Foreword

All of the articles in this Symposium deal with the question to what extent liberalism as a political philosophy is consistent with citizens\u27 and officials\u27 reliance on religious-based arguments in fashioning coercive public policy ( the question )

With the Intent to Inflict Such Injury : The Courts and the Legislature Create Confusion in California Penal Code Section 12022.7

This Comment discusses California Penal Code Section 12022.7, which states in relevant part, any person who, with the intent to inflict such injury, personally inflicts great bodily injury on any person… shall… be punished by an additional term of three years. The Comment addresses whether the specific or the general intent label applies to section 12022.7\u27s mental element and what the mental element of section 12022.7 actually requires. The author suggests that California\u27s doctrines of general and specific intent are complicated and difficult. Due to this difficulty, the author recommends that the legislature modify the language of section 12022.7\u27s intent requirement. He concludes that section 12022.7 should instead ask whether the defendant intended the injury that resulted or whether the defendant intended to inflict additional harm beyond that inherent in the base crime

Practical Implementations of Twirl Operations

Twirl operations, which convert impure singlet states into Werner states, play an important role in many schemes for entanglement purification. In this paper we describe strategies for implementing twirl operations, with an emphasis on methods suitable for ensemble quantum information processors such as nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) quantum computers. We implement our twirl operation on a general two-spin mixed state using liquid state NMR techniques, demonstrating that we can obtain the singlet Werner state with high fidelity.Comment: 6 pages RevTex4 including 2 figures (fig 1 low quality to save space

Implementation of NMR quantum computation with para-hydrogen derived high purity quantum states

We demonstrate the first implementation of a quantum algorithm on a liquid state nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) quantum computer using almost pure states. This was achieved using a two qubit device where the initial state is an almost pure singlet nuclear spin state of a pair of 1H nuclei arising from a chemical reaction involving para-hydrogen. We have implemented Deutsch's algorithm for distinguishing between constant and balanced functions with a single query.Comment: 7 pages RevTex including 6 figures. Figures 4-6 are low quality to save space. Submitted to Phys Rev

Fire effects on rock weathering in the North Patagonian Andean Range

Fire-induced rock exfoliation is a rapid mechanical weathering process characterized by an uneven heating and thermal expansion stress that causes the detachment of rock peels, flakes or spalls. We examined 18 granitoid erratic blocks on a gradient of fire severity in a burned inselberg near El Bolsón, during March 2023. Among them, 13 blocks showed fire spalling, producing 0.1 to 6 kg/m2 of sediment on rock surfaces with an average of 1.72 kg/m2. The incidence of fire spalling showed a more pronounced occurrence within areas of higher severity above dNBR 800. This study is the first mention of fire-induced weathering in the Patagonian Andes, which underlines the need to investigate the intricate relationship between forest fires and the denudation of vegetated outcrops in the region

The TOPSHOCK study: Effectiveness of radial shockwave therapy compared to focused shockwave therapy for treating patellar tendinopath - design of a randomised controlled trial

Background: Patellar tendinopathy is a chronic overuse injury of the patellar tendon that is especially prevalent in people who are involved in jumping activities. Extracorporeal Shockwave Therapy is a relatively new treatment modality for tendinopathies. It seems to be a safe and promising part of the rehabilitation program for patellar tendinopathy. Extracorporeal Shockwave Therapy originally used focused shockwaves. Several years ago a new kind of shockwave therapy was introduced: radial shockwave therapy. Studies that investigate the effectiveness of radial shockwave therapy as treatment for patellar tendinopathy are scarce. Therefore the aim of this study is to compare the effectiveness of focussed shockwave therapy and radial shockwave therapy as treatments for patellar tendinopathy. Methods/design: The TOPSHOCK study (Tendinopathy Of Patella SHOCKwave) is a two-armed randomised controlled trial in which the effectiveness of focussed shockwave therapy and radial shockwave therapy are directly compared. Outcome assessors and patients are blinded as to which treatment is given. Patients undergo three sessions of either focused shockwave therapy or radial shockwave therapy at 1-week intervals, both in combination with eccentric decline squat training. Follow-up measurements are scheduled just before treatments 2 and 3, and 1, 4, 7 and 12 weeks after the final treatment. The main outcome measure is the Dutch VISA-P questionnaire, which asks for pain, function and sports participation in subjects with patellar tendinopathy. Secondary outcome measures are pain determined with a VAS during ADL, sports and decline squats, rating of subjective improvement and overall satisfaction with the treatment. Patients will also record their sports activities, pain during and after these activities, and concurrent medical treatment on a weekly basis in a web-based diary. Results will be analysed according to the intention-to-treat principle. Discussion: The TOPSHOCK study is the first randomised controlled trial that directly compares the effectiveness of focused shockwave therapy and radial shockwave therapy, both in combination with eccentric decline squat training, for treating patellar tendinopathy. Trial registration: Trial registration number NTR2774

Possible heavy-fermion behaviour of new U(Cu, Al)5 compounds

We have synthesized several new UCuxAl5 - x compounds in the composition range between x = 2.9 and x = 3.5, which were found to form in crystal structures related to the CaCu5 structure. Specific-heat measurements reveal a considerable enhancement of the low-temperature specific-heat coefficient γ for all U(Cu, Al)5 compounds investigated, with a maximum value of 450 mJ/molK2 at 1.2 K for UCu2.9Al2.1. © 1995.Acknowledgement: Work was supported by the "Sticht-ing voor Fundamenteel Onderzoek der Materie" (FOM)

Neuro and hepatic toxicological profile of (S)-2,4-diaminobutanoic acid in embryonic, adolescent and adult zebrafish

(S)-2,4-Diaminobutanoic acid (DABA) is a noncanonical amino acid often co-produced by cyanobacteria along with β-N-methylamino-l-alanine (BMAA) in algal blooms. Although BMAA is a well-established neurotoxin, the toxicity of DABA remains unclear. As part of our development of biocompatible materials, we wish to make use of DABA as both a building block and as the end-product of enzymatically-induced depolymerization; however, if it is toxic at very low concentrations, this would not be possible. We examined the toxicity of DABA using both in vivo embryonic and adult zebrafish models. At higher sub-lethal concentrations (700 µM), the fish demonstrated early signs of cardiotoxicity. Adolescent zebrafish were able to tolerate a higher concentration. Post-mortem histological analysis of juvenile zebrafish showed no liver or brain abnormalities associated with hepato- or neurotoxicity. Combined, these results show that DABA exhibits no overt toxicity at concentrations (100-300 µM) within an order of magnitude of those envisioned for its application. This study further highlights the low-cost and ease of using zebrafish as an early-stage toxicological screening tool

Tissue sparing surgery in knee reconstruction: unicompartmental (UKA), patellofemoral (PFA), UKA + PFA, bi-unicompartmental (Bi-UKA) arthroplasties

Recently mini-invasive joint replacement has become one of the hottest topics in the orthopaedic world. However, these terms have been improperly misunderstood as a “key-hole” surgery where traditional components are implanted with shorter surgical approaches, with few benefits and several possible dangers. Small implants as unicompartmental knee prostheses, patellofemoral prostheses and bi-unicompartmental knee prostheses might represent real less invasive procedures: Tissue sparing surgery, the Italian way to minimally invasive surgery (MIS). According to their experience the authors go through this real tissue sparing surgery not limited only to a small incision, but where the surgeons can respect the physiological joint biomechanics