Compact surfaces as configuration spaces of mechanical linkages

There exists a homeomorphism between any compact orientable closed surface and the configuration space of an appropriate mechanical linkage defined by a weighted graph embedded in the Euclidean plan

An infant mouse model of brain damage in pneumococcal meningitis

Bacterial meningitis due to Streptococcus pneumoniae is associated with an significant mortality rate and persisting neurologic sequelae including sensory-motor deficits, seizures, and impairments of learning and memory. The histomorphological correlate of these sequelae is a pattern of brain damage characterized by necrotic tissue damage in the cerebral cortex and apoptosis of neurons in the hippocampal dentate gyrus. Different animal models of pneumococcal meningitis have been developed to study the pathogenesis of the disease. To date, the infant rat model is unique in mimicking both forms of brain damage documented in the human disease. In the present study, we established an infant mouse model of pneumococcal meningitis. Eleven-days-old C57BL/6 (n=299), CD1 (n=42) and BALB/c (n=14) mice were infected by intracisternal injection of live Streptococcus pneumoniae. Sixteen hours after infection, all mice developed meningitis as documented by positive bacterial cultures of the cerebrospinal fluid. Sixty percent of infected C57BL/6 mice survived more than 40h after infection (50% of CD1, 0% of BALB/c). Histological evaluations of brain sections revealed apoptosis in the dentate gyrus of the hippocampus in 27% of infected C57BL/6 and in 5% of infected CD1 mice. Apoptosis was confirmed by immunoassaying for active caspase-3 and by TUNEL staining. Other forms of brain damage were found exclusively in C57BL/6, i.e. caspase-3 independent (pyknotic) cell death in the dentate gyrus in 2% and cortical damage in 11% of infected mice. This model may prove useful for studies on the pathogenesis of brain injury in childhood bacterial meningiti

Towards Confidence Measures on Fundamental Frequency Estimations

International audienceThe fundamental frequency is one of the prosodic parameters , and many algorithms have been developed for estimating the fundamental frequency of speech signals. Most of them provide good results on good quality speech signals, but their performance degrades when dealing with noisy signals. Moreover, although some provide a probability for the voicing decision, none of them indicate how reliable the estimated fundamental frequency is. In this paper, we investigate the computation of a confidence (or reliability) measure on the estimated fundamental frequency values. A neural network based approach is proposed for computing the posterior probability that the estimated fundamental frequency is correct. Experiments are conducted on the PTDB-TUG pitch-tracking database, using three fundamental frequency estimation algorithms

Constraints on the Mass and Radius of the Neutron Star XTE J1807-294

The accreting millisecond pulsar XTE J1807-294 is studied through a pulse shape modeling analysis. The model includes blackbody and Comptonized emission from the one visible hot spot and makes use of the Oblate Schwarzschild approximation for ray-tracing. We include a scattered light contribution, which accounts for flux scattered off an equatorial accretion disk to the observer including time delays in the scattered light. We give limits to mass and radius for XTE J1807-294 and compare to limits determined for SAX J1808-3658 and XTE J1814-334 previously determined using similar methods. The resulting allowed region for mass-radius curves is small but is consistent with a mass-radius relation with nearly constant radius (~12 km) for masses between 1 and 2.5 solar masses.Comment: 7 pages, 5 figure

ACR Appropriateness Criteria® Locoregional therapy for resectable oropharyngeal squamous cell carcinomas

BackgroundThere are no level I studies to guide treatment for resectable oropharyngeal squamous cell carcinoma (SCC). Treatment toxicities influence management recommendations. Ongoing investigations are examining deintensified treatments for human papillomavirus (HPV)‐associated oropharyngeal SCC.MethodsThe Appropriateness Criteria panel, using modified Delphi methodology, produced a literature summary, an assessment of treatment recommendations, and cases to illustrate their use.ResultsA multidisciplinary team produces optimum results. Based on HPV status, smoking history, and staging, patients are divided into groups at low, intermediate, and high‐risk of death. In the future, treatment recommendations may be influenced by HPV status, which has changed the epidemiology of oropharyngeal SCC.ConclusionT1 to T2N0M0 resectable oropharyngeal SCC can be treated with surgery or radiation without chemotherapy. Patients with T1‐2N1‐2aM0 disease can receive radiation, chemoradiation, or transoral surgery with neck dissection and appropriate adjuvant therapy. Patients with T1‐2N2b‐3M0 disease should receive chemoradiation or transoral surgery with neck dissection and appropriate adjuvant therapy. Concurrent chemoradiation is preferred for T3 to T4 disease. © 2016 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Head Neck 38: 1299–1309, 2016Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/133590/1/hed24447.pdfhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/133590/2/hed24447_am.pd

Special issue conclusion : The GLES Open Science Challenge 2021 in hindsight: experiences gained and lessons learned

Die GLES Open Science Challenge 2021 ist ein Pilotprojekt, das zeigt, dass Registered Reports ein geeignetes und gewinnbringendes Publikationsformat in der quantitativen Politikwissenschaft sind, die dazu beitragen können, die Transparenz und Replizierbarkeit im Forschungsprozess zu erhöhen und somit substanzielle und relevante Beiträge für unsere Disziplin zu liefern. Das Ergebnis ist die Veröffentlichung dieses Sonderheftes mit sieben Registered Reports, die auf Daten der German Longitudinal Election Study (GLES) basieren, die im Rahmen der Bundestagswahl 2021 erhoben wurden. Dieser abschließende Artikel des Sonderheftes bringt die Perspektiven von Autor*innen, Gutachter*innen, Organisator*innen und Herausgeber*innen zusammen, um eine Bilanz der verschiedenen Erfahrungen und Lehren zu ziehen, die im Laufe dieses Projektes gewonnen wurden