of medical informatics research in the Agency's efforts to improve the safety of medical care in America.
Internal validation of an automated system for brachial and femoral flow mediated dilation

Flow Mediated Dilation (FMD) has immense potential to become a clinical, non-invasive biomarker of endothelial function and nitric oxide bioavailability, which regulate vasomotor activity. Unfortunately, FMD analysis techniques could deviate significantly in different laboratories if a validation process is not involved. The purpose of this study was to provide validation to the assessment of FMD analysis in our laboratory and to standardize this process before reporting results of FMD. Brachial and femoral arteries FMD were performed on 28 apparently healthy participants (15 male and 13 female, ages 18–35 years). For the intratester reliability study, nine subjects were asked to come to the lab for a second brachial FMD within 48 h. All FMD procedures were performed by the same investigator, while the FMD analyses were performed by 2 independent testers who were blind to each other’s analyses. FMD analyses included baseline artery diameter measurements, peak artery diameter after 5 min of ischemia, and FMD. Analysis was completed via an automated edge detection system by both testers after training of the methodical process of analysis to minimize variability. Intratester and intertester reliability were determined by using coefficient of variation (CV) between first and second visit (intratester) and between results obtained by both testers (intertester). The intratester CVs for tester 1 and 2 were 3.28 and 2.62%, 3.74 and 3.27%, and 4.95 and 2.38% for brachial baseline artery diameter, brachial peak artery dilation, and brachial FMD, respectively. In the intertester CVs were 2.40, 3.16, and 3.37% for brachial baseline artery diameter, peak artery dilation, and FMD, respectively and 4.52, 5.50, and 3.46% for femoral baseline artery diameter, peak artery dilation, and FMD, respectively. All CVs were under or around 5%, confirming a strong reliability of the method. Our laboratory has shown that the FMD protocol is reproducible due to the significantly low coefficient of variation. This is one step closer to use FMD as a biomarker for endothelial function in our laboratory.
EGFR-targeted therapies in the post-genomic era

Over 90% of head and neck cancers overexpress the epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR). In diverse tumor types, EGFR overexpression has been associated with poorer prognosis and outcomes. Therapies targeting EGFR include monoclonal antibodies, tyrosine kinase inhibitors, phosphatidylinositol 3-kinase (PI3K) inhibitors, and antisense gene therapy. Few EGFR-targeted therapeutics are approved for clinical use. The monoclonal antibody cetuximab is a Food and Drug Administration (FDA)-approved EGFR-targeted therapy, yet has exhibited modest benefit in clinical trials. The humanized monoclonal antibody nimotuzumab is also approved for head and neck cancers in Cuba, Argentina, Colombia, Peru, India, Ukraine, Ivory Coast, and Gabon in addition to nasopharyngeal cancers in China. Few other EGFR-targeted therapeutics for head and neck cancers have led to as significant responses as seen in lung carcinomas, for instance. Recent genome sequencing of head and neck tumors has helped identify patient subgroups with improved response to EGFR inhibitors, for example, cetuximab in patients with the KRAS-variant and the tyrosine kinase inhibitor erlotinib for tumors harboring MAPK1E322K mutations. Genome sequencing has furthermore broadened our understanding of dysregulated pathways, holding the potential to enhance the benefit derived from therapies targeting EGFR.