Canine Insulinoma

Hypoglycemia in a dog due to an insulinoma was first reported in the literature in 1927. Although there have been many reported cases since that time, it is still considered to be a fairly rare condition by most authors. Its frequency, however, is probably much greater than the literature would lead one to believe, as the vast majority of cases go unreported or unrecognized. The Iowa State University Teaching Hospital alone diagnoses three or four cases each year, which is a substantial number in light of the fact that functional beta cell tumors have been reported in only 45 dogs

Relay I trapped radiation measurements

Radiation measurements of geomagnetically trapped electrons by instruments on Relay I satellite in 196

Dynamic Spin-Polarized Resonant Tunneling in Magnetic Tunnel Junctions

Precisely engineered tunnel junctions exhibit a long sought effect that occurs when the energy of the electron is comparable to the potential energy of the tunneling barrier. The resistance of metal-insulator-metal tunnel junctions oscillates with an applied voltage when electrons that tunnel directly into the barrier's conduction band interfere upon reflection at the classical turning points: the insulator-metal interface, and the dynamic point where the incident electron energy equals the potential barrier inside the insulator. A model of tunneling between free electron bands using the exact solution of the Schroedinger equation for a trapezoidal tunnel barrier qualitatively agrees with experiment.Comment: 4pgs, 3 fig

Efficient Quantum Circuits for Schur and Clebsch-Gordan Transforms

The Schur basis on n d-dimensional quantum systems is a generalization of the total angular momentum basis that is useful for exploiting symmetry under permutations or collective unitary rotations. We present efficient (size poly(n,d,log(1/\epsilon)) for accuracy \epsilon) quantum circuits for the Schur transform, which is the change of basis between the computational and the Schur bases. These circuits are based on efficient circuits for the Clebsch-Gordan transformation. We also present an efficient circuit for a limited version of the Schur transform in which one needs only to project onto different Schur subspaces. This second circuit is based on a generalization of phase estimation to any nonabelian finite group for which there exists a fast quantum Fourier transform.Comment: 4 pages, 3 figure

Preliminary study into the components of the fear-avoidance model of LBP: change after an initial chiropractic visit and influence on outcome

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>In the last decade the sub grouping of low back pain (LBP) patients according to their likely response to treatment has been identified as a research priority. As with other patient groups, researchers have found few if any factors from the case history or physical examination that are helpful in predicting the outcome of chiropractic care. However, in the wider LBP population psychosocial factors have been identified that are significantly prognostic. This study investigated changes in the components of the LBP fear-avoidance beliefs model in patients pre- and post- their initial visit with a chiropractor to determine if there was a relationship with outcomes at 1 month.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>Seventy one new patients with lower back pain as their primary complaint presenting for chiropractic care to one of five clinics (nine chiropractors) completed questionnaires before their initial visit (pre-visit) and again just before their second appointment (post-visit). One month after the initial consultation, patient global impression of change (PGIC) scores were collected. Pre visit and post visit psychological domain scores were analysed for any association with outcomes at 1 month.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Group mean scores for Fear Avoidance Beliefs (FAB), catastrophisation and self-efficacy were all improved significantly within a few days of a patient's initial chiropractic consultation. Pre-visit catastrophisation as well as post-visit scores for catastrophisation, back beliefs (inevitability) and self-efficacy were weakly correlated with patient's global impression of change (PGIC) at 1 month. However when the four assessed psychological variables were dichotomised about pre-visit group medians those individuals with 2 or more high variables post-visit had a substantially increased risk (OR 36.4 (95% CI 6.2-213.0) of poor recovery at 1 month. Seven percent of patients with 1 or fewer adverse psychological variables described poor benefit compared to 73% of those with 2 or more.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>The results presented suggest that catastrophisation, FAB and low self-efficacy could be potential barriers to early improvement during chiropractic care. In most patients presenting with higher psychological scores these were reduced within a few days of an initial chiropractic visit. Those patients who exhibited higher adverse psychology post-initial visit appear to have an increased risk of poor outcome at 1 month.</p

The Stability of Quantum Concatenated Code Hamiltonians

Protecting quantum information from the detrimental effects of decoherence and lack of precise quantum control is a central challenge that must be overcome if a large robust quantum computer is to be constructed. The traditional approach to achieving this is via active quantum error correction using fault-tolerant techniques. An alternative to this approach is to engineer strongly interacting many-body quantum systems that enact the quantum error correction via the natural dynamics of these systems. Here we present a method for achieving this based on the concept of concatenated quantum error correcting codes. We define a class of Hamiltonians whose ground states are concatenated quantum codes and whose energy landscape naturally causes quantum error correction. We analyze these Hamiltonians for robustness and suggest methods for implementing these highly unnatural Hamiltonians.Comment: 18 pages, small corrections and clarification

Hyperbolic entire functions and the Eremenko–Lyubich class: Class B or not class B?

Hyperbolicity plays an important role in the study of dynamical systems, and is a key concept in the iteration of rational functions of one complex variable. Hyperbolic systems have also been considered in the study of transcendental entire functions. There does not appear to be an agreed definition of the concept in this context, due to complications arising from the non-compactness of the phase space. In this article, we consider a natural definition of hyperbolicity that requires expanding properties on the preimage of a punctured neighbourhood of the isolated singularity. We show that this definition is equivalent to another commonly used one: a transcendental entire function is hyperbolic if and only if its postsingular set is a compact subset of the Fatou set. This leads us to propose that this notion should be used as the general definition of hyperbolicity in the context of entire functions, and, in particular, that speaking about hyperbolicity makes sense only within the Eremenko–Lyubich classB of transcendental entire functions with a bounded set of singular values. We also considerably strengthen a recent characterisation of the class B, by showing that functions outside of this class cannot be expanding with respect to a metric whose density decays at most polynomially. In particular, this implies that no transcendental entire function can be expanding with respect to the spherical metric. Finally we give a characterisation of an analogous class of functions analytic in a hyperbolic domain

New Technologies for Space Avionics, 1993

The report reviews a 1993 effort that investigated issues associated with the development of requirements, with the practice of concurrent engineering and with rapid prototyping, in the development of a next-generation Reaction Jet Drive Controller. This report details lessons learned, the current status of the prototype, and suggestions for future work. The report concludes with a discussion of the vision of future avionics architectures based on the principles associated with open architectures and integrated vehicle health management

Influence of Urban Landscapes on Population Dynamics in a Short-Distance Migrant Mosquito: Evidence for the Dengue Vector Aedes aegypti

Worldwide, 2.5 billion people are at risk for dengue infection, with no vaccine or treatment available. Thus dengue prevention is largely focused on controlling its mosquito vector, Aedes aegypti. Traditional mosquito control approaches typically include insecticide applications and breeding site source reduction. Presently, novel dengue control measures including the sterile insect technique and population replacement with dengue-incompetent transgenic mosquitoes are also being considered. Success of all population control programs is in part dependent upon understanding mosquito population ecology, including how anthropogenic effects on the urban landscape influence dispersal and expansion. We conducted a two year population genetic study examining how a major metropolitan highway impacts mosquito dispersal in Trinidad, West Indies. As evidenced by significant differentiation using both nuclear and mitochondrial DNA sequences, the highway acted as a significant barrier to dispersal. Our results suggest that anthropogenic landscape features can be used effectively to enhance population suppression/replacement measures by defining mosquito control zones along recognized landscape barriers that limit population dispersal

The interaction of lean and building information modeling in construction

Lean construction and Building Information Modeling are quite different initiatives, but both are having profound impacts on the construction industry. A rigorous analysis of the myriad specific interactions between them indicates that a synergy exists which, if properly understood in theoretical terms, can be exploited to improve construction processes beyond the degree to which it might be improved by application of either of these paradigms independently. Using a matrix that juxtaposes BIM functionalities with prescriptive lean construction principles, fifty-six interactions have been identified, all but four of which represent constructive interaction. Although evidence for the majority of these has been found, the matrix is not considered complete, but rather a framework for research to explore the degree of validity of the interactions. Construction executives, managers, designers and developers of IT systems for construction can also benefit from the framework as an aid to recognizing the potential synergies when planning their lean and BIM adoption strategies