Neurologic Recovery According to Early Magnetic Resonance Imaging Findings in Traumatic Cervical Spinal Cord Injuries

The aim of this study was to determine the usefulness of early magnetic resonance imaging findings in predicting neurologic recovery at or below the injured level in traumatic cervical spinal cord injuries. Thirty patients with traumatic cervical spinal cord injuries were included. All of the patients received a magnetic resonance imaging and a neurologic examination in the emergency room, within 7 days of injury and at 6 months following the injury. To quantify neurologic recovery below the injured level, we modified clinical scales, particularly the motor ratio and the sensory ratio. We used the neurologic level to quantify recovery around the injured level. We assessed neurologic recovery according to MRI patterns and lesion extents. The pure hemorrhagic MRI pattern was not observed. In edematous and mixed types, the improvement of neurologic levels was not significantly different. The motor ratio and sensory ratio improved significantly more in edematous type patients than in mixed type patients. Based on MRI lesion extent, the improvement of neurologic levels was not significantly different, and motor ratio and sensory ratio improved significantly more in those with one or two segments involved than in those with more than two segments involved. In conclusion, early MRI pattern and lesion extent after traumatic cervical spinal cord injury may provide important information to help predict neurologic recovery, especially below the injured level

A High-Speed Range-Matching TCAM for Storage-Efficient Packet Classification

Abstract—A critical issue in the use of TCAMs for packet classification is how to efficiently represent rules with ranges, known as range matching. A range-matching ternary content addressable memory (RM-TCAM) including a highly functional range-matching cell (RMC) is presented in this paper. By offering various range operators, the RM-TCAM can reduce storage expansion ratio from 4.21 to 1.01 compared with conventional TCAMs, under real-world packet classification rule sets, which results in reduced power consumption and die area. A new pre-discharging match-line scheme is used to realize high-speed searching in a dynamic match-line structure. An additional charge-recycling driver further reduces the power consumption of search lines. Simulation results of a 256 64-bit range-matching TCAM, when implemented in the 0.13- m CMOS technology, achieves a 1.99-ns search time with an energy efficiency of 1.26 fJ/bit/search. While a TCAM including range encoding approach requires an additional SRAM or DRAM, the RM-TCAM can improve storage efficiency without any extra components as well as reduce the die area

Overview: Will Great Power Politics Threaten Arctic Sustainability?

The eight Arctic states (Canada, Denmark/Greenland, Finland, Iceland, Norway, Sweden, the Russian Federation, and the United States) wish to maintain a position of preeminence when it comes to dealing with matters of Arctic Ocean governance. However, major non-Arctic states, while recognizing the sovereign rights of the coastal states in their economic zones and on their continental shelves, have growing interests in the maritime Arctic relating to activities such as commercial shipping, oil and gas development, fishing and ship-based tourism. They are increasingly claiming to have a legitimate interest in being consulted when it comes to addressing matters relating to the governance of such activities. Many questions arise from these new formulations: What is the appropriate mechanism for introducing the concerns of the non-Arctic North Pacific countries in forums dealing with Arctic issues? Can they achieve a significant voice in the deliberations of the Arctic Council? Can they address these issues through other mechanisms

ZERO MEAN CURVATURE SURFACES IN LORENTZ-MINKOWSKI 3-SPACE AND 2-DIMENSIONAL FLUID MECHANICS

Space-like maximal surfaces and time-like minimal surfaces in Lorentz-Minkowski 3-space R31 are both characterized as zero mean curvature surfaces. We are interested in the case where the zero mean curvature surface changes type from space-like to time-like at a given non-degenerate null curve. We consider this phenomenon and its interesting connection to 2-dimensional fluid mechanics in this expository article

The Arctic in World Affairs: A North Pacific Dialogue on Will Great Power Politics Threaten Arctic Sustainability

The eight Arctic states (Canada, Denmark/Greenland, Finland, Iceland, Norway, Sweden, the Russian Federation, and the United States) wish to maintain a position of preeminence when it comes to dealing with matters of Arctic Ocean governance. However, major non-Arctic states, while recognizing the sovereign rights of the coastal states in their economic zones and on their continental shelves, have growing interests in the maritime Arctic relating to activities such as commercial shipping, oil and gas development, fishing and ship-based tourism. They are increasingly claiming to have a legitimate interest in being consulted when it comes to addressing matters relating to the governance of such activities. Many questions arise from these new formulations: What is the appropriate mechanism for introducing the concerns of the non-Arctic North Pacific countries in forums dealing with Arctic issues? Can they achieve a significant voice in the deliberations of the Arctic Council? Can they address these issues through other mechanisms