bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Cost‐Effectiveness Comparison of Ustekinumab, Infliximab, or Adalimumab for the Treatment of Moderate‐Severe Crohn's Disease in Biologic‐Naïve Patients
Authors: Aliyev Elmar R. , Hay Joel W. , Hwang Caroline
Published: December 2018

Study Objective

Ustekinumab was recently approved by the United States U.S. Food and Drug Administration for the treatment of Crohn's disease. In this analysis, we aimed to compare the cost‐effectiveness of ustekinumab, infliximab, or adalimumab for the treatment of moderate‐severe Crohn's disease in patients who failed conventional therapy (i.e., corticosteroids and immunomodulators) but were naïve to tumor necrosis factor antagonists (i.e., biologic drugs).

Design

Cost‐effectiveness analysis using a hybrid model structure (decision tree and Markov model).

Measurements and Main Results

A decision tree simulated biologic induction, and a Markov model simulated biologic and conventional therapy maintenance. Cycle length was 2 weeks with a discounted 5‐year time horizon and a limited U.S. societal perspective in the base case; results from a payer perspective are also reported. Transition probabilities, direct costs, indirect costs, and utilities were obtained from the literature. To measure relative treatment value (i.e., order of treatment cost‐effectiveness), net monetary benefits were reported for a $150,000 willingness‐to‐pay threshold per quality‐adjusted life‐year in the base case. Infliximab dominated both adalimumab and ustekinumab, with a net monetary benefit (NMB) of $9943 and $29,798, respectively, in the base case. Adalimumab dominated ustekinumab, with an NMB of $19,855. All biologics yielded similar quality‐adjusted life‐years (~3.5), whereas costs varied substantially ($50,510, $54,985, and $72,921 for infliximab, adalimumab, and ustekinumab, respectively). The payer perspective, alternate time horizons, and scenario analyses consistently showed infliximab dominance. One‐way, threshold, and probabilistic sensitivity analyses confirmed the robustness of these results with respect to all parameters. Although biosimilars were not explicitly modeled as comparators, one‐way sensitivity analysis showed that drug acquisition costs could alter relative treatment value but would have to be varied by at least 50%.

Conclusion

For moderate‐severe Crohn's disease, infliximab yields significantly more NMBs compared with both adalimumab and ustekinumab. Additional clinical (e.g., empiric dosing, biologic cycling) and quality‐of‐life (e.g., lost productivity, disutility of home injections) research is needed to allow for model frameworks and parameters that more accurately reflect the nuances of Crohn's disease treatment.
Structure Analysis of Solid Lipid Nanoparticles for Drug Delivery: A Combined USANS/SANS Study
Authors: Shah Rohan M. , Mata Jitendra P. , Bryant Gary , de Campo Liliana , Ife Alexander , Karpe Avinash V. , Jadhav Snehal R. , Eldridge Daniel S. , Palombo Enzo A. , Harding Ian H.
Published: December 2018

Suspensions of solid lipid nanoparticles (SLNs) stabilized with emulsifiers have been extensively investigated (since the 1990s) as drug carriers, although details of their ultrastructure are poorly defined. Previously, a novel microwave‐assisted microemulsion‐based technique to prepare SLNs was reported. To understand the detailed internal structure of these SLNs, ultra‐small angle neutron scattering (USANS) and small angle neutron scattering (SANS) experiments are conducted on suspensions of hydrogenated stearic acid SLNs stabilized with hydrogenated Tween 20 surfactant in D2O. Together, SANS and USANS gives a combined Q range of 0.000047 to 0.6 Å−1 (corresponding to a size range of ≈1 nm–15 µm). This extended Q range allows a comprehensive understanding of the hierarchical structure of SLNs. The data are consistent with the multi‐length scale structure of SLNs having polydispersed large particles with roughened surfaces at the microscale level. At the nanoscale level, the results are consistent with the SLNs having an ellipsoidal shape intermediate between spheres and rods, with a crossover from mass fractals to surface fractals. The elucidation of this structure is particularly important given that the structure influences the stability and drug release properties of the nanoparticles. These results assist in the development of systems with desired shape and properties.
Probabilistic forecasts of tropical cyclone tracks and intensities in the southwest Indian Ocean basin
Authors: Bonnardot Francois , Quetelard Hubert , Jumaux Guillaume , Leroux Marie‐Dominique , Bessafi Miloud
Published: December 2018

Under the responsibility of the Regional Specialized Meteorological Centre (RSMC) of La Réunion, the southwest Indian Ocean (SWIO) has tropical cyclone activity close to that of the North Atlantic. Like most territories of the SWIO basin, La Réunion island is highly vulnerable to cyclone‐induced hazards and the potential impact of nearby storms is closely related to their track and intensity evolution. Although storm track and intensity forecasts have been steadily improving in the last decades, a great amount of uncertainty remains. Operational centres have therefore developed probabilistic products such as uncertainty cones for the prediction of storm track and intensity over the different cyclone basins. Unfortunately, the cone approach does not fully match the end‐user needs for efficient decision‐making.

This article provides a method to generate alternate probabilistic scenarios of tropical system track and intensity forecasts around an official forecast. The method has been calibrated and evaluated to answer the needs of the Système de Prévision des Inondations en contexte Cyclonique (SPICy) project that aimed to explore new probabilistic forecast products for tropical system induced hazards such as coastal inundations. A hybrid method has been developed to benefit from both climatological and dynamical existing approaches. A first set of climatology‐built scenarios is generated using the statistical distribution of RSMC La Réunion forecast errors. This initial set is then modulated using real‐time information provided by the ensemble prediction system of the European Centre for Medium‐range Weather Forecasts (ECMWF). The final product is a set of about 20 scenarios that are built around the official deterministic forecast with some associated probabilities. Performance scores demonstrate the efficiency of the method against other evaluated systems especially in the first 2 days of the forecast. The reasonable number of defined scenarios is cost efficient and makes it possible to perform further impact‐oriented applications such as wave and storm surge simulations.
OpenMP in VASP: Threading and SIMD
Authors: Wende Florian , Marsman Martijn , Kim Jeongnim , Vasilev Fedor , Zhao Zhengji , Steinke Thomas
Published: December 2018

The Vienna Ab initio Simulation Package (VASP) is a widely used electronic structure code that originally exploits process‐level parallelism through the Message Passing Interface (MPI) for work distribution within and across nodes. Architectural changes of modern parallel processors urge programmers to address thread‐ and data‐level parallelism as well to benefit most from the available compute resources within a node. We describe for VASP how to approach for an MPI + OpenMP parallelization including data‐level parallelism through OpenMP SIMD constructs together with a generic high‐level vector coding scheme. We can demonstrate an improved scalability of VASP and more than 20% gain over the MPI‐only version as well as a 2× increased performance of collective operations using the multiple‐endpoint MPI feature. The high‐level vector coding scheme applied to VASP's general gradient approximation routine gives up 9× performance gain on AVX512 platforms with the Intel compiler.
Distributed Encoding and Decoding of Quantum Information over Networks
Authors: Yamasaki Hayata , Murao Mio
Published: December 2018

Encoding and decoding quantum information in a multipartite quantum system are indispensable for quantum error correction and also play crucial roles in multiparty tasks in distributed quantum information processing such as quantum secret sharing. To quantitatively characterize nonlocal properties of multipartite quantum transformations for encoding and decoding, we analyze the entanglement costs of encoding and decoding quantum information in a multipartite quantum system distributed among spatially separated parties connected by a network. This analysis generalizes previous studies of entanglement costs for preparing bipartite and multipartite quantum states and implementing bipartite quantum transformations by entanglement‐assisted local operations and classical communication (LOCC). We identify conditions for the parties being able to encode or decode quantum information in the distributed quantum system deterministically and exactly, when inter‐party quantum communication is restricted to a tree‐topology network. In our analysis, we reduce the multiparty tasks of implementing the encoding and decoding to sequential applications of one‐shot zero‐error quantum state splitting and merging for two parties. While encoding and decoding are inverse tasks of each other, our results suggest that a quantitative difference in entanglement cost between encoding and decoding arises due to the difference between quantum state merging and splitting.
Probabilistic‐constrained filtering for a class of nonlinear systems with improved static event‐triggered communication
Authors: Tian Engang , Wang Zidong , Zou Lei , Yue Dong
Published: December 2018

This paper is concerned with the probabilistic‐constrained filtering problem for a class of time‐varying systems with stochastic nonlinearities and state constraints. An improved static event‐triggering scheme is used to reduce unnecessary signal transmissions on the communication channel, where a time‐varying triggering parameter is designed according to engineering practice. The aim of the problem addressed is to design a time‐varying filter such that (1) the prescribed probabilistic constraints on the estimation error are satisfied (ie, the probability for the estimation error to be confined to the given ellipsoidal set is larger than a prescribed value) and (2) the ellipsoid is minimized at each time instant in the sense of the matrix norm. First, the probabilistic constraints are handled by means of the multidimensional Chebyshev bounds. By using recursive matrix inequalities, stochastic analysis is conducted to establish sufficient conditions for the existence of the desired probabilistic‐constrained filter. Then, a recursive optimization algorithm is proposed to design the filter gain matrices. Finally, a simulation example is proposed to demonstrate the effectiveness and applicability of the proposed method.
A full Bayesian model to handle structural ones and missingness in economic evaluations from individual‐level data
Authors: Gabrio Andrea , Mason Alexina J. , Baio Gianluca
Published: December 2018

Economic evaluations from individual‐level data are an important component of the process of technology appraisal, with a view to informing resource allocation decisions. A critical problem in these analyses is that both effectiveness and cost data typically present some complexity (eg, nonnormality, spikes, and missingness) that should be addressed using appropriate methods. However, in routine analyses, standardised approaches are typically used, possibly leading to biassed inferences. We present a general Bayesian framework that can handle the complexity. We show the benefits of using our approach with a motivating example, the MenSS trial, for which there are spikes at one in the effectiveness and missingness in both outcomes. We contrast a set of increasingly complex models and perform sensitivity analysis to assess the robustness of the conclusions to a range of plausible missingness assumptions. We demonstrate the flexibility of our approach with a second example, the PBS trial, and extend the framework to accommodate the characteristics of the data in this study. This paper highlights the importance of adopting a comprehensive modelling approach to economic evaluations and the strategic advantages of building these complex models within a Bayesian framework.
Mediation analysis with causally ordered mediators using Cox proportional hazards model
Authors: Cho Shu‐Hsien , Huang Yen‐Tsung
Published: December 2018

Causal mediation analysis aims to investigate the mechanism linking an exposure and an outcome. However, studies regarding mediation effects on survival outcomes are limited, particularly in multi‐mediator settings. The existing multi‐mediator analyses for survival outcomes are either performed under special model specifications such as probit models or additive hazard models, or they assume a rare outcome. Here, we propose a novel multi‐mediation analysis based on the widely used Cox proportional hazards model without the rare outcome assumption. We develop a methodology under a counterfactual framework to identify path‐specific effects (PSEs) of the exposure on the outcome through the mediator(s) and derive the closed‐form formula for PSEs on a transformed survival time. Moreover, we show that the convolution of an extreme value and Gaussian random variables converges to another Gaussian, provided that the variance of the original Gaussian gets large. Based on that, we further derive closed‐form expressions for PSEs on survival probabilities. Asymptotic properties are established for both estimators. Extensive simulation is conducted to evaluate the finite sample performance of our proposed estimators and to compare with existing methods. The utility of the proposed method is illustrated in a hepatitis study of liver cancer risk.
A monotone data augmentation algorithm for multivariate nonnormal data: With applications to controlled imputations for longitudinal trials
Authors: Tang Yongqiang
Published: December 2018

An efficient monotone data augmentation (MDA) algorithm is proposed for missing data imputation for incomplete multivariate nonnormal data that may contain variables of different types and are modeled by a sequence of regression models including the linear, binary logistic, multinomial logistic, proportional odds, Poisson, negative binomial, skew‐normal, skew‐t regressions, or a mixture of these models. The MDA algorithm is applied to the sensitivity analyses of longitudinal trials with nonignorable dropout using the controlled pattern imputations that assume the treatment effect reduces or disappears after subjects in the experimental arm discontinue the treatment. We also describe a heuristic approach to implement the controlled imputation, in which the fully conditional specification method is used to impute the intermediate missing data to create a monotone missing pattern, and the missing data after dropout are then imputed according to the assumed nonignorable mechanisms. The proposed methods are illustrated by simulation and real data analyses. Sample SAS code for the analyses is provided in the supporting information
Assessing the robustness of sisVIVE in a Mendelian randomization study to estimate the causal effect of body mass index on income using multiple SNPs from understanding society
Authors: Bao Yanchun , Clarke Paul S. , Smart Melissa , Kumari Meena
Published: December 2018

The “some invalid, some valid instrumental variable estimator” (sisVIVE) is a lasso‐based method for instrumental variables (IVs) regression of outcome on an exposure. In principle, sisVIVE is robust to some of the IVs in the analysis being invalid, in the sense of being related to the outcome variable through pathways not mediated by the exposure. In this paper, we consider the application of sisVIVE to a Mendelian randomization study in which multiple genetic variants are used as IVs to estimate the causal effect of body mass index on personal income in the presence of unobserved confounding. In addition to analyzing data from the large‐scale longitudinal household survey Understanding Society, we conduct a simulation study to (a) assess the performance of sisVIVE in relation to that of competing robust methods like “MR‐Egger” and “MR‐Median” and (b) identify scenarios under which its absolute performance is poor. We find that sisVIVE outperforms alternative robust methods, in terms of mean‐square error, across a wide range of scenarios, but that its performance is poor in absolute terms when the presence of indirect pleiotropy leads to failure of the “InSIDE” condition, which is not explicitly required for identification. We argue that this is because the consistency criterion for sisVIVE does not identify the true causal effect when InSIDE fails.
2D MoS2‐Based Nanomaterials for Therapeutic, Bioimaging, and Biosensing Applications
Authors: Yadav Varnika , Roy Shounak , Singh Prem , Khan Ziyauddin , Jaiswal Amit
Published: December 2018

Molybdenum disulfide (MoS2), a typical layered 2D transition metal dichalcogenide, has received colossal interest in the past few years due to its unique structural, physicochemical, optical, and biological properties. While MoS2 is mostly applied in traditional industries such as dry lubricants, intercalation agents, and negative electrode material in lithium‐ion batteries, its 2D and 0D forms have led to diverse applications in sensing, catalysis, therapy, and imaging. Herein, a systematic overview of the progress that is made in the field of MoS2 research with an emphasis on its different biomedical applications is presented. This article provides a general discussion on the basic structure and property of MoS2 and gives a detailed description of its different morphologies that are synthesized so far, namely, nanosheets, nanotubes, and quantum dots along with synthesis strategies. The biomedical applications of MoS2‐based nanocomposites are also described in detail and categorically, such as in varied therapeutic and diagnostic modalities like drug delivery, gene delivery, phototherapy, combined therapy, bioimaging, theranostics, and biosensing. Finally, a brief commentary on the current challenges and limitations being faced is provided, along with a discussion of some future perspectives for the overall improvement of MoS2‐based nanocomposites as a potential nanomedicine.
Inkjet‐Printed High‐Q Nanocrystalline Diamond Resonators
Authors: Sartori André F. , Belardinelli Pierpaolo , Dolleman Robin J. , Steeneken Peter G. , Ghatkesar Murali K. , Buijnsters Josephus G.
Published: December 2018

Diamond is a highly desirable material for state‐of‐the‐art micro‐electromechanical (MEMS) devices, radio‐frequency filters and mass sensors, due to its extreme properties and robustness. However, the fabrication/integration of diamond structures into Si‐based components remain costly and complex. In this work, a lithography‐free, low‐cost method is introduced to fabricate diamond‐based micro‐resonators: a modified home/office desktop inkjet printer is used to locally deposit nanodiamond ink as ∅50–60 µm spots, which are grown into ≈1 µm thick nanocrystalline diamond film disks by chemical vapor deposition, and suspended by reactive ion etching. The frequency response of the fabricated structures is analyzed by laser interferometry, showing resonance frequencies in the range of ≈9–30 MHz, with Q‐factors exceeding 104, and (f0 × Q) figure of merit up to ≈2.5 × 1011 Hz in vacuum. Analysis in controlled atmospheres shows a clear dependence of the Q‐factors on gas pressure up until 1 atm, with Q ∝ 1/P. When applied as mass sensors, the inkjet‐printed diamond resonators yield mass responsivities up to 981 Hz fg−1 after Au deposition, and ultrahigh mass resolution up to 278 ± 48 zg, thus outperforming many similar devices produced by traditional top‐down, lithography‐based techniques. In summary, this work demonstrates the fabrication of functional high‐performance diamond‐based micro‐sensors by direct inkjet printing.
Hybrid Nanomedicine Fabricated from Photosensitizer‐Terminated Metal–Organic Framework Nanoparticles for Photodynamic Therapy and Hypoxia‐Activated Cascade Chemotherapy
Authors: He Zhimei , Dai Yunlu , Li Xiangli , Guo Dan , Liu Yijing , Huang Xiaolin , Jiang Jingjing , Wang Sheng , Zhu Guizhi , Zhang Fuwu , Lin Lisen , Zhu Jun‐Jie , Yu Guocan , Chen Xiaoyuan
Published: December 2018

During photodynamic therapy (PDT), severe hypoxia often occurs as an undesirable limitation of PDT owing to the O2‐consuming photodynamic process, compromising the effectiveness of PDT. To overcome this problem, several strategies aiming to improve tumor oxygenation are developed. Unlike these traditional approaches, an opposite method combining hypoxia‐activated prodrug and PDT may provide a promising strategy for cancer synergistic therapy. In light of this, azido‐/photosensitizer‐terminated UiO‐66 nanoscale metal–organic frameworks (UiO‐66‐H/N3 NMOFs) which serve as nanocarriers for the bioreductive prodrug banoxantrone (AQ4N) are engineered. Owing to the effective shielding of the nanoparticles, the stability of AQ4N is well preserved, highlighting the vital function of the nanocarriers. By virtue of strain‐promoted azide–alkyne cycloaddition, the nanocarriers are further decorated with a dense PEG layer to enhance their dispersion in the physiological environment and improve their therapeutic performance. Both in vitro and in vivo studies reveal that the O2‐depleting PDT process indeed aggravates intracellular/tumor hypoxia that activates the cytotoxicity of AQ4N through a cascade process, consequently achieving PDT‐induced and hypoxia‐activated synergistic therapy. Benefiting from the localized therapeutic effect of PDT and hypoxia‐activated cytotoxicity of AQ4N, this hybrid nanomedicine exhibits enhanced therapeutic efficacy with negligible systemic toxicity, making it a promising candidate for cancer therapy.
Regulation of Kit Expression in Early Mouse Embryos and ES Cells
Authors: Todaro Federica , Campolo Federica , Barrios Florencia , Pellegrini Manuela , Di Cesare Silvia , Tessarollo Lino , Rossi Pellegrino , Jannini Emmanuele A. , Dolci Susanna
Published: December 2018

Kit is a growth factor receptor that regulates proliferation and/or survival of many embryonic and postnatal stem cell types. When mutated, it can induce malignant transformation of the host cells. To dissect the Kit role in the control of ESC pluripotency, we studied its expression during early mouse embryogenesis and during the process of ESC derivation from inner cell mass (ICM) cells. We followed the in vitro development of early mouse embryos obtained from transgenic mice carrying Kit promoter regions fused to EGFP (Kit-EGFP) and found that they initiate EGFP expression at morula stage. EGFP expression is then maintained in the blastocyst, within the ICM, and its levels increase when cultured in the presence of MAPK and GSK3β inhibitors (2i) plus LIF compared with the LIF-only condition. Kit-EGFP ESCs showed nonhomogeneous EGFP expression pattern when cultured in LIF condition, but they upregulated EGFP expression, as well as that of Sox2, Nanog, Prdm14, when shifted to 2i-LIF culture. Similarly, primordial germ cells (PGCs) in the process of embryonic germ cell (EGC) conversion showed enhanced EGFP expression in 2i-LIF. Kit expression was affected by manipulating Sox2 levels in ESCs. Chromatin immunoprecipitation experiments confirmed that Sox2 binds Kit regulatory regions containing Sox2 consensus sequences. Finally, Kit constitutive activation induced by the D814Y mutation increased ESC proliferation and cloning efficiency in vitro and in teratoma assays in vivo. Our results identify Kit as a pluripotency-responsive gene and suggest a role for Kit in the regulation of ESC proliferation. Stem Cells  2019;37:332–344
Influence of maternal characteristics and gestational age on hemodynamic indices: NICOM device‐specific reference ranges
Authors: Perry H. , Stirrup O. , Gutierrez J. , Vinayagam D. , Thilaganathan B. , Khalil A.
Published: December 2018

Objectives

To construct reference ranges for stroke volume, cardiac output and systemic vascular resistance (SVR) in normal pregnancy for the NICOM® device, and to explore associations between maternal characteristics and these hemodynamic variables.

Methods

This was a prospective cohort study of healthy singleton pregnancies between 10 and 40 weeks' gestation attending a tertiary referral hospital between September 2012 and May 2018. Measurements of stroke volume, cardiac output and SVR were obtained throughout pregnancy using NICOM, a non‐invasive device based on bioreactance technology. NICOM device‐specific reference ranges were created with respect to gestational age and maternal characteristics. Once the distribution of the data had been determined with respect to the gestational age, patient characteristics were added to the model to test whether they provided a significant improvement in prediction of the median value. The effect was assessed of maternal weight, height, smoking status, conception using assisted reproductive technology, nulliparity and ethnicity.

Results

We included 411 women in this study. The relationships between cardiac variables and gestational age observed in the NICOM‐specific reference ranges are consistent with previous findings, with increasing cardiac output values until around 35 weeks and a decrease thereafter until term, and decreasing SVR until around 36 weeks, followed by an increase towards 40 weeks. Stroke volume showed a small linear increase across gestation with lower variability in observations close to term. Maternal weight, height and age were associated with cardiac output (all P < 0.05) and SVR (all P < 0.01), whilst maternal weight and height were associated with stroke volume (both P < 0.001). Ethnicity was significantly associated with stroke volume (P = 0.001) but not with cardiac output or SVR.

Conclusions

This study presents device‐specific reference ranges for stroke volume, cardiac output and SVR for the NICOM device in healthy pregnancy and describes the maternal characteristics that are associated with the values of these hemodynamic measurements. Studies using NICOM in pregnancy can use these ranges in order to evaluate observations relative to those expected in uncomplicated pregnancy conditional on maternal characteristics. Copyright © 2018 ISUOG. Published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd.
A pilot‐scale deep bed denitrification filter for secondary effluent treatment using sodium acetate as external carbon
Authors: Zheng Xiaowei , Zhang Shenyao , Huang Deying , Zhang Liu , Zhang Jibiao
Published: December 2018

A pilot‐scale quartz sand deep bed denitrification filter (DBDF) using sodium acetate as the additional carbon source was implemented to treat secondary effluent, with a high nitrate nitrogen (NO3‐N) concentration and low C/N ratio, from an urban municipal water resource recovery facility. By the 18th day, results showed that the removal efficiency of NO3‐N and the chemical oxygen demand (COD) were stable at above 85% and 70%, respectively. When the filter layer depth was set to 1,600 mm and the concentration of additional sodium acetate was maintained at 51 mg/L, the total nitrogen and COD concentrations of the DBDF effluent were stabilized below 5 and 30 mg/L, respectively. The quartz sand DBDF had a good effect on the removal of dissolved organic matter, especially for aromatic protein‐like and tryptophan protein‐like substances. Bacteria with denitrification function, such as Cloacibacterium and Zoogloea, became increasingly dominant with increasing filling layer depth.

Practitioner points

The denitrification filter had a good effect on the removal of aromatic protein‐like and tryptophan protein‐like substances.

Cloacibacterium and Zoogloea became increasingly dominant with increasing filling layer depth.
Inflow and infiltration in coastal wastewater collection systems: effects of rainfall, temperature, and sea level
Authors: Cahoon Lawrence B. , Hanke Marc H.
Published: December 2018

Wastewater collection and treatment systems are vital to public health, economic growth, and environmental quality, but do not receive as much consideration for upgrades and improvements as other forms of public infrastructure. Extraneous inputs to a wastewater collection system are caused by rainfall and submergence (“Inflow and infiltration,” I&I) and other factors, such as variation in sea level in coastal settings. These factors all pose risks for system degradation, sanitary system overflows (SSOs), and water quality impairment, but remain poorly quantified. Multiple regression analyses of total flows through 19 wastewater collection systems in coastal North Carolina, all using gravity collection systems, over a 2‐year period (2010–2011) demonstrated statistically significant effects of rainfall, temperature, and sea level as drivers of extraneous flows. Rainfall effects were significant for 18/19 (95%) of these systems. Temperature effects were also significant for 18/19 (95%) of these systems. Sea level effects, primarily driven by spring‐neap tidal oscillations, were significant for 11/19 (58%). Further, single factor regression analyses of the effects of temperature and sea level on system flows demonstrated significant effects for 16/19 (84%) and 18/19 (95%) systems, respectively. These collective results demonstrate the potential vulnerability of coastal wastewater collection and treatment systems to breaches in system integrity that allow extraneous flows, primarily through groundwater elevation, to drive further infrastructure degradation and environmental pollution.

Practitioner points

Heavy rainfalls drive statistically significant inflow and infiltration (I&I) in over 90% of central wastewater systems in coastal North Carolina.

Temperature, most likely as effects of seasonal variation in groundwater levels, also had a significant effect on I&I in over 90% of these systems.

Sea level, expressed as daily high‐high tide, drove significant effects on flow through over 90% of these systems.
Optimized adsorption onto biosolids‐based activated carbon for tartrazine removal from wastewater
Authors: Madeira Carla Suély P. , Zavarize Danilo G. , Vieira Gláucia Eliza G.
Published: December 2018

This study investigates optimized tartrazine uptake by activated carbon prepared from biosolids (BBAC). Different tartrazine concentrations (10–20 mg/L), adsorbent dosages (1.0–2.0 g), pH (2.0–4.0), and contact times (60–120 min) were tested. These independent variables formed a 24 full factorial experiment arranged as central composite rotative design (CCRD). Response surface methodology (RSM) analyzed the responses of 50 experimental runs. Tartrazine removal efficiency fluctuated between 76.2% and 99.9%. The experimental data were best fitted by a quadratic model (R2 > 0.95, p > 0.0001). All variables exerted statistically significant (p < 0.05) effects on the tartrazine uptake (initial concentration, p = 0.0011; BBAC dosage, p = 0.0004; pH, p < 0.0001; contact time, p < 0.0001). Optimized tartrazine uptake efficiency of 97.4% can happen when variables mutually correlate at 10.1 mg/L of tartrazine concentration, 1.07 g of adsorbent dosage, 2.13 of pH, and 116.9 min of contact time.

Practitioner points

Production of biosolids‐based activated carbon (BBAC) is presented.

Adsorptive affinity to tartrazine in aqueous solution was experimented.

Experimental conditions optimized by Response Surface Methodology.
Origin and formation mechanism of salty water in Zuli River catchment of the Yellow River
Authors: Liu Zihao , Tan Hongbing , Shi Dongping , Xu Peng , Elenga Hartman I.
Published: December 2018

The Zuli River is one of the branches of the upper Yellow River, as an inland catchment with semiarid climate in northwestern China, and the formation, evolution, and development of brackish water at such a large scale have remained unclear. This study aims to find clues about the origin and formation mechanism of salty water through multiple methods of hydrochemistry and isotope hydrology. The results show that groundwater is dominantly recharged by precipitation, and the river water was mainly recharged by groundwater discharge. The relatively high tritium content of groundwater (>5.0 TU) clearly suggests the occurrence of a modern recharge and rapid circulation. The dissolution of evaporate minerals, followed by incongruent dissolution of carbonate minerals (dolomite), constituted the main processes controlling groundwater salinization. In addition, the intense evaporation and unreasonable use of fertilizers further increase the TDS of the river, which should be the primary external mechanism of water salinization.

Practitioner points

The authors aimed to find clues about the formation mechanism of salty water in an inland catchment of the Yellow River.

The results of this research shows that the dissolution of dissolved minerals constituted the main processes controlling groundwater salinization. In addition, the intense evaporation and unreasonable use of fertilizers, which should be the primary external mechanism of water salinization.

This work would provide a theoretical basis for government to develop rational utilization of brackish water resources in the study area, which is also significant for understanding the mechanism of water salinization in an inland mountain watershed and even in similar inland watersheds around the world
Wildlife damage to crops: Perceptions of agricultural and wildlife leaders in 1957, 1987, and 2017
Authors: Conover Michael R. , Butikofer Erin , Decker Daniel J.
Published: December 2018

A national survey of wildlife agency directors was conducted during 1957 to determine their perceptions of wildlife damage to agriculture. This study was repeated in 1987, expanding the sample to include chief executive officers of state Farm Bureaus and state Wildlife Extension Specialists as well as wildlife agency leaders. During 2017, we replicated these studies to determine how perceptions of leaders had changed over the past 30 and 60 years. In the 2017 survey, 21 different wildlife species were reported by ≥1 respondent as causing the most damage in their state. Despite the numerous species causing damage, deer (Odocoileus spp.) were listed by most respondents as producing the most agricultural damage in their state. State Farm Bureaus and Wildlife Extension Specialists overestimated the amount of governmental services and products that were available to help farmers in their state. Most respondents believed that wildlife damage to agriculture was a serious problem in their state and had increased during the past 30 years. When survey results were compared, feral hog (Sus scrofa), goose (Anatidae), and wild turkey (Meleagris gallopavo) were listed more frequently in 2017 than in 1987, suggesting that problems caused by these species have increased in severity during the past 30 years. Use of special shooting and trapping permits issued to farmers had increased over the decades. Governmental agencies were more likely to provide fencing material and noisemakers and plant diversionary crops in 2017 and 1987 than they were in 1957. Modern wildlife management has been remarkably successful in increasing wildlife populations, to the point that some species occur in sufficient numbers in some places to cause remarkable levels of damage to crops and livestock. © 2018 The Wildlife Society.
Introduction
Authors: Page Samantha
Published: December 2018

In this chapter, I introduce the topic. I show how I became aware of a widespread misconception in the NGO sector and beyond into the world of international donors that so-called ‘harmful cultural practices’ were the main driver of the AIDS epidemic in Malawi. Biomedical evidence shows that ‘harmful cultural practices’ are not the main contributors to the AIDS epidemic. So what is interesting is why so many educated Malawians working in the AIDS sector told me about the practices, not the villagers, and blamed them for the spread of AIDS. I show that the epistemic community in Malawi (epistemic community includes international donors working on HIV and AIDS as well as the Malawian elite) are reframing both sexual cultural practices and women’s rights’ concepts in the context of what is widely considered an emergency, the AIDS epidemic. I argue that a complex interplay of interests has led to the construction of the narrative that the sexual cultural practice offisicontributes significantly to the spread of AIDS. I argue this complexity can be best understood through three sets of arguments.
Theoretical Perspectives
Authors: Page Samantha
Published: December 2018

In this chapter I present theoretical perspectives that have informed the research. Due to the interdisciplinary nature of this research, I show how a number of theories influenced by argument. First, using the approaches used within the anthropology of development I provide a critique of HIV policymaking. Second, and in order to understand how policy was constructed based on misconceptions, I draw on elite and policymaking theories to demonstrate how the policy process is being mediated by the agendas of elites as opposed to biomedical facts. Third, I use postcolonial theory to highlight how the elites are interpreting for themselves the colonial narrative that is founded on a binary opposition; civilised (the elites) and the uncivilised (the rural uneducated population). This then enables the elites to distance themselves from those living in rural areas, allowing them to maintain a position of power and access to the resources flowing in from the aid community.
Circles of Impression: External Foresight in Global Enterprises
Authors: Boman Magnus , Heger Tobias
Published: December 2018

This chapter analyzes the impact of corporate foresight by means of its circles of impression, from top management and outward at varying distances from the management board. The concept of circles of impression includes processes of communication, and the influence of this communication to impact change, and is demonstrated to be useful and possible to apply to a wide target class, including strategic and networked foresight efforts. The comparative study described in this chapter focuses on two organizations: an industrial for-profit company and a nonprofit non-governmental organization (NGO). Delivered at a critical time for large global enterprises, the study of foresight activities was carried out in complete independence, scoping by time to point of entry (PoE) and by general area, as provided by the stakeholder. The study covered four future trends, with one—robust artificial intelligence (AI)—reported on here to exemplify and detail the forms of reporting. In the introspective and critical analysis of this foresight work, the role of foresight validator is added to the three roles of corporate foresight known in the research literature: strategist, initiator, and opponent. As the concept of circles of impression is shown to generalize to both global corporate and global nonprofit organizations, a final discussion merges experiences with related conclusions and recommendations for ongoing studies.
Food Anxiety: Ambivalences Around Body and Identity, Food Safety, and Security
Authors: Ehlert Judith , Faltmann Nora Katharina
Published: December 2018

This introductory chapter to the edited volumeFood Anxiety in Globalising Vietnamputs food in Vietnam in global perspective in terms of agricultural development, food system modernisation, and socio-cultural relations, and conceptually outlines food anxiety as the book’s common lens. This lens proves central for understanding the ‘dangerous’ side of food as material matter and symbolic meaning. ‘Food anxiety’ uncovers the politico-economic context and the socio-cultural embeddedness of eating and the struggles of urban consumers and food producers with ambivalences around the security and quality of food, their bodily integrity and identity. From the perspective of critical development studies, this chapter opens up the following discussions around power and the inclusive and exclusive nature of food globalisations in local contexts.
Concluding Remarks: Anxiety as Invariant of Human Relation to Food
Authors: Poulain Jean-Pierre
Published: December 2018

The question of ‘risk’ in food safety has become particularly important, for scholars and more widely. The risk paradigm focuses attention on health and tends to reject other dimensions. But contemporary crises cannot be reduced to the question of food safety; they interact with food security, food fraud, and social controversies. The concept of ‘compressed modernity’ has been proposed to account for the fact that what Europe experienced in two centuries took place in a mere two generations in some Asian countries. This chapter uses the perspectives of risk and anxiety to focus on complementary dimensions of the relation of the human being to food, allowing for a better understanding of contemporary food crises, and creating the conditions for a more global analysis.
From Food Crisis to Agrarian Crisis? Food Security Strategy and Rural Livelihoods in Vietnam
Authors: Gorman Timothy
Published: December 2018

The global food crisis of 2007–2008 caused rice prices to skyrocket, raising fears among Vietnamese consumers and policymakers over long-term supplies of this key staple. In response, the Vietnamese government promulgated a new food security policy which promoted intensive rice agriculture and limited the cultivation of alternative crops. In this chapter, Gorman first explores how “food security” came to be defined by the Vietnamese state as the maximization of rice production, and then uses survey data to trace the impact of this output-oriented policy on rural communities. Drawing on critical theories of agrarian change, Gorman argues that this emphasis on rice monoculture has eroded the livelihoods of small farmers, driving many out of agriculture altogether and contributed to the concentration of land among large producers.
Holographic compact stars meet gravitational wave constraints
Authors: Annala Eemeli , Ecker Christian , Hoyos Carlos , Jokela Niko , Fernández David Rodríguez , Vuorinen Aleksi
Published: December 2018

Abstract

We investigate a simple holographic model for cold and dense deconfined QCD matter consisting of three quark flavors. Varying the single free parameter of the model and utilizing a Chiral Effective Theory equation of state (EoS) for nuclear matter, we find four different compact star solutions: traditional neutron stars, strange quark stars, as well as two non-standard solutions we refer to as hybrid stars of the second and third kind (HS2 and HS3). The HS2s are composed of a nuclear matter core and a crust made of stable strange quark matter, while the HS3s have both a quark mantle and a nuclear crust on top of a nuclear matter core. For all types of stars constructed, we determine not only their mass-radius relations, but also tidal deformabilities, Love numbers, as well as moments of inertia and the mass distribution. We find that there exists a range of parameter values in our model, for which the novel hybrid stars have properties in very good agreement with all existing bounds on the stationary properties of compact stars. In particular, the tidal deformabilities of these solutions are smaller than those of ordinary neutron stars of the same mass, implying that they provide an excellent fit to the recent gravitational wave data GW170817 of LIGO and Virgo. The assumptions underlying the viability of the different star types, in particular those corresponding to absolutely stable quark matter, are finally discussed at some length.
Power corrections for N-jettiness subtractions at $$ \mathcal{O}\left({\alpha}_s\right) $$
Authors: Ebert Markus A. , Moult Ian , Stewart Iain W. , Tackmann Frank J. , Vita Gherardo , Zhu Hua Xing
Published: December 2018

Abstract

We continue the study of power corrections for N -jettiness subtractions by analytically computing the complete next-to-leading power corrections at

$$ \mathcal{O}\left({\alpha}_s\right) $$

O

α
s

for colorsinglet production. This includes all nonlogarithmic terms and all partonic channels for Drell-Yan and gluon-fusion Higgs production. These terms are important to further improve the numerical performance of the subtractions, and to better understand the structure of power corrections beyond their leading logarithms, in particular their universality. We emphasize the importance of computing the power corrections differential in both the invariant mass, Q, and rapidity, Y, of the color-singlet system, which is necessary to account for the rapidity dependence in the subtractions. This also clarifies apparent disagreements in the literature. Performing a detailed numerical study, we find excellent agreement of our analytic results with a previous numerical extraction.
Dark matter in (partially) composite Higgs models
Authors: Alanne Tommi , Franzosi Diogo Buarque , Frandsen Mads T. , Rosenlyst Martin
Published: December 2018

Abstract

We construct composite and partially composite Higgs models with complex pseudo-Nambu-Goldstone (pNGB) dark matter states from four-dimensional gauge-Yukawa theories with strongly interacting fermions. The fermions are partially gauged under the electroweak symmetry, and the dynamical electroweak symmetry breaking sector is minimal.

The pNGB dark matter particle is stable due to a U(1) technibaryon-like symmetry, also present in the technicolor limit of the models. However, the relic density is particle anti-particle symmetric and due to thermal freeze-out as opposed to the technicolor limit where it is typically due to an asymmetry.

The pNGB Higgs is composite or partially composite depending on the origin of the Standard Model fermion masses, which impacts the dark matter phenomenology. We illustrate the important features with a model example invariant under an SU(4) × SU(2) × U(1) global symmetry.
Probing compressed dark sectors at 100 TeV in the dileptonic mono-Z channel
Authors: Mahbubani Rakhi , Zurita José
Published: December 2018

Abstract

We examine the sensitivity at a future 100 TeV proton-proton collider to compressed dark sectors whose decay products are invisible due to below-threshold energies and/or small couplings to the Standard Model. Such a scenario could be relevant to models of WIMP dark matter, where the lightest New Physics state is an (isolated) electroweak multiplet whose lowest component is stable on collider timescales. We rely on the additional emission of a hard on-shell Z-boson decaying to leptons, a channel with low background systematics, and include a careful estimate of the real and fake backgrounds to this process in our analysis. We show that an integrated luminosity of 30 ab−1 would allow exclusion of a TeV-scale compressed dark sector with inclusive production cross section 0.3 fb, for 1% background systematic uncertainty and splittings below 5 GeV. This translates to exclusion of a pure higgsino (wino) multiplet with mass of 500 (970) GeV.
R-current three-point functions in 4d $$ \mathcal{N} $$ = 1 superconformal theories
Authors: Manenti Andrea , Stergiou Andreas , Vichi Alessandro
Published: December 2018

Abstract

In 4d

$$ \mathcal{N} $$

N

= 1 superconformal field theories (SCFTs) the R-symmetry current, the stress-energy tensor, and the supersymmetry currents are grouped into a single object, the Ferrara-Zumino multiplet. In this work we study the most general form of three-point functions involving two Ferrara-Zumino multiplets and a third generic multiplet. We solve the constraints imposed by conservation in superspace and show that non-trivial solutions can only be found if the third multiplet is R-neutral and transforms in suitable Lorentz representations. In the process we give a prescription for counting independent tensor structures in superconformal three-point functions. Finally, we set the Grassmann coordinates of the Ferrara-Zumino multiplets to zero and extract all three-point functions involving two R-currents and a third conformal primary. Our results pave the way for bootstrapping the correlation function of four R-currents in 4d

$$ \mathcal{N} $$

N

= 1 SCFTs.