cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Non-linear dynamic response of a rotating radial Timoshenko beam with periodic pulse loading at the free-end

Abstract Consideration is given to the dynamic response of a Timoshenko beam under repeated pulse loading. Starting with the basic dynamical equations for a rotating radial cantilever Timoshenko beam clamped at the hub in a centrifugal force field, a system of equations are derived for coupled axial and lateral motions which includes the transverse shear and rotary inertia effects, as well. The hyperbolic wave equation governing the axial motion is coupled with the flexural wave equation governing the lateral motion of the beam through the velocity-dependent skew-symmetric Coriolis force terms. In the analytical formulation, Rayleigh–Ritz method with a set of sinusoidal displacement shape functions is used to determine stiffness, mass and gyroscopic matrices of the system. The tip of the rotating beam is subjected to a periodic pulse load due to local rubbing against the outer case introducing Coulomb friction in the system. Transient response of the beam with the tip deforming due to rub is discussed in terms of the frequency shift and non-linear dynamic response of the rotating beam. Numerical results are presented for this vibro-impact problem of hard rub with varying coefficients of friction and the contact-load time. The effects of beam tip rub forces transmitted through the system are considered to analyze the conditions for dynamic stability of a rotating blade with intermittent rub.
Operative Experience and Follow-Up in a Cohort of Patients with a BMI ≥70 kg/m2

BACKGROUND Roux-en-Y gastric bypass (RYGBP) has been found to be a safe and effective operation for the morbidly obese whether performed open or laparoscopically. Weight loss has been substantial and sustained. Less is known about those at the extremes of obesity, with BMI > or =70 kg/m2 with regard to safety and efficacy. This study is a retrospective review of a cohort of such patients, to examine operative experience and response to surgical treatment. METHODS A cohort of 34 patients who underwent open RYGBP at one institution was retrospectively reviewed. All operations were performed by a single surgeon. Operative outcome was examined, including early mortality, morbidity, need for intensive (ICU) care and hospital length of stay (LOS). Percent of excess weight lost (EWL) and percent reduction of BMI after at least 1 year of follow-up were determined. Late mortality was assessed. RESULTS There were 22 females and 12 males with mean age 42.0 + 8.1 years and mean BMI 78.3 + 8.5 kg/m2. Obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) was found in 19/34 (58%) and hypoventilation syndrome of obesity (HSO) in 11/34 (32%). There was 1 early death (3 months) from renal failure. 7 patients (21%) developed complications, 3 major (pulmonary embolus, wound dehiscence) and 4 minor (wound infection). 16 patients (47%) required ICU, and 12 (35%) required extended mechanical ventilation. Hospital LOS was 10.3 +/- 10.4 days for all patients. There were 4 late deaths (12%) from 7 to 36 months after RYGBP. Mean percent EWL was 61 +/- 17 and mean percent reduction in BMI was 44 +/- 11. For those followed at least 36 months, weight loss was sustained in 12/14 patients. CONCLUSIONS RYGBP can be performed safely, even at the extremes of weight. While technically challenging, there were no instances of intra-abdominal sepsis. Postoperative complications were few. Need for ICU and hospital LOS is greater, reflecting the incidence of pre-existing pulmonary problems. Weight loss is significant and appears to be sustained in most patients. Late deaths have been noted and deserve careful scrutiny.
Comparison of 3 L-α-acetyl-methadol (laam) Maintenance Strategies for Heroin Dependence

Aims Heroin dependence continues to be a major public health concern, with high relapse rates. The gold standard treatment for this disorder is long-term opioid maintenance. Dosing strategies for maintenance treatments have evolved over several decades, with lingering questions concerning optimal dosing regimens. Design and Setting The current study compared the effectiveness of 3 dosing regimens of the opioid agonist L-α-acetyl-methadol (LAAM) in a randomized controlled double-blind trial. Intervention One hundred and fourteen active heroin-dependent subjects meeting study criteria were randomly assigned to 1 of 3 LAAM dosing strategies (fixed dose, dose on the basis of subject weight, or variable dosing on the basis of efficacy and side effects). Subject selection included a stated goal of subsequent participation in a dose-reduction study. Subjects underwent a 28-day induction period followed by 5 months of LAAM maintenance therapy. Findings Treatment with LAAM resulted in a significant decrease in non-LAAM opioid-positive urine screens in all dosing groups, with few (∼10%) positive urine screens by the end of the 5-month maintenance period. No differences were detected between the 3 dosing strategies. Rates of attrition during medication induction were 20% and reached 50% by the end of the study period. LAAM was well tolerated, with few side effects. Subjects with methadone treatment experience reported a clear preference for LAAM. Conclusions This study demonstrates the efficacy of LAAM, with equivalent results across the 3 dosing conditions. Although no significant difference among the conditions emerged, dosing to weight may be the most useful standardizing strategy for early maintenance beyond research settings.
The Lease-Purchase Decision for Agricultural Assets

The decision to lease or purchase an asset is analyzed with methodology adapted from the corporate finance literature. The methodology allows determination of a break-even lease payment using a minimum of information. Symmetry between the lessee and lessor is also examined. Effects of changes in the discount rate, marginal tax rate, capital rationing, and other parameters on break-even lease payments are examined analytically and numerically. Analysis of differences in the parameters of the lessee and lessor identifies conditions under which markets for leasing arrangements will exist.
Authentic Assessments: Praxis for the Distance Librarian.

Distance librarians continually develop information literacy instruction in a variety of formats. Assessment, when it occurs, tends to be of the traditional multiple-choice variety and does not measure more complex skills. Authentic assessments offer the instruction librarian a way to re-think their instruction strategies and assessment of student learning. The characteristics of authentic assessments are presented along with the use of threshold concepts as a theoretical framework for making decisions about when to employ authentic assessments. In addition, a method will be presented for breaking down more abstract information literacy concepts in ways that yield measurable tasks for students to complete along with criteria for assessment.
Dopant passivation and work function tuning through attachment of heterogeneous organic monolayers on silicon in ultrahigh vacuum

Abstract Electronic structures of silicon–organic interfaces were studied by the scanning Kelvin probe technique. These surfaces were fabricated by covalent bonding of a range of phenylacetylene-based molecules ( p -X–C 6 H 4 C CH, where X = CF 3 , OCH 3 , and H) onto a hydrogen-terminated silicon surface. Organic molecules were bound to the surface under high vacuum conditions by ultraviolet light-induced hydrosilylation. Changes in the electronic structure due to electron-donating ability and dipole moment were analyzed under dark and illuminated conditions. The origin of the silicon band bending was tested to separate the effects of molecular monolayers and unintended dopant passivation. In addition, heterogeneous monolayers were grown by controllably diluting the incoming vapor stream with acetylene during growth. The measured work functions follow a trend linked to dipole moment that can be further tuned by molecular dilution. These results suggest a way to use heterogeneous organic monolayers to tune the electron affinity of silicon and directly alter channel modulation in small semiconductor devices.
Cardiac motion estimation from MR image sequences

A method to reconstruct motion using magnetic resonance (MR) imaging is presented. Magnetic resonance imaging tagging is used to create intensity gradients within objects, where the intensity would otherwise be largely constant. Since the tag field decays with T1, a modified optical flow algorithm is developed and implemented. Object parameters T1, T2, and D0 are required to be known across the image at the time the tag field is created; motion is then determined by computing optical flow between pairs of images and estimating the implied motion reference map at each pixel site.
Soil salinity and sugarcane juice quality

Sugarcane (Saccharum spp. hybrids) juice quality is reduced by soil salinity. If the effect of salinity in commercial production is predictable, it will be possible to estimate juice quality in salt-affected fields prior to harvest. Variation in the effects of soil salinity on sugarcane juice quality in commercial production was assessed using 15-stalk samples harvested in 1992 and 1993 from a salt-affected commercial field of CP 70-321 sugarcane. Mean electrical conductivity (ECe) of saturated water extracts of 54 (1992) or 74 (1993) soil cores from 0–30, 30–60, and 60–90 cm depths were used to calculate mean ECe at each site, which ranged from 0.5–17.0 dS m−1. Most of the increase in ECe was due to increases in Na+ and Cl−. Magnesium, Ca2+ and K+ were also present. Stalk samples were harvested from 29 (1992) or 30 (1993) sites, with ECe ranging from 0.5 to 9.5 dS m−1. Each dS m−1 increase in ECe decreased Brix (% soluble solids in juice) and Pol (% sucrose in juice) by about 0.6%, decreased apparent purity (Pol as % of Brix) by 1.3% in 1993, increased juice conductivity 0.8 dS m−1, and increased cane residue (fiber) 0.5%. Effects of ECe on Brix, Pol and conductivity were very similar between years, indicating that the response of juice quality to salinity is predictable. This should allow development of sugar quality maps of commercial sugarcane fields for site-specific management decisions. Recoverable sugar yield per ton cane and per hectare were reduced by ECe in both years. In 1992, juice osmolality was less at the higher ECe sites, but in 1993 it was unaffected by ECe. About 90% of the osmolality of the juice was accounted for by the solutes analyzed (total sugar, Na+, K+, Ca2+, Mg2+, and Cl−). Potassium was the most abundant cation in the sugarcane juice (52.5 to 107 mmolc l−1). In 1992 there was a weak curvilinear (R2 = 0.35) increase in juice K+ as ECe increased, while in 1993 K+ tended to increase linearly with ECe (r2 = 0.20). Juice Na+ increased with ECe from 4.9 to 37.4 mmolc l−1. There were also increases in juice Mg+ (11.3 to 42.0 mmolc l−1) and Ca2+ (2.2 to 22.4 mmolc l−1), with increased ECe. Most of the increase in juice conductivity was due to increases in Cl− (30.8 to 106 mmolc l−1). For most attributes there were no significant differences between years. This study shows in greater detail than most previous studies how soil salinity affects juice ionic composition, osmolality, and the accepted industry measurements of juice quality, Brix, Pol, apparent purity, and conductivity.
Removal of mutagens from drinking water by granular activated carbon. Evaluation using bacterial mutagenicity tests

Abstract The performance of a full-scale granular activated carbon (GAC) treatment system in removing mutagens from drinking water obtained from the Ohio River has been evaluated using two bacterial mutagenicity tests. The Salmonella /microsome assay (Ames Test) and a fluctuation assay were both performed using Salmonella typhimurium strains TA98 and TA100. Influent and effluent waters were collected at two GAC adsorbers, one filled with virgin GAC and one with nearly exhausted GAC. The samples were submitted to reverse osmosis (RO) pre-concentration, sequential liquid-liquid extractions and XAD-2 resin adsorption. The RO aqueous concentrations of both influents gave positive mutagenic responses with both strains in the fluctuation assay but no activity in the Ames test. The extracts and adsorbates showed mutagenic responses in the Ames test with both strains, the highest values being observed with TA100 in the absence of metabolic activation. The summation of mutagenic activity on the basis of net revertants per liter indicated that exhausted GAC removed a substantial fraction (more than 85%) of the mutagenic activity whereas virtually complete removal was observed with virgin GAC. These data suggest that short-term mutagenicity tests may be useful in evaluating the performance of GAC or other adsorbents used in the treatment of drinking water.
Ion exchange membrane-platinum composites as electrically controllable artificial muscles

Ion exchange membranes (JEM) chemically treated with platinum salt so1uions gives rise to IEM-platinum composites that undergo large deformations in an electric field of a few volts (2-4 volts/mm). They also show remarkable vibrational characteristics of about 80 lIz bandwidth. A simple theoretical treatment as well as some experimental evidence on the dependence of deformation amplitude on the imposed voltages and frequencies are presented.© (1996) COPYRIGHT SPIE--The International Society for Optical Engineering. Downloading of the abstract is permitted for personal use only.
cAMP and protein kinase A contribute to the downregulation of spinal glutamate transporters after chronic morphine.

Abstract Our previous study has shown that spinal glutamate transporters (GTs) are downregulated following chronic morphine administration; however, how spinal GTs are regulated in this process remains unclear. Here we show that the downregulation of spinal GTs (EAAC1 and GLT-1) induced by a 6-day intrathecal morphine (10 μg, twice daily) treatment regimen was prevented by co-administration of morphine with 2′,5′-dideoxyadenosine (ddA, 1 μg, a broad adenylyl cyclase inhibitor) or H89 (10 μg, a selective protein kinase A inhibitor). When co-administered with morphine, ddA or H89 also effectively attenuated the development of morphine tolerance in the same rats, while ddA or H89 alone did not affect the baseline nociceptive response. These results indicate that the downregulation of spinal GTs following chronic morphine is at least in part mediated through the intracellular cyclic AMP and protein kinase A pathway, suggesting that this cellular mechanism of GT regulation may be contributory to the development of morphine tolerance in rats.
Effects of ultraviolet radiation on the pathogenesis of Mycobacterium lepraemurium infection in mice.

Abstract The purpose of this study was to determine whether exposing mice to ultraviolet radiation (UVR) would alter the pathogenesis of infection with Mycobacterium lepraemurium (MLM), which causes a chronic, progressive, lethal disease in susceptible mouse strains. BALB/c mice were irradiated on dorsal skin with various doses of UVR from FS40 sunlamps 3 days before infection with MLM in the hind footpad. The course of disease was followed by assessing the number of acid-fast bacteria in the footpad, regional lymph node and spleen, and measuring the size of the lesion at the site of MLM infection at various times after infection. Mice were also tested periodically for a delayed-type hypersensitivity (DTH) response by injecting MLM antigen into the uninfecled footpad and measuring footpad swelling 24 hours later. Mice treated with a single high dose of UVR (45 kJ/m2) had significantly more bacteria in the infected footpad, lymph node and spleen than unirradiated control animals. They also had larger lesions at the site of MLM infection and exhibited significant suppression of the DTH response at 3 and 6 months after infection. Injection of mice s.c. in the footpad with MLM 3 d after 45 kJ/m2 UVR reduced the median survival time from 391 to 305 d and after i.v. infection from 171 to 139 d. Dose-response studies indicated that exposing mice to 2.3 kJ/m2 of UVR, which is approximately 1 minimal erythemal dose for this strain, suppressed the DTH response by 50% at 3 months alter infection. Significant increases in the number of bacteria in the footpad, spleen and lymph node were detected with doses of UVR≥5.6 kJ/m2. Mice exposed chronically to UV radiation also showed impaired responses to MLM. Thus, exposing mice to a single or multiple doses of UVR before infection increased the severity of a chronic mycobacterial infection and decreased the immune response to mycobacterial antigens.
Convection-enhanced delivery of targeted toxins for malignant glioma

Malignant gliomas represent a difficult treatment challenge for the neuro-oncologist and the neurosurgeon. These tumours continue to be refractory to standard therapies, such as surgery, radiotherapy and conventional chemotherapy, and new therapeutic options are clearly needed. Therefore, investigators have recently taken a new direction and started to engineer compounds such as recombinant cytotoxins, antiangiogenesis factors and genetic delivery vectors. However, these promising new agents are all dependent on an effective distribution method in order to bypass the blood–brain barrier. Convection-enhanced delivery (CED) allows for the administration of targeted toxins and other agents directly into the brain at the site of a tumour via catheters placed with the aid of stereotactic or image-guided surgery. The use of this technique is gaining momentum as a newly accepted treatment modality where little else has produced durable results in the fight against gliomas. Direct intratumoural infusion was first...
The failure of medical education to develop moral reasoning in medical students.

Objectives: The goal of this study was to determine differences in moral judgment among students in medical school. Methods: This cross-sectional study involved students currently enrolled in undergraduate medical education. Recruited via email, 192 students took an online version of the Defining Issues Test to determine their current stage of moral judgment, as well as their percentage of postconventional thought. Independent variables included year of graduation, which indicated curriculum completion as well as participation in a professionalism course. Data was analyzed primarily using One-Way Analysis of Variance. Results: Of the 192 participants, 165 responses were utilized. ANOVA showed no significant differences in moral judgment between or among any of the student cohorts, which were grouped by year of matriculation. Comparisons included students in the four years of medical school, divided by graduation year; students about to graduate (n=30) vs. those still in school (n=135); and students who had participated in a course in professionalism (n=91) vs. those who had not (n=74). Conclusions: These results demonstrate a lack of evolution in the moral reasoning of medical students and raise the issue of what might stimulate positive changes in moral judgment during the medical school experience.
Smoothness of Schubert varieties via patterns in root subsystems

The aim of this article is to present a smoothness criterion for Schubert varieties in generalized flag manifolds G/B in terms of patterns in root systems. We generalize Lakshmibai-Sandhya's well-known result that says that a Schubert variety in SL(n)/B is smooth if and only if the corresponding permutation avoids the patterns 3412 and 4231. Our criterion is formulated uniformly in general Lie theoretic terms. We define a notion of pattern in Weyl group elements and show that a Schubert variety is smooth (or rationally smooth) if and only if the corresponding element of the Weyl group avoids a certain finite list of patterns. These forbidden patterns live only in root subsystems with star-shaped Dynkin diagrams. In the simply-laced case the list of forbidden patterns is especially simple: besides two patterns of type A"3 that appear in Lakshmibai-Sandhya's criterion we only need one additional forbidden pattern of type D"4. In terms of these patterns, the only difference between smoothness and rational smoothness is a single pattern in type B"2. Remarkably, several other important classes of elements in Weyl groups can also be described in terms of forbidden patterns. For example, the fully commutative elements in Weyl groups have such a characterization. In order to prove our criterion we used several known results for the classical types. For the exceptional types, our proof is based on computer verifications. In order to conduct such a verification for the computationally challenging type E"8, we derived several general results on Poincare polynomials of cohomology rings of Schubert varieties based on parabolic decomposition, which have an independent interest.
Male gametophyte development in bread wheat (Triticum aestivum L.): molecular, cellular, and biochemical analyses of a sporophytic contribution to pollen wall ontogeny.

Summary Bread wheat (hexaploid AABBDD genome; 16 billion basepairs) is a genetically complex, self-pollinating plant with bisexual flowers that produce short-lived pollen. Very little is known about the molecular biology of its gametophyte development despite a longstanding interest in hybrid seeds. We present here a comprehensive characterization of three apparently homeologous genes (TAA1a, TAA1b and TAA1c) and demonstrate their anther-specific biochemical function. These eight-exon genes, found at only one copy per haploid complement in this large genome, express specifically within the sporophytic tapetum cells. The presence of TAA1 mRNA and protein was evident only at specific stages of pollen development as the microspore wall thickened during the progression of free microspores into vacuolated-microspores. This temporal regulation matched the assembly of wall-impregnated sporopollenin, a phenylpropanoid-lipid polymer containing very long chain fatty alcohols (VLCFAlc), described in the literature. Our results establish that sporophytic genes contribute to the production of fatty alcohols: Transgenic expression of TAA1 afforded production of long/VLCFAlc in tobacco seeds (18 : 1; 20 : 1; 22 : 1; 24 : 0; 26 : 0) and in Escherichia coli (14 : 0; 16 : 0; 18 : 1), suggesting biochemical versatility of TAA1 with respect to cellular milieu and substrate spectrum. Pollen walls additionally contain fatty alcohols in the form of wax esters and other lipids, and some of these lipids are known to play a role in the highly specific sexual interactions at the pollen–pistil interface. This study provides a handle to study these and to manipulate pollen traits, and, furthermore, to understand the molecular biology of fatty alcohol metabolism in general.
Cross-national meat and fish consumption: exploring the effects of modernization and ecological context

Abstract Production and consumption of meat and fish have serious consequences for global food security and the environment. An understanding of the factors that influence meat and fish consumption is important for developing a sustainable food production and distribution system. For a sample of 132 nations, we use ordinary-least-squares (OLS) regression to assess the effects of modernization and ecological context on per capita meat and fish consumption. We find that ecological conditions in a nation, such as resource availability and climate, influence meat and fish consumption. Additionally, indicators of modernization, particularly economic development, influence the consumption of both meat and fish. However, the effect of economic development on consumption patterns is distinctly different among geographic regions. We conclude that in order to understand national dietary patterns, researchers need to take into account not only ecological context and economic development, but also regional/cultural factors.
Classification and retrieval of knowledge on a parallel marker-passing architecture

Frame-based systems or semantic networks have been generally used for knowledge representation. In such a knowledge representation system, concepts in the knowledge base are organized based on the subsumption relation between concepts, and classification is a process of constructing a concept hierarchy according to the subsumption relationships. Since the classification process involves search and subsumption test between concepts, classification on a large knowledge base may become unacceptably slow, especially for real-time applications. In this paper, a massively parallel classification and property retrieval algorithm on a marker passing architecture is presented. The subsumption relation is first defined by using the set relationship, and the parallel classification algorithm is described based on that relationship. In this algorithm, subsumption test between two concepts is done by parallel marker passing and multiple subsumption tests are performed simultaneously. To investigate the performance of the algorithm, time complexities of sequential and parallel classification are compared. Simulation of the parallel classification algorithm was performed using the SNAP (Semantic Network Array Processor) simulator, and the influence of several factors on the execution time is discussed. >
Twin study of Parkinson disease

Zero concordance for Parkinson disease was found in the first 12 monozygotic twin pairs examined in an ongoing twin study. One co-twin (subject without Parkinson disease) had essential tremor, another had cerebral vascular disease, and a third was an alcoholic. Cigarette smoking appeared to be less frequent in the probands than in the co-twins (11.9 versus 16.1 pack-years). There was also evidence of premorbid personality differences between probands and co-twins dating back to late adolescence or early adult years. These preliminary findings suggest that genetic factors do not play a major role in the etiology of Parkinson disease and point to a prodromal onset of the disease as early as late adolescence or early adult life.
Increased in vitro thyrotropic activity of partially sialated human chorionic gonadotropin extracted from hydatidiform moles of patients with hyperthyroidism.

The intrinsic thyrotropic activity of hCG purified from normal pregnancy urine has been demonstrated in several laboratories. hCG has a specific thyrotropic potency of about 0.04-0.5 microU bovine (b) TSH/IU hCG, depending on the bioassay system. The corresponding potency for hCG derived from pathological sources, such as hydatidiform moles and choriocarcinoma tissue, or from the serum of these patients has not been studied as extensively. Since the biological activity of glycoproteins can be strongly influenced by variations in the oligosaccharide side-chain composition, we have investigated the effect of anion exchange chromatography on the thyrotropic potency of hCG derived from the hydatidiform mole and serum of three hyperthyroid patients with molar pregnancy. The activity for the fraction of total molar hCG immunoreactivity that was not retained by an anion exchange column (0.18-0.90 microM bTSH/IU hCG) was about twice that of the corresponding serum and molar hCG fraction eluting during the NaCl gr...
The dual-path execution model for efficient GPU control flow

Current graphics processing units (GPUs) utilize the single instruction multiple thread (SIMT) execution model. With SIMT, a group of logical threads executes such that all threads in the group execute a single common instruction on a particular cycle. To enable control flow to diverge within the group of threads, GPUs partially serialize execution and follow a single control flow path at a time. The execution of the threads in the group that are not on the current path is masked. Most current GPUs rely on a hardware reconvergence stack to track the multiple concurrent paths and to choose a single path for execution. Control flow paths are pushed onto the stack when they diverge and are popped off of the stack to enable threads to reconverge and keep lane utilization high. The stack algorithm guarantees optimal reconvergence for applications with structured control flow as it traverses the structured control-flow tree depth first. The downside of using the reconvergence stack is that only a single path is followed, which does not maximize available parallelism, degrading performance in some cases. We propose a change to the stack hardware in which the execution of two different paths can be interleaved. While this is a fundamental change to the stack concept, we show how dual-path execution can be implemented with only modest changes to current hardware and that parallelism is increased without sacrificing optimal (structured) control-flow reconvergence. We perform a detailed evaluation of a set of benchmarks with divergent control flow and demonstrate that the dual-path stack architecture is much more robust compared to previous approaches for increasing path parallelism. Dual-path execution either matches the performance of the baseline single-path stack architecture or outperforms single-path execution by 14.9% on average and by over 30% in some cases.
Robust Speaker Recognition Using Binary Time-Frequency Masks

Conventional speaker recognition systems perform poorly under noisy conditions. In this paper, we evaluate binary time-frequency masks for robust speaker recognition. An ideal binary mask is a priori defined as a binary matrix where 1 indicates that the target is stronger than the interference within the corresponding time-frequency unit and 0 indicates otherwise. We perform speaker identification and verification using a missing data recognizer under cochannel and other noise conditions, and show that the ideal binary mask provides large performance gains. By employing a speech segregation system that estimates the ideal binary mask, we achieve significant improvements over alternative approaches. Our study, thus, demonstrates that the use of binary masking represents a promising direction for robust speaker recognition.
Probing two-photon exchange with OLYMPUS

Two-photon exchange is believed to be responsible for the discrepancies in the proton electric to magnetic form factor ratio found with the Rosenbluth and polarization transfer methods. If this explanation is correct, one expects significant di erences in the lepton-proton cross sections between positrons and electrons. The OLYMPUS experi- ment at DESY in Hamburg, Germany was designed to measure the ratio of unpolarized positron-proton and electron-proton elastic scattering cross sections over a wide kine- matic range with high precision, in order to quantify the e ect of two-photon exchange. The experiment used intense beams of electrons and positrons stored in the DORIS ring at 2.0 GeV interacting with an internal windowless hydrogen gas target. The current status of OLYMPUS will be discussed.
Houses of style: Consumption, adornment, and identity in formative tlaxcalan households

The households of Formative period central Mexico represent critical loci for understanding major social transformations during a millennium (900 b.c.– a.d. 100) that witnessed the expansion and contraction of several macro-regional stylistic and economic networks, formalization of enduring political and religious institutions, and initial urbanization and state formation. Households and their constituent members used style to articulate important elements of their identity through practices of group consumption and personal adornment. In this study we consider style within the context of ceramic serving vessels and portable adornments primarily from sites in the state of Tlaxcala. We evaluate the manner in which dimensions of stylistic expression in these material goods contributed to shifting conceptualizations of household and individual identity and their articulation with community and supra-community social networks, noting the generally collective or affinitive manipulation of styles with means of socially differentiating age, status, and other dimensions of identity.
A theoretical analysis of normal- and impaired-hearing intensity discrimination

Interpretation of psychophysical data from impaired-hearing individuals on intensity discrimination tasks has been confounded by the fact that some impaired individuals' performance is near-normal in quiet, whereas for others, the difference limen is elevated. It has been observed that a subject's discrimination abilities may be related to the underlying audiogram configuration, which is often dependent on the type of physiological damage that has occurred. This suggests that data be grouped and analyzed according to the type of hearing loss. An experimental study by Schroder et al. (1994) tested the hypothesis that the near-normal performance of some impaired subjects was the result of a normal spread of excitation, rather than greater intensity resolution due to loudness recruitment. In this paper, we replicate the trends observed in Schroder et al.'s experimental data using a combination of signal detection theory and a computational auditory model. By linking simulated psychophysical predictions with the corresponding simulated physiological responses, this theoretical analysis provides further qualitative support for the hypothesis that the observed performance is due to the spread of excitation.
Ultrasonic destruction of chlorinated compounds in aqueous solution

The application of ultrasonic-wave energy for the destruction of low concentrations of carbon tetrachloride into nonhazardous end products is described, and the results of experimental work are presented. Process parameters studied included steady-state temperature, concentration, pH, irradiation time, and the intensity of the applied ultrasonic-wave energy. Greater than 99% destruction efficiencies were achieved through this process, and the irradiation time required for a given degree of destruction decreased with increasing intensity of the ultrasonic energy. In addition, a detailed chemical reaction mechanism for the destruction of carbon tetrachloride in water was formulated. The agreement between the model and experimental results is generally good. 22 refs., 12 figs., 1 tab.
Self-location is no problem for conditionalization

How do temporal and eternal beliefs interact? I argue that acquiring a tem- poral belief should have no effect on eternal beliefs for an important range of cases. Thus, I oppose the popular view that new norms of belief change must be introduced for cases where the only change is the passing of time. I defend this position from the purported counter-examples of the Prisoner and Sleeping Beauty. I distinguish two importantly different ways in which temporal beliefs can be acquired and draw some general conclusions about their impact on eternal beliefs.
A Case of Satoyoshi Syndrome: A Multisystem Disorder

A 14-year-old boy with Satoyoshi syndrome is reported. Less than 50 patients with Satoyoshi syndrome have been reported in the world literature. This patient had alopecia, muscle spasms, and skeletal abnormalities, which are three of the most common clinical features of Satoyoshi syndrome. Despite extensive laboratory evaluation, an alternate explanation was not documented for the cluster of clinical findings in this patient. Immune dysregulation is believed to be an underlying mechanism for the development of Satoyoshi syndrome. In contrast to some reports, this patient failed to respond to intravenous immunoglobulin therapy. However, he responded dramatically to steroids.
OH-BUDDY: Mobile Phone Texting Based Intervention for Diabetes and Oral Health Management

The high prevalence of co morbid chronic conditions among minorities and underserved individuals is a public health problem that deserves research attention. We used the Design Science Research approach to iteratively build a persuasive mobile phone texting (SMS) based behavior change support intervention (OH-Buddy) that (1) addresses co morbid diabetes and periodontal chronic conditions, (2) uses the ubiquitous SMS as an intervention delivery channel to make it accessible to underserved populations, (3) and uses an informal caregiver ("buddy") as a supplementary means of support for patients. We are currently evaluating the OH-Buddy intervention in terms of its ability to engage participants and enable them to better self-manage their conditions. Expected outcomes include improvement in oral hygiene, blood glucose monitoring, medication adherence, physical activity, and healthy eating. Preliminary results based on self-reported performance data indicates the existence of moderate but steady improvement in patient engagement and self-management.
Representations of faces and body parts in macaque temporal cortex: a functional MRI study.

Human neuroimaging studies suggest that areas in temporal cortex respond preferentially to certain biologically relevant stimulus categories such as faces and bodies. Single-cell studies in monkeys have reported cells in inferior temporal cortex that respond selectively to faces, hands, and bodies but provide little evidence of large clusters of category-specific cells that would form “areas.” We probed the category selectivity of macaque temporal cortex for representations of monkey faces and monkey body parts relative to man-made objects using functional MRI in animals trained to fixate. Two face-selective areas were activated bilaterally in the posterior and anterior superior temporal sulcus exhibiting different degrees of category selectivity. The posterior face area was more extensively activated in the right hemisphere than in the left hemisphere. Immediately adjacent to the face areas, regions were activated bilaterally responding preferentially to body parts. Our findings suggest a category-selective organization for faces and body parts in macaque temporal cortex.
Clinical Reasoning: A 50-year-old man with headache and cognitive decline.

A 50-year-old man presented with headache and cognitive decline 10 weeks after undergoing matched-donor peripheral blood stem cell transplantation for treatment of mixed-phenotype acute leukemia. His pretransplant treatment included systemic chemotherapy (cyclophosphamide, daunorubicin, vincristine, prednisone, l-asparaginase, dasatinib, and cytarabine), intrathecal chemotherapy (methotrexate), and total body irradiation. His posttransplant course had been complicated by cutaneous graft-vs-host disease. Over 1 month, he developed holocephalic, throbbing, temporal headache worse when standing and reported feeling confused. His family members reported progressively withdrawn affect, depressed mood, and decreased spontaneous activity. Before his illness, he worked in a cognitively demanding profession with no history of cognitive deficit.
High-Performance Zn–TiC–C Nanocomposite Alloy Anode with Exceptional Cycle Life for Lithium-Ion Batteries

A Zn-based nanocomposite has been prepared through a facile, low-cost high-energy mechanochemical process and employed as an anode material for lithium-ion batteries. Structural characterization reveals that the micrometer-sized Zn–TiC–C nanocomposite is composed of Zn nanocrystals uniformly dispersed in a multifunctional TiC and conductive carbon matrix with a tap density of 1.3 g cm–3. The Zn–TiC–C nanocomposite exhibits high reversible volumetric capacity (468 mA h cm–3), excellent cyclability over 800 cycles (79.2% retention), and good rate performance up to 12.5C (75% of its capacity at 0.25C rate). The enhanced electrochemical performance is mainly due to the presence of the well-mixed TiC + C matrix that plays an important role in providing high conductivity as well as mechanical buffer that mitigates the huge volume expansion and contraction during prolonged cycling. In addition, it prevents the particle growth by uniformly dispersing nanosized Zn within itself during cycling, maintaining high uti...
Limitations in the Analysis of Vibrational Sum-Frequency Spectra Arising from the Nonresonant Contribution

Sum frequency generation (SFG) spectroscopy is a powerful tool for probing the orientations of molecules at surfaces and interfaces, but oversimplification in the treatment of the nonresonant (NR) contribution has obscured some fundamental limitations in the analysis of SFG spectra. These difficulties are demonstrated for the case of polystyrene thin films. The NR signal invariably distorts the spectrum and can cause changes in the spectra even in the absence of actual structural changes. The NR signal originates not only from the substrate but from all materials in the system and should not be modeled as having a frequency-independent amplitude. Because of its complicated nature, NR signal must be isolated experimentally in order to obtain meaningful results. Suppression of NR signal, however, causes a different type of distortion, due to apodization of the resonant signal in the time-domain. Experimental methods need to be refined to take these limitations into account and to obtain unique spectral para...
A Methodology for Obtaining Optimum Gear Tooth Micro-Topographies for Noise and Stress Minimization Over a Broad Operating Torque Range

This paper presents a method of evaluating the effect of micro-geometric or micro-topographic variation on various gear performance parameters, such as noise excitations, gear contact and root stresses, film thickness, and surface temperature under loaded conditions. Micro geometries that are considered are profile crown, profile slope, lead crown, lead slope, and bias modifications variations. Various combinations of these micro geometries are considered in analytical simulations in which respective gear design metrics are evaluated based on the calculated load distributions. This paper will provide a walk through analysis for a helical gear design in order to describe the procedure.Copyright © 2007 by ASME
Characterization of pervious concrete through image based micromechanical modeling

Abstract Pervious concrete has been widely used in parking lots and airport fields. However, past experience has shown durability and strength of the pervious concrete remains a challenge for adopting them in wider applications, as the binding material proportion is low and the use of fine aggregates is nearly zero. When loading in compression, the failure appears first in the weak concrete zone induced by the random distribution of voids. The process continues until the failure of the whole specimen occurs. Thus, the position, size and shape distribution of voids in the pervious concrete microstructure control the overall behavior of the material. In this work, the influence of the distribution of voids on the strength, stiffness, and permeability of pervious concrete microstructure is studied by 2D image analysis and finite element modeling. The position and size distribution of the microstructure voids are first summarized through Fast Fourier Transformation (FFT) analysis. A finite element analysis is then conducted on the microstructure models regenerated through the derived microstructure characteristics using ANSYS Parametric Design Language (APDL). The effect of the sample size of 2D microstructures is studied by varying the section size and a possible representative volume element (RVE) is therefore found. Predicted stress-strain plots are generated for the 2D specimen under compressive load and the obtained results, including stiffness, strength and permeability are compared with the results from the experiments conducted following ASTM standards. The comparison between models and physical experiments showed around or above 90% accuracy, which validates the suggested micromechanical analysis method of the previous concrete composite.
How I treat patients with inherited bleeding disorders who need anticoagulant therapy

Situations that ordinarily necessitate consideration of anticoagulation, such as arterial and venous thrombotic events and prevention of stroke in atrial fibrillation, become challenging in patients with inherited bleeding disorders such as hemophilia A, hemophilia B, and von Willebrand disease. There are no evidence-based guidelines to direct therapy in these patients, and management strategies that incorporate anticoagulation must weigh a treatment that carries a risk of hemorrhage in a patient who is already at heightened risk against the potential consequences of not treating the thrombotic event. In this paper, we review atherothrombotic disease, venous thrombotic disease, and atrial fibrillation in patients with inherited bleeding disorders, and discuss strategies for using anticoagulants in this population using cases to illustrate these considerations.
Implementing computational models of dynamical systems with SCL

The modeling and implementation of dynamical systems with the SCL language are presented, this language was recently developed. Computational models of dynamical systems are used to study the behavior of systems over time. The mathematical formulation of dynamical systems use sets of difference and differential equations to describe the behavior of the systems they represent. A general-purpose Runge-Kutta fourth order method is applied to solve the corresponding set of differential equations. The SCL language uses the Gnu Scientific Library (GSL) as the main run-time library. A computational model is a computer implementation of the solution to a (scientific) problem for which a mathematical formulation has been derived. Developing a computational model involves a process of software development that involves applying Computer Science concepts, principles and methods. The formulation of a dynamical system with state equations and the use of the SCL language to solve computational models of dynamical systems are described. An example of a computational model of dynamical system is included. Additional features of the SCL are illustrated with additional software modules for the GUI and plot of the output data.
Analysis of the auger recombination rate in P+N−n−N−N HgCdTe detectors for HOT applications

Infrared (IR) photon detectors must be cryogenically cooled to provide the highest possible performance, usually to temperatures at or below ~ 150K. Such low operating temperatures (Top) impose very stringent requirements on cryogenic coolers. As such, there is a constant push in the industry to engineer new detector architectures that operate at higher temperatures, so called higher operating temperature (HOT) detectors. The ultimate goal for HOT detectors is room temperature operation. While this is not currently possibly for photon detectors, significant increases in Top are nonetheless beneficial in terms of reduced size, weight, power and cost (SWAP-C). The most common HgCdTe IR detector architecture is the P+n heterostructure photodiode (where a capital letter indicates a wide band gap relative to the active layer or “AL”). A variant of this architecture, the P+N−n−N−N heterostructure photodiode, should have a near identical photo-response to the P+n heterostructure, but with significantly lower dark diffusion current. The P+N−n−N−N heterostructure utilizes a very low doped AL, surrounded on both sides by wide-gap layers. The low doping in the AL, allows the AL to be fully depleted, which drastically reduces the Auger recombination rate in that layer. Minimizing the Auger recombination rate reduces the intrinsic dark diffusion current, thereby increasing Top. Note when we use the term “recombination rate” for photodiodes, we are actually referring to the net generation and recombination of minority carriers (and corresponding dark currents) by the Auger process. For these benefits to be realized, these devices must be intrinsically limited and well passivated. The focus of this proceeding is on studying the fundamental physics of the intrinsic dark currents in ideal P+N−n−N−N heterostructures, namely Auger recombination. Due to the complexity of these devices, specifically the presence of multiple heterojunctions, numerical device modeling techniques must be utilized to predict and understand the device operation, as analytical models do not exist for heterojunction devices.