Improved methods of forming monolithic integrated circuits having complementary bipolar transistors

Two new processes form complementary transistors in monolithic semiconductor circuits, require fewer steps /infusions/ than previous methods, and eliminate such problems as nonuniform h sub FE distribution, low yield, and large device formation

Alcohol consumption as a risk factor for sarcopenia - a meta-analysis

BACKGROUND: Sarcopenia, a loss of muscle strength and mass, has serious implications for older adults. Some risk factors for sarcopenia are well established. The role of other factors such as alcohol consumption is less certain. The main aim of this study was to explore the relationship between sarcopenia and alcohol consumption in people over 65 years old. METHODS: Four electronic databases were searched to identify potentially relevant papers. Demographics and information on sarcopenia and alcohol consumption were extracted from relevant papers. The relationship between sarcopenia and alcohol consumption was described using odds ratios (ORs). RESULTS: Of 214 papers identified as potentially relevant, 13 were ultimately included in the meta-analyses. The papers provided data from 13,155 participants. The OR (95 % CI) for sarcopenia among alcohol drinkers was 0.67 (0.54–0.83) for males, 0.89 (0.73–1.08) for females, and 0.77 (0.67–0.88) for the overall population. CONCLUSIONS: The results of this meta-analysis do not support alcohol consumption as a risk factor for sarcopenia

Comparison of walking performance over the first 2 minutes and the full 6 minutes of the Six-Minute Walk Test

BackgroundAlthough the Six-Minute Walk Test (6MWT), as recommended by the American Thoracic Society, is widely used as a measure of functional endurance, it may not be applicable in some settings and populations. We sought to examine, therefore, performance over the first 2 minutes and the full 6 minutes of the 6MWT. Specifically, we investigated completion rates, distances walked, test-retest reliability, and the relationship between distances walked over the first 2 and the full 6 minutes of the 6MWT.MethodsCommunity-dwelling children and adults age 3-85 years (n = 337) were asked to walk back and forth on a 15.24 meter (50 ft) course as far as possible without running over a 6 minute period. Test completion and the distance covered by the participants at 2 and 6 minutes were documented. The reliability of distances covered at 2 and 6 minutes was determined by retesting a subsample of 54 participants 6 to 10 days later. The relationship between distances covered at 2 and 6 minutes was determined for the 330 participants completing the 6MWT.ResultsAll 337 participants completed at least 2 minutes of walking, but 7 children less than 5 years of age ceased walking before 6 minutes had elapsed. For the remaining 330 participants the mean distance walked was 186 meters at 2 minutes and 543 meters at 6 minutes. The distances covered at 2 and 6 minutes were reliable between sessions (intraclass correlation coefficients = 0.888 and 0.917, respectively). The distances covered over 2 and 6 minutes were highly correlated (r = 0.968).ConclusionsThe completion rate, values obtained, test-retest reliability, and relationship of the distances walked in 2 and 6 minutes support documentation of 2 minute distance during the 6MWT. The findings also provide support for use of a Two-Minute Walk Test as the endurance component in the Motor Battery of the NIH Toolbox

Delta--Excitation and Exchange Corrections for NN--Bremsstrahlung

The role of the relativistic amplitudes for a number of ${\cal O}(k)$ processes usually neglected in potential model calculations of NN--bremsstrahlung is investigated. In particular, we consider the $\Delta$--excitation pole contributions related to the one--pion and one--rho exchange and in addition include the exchange contributions induced by the radiative $\omega,\,\rho \to \pi \gamma$ decays. The contributions are calculated from relativistic Born amplitudes fitted to $\Delta$--production and absorption data in the energy range up to 1 GeV and then used to supplement potential model and soft photon calculations for nucleon--nucleon bremsstrahlung. The effects on $NN\gamma$--observables, although moderate in general, are found to be important in some kinematic domains.Comment: 15 pages in LaTex, using Revtex, 6 figures as uufile'd, compressed Postscript file included, TRIUMF preprint TRI-PP-94-9

Weak capture of protons by protons

The cross section for the proton weak capture reaction $^1H(p,e^+\nu_e)^2H$ is calculated with wave functions obtained from a number of modern, realistic high-precision interactions. To minimize the uncertainty in the axial two-body current operator, its matrix element has been adjusted to reproduce the measured Gamow-Teller matrix element of tritium $\beta$ decay in model calculations using trinucleon wave functions from these interactions. A thorough analysis of the ambiguities that this procedure introduces in evaluating the two-body current contribution to the pp capture is given. Its inherent model dependence is in fact found to be very weak. The overlap integral $\Lambda^2(E=0)$ for the pp capture is predicted to be in the range 7.05--7.06, including the axial two-body current contribution, for all interactions considered.Comment: 17 pages RevTeX (twocolumn), 5 postscript figure

Cash Budgets, Controls, and Management in Clubs

Cash is important, because it pays for all expenses and obligations. On an annual basis, designated individuals will compile a cash budget for the coming year, which club management will use as a blueprint to operate their clubs and ascertain the timing of the cash inflows and outflows. This study, therefore, explored the extent to which cash budgeting is used in clubs, the various cash budget practices, and whether such practices differ by the demographic characteristics of the clubs. The results showed that cash management in clubs rested largely in the hands of the chief financial officers and the general managers (GM). While 17.5% of the clubs had their GMs as the responsible person preparing the cash budget, this dropped to only 7.7% when it came to daily monitoring of the amount of cash in the clubs. The cash amount in the bank account of the respondents’ club ranged from less than $100,000 to more than half a million dollars. Subgroup analyses by demographic characteristics also showed statistically significant differences in the: (1) person responsible for daily cash monitoring, (2) person responsible for preparation of the cash, and (3) the targeted amount of cash in the club’s checking accounting

Information preserving XML schema embedding

A fundamental concern of information integration in an XML context is the ability to embed one or more source documents in a target document so that (a) the target document conforms to a target schema and (b) the information in the source document(s) is preserved. In this paper, information preservation for XML is formally studied, and the results of this study guide the definition of a novel notion of schema embedding between two XML DTD schemas represented as graphs. Schema embedding generalizes the conventional notion of graph similarity by allowing an edge in a source DTD schema to be mapped to a path in the target DTD. Instance-level embeddings can be defined from the schema embedding in a straightforward manner, such that conformance to a target schema and information preservation are guaranteed. We show that it is NP-complete to find an embedding between two DTD schemas. We also provide efficient heuristic algorithms to find candidate embeddings, along with experimental results to evaluate and compare the algorithms. These yield the first systematic and effective approach to finding information preserving XML mappings.