cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
A high gain amplifier using a cascading architecture

High gain amplifiers with fast settling times are needed for high-speed data converter applications. Cascading amplifiers is generally a good way to achieve the desired open loop gain however; stability and settling speed become a concern. A cascading architecture that is inherently stable and maintains good settling performance was previously discussed. In this paper, a transistor level three stage implementation is presented that achieves over 100 dB of gain while maintaining good settling performance.
Urban Health Systems: Overview

Urban health is the study of urban characteristics that can influence health and disease in the urban context. These characteristics include features of the social and physical environment as well as of the urban resource infrastructure. Features of the social and physical environment and the urban resource infrastructure in turn are shaped by municipal, national, and global forces and trends. This article introduces the reader to urban health concepts, including the definition of ‘urban,’ features of the urban environment that may influence health, and a selection of methods for evaluating the impact of urban living on health.
Chapter 148 – Investigation of the subcooled LN2 characteristics in the prototype cryostat for the resistive superconducting fault current limiter

Publisher Summary This chapter presents the experimental results of the subcooled liquid nitrogen characteristics in the prototype cryostat. Liquid nitrogen is an excellent coolant for the cooling of HTS superconducting devices, such as superconducting fault current limiter (SFCL) and power cable system. As subcooled liquid nitrogen has been frequently used for better cooling performance, a subcooled liquid nitrogen cryostat is adopted for the cooling of a 6.6 kV. A subcooled liquid nitrogen of 68 K and 1 bar is easily obtained by using cryocooler and helium gas. The temperature and pressure increase during cool down and after quench are measured. Here the quench for the SFCL is simulated by a pulsed power input to a heater in the experiment. Since bubbles are generated due to quench under a fault condition, the phase change of nitrogen from liquid to gas occurs. So it is important to investigate the effect of the pressure increase due to volumetric expansion of the nitrogen on the cryostat robustness. The temperature sensors near SFCL simulating heater show temperature peaks representing the influence of bubble generated during heat pulse. The pressure increase due to bubbles generated after pulse heating is measured and compared with the calculated values. The calculated pressure increase during quench agrees with the experimental results reasonably. It is found that the pressure calculation correlation can be applied to the design of subcooled liquid nitrogen cryostat for SFCL.
RECASTING THE WOMEN'S QUESTION

The woman question has loomed large in writings on colonial India. This essay extends the debate by focusing not exclusively on the woman, but on the imbricated figure of the girl-child/woman, a figure that finds increasing attention in the Hindi, Urdu and English commentaries of the nineteenth century. The function of the girl-child as it appears in these texts is to essentialize the woman so that even in the absence of discussions of the girl-child, the shadow of this creature haunts the writings on women. The essay seeks to show how the girl-child comes to be represented in and as woman; and conversely, the woman in the girl-child. Among other things, it suggests that the discourses of both the colonized and the colonizers erase the historical figure of the girl-child by only ever acknowledging her as a woman in future tense (mother, wife, nurturer), even as they erase women by infantilizing them and binding their claim to personhood to others (fathers, husbands, sons).
High Body Mass Index is Strongly Correlated with Decreased Image Quality in Focused Bedside Echocardiography.

Abstract Background There is a well-established relationship between obesity, as measured by body mass index (BMI), and overall health risk. The presence of body fat is a known limitation to ultrasound, but it is unknown whether any decrease in quality due to obesity limits the interpretability of focused bedside echocardiography (FBE). Objectives To correlate obesity, as measured by BMI, with image quality and interpretability of (FBE) performed by an emergency physician. Methods We conducted a prospective observational study in a convenience sample of adults presenting to two academic emergency departments (EDs) and a bariatric surgery outpatient clinic. Twenty patients were enrolled in each of three BMI categories, 2 . FBE was performed in multiple views in two positions. Images were rated for ability to discern the pericardial myocardial interface (PMI) and the endocardial border of the left ventricle (ELV). Results There were 23 males and 37 females enrolled. The median age was 49 years and the median BMI was 35.6 kg/m 2 . There was a significant difference in the percentage of technically limited examinations between BMI categories for both PMI and ELV. There was an overall negative linear correlation between BMI and image quality for both PMI and ELV. Conclusion There is an overall decrease in the quality of focused bedside echocardiographic images as BMI increases. This relationship exists for visualization of both the PMI and the ELV. Emergency physicians should be aware of the potential limitations of focused bedside echocardiography in this patient population.
Fishbone-induced perforated appendicitis

We review the literature and describe a case of fishbone-induced appendicitis. A 63-year-old man presented with abdominal pain. Work up including a focused history and imaging revealed fishbone-induced perforated appendicitis. The patient was managed safely and successfully with laparoscopic removal of the foreign body and appendectomy.
Hypersensitivity reactions associated with sodium para-aminosalicylate therapy; four case reports and review of the literature.

Among 100 tuberculous children treated on a regimen including PAS, 3 developed a hypersensitivity reaction attributable to this drug. These three cases and a fourth from our files are presented, and the literature concerning such reactions in adults is reviewed. Agranubocytosis was the prominent feature in one patient and jaundice in another. The various symptoms and sequential pattern of events that characterize the hypersensitivity reaction to PAS are described. Desensitization to the drug, which is a safe and nearly always successful procedure, was achieved in three patients. There is no specific treatment and the best insurance against irreversible or even fatal effects is the prompt discontinuation of the drug.
THE USE OF THERMALLY BLACK CONTROL SHEETS

The use of thermally black control sheets in a reactor is examined for three special cases: a finite slab reactor with a control sheet at its midplane, an infinite slab ((((((Abstract unscannable)))))))))))))))))))))))))))))
Solving the Orphan Works Problem for the United States

Over the last decade, the problem of orphan works — i.e., copyrighted works whose owners cannot be located by a reasonably diligent search — has come sharply into focus as libraries, archives, and other large repositories of copyrighted works have sought to digitize and make available their collections online. Although this problem is certainly not limited to digital libraries, it has proven especially challenging for these organizations because they hold diverse collections that include millions of books, articles, letters, photographs, home movies, films, and other types of works. Many items come with a complex, unknown, and (often) unknowable history of copyright ownership. Because U.S. copyright law provides for both strong injunctive relief and monetary damages (in the form of statutory damages of up to $150,000 per work infringed), organizations that cannot obtain permission often do not make their collections available at all.In October 2012, the U.S. Copyright Office initiated a new study of orphan works and mass digitization, and has indicated that it is a high-priority policy issue for the office. That study, and the work that preceded it, has highlighted the wide array of perspectives about why and how to address the orphan works problem. In this article, we present evidence that the orphan works problem is very real and that it inhibits many socially valuable uses of copyrighted works by libraries, archives, museums and other memory institutions. We then canvass the array of potential solutions, and ultimately conclude that fair use, combined with the Copyright Office’s remedy limitation approach, are better approaches for addressing this problem in the United States than alternatives proposed elsewhere. Finally, we explore future-looking changes, such as the reintroduction of copyright formalities and the development of registries, that would reduce the number of orphan works in the future.
Frequency response modeling of high voltage power line carrier systems

Power line carrier (PLC) systems used on high voltage transmission lines for protection purposes have been documented to be susceptible to destructive resonant conditions when excited by a harmonic source. However, previous research has not produced generalized modeling of the PLC systems suitable for predicting the frequency responses of the systems. This paper expands previous research by presenting state-space models of three common types of power line carrier systems. The models presented have been simplified and are suitable for calculating the frequency responses of the PLC systems with practical accuracy.
Distributed Downloads of Bulk, Replicated Grid Data

Data-sharing scientific communities use storage systems as distributed data stores by replicating content. In such highly replicated environments, a particular dataset can reside at multiple locations and can thus be downloaded from any one of them. Since datasets of interest are significantly large in size, improving download speeds either by server selection or by co-allocation can offer substantial benefits. In this paper, we present an architecture for co-allocating Grid data transfers across multiple connections, enabling the parallel download of datasets from multiple servers. We have developed several co-allocation strategies comprising of simple brute-force, predictive and dynamic load balancing techniques as a means both to exploit rate differences among the various client–server links and to address dynamic rate fluctuations. We evaluate our approaches using the GridFTP data movement protocol in a wide-area testbed and present our results.
Predictability of South American low-level jet using QuikSCAT ocean surface wind

The applicability of NASA QuikSCAT ocean surface wind was tested for predicting South American low-level jets (SALLJs) with a statistical model. Our previous study (Wang, H. and Fu, R., 2004, Influence of cross-Andes flow on the South American low-level jet. Journal of Climate, 17, pp. 1247-1262) has examined the dynamic process associated with austral winter SALLJs using the ECMWF Reanalyses (ERA) and identified the mechanism that controls the seasonal and synoptic variations of the SALLJ. It was found that the SALLJ is maintained by strong zonal pressure gradients, with a maximum near 850 hPa caused by deflection of upstream zonal flow crossing the Andes and lee cyclogenesis. The robustness of this mechanism was further examined in this study using the NCEP-NCAR Reanalysis 1 (NCEP-R1) and NCEP-DOE Reanalysis 2 (NCEP-R2). The northerly LLJs to the east of the Andes are strongest in ERA, with wind speeds well above 15 m s-1. In NCEP-R1 and R2, typical wind speeds are about 12 and 10 m s-1, respectively. A statistical analysis of the three reanalysis datasets indicates that the SALLJ significantly correlates with the zonal wind of previous days over the South Pacific, particularly with the surface zonal wind. Based on this result, a statistical model introduced in Wang and Fu (2004) was employed in this study for forecasting the SALLJ using the QuikSCAT ocean surface wind as a predictor. The model was applied to June, July and August of 1999 to 2006 for up to 5 day forecasts of the SALLJ. Cross validations of the hindcasts indicate significant predictability of strong LLJ events with the QuikSCAT ocean surface wind data.
Of ducklings and turing machines : interactive playbacks enhance subsequent responsiveness to conspecific calls

Distress calls of mallard ducklings consist of a highly stereotyped series of notes. When two ducklings are simultaneously separated from the brood, they characteristically call in alternation. Each bird inhibits its calls while the other is vocalizing, thus preventing masking and facilitating localization by the hen. I examined whether exposure of ducklings to calls presented in a naturalistic alternating pattern affected subsequent responsiveness to them. Individual ducklings were exposed to either 40 s or 80 s of computer-controlled distress call playbacks, using an algorithm that mimicked the behavior of another duckling. Calls were presented only when the subject was silent and ended as soon as it began to vocalize. Each of these ducklings was paired with a ‘yoked’ control. Birds in these control groups experienced exactly the same pattern of playbacks as the ‘interactive’ birds, but the stimuli had no consistent relationship to their own vocal behavior. When the same calls were played back 24 h later, in a fixed pattern that was independent of the ducklings' behavior, birds that had received 80 s of prior interactive exposure were significantly more responsive than both their yoked controls and birds receiving only 40 s of such playbacks. This result suggests that interactive vocal experience, characteristic of natural communication, affects the subsequent perceptual sensitivity of ducklings.
Ganglion cell densities in normal and dark-reared turtle retinas

In dark-reared, neonatal turtle retinas, ganglion cell receptive fields and dendritic trees grow faster than normal. As a result, their areas may become, on average, up to twice as large as in control retinas. This raises the question of whether the coverage factor of dark-reared ganglion cells is larger than normal. Alternatively, dark rearing may lead to smaller-than-normal cell densities by accelerating apoptosis. To test these alternatives, we investigated the effect of light deprivation on densities and soma sizes of turtle retinal ganglion cells. For this purpose, we marked these cells using retrograde labeling of fixed turtle retinas with DiI (1,1'-dioctadecyl-3,3,3',3'-tetramethylindocarbocyanine perchlorate). Control turtles were maintained in a regular 12-h light/dark cycle from hatching until 4 weeks of age, whereas dark-reared turtles were maintained in total darkness for the same period. Ganglion cells in the control and dark-reared retinas were found to be similar in density and soma sizes. These results show that the mean coverage factor of turtle dark-reared ganglion cells is larger than normal.
Chemical force spectroscopy in heterogeneous systems: intermolecular interactions involving epoxy polymer, mixed monolayers, and polar solvents.

We used chemical force microscopy (CFM) to study adhesive forces between surfaces of epoxy resin and self-assembled monolayers (SAMs) capable of hydrogen bonding to different extents. The influence of the liquid medium in which the experiments were carried out was also examined systematically. The molecular character of the tip, polymer, and liquid all influenced the adhesion. Complementary macroscopic contact angle measurements were used to assist in the quantitative interpretation of the CFM data. A direct correlation between surface free energy and adhesion forces was observed in mixed alcohol−water solvents. An increase in surface energy from 2 to 50 mJ/m2 resulted in an increase in adhesion from 4−8 nN to 150−300 nN for tips with radii of 50−150 nm. The interfacial surface energy for identical nonpolar surface groups of SAMs was found not to exceed 2 mJ/m2. An analysis of adhesion data suggests that the solvent was fully excluded from the zone of contact between functional groups on the tip and sampl...
Investigation of ether-substituted quaternary ammonium ionic liquids

The effect of structural rigidity in quaternary ammonium-based ionic liquids (ILs) was investigated. [EtOMe]EtMe 2 NCl(I) and [MeOEt]EtMe 2 NCl(II), both 8 atom (7 carbons, 1 oxygen) ether-substituted quaternary ammonium chlorides (Quats), were synthesized and investigated. In acetonitrile, placement of the oxygen one atom from the nitrogen (Quat I) resulted in a significant decrease in the reductive stability. While the IL form showed similar stability for the two systems, placing the oxygen close to the nitrogen (methyl ethyl ether) appears to localize a greater portion of the positive charge on the nitrogen. This results in an IL with a higher melting point (58-62°C) than the nonether analog, BuEtMe 2 NCl (111, 51.3°C) IL. In contrast, placing two carbon atoms between the nitrogen and ether group, ethyl methyl ether (Quat II), delocalizes the positive charge from the nitrogen and produces a room-temperature IL. Neutralization of the acidic IL with sodium chloride resulted in an increase in the bulk conductivity, due to the polar ether group. Upon addition of CDCl 3 or SOCl 2 , which both form a solid-electrolyte interphase on the substrate surface, the increased free sodium ion concentration allowed sodium reduction and oxidation currents greater than 4 mA/cm 2 at room temperature.
Possible role of nicotine for the treatment of mild cognitive impairment

Evaluation of: Newhouse P, Kellar K, Aisen P et al. Nicotine treatment of mild cognitive impairment: a 6-month double-blind pilot clinical trial. Neurology 78(2), 91-101 (2012). There have been several drug trials in recent years investigating the efficacy of commonly used Alzheimer's disease therapies for symptoms of mild cognitive impairment (MCI). However, there are no US FDA-approved pharmacological treatments for MCI. As the incidence rates of MCI are considerable, it is clear that better treatments for MCI need to be developed. The reviewed paper presents new data on a pilot clinical trial which shows that transdermal nicotine treatment for 6 months improved cognitive performance in subjects with amnestic MCI. Further studies will possibly bring us wider usage of nicotine for individuals with cognitive dysfunction.
Linear Nonisothermal Accelerated Kinetic Study: a New Data Treatment Method

AbstractA new data treatment method for the linear nonisothermal accelerated kinetic study is presented and discussed. Besides being simple and straightforward, the method involves no assumptions. Important kinetic parameters can be rapidly determined for stability assessment purpose. When this method is compared with two other data treatment methods, while being able to provide equally satisfactory results, this new method offers the advantages of placing equal weights on all data points and requiring only a single numerical integration.
Formability of Linearly Elastic Structures with Volume-Type Actuation

. Formation theory concerns the modification of the geometric configuration of an elastic structure by means of attached and/or embedded actuators. In this paper we consider “volume” type actuation, which involves application of an isotropic expansive/contractive stress to the elastic medium. The question of “formability”, i.e., whether or not a given modified geometric configuration for the elastic body can be achieved with actuation of this type, is considered at length, in both the two‐ and three‐dimensional contexts, along with related questions of optimal formability, expressed in terms of the L 2 norm of the volume controller employed. In two dimensions, with the aid of the Airy “stress” function, we establish connections between optimal formation, in the “L”2 norm sense, and the standard theory of conformal mapping of simply‐connected regions in the complex plane. Further results are presented for multiply‐connected domains, including a complete discussion of the case of an annulus.
Fast Randomization of an Electron Gas by Trapped Electroacoustic Waves

A simplified theoretical model for a phenomenon of fast randomization of an electron gas which was investigated experimentally is presented. It is assumed that a certain region in constricted electrical discharges, called “plasma sac” can become the siege of trapped electroacoustic waves generated by a beam‐plasma interaction. The interaction between those waves and the electron gas is treated by a pseudo‐collisional method leading to a generalization of Boltzmann's H‐theorem. The velocity distribution, which is essentially Maxwellian with a significant deficiency in the fast electron tail, is deduced.
Percutaneous needle muscle biopsy in the evaluation of patients with suspected inflammatory myopathy

Objective. To determine the usefulness of a unique method of percutaneous needle muscle biopsy (NMB) in patients with suspected idiopathic inflammatory myopathy (IIM). Methods. The yield of percutaneous NMB was studied in 55 patients who were found to have a combination of clinical, laboratory, or electromyographic features of IIM. Results. A diagnosis of IIM was confirmed histopathologically in 29 patients (53%), other specific myopathies were found in 5 (9%), nonspecific myopathic changes were present in 11 (20%), and a neurogenic process was diagnosed in 3 (5%). Nonspecific changes or no abnormalities were present in 7 patients (13%). Followup of the 18 patients with nonspecific histopathologic findings disclosed that only 3 had a subsequent disease course compatible with IIM. Conclusion. Percutaneous NMB is a safe, convenient, and relatively inexpensive method of muscle biopsy, with a high diagnostic yield for the pathologic confirmation of IIM. It should be considered as a primary method of acquiring muscle for histopathologic examination in the evaluation of suspected IIM.
PLASMA GONADOTROPHINS AND PROLACTIN IN MALE HOMOSEXUALS

Abstract Plasma - luteinising - hormone (L.H.) levels in 30 male homosexuals were significantly above the mean for a group of 50 heterosexual males (8·3 mI.U. per ml.) in groups of homosexuals almost exclusively or exclusively homosexual (27·8 and 46·5 mI.U. per ml., respectively). 4 men in these two groups had raised follicle-stimulating hormone (F.S.H.) concentrations; they were azoo-spermic and had raised L.H. levels. Significant correlations were found between the following: plasma L.H. and testosterone; plasma-F.S.H. and sperm-count; and plasma-L.H. and sperm-count. Plasma-prolactin concentrations in the control group were similar to those in most homosexuals, although those men who were exclusively homosexual had somewhat higher levels. These data estend other observations of endicrine dysfunction in homosexual men and provide additional information about the hormonal control of spermatogenesis.
Descartes and Atomism

The Cartesian philosophical concept of the nature of matter has frequently been given indefinite interpretation or assessment in the literature.
EIS measurement for corrosion monitoring under multiphase flow conditions

Abstract The electrochemical behavior of carbon steel in ASTM saltwater saturated with carbon dioxide (CO2) with/without an imidazoline based inhibitor under different flow conditions was studied using Electrochemical Impedance Spectroscopy (EIS). The effects of the addition of a light refined oil on the inhibitor performance were examined. Experiments were carried out in a 101.6 mm I.D., 15 m long acrylic flow loop. The system was maintained at a pressure of 0.136 MPa and temperature of 40°C. Experiments were conducted at water cuts of 100 and 80%. Inhibitor concentrations of 25 ppm and 100 ppm were used. Results show that the EIS technique can be used to study mechanisms of corrosion and its inhibition in turbulent multiphase flow conditions. It was seen that the high rate of shear stress and turbulence in multiphase flows can significantly enhance the corrosion rate and reduce the inhibition performance of corrosion inhibitors.
A shortened psychophysical task to quantify irritability: the Reactive Irritability Scale II (RIS-II).

The Reactive Irritability Scale (RIS) uses magnitude estimation to measure reactive irritability. Respondents rate target sounds in comparison to a neutral reference sound. The RIS proved more sensitive than self-report measures to detect irritability associated with withdrawal from cigarette smoking and with exposure to a stressful environment, but was too long (30 min) for routine use. We report here on a shortened version (13 min)—RIS-II. The RIS-II exhibited robust test-retest reliability and correlated strongly with the original RIS (Study 1). In Study 2, the RIS-II was administered to subjects who experienced psychological stress and then were exposed to progressive relaxation, music, cognitive tasks, or silence; the Progressive Relaxation group was the most irritable. In Study 3, the RIS-II was administered to chronic pain patients. Pain patients found the sounds less irritating than did controls with the exception of the reference sound; repeated presentation of the reference sound increased irritability. These studies indicate that the RIS-II is a reliable instrument that may have utility for the measurement of irritability in laboratory and clinical settings. In addition, these studies indicate that the RIS-II is understandable by individuals of different ages who are from educationally- and culturally-diverse backgrounds and individuals who are healthy as well as individuals suffering from chronic medical conditions who are on multiple medications.
How to create advertising that works

Many senior business people in the USA believe that some 90% of all advertising does not do what it is intended to do. The common reasons are the basic ineptitude of many people charged with creating advertising, objectives and goals inadequately set, advertising created primarily to win awards for creative excellence, ignorance of basic rules, and lack of a comprehensive advertising work plan. Enumerates 28 types of advertising media, with suggestions on how to package an advertising message. Then, through six basic rules and three supplements provided, a 15‐item outline for an advertising work plan, and a 60‐tip checklist of practical pointers, shows the reader how to create advertising copy that does not have to be sent back for endless revision, and can significantly contribute to customer volume and business profits.
Analysis of Lattice Thermal Conductivity

An analysis of thermal conductivity is presented which differs from that of Klemens and of Callaway in that it considers explicitly the conduction by both transverse and longitudinal phonons. This approach is then used to provide a very good fit to the data on silicon from 1.7 to 1300\ifmmode^\circ\else\textdegree\fi{}K and on germanium from 1.7 to 1000\ifmmode^\circ\else\textdegree\fi{}K, and is also used to fit the data on isotropically pure germanium. A comparison of the analysis with that due to Callaway shows that the same results are obtained in the impurity scattering and boundary scattering regions. A discussion of the approximations used in the various analyses is included. A more complete expression for the umklapp scattering relaxation time, valid for materials with a very disperse transverse acoustic phonon spectrum, is derived in an appendix. The question of the validity of the addition of inverse relaxation times and the coupling due to normal three-phonon processes is considered in another appendix.
IKS Is Activated By Both Ca2+ Dependent And Independent Isoforms Of PKC

KCNQ1 is co-assembled with KCNE1 to form IKs, one of the main currents responsible for cardiomyocyte repolarization. Our data shows that IKs is regulated by stimulation of several Gq-coupled receptors both in native and heterologous systems, in a biphasic manner, showing an activation and an inhibition phase. For all receptors tested activation was blocked by the PKC inhibitor calphostin C. Mutation of a putative PKC phosphorylation motif (KCNE1(S102)) decreased 50% of the activation, suggesting phosphorylation of this residue is involved in the effect, but not precluding the contribution of other putative PKC phosphorylation sites present in the KCNQ1 subunit. Agonist-induced activation was observed in the presence and absence of intracellular Ca2+ release, but the extent and kinetics of activation were dependent on intracellular Ca2+ release. These results suggest possible roles for both Ca2+-independent and Ca2+-dependent PKC isoforms. To test for this hypothesis we used cell-permeable PKC activator peptides that specifically activate either the Ca2+-dependent classical PKC isoforms or the Ca2+-independent PKCδ isoform. The activator peptide for classical PKC isoforms significantly activated IKs current (@ 25% at +40mV) in HEK-293 cells within 1 min and shifted the voltage dependence of activation toward negative voltages (@ -60 mV). On the other hand, the PKCδ activator peptide strongly increased the maximal conductance of activation of the channel with slower kinetics (@ 160% at 4 min) without changing the channel voltage dependence. Our results suggest that both Ca2+-dependent and Ca2+-independent isoforms of PKC enhance IKs channel activity after GqPCR stimulation, but each isoform regulates the IKs channel in a distinct fashion, possibly through phosphorylation of different sites in the channel.
Reducing door-to-balloon time in ST-segment elevation myocardial infarction: are we missing the forest for the trees?

occlusion. Thus, from a mechanistic perspective, achieving early vessel patency limits the extent of myocardial injury. The term ‘door-to-balloon (DTB) time’, defined as the time from first medical contact to the time of first coronary device deployment, has become a mantra of STEMI management. First medical contact, often poorly characterized in the field, is usually defined by time of hospital door arrival. Clinical trial and observational data have shown that shorter DTB times correlate with improved outcomes [6–8]. In the GUSTO-IIb clinical trial, 30-day mortality was 1.0% for PPCI performed within 60 min of study enrollment, 3.7% for PPCI between 61 and 75 min, 4.0% for PPCI between 76 and 90 min and 6.4% for PPCI performed after 90 min, the odds of death increasing 1.6-fold for each increasing time interval. A recent large registry study analyzed data from 43,801 patients in the American College of Cardiology (ACC) National Cardiovascular Data Registry (NCDR) and showed that adjusted in-hospital mortality was 3.5, 4.3, 5.6 and 7.0% for DTB times of 30, 60, 90 and 120 min, respectively [9]. Current ACC/American Heart Association (AHA) and European Society of Cardiology guidelines both recommend that PPCI be performed within 90 min of the patient’s first contact with m edical personnel [1,10].
The generality of the emotion effect on magnitude sensitivity

Three studies asked whether reported emotional response interfere with magnitude sensitivity, defined as a subjective evaluation difference between a high magnitude outcome and a low one. Previous research has reported that emotion reduces magnitude sensitivity under separate evaluation in a gain domain (Hsee & Rottenstreich, 2004), a negative effect. We test the generality of this emotion effect in gain and loss domains, and under separate or joint evaluation mode, using a variety of stimuli. We found an opposite, positive, effect in Experiment 1 (in willingness to pay to save species or prevent health impairments) and Experiment 3 (in willingness to pay to prevent bad outcomes in news stories) but replicated the original negative effect in Experiment 2 (compensation for losses). Further research is needed to disentangle possible causes of these effects and to explore how these findings may be applied to measurement of values for non-market goods.
Numerical prediction of mechanical properties of Pb-Sn solder alloys containing antimony, bismuth and or silver ternary trace elements

Solder joint interconnects are mechanical means of structural support for bridging the various electronic components and providing electrical contacts and a thermal path for heat dissipation. The functionality of the electronic device often relies on the structural integrity of the solder. The dimensional stability of solder joints is numerically predicted based on their mechanical properties. Algorithms to model the kinetics of dissolution and subsequent growth of intermetallic from the complete knowledge of a single history of time-temperature-reflow profile, by considering equivalent isothermal time intervals, have been developed. The information for dissolution is derived during the heating cycle of reflow and for the growth process from cooling curve of reflow profile. A simple and quick analysis tool to derive tensile stress-strain maps as a function of the reflow temperature of solder and strain rate has been developed by numerical program. The tensile properties are used in modeling thermal strain, thermal fatigue and to predict the overall fatigue life of solder joints. The numerical analysis of the tensile properties as affected by their composition and rate of testing, has been compiled in this paper. A numerical model using constitutive equation has been developed to evaluate the interfacial fatigue crack growth rate. The model can assess the effect of cooling rate, which depends on the level of strain energy release rate. Increasing cooling rate from normalizing to water-quenching, enhanced the fatigue resistance to interfacial crack growth by up to 50% at low strain energy release rate. The increased cooling rates enhanced the fatigue crack growth resistance by surface roughening at the interface of solder joint. This paper highlights salient features of process modeling. Interfacial intermetallic microstructure is affected by cooling rate and thereby affects the mechanical properties.
Stereoselective detection of amino acids by lobster olfactory receptor neurons

1. Biochemical and electrophysiological assays were used to test the hypothesis that the olfactory system of the Caribbean spiny lobster, Panulirus argus, contains populations of chemosensory receptors that are differentially sensitive to the L- and D-stereoisomers of the amino acid alanine. 2. Independent binding sites for L-alanine (dissociation constant (Kd) of 6.6 μM and maximum binding (Bmax) of 16.8 fmole/μg protein) and for D-alanine (Kd of 21.6 μM and Bmax of 17.8 fmole/μg protein) were characterized biochemically. The interaction of ligand with each binding site is rapid, reversible and saturable with respect to both time and concentration. 3. Based on a difference of at least 20% in the relative sensitivity of an olfactory receptor cell to alanine enantiomers, 44% and 34% of the 77 neurons tested were classified as L-alanine and D-alanine sensitive, respectively. The relative sensitivity to alanine enantiomers was independent of the concentration tested. Stereoselective receptors are likely for 17 of 20 other amino acids tested. 4. The congruence of biochemical and electrophysiological results leads to the conclusion that the lobster's responses to D- and L-alanine are mediated by receptors specific for each stereoisomer and that the receptors are differentially distributed among receptor cells.
Neurological Correlates of Fetal Cocaine Exposurea.

Cocaine is a highly psychoactive substance with numerous effects that readily crosses the placenta, achieving variables levels in the fetus. Determining whether prenatal exposure to cocaine and its metabolites damages the developing human nervous system is hindered by the multiple intervening factors (confounders) that plague clinical settings, which warrant consideration in controlled studies. Prenatal cocaine exposure has been linked to numerous adverse neonatal outcomes, affecting fetal growth (i.e., low birth weight, intrauterine growth retardation, and small head size) and neurobehavior. These neurobehavior effects span the gamut from no abnormalities to impairments in arousal, neurological function, neurophysiological function, and state regulation. Strokes and possibly seizures are also noted. Dose-response effects of fetal cocaine exposure on fetal growth and neonatal neurobehavior are reported using quantitative methods of ascertainment. In early infancy, irritability and hypertonia are also described. Most cocaine associations are transient and resolve in infancy and early childhood. Whether such transient abnormalities place infants at increased risk for later neurodevelopmental impairments is not known. Controlled studies have found no cognitive differences related to prenatal cocaine exposure among toddlers or school age children, except as mediated through effects on head growth. Anecdotally, cocaine-exposed children seem to suffer from neurobehavioral abnormalities, but to date controlled studies have not established an association between cocaine and behavioral disorders, except for inattentiveness. Despite encouraging reports, the question of whether cocaine exerts long-term adverse effects on the developing human nervous system has not yet been resolved, largely because of the limitations of existing studies that rely on inadequate, mostly qualitative ascertainment of cocaine exposure as well as the dearth of studies in older children. Such methodological limitations may have compromised our ability to identify cocaine-exposed children at most risk.
Seasonality in industry specific indices

This study examines seaonality in three industry specific stock market indices; the Standard and Poor's (S&P) 20 Transportation, the S&P 40 Utilities, and the S&P 40 Financial. The results support the existence of a weekend effect in the transportation index. There is no evidence of a weekend effect in the utilities and financial indices. Both the transportation and financial indices exhibit the January effect. The utilities index, however, shows no evidence of a January effect. The finding of a weekend and a January effect at the industry level is significant because select mutual funds enhance the ability of investors to capitalize on such anomalies.
Inferring Epitopes of a Polymorphic Antigen Amidst Broadly Cross-Reactive Antibodies Using Protein Microarrays: A Study of OspC Proteins of Borrelia burgdorferi

Epitope mapping studies aim to identify the binding sites of antibody-antigen interactions to enhance the development of vaccines, diagnostics and immunotherapeutic compounds. However, mapping is a laborious process employing time- and resource-consuming ‘wet bench’ techniques or epitope prediction software that are still in their infancy. For polymorphic antigens, another challenge is characterizing cross-reactivity between epitopes, teasing out distinctions between broadly cross-reactive responses, limited cross-reactions among variants and the truly type-specific responses. A refined understanding of cross-reactive antibody binding could guide the selection of the most informative subsets of variants for diagnostics and multivalent subunit vaccines. We explored the antibody binding reactivity of sera from human patients and Peromyscus leucopus rodents infected with Borrelia burgdorferi to the polymorphic outer surface protein C (OspC), an attractive candidate antigen for vaccine and improved diagnostics for Lyme disease. We constructed a protein microarray displaying 23 natural variants of OspC and quantified the degree of cross-reactive antibody binding between all pairs of variants, using Pearson correlation calculated on the reactivity values using three independent transforms of the raw data: (1) logarithmic, (2) rank, and (3) binary indicators. We observed that the global amino acid sequence identity between OspC pairs was a poor predictor of cross-reactive antibody binding. Then we asked if specific regions of the protein would better explain the observed cross-reactive binding and performed in silico screening of the linear sequence and 3-dimensional structure of OspC. This analysis pointed to residues 179 through 188 the fifth C-terminal helix of the structure as a major determinant of type-specific cross-reactive antibody binding. We developed bioinformatics methods to systematically analyze the relationship between local sequence/structure variation and cross-reactive antibody binding patterns among variants of a polymorphic antigen, and this method can be applied to other polymorphic antigens for which immune response data is available for multiple variants.
Flutter Computation of Turbomachinery Cascades Using a Parallel Unsteady Navier-Stokes Code

A quasi-three-dimensional multigrid Navier-Stokes solver on single- and multiple-passage domains is presented for solving unsteady flows around oscillating turbine and compressor blades. The conventional direct store method is used for applying the phase-shifted periodic boundary condition over a single blade passage. A parallel version of the solver using the message passing interface standard is developed for multiple-passage computations. In parallel multiple-passage computations, the phase-shifted periodic boundary condition is converted to a simple in-phase periodic condition. Euler and Navier-Stokes solutions are obtained for unsteady flows through an oscillating turbine cascade blade row with both the sequential and the parallel codes. It is found that the parallel code offers almost linear speedup with a slope close to 1 on multiple CPUs. In addition, significant improvement is achieved in convergence of the computation to a periodic unsteady state in the parallel multiple-passage computations due to the use of the in-phase periodic boundary conditions compared with that in the single-passage computations with phase-shifted periodic boundary conditions via the direct store method. The parallel Navier-Stokes code is also used to calculate the flow through an oscillating compressor cascade. Results are compared with experimental data and computations by other authors.
Effects of thermal application on dysphagia after stroke.

The influence of thermal application on dysphagia for liquid boluses after multiple cerebrovascular accidents was measured. A month-long trial of thermal application organized according to the guidelines of a single-subject withdrawal or ABAB design was replicated across 7 male subjects. After baseline testing, 6 subjects were randomly assigned to begin the study with a week-long period of thermal application (B stage), and 1 subject was randomly assigned to begin the study with a week-long period of no thermal application (A stage). Subsequent week-long A and B stages were then alternated until each subject had completed the 4-week interval of this study. Progress testing occurred at the end of each stage and at follow-up testing 1 month after the study’s completion. The influence of thermal application on eight duration and four descriptive measures was determined by three judges using visual inspection of data displays. Two of three judges agreed that 2 of the subjects demonstrated decreased Duration o...
Aortic Valve Replacement with Concomitant Aortoventriculoplasty in Children and Young Adults: Long-term Follow-up

Sixteen patients (9 male, 7 female) underwent aortic valve replacement (AVR) with a Konno aortoventriculoplasty at the University of Nebraska Medical Center from August, 1976, to May, 1986. There was 1 early death (6%), but no operative deaths have occurred since 1977. There was 1 late death from unknown cause 51 months postoperatively. One patient has been lost to follow-up. Long-term follow-up of 14 patients was 923 months (mean, 66 months; range, 9 to 120 months). Of the 16 patients, 12 (75%) had had previous cardiovascular procedures. A total of thirty-five operations, including the aortoventriculoplasties, were done in the 16 patients. Of the aortic valves inserted, 11 were tissue valves (Carpentier-Edwards, 10; Ionescu-Shiley, 1) and 5 were mechanical valves (St. Jude, 3; Bjork-Shiley, 2). Patient age at the time of aortoventriculoplasty ranged from 2 years 3 months to 24 years (median, 11 years 8 months). Size of the aortic annulus ranged from 10 to less than 21 mm (median, 16 mm). Valves inserted ranged from 21 to 29 mm; 13 (81%) of them were 25 mm or larger. In 2 patients, degenerated tissue valves were replaced with mechanical valves after 110 and 33 months. At present, all patients are in New York Heart Association Functional Class I. One female patient married and delivered a normal child approximately five years after AVR with a Carpentier-Edwards valve plus aortoventriculoplasty; she never received anticoagulant medications. We conclude that AVR with a concomitant Konno aortoventriculoplasty can be safely performed in the pediatric and young-adult age groups with satisfactory results for up to ten years.
The directing role of 1,4-diazabicyclo[2,2,2]octane (DABCO)-phosphate unit in synthesis of zincophosphate faujasite (ZnPO-X)

Abstract This paper reports on the structure directing behavior of 1,4-diazabicyclo[2,2,2]octane (DABCO) in the synthesis of a faujasite-like zincophosphate framework (ZnPO-X). The nucleation of ZnPO-X occurs rapidly, within a minute of mixing of the reactants. The hypothesis we examine here is that the presence of DABCO–phosphate units in the synthesis medium accelerates the nucleation of ZnPO-X. Circumstantial evidence in support of this hypothesis was obtained from analysis of the solids formed from a combinatorial mixture of the reactants DABCO, phosphoric acid, zinc nitrate and sodium hydroxide. The synthesis systems that had the DABCO and the phosphate in the same solution tended to form ZnPO-X at a faster rate. From compositions similar to that used in synthesis of ZnPO-X, we were able to synthesize a DABCO–phosphate salt, whose structure was determined by single crystal X-ray diffraction study. Grinding a solid mixture of reactants that included the DABCO–phosphate salt led to faster formation of ZnPO-X as compared to using solid DABCO and H 3 PO 4 , providing further support for the hypothesis.
AN INTEGRAL METHOD FOR CALCULATING HEAT AND MASS TRANSFER IN LAMINAR BOUNDARY LAYERS

An integral method previously used successfully in several kinds of boundary layer problems has been extended to treat simultaneous heat and mass transfer in a binary-mixture laminar boundary layer when the pressure is uniform. The principal results are two pairs of dual integral relations arising from solutions to the integral concentration and energy equations. One pair connects the surface mass transfer rate and surface concentration of injected gas; the other relates surface temperature and heat transfer rate in the presence of mass transfer. Only the cases of helium and air injection into an undissociated air stream are discussed in detail, but the method can be applied to problems involving other gases. The approximate results agree quite well with some numerical solutions and with recent experimental results for which no numerical solutions are available.
Front Tracking Simulation of a Liquid Capsule Enclosed by an Elastic Membrane

Dynamics of a liquid capsule enclosed by an elastic membrane in a shear flow is investigated using front tracking finite difference method. We compute deformation, orientation and tank treading, as functions of forcing (capillary number) and viscosity ratio for two different membrane constitutive equations—Neo-Hookean and Skalak. The computed results compare very well with those obtained by high-order Boundary element methods as well as small deformation perturbation analysis. The simulation shows that a drop and a capsule, even under those circumstances that result in the same Taylor deformation criterion for both, attain very different shapes. The tank-treading period even for different capillary numbers as well as capsules with different constitutive laws, is determined by the deformation and the viscosity ratio.Copyright © 2007 by ASME