bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Assessing improvements in emergency department referrals to a hospital-based violence intervention program
Authors: Watkins Jayda , Scoggins Na’il , Cheaton Brooke M. , Nimmer Mark , Levas Michael N. , Baumer-Mouradian Shannon H. , Melzer-Lange Marlene D.
Published: September 2021

Background

Youth violence is a major public health concern in the United States. Hospital-based Violence Intervention Programs (HVIPs) are integral in connecting youth sustaining interpersonal violence-related injuries to medical, mental health, and social services. At our pediatric emergency department, our baseline referral rate to the established HVIP was 32.5%. From November 2018–2019, we aimed to increase the percent of eligible patients referred to our HVIP from 32.5 to 70% for patients aged 7–18 years who present to our Level 1 emergency department/trauma center with a violent injury.

Methods

For this quality improvement project, we recorded key aspects of the referral process, such as patient eligibility, who placed referrals, and when referrals were placed in relation to the ED admission. Key stakeholders were interviewed to identify specific interventions. Our key interventions were: 1. Educating providers on eligibility requirements. 2. Encouraging nurses to enter consults at the time of admission. 3. Publishing information about program referrals in the weekly nursing newsletter. 4. Updating social workers on eligibility requirements for the HVIP. We used PDSA cycles to inform our project. Our primary outcome measure was the number of eligible patients referred to our HVIP and measures were analyzed using statistical process control charts.

Results

The HVIP-eligible population had the following demographics: 31.1% female and a mean age 14.3 ± 2.7, 82.6% assaults and 17.4% gunshot wounds. From 11/2018 to 11/2019, there were 78 referrals to the HVIP, out of 167 eligible patients. The referral rate improved from 32.5% pre-interventions to 61.1% post-interventions, showing an 88% increase.

Conclusion(s)

We noted an increase in referrals to our HVIP following our interventions that centered on educating, advertising, and encouraging. Future studies will focus on analyzing other aspects of the enrollment process, such as obtaining patient consent.
Pediatric patients with dog bites presenting to US children’s hospitals
Authors: Ramgopal Sriram , Macy Michelle L.
Published: September 2021

Background

To characterize pediatric dog bite injuries presenting to US children’s hospitals and identify factors associated with clinically significant injuries.

Methods

We performed a multicenter observational study from 26 pediatric hospitals between July 1, 2010, and June 30, 2020, including patients ≤ 18 years with dog bites, consolidating together encounters from patients with multiple encounters within 30 days as a single episode of care. We characterized diagnoses and procedures performed in these patients. We used generalized linear mixed models to identify factors associated with a composite outcome that we term clinically significant injuries (defined as admission, operating room charge, sedation, fractures/dislocations, intracranial/eye injury, skin/soft tissue infection, or in-hospital mortality).

Results

68,833 episodes were included (median age 6.6 years [interquartile range 3.5–10.4 years], 55.5% male) from 67,781 patients. We identified 16,502 patients (24.0%) with clinically significant injuries, including 6653 (9.7%) admitted, 5080 (7.4%) managed in the operating room, 11,685 (17.0%) requiring sedation, 493 (0.7%) with a skull fracture, 32 (0.0%) with a fracture in the neck or trunk, 389 (0.6%) with a fracture of the upper limb, 51 (0.1%) with a fracture in the lower limb, 15 (0.0%) with dislocations, 66 (0.1%) with an intracranial injury and 164 (0.2%) with an injury to the eyeball, 3708 (5.4%) with skin/soft tissue infections, and 5 (0.0%) with in-hospital mortality. In multivariable analysis, younger age (0–4 years, 5–9 years, and 10–14 years relative to 15–18 years), weekday injuries, and an income in the second and third quartiles (relative to the lowest quartile) had higher odds of clinically significant injuries. Black patients (relative to White), Hispanic/Latino ethnicity, and private insurance status (relative to public insurance) had lower odds of clinically important injuries. When evaluating individual components within the composite outcome, most followed broader trends.

Conclusion

Dog bites are an important mechanism of injury encountered in children’s hospitals. Using a composite outcome measure, we identified younger, White, non-Hispanic children at higher risk of clinically significant injuries. Findings with respect to race and ethnicity and dog bite injuries warrant further investigation. Results can be used to identify populations for targeted prevention efforts to reduce severe dog bite injuries.
Understanding how retweets influence the behaviors of social networking service users via agent-based simulation
Authors: Yan Yizhou , Toriumi Fujio , Sugawara Toshiharu
Published: September 2021

The retweet is a characteristic mechanism of several social network services/social media, such as Facebook, Twitter, and Weibo. By retweeting tweet, users can share an article with their friends and followers. However, it is not clear how retweets affect the dominant behaviors of users. Therefore, this study investigates the impact of retweets on the behavior of social media users from the perspective of networked game theory, and how the existence of the retweet mechanism in social media promotes or reduces the willingness of users to post and comment on articles. To address these issues, we propose the retweet reward game model and quote tweet reward game model by adding the retweet and quote tweet mechanisms to a relatively simple social networking service model known as the reward game. Subsequently, we conduct simulation-based experiments to understand the influence of retweets on the user behavior on various networks. It is demonstrated that users will be more willing to post new articles with a retweet mechanism, and quote retweets are more beneficial to users, as users can expect to spread their information and their own comments on already posted articles.
Treatment of direct carotid-cavernous fistula with Willis covered stent with midterm follow-up
Authors: Liu Qinglin , Qi Changjing , Wang Yunyan , Su Wandong , Li Gang , Wang Donghai
Published: September 2021

Background

Willis covered stent is the first stent designed exclusively for intracranial vasculature, and its application in carotid-cavernous fistula is limited. The aim is to evaluate the feasibility and efficacy of this device in treating direct carotid-cavernous fistula.

Methods

Ten consecutive patients with direct carotid-cavernous fistula were treated in our institution with Willis covered stents from September 2013 to December 2015. The characteristics of these patients and the immediate and follow-up results were retrospectively reviewed.

Results

Of the 10 patients, 8 were treated for the first time, and 2 had been treated elsewhere. Willis covered stents were successfully released in 9 patients. Abnormal arteriovenous shunt disappeared in 6 cases immediately after stent deployment and endoleak occurred in 3 cases. Endoleak disappeared at 6-month angiography follow-up in one case and was sealed with coils through a pre-set microcatheter in another case. Parent artery was sacrificed as endoleak remained despite repeated balloon dilation and a second stent deployment in the third case. All patients got clinical follow-ups for at least 24 months and 7 patients received angiographic follow-up. Symptoms were relieved gradually in all cases except for slight oculomotor paralysis and visual acuity in one case, respectively. In-stent stenosis was found in 1 case, and no recurrence was observed.

Conclusions

Willis covered stent is feasible for direct carotid-cavernous fistula.
Grey-box modelling of lithium-ion batteries using neural ordinary differential equations
Authors: Brucker Jennifer , Bessler Wolfgang G. , Gasper Rainer
Published: September 2021

Grey-box modelling combines physical and data-driven models to benefit from their respective advantages. Neural ordinary differential equations (NODEs) offer new possibilities for grey-box modelling, as differential equations given by physical laws and neural networks can be combined in a single modelling framework. This simplifies the simulation and optimization and allows to consider irregularly-sampled data during training and evaluation of the model. We demonstrate this approach using two levels of model complexity; first, a simple parallel resistor-capacitor circuit; and second, an equivalent circuit model of a lithium-ion battery cell, where the change of the voltage drop over the resistor-capacitor circuit including its dependence on current and State-of-Charge is implemented as NODE. After training, both models show good agreement with analytical solutions respectively with experimental data.
Comparison of short-term electrical load forecasting methods for different building types
Authors: Groß Arne , Lenders Antonia , Schwenker Friedhelm , Braun Daniel A. , Fischer David
Published: September 2021

The transformation of the energy system towards volatile renewable generation, increases the need to manage decentralized flexibilities more efficiently. For this, precise forecasting of uncontrollable electrical load is key. Although there is an abundance of studies presenting innovative individual methods for load forecasting, comprehensive comparisons of popular methods are hard to come across.In this paper, eight methods for day-ahead forecasts of supermarket, school and residential electrical load on the level of individual buildings are compared. The compared algorithms came from machine learning and statistics and a median ensemble combining the individual forecasts was used.In our examination, nearly all the studied methods improved forecasting accuracy compared to the naïve seasonal benchmark approach. The forecast error could be reduced by up to 35% compared to the benchmark. From the individual methods, the neural networks achieved the best results for the school and supermarket buildings, whereas the k-nearest-neighbor regression had the lowest forecasting error for households. The median ensemble narrowly yielded a lower forecast error than all individual methods for the residential and school category and was only outperformed by a neural network for the supermarket data. However, this slight increase in performance came at the cost of a significantly increased computation time. Overall, identifying a single best method remains a challenge specific to the forecasting task.
Peak load minimization of an e-bus depot: impacts of user-set conditions in optimization algorithms
Authors: Toniato Enrico , Mehta Prakhar , Marinkovic Stevan , Tiefenbeck Verena
Published: September 2021

The transport sector is responsible for 25% of global CO2emissions. To reduce emissions in the EU, a shift from the currently 745,000 operating public buses to electric buses (EBs) is expected in the coming years. Large-scale deployments of EBs and the electrification of bus depots will have a considerable impact on the local electric grid, potentially creating network congestion problems and spikes in the local energy load. In this work, we implement an exact, offline, modular multi-variable mixed-integer linear optimization algorithm to minimize the daily power load profile peak and optimally plan an electric bus depot. The algorithm accepts a bus depot schedule as input, and depending on the user input on optimization conditions, accounts for varying time granularity, preemption of the charging phase, vehicle-to-grid (V2G) charging capabilities and varying fleet size. The primary objective of this work is the analysis of the impact of each of these input conditions on the resulting minimized peak load. The results show that our optimization algorithm can reduce peak load by 83% on average. Time granularity and V2G have the greatest impact on peak reduction, whereas preemption and fleet splitting have the greatest impact on the computational time but an insignificant impact on peak reduction. The results bear relevance for mobility planners to account for innovative fleet management options. Depot infrastructure costs can be minimized by optimally sizing the infrastructure needs, by relying on split-fleet management or V2G options.
Integrated planning of grids and energy conversion units in municipal multi-energy carrier systems
Authors: Hauk Christopher , Ulbig Andreas , Moser Albert
Published: September 2021

The ongoing energy transition requires the planning of low-emission municipal energy supply systems. These systems comprise distribution grids for electricity, gas, and heat, as well as energy conversion units such as heating systems. This paper presents a linear optimization model considering these elements in order to identify the cost-minimizing system design while achieving a given CO2 emission limit. The model is applied to an exemplary test case comprising 900 buildings. In order to increase scalability of the model to larger system sizes, the effect of reducing the spatial resolution on the optimization results is analyzed. The results show that the effect is small and that spatial aggregation is indeed a valid approach to reduce problem complexity and to allow significant speedups, reaching a factor of 200 for the given case study.
Towards reinforcement learning for vulnerability analysis in power-economic systems
Authors: Wolgast Thomas , Veith Eric MSP , Nieße Astrid
Published: September 2021

Future smart grids can and will be subject of systematic attacks that can result in monetary costs and reduced system stability. These attacks are not necessarily malicious, but can be economically motivated as well. Emerging flexibility markets are of interest here, because they can incite attacks if market design is flawed. The dimension and danger potential of such strategies is still unknown. Automatic analysis tools are required to systematically search for unknown strategies and their respective countermeasures. We propose deep reinforcement learning to learn attack strategies autonomously to identify underlying systemic vulnerabilities this way. As a proof-of-concept, we apply our approach to a reactive power market setting in a distribution grid. In the case study, the attacker learned to exploit the reactive power market by using controllable loads. That was done by systematically inducing constraint violations into the system and then providing countermeasures on the flexibility market to generate profit, thus finding a hitherto unknown attack strategy. As a weak-point, we identified the optimal power flow that was used for market clearing. Our general approach is applicable to detect unknown attack vectors, to analyze a specific power system regarding vulnerabilities, and to systematically evaluate potential countermeasures.
Quantifying geospatial interdependencies of ICT and power system based on open data
Authors: Volkova Anna , Terzer Jonas , de Meer Hermann
Published: September 2021

In order to evaluate the effectiveness of innovative services and technologies spanning over the ICT-enabled power system, realistic models are required. Although nowadays there is a wide range of power system data models, these models do not include a lifelike representation of the ICT system architecture and do not consider the level of interconnectedness of the two systems. In this paper, we propose a methodology for quantification of the geospatial relations between ICT and power system based on openly available data. We describe a graph-theoretic approach, formulate a problem of assessing geospatial relations and discuss the methods required to process publicly available data, retrieve scenarios for different regions and quantify the level of interdependence between ICT and power system.
Impact of Disease Evolution on Efficacy Outcomes From Larotrectinib in Patients With Locally Advanced or Metastatic Tropomyosin Receptor Kinase Fusion–Positive Solid Tumors
Authors: Bokemeyer Carsten , Vassal Gilles , Italiano Antoine , De La Cuesta Esther , Hiemeyer Florian , Fellous Marc , Marian Marisca
Published: September 2021

PURPOSE

Neurotrophic tyrosine receptor kinase ( NTRK) gene fusions encode oncogenic, chimeric tropomyosin receptor kinase (TRK) proteins. Larotrectinib, an approved TRK inhibitor, is efficacious in locally advanced or metastatic (adv/met) TRK fusion cancer. We evaluated the time from initial diagnosis to locally advanced or metastatic disease and to initiation of larotrectinib treatment as well as larotrectinib impact on disease course.

MATERIALS AND METHODS

Patients were grouped by prior lines of therapy (0, 1-2, and ≥ 3) and pre-larotrectinib duration of adv/met disease (short [< 3.5 months], medium [3.5 to < 15.7 months], and long [≥ 15.7 months]). Overall response rate (ORR), duration of response (DOR), and progression-free survival were assessed.

RESULTS

One hundred sixty-four patients were evaluated. The median time from initial diagnosis to development of locally adv/met stage was 2.1 months; the duration of pre-larotrectinib adv/met disease was 7.3 months (n = 153). In patients with 0, 1-2, and ≥ 3 prior lines of therapy, the median time from diagnosis to adv/met stage was 0.9, 1.2, and 9.4 months, and 1.5, 5.8, and 29.0 months from adv/met disease to larotrectinib initiation, respectively. Clinical outcomes were independent of line of therapy (ORR: 86%, 63%, and 80%, respectively; median DOR: 27.6, not reached, and 32.9 months), and similar across subgroups of short, medium, and long duration of pre-larotrectinib adv/met disease status (ORR: 88%, 65%, and 69%, respectively; median DOR: not reached, 27.6, and 32.9 months).

CONCLUSION

The short time from initial diagnosis to adv/met stage before larotrectinib suggests that NTRK gene fusion does not generally have a positive prognostic value. Patients on larotrectinib had high, sustained ORR, independent of number of prior therapies or duration of adv/met disease, suggesting that the effect of TRK inhibition in molecularly selected patients is independent of prior treatments or disease course.
Integrating 31-Gene Expression Profiling With Clinicopathologic Features to Optimize Cutaneous Melanoma Sentinel Lymph Node Metastasis Prediction
Authors: Whitman Eric D. , Koshenkov Vadim P. , Gastman Brian R. , Lewis Deri , Hsueh Eddy C. , Pak Ho , Trezona Thomas P. , Davidson Robert S. , McPhee Michael , Guenther J. Michael , Toomey Paul , Smith Franz O. , Beitsch Peter D. , Lewis James M. , Ward Andrew , Young Shawn E. , Shah Parth K. , Quick Ann P. , Martin Brian J. , Zolochevska Olga , Covington Kyle R. , Monzon Federico A. , Goldberg Matthew S. , Cook Robert W. , Fleming Martin D. , Hyams David M. , Vetto John T.
Published: September 2021

PURPOSE

National guidelines recommend sentinel lymph node biopsy (SLNB) be offered to patients with > 10% likelihood of sentinel lymph node (SLN) positivity. On the other hand, guidelines do not recommend SLNB for patients with T1a tumors without high-risk features who have < 5% likelihood of a positive SLN. However, the decision to perform SLNB is less certain for patients with higher-risk T1 melanomas in which a positive node is expected 5%-10% of the time. We hypothesized that integrating clinicopathologic features with the 31-gene expression profile (31-GEP) score using advanced artificial intelligence techniques would provide more precise SLN risk prediction.

METHODS

An integrated 31-GEP (i31-GEP) neural network algorithm incorporating clinicopathologic features with the continuous 31-GEP score was developed using a previously reported patient cohort (n = 1,398) and validated using an independent cohort (n = 1,674).

RESULTS

Compared with other covariates in the i31-GEP, the continuous 31-GEP score had the largest likelihood ratio (G2 = 91.3, P < .001) for predicting SLN positivity. The i31-GEP demonstrated high concordance between predicted and observed SLN positivity rates (linear regression slope = 0.999). The i31-GEP increased the percentage of patients with T1-T4 tumors predicted to have < 5% SLN-positive likelihood from 8.5% to 27.7% with a negative predictive value of 98%. Importantly, for patients with T1 tumors originally classified with a likelihood of SLN positivity of 5%-10%, the i31-GEP reclassified 63% of cases as having < 5% or > 10% likelihood of positive SLN, for a more precise, personalized, and clinically actionable SLN-positive likelihood estimate.

CONCLUSION

These data suggest the i31-GEP could reduce the number of SLNBs performed by identifying patients with likelihood under the 5% threshold for performance of SLNB and improve the yield of positive SLNBs by identifying patients more likely to have a positive SLNB.
The Ruse of Repair
Authors: Stuelke Patricia
Published: September 2021

Since the 1990s, literary and queer studies scholars have eschewed Marxist and Foucauldian critique and hailed the reparative mode of criticism as a more humane and humble way of approaching literature and culture. The reparative turn has traveled far beyond the academy, influencing how people imagine justice, solidarity, and social change. In The Ruse of Repair, Patricia Stuelke locates the reparative turn's hidden history in the failed struggle against US empire and neoliberal capitalism in the 1970s and 1980s. She shows how feminist, antiracist, and anti-imperialist liberation movements' visions of connection across difference, practices of self care, and other reparative modes of artistic and cultural production have unintentionally reinforced forms of neoliberal governance. At the same time, the US government and military, universities, and other institutions have appropriated and depoliticized these same techniques to sidestep addressing structural racism and imperialism in more substantive ways. In tracing the reparative turn's complicated and fraught genealogy, Stuelke questions reparative criticism's efficacy in ways that will prompt critics to reevaluate their own reading practices.
Removal efficacy of propolis/calcium hydroxide medicaments from the root canal
Authors: Ahmed Muhammad Adeel
Published: September 2021

Objective: To compare the removal efficacy of propolis and calcium hydroxide medicaments from the root canal using manual irrigation with sodium hypochlorite.

Methods: A randomized controlled trial was conducted at the Department of Restorative Dentistry and Endodontics, College of Dentistry, King Faisal University for two months. Thirty single-rooted upper or lower permanent anterior teeth with sound root and closed apex were selected. After cleaning and shaping of canal by protaper rotary, teeth were randomly divided into two groups. In group “A,” propolis paste was placed while calcium hydroxide was placed inside root canals in group “B,” followed by temporary restoration. After seven days, intracanal medicament was removed using 25 # K file and irrigated canal by 5 ml of 3.0% sodium hypochlorite. A final irrigation of 2-ml of 17% EDTA for three minutes followed by 1-ml of normal saline was performed. A diamond disc was used to cut the crowns of the teeth from cemento-enamel junction and divide the roots into two halves. These sectioned halves were then observed under a stereomicroscope at 7X magnification and analyzed using Adobe Photoshop. Magnetic lasso tool was used to calculate the percentage of residual medicament in the canals by comparing the pixel proportion of the medicament with the total pixel proportion of the canal. Paired t-test was used to see the difference in the number of remaining remnants between propolis and calcium hydroxide. A p-value of less than 0.5 was considered statistically significant.

Results: A statistically significant difference (p-value < 0.001) was observed in the percentage of remaining remnants between propolis (23.22%) and calcium hydroxide (38.58%) after thorough irrigation with sodium hypochlorite.

Conclusion: Propolis is superior to calcium hydroxide in terms of their removal potency from the root canal after thorough irrigation with sodium hypochlorite.

doi: https://doi.org/10.12669/pjms.37.7.4241

How to cite this:Ahmed MA. Removal efficacy of propolis/calcium hydroxide medicaments from the root canal. Pak J Med Sci. 2021;37(7):---------. doi: https://doi.org/10.12669/pjms.37.7.4241

This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
Role of topical beta blockers in regression of infantile capillary hemangioma
Authors: Junejo Murtaza Sameen , . Rebecca , Memon Maria Nazish , Shaikh Sajida Parveen
Published: September 2021

Objective: To observe efficacy of Timolol maleate 0.5% by topical and surface application in infantile superficial capillary hemangioma of eyelid.

Methods: This multi-centered clinical case series was carried out at Ophthalmology Department of Bilawal Medical College and Institute of Ophthalmology, LUMHS, Jamshoro from November 2019 to May 2020. We included 14 subjects. All the patients were subjected to detailed clinical examination. Before starting the topical beta blockers, the enrolled subjects had obtained the expert opinion by pediatrician to rule out any preexisting developmental cardio vascular disease. Topical beta blockers 0.5% drops were thus started with, against the ongoing finding of superficial capillary hemangioma of eyelid.

Results: There was significant regression in size of infantile hemangioma after treating with topical timolol maleate 0.5%. We included 14 subjects in this study. Mean±SD age of patients was 4.94. Complete regression was seen in 08 subjects at the end of 12 weeks (64%) while 03 were completely cured at 08 weeks (21%) and 01 patient lost follow up with us. No significant ocular and systemic side effects were noted.

Conclusion: Topical timolol maleate 0.5% can be the first-line treatment modality for superficial capillary hemangiomas due to its better safety and efficacy.

doi: https://doi.org/10.12669/pjms.37.7.4317

How to cite this:Junejo MS, Rebecca, Memon MN, Shaikh SP. Role of topical beta blockers in regression of infantile capillary hemangioma. Pak J Med Sci. 2021;37(7):---------. doi: https://doi.org/10.12669/pjms.37.7.4317

This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
Prediction of twin pregnancy preeclampsia based on clinical risk factors, early pregnancy serum markers, and uterine artery pulsatility index
Authors: Lu Yan , Ding Zhongying , Li Wenwen , Mei Lina , Shen Linglong , Shan Huaying
Published: September 2021

Objectives: To investigate whether a combination of clinical risk factors, early pregnancy serum markers, and uterine artery pulsatility index (UTPI) can be used to predict twin preeclampsia (PE).

Methods: This case control study included women with twin pregnancies who had undergone obstetrics treatments and gave birth at the Huzhou Maternity and Child Health Care Hospital from October 2018 to November 2020. Patients with PE comprised study group, and patients without PE comprised control group based on selection criteria and a 1:1 ratio. Statistical analysis was performed using clinical risk factors, early pregnancy serum markers, and UTPIs, and the area under the receiver operating curve (AUC. Sensitivity, and the specificity of different combinations of these variables were calculated to predict PE in women with twin pregnancy.

Results: Logistic regression analysis revealed four independent predictors for the onset of PE during twin pregnancies: first delivery (OR, 7.51; P=0.045), conception method (OR, 7.11; P=0.036), β-HCG level (per SD OR, 2.73; P=0.026), and UTPI (OR, 0.17; P=0.043). First-delivery and IVF pregnancy methods both lead to a 7-fold increase in the PE risk during twin pregnancies. Every one sigma (standard deviation) increase in the β-HCG level led to a 2.73-fold increase in the PE risk. Every UTPI increment by 1.0 reduces the risk of PE by 83%. The prediction efficiencies were based on an AUC of 0.837, a sensitivity of 69%, and a specificity of 92% for the clinical risk factors; an AUC of 0.800, a sensitivity of 81%, and specificity of 78% for the β-HCG level, and an AUC of 0.814, a sensitivity of 88%, and a specificity of 65% for the UTPI. AUC was 0.928, sensitivity 85%, and a specificity 88% after applying the three types of indicators together for prediction.

Conclusions: By combining early pregnancy serum markers (β-HCG), and UTPI, the predictive value for PE during twin pregnancy is improved together with its sensitivity and specificity.

doi: https://doi.org/10.12669/pjms.37.7.5041

How to cite this:Lu Y, Ding Z, Li W, Mei L, Shen L, Shan H. Prediction of twin pregnancy preeclampsia based on clinical risk factors, early pregnancy serum markers, and uterine artery pulsatility index. Pak J Med Sci. 2021;37(7):---------.  doi: https://doi.org/10.12669/pjms.37.7.5041

This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
To the Question About Pharmacological Protection During Irradiation in Non-infecting Doses: Maybe, Necessary? Part 1. General Overview of Medical-tactical and Phenomenological Aspects
Authors: Ivanchenko A. , Basharin V. , Drachev I. , Seleznev A. , Bushmanov A.
Published: September 2021

Purpose: Review of modern concepts of the biological effect of ionizing radiation in medium doses on a living organism and the consequences of radiation in order to assess the need for the use of drugs suitable for the purpose of modifying the effects; stimulation of discussion on the issue under consideration. Results: The conditions of origin and the list of possible radiation effects from irradiation at medium doses of the 0.1–1 Gy range were assessed, the scale and phenomenology of the consequences were assessed as a subject of modification by antiradiation agents. Conclusions: Pharmacological support (use of PLC) under conditions of short-term and prolonged irradiation with a low dose rate and in the dose range of 0.2–1 Gy seems to be necessary due to the reality of deterministic effects when the dose limits are exceeded (partly at the premorbid or preclinical level, with pronounced psychogenic reactions – components of the final state), as well as with the possibility of stochastic effects in excess of spontaneous ones, although, according to approximate estimates, with an insignificant frequency.
An Instrumental Variable Forest Approach for Detecting Heterogeneous Treatment Effects in Observational Studies
Authors: Wang Guihua , Li Jun , Hopp Wallace J.
Published: September 2021

This study addresses the ubiquitous challenge of using big observational data to identify heterogeneous treatment effects. This problem arises in precision medicine, targeted marketing, personalized education, and many other environments. Identifying heterogeneous treatment effects presents several analytical challenges including high dimensionality and endogeneity issues. We develop a new instrumental variable tree (IVT) approach that incorporates the instrumental variable method into a causal tree (CT) to correct for potential endogeneity biases that may exist in observational data. Our IVT approach partitions subjects into subgroups with similar treatment effects within subgroups and different treatment effects across subgroups. The estimated treatment effects are asymptotically consistent under a set of mild assumptions. Using simulated data, we show our approach has a better coverage rate and smaller mean-squared error than the conventional CT approach. We also demonstrate that an instrumental variable forest (IVF) constructed using IVTs has better accuracy and stratification than a generalized random forest. Finally, by applying the IVF approach to an empirical assessment of laparoscopic colectomy, we demonstrate the importance of accounting for endogeneity to make accurate comparisons of the heterogeneous effects of the treatment (teaching hospitals) and control (nonteaching hospitals) on different types of patients.

This paper was accepted by J. George Shanthikumar, big data analytics.
Does Analyst Coverage Affect Workplace Safety?
Authors: Bradley Daniel , Mao Connie X. , Zhang Chi
Published: September 2021

We find firms’ work-related injury rates are negatively associated with the level of analyst coverage. This result is also robust at the establishment level at which we find local analysts have a more profound impact than distant analysts. Cross-sectionally, our results are exacerbated in firms with weak internal governance mechanisms and in industries with low union representation. Finally, management is more likely to discuss safety issues during earnings conference calls in the presence of more analysts. Overall, our results suggest analysts play an effective external monitoring role and have a subtle yet important impact on employee welfare.

This paper was accepted by Brian Bushee, accounting.
Average Cost Brownian Drift Control with Proportional Changeover Costs
Authors: Vande Vate John H.
Published: September 2021

This paper considers the problem of optimally controlling the drift of a Brownian motion with a finite set of possible drift rates so as to minimize the long-run average cost, consisting of fixed costs for changing the drift rate, processing costs for maintaining the drift rate, holding costs on the state of the process, and costs for instantaneous controls to keep the process within a prescribed range. We show that, under mild assumptions on the processing costs and the fixed costs for changing the drift rate, there is a strongly ordered optimal policy, that is, an optimal policy that limits the use of each drift rate to a single interval; when the process reaches the upper limit of that interval, the policy either changes to the next lower drift rate deterministically or resorts to instantaneous controls to keep the process within the prescribed range, and when the process reaches the lower limit of the interval, the policy either changes to the next higher drift rate deterministically or again resorts to instantaneous controls to keep the process within the prescribed range. We prove the optimality of such a policy by constructing smooth relative value functions satisfying the associated simplified optimality criteria. This paper shows that, under the proportional changeover cost assumption, each drift rate is active in at most one contiguous range and that the transitions between drift rates are strongly ordered. The results reduce the complexity of proving the optimality of such a policy by proving the existence of optimal relative value functions that constitute a nondecreasing sequence of functions. As a consequence, the constructive arguments lead to a practical procedure for solving the problem that is tens of thousands of times faster than previously reported methods.
Convergence of a Distributed Kiefer-Wolfowitz Algorithm
Authors: Walrand Jean
Published: September 2021

This paper proposes a proof of the convergence of a distributed and asynchronous version of the Kiefer-Wolfowitz algorithm where the agents do not exchange information with one another.
Hypothyroid Crisis: Oral or Intravenous Treatment? A Report of Two Cases
Authors: Gadaen Rens , Tummers - de Lind van Wijngaarden Roderick
Published: September 2021

Background: Hypothyroid crisis, or myxoedema coma, is a rare condition with high mortality and must be treated promptly. Even though it may be unfavourable, most guidelines only focus on intravenous drug administration due to lack of data on oral treatment. Methods/Results: The course of oral treatment in two patients admitted in our hospital is described. Patients were treated with levothyroxine 1.3 µg/kg and liothyronine 25 µg twice daily, followed after 1 week with only levothyroxine 1.3 µg/kg daily. Oral treatment was successful in both patients without complications or side-effects. Conclusions: Oral substitution is an appropriate alternative to intravenous substitution, which has potential disadvantages and is associated with higher mortality.
Tips on improving your Applied Optics manuscript: editorial
Authors: Florea Catalin
Published: September 2021

Topical Editor Catalin Florea shares how to focus the abstract and
introduction of a manuscript to convey significance.
Quality factor of partially coherent Airy beams in a turbulent atmosphere
Authors: Wen Wei , Mi Xianwu , Xiang Shaohua
Published: September 2021

The quality factor of a partially coherent Airy beam in a turbulent atmosphere is investigated with the help of the extended Huygens–Fresnel integral formula and the Wigner distribution. From the numerical results, based on the analytical formula, we find that increasing the inner scale or decreasing the structure constant of the refractive index fluctuations of the turbulent atmosphere tends to decrease the quality factor of a partially coherent Airy beam in a turbulent atmosphere. Moreover, it is found that increasing the scale factor and wavelength or decreasing the coherent length of a partially coherent Airy beam can also be used to decrease the quality factor of a partially coherent Airy beam in a turbulent atmosphere. However, the quality factor of a partially coherent Airy beam in a turbulent atmosphere has a maximum when the exponential truncation factor of a partially coherent Airy beam is 0.63. Our results will be useful in long-distance free-space optical communications and laser defense.
Occlusion disparity refinement for stereo matching through the geometric prior-based adaptive label search
Authors: Wang Junwei , Zhou Wei , Qian Ziheng , Shen Jiaqi , Guo Hanming
Published: September 2021

In stereo matching, occlusion disparity refinement is one of the challenges when attempting to improve disparity accuracy. In order to refine the disparity in occluded regions, a geometric prior guided adaptive label search method and sequential disparity filling strategy are proposed. In our method, considering the scene structural correlation between pixels, the geometric prior information such as image patch similarity, matching distance, and disparity constraint is used in the proposed label search energy function and the disparity labels are searched by superpixel matching. Thus, the reliable disparity labels are adaptively searched and propagated for occlusion filling. In order to improve the accuracy in large occluded regions, by using the proposed sequential filling strategy, occluded regions are decomposed into multiple blocks and filled in multiple steps from the periphery; thus, reliable labels are iteratively propagated to the interior of occluded regions without violating the smooth disparity assumption. Experimental results on the Middlebury V3 benchmark show that, compared with other state-of-the-art algorithms, the proposed method achieves better disparity results under multiple criteria. The proposed method can provide better disparity refinement for typical stereo matching algorithms.
Time-ordering effects in a one-atom laser based on electromagnetically induced transparency
Authors: Horoshko Dmitri B. , Yu Chang-Shui , Kilin Sergei Ya.
Published: September 2021

The one-atom laser based on electromagnetically induced transparency, suggested recently [Phys. Rev. Lett. 124, 093603 (2020)PRLTAO0031-900710.1103/PhysRevLett.124.093603], is capable of generating Schrödinger cat states in the regime of strong ground-state coupling. In this regime, we find the exact solution for the Schrödinger equation with a time-dependent effective Hamiltonian by considering the Magnus expansion of the time-ordered exponential and calculating analytically the time-ordering terms, omitted in the previous study. We show that the time-ordering term affects the relative phase of two coherent components of the generated Schrödinger cat state. We show this influence by calculating various nonclassicality indicators for the cavity field, such as total noise, average parity, and relative total noise. We find that time-ordering becomes important at the average photon number in the cavity below 1, in striking contrast to the case of single-pass parametric downconversion, where it becomes important at average photon number in one optical mode above 4.
Chiral and multiple one-way surface states on photonic gyroelectric metamaterials with small Chern number
Authors: Han Ning , Liu Jianlong , Gao Yang , Zhou Keya , Liu Shutian
Published: September 2021

Topological one-way surface states allow light to pass through sharp corners without reflection. In order to enhance the capability of surface routing devices, multiple one-way surface modes are usually required. Different from previously reported multiple surface modes achieved with large Chern number photonic media, we realize multiple surface waves on a continuous medium with small Chern number, i.e., |C| = 1. The new topological phase is found when the hyperbolic and double semi-ellipsoid-like cone bands are simultaneously gapped by vacuum state. We also find the degeneracy of multiple one-way surface waves in the double semi-ellipsoid-like metamaterials. The propagation direction of the waves is determined by their own ellipticities. Our results may help to construct surface state devices with multiplexing capability and higher coupling efficiency.
Tunable broadband near-infrared luminescence in glass realized by defect-engineering
Authors: Tan Linling , Lin Changgui , Peng Mingying , Yue Yuanzheng
Published: September 2021

Tunable broadband near-infrared (NIR)-luminescent materials play a crucial role as light sources and tunable fiber lasers in modern technologies such as high-capacity telecommunication, imaging, and remote sensing. Despite considerable effort in studying the luminescent materials doped with rare-earth or transition metal ions, it is still challenging to achieve tunable broadband emission in photonic materials, especially in glasses, for active-fiber applications. In the present work, such NIR emission is achieved by modifying oxygen-deficient structural defects (i.e., singly ionized oxygen vacancies (

V

O

∙

) in tellurium (Te)-doped germanate glass). The local glass chemistry around Te is controlled by engineering singly ionized oxygen vacancies (

V

O

∙

) in alkali-alumino-germanate glass. This enables fine-tuning of the configurations and chemical states of Te centers over a wide range of chemical states, from ionic states to neutrally charged clusters and to positively charged clusters, resulting in various intriguing luminescent behaviors (e.g., wavelength-tunable emission, great emission enhancement, bandwidth extension).
Omnidirectional photonic bandgap in one-dimensional photonic crystals containing hyperbolic metamaterials
Authors: Lu Guang , Zhou Xiachen , Zhao Yunpeng , Zhang Kaiyuan , Zhou Haiyang , Li Junyang , Diao Chao , Liu Fen , Wu Ailing , Du Guiqiang
Published: September 2021

We theoretically and experimentally investigate the angle-dependent omnidirectional photonic bandgap (PBG) in one-dimensional photonic crystals (PCs) comprising hyperbolic metamaterials (HMMs) for TM polarization, which is different from blue-shifted PBG in conventional all-dielectric photonic crystals. The frequency range of PBG increases when the incident angles increase, owing to the red-shift and blue-shift of the long-wavelength and short-wavelength band edges, respectively. The red-shifted band edge originates from the phase-variation compensation mechanism between the HMMs and dielectric material. The experimental values are in good agreement with the simulation results. These nanostructures are ideal for fabricating photonic devices such as omnidirectional reflectors.
On-chip photonic diffractive optical neural network based on a spatial domain electromagnetic propagation model
Authors: Fu Tingzhao , Zang Yubin , Huang Honghao , Du Zhenmin , Hu Chengyang , Chen Minghua , Yang Sigang , Chen Hongwei
Published: September 2021

An integrated physical diffractive optical neural network (DONN) is proposed based on a standard silicon-on-insulator (SOI) substrate. This DONN has compact structure and can realize the function of machine learning with whole-passive fully-optical manners. The DONN structure is designed by the spatial domain electromagnetic propagation model, and the approximate process of the neuron value mapping is optimized well to guarantee the consistence between the pre-trained neuron value and the SOI integration implementation. This model can better ensure the manufacturability and the scale of the on-chip neural network, which can be used to guide the design and manufacturing of the real chip. The performance of our DONN is numerically demonstrated on the prototypical machine learning task of prediction of coronary heart disease from the UCI Heart Disease Dataset, and accuracy comparable to the state-of-the-art is achieved.
Sub-Nyquist optical pulse sampling for photonic blind source separation
Authors: Shi Taichu , Qi Yang , Zhang Weipeng , Prucnal Paul , Li Jie , Wu Ben
Published: September 2021

We propose and experimentally demonstrate an optical pulse sampling method for photonic blind source separation. The photonic system processes and separates wideband signals based on the statistical information of the mixed signals, and thus the sampling frequency can be orders of magnitude lower than the bandwidth of the signals. The ultra-fast optical pulses collect samples of the signals at very low sampling rates, and each sample is short enough to maintain the statistical properties of the signals. The low sampling frequency reduces the workloads of the analog to digital conversion and digital signal processing systems. In the meantime, the short pulse sampling maintains the accuracy of the sampled signals, so the statistical properties of the under-sampled signals are the same as the statistical properties of the original signals. The linear power range measurement shows that the sampling system with ultra-narrow optical pulse achieves a 30dB power dynamic range.
Interference fringes in a nonlinear Michelson interferometer based on spontaneous parametric down-conversion
Authors: Yang Chen , Zhou Zhi-Yuan , Wang Liu-Long , Li Yan , Liu Shi-Kai , Ge Zheng , Zhang Xiao-Chun , Tang Qing , Guo Guang-Can , Shi Bao-Sen
Published: September 2021

Quantum nonlinear interferometers (QNIs) can measure the infrared physical quantities of a sample by detecting visible photons. A QNI with Michelson geometry based on the spontaneous parametric down-conversion in a second-order nonlinear crystal is studied systematically. A simplified theoretical model of the QNI is presented. The interference visibility, coherence length, equal-inclination interference, and equal-thickness interference for the QNI are demonstrated theoretically and experimentally. As an application example of the QNI, the refractive index and the angle between two surfaces of a BBO crystal are measured using equal-inclination interference and equal-thickness interference.
Time-coding spread-spectrum reconfigurable intelligent surface for secure wireless communication: theory and experiment
Authors: Wang Xiaoyi , Yang Guo-Min
Published: September 2021

We present a time-coding reconfigurable intelligent surface (RIS) enabled spread-spectrum secure wireless communication system. The time-coding spread-spectrum RIS is realized by altering the RIS between the two states of a perfect electrical conductor (PEC) and perfect magnetic conductor (PMC), according to a pseudo-random time sequence, respectively. This spectrum spreading function of the time-coding RIS can be simply applied to the secure wireless communication systems, providing a low-cost, easy-implementation encrypting architecture with the two key features of interception prevention and interference suppression. These two features together with the overall spread-spectrum secure wireless communication system are demonstrated by both theoretical analysis and experimental results using a designed 8 × 8 time-coding RIS.