Round Of Tests Research Articles

Second Person

Second Person Dave O’Gorman (bio) Hubert Ernst Becker, the man who’d married my mother over the fiercest opposition I could muster from the third grade, passed away last spring—his body devoured by a cancer that shocked all three of us in both its swiftness and its capacity to inflict suffering. On January 1st he and Mom had ridden sixty miles of Florida bike paths. On March 1st he was spending his fourth night in a Tampa hospital awaiting another round of tests. On May 1st he was gone. And the thing about all of that is, there would’ve been a time when I’d have received the unfolding news with little short of glee. What am I saying, there would’ve been a time when I’d have popped popcorn. Throughout my early childhood I had known him only as Mister Becker: Chelsea Yacht Club’s barrel-chested “rear admiral,” the duties for which apparently included snarling invective at the kids left ashore while our parents sailed the turbid Hudson below Poughkeepsie. One spring Saturday it would be the turn of the gangly young Reynolds girl, found climbing across the top of the swing set; the next it would be the menacingly fat Strickland kid, caught poking holes in the sides of soda cans; the Saturday after that it would be the blabber-mouthed runt, far out on the treacherous breakwater with a hefty rock in my arms, Mr. Becker bellowing at me from shore to put it down. “Drop it right now or you’ll be eating it for dinner, ya’ little monster!” he’d yelled in his customary Bronx/Jersey accent, and I—rattled as much by the depth of my own terror—had reflexively complied, depositing the rock squarely onto my shoeless big toe. This would be my first enduring impression of the man I came to address as “Huey,” a man who calibrated his indignation to fir the circumstance the way a water cannon might calibrate itself to douse a match. A man who dressed funny and talked funny and chewed funny and even smelled funny. A man who implicitly expected you to know the meaning and appropriate audiences for such phrases as “fart in a trance,” (bad), “stepped in shit” (good, apparently), “pissin’ in the wind,” (noble but bad), and “go pound salt in your ass” (bad until he realized he could run-up the score by suggesting I might enjoy it). Had I properly understood the source of all of this permanently-aggrieved [End Page 152] crankiness—had I appreciated the severity with which his hardscrabble background and nightmarish first marriage would narrow his range of feeling toward me and my own presumptive future, I might have reacted differently to his new status as de facto role model. By which I mean that instead of settling for open hostility at the idea, I might have explored the tensile strength of the nearest plate-glass window. “You try leaving this house again without a belt on,” he’d informed me on Day Two of our new living arrangement, “and so help me God I’ll kick your pansy little momma’s-boy ass so hard you won’t need a belt for all the swelling.” And so—give or take—it proved to be. Then again, as the yappity son of an IBM’er, my own exhausting personality in those days had bordered on caricature in its turn. Sit me at a dining table for more than a few minutes—with or without a gently cooling plate of food—and you were pretty-well guaranteed to hear something grasping, self-serious, fifteen decibels too loud and, above all, false. “You know that kid from down the street?” I casually announced one memorable spring evening in my eighth year. “Well, he started a story in reading class with the words, Once Upon A Time, and the poor guy spelled Upon with a ‘U,’ instead of with an ‘A’! I mean, can you believe that? Guy should’ve learned how to spell that word years ago,” I said. I’d even sat back a little in my chair afterward: pleased with myself, not...

Status of R&D on mitigating the effects of pressure waves for the Spallation Neutron Source mercury target

The Spallation Neutron Source (SNS) at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory has been conducting R&D on mitigating the effects of pressure waves in mercury spallation targets since 2001. More precisely, cavitation damage of the target vessel caused by the short beam pulse threatens to limit its lifetime more severely than radiation damage as well as limit its ultimate power capacity – and hence its neutron intensity performance. The R&D program has moved from verification of the beam-induced damage phenomena to study of material and surface treatments for damage resistance to the current emphasis on gas injection techniques for damage mitigation. Two techniques are being worked on: injection of small dispersed gas bubbles that mitigate the pressure waves volumetrically; and protective gas walls that isolate the vessel from the damaging effects of collapsing cavitation bubbles. The latter has demonstrated good damage mitigation during in-beam testing with limited pulses, and adequate gas wall coverage at the beam entrance window has been demonstrated with the SNS mercury target flow configuration using a full scale mercury test loop. A question on the required area coverage remains which depends on results from SNS target post irradiation examination. The small gas bubble technique has been less effective during past in-beam tests but those results were with un-optimized and un-verified bubble populations. Another round of in-beam tests with small gas bubbles is planned for 2011.The first SNS target was removed from service in mid 2009 and samples were cut from two locations at the target’s beam entrance window. Through-wall damage was observed at the innermost mercury vessel wall (not a containment wall). The damage pattern suggested correlation with the local mercury flow condition which is nearly stagnant at the peak damage location. Detailed post irradiation examination of the samples is under way that will assess the erosion and measure irradiation-induced changes in mechanical properties. Similar samples were cut from the second SNS target after it was removed from service in mid 2010. More extensive damage was observed on the target inner wall but damage to the containment wall was minimal.

Assessing patients' satisfaction with anti-TNFα treatment in Crohn's disease: qualitative steps of the development of a new questionnaire.

Purpose:To develop a self-administered questionnaire assessing patients’ satisfaction with treatments in Crohn’s disease for use in clinical research and epidemiological studies.Patients and methods:Semi-directive interviews (16) were conducted with patients with severe Crohn’s disease treated with anti-tumor necrosis factor alpha (anti-TNFα). Transcripts were analyzed and concepts related to satisfaction with treatment were extracted and organized into a model. Items were generated using patients’ words. The resulting test version was tested for relevance and comprehension with 7 patients and revised accordingly; the new version was tested with 5 other patients and revised to provide the pilot version. A clinician advisory board was involved at each milestone of the development.Results:The test questionnaire assessed treatment satisfaction through 67 items, organized into 5 sections: treatment efficacy, side-effects, convenience and constraints, overall impact, and satisfaction. Conceptual content of the questionnaire includes comparison with prior state and with expectations, satisfaction, acceptability, and intentions. The questionnaire was generally well accepted and understood by patients; few modifications were made in the structure and item formulation. After the second round of comprehension tests, the pilot version contained 62 items; the questionnaire was named Satisfaction of PAtients in Crohn’s diseasE (SPACE©).Conclusion:The questionnaire is a unique tool to assess treatment satisfaction in patients with Crohn’s disease. A scoring and validation study is currently being performed to finalize and establish its scoring, as well as its psychometric properties.

Taking the Long View of Learning

When I was an undergraduate, one of my history professors told the story of an expert lecturing about the fall of the Roman Empire. At the end of the talk, the expert was asked what were the main results of the fall of the Roman Empire. There was a long pause, a worried look, and finally the response--Too soon to say. In some ways, the outcomes of education are like that. When do we know that education has been a success? Surely this happens long after a particular grade or course is completed; most people would say it's a lifetime matter. That's why it's important to analyze what happens to students over the longer term as well, not just their short-term achievement. In the past decade or so, Canada has developed a number of important longitudinal databases related to young people and education. The National Longitudinal Study of Children and Youth has provided important information on children's development from birth to adolescence. The School Leavers Survey traced young people through secondary school and into postsecondary. And more recently, the Youth in Transition Study (YITS) has tracked 30,000 young people from age 15 in 2000 to age 25 in 2010. As an additional feature, the YITS sample also was involved in writing the first round of PISA tests. PISA is OECD's influential Programme for International Student Assessment that assesses 15-year-olds on various lifetime skills. Combining these two data sets has allowed Canada to connect PISA results in reading, mathematics, and science to YITS data on postsecondary education and labor force participation over time. Earlier this year, Human Resources Development Canada and the OECD jointly released Pathways to Success, a report that analyzes the postsecondary education and early labor force activity of these 30,000 young people as of 2006, when they were about 21-years-old, and relates those to their PISA results six years earlier, when they were 15. Several important conclusions arise from this most recent analysis. First, despite a highly diverse population (58% English first language, 22% French, and 20% neither), Canada has high levels of student attainment with lower levels of inequality in outcomes than most countries. Not only are PISA scores very high, but Canada also has well above average participation in postsecondary education; only 20% of 21-year-olds had no involvement in postsecondary education. Also, education outcomes for immigrants are low initially but, after five years, are higher than for those born in Canada. The country is among several (others include Korea, Finland, and Japan) showing that high attainment doesn't have to mean high inequality. Still, one cannot be too self-congratulatory on this count. Canada's performance is better than most countries, but in Canada, too, socioeconomic status continues to be the single most powerful factor shaping education and other life outcomes--even though its impact is only about half of what it is in the United States. Socioeconomic status operates in many ways; income is only part of the story. In the PISA/YITS study, parental expectations for their children are much more influential than is parent's academic interest, supporting other research showing the importance for children's progress of high adult expectations, both at home and at school. PISA literacy scores at age 15 are strongly related to students' education and labor market outcomes at age 21, even after controlling for socioeconomic status and other background variables. In other words, literacy skills have an independent effect on students' lives, even taking into account years of education and school attainment. Literacy skills matter. The implication for schools is that there must be a sustained focus on helping students develop real skills; grades or credits must represent real learning. …

A Case of Chlorpheniramine Maleate-Induced Hypersensitivity With Aspirin Intolerance

Antihistamines are commonly used to treat allergic disease, such as allergic rhinitis, urticaria, and angioedema. Although several previous reports describe hypersensitivity to antihistamines such as cetirizine and hydroxyzine, documented cases of chlorpheniramine hypersensitivity are extremely rare. Here, we report the case of a 45-year-old Korean woman who presented with urticaria after ingesting a cold medication. Over the previous 5 years, she had also experienced a food allergy to crab and shrimp, allergic rhinitis, and repeated urticaria after ingesting cold medication. Provocation with aspirin elicited generalized urticaria. Intravenous chlorpheniramine and methylprednisolone was injected for symptom control, but in fact appeared to aggravate urticaria. A second round of skin and provocation tests for chlorpheniramine and methylprednisolone showed positive results only for chlorpheniramine. She was diagnosed with aspirin intolerance and chlorpheniramine hypersensitivity, and was instructed to avoid these drugs. To date, this is the second of only two cases of chlorpheniramine-induced type I hypersensitivity with aspirin intolerance. Although the relationship between aspirin intolerance and chlorpheniramine-induced type I hypersensitivity is unclear, physicians should be aware of the possibility of urticaria or other allergic reactions in response to antihistamines.

Assessment of the Qualification Test of the First Wall Qualification Mockup

Understanding the manner in which the First Wall Qualification Mockup (FWQM) responds structurally to simulated ITER conditions is important to the establishment of a reliable first wall. This paper provides a thermal and structural response analysis for the first round of qualification tests performed at Sandia National Laboratories. The results display the stresses and strains created in the FWQM as a result of the thermal expansion that occurred when subjected to cyclic heat flux under simulated ITER normal and MARFE conditions. From this structural response, further insight may be gained into the likelihood of fatigue failure of the Beryllium//CuCrZr interface once the first wall is in operation in ITER. While fully determining the reliability of this joint is beyond the scope of this study, some suggestions are made as to how this topic might be addressed with further research. Also investigated are the thermal patterns seen during testing that indicated slight variation from the intended test parameters. It is shown that these disparities from the ideal test parameters do not significantly affect the qualification of the FWQM.

LethalMycobacterium massilienseSepsis, Italy

To the Editor: A strain of Mycobacterium massiliense was isolated from the blood of a kidney transplant patient in Italy at the same time she was diagnosed as having pulmonary tuberculosis. M. massiliense bacteremia appears to have played a role in her sudden death. The patient, a 63-year-old woman who had had a kidney transplant 10 years earlier and was receiving immunosuppressive treatment with cyclosporine, azathioprine, and prednisolone, was hospitalized in an intensive care unit because of septic shock, a stuporous condition, hypotension, respiratory insufficiency, and acute renal failure. Results of initial microbiologic investigations (cultures of blood, urine, and bronchial aspirate, and nasal and pharyngeal swabs; tests for antigens of Legionella pneumophila, pneumococcus, and Cryptococcus neoformans; and serologic analysis for pneumotropic viruses and bacteria) were negative. Hematologic analysis showed leukopenia with high neutrophil counts. Septic shock–specific therapy was given along with wide-spectrum antimicrobial drug therapy (levofloxacin, trimethoprim-sulfamethoxazole, piperacillin-tazobactam, and fluconazole). After moderate improvement, the patient’s general condition worsened and prompted a new round of microbiologic tests, including those for mycobacteria. After acid-fast bacilli were detected in a bronchial aspirate and results of nucleic acid amplification (Amplicor; Roche, Basel, Switzerland) were positive for M. tuberculosis complex, she was given standard antituberculosis treatment. She died the next day. Three blood cultures obtained 7 days before the death of the patient showed positive results in aerobic bottles but not in anaerobic bottles (BacT/ALERT SA; bioMerieux, Marcy l’Etoile, France). Subcultures spread onto blood agar yielded small white colonies of gram-positive bacilli, including branched forms, within 24 hours. One month earlier, the patient had been seen as an outpatient with intermittent fever, and unidentified gram-positive bacilli were observed in her blood culture. Genetic sequencing of the first one third of the 16S rDNA gene (1) of the strain (GenBank accession no. {type:entrez-nucleotide,attrs:{text:EU370523,term_id:169264479}}EU370523) showed 99.8% identity with M. abscessus, M. bolletii, M. chelonae, and M. massiliense. To discriminate between these 4 species, a 723-bp fragment of the RNA polymerase β subunit (rpoB) gene (2) also was sequenced (GenBank accession no. {type:entrez-nucleotide,attrs:{text:EU370524,term_id:169264486}}EU370524). Sequencing showed 100% similarity with M. massiliense; the next most closely related species was M. bolletii (98.6% similarity). An isolate of M. tuberculosis that was susceptible to all first-line antituberculosis drugs was recovered from this patient’s bronchial aspirate in both solid and liquid media. Immunocompromised patients, including those with organ transplants, are known to be prone to mycobacterial infections (3). Mixed mycobacterial infections also have been reported (4). This newly described species has been isolated from pulmonary fluids (5), blood (6), intramuscular injection sites (7), and surgical wounds (8). Because sequencing 16S rDNA does not differentiate M. abscessus, M. bolletii, M. chelonae, and M. massiliense (5), use of the rpoB sequence is crucial. As reported for isolates of M. massiliense (5–8), our isolate was characterized by high MICs (9) (broth microdilution by using the Sensititer RGMYCO; Trek Diagnostic Systems Inc., Cleveland, OH, USA) to most of the antimicrobial drugs tested. The isolate was sensitive only to clarithromycin and amikacin and showed borderline sensitivity to linezolid (Table). Table Antimicrobial drug resistance pattern of the strain of Mycobacterium massiliense isolated from the patient, Italy* Despite co-infection with M. tuberculosis, the patient’s death was likely caused by M. massiliense bacteremia. The patient died before the isolate was identified as a mycobacterium, and unfortunately, none of the drugs used empirically was active against this organism. Only speculations can be made about how this patient acquired the M. massiliense infection. However, 5 months before her hospital admission, the patient had received a coxofemoral arthroprosthesis as a result of a fall and had since complained of generalized bone pain and had remained bedridden. Although in this case no proof exists, infection caused by rapidly growing mycobacteria after surgical intervention (10) is well known and should be considered. M. massiliense has been distinguished from M. abscessus by sequencing of the rpoB gene (2). Because this technology is available in relatively few clinical laboratories, cases of infection with M. massiliense may be mistakenly attributed to M. abscessus. Although infections with M. massiliense may be underrecognized, reports of these infections are raising concern. The capacity of this bacteria to infect different body sites is further evidence for the pathogenic potential of a rapidly growing mycobacteria in human infections (10).

Prostate Cancer Quality of Life: Beyond Initial Treatment—and the Patient

The clinical course of cancer produces the illusion of discontinuity, and the distortion can harm treatment decision making. Most cancers grow for years to achieve a size sufficient for symptoms, screening, or serendipitous test results to draw attention to it. However long in coming, a cancer diagnosis arrives as a thunderbolt, kicking off a disorienting frenzy of testing, consultation, and treatment. The aftermath depends on the cancer’s response. Progressive cancer is a batterer, provoking treatment counterpunches on behalf of the patient, with the family’s support. 1,2 But they must come to an accommodation with it, their eventual acquiescence variably admixed with grace and peace, but at great emotional cost, 3 and too often disastrously late to benefit from hospice and other palliative care. 4 For the fortunate patient with a complete remission, usually with surgery as part of treatment, the reverberations of treatment eventually die down. Fear of cancer gives way to thanks for its departure, and hope that it will not return seeps in, with cure becoming conviction in time. Biologically, recurrent cancer simply extends the primary tumor’s relentless, occult growth, albeit displaced. Too often, it clinically reprises the initial surprise attack, triggering a new, urgent round of tests and consultations that echoes the first. It needn’t be

NALP1in Vitiligo-Associated Multiple Autoimmune Disease

Autoimmune and autoinflammatory diseases involve interactions between genetic risk factors and environmental triggers. We searched for a gene on chromosome 17p13 that contributes to a group of epidemiologically associated autoimmune and autoinflammatory diseases. The group includes various combinations of generalized vitiligo, autoimmune thyroid disease, latent autoimmune diabetes in adults, rheumatoid arthritis, psoriasis, pernicious anemia, systemic lupus erythematosus, and Addison's disease. We tested 177 single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) spanning the 17p13 linkage peak for association with disease and identified a strong candidate gene. We then sequenced DNA in and around the gene to identify additional SNPs. We carried out a second round of tests of association using some of these additional SNPs, thus elucidating the association with disease in the gene and its extended promoter region in fine detail. Association analyses resulted in our identifying as a candidate gene NALP1, which encodes NACHT leucine-rich-repeat protein 1, a regulator of the innate immune system. Fine-scale association mapping with the use of DNA from affected families and additional SNPs in and around NALP1 showed an association of specific variants with vitiligo alone, with an extended autoimmune and autoinflammatory disease phenotype, or with both. Conditional logistic-regression analysis of NALP1 SNPs indicated that at least two variants contribute independently to the risk of disease. DNA sequence variants in the NALP1 region are associated with the risk of several epidemiologically associated autoimmune and autoinflammatory diseases, implicating the innate immune system in the pathogenesis of these disorders.

Optimization of a mini-gamma camera based on a 2×2 array of Hamamatsu H8500 PSPMTs

We present the results of a comparative study between several scintillation sensors with the goal of optimizing the spatial resolution of a practical mini-gamma camera based on a 2×2 array of Hamamatsu H8500 flat panel position sensitive photomultiplier tubes (PSPMTs) with 64 anode pads per PSPMT. The readout of this 256 pad imager was achieved by a special in-house designed and optimized pad-decoupling strip readout reducing the number of readout channels to 32. Pixellated NaI(Tl) and CsI(Tl) scintillator arrays, as well as thin continuous GSO, GSOZ, CsI(Na) and CsI(Tl) scintillator plates were coupled to this PSPMT array to form a compact mini-gamma camera. This round of tests, following extensive prior experience with this type of imager, was intended to investigate the possibility of achieving an intrinsic spatial resolution of under 1.0 mm FWHM across the whole surface of the mini-gamma camera. We confirmed the results of our previous studies that the best overall performance is achieved with pixellated NaI(Tl) arrays. The present resolution limit attainable with the H8500 PSPMT array is approaching 1.2 mm FWHM, which is equivalent to the smallest available pixel pitch of these arrays.

Testing numerical evolution with the shifted gauge wave

Computational methods are essential to provide waveforms from coalescing black holes, which are expected to produce strong signals for the gravitational wave observatories being developed. Although partial simulations of the coalescence have been reported, scientifically useful waveforms have so far not been delivered. The goal of the AppleswithApples (AwA) Alliance is to design, coordinate and document standardized code tests for comparing numerical relativity codes. The first round of AwA tests has now been completed and the results are being analysed. These initial tests are based upon the periodic boundary conditions designed to isolate performance of the main evolution code. Here we describe and carry out an additional test with periodic boundary conditions which deals with an essential feature of the black hole excision problem, namely a non-vanishing shift. The test is a shifted version of the existing AwA gauge wave test. We show how a shift introduces an exponentially growing instability which violates the constraints of a standard harmonic formulation of Einstein's equations. We analyse the Cauchy problem in a harmonic gauge and discuss particular options for suppressing instabilities in the gauge wave tests. We implement these techniques in a finite difference evolution algorithm and present test results. Although our application here is limited to a model problem, the techniques should benefit the simulation of black holes using harmonic evolution codes.

NOx Emissions Reduction Through Water Injection

AbstractTransport Canada is committed to protect the environment and to achieve a more sustainable transportation system. The Transportation Development Centre of Transport Canada, in collaboration with the Environment Research and Measurement Division of Environment Canada, is conducting research on marine emissions control technologies to lower greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. » The ongoing work on emissions control technologies comprises both laboratory and field trials. An initial round of laboratory tests demonstrated the viability of a Water Injection System (WIS) to reduce NOx emissions. The results indicate that the WIS has achieved a 20 to 28% NOx reduction over a 25 to 75% load range with a maximum of 33% water injection. The WIS was optimized during laboratory bench tests and will be installed on a RORO vessel operating between Montreal, Quebec, and St. John's, Newfoundland. The WIS provides a cost‐effective solution for NOx reduction on Canadian vessels fitted with older medium‐speed engines.

Spontaneous Recovery of Sudden Sensorineural Hearing Loss: Possible Association with Autoimmune Disorders

A 46-year-old white male diagnosed with systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) and antiphospholipid syndrome (APS) was seen for audiological testing 15 minutes following a sudden onset hearing loss in the right ear. The test battery included pure-tone audiometry, word-recognition testing, speech-recognition threshold (SRT) testing, immittance testing, and distortion-product otoacoustic emissions (DPOAE) testing. Testing revealed a sensorineural hearing loss in the right ear. Shortly after testing, the patient indicated that his condition had improved. Testing was repeated, and the second round of tests revealed normal hearing in both ears. Four days later, a follow-up test again indicated normal hearing in both ears. Possible connections of this brief occurrence of idiopathic hearing loss with the patient's medical conditions are discussed. Specifically, symptoms were consistent with a transient ischemic attack (TIA) affecting his right cochlea in the stria vascularis region, resulting in a temporary, sensorineural hearing loss. No residual effects were observed clinically.

A Successful Syngeneic Bone Marrow Transplant after an Ortotopic Liver Transplantation for Fulminant Hepatitis - Case Report.

We report the case of a 12 year old girl admitted to the hospital in August 2004 presenting acute hepatic failure with grade IV encephalopathy without stigmatic of chronic liver disease. Investigation for A, B and C hepatitis was negative as well as the tests for HIV, Toxoplasmosis, EBV, B19 parvovirus and CMV. Diagnosed as fulminant hepatitis she received an ortotopic hepatic transplant 25 days after admission. She had an excellent clinical recovery on tracolimus for immunossupression, except for an asymptomatic pancytopenia unresponsive to drug dose reduction, which progressed to severe bone marrow aplasia in a four months period. A second round of virus screening tests was still negative. She was then submitted to bone marrow transplantation from her twin identical sister utilizing 50mg/kg/day of cyclophosphamide for two days as conditioning regimen. She received 6.6 x 106 CD34+ cells/kg and engrafted at D+22. She was discharged at D+ 33 on tracolimus without any sign of liver or bone marrow rejection. She is presently in complete clinical recovery after 7 months of BMT. This is, from our knowledge, the first report of a successful hepatic transplant followed by an equally successful syngeneic bone marrow transplant.

In Quest of Dialogue on a "Hot" Subject

Since I began studying Kanaky New Caledonia and other French Pacific territories more than a decade ago, I have tried to do what I can to encourage more dialogue across the artificial barriers created by colonial languages in the Pacific, especially between speakers of English and French. Despite some networking by activists and institutions of various kinds, linguistic colonialism has often tended to divide inhabitants of Oceania into relatively separate Anglophone and Francophone circuits. Perhaps no other issue highlights this lingering problem better than nuclear testing. The US and British atomic tests ended in the early 1960s, but the French tests did not begin until 1966 and lasted thirty years, spanning the era of decolonization in the South Pacific. French nuclear testing aroused public protest across the region, and many critics saw it as another aspect of ongoing colonial rule in French Polynesia and Kanaky New Caledonia (which has strategic nickel resources), despite active independence movements in both territories. After a last round of tests in 1995-1996, France closed down its Centre d'Expérimentation du Pacifique, and, with the United States and Britain, signed the South Pacific Nuclear Free Zone Treaty of 1985. Paris has also granted more autonomy to French Polynesia and New Caledonia and has tried to improve diplomatic relations, cultural exchanges, and economic aid and trade with other Pacific countries. Given some recent crises in Anglophone Pacific states, however, France has vowed not to "abandon" its territories to disorder, the way it claims that "Anglo-Saxon" colonizers have done. In early 2002, Jean-Marc Regnault, a historian at the University of French Polynesia, sent me an article that he had coauthored and had accepted for publication in French in the Revue d'Histoire Diplomatique. He asked if I knew of an English-language journal that would consider [End Page 336] publishing another version of it in translation. Because I was on the editorial board of The Contemporary Pacific, I brought the matter to the attention of my colleagues. They decided that since it had already been published but dealt with a contested subject, a revised version designed as a dialogue piece would be acceptable. My job would be to round up three or four qualified people who could comment on the essay and to persuade Regnault to respond to the commentaries. The topic was indeed still a "hot" one in the minds of many Pacific residents, despite the end of nuclear testing six years earlier. Indigenous victims of tests continue to claim compensation from the United States and Britain, and related issues such as US testing of anti-missiles, threats of nuclear waste dumping, strategic alliances with nuclear ship visits, and sovereignty movements in French and US territories remain important to many people. One major point of contention is whether the French tests (which were aboveground for the first eight years and then moved into shafts drilled into the Moruroa and Fangataufa atolls of the Tuamotus in French Polynesia) were or were not safe for the environment and the people living and working nearby. That issue, in fact, helps to shape the lines (and tones) of argument used in the dialogue. Regnault is a well-published author on contemporary Pacific history, mostly in French. He has specialized in the history and the institutions of the French Pacific territories, trying to highlight the role played by those territories in the region's perception of France and also the role that events in those territories have played in the evolution of French policy. In particular, he has written about French nuclear testing in the Pacific and done two studies of Pouvanaa a Oopa, the Tahitian nationalist, the most recent of which shows conclusively, based on declassified French documents, that Pouvanaa was framed by the French in 1958, when he was imprisoned for more than a decade. Regnault has also written on recent politics in French Polynesia, including an analysis of the dramatic overthrow of Gaston Flosse in the May...

French Nuclear Testing in the South Pacific, or When France Makes Light of Its Duty to Remember

o, n 13 June 1995, when President Jacques Chirac announced a final round of a dozen nuclear tests [in French Polynesia], his irrevocable deci sion caused concern and dismay. Without bothering at all to first consult the Polynesian people, he committed an act of gratuitous violence against these people and their representatives, political parties, churches, labor unions, and nongovernmental organizations. It felt like a planned assas sination of this child—all the future generations carried by the mothers in their wombs, their pu fenua—by the new occupant of the Elysee [the French "White House"]. Of course, Chirac could always count on his constant "brother," the president of the territorial government, Gaston Flosse. His campaigns— spread by the media of the Hersant group and by Radio Overseas France in favor of the tests' harmlessness and of the 1,000 new jobs that the pro gram would generate—could not change the public opinion of the great majority, under the morally aggressive blow. Demonstrations, support from throughout the Pacific region, and the massive presence of international media accompanied the testimonies of those who had directly suffered from the explosions, whether atmospheric or underground. The riots in Papeete were only the logical outcome of an act of violence committed by two dignitaries, Jacques Chirac and Gaston Flosse. In looking elsewhere for the culprits, the police and courts failed in their mission. The nuclear criminals were successive presidents of the French Republic, from De Gaulle to Chirac, and not the Polynesians, who were more victims than culprits. They had also tarnished the image of France. Chirac decided then to end the tests once and for all in January 1996. The opponents of nuclear

Bone cell adhesion on ion implanted titanium alloys

The authors have previously reported than ion implantation can have a significant effect on osseointegration of an implant, specially when the latter is introduced in areas of poorer bone density. These results indicate that this process is particularly suited for implant devices introduced in elderly patients or in those regions that have a poor quality of bone. The aim of this work is directed to study osteoblast adhesion on Ti alloy surfaces with different ion implantation treatments, so osseoconductive properties of several surfaces can be assessed. Polished discs of Ti–6Al–4V and Ti CP GR1 titanium alloy have been prepared and ion implanted with different species and parameters (dose and energy). Afterwards, the samples have been sterilized by UV light, inoculated with 1.5×10 5 human bone cells and incubated during 4 h at 37 C and 5% CO 2 atmosphere. Then, once fixed and rinsed, image analysis has been used to quantify the number of cells attached to the Ti discs. On a second round of tests, cell proliferation tests have been conducted during 24, 48, 144 and 192 h, respectively. Furthermore, surface analysis techniques (e.g. AFM) have been applied to learn about the qualitative behavior, i.e. morphology, of the attached cells. Cell attachment has shown to be highly sensitive to ion implantation parameters. Although some quantitative differences have been observed, the more significant differences were qualitative. AFM analysis has shown that the star-shaped bone cells attached spread more and occupied larger surfaces like in osseointegration prone surfaces, most probably due to extracellular matrix synthesized around them, while other surfaces showed mainly large and narrow shaped or round shaped bone cells often with great cellular nucleus in the middle of the cells and little extracellular matrix around. So, ion implanted surfaces that facilitate osseointegration have been identified, in terms of initial bone cell attachment quality, where although the number of attached cells were not necessarily always larger, they tended to occupy wider areas with healthier cells.

An upper bound on the weight-balanced testing procedure with multiple testers

This paper presents the performance of the Weight-Balanced Testing (WBT) algorithm with multiple testers. The WBT algorithm aims to minimize the expected number of (round of) tests and has been proposed for coding, memory storage, search and testing applications. It often provides reasonable results if used with a single tester. Yet, the performance of the WBT algorithm with multiple testers and particularly its upper bound have not been previously analyzed, despite the large body of literature that exists on the WBT algorithm, and the recent papers that suggest its use in various testing applications. Here we demonstrate that WBT algorithm with multiple testers is far from being the optimal search procedure. The main result of this paper is the generalization of the upper bound on the expected number of tests previously obtained for a single-tester WBT algorithm. For this purpose, we first draw an analogy between the WBT algorithm and alphabetic codes; both being represented by the same Q-ary search tree. The upper bound is then obtained on the expected path length of a Q-ary tree, which is constructed by the WBT algorithm. Applications to the field of testing and some numerical examples are presented for illustrative purposes.

Towards standard testbeds for numerical relativity

In recent years, many different numerical evolution schemes for Einstein's equations have been proposed to address stability and accuracy problems that have plagued the numerical relativity community for decades. Some of these approaches have been tested on different spacetimes, and conclusions have been drawn based on these tests. However, differences in results originate from many sources, including not only formulations of the equations, but also gauges, boundary conditions, numerical methods and so on. We propose to build up a suite of standardized testbeds for comparing approaches to the numerical evolution of Einstein's equations that are designed to both probe their strengths and weaknesses and to separate out different effects, and their causes, seen in the results. We discuss general design principles of suitable testbeds, and we present an initial round of simple tests with periodic boundary conditions. This is a pivotal first step towards building a suite of testbeds to serve the numerical relativists and researchers from related fields who wish to assess the capabilities of numerical relativity codes. We present some examples of how these tests can be quite effective in revealing various limitations of different approaches, and illustrating their differences. The tests are presently limited to vacuum spacetimes, can be run on modest computational resources and can be used with many different approaches used in the relativity community.

The New Cosmology: Mid-term Report Card for Inflation

Inflation has been the driving idea in cosmology for two decades and is a pillar of the New Cosmology. The inflationary paradigm has now passed its first round of significant tests, with two of its three basics predictions confirmed at about the 10% level. The Inflationary Paradigm has some of the truth. Over the next decade the precision of these tests, most of which involve measurements of CMB anisotropy and polarization, will improve 30 fold or more(!), testing inflation more sharply and possibly elucidating the underlying cause. Especially important in this regard is detecting the inflation-produced gravitational waves, either directly or through their CMB polarization signature. While inflation has by no means been verified, its successes have raised the bar for competitor theories: Any alternative must feature the two hallmarks of inflation: superluminal expansion and entropy production.