Reconnaissance study of ground-water levels and withdrawls in the vicinity of DeWitt and Piatt counties

"Prepared for the Mahomet Valley Water Authority.

Teaching Species

A clear understanding of the term species is fundamental to the subject of evolution. However, introductory textbooks often fail to address this topic until one of the later chapters, after having used the term species in all preceding chapters. Furthermore, definitions of terms critical to a clear understanding of this subject are often vague or absent in chapters on species concepts. We feel the popular notion of a species problem has been unnecessarily inflated by this less-than-effective educational approach. Clearly addressing this essential subject at the beginning of a course on evolution will prepare students to learn the details and complexities of evolution. Here we provide the background for an alternative approach to this foundational topic, followed by an outlined lesson plan. We emphasize early introduction of this subject in texts and courses using unambiguous terminology and including the historical development of species concepts

What is the appropriate diagnostic evaluation of fibroids?

Although transvaginal sonography (TVS) has inconsistent sensitivity (0.21-1.00) and specificity (0.53-1.00), its cost-efficiency and noninvasiveness make it the best initial test for ruling in fibroid disease (strength of recommendation [SOR]: B, based on expert opinion, a systematic review, and prospective studies). Sonohysterography (SHG) and hysteroscopy have superior sensitivity, specificity, and more discriminating positive and negative likelihood ratios for diagnosing fibroids than does TVS (SOR: B, systematic review). SHG is less painful, less invasive, and more cost-effective than hysteroscopy (SOR: B; single, prospective comparative study and cost comparison). Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) had comparable precision to TVS in a single study, but it is too expensive to be a good initial test for fibroids (SOR: C, expert opinion and an uncontrolled prospective study). One study reported a strong correlation between ultrasound and bimanual examination (SOR: C, retrospective case review)

For knee pain, how predictive is physical examination for meniscal injury?

No single clinical examination element, or combination of such elements, reliably detects meniscal injury. The McMurray test is best for ruling in meniscal pathology. Assuming a 9% prevalence of meniscal tears among all knee injuries (a rate reflecting national primary care data), the posttest probability that a patient with McMurray's sign has a meniscal injury ranges from <30% to 63% (strength of recommendation [SOR]: B). In contrast, the absence of any positive physical examination findings effectively rules out meniscal pathology, yielding a posttest probability of 0.8% for lateral meniscus injury, 1.0% for medial meniscus injury, and 3.8% for any meniscal injury among primary care populations (SOR: B)

Visible light to electrical energy conversion using photoelectrochemical cells

Sustained conversion of low energy visible or near i.r. light (>1.25 eV) to electrical energy has been obtained using wet photoelectrochemical cells where there are no net chemical changes in the system. Stabilization of n-type semi-conductor anodes of CdS, CdSe, CdTe, GaP, GaAs and InP to photoanodic dissolution is achieved by employing selected alkaline solutions of Na.sub.2 S, Na.sub.2 S/S, Na.sub.2 Se, Na.sub.2 Se/Se, Na.sub.2 Te and Na.sub.2 Te/Te as the electrolyte. The oxidation of (poly) sulfide, (poly)selenide or (poly)telluride species occurs at the irradiated anode, and reduction of polysulfide, polyselenide or polytelluride species occurs at the dark Pt cathode of the photoelectrochemical cell. Optical to electrical energy conversion efficiencies approaching 15% at selected frequencies have been observed in some cells. The wavelength for the onset of photocurrent corresponds to the band gap of the particular anode material used in the cell

Discontinuation of standard first-line antiretroviral therapy in a cohort of 1434 Malawian children

The standard first-line antiretroviral (ART) regimen in Malawi for both adults and children is a fixed-dose combination tablet containing stavudine (d4T), lamivudine (3TC) and nevirapine (NVP). This regimen has been shown to yield satisfactory virologic and immunologic outcomes in children. Published studies have described insights into discontinuation of first-line regimen and toxicities of ART in adults, but similar studies in paediatric populations are lacking

Scaling of space and timelike response of confined relativistic particles

The response of a relativistic particle bound in a linear confining well is calculated as a function of the momentum and energy transfer, q, \nu. At large values of |q| the response exhibits scaling in the variable y=\nu-|q|, which is proportional to the Nachtmann variable, \xi. The approach to scaling is studied at smaller values of |q|. Scaling occurs at \nu~|q| at relatively small |q|, and its validity extends over the entire \xi range as |q| increases; this behavior is observed in electron-proton scattering. About 10% of the response at large |q| is in the timelike region where \nu>|q|, and it is necessary to include it to fulfill the particle number sum rule. The Gross-Llewellyn Smith and Gottfried sum rules are discussed in the context of these results.Comment: 10 pages, 5 figures; submitted to Physics Letters

The neural correlates of semantic richness : Evidence from an fMRI study of word learning

We investigated the neural correlates of concrete nouns with either many or few semantic features. A group of 21 participants underwent two days of training and were then asked to categorize 40 newly learned words and a set of matched familiar words as living or nonliving in an MRI scanner. Our results showed that the most reliable effects of semantic richness were located in the left angular gyrus (AG) and middle temporal gyrus (MTG), where activation was higher for semantically rich than poor words. Other areas showing the same pattern included bilateral precuneus and posterior cingulate gyrus. Our findings support the view that AG and anterior MTG, as part of the multimodal network, play a significant role in representing and integrating semantic features from different input modalities. We propose that activation in bilateral precuneus and posterior cingulate gyrus reflects interplay between AG and episodic memory systems during semantic retrieval

Voice SourceWaveform Analysis and Synthesis Using Principal Component Analysis and Gaussian Mixture Modelling

The paper presents a voice source waveform modeling techniques based on principal component analysis (PCA) and Gaussian mixture modeling (GMM). The voice source is obtained by inverse-filtering speech with the estimated vocal tract filter. This decomposition is useful in speech analysis, synthesis, recognition and coding. Here, a data-driven approach is presented for signal decomposition and classification based on the principal components of the voice source. The principal components are analyzed and the 'prototype' voice source signals corresponding to the Gaussian mixture means are examined. We show how an unknown signal can be decomposed into its components and/or prototypes and resynthesized. We show how the techniques are suited for both low bitrate or high quality analysis/synthesis schemes

Suppression of Heavy Ion gamma gamma Production of the Higgs by Coulomb Dissociation

Predicted two-photon Higgs production with heavy ions at LHC is shown to be reduced due to the large Coulomb dissociation cross section. Incorporating the effect of dissociation reduces the production of a 100 GeV Higgs by about a factor of three compared to rates in the literature calculated without this effect.Comment: 5 pages, latex, revtex source, two postscript figure