bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Perceived Sexual Difficulties and Sexual Counseling in Men and Women Across Heart Diagnoses: A Nationwide Cross-Sectional Study
Authors: Rundblad Lucas , Zwisler Ann Dorthe , Johansen Pernille Palm , Holmberg Teresa , Schneekloth Nanna , Giraldi Annamaria
Published: June 2017

Background

Ischemic heart disease and heart failure often lead to sexual difficulties in men, but little is known about the sexual difficulties in women and patients with other heart diagnoses or the level of information patients receive about the risk of sexual difficulties.

Aim

To investigate perceived sexual difficulties and associated factors in a mixed population of men and women newly diagnosed with heart disease and provide insight into sexual counseling and information given by health care professionals.

Methods

This article reports on a cross-sectional, questionnaire study sent to a randomly selected sample of men and women newly diagnosed with heart failure, ischemic heart disease, atrial fibrillation, or heart valve surgery. Eligible patients were identified by diagnosis using the Danish National Patient Register, which contains all diagnoses.

Outcomes

Sexual difficulties were self-reported using single-item questions, and factors associated with sexual difficulties were collected from the survey and national registers.

Results

The study population consisted of 1,549 men and 807 women (35–98 years old) with heart failure (n = 243), ischemic heart disease (n = 1,036), heart valve surgery (n = 375), and atrial fibrillation (n = 702). Sexual difficulties were reported by 55% of men and 29% of women. In a multiple regression analysis, difficulties in men were associated with being older (≥75 years old; odds ratio [OR] = 1.97, 95% CI = 1.13–3.43), having heart failure (OR = 2.07, 95% CI = 1.16–3.71), diabetes (OR = 1.80, 95% CI = 1.15–2.82), hypertension (OR = 1.43, 95% CI = 1.06–1.93), receiving β-blockers (OR = 1.37, 95% CI = 1.02–1.86), or having anxiety (OR = 2.25, 95% CI = 1.34–3.80) or depression (OR = 2.74, 95% CI = 1.38–5.43). In women, difficulties were significantly associated with anxiety (OR = 3.00, 95% CI = 1.51–5.95). A total of 48.6% of men and 58.8% of women did not feel informed about sexuality, and 18.1% of men and 10.3% of women were offered sexual counseling.

Clinical Implications

Heart disease increases the risk of sexual difficulties and there is a need for improved information and counseling about sex and relationships for patients.

Strengths and Limitations

This large nationwide survey of men and women combined a survey with administrative data from national registries. However, this study used non-validated single-item questions to assess sexual difficulties without addressing sexual distress.

Conclusion

More than half the men and one fourth the women across common heart diagnoses had sexual difficulties. No difference was found among diagnoses, except heart failure in men. Despite guidelines recommending sexual counseling, sexual difficulties were not met by sufficient information and counseling.
Aptitudes y educación médica en tiempos oscuros. Parte II
Authors: Viniegra-Velázquez Leonardo
Published: June 2017

Esta parte II versa sobre la educación participativa (EPT) y sus implicaciones para la educación médica. La EPT es, respecto a la pasiva, una forma radicalmente distinta de entender y practicar la educación, mutatis mutandis, en todos los niveles incluso la educación de los médicos. El supuesto de la EPT son las potencialidades cognoscitivas inherentes a todo sujeto secularmente inhibidas o ignoradas, cuyo desencadenamiento es condición de un conocimiento liberador. Las bases epistemológicas de la EPT son: la idea de conocimiento como elaboración propia del educando; el concepto de crítica como estrategia cognoscitiva clave de tal elaboración, y la experiencia vital, objeto primario de  eflexión y cognición. Se precisan las premisas y caracteres de la EPT, en especial las aptitudes metodológicas y prácticas, que apuntan a la formación de ciudadanos con potencias cognoscitivas inéditas, capaces De sobreponerse a los atributos degradantes (pasividad, individualismo, competitividad, consumismo) y aproximarse a un mundo hospitalario e incluyente. Se considera la factibilidad de la EPT en una educación médica bajo condiciones adversas: degradación de la práctica de la medicina y centralidad de la educación pasiva, que implican tenaz resistencia a un cambio de rumbo. Se destacan dos componentes de la EPT: el aprendizaje con sentido para la experiencia vital y los ambientes propicios para la crítica, cuya viabilidad puede representar el punto de inflexión hacia otro tipo de educación médica, a condición de contar con docentes sensibilizados para iniciarlo. Al final se realza el papel de las aptitudes prácticas: la clínica y la docente, en el progreso del quehacer educativo médico y de atención a la salud.
Club goods, intellectual property rights, and profitability in the information economy
Authors: Schwartz Herman Mark
Published: June 2017

Are club goods becoming more widespread in developed economies, and, if so, what is the broader significance of this trend? Club goods are as salient for the profitability of non-financial firms as for finance. First, corporate strategy today largely revolves around the generation or acquisition of intellectual property rights and other club/franchise goods. Second, financialization is not just about the credit relationship between financial firms on the one side and non-financial corporate and household borrowers on the other, but also about Main Street's ability to use financial power to suppress competition in its own markets. Third, firms’ strategic reliance on IPRs and club goods more generally has magnified both profit and wage inequality in the broader economy. This inequality combines with changes in corporate structure to produce a significant part of the household level income inequality we currently observe in the United States. Fourth, all these processes are ineluctably political, because the state necessarily constitutes club or franchise goods, just like any property right. But the quantity and quality of those property rights is an indeterminate outcome of struggles among firms over the size of and shares of the pool of profits in a given national and global economy.
Invasive Blackberry Species in Oregon: Their Identity and Susceptibility to Rust Disease and the Implications for Biological Control
Authors: Bruckart William L. , Michael Jami L. , Sochor Michal , Trávníček Bohumil
Published: June 2017

Two of the five species of European blackberry (Rubus fruticosus L. aggregate) along the West Coast of the United States are considered invasive. They are also similar in appearance. Biological control of invasive blackberry by Phragmidium violaceum, causal agent of a rust disease, had been under consideration when rust-diseased blackberry was discovered in Oregon in 2005. An investigation was initiated to determine whether this disease would be an important factor affecting population density of these blackberries. Surveys were made over a 5-yr period at more than 30 field sites in the Willamette Valley and along the Pacific coast of Oregon. Diseased and nondiseased blackberry specimens were collected for artificial greenhouse inoculations and for identification. The two blackberry species, Rubus armeniacus and R. praecox, were identified as the most invasive. They were readily distinguished morphologically on the basis of inflorescence and flower characteristics and to a certain extent by differences in primocane leaf and leaflet shape. Artificial greenhouse inoculation studies revealed that R. praecox was susceptible to the rust disease and that R. armeniacus was not. These results were confirmed during a field survey. Results of this investigation revealed that the rust disease will not be effective for biological control of R. armeniacus and other approaches to management of this particular species will be required.
Excitation Condition for Self-Sustained Oscillation in Flow Past a Louvered Cavity
Authors: Zhang Y. C. , Xu Y. G. , Chen X. D. , Zhu Y. F.
Published: June 2017

Louvered cavities are extensively employed in engineering applications. In the configurations of flow past these cavities, self-sustained oscillations will be excited. This can give rise to structure vibrations or noise. Numerical models are established to analyze excitation condition for of these oscillations. Computational results reveal that the excitation condition can be quantitatively described by the ratio of gap width G to the boundary layer thickness δ at the separation edge. When G/δ exceeds a certain critical value G/δc, self-sustained oscillations are excited. Otherwise, disturbances will dissipate and the flow configuration along the louver will be like a parallel plate flow. The critical value G/δc decreases with the ratio of G to the thickness of the louver plate H. This suggests that the excitation condition is more easily satisfied for a louver with sparse fins. The bottom boundary of the cavity restricts the feedback flow and then suppresses the excitation of self-sustained oscillations. With an increasing cavity height Hc, which reflects the distance between the louver and the bottom boundary, the critical value G/δc decreases and the decreasing rate reduces gradually. In contrast, because G/δc is relatively insensitive to the cavity length Lc, the side boundaries have no obvious influence on the excitation condition.
Dietary and socio-economic factors associated with obesity among Kuwaiti college men
Authors: Naser Al-Isa Abdulwahab
Published: June 2017

Obesity has been on the increase among people of the Arabian Gulf countries. Overweight and obesity among 18–29-year-old Kuwaiti men increased by 23·4 and 14·8 % respectively, between 1980 and 1993. The objective of the present study was to explore factors associated with overweight and obesity in a sample of 515 Kuwaiti college men studied in 1997. Weight and height were measured. The index of adiposity used was the BMI, which is the weight (kg) divided by the height (m) squared (kg/m2). The men were classified as overweight (BMI > 25 kg/m2) or obese (BMI > 30 kg/m2). The associated factors obtained through questionnaires included age, marital status, governorate, number of siblings, suffering from a chronic disease, subjects' parental obesity, education and occupation, number of major meals eaten, eating between meals, family income, number of servants, number of people living at home, exercising, last dental and physical check-up, dieting, year of study, highest desired degree after college, countries preferred for visiting, and socio-economic status. The results of the study revealed that 38·5 and 11·1% of the students were overweight and obese respectively. Factors that were found to be significantly associated with overweight and obesity among the men included age, marital status, last dental check-up, exercising, subjects' parental obesity, dieting and year of study. Logistic regression analysis of significant associated factors revealed that the same factors contributed to the development of overweight and obesity.
Speaking with One Voice on the Recognition of States
Authors: McLachlan Campbell
Published: June 2017

At first blush, the recent judgment of the U.S. Supreme Court in Zivotofsky v Kerry (Zivotofsky II) reads as a strikingly American affair concerning the enduring force of the separation of powers under a written Constitution. Finding that the President has the exclusive power to recognize foreign states and their territory, the Court holds that a statute of Congress encroaches upon this power and declares it unconstitutional. The reasoning of both the Court and the minority justices is largely a narrative of U.S. Constitutional history. So one might ask: does this decision really have anything to say of significance outside the U.S. context about the scope of the executive function in foreign relations?
A Private (International) Law Perspective Comment on “A New Jurisprudential Framework for Jurisdiction”
Authors: Watt Horatia Muir
Published: June 2017

What follows is a private international lawyer’s response to the thought-provoking ideas put forward by Professor Svantesson on international jurisdiction from a criminal law perspective. This stance may in itself seem (and certainly feels!) paradoxical, since much contemporary academic effort (my own included) has been directed towards a rejection of the public/private distinction in international law. This rejection has been championed both as a normative matter, because so much would be gained from reaching ‘beyond the schism” to overcome the personality split from which the discipline has suffered for over a century, as well as a descriptive matter, since multiple issues, debates, myths and concepts straddle the divide, even if they give rise to specific disciplinary understandings on either side. Both of these observations apply to jurisdiction in all the forms mentioned by Professor Svantesson. Moreover, the need for an intradisciplinary conversation is particularly acute in respect of international limits on criminal jurisdiction, which, as Professor Svantesson’s paper seems to demonstrate, fall somewhere in-between the public and the private models (perhaps seen as logically public, but considered private in France!).
Laudato Si’, Pope Francis’ Call to Ecological Conversion: Responding to the Cry of the Earth and the Poor—Towards an Integral Ecology
Authors: Porras Ileana M.
Published: June 2017

The recent Encyclical by Pope Francis, Laudato Si’, On Care for our Common Home, is a remarkable document, both original and continuous within the tradition of Catholic social doctrine. Emerging from and grounded in a very specific religious tradition and constrained by the peculiar encyclical literary form, the document nonetheless seeks to open a dialogue with “every person living on this planet,” about care for our common home. Using the urgency of addressing global climate change as its point of departure, the Encyclical does a superb job summarizing the scope of the present environmental crisis and the disproportionate harms suffered by vulnerable populations of the poor and excluded. It also provides a careful analysis of the root causes of environmental degradation, mapping out the complex linkages and tensions between globalization, economic growth, liberalized trade, unsustainable patterns of consumption and production, environmental degradation, involuntary migration, immiseration and growing inequality. In this respect, the Encyclical, may well come to serve as a useful position paper for the upcoming Paris climate change negotiations or as a background text for a course on climate change or sustainable development. Yet, properly understood, this is not its true purpose. Rather, in its deepest sense, the Encyclical is an appeal to all of humanity to listen to “the cry of the earth and the cry of the poor,” to reject the “throwaway” culture of consumerism, and to embrace a culture of care and a commitment to pursue integral ecology. It is, in other words, a call to ecological conversion: a call addressed not only to individuals but also to individuals-in-community.
Third World Approaches to International Criminal Law
Authors: Kiyani Asad G.
Published: June 2017

A pattern of affording impunity to local power brokers throughout Africa pervades the application of international criminal law (ICL) in Africa. The International Criminal Court (ICC) investigation into Uganda is a notorious but representative example, although similar analyses can be made of the Central African Republic, Côte d’Ivoire, the Democratic Republic of Congo, and Libya. In Uganda, only members of the rebel Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) have been indicted for international crimes, even though the United Nations, international human rights groups, and local NGOs have documented years of abuses perpetrated by government troops and local auxiliary units, often against the same populations victimized by the LRA. The ICC is thereby implicated in the power structures and political arrangements of a repressive state that both combats the LRA and often brutalizes the civilian populations of northern Uganda. Inserting itself into Uganda, the ICC becomes a partisan player in the endgame of a civil war that extends back over a generation, and is itself rooted in ethnic and tribal animosities cultivated through 19thcentury Euro-colonial benedictions of favor. Here, the ICC and the war it adjudicates become surprising bedfellows, repurposed by local elites for the consolidation of domestic power.
New Supercomputers Allow Climate Models to Capture Convection
Authors: Stanley Sarah
Published: June 2017

Scientists evaluate the latest version of a fine-scale climate model by simulating a decade of precipitation patterns across Europe.
Planetary Science Up, Earth Science Down in Proposed NASA Budget
Authors: Wendel JoAnna
Published: June 2017

The agency’s acting administrator says that the fiscal year 2018 White House budget request tells NASA to stay the course.
Differential involvement of Wnt signaling in Bmp regulation of cancellous versus periosteal bone growth
Authors: He Guangxu , Shi Yu , Lim Joohyun , Bellido Teresita , Ni Jiangdong , Long Fanxin
Published: June 2017

Bone morphogenetic proteins (Bmp) are well-known to induce bone formation following chondrogenesis, but the direct role of Bmp signaling in the osteoblast lineage is not completely understood. We have recently shown that deletion of the receptor Bmpr1a in the osteoblast lineage with Dmp1-Cre reduces osteoblast activity in general but stimulates proliferation of preosteoblasts specifically in the cancellous bone region, resulting in diminished periosteal bone growth juxtaposed with excessive cancellous bone formation. Because expression of sclerostin (SOST), a secreted Wnt antagonist, is notably reduced in the Bmpr1a-deficient osteocytes, we have genetically tested the hypothesis that increased Wnt signaling might mediate the increase in cancellous bone formation in response to Bmpr1a deletion. Forced expression of human SOST from a Dmp1 promoter fragment partially rescues preosteoblast hyperproliferation and cancellous bone overgrowth in the Bmpr1a mutant mice, demonstrating functional interaction between Bmp and Wnt signaling in the cancellous bone compartment. To test whether increased Wnt signaling can compensate for the defect in periosteal growth caused by Bmpr1a deletion, we have generated compound mutants harboring a hyperactive mutation (A214V) in the Wnt receptor Lrp5. However, the mutant Lrp5 does not restore periosteal bone growth in the Bmpr1a-deficient mice. Thus, Bmp signaling restricts cancellous bone accrual partly through induction of SOST that limits preosteoblast proliferation, but promotes periosteal bone growth apparently independently of Wnt activation.
An Immunization Strategy for Hidden Populations
Authors: Chen Saran , Lu Xin
Published: June 2017

Hidden populations, such as injecting drug users (IDUs), sex workers (SWs) and men who have sex with men (MSM), are considered at high risk of contracting and transmitting infectious diseases such as AIDS, gonorrhea, syphilis etc. However, public health interventions to such groups are prohibited due to strong privacy concerns and lack of global information, which is a necessity for traditional strategies such as targeted immunization and acquaintance immunization. In this study, we introduce an innovative intervention strategy to be used in combination with a sampling approach that is widely used for hidden populations, Respondent-driven Sampling (RDS). The RDS strategy is implemented in two steps: First, RDS is used to estimate the average degree (personal network size) and degree distribution of the target population with sample data. Second, a cut-off threshold is calculated and used to screen the respondents to be immunized. Simulations on model networks and real-world networks reveal that the efficiency of the RDS strategy is close to that of the targeted strategy. As the new strategy can be implemented with the RDS sampling process, it provides a cost-efficient and feasible approach for disease intervention and control for hidden populations.
Plausibility of potassium ion-exchanged ZSM-5 as soot combustion catalysts
Authors: Lu Chenxi , Liu Taizheng , Shi Qiaolan , Li Qian , Xin Ying , Zheng Lei , Zhang Zhaoliang
Published: June 2017

Potassium (K) ion-exchanged ZSM-5 zeolites were investigated for catalytic soot combustion. X-ray absorption fine-structure (XAFS), Raman, in situ IR and NH3-temperature programmed desorption (NH3-TPD) confirmed the location of K+ at the ion-exchanged sites. Temperature-programmed oxidation (TPO) reactions showed that K-ZSM-5 decreased ignition tempeatures of soot combustion and increased selectivity to CO2. The improved activity for soot combustion by increasing K+-exchanged amounts via decreasing the Si/Al ratio reinforced the K+ ions participating in soot combustion. 18O2 isotopic isothermal reactions suggested the activation of gaseous oxygen by the K+ ions. This demonstrated a new appliction of alkali metal exchanged zeolites and the strategy for enhancement of catalytic soot combustion activity.
Cross-validation estimate of the number of clusters in a network
Authors: Kawamoto Tatsuro , Kabashima Yoshiyuki
Published: June 2017

Network science investigates methodologies that summarise relational data to obtain better interpretability. Identifying modular structures is a fundamental task, and assessment of the coarse-grain level is its crucial step. Here, we propose principled, scalable, and widely applicable assessment criteria to determine the number of clusters in modular networks based on the leave-one-out cross-validation estimate of the edge prediction error.
Social Confidence in Early Adulthood Among Young People With and Without a History of Language Impairment
Authors: Durkin Kevin , Toseeb Umar , Botting Nicola , Pickles Andrew , Conti-Ramsden Gina
Published: June 2017

Purpose

The purposes of this study were to test the predictions that lower self-esteem and higher shyness in individuals with a history of language impairment (LI) would continue from adolescence into early adulthood and that those with LI would have lower social self-efficacy in early adulthood.

Method

Participants were young people with a history of LI and a comparison group of age-matched peers. Both groups were tested at ages 17 and 24 years. Participants completed measures of language ability, nonverbal IQ, shyness, global self-esteem, and (at age 24 years only) social self-efficacy.

Results

Young adults with LI scored lower than age-matched peers on self-esteem, higher on shyness, and lower on social self-efficacy (medium to large effect sizes). In line with expectations, in the group with LI, language ability in adolescence predicted shyness in young adulthood, which, in turn, was negatively associated with self-esteem. There was also a direct association between language ability in adolescence and self-esteem in young adulthood.

Conclusions

Young people with a history of LI are likely to be entering adulthood less socially confident than their peers. Interventions may be desirable for young adults with LI, and the present findings indicate social self-efficacy as a key area of social confidence that calls for practitioners' attention.
De‐embedding method‐based electrical resistivity characterisation scheme for a small brittle pillar‐shaped material
Authors: Lee J. , Kim J. , Lim S.‐Y. , Kwon J.‐Y. , Im J. , Lee S.‐M. , Moon S.E.
Published: June 2017

An electrical resistivity evaluation method for a pillar‐shaped solid material, especially a brittle thermoelectric Bi2Te3, is presented with short compensation based on a probing apparatus with four‐spring pins. The method eliminates the process of modelling a complex contact resistance, resulting in a simple but reproducible characterisation without any contamination on the surface in comparison to either a conventional paste or welding contact. Furthermore, it enables a small electrical or thermoelectric material <2 mm thick to be appropriately evaluated, which can erect and align a pillar‐shaped material with electrical terminals, in spite of a small surface area. To extract the resistivity of a Bi2Te3 pillar with the volume of 2 × 2 × 1.6 mm, Alumina 6061‐T6 material identical with that of Bi2Te3 was used as a reference material for the short compensation. Thus, the modelled resistance and its resistivity were 2.46 ± 0.11 mΩ and 6.15 ± 0.28 Ω‐μm, respectively, in the range of 2–10 kHz, demonstrating the validity of the method.
New non‐negative sparse feature learning approach for content‐based image retrieval
Authors: Xu Wangming , Wu Shiqian , Er Meng Joo , Zheng Chaobing , Qiu Yimin
Published: June 2017

One key issue in content‐based image retrieval is to extract effective features so as to represent the visual content of an image. In this study, a new non‐negative sparse feature learning approach to produce a holistic image representation based on low‐level local features is presented. Specifically, a modified spectral clustering method is introduced to learn a non‐negative visual dictionary from local features of training images. A non‐negative sparse feature encoding method termed non‐negative locality‐constrained linear coding (NNLLC) is proposed to improve the popular locality‐constrained linear coding method so as to obtain more meaningful and interpretable sparse codes for feature representation. Moreover, a new feature pooling strategy named kMaxSum pooling is proposed to alleviate the information loss of the sum pooling or max pooling strategy, which produces a more effective holistic image representation and can be viewed as a generalisation of the sum and max pooling strategies. The retrieval results carried out on two public image databases demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed approach.
Fast CU partition strategy for HEVC based on Haar wavelet
Authors: Sun Xuebin , Chen Xiaodong , Xu Yong , Wang Yi , Yu Daoyin
Published: June 2017

As the latest video coding standard, high‐efficiency video coding (HEVC) achieves better performance and supports higher resolution compared with the predecessor standard, H.264/advanced video coding (AVC). Intra‐coding is an important feature in HEVC standard, which reduces the spatial redundancy significantly, due to the flexible coding structure, and high density of angular prediction modes. However, the improvement on coding efficiency is obtained at the expense of the extraordinary computation complexity. This study presents a novel coding unit (CU) partitioning technique for HEVC. By using a fast texture complexity detection method, which is based on two‐dimensional Haar wavelet transform, texture complexity for each CU can be extracted. According to the Haar wavelet coefficients obtained, an early CU splitting termination is proposed to decide whether a CU should be decomposed into four lower dimensions CUs or not. Experimental results demonstrate that the fast CU partition strategy achieves better trade‐off between rate‐distortion performance and complexity reduction than the previous algorithms. Compared with the reference software HM16.7, the proposed algorithm can lessen the encoding time up to 46.22% on average, with a negligible bit rate increase of 0.45%, and quality losses lower than 0.04 dB, respectively.
Evaluation of the CO2 emissions pathway from hydrogen production to fuel cell car utilisation
Authors: Ognissanto Flora , Landen Torquil , Stevens Alan , Emre Mehmet , Naberezhnykh Denis
Published: June 2017

Fuel cell electric vehicles (FCEVs) are perceived to be an intelligent transport choice for reducing emissions and are subject to considerable research and development as well as government incentives to accelerate deployment. However, though FCEVs produce zero tailpipe emissions they could, depending on the methods used to generate and distribute hydrogen, be more or less environmentally friendly than EVs or other alternatives. In this study, the authors review state‐of‐the‐art FC technologies and identify the less polluting options. The environmental impact of FCEVs, pure battery EVs and internal combustion engine cars are then modelled, compared and forecast to 2050 under various scenarios. Finally, recommendations are made supporting solutions offering the most environmentally friendly way forward.
Optimal fuzzy‐based power management for real time application in a hybrid generation system
Authors: Rouholamini Mehdi , Mohammadian Mohsen , Wang Caisheng , Gharaveisi Ali Akbar
Published: June 2017

This study presents a fuzzy‐based optimal energy management scheme for a grid‐tied hybrid generation system. The hybrid system under study includes a fuel cell, an electrolyser, and a hydrogen storage subsystem and is also capable of exchanging power with the local grid under hourly electricity pricing. The topic of energy management is presented in detail in the form of a non‐linear constrained optimisation problem. A comprehensive mathematical formulation is applied to build an accurate model. Due to the complexity and large‐scale nature of the problem, its algebraic model is given in general algebraic modelling system (GAMS). Having developed an off‐line optimiser through interfacing GAMS and MATLAB, the optimal energy management problem is solved under different load profiles and the results are utilised to train a Sugeno‐type fuzzy inference system that is responsible for real time energy management. The fine tuning of the fuzzy system parameters, mainly including the membership functions and the weighting coefficients, is made using subtractive data clustering. To verify the performance and validity of the proposed approach, the simulation results are presented and discussed in both off‐line and on‐line modes.
Analysis and experimental results of frequency splitting of underwater wireless power transfer
Authors: Niu Wangqiang , Gu Wei , Chu Jianxin
Published: June 2017

Underwater wireless power transfer (UWPT) is an important technique to power underwater devices while its frequency splitting phenomena are not fully elucidated. In this study, frequency splitting phenomena of a symmetrical planar two‐coil wireless power transfer (WPT) system resonated at 90 kHz are investigated in seawater and freshwater. A concise frequency splitting analysis of this WPT system in air based on circuit model is given first and then experimental data are reported to show there is little difference between power transfer in air, freshwater and seawater in the range of 40–140 kHz of this WPT system. Consequently, the frequency splitting analysis and observations in air are also applicable in freshwater and seawater. It is found a V‐type frequency splitting pattern exists in this WPT system under seawater and freshwater. Frequency shift is observed in this UWPT system in overcoupled region, and no frequency shift is observed in undercoupled region. In undercoupled region, in the low frequency zone of 40–90 kHz the load voltage characteristics in three media are identical; in the high‐frequency zone of 90–140 kHz, the load voltage in air is slightly larger than those in freshwater and seawater.
Scoring Systems for Estimating the Risk of Recurrent Venous Thromboembolism
Authors: Nichele Ilaria , Tosetto Alberto
Published: June 2017

The risk of recurrence after suspension of anticoagulant treatment in patients with a first episode of unprovoked venous thromboembolism (VTE) is highly variable from patient to patient. Not all patients are candidates for life-long anticoagulant therapy, essentially because there remain concerns for such an option regarding hemorrhagic complications and clinical monitoring. Thus, the “treat all” approach may be inadequate for some patients at low risk of relapse. Proper assessment of the recurrence risk may be helpful to decide the optimal therapeutic strategy in such patients. In recent years, attempts have been made to develop and validate clinical prediction rules to estimate the absolute risk of VTE recurrence in individual patients. This article highlights the advantages and disadvantages of such options, presenting three different prediction rules that have been published so far.
Assessing elements of an extended evolutionary synthesis for plant domestication and agricultural origin research
Authors: Piperno Dolores R.
Published: June 2017

The development of agricultural societies, one of the most transformative events in human and ecological history, was made possible by plant and animal domestication. Plant domestication began 12,000–10,000 y ago in a number of major world areas, including the New World tropics, Southwest Asia, and China, during a period of profound global environmental perturbations as the Pleistocene epoch ended and transitioned into the Holocene. Domestication is at its heart an evolutionary process, and for many prehistorians evolutionary theory has been foundational in investigating agricultural origins. Similarly, geneticists working largely with modern crops and their living wild progenitors have documented some of the mechanisms that underwrote phenotypic transformations from wild to domesticated species. Ever-improving analytic methods for retrieval of empirical data from archaeological sites, together with advances in genetic, genomic, epigenetic, and experimental research on living crop plants and wild progenitors, suggest that three fields of study currently little applied to plant domestication processes may be necessary to understand these transformations across a range of species important in early prehistoric agriculture. These fields are phenotypic (developmental) plasticity, niche construction theory, and epigenetics with transgenerational epigenetic inheritance. All are central in a controversy about whether an Extended Evolutionary Synthesis is needed to reconceptualize how evolutionary change occurs. An exploration of their present and potential utility in domestication study shows that all three fields have considerable promise in elucidating important issues in plant domestication and in agricultural origin and dispersal research and should be increasingly applied to these issues.
Phantom: investigating heterogeneous gene sets in time-course data
Authors: Gu Jinghua , Wang Xuan , Chan Jinyan , Baldwin Nicole E , Turner Jacob A
Published: June 2017

Motivation

Gene set analysis is a powerful tool to study the coordinative change of time-course data. However, most existing methods only model the overall change of a gene set, yet completely overlooked heterogeneous time-dependent changes within sub-sets of genes.

Results

We have developed a novel statistical method, Phantom, to investigate gene set heterogeneity. Phantom employs the principle of multi-objective optimization to assess the heterogeneity inside a gene set, which also accounts for the temporal dependency in time-course data. Phantom improves the performance of gene set based methods to detect biological changes across time.

Availability and implementation

Phantom webpage can be accessed at: http://www.baylorhealth.edu/Phantom. R package of Phantom is available at https://cran.r-project.org/web/packages/phantom/index.html.

Supplementary information

Supplementary data are available at Bioinformatics online.
Activism in the ‘Students’ League of Nations’: International Student Politics and the Confédération Internationale des Étudiants, 1919–1939
Authors: Laqua Daniel
Published: June 2017

The aftermath of the First World War saw manifold efforts to (re-)construct an international community. One striking feature of this development was the foundation of a number of international student organisations. This article analyses the largest of these organisations—the International Confederation of Students (Confédération internationale des Étudiants, CIE), using it as a prism through which to examine four major aspects of inter-war student internationalism: nationalism, intellectual co-operation, mobility and radicalism. The CIE brought together the representatives of different national unions of students and thus involved activists who could cast themselves as future leaders. It portrayed its activities as ‘apolitical’, embracing an internationalism that sought to consolidate, rather than overthrow, the international order. To this end, the organisation co-operated with the League of Nations, particularly in the realm of student travel. Yet, despite its discourse of peace and non-partisanship, the CIE suffered from manifold national divisions and maintained an uneasy relationship with the political developments of the period. In this context, the article shows how, rather than being the domain of impractical idealists, internationalism provided an arena for the pursuit of competing national and political agendas.
Connecting single-stock assessment models through correlated survival
Authors: Albertsen Christoffer Moesgaard , Nielsen Anders , Thygesen Uffe Høgsbro
Published: June 2017

Fisheries management is mainly conducted via single-stock assessment models assuming that fish stocks do not interact, except through assumed natural mortalities. Currently, the main alternative is complex ecosystem models which require extensive data, are difficult to calibrate, and have long run times. We propose a simple alternative. In three case studies each with two stocks, we improve the single-stock models, as measured by Akaike information criterion, by adding correlation in the cohort survival. To limit the number of parameters, the correlations are parameterized through the corresponding partial correlations. We consider six models where the partial correlation matrix between stocks follows a band structure ranging from independent assessments to complex correlation structures. Further, a simulation study illustrates the importance of handling correlated data sufficiently by investigating the coverage of confidence intervals for estimated fishing mortality. The results presented will allow managers to evaluate stock statuses based on a more accurate evaluation of model output uncertainty. The methods are directly implementable for stocks with an analytical assessment and do not require any new data sources.
The Subarachnoid Hemorrhage Early Brain Edema Score Predicts Delayed Cerebral Ischemia and Clinical Outcomes
Authors: Ahn Sung-Ho , Savarraj Jude P , Pervez Mubashir , Jones Wesley , Park Jin , Jeon Sang-Beom , Kwon Sun U , Chang Tiffany R , Lee Kiwon , Kim Dong H , Day Arthur L , Choi H Alex
Published: June 2017

BACKGROUND

Early brain injury (EBI) after subarachnoid hemorrhage (SAH) is an important determinant of clinical outcomes. However, a major hindrance to studies of EBI is the lack of radiographic surrogate marker.

OBJECTIVE

To propose a scoring system based on early changes in clinically obtained computed tomography (CT), called the Subarachnoid hemorrhage Early Brain Edema Score (SEBES).

METHODS

Patients with spontaneous aneurysmal SAH and a CT within 24 h of ictus were included. We defined SEBES as a scale of 0 to 4 points according to the (1) absence of visible sulci caused by effacement of sulci or (2) absence of visible sulci with disruption of the gray–white matter junction at 2 predetermined levels in each hemisphere. Prognostic value of the SEBES grade for the prediction of delayed cerebral ischemia (DCI) and unfavorable outcomes was assessed. A separate cohort of patients was used as a validation cohort.

RESULTS

Of the 164 subjects in our study, high-grade SEBES (3 or 4 points) was identified in 48 patients (29.3%). CT interobserver reliability of SEBES grades was high with a Kappa value of 0.89. After adjusting for covariables, SEBES was identified as an independent predictor of DCI (OR = 2.24, 95% CI: 1.58–3.17) and unfavorable outcome (OR = 3.45, 95% CI: 1.95–6.07). In our validation cohort, 84 subjects showed similar predictive power of SEBES for a prediction of DCI and unfavorable long-term outcome.

CONCLUSION

SEBES may be a surrogate marker of EBI and predicts DCI and clinical outcomes after SAH.
Stereotactic Catheter Ventriculocisternostomy for Clearance of Subarachnoid Hemorrhage in Patients with Coiled Aneurysms
Authors: Roelz Roland , Scheiwe Christian , Urbach Horst , Coenen Volker A , Reinacher Peter
Published: June 2017

BACKGROUND

Cerebral vasospasm leading to delayed cerebral infarction (DCI) is a central source of poor outcome in patients with aneurysmal subarachnoid hemorrhage (aSAH). Current treatments of cerebral vasospasm are insufficient. Cisternal blood clearance is a promising treatment option. However, a generally applicable, safe, and effective method to access the cisterns of the brain is lacking.

OBJECTIVE

To report on stereotactic catheter ventriculocisternostomy (STX-VCS) as a method to access the cisterns of the brain for clearance of subarachnoid hemorrhage in patients with aSAH and coiled aneurysms.

METHODS

In 9 aSAH patients at high risk for DCI (Hunt and Hess grade ≥3, modified Fisher grade ≥3), access to the basal cisterns of the brain was created by STX-VCS. Fibrinolytic and/or spasmolytic lavage therapy was administered.

RESULTS

STX-VCS was feasible and safe in all patients. Subarachnoid blood was rapidly cleared by irrigation with urokinase. Vasospasm occurred in 2 patients and was interrupted by irrigation with nimodipine. There was 1 fatality due to pneumogenic sepsis. Minor DCI occurred in 1 patient. Eight survived without DCI and are independent (modified Rankin score [mRS] ≤ 3) at 6 mo after aSAH.

CONCLUSION

STX-VCS allows for rapid clearance of subarachnoid hemorrhage in patients with coiled aneurysms.
Misuse of Novel Synthetic Opioids: A Deadly New Trend
Authors: Prekupec Matthew P. , Mansky Peter A. , Baumann Michael H.
Published: June 2017

Novel synthetic opioids (NSOs) include various analogs of fentanyl and newly emerging non-fentanyl compounds. Together with illicitly manufactured fentanyl (IMF), these drugs have caused a recent spike in overdose deaths, whereas deaths from prescription opioids have stabilized. NSOs are used as stand-alone products, as adulterants in heroin, or as constituents of counterfeit prescription medications. During 2015 alone, there were 9580 deaths from synthetic opioids other than methadone. Most of these fatalities were associated with IMF rather than diverted pharmaceutical fentanyl. In opioid overdose cases, where the presence of fentanyl analogs was examined, analogs were implicated in 17% of fatalities. Recent data from law enforcement sources show increasing confiscation of acetylfentanyl, butyrylfentanyl, and furanylfentanyl, in addition to non-fentanyl compounds such as U-47700. Since 2013, deaths from NSOs in the United States were 52 for acetylfentanyl, 40 for butyrylfentanyl, 128 for furanylfentanyl, and 46 for U-47700. All of these substances induce a classic opioid toxidrome, which can be reversed with the competitive antagonist naloxone. However, due to the putative high potency of NSOs and their growing prevalence, it is recommended to forgo the 0.4 mg initial dose of naloxone and start with 2 mg. Because NSOs offer enormous profit potential, and there is strong demand for their use, these drugs are being trafficked by organized crime. NSOs present major challenges for medical professionals, law enforcement agencies, and policymakers. Resources must be distributed equitably to enhance harm reduction though public education, medication-assisted therapies, and improved access to naloxone.
Application of Clinical Intelligence to Streamline Care in Aortic Emergencies
Authors: Moats Susan K. , Richard B. Jeffery
Published: June 2017

This article discusses the lessons learned by an interdisciplinary team in a large metropolitan specialty hospital during the implementation of the Code Aorta protocol for aortic emergencies and the subsequent application of technological enhancements to improve data transfer. Aortic dissections require rapid diagnosis and surgical treatment; thus, in order to optimize patient outcomes, clinicians must be accessible, data must be readily available, and proper prompts and notifications must be made to alert and ready teams. An interdisciplinary team reviewed our hospital’s processes and architecture of systems to define how we provide care during aortic emergencies. Based on this insight into patient flow, we ultimately developed a Code Aorta protocol to streamline provision of care during aortic emergencies. This process focused on protocol development, human-technology interfaces, and outcome-oriented metrics. The team also aimed to heighten awareness of the emergent process and to understand relevant outcomes data. After introduction of the Code Aorta protocol, a 78% reduction was achieved in time-to-treatment from the previous year’s average time. In addition, the average length of stay was reduced by 2.4 days (18%). The team’s efforts focused on clinical communication, aiming to link technology to maximize clinical efficiency. The initial results of our Code Aorta protocol show promise that continual refinement of patient care processes during aortic emergencies will improve outcomes for patients suffering aortic dissection.
Pythium Insidiosum Keratitis: Histopathology and Rapid Novel Diagnostic Staining Technique
Authors: Mittal Ruchi , Jena Shipra K. , Desai Alisha , Agarwal Sunil
Published: June 2017

Purpose:

To elucidate the histopathology of Pythium insidiosum keratitis and to describe a novel, simple, and rapid staining technique for identification of oomycete Pythium insidiosum and to differentiate it from fungi.

Methods:

This is a laboratory investigation study of 38 nonconsecutive cases (37 ocular samples and 1 colonic biopsy); 14 microbiologically diagnosed as Pythium insidiosum keratitis and 24 as fungal keratitis. Review of clinical, demographic details, microbiological results, and identification of cases that necessitated evisceration was performed. Reevaluation of histopathology slides was done using stains such as hematoxylin–eosin, Gomori methenamine silver (GMS), periodic acid–Schiff (PAS), potassium iodide–sulfuric acid (IKI-H2SO4). Morphology, degree, and nature of inflammation and load, distribution, and staining results of Pythium insidiosum and its comparison with fungi were studied.

Results:

Delay in zoospore formation, failure of growth, and delay in identification of Pythium were the main cause of evisceration. Corneal pythiosis showed epithelial ulceration, stromal destruction, and varying inflammation; load and distribution of Pythium were inversely proportional to inflammation. The filaments were commonly wide, with admixed narrower structures and uncommonly involved Descemet membrane. The oomycete was not discretely discerned with PAS stain and stained distinctly with GMS stain and IKI-H2SO4 stain (100% sensitive). In comparison, fungal organisms stained well with PAS and GMS stain, but not with IKI-H2SO4 stain (100% specific).

Conclusions:

Pythium insidiosum keratitis is perhaps not more devastating than fungal keratitis but late diagnosis, misdiagnosis, and treatment as fungal infection are major heralds. Early diagnosis may markedly improve the patient outcome. IKI-H2SO4 is a cost-effective, simple, sensitive, and specific stain for the diagnosis of oomycete Pythium.