Silent Commands? Frodo and Gollum at the Cracks of Doom

Analyzes the key scene at the Cracks of Doom, which the reader sees through Sam’s viewpoint, for hints as to the powers of the bearer of the Ring and his ability to command others. Considers similar scenes from the Bible, Beowulf, and Chanson de Roland. Concludes that Frodo issued Gollum a “silent command” to throw himself into the pit with the Ring

Mixed signals: central bank independence, coordinated wage bargaining, and European Monetary Union

"Die Konzepte für die Europäische Währungsunion basieren auf dem allgemeinen vertretenden Postulat, dass mit größerer Unabhängigkeit der Zentralbank die Inflation ohne reale ökonomische Effekte verringert werden kann. Allerdings beruht die theoretische wie empirische Basis für diesen Anspruch auf Modellvorstellungen einer Volkswirtschaft, die auf unrealistischen Annahmen der Bedeutung von Informationen beruhen und institutionelle Variablen - mit Ausnahme der Zentralbank - außer acht lassen. Wird allerdings die wechselseitige Wahrnehmung und Interpretation von Informationen ('signaling problems') zwischen Zentralbank und den anderen Akteuren in der politischen Ökonomie in die Analyse einbezogen, dann ist feszustellen, dass die Art der Lohnfindung die Intensität der Auswirkungen der Zentralbankunabhängigkeit beeinflusst je nachdem, wie wirksam der Zentralbank und den Tarifpartnern vermittelt ist. Im Falle koordinierter Tarifverhandlungen kann eine größere Unabhängigkeit der Zentralbank die Inflation in der Tat ohne größere Beschäftigungseffekte vermindern, im Falle unkoordinierter Tarifverhandlungen führt dies allerdings zu einem höheren Niveau der Arbeitslosigkeit. Daraus leitet sich die Überlegung ab, dass eine Währungsunion vom Typ 'Europäische Währungsunion' ein höheres Maß an Arbeitslositkeit einfordert, um die Inflation unter Kontrolle zu halten, als es ihre Befürworter erwarten. Bei den sich dann einstellenden Vor- und Nachteilen werden die Nachteile zwischen und innerhalb der Mitgliedsstaaten ungleich verteilt sein, abhängig von dem letztendlich verwirklichten Grad der Unabhängigkeit der Zentralbank und der Form der Lohnfindung." (Autorenreferat)"Plans for European Monetary Union are based on the conventional postulate that increasing the independence of the central bank can reduce inflation without any real economic effects, However, the theoretical and empirical bases for this claim rest on models of the economy that make unrealistic information assumptions and omit institutional variables other than the central bank. When the signaling problems between the central bank and other actors in the political economy are considered, we find that the character of wage bargaining conditions the impact of central bank independence by rendering the signals between the bank and the bargainers more or less effective. Greater independence can reduce inflation without major employment effects where bargaining is coordinated, but it brings higher levels of unemployment where bargaining is uncoordinated. Thus, currency unions like the EMU may require higher levels of unemployment to control inflation than their proponents envisage; they will have costs as well as benefits, costs which will be distributed unevenly among and within the member nations based on the changes induced in the status of the bank and of wage coordination." (author's abstract

Genetic determinants of cerebral edema in severe traumatic brain injury: A pilot study of the role of CACNA1 and AQP4 gene mutations

Cerebral edema is the one of the most significant predictors of poor outcome after traumatic brain injury. It is still unclear what the pathophysiological and cellular mechanisms and predictors of post-traumatic edema are. The exponential growth in genetic information has opened an avenue for investigation in traumatic brain injury and implicated specific genes in the pathophysiology of post-traumatic injury edema. Two examples are the Aquaporin-4 and CACNA1 genes, which respectively encode water and calcium channels. The Aquaporin-4 gene on chromosome 18q11.2-12.1 encodes the Aquaporin-4 protein (AQP4) water channel. AQP4 is one of the bidirectional high capacity water channels that is primarily expressed in astrocytic foot processes in the central nervous system at the blood-brain barrier and is thought to be critical for brain water homeostasis. Experimental studies showed that AQP4 deficient mice had significantly reduced cerebral edema and better survival in a water intoxication model. The CACNA1 gene on chromosome 19p13 encodes the a1A subunit of a neuronal calcium channel. Patients with Familial Hemiplegic Migraine and delayed fatal cerebral edema and seizuresfrom minor trauma have been found to have mutations in CACNA1, which are hypothesized to enhance development of cytotoxic edema. A missense mutation is reported to enhance risk of delayed fatal cerebral edema. Hypothesis: The CACNA1 gene missense mutation S218L and AQP4 polymorphisms will be over-represented in patients with post-traumatic cerebral edema. Our Specific Aim is to perform full exon sequence analysis of these two genes in 20 well-defined cases of excessive cerebral edema. Our long term goal is to systematically investigate genetic variants as determinants of risk of excessive cerebral edema. It is hoped that this will further elucidate secondary mechanisms of injury specifically in the formation of post-traumatic edema and lead to targeted therapies in the future

Impact of medical and neurological ICU complications on moderate-severe traumatic brain injury (TBI)

Certain admission characteristics are known predictors of adverse outcomes in patients with moderate-severe TBI, but explain only 1/3 of outcome variability. Intensive care unit (ICU) complications occur frequently in this population, but their impact on patient outcomes remains poorly defined. In a prospective observational cohort study of 170 consecutive moderate-severe TBI patients admitted to Level I trauma center (UMASS) over the period 11/2009–2/2012, we examined the association of ICU complications and 3-month outcome (Glasgow Outcome Scale [GOS]). The mean age was 51 years, 72% were men, and the median GCS and injury severity scores were 4 and 29, respectively. Using multiple logistic regression analysis, hypotension requiring vasopressors (HRV) was the strongest predictor of poor outcome (GOS 1-3 [OR 2.8; 95% CI 1-7.5]) among medical complications. After combining medical with neurological ICU complications, brain herniation (OR 5.8; 95% CI 1.1-30.2) and intracranial rebleeding (OR 2.9; 95% CI 1-8.4) were the strongest predictors of poor outcome, while HRV approached significance (OR 2.4; 95% CI 0.9-6.4). We identified important potentially modifiable predictors of adverse outcomes after moderate-severe TBI. Confirmation of our findings in a larger cohort is warranted

Incidence rates of ICU complications in moderate-severe traumatic brain injury (TBI)

Retrospective studies suggest that non-neurologic organ failure may contribute to 2/3 of all deaths after TBI, but the actual incidence rates of specific intensive care unit (ICU) complications in moderate-severe TBI are not known. In a prospective observational cohort study of consecutive TBI patients from a single Level I trauma center (UMASS) over the period 11/2009 – 2/2012, we identified the ten most common medical complications after ICU admission according to strict pre-specified criteria in 170 moderate-severe TBI patients. The mean age of the study sample was 51 years, 72% were men, and the median GCS and injury severity scores were 4 and 29, respectively. Incidence rates of the ten most common medical complications in the ICU were: hyperglycemia (75%), fever (62%), systemic inflammatory response syndrome (38%), cardiac complications (36%), hypotension requiring vasopressors (35%), pneumonia (any type [34%]); sepsis (33%), anemia requiring transfusion (31%), other pulmonary complications (ARDS, pulmonary edema [26%]), and hyponatremia (sodium ≤134mEq/L; [23%]). Medical complications in moderate-severe TBI are very common, and their association with important patient outcomes should be further investigated. Specific medical complications may pose attractive modifiable treatment targets to improve the outcome of moderate-severe TBI patients

Serum sodium values and their association with adverse outcomes in moderate-severe traumatic brain injury (TBI)

Hypernatremia in neurocritically ill patients has been associated with worse neurological outcomes. There may, however, be a treatment effect from osmotherapy combating herniation and hyponatremia, which in turn may exacerbate brain edema, resulting in iatrogenic sodium repletion. In moderate-severe TBI, serum sodium (sNa) disturbances are common, but their impact on patient outcomes is unknown. In a prospective observational cohort study of 144 consecutive moderate-severe TBI patients admitted to a Level I trauma center (UMASS) over the period 11/2009–11/2011, we examined the association of mean, nadir, and peak sNa and hospital discharge neurological outcome (Glasgow Outcome Scale [GOS]). The mean age of this cohort was 51 years, 70% were men, and the median GCS and injury severity scores were 5 and 32, respectively. Using ordinal regression analysis, controlling for admission variables, length of ICU stay, severity of injury, presence of brain edema on head CT, administered hypertonic saline and mannitol, higher mean (p\u3c0.001), higher peak (p=0.01), and higher nadir (p\u3c0.001) sNa values were significantly associated with worse outcome. Our findings suggest that higher sNa values are associated with worse neurological outcome, independent of treatment effect by osmotherapy

TID Tolerance of Popular CubeSat Components

In this paper we report total dose test results of COTS components commonly used on CubeSats. We investigate a variety of analog integrated circuits, a popular microcontroller (PIC24) as well as SD memory card