Quantifying driver cell phone use at signalized intersections using software-defined radio.

Objective: This article outlines a data collection process that quantifies driver cell phone use using a software-defined radio (SDR) at a signalized intersection. Cell phone use while driving has been shown to be factor that increases the risk of a crash incident. Both operational and enforcement strategies can be applied at locations where high driver cell phone use is identified. Methods: A baseline driver cell phone use observation was made at the intersection, where 9,699 vehicles were observed at the intersection of Carlton Road and State Route 31 (Pennington Road) in Ewing, New Jersey. An SDR cell phone detection device created as part of this study was then deployed at the same intersection to determine whether the SDR device could detect an active cell phone signal. The identification of vehicle cell phone activity using the SDR was conducted a sample of 4,000 vehicles. A visual observation, along with a motion detection camera, was made alongside the SDR to visually confirm cell phones use. Results: Of the 4,000 vehicles sampled using the SDR cell phone detection device, 6.1% of the a.m. peak travel time and 7.6% of the p.m. peak travel time had an active cellular device. A concurrent visual field verification of driver cell phone use showed that approximately 57% (a.m. peak) and 67% (p.m. peak) of the SDR-detected cell phones were visually confirmed to be associated with distracted cell phone use. Conclusions: Once characterized, the frequency of driver cell phone use can be used to justify changes to signal timing protocols. These adjustments could include extending the signal's "all-red time" or holding "yellow time" longer in order to properly clear the intersection. These data can also be used to identify locations that may require more enforcement measures to dissuade driver cell phone use. Furthermore, the impact of anti-cell phone campaigns or new laws can be quantified by measuring before and after cell phone use in the near term rather than waiting for crash studies at intersections to be completed and analyzed.

Using the Medical Research Council framework for development and evaluation of complex interventions in a low resource setting to develop a theory-based treatment support intervention delivered via SMS text message to improve blood pressure control.

BACKGROUND: Several frameworks now exist to guide intervention development but there remains only limited evidence of their application to health interventions based around use of mobile phones or devices, particularly in a low-resource setting. We aimed to describe our experience of using the Medical Research Council (MRC) Framework on complex interventions to develop and evaluate an adherence support intervention for high blood pressure delivered by SMS text message. We further aimed to describe the developed intervention in line with reporting guidelines for a structured and systematic description. METHODS: We used a non-sequential and flexible approach guided by the 2008 MRC Framework for the development and evaluation of complex interventions. RESULTS: We reviewed published literature and established a multi-disciplinary expert group to guide the development process. We selected health psychology theory and behaviour change techniques that have been shown to be important in adherence and persistence with chronic medications. Semi-structured interviews and focus groups with various stakeholders identified ways in which treatment adherence could be supported and also identified key features of well-regarded messages: polite tone, credible information, contextualised, and endorsed by identifiable member of primary care facility staff. Direct and indirect user testing enabled us to refine the intervention including refining use of language and testing of interactive components. CONCLUSIONS: Our experience shows that using a formal intervention development process is feasible in a low-resource multi-lingual setting. The process enabled us to pre-test assumptions about the intervention and the evaluation process, allowing the improvement of both. Describing how a multi-component intervention was developed including standardised descriptions of content aimed to support behaviour change will enable comparison with other similar interventions and support development of new interventions. Even in low-resource settings, funders and policy-makers should provide researchers with time and resources for intervention development work and encourage evaluation of the entire design and testing process. TRIAL REGISTRATION: The trial of the intervention is registered with South African National Clinical Trials Register number (SANCTR DOH-27-1212-386; 28/12/2012); Pan Africa Trial Register (PACTR201411000724141; 14/12/2013); ClinicalTrials.gov ( NCT02019823 ; 24/12/2013).

Automated signal quality assessment of mobile phone-recorded heart sound signals.

Mobile phones, due to their audio processing capabilities, have the potential to facilitate the diagnosis of heart disease through automated auscultation. However, such a platform is likely to be used by non-experts, and hence, it is essential that such a device is able to automatically differentiate poor quality from diagnostically useful recordings since non-experts are more likely to make poor-quality recordings. This paper investigates the automated signal quality assessment of heart sound recordings performed using both mobile phone-based and commercial medical-grade electronic stethoscopes. The recordings, each 60 s long, were taken from 151 random adult individuals with varying diagnoses referred to a cardiac clinic and were professionally annotated by five experts. A mean voting procedure was used to compute a final quality label for each recording. Nine signal quality indices were defined and calculated for each recording. A logistic regression model for classifying binary quality was then trained and tested. The inter-rater agreement level for the stethoscope and mobile phone recordings was measured using Conger's kappa for multiclass sets and found to be 0.24 and 0.54, respectively. One-third of all the mobile phone-recorded phonocardiogram (PCG) signals were found to be of sufficient quality for analysis. The classifier was able to distinguish good- and poor-quality mobile phone recordings with 82.2% accuracy, and those made with the electronic stethoscope with an accuracy of 86.5%. We conclude that our classification approach provides a mechanism for substantially improving auscultation recordings by non-experts. This work is the first systematic evaluation of a PCG signal quality classification algorithm (using a separate test dataset) and assessment of the quality of PCG recordings captured by non-experts, using both a medical-grade digital stethoscope and a mobile phone.

Outcome Prediction for Patients with Traumatic Brain Injury with Dynamic Features from Intracranial Pressure and Arterial Blood Pressure Signals: A Gaussian Process Approach.

Previous work has been demonstrated that tracking features describing the dynamic and time-varying patterns in brain monitoring signals provide additional predictive information beyond that derived from static features based on snapshot measurements. To achieve more accurate predictions of outcomes of patients with traumatic brain injury (TBI), we proposed a statistical framework to extract dynamic features from brain monitoring signals based on the framework of Gaussian processes (GPs). GPs provide an explicit probabilistic, nonparametric Bayesian approach to metric regression problems. This not only provides probabilistic predictions, but also gives the ability to cope with missing data and infer model parameters such as those that control the function's shape, noise level and dynamics of the signal. Through experimental evaluation, we have demonstrated that dynamic features extracted from GPs provide additional predictive information in addition to the features based on the pressure reactivity index (PRx). Significant improvements in patient outcome prediction were achieved by combining GP-based and PRx-based dynamic features. In particular, compared with the a baseline PRx-based model, the combined model achieved over 30 % improvement in prediction accuracy and sensitivity and over 20 % improvement in specificity and the area under the receiver operating characteristic curve.

Mobile Phone Text Messages to Support Treatment Adherence in Adults With High Blood Pressure (SMS-Text Adherence Support [StAR]): A Single-Blind, Randomized Trial.

BACKGROUND: We assessed the effect of automated treatment adherence support delivered via mobile phone short message system (SMS) text messages on blood pressure. METHODS AND RESULTS: In this pragmatic, single-blind, 3-arm, randomized trial (SMS-Text Adherence Support [StAR]) undertaken in South Africa, patients treated for high blood pressure were randomly allocated in a 1:1:1 ratio to information only, interactive SMS text messaging, or usual care. The primary outcome was change in systolic blood pressure at 12 months from baseline measured with a validated oscillometric device. All trial staff were masked to treatment allocation. Analyses were intention to treat. Between June 26, 2012, and November 23, 2012, 1372 participants were randomized to receive information-only SMS text messages (n=457), interactive SMS text messages (n=458), or usual care (n=457). Primary outcome data were available for 1256 participants (92%). At 12 months, the mean adjusted change in systolic blood pressure compared with usual care was -2.2 mm Hg (95% confidence interval, -4.4 to -0.04) with information-only SMS and -1.6 mm Hg (95% confidence interval, -3.7 to 0.6) with interactive SMS. Odds ratios for the proportion of participants with a blood pressure <140/90 mm Hg were 1.42 (95% confidence interval, 1.03-1.95) for information-only messaging and 1.41 (95% confidence interval, 1.02-1.95) for interactive messaging compared with usual care. CONCLUSIONS: In this randomized trial of an automated adherence support program delivered by SMS text message in a general outpatient population of adults with high blood pressure, we found a small reduction in systolic blood pressure control compared with usual care at 12 months. There was no evidence that an interactive intervention increased this effect. CLINICAL TRIAL REGISTRATION: URL: http://www.clinicaltrials.gov. Unique identifier: NCT02019823. South African National Clinical Trials Register, number SANCTR DOH-27-1212-386; Pan Africa Trial Register, number PACTR201411000724141.

Hyperdynamic left ventricular ejection fraction in the intensive care unit.

INTRODUCTION: Limited information exists on the etiology, prevalence, and significance of hyperdynamic left ventricular ejection fraction (HDLVEF) in the intensive care unit (ICU). Our aim in the present study was to compare characteristics and outcomes of patients with HDLVEF with those of patients with normal left ventricular ejection fraction in the ICU using a large, public, deidentified critical care database. METHODS: We conducted a longitudinal, single-center, retrospective cohort study of adult patients who underwent echocardiography during a medical or surgical ICU admission at the Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center using the Multiparameter Intelligent Monitoring in Intensive Care II database. The final cohort had 2867 patients, of whom 324 had HDLVEF, defined as an ejection fraction >70%. Patients with an ejection fraction <55% were excluded. RESULTS: Compared with critically ill patients with normal left ventricular ejection fraction, the finding of HDLVEF in critically ill patients was associated with female sex, increased age, and the diagnoses of hypertension and cancer. Patients with HDLVEF had increased 28-day mortality compared with those with normal ejection fraction in multivariate logistic regression analysis adjusted for age, sex, Sequential Organ Failure Assessment score, Elixhauser score for comorbidities, vasopressor use, and mechanical ventilation use (odds ratio 1.38, 95% confidence interval 1.039-1.842, p =0.02). CONCLUSIONS: The presence of HDLVEF portended increased 28-day mortality, and may be helpful as a gravity marker for prognosis in patients admitted to the ICU. Further research is warranted to gain a better understanding of how these patients respond to common interventions in the ICU and to determine if pharmacologic modulation of HDLVEF improves outcomes.

A Multivariate Timeseries Modeling Approach to Severity of Illness Assessment and Forecasting in ICU with Sparse, Heterogeneous Clinical Data.

The ability to determine patient acuity (or severity of illness) has immediate practical use for clinicians. We evaluate the use of multivariate timeseries modeling with the multi-task Gaussian process (GP) models using noisy, incomplete, sparse, heterogeneous and unevenly-sampled clinical data, including both physiological signals and clinical notes. The learned multi-task GP (MTGP) hyperparameters are then used to assess and forecast patient acuity. Experiments were conducted with two real clinical data sets acquired from ICU patients: firstly, estimating cerebrovascular pressure reactivity, an important indicator of secondary damage for traumatic brain injury patients, by learning the interactions between intracranial pressure and mean arterial blood pressure signals, and secondly, mortality prediction using clinical progress notes. In both cases, MTGPs provided improved results: an MTGP model provided better results than single-task GP models for signal interpolation and forecasting (0.91 vs 0.69 RMSE), and the use of MTGP hyperparameters obtained improved results when used as additional classification features (0.812 vs 0.788 AUC).

The origin of risk aversion.

Risk aversion is one of the most basic assumptions of economic behavior, but few studies have addressed the question of where risk preferences come from and why they differ from one individual to the next. Here, we propose an evolutionary explanation for the origin of risk aversion. In the context of a simple binary-choice model, we show that risk aversion emerges by natural selection if reproductive risk is systematic (i.e., correlated across individuals in a given generation). In contrast, risk neutrality emerges if reproductive risk is idiosyncratic (i.e., uncorrelated across each given generation). More generally, our framework implies that the degree of risk aversion is determined by the stochastic nature of reproductive rates, and we show that different statistical properties lead to different utility functions. The simplicity and generality of our model suggest that these implications are primitive and cut across species, physiology, and genetic origins.

Group selection as behavioral adaptation to systematic risk.

Despite many compelling applications in economics, sociobiology, and evolutionary psychology, group selection is still one of the most hotly contested ideas in evolutionary biology. Here we propose a simple evolutionary model of behavior and show that what appears to be group selection may, in fact, simply be the consequence of natural selection occurring in stochastic environments with reproductive risks that are correlated across individuals. Those individuals with highly correlated risks will appear to form "groups", even if their actions are, in fact, totally autonomous, mindless, and, prior to selection, uniformly randomly distributed in the population. This framework implies that a separate theory of group selection is not strictly necessary to explain observed phenomena such as altruism and cooperation. At the same time, it shows that the notion of group selection does captures a unique aspect of evolution-selection with correlated reproductive risk-that may be sufficiently widespread to warrant a separate term for the phenomenon.

Efficacy of a text messaging (SMS) based intervention for adults with hypertension: protocol for the StAR (SMS Text-message Adherence suppoRt trial) randomised controlled trial.

BACKGROUND: Interventions to support people with hypertension in attending clinics and taking their medication have potential to improve outcomes, but delivery on a wide scale and at low cost is challenging. Some trials evaluating clinical interventions using short message service (SMS) text-messaging systems have shown important outcomes, although evidence is limited. We have developed a novel SMS system integrated with clinical care for use by people with hypertension in a low-resource setting. We aim to test the efficacy of the system in improving blood pressure control and treatment adherence compared to usual care. METHODS/DESIGN: The SMS Text-message Adherence suppoRt trial (StAR) is a pragmatic individually randomised three-arm parallel group trial in adults treated for hypertension at a single primary care centre in Cape Town, South Africa. The intervention is a structured programme of clinic appointment, medication pick-up reminders, medication adherence support and hypertension-related education delivered remotely using an automated system with either informational or interactive SMS text-messages. Usual care is supplemented by infrequent non-hypertension related SMS text-messages. Participants are 1:1:1 individually randomised, to usual care or to one of the two active interventions using minimisation to dynamically adjust for gender, age, baseline systolic blood pressure, years with hypertension, and previous clinic attendance. The primary outcome is the change in mean systolic blood pressure at 12-month follow-up from baseline measured with research staff blinded to trial allocation. Secondary outcomes include the proportion of patients with 80% or more of days medication available, proportion of participants achieving a systolic blood pressure less than 140 mmHg and a diastolic blood pressure less than 90 mmHg, hospital admissions, health status, retention in clinical care, satisfaction with treatment and care, and patient related quality of life. Anonymised demographic data are collected on non-participants. DISCUSSION: The StAR trial uses a novel, low cost system based on widely available mobile phone technology to deliver the SMS-based intervention, manage communication with patients, and measure clinically relevant outcomes. The results will inform implementation and wider use of mobile phone based interventions for health care delivery in a low-resource setting. TRIAL REGISTRATION: NCT02019823.

Interface Engineering in Inorganic-Absorber Nanostructured Solar Cells.

Nanostructured solar cells have the potential to provide a low-cost alternative to more traditional thin film solar cell technologies. Of particular interest are nanostructured solar cells with inorganic semiconductor absorbers, due to their favorable absorption properties. Such devices include quantum-dot-sensitized solar cells (QDSSCs), extremely thin absorber solar cells (ETASCs), and colloidal quantum dot solar cells (CQDSCs). However, these device architectures suffer from high rates of internal recombination and other problems associated with their extensive internal surface areas. Interfacial surface treatments have proven to be a highly effective means to improve the electronic properties of these devices, leading to overall gains in efficiencies. In this Perspective, we focus on three types of interfacial modification: band alignment by molecular dipole layers, improved CQD film mobilities by ligand exchange, and reduced recombination by interfacial inorganic layers. Select examples in each of these categories are highlighted to provide a detailed look at the underlying mechanisms. We believe that surface modification studies in these devices-QDSSCs, ETASCs, and CQDSCs-are of interest not only to these fields, but also to the broader photovoltaics community.

Making big data useful for health care: a summary of the inaugural mit critical data conference.

With growing concerns that big data will only augment the problem of unreliable research, the Laboratory of Computational Physiology at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology organized the Critical Data Conference in January 2014. Thought leaders from academia, government, and industry across disciplines-including clinical medicine, computer science, public health, informatics, biomedical research, health technology, statistics, and epidemiology-gathered and discussed the pitfalls and challenges of big data in health care. The key message from the conference is that the value of large amounts of data hinges on the ability of researchers to share data, methodologies, and findings in an open setting. If empirical value is to be from the analysis of retrospective data, groups must continuously work together on similar problems to create more effective peer review. This will lead to improvement in methodology and quality, with each iteration of analysis resulting in more reliability.

Differential impact of PD-1 and/or interleukin-10 blockade on HIV-1-specific CD4 T cell and antigen-presenting cell functions.

UNLABELLED: Antigen persistence in chronic infections and cancer upregulates inhibitory networks, such as the PD-1 and interleukin-10 (IL-10) pathways, that impair immunity and lead to disease progression. These pathways are attractive targets for immunotherapy, as demonstrated by recent clinical trials of PD-1/PD-L1 blockade in cancer patients. However, in HIV-1 infection not all subjects respond to inhibition of either pathway and the mechanistic interactions between these two networks remain to be better defined. Here we demonstrate that in vitro blockade of PD-L1 and/or IL-10Rα results in markedly different profiles of HIV-1-specific CD4 T cell restoration. Whereas PD-L1 blockade leads to balanced increase in gamma interferon (IFN-γ), IL-2, and IL-13 secretion, IL-10Rα blockade preferentially restores IFN-γ production. In viremic subjects, combined PD-L1/IL-10Rα blockade results in a striking 10-fold increase in IFN-γ secretion by HIV-1-specific CD4 T cells that is not observed in subjects with spontaneous (elite controllers) or therapy-induced control of viral replication. In contrast to the dramatic increase in IFN-γ production, concurrent blockade has a marginal additive effect on IL-2 production, IL-13 secretion, and HIV-1-specific CD4 T cell proliferation. IFN-γ produced by Thelper cells upregulates PD-L1, HLA I/II, and IL-12 expression by monocytes. The effect of combined blockade on IFN-γ was dependent on reciprocal reinforcement through IL-12. These studies provide crucial information on the different immunoregulatory qualities of PD-1 and IL-10 in progressive disease and link exhausted virus-specific CD4 T cells and monocytes in the regulation of IFN-γ and IL-12 secretion. IMPORTANCE: Infection with HIV results in most people in uncontrolled viral replication and progressive weakening of the body defenses. In the absence of antiviral therapy, this process results in clinical disease, or AIDS. An important reason why HIV continues to multiply is that a population of white blood cells called CD4 T cells that targets the virus fails to work properly. At least part of this impairment is under the control of inhibitory mechanisms that can be blocked to improve the function of these CD4 T cells. In this report, we show that blocking one or two of the molecules involved, called PD-1 and IL-10, has different effects on the individual functions of these cells and that one is strongly improved. We investigate how these effects are caused by interactions between CD4 T cells and antigen-presenting cells. These observations can have implications for new therapeutic approaches in HIV infection.

Blockade of nonhormonal fibroblast growth factors by FP-1039 inhibits growth of multiple types of cancer.

The fibroblast growth factor (FGF) pathway promotes tumor growth and angiogenesis in many solid tumors. Although there has long been interest in FGF pathway inhibitors, development has been complicated: An effective FGF inhibitor must block the activity of multiple mitogenic FGF ligands but must spare the metabolic hormone FGFs (FGF-19, FGF-21, and FGF-23) to avoid unacceptable toxicity. To achieve these design requirements, we engineered a soluble FGF receptor 1 Fc fusion protein, FP-1039. FP-1039 binds tightly to all of the mitogenic FGF ligands, inhibits FGF-stimulated cell proliferation in vitro, blocks FGF- and vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF)-induced angiogenesis in vivo, and inhibits in vivo growth of a broad range of tumor types. FP-1039 antitumor response is positively correlated with RNA levels of FGF2, FGF18, FGFR1c, FGFR3c, and ETV4; models with genetic aberrations in the FGF pathway, including FGFR1-amplified lung cancer and FGFR2-mutated endometrial cancer, are particularly sensitive to FP-1039-mediated tumor inhibition. FP-1039 does not appreciably bind the hormonal FGFs, because these ligands require a cell surface co-receptor, klotho or ß-klotho, for high-affinity binding and signaling. Serum calcium and phosphate levels, which are regulated by FGF-23, are not altered by administration of FP-1039. By selectively blocking nonhormonal FGFs, FP-1039 treatment confers antitumor efficacy without the toxicities associated with other FGF pathway inhibitors.

An evolutionary model of bounded rationality and intelligence.

BACKGROUND: Most economic theories are based on the premise that individuals maximize their own self-interest and correctly incorporate the structure of their environment into all decisions, thanks to human intelligence. The influence of this paradigm goes far beyond academia-it underlies current macroeconomic and monetary policies, and is also an integral part of existing financial regulations. However, there is mounting empirical and experimental evidence, including the recent financial crisis, suggesting that humans do not always behave rationally, but often make seemingly random and suboptimal decisions. METHODS AND FINDINGS: Here we propose to reconcile these contradictory perspectives by developing a simple binary-choice model that takes evolutionary consequences of decisions into account as well as the role of intelligence, which we define as any ability of an individual to increase its genetic success. If no intelligence is present, our model produces results consistent with prior literature and shows that risks that are independent across individuals in a generation generally lead to risk-neutral behaviors, but that risks that are correlated across a generation can lead to behaviors such as risk aversion, loss aversion, probability matching, and randomization. When intelligence is present the nature of risk also matters, and we show that even when risks are independent, either risk-neutral behavior or probability matching will occur depending upon the cost of intelligence in terms of reproductive success. In the case of correlated risks, we derive an implicit formula that shows how intelligence can emerge via selection, why it may be bounded, and how such bounds typically imply the coexistence of multiple levels and types of intelligence as a reflection of varying environmental conditions. CONCLUSIONS: Rational economic behavior in which individuals maximize their own self interest is only one of many possible types of behavior that arise from natural selection. The key to understanding which types of behavior are more likely to survive is how behavior affects reproductive success in a given population's environment. From this perspective, intelligence is naturally defined as behavior that increases the probability of reproductive success, and bounds on rationality are determined by physiological and environmental constraints.

The importance of dye chemistry and TiCl4 surface treatment in the behavior of Al2O3 recombination barrier layers deposited by atomic layer deposition in solid-state dye-sensitized solar cells.

Atomic layer deposition (ALD) was used to fabricate Al(2)O(3) recombination barriers in solid-state dye-sensitized solar cells (ss-DSSCs) employing an organic hole transport material (HTM) for the first time. Al(2)O(3) recombination barriers of varying thickness were incorporated into efficient ss-DSSCs utilizing the Z907 dye adsorbed onto a 2 µm-thick nanoporous TiO(2) active layer and the HTM spiro-OMeTAD. The impact of Al(2)O(3) barriers was also studied in devices employing different dyes, with increased active layer thicknesses, and with substrates that did not undergo the TiCl(4) surface treatment. In all instances, electron lifetimes (as determined by transient photovoltage measurements) increased and dark current was suppressed after Al(2)O(3) deposition. However, only when the TiCl(4) treatment was eliminated did device efficiency increase; in all other instances efficiency decreased due to a drop in short-circuit current. These results are attributed in the former case to the similar effects of Al(2)O(3) ALD and the TiCl(4) surface treatment whereas the insulating properties of Al(2)O(3) hinder charge injection and lead to current loss in TiCl(4)-treated devices. The impact of Al(2)O(3) barrier layers was unaffected by doubling the active layer thickness or using an alternative ruthenium dye, but a metal-free donor-π-acceptor dye exhibited a much smaller decrease in current due to its higher excited state energy. We develop a model employing prior research on Al(2)O(3) growth and dye kinetics that successfully predicts the reduction in device current as a function of ALD cycles and is extendable to different dye-barrier systems.

Nanoengineering and interfacial engineering of photovoltaics by atomic layer deposition.

Investment into photovoltaic (PV) research has accelerated over the past decade as concerns over energy security and carbon emissions have increased. The types of PV technology in which the research community is actively engaged are expanding as well. This review focuses on the burgeoning field of atomic layer deposition (ALD) for photovoltaics. ALD is a self-limiting thin film deposition technique that has demonstrated usefulness in virtually every sector of PV technology including silicon, thin film, tandem, organic, dye-sensitized, and next generation solar cells. Further, the specific applications are not limited. ALD films have been deposited on planar and nanostructured substrates and on inorganic and organic devices, and vary in thickness from a couple of angstroms to over 100 nm. The uses encompass absorber materials, buffer layers, passivating films, anti-recombination shells, and electrode modifiers. Within the last few years, the interest in ALD as a PV manufacturing technique has increased and the functions of ALD have expanded. ALD applications have yielded fundamental understanding of how devices operate and have led to increased efficiencies or to unique architectures for some technologies. This review also highlights new developments in high throughput ALD, which is necessary for commercialization. As the demands placed on materials for the next generation of PV become increasingly stringent, ALD will evolve into an even more important method for research and fabrication of solar cell devices.

Anterior interosseous nerve syndrome following peripheral catheterization: magnetic resonance imaging and electromyography correlation.

Anterior interosseous nerve syndrome (AINS) has not been widely recognized as a possible complication following peripheral catheterization. Herein we present a retrospective review of patients with AINS over the last 5 years. Six cases were identified, 4 associated with catheterization. AINS may be a rare complication of catheterization. Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) may serve as an adjunct diagnostic modality to conventional electromyography (EMG) and nerve conduction studies, especially in patients who are intolerant of pain.

Effects of self-assembled monolayers on solid-state CdS quantum dot sensitized solar cells.

Quantum dot sensitized solar cells (QDSSCs) are of interest for solar energy conversion because of their tunable band gap and promise of stable, low-cost performance. We have investigated the effects of self-assembled monolayers (SAMs) with phosphonic acid headgroups on the bonding and performance of cadmium sulfide (CdS) solid-state QDSSCs. CdS quantum dots ∼2 to ∼6 nm in diameter were grown on SAM-passivated planar or nanostructured TiO(2) surfaces by successive ionic layer adsorption and reaction (SILAR), and photovoltaic devices were fabricated with spiro-OMeTAD as the solid-state hole conductor. X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy, Auger electron spectroscopy, ultraviolet-visible spectroscopy, scanning electron microscopy, transmission electron microscopy, water contact angle measurements, ellipsometry, and electrical measurements were employed to characterize the materials and the resulting device performance. The data indicate that the nature of the SAM tailgroup does not significantly affect the uptake of CdS quantum dots on TiO(2) nor their optical properties, but the presence of the SAM does have a significant effect on the photovoltaic device performance. Interestingly, we observe up to ∼3 times higher power conversion efficiencies in devices with a SAM compared to those without the SAM.