bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Budd-Chiari Syndrome and Acute Liver Failure: An Uncommon Presentation of Acute Myeloid Leukaemia
Authors: Costa Ana Rita Gonçalves , Freitas Inês , Raposo Joana , Barbosa Gustavo , Miranda Helena P. , Nery Filipe
Published: May 2020

Acute liver failure (ALF) is a rare entity, particularly in the context of Budd-Chiari syndrome (BCS). BCS is an uncommon disorder with multiple risk factors, most commonly myeloproliferative disorders. In BCS, active search and exclusion of underlying malignancy is mandatory, particularly in the context of ALF, as it may contraindicate liver transplantation (LT). We present the case of a healthy 29-year-old male, without known risk factors for liver disease, who presented to the emergency department with abdominal pain, ascites, and jaundice. BCS with consequent severe acute liver injury with rapid progression to ALF was diagnosed. The patient was listed for LT. The study of peripheral blood finally revealed myeloid blasts, and flow cytometry showed a population of blast cells with abnormal immunophenotypic profile (CD33+ and myeloperoxidase, MPO+). The bone marrow biopsy showed morphological and immunophenotypic aspects of acute myeloid leukaemia (AML) FAB M1. This diagnosis was considered a formal contraindication to LT, so the patient was delisted. ALF contraindicated rescue chemotherapy and AML contraindicated LT. The patient died 48 h after ICU admission. The search for underlying neoplasia is mandatory in the context of BCS, moreover with associated ALF, as it may limit lifesaving treatments and interventions to supportive and palliative care.
A estrutura de áreas verdes urbanas como indicador de qualidade ambiental e sua importância para a diversidade de aves na cidade de Campo Grande, Mato Grosso do Sul
Authors: Oppliger Emilia Alibio , Fontoura Fernanda Mussi , Oliveira Ademir Kleber Morbeck de , Toledo Maria Cecília Barbosa de , Silva Mauro Henrique Soares da , Guedes Neiva Maria Robaldo
Published: May 2020

A maior biodiversidade em ambientes urbanos propicia menor vulnerabilidade aos problemas normalmente encontrados nestes contextos, como a poluição, assim, a conservação dos recursos naturais relaciona-se à melhor qualidade de vida da população. A partir disso, objetivou-se analisar a estrutura vegetacional em três áreas verdes urbanas e sua importância para a manutenção da avifauna em Campo Grande, MS. Os elementos considerados foram tamanho, utilização, entorno, estrutura da vegetação e os corpos hídricos para comparar riqueza e frequência de ocorrência das espécies de aves. Através de levantamento qualitativo, foram registradas 107 espécies de aves nas áreas estudadas. As aves encontradas com maior frequência absoluta de ocorrência foram Patagioenas picazuro e Ara ararauna. A área de vida de 89% das aves não se configura como ‘áreas alteradas’, indicando que a cidade, atualmente, apresenta boas condições ambientais.
Accuracy of Nonexercise Prediction Equations for Assessing Longitudinal Changes to Cardiorespiratory Fitness in Apparently Healthy Adults: BALL ST Cohort
Authors: Peterman James E. , Harber Matthew P. , Imboden Mary T. , Whaley Mitchell H. , Fleenor Bradley S. , Myers Jonathan , Arena Ross , Finch W. Holmes , Kaminsky Leonard A.
Published: May 2020

Background

Repeated assessment of cardiorespiratory fitness (
CRF
) improves mortality risk predictions in apparently healthy adults. Accordingly, the American Heart Association suggests routine clinical assessment of
CRF
using, at a minimum, nonexercise prediction equations. However, the accuracy of nonexercise prediction equations over time is unknown. Therefore, we compared the ability of nonexercise prediction equations to detect changes in directly measured
CRF
.

Methods and Results

The sample included 987 apparently healthy adults from the BALL ST (Ball State Adult Fitness Longitudinal Lifestyle Study) cohort (33% women; average age, 43.1±10.4 years) who completed 2 cardiopulmonary exercise tests ≥3 months apart (3.2±5.4 years of follow‐up). The change in estimated
CRF
(
eCRF
) from 27 distinct nonexercise prediction equations was compared with the change in directly measured
CRF
. Analysis included Pearson product moment correlations,
SEE
values, intraclass correlation coefficient values, Cohen's κ coefficients, γ coefficients, and the Benjamini‐Hochberg procedure to compare
eCRF
with directly measured
CRF
. The change in
eCRF
from 26 of 27 equations was significantly associated to the change in directly measured
CRF
(
P
<0.001), with intraclass correlation coefficient values ranging from 0.06 to 0.63. For 16 of the 27 equations, the change in
eCRF
was significantly different from the change in directly measured
CRF
. The median percentage of participants correctly classified as having increased, decreased, or no change in
CRF
was 56% (range, 39%–61%).

Conclusions

Variability was observed in the accuracy between nonexercise prediction equations and the ability of equations to detect changes in
CRF
. Considering the appreciable error that prediction equations had with detecting even directional changes in
CRF
, these results suggest
eCRF
may have limited clinical utility.
Moving from MPAs to Area-based Management Measures in the South China Sea
Authors: Lyons Youna , Beckman Robert , Choub Loke Ming , Huang Danwei
Published: May 2020

Evolution of the marine protected area discourse into an area-based management tool may provide an avenue for a more progressive approach to protection of the Spratly seamounts. A first step could be the recognition of the Spratlys as an ecologically or biologically significant area (EBSA) under the Convention on Biological Diversity. This purely scientific recognition exercise would be without prejudice to the sovereignty, sovereign rights and jurisdiction of coastal States or State claiming sovereignty over the islands. Furthermore, it is up to the States concerned to later agree on specific restriction on activities in these areas as deemed necessary. This article shows that there are sufficient published data to justify that the Spratly seamounts meet the scientific criteria of an EBSA. However, it also proposes areas that may be prioritised on the basis of distinctive species composition of reef-building corals in the South China Sea.
Religious Volunteer Visitors in the Penal Context of Hong Kong
Authors: Brandner Tobias
Published: May 2020

Religious faith plays a crucial role in the life of people in penal custody. Research generally focuses on the impact of religion on inmates’ rehabilitation. Studies on volunteers in prison receive scholarly attention but largely in regard to how they affect inmates. This study focuses on Christian visitors in prison and their motives, goals, and experiences. The study evaluates the responses of 152 Christian volunteer visitors around prisons in Hong Kong. The study shows that majority of them are at a time of their life when they are most strongly occupied by work and familial obligations and yet they take time off to visit people in prison. It offers evidence how visits to those in prison contribute to visitors’ own spiritual learning and to a changed view of those in prison. The findings of the study indicate that volunteers see themselves as active agents who help, teach, and transform.
Belt-and-Road Buddhists
Authors: Borchert Thomas
Published: May 2020

Although religious institutions and communities have grown significantly in China since the early 1980s, the recent past has seen difficult conditions for the practice of religion, with increased surveillance and oppressive acts by the Chinese government. Changes to government policies and priorities make it difficult to generalize about the conditions of religious practice over the course of the Reform period. This paper examines the monastic institutions of the Dai-lue people of Sipsongpannā (Xishuangbanna 西双版纳) in Yunnan province. The Dai-lue are a minority group that practices Theravada Buddhism. Their religious institutions have expanded significantly in the last four decades, but they have done so in the midst of radical change in the economic and governing structures of the region. The paper looks at this development both across the forty years of the Reform era, and in the context of a promotion and international conference sponsored by the sangha of Sipsongpannā. I argue that the changes to the monastic institutions of the Dai-lue need to be seen in light of changes to “religion-making from above,” the policies, rules, and structures that the Chinese state establishes to manage religious communities, as well as “religion-making from below,” the responses of the Dai-lue to these changes.
Intramuscular Corticosteroids for Acute Upper Respiratory Infections Affects Healthcare Utilization
Authors: Parsel Sean M , Mohammed Alaa E , Fort Daniel , Barton Blair M , McCoul Edward D
Published: May 2020

Objective:

To examine the use of intramuscular corticosteroid (IMCS) injections for treatment of acute upper respiratory infections (URI) and the influence on healthcare utilization.

Methods:

This retrospective cohort study used patient encounter data from a large multicenter regional health care system between 2013 and 2017. Adult patients diagnosed with acute URI (acute pharyngitis, acute sinusitis, acute otitis media, and URI not otherwise specified) during ambulatory encounters were included. Follow-up encounters for a diagnosis of acute URI within 60 days were identified and patient characteristics, encounter details, and procedure codes were retrieved. Frequency data was used to calculate IMCS injection administration prevalence, utilization trends, and associations with covariates. Follow-up data for return encounters within 60 days for the same diagnosis was examined.

Results:

Of the 153 848 initial encounters, 34 600 (22.5%) patients received IMCS injection for acute URI. Injection rates varied from 0.85% to 49.1% depending on specialty and practitioner type. Internal medicine, family medicine, urgent care, and otorhinolaryngology clinics most commonly administered IMCS. 3788 patients returned for a second encounter of which 751 (19.8%) received an injection. IMCS injection during the first encounter was associated with increased odds of repeat visit within 60 days (OR: 1.74; 95% CI: 1.61–1.88).

Conclusion:

IMCS use in the treatment of acute URI is highly prevalent despite lack of evidence for impact and safety. Prevalence is variable across multiple medical and surgical specialties including otorhinolaryngology. Administration of IMCS injection may contribute to the likelihood of a subsequent healthcare visit for the same indication.
Incentives for Organizational Participation: A Recruitment Experiment in Mexico
Authors: Palmer-Rubin Brian , Garay Candelaria , Poertner Mathias
Published: May 2020

While the presence of a strong civil society is recognized as desirable for democracies, an important question is what motivates citizens to join organizations. This article presents novel experimental evidence on the conditions under which citizens join interest organizations. We presented 1,400 citizens in two Mexican states with fliers promoting a new local interest organization. These fliers contain one of four randomly selected recruitment appeals. We find evidence that both brokerage of state patronage and demand-making for local public goods are effective recruitment appeals. The effect for patronage brokerage is especially pronounced among respondents with prior organizational contact, supporting our hypothesis of a “particularistic socialization” effect wherein organizational experience is associated with greater response to selective material benefits. Our findings suggest that under some conditions, rather than generating norms of other-regarding, interest organizations can reinforce members’ individualistic tendencies.
Backstepping controller for laser ray tracking of a target mobile robot
Authors: Ling Yun , Wu Jian , Lyu ZhanQiang , Xiong Pengwen
Published: May 2020

Tracking control, which is applied to the target mobile robots in the process of rushing toward the trainees, is one of the critical technologies in the advancement of anti-terrorist training. Considering the disadvantages of various types of traditional tracking methods, this paper proposes a novel laser ray tracking mechanism and a backstepping controller for the target mobile robot that is used in shooting ranges. The mechanism and principle of the laser ray tracking is illustrated in detail. Based on the unique structure, the light intensity distributions are measured to further locate the laser spots on the cut-ray boards. Then, the relationship between the positions of the laser spots on the cut-ray boards and the pose of the target mobile robot is demonstrated. According to the features of the tracking situation, a backstepping controller is designed to achieve the laser ray tracking. After that, the inverse kinematics of the wheeled skid-steering mobile robot is analyzed to map the linear and angular velocities of the robot to the velocities of its left wheels and right wheels. The conventional proportional–integral–derivative controller is applied in the experiments to compare with the proposed backstepping controller. The experimental results show that the proposed controller is more robust, and converges faster for the laser ray tracking.
Fatigue life estimation of fixed-wing unmanned aerial vehicle engine by grey forecasting
Authors: Muhammad Noor , Fang Zhigeng , Cao Yingsai
Published: May 2020

To avoid infrared or thermal signatures of the fixed-wing unmanned aerial vehicle, the engine is encapsulated in a special cowling that limits the ventilation and causes thermal stress. The stressed condition heats up the engine and accelerates the degradation process compromising life and causing early failure. Fatigue life estimation can help to predict and prevent sudden failure and improve safety and reliability. The study presents a grey forecasting methodology for estimating the fatigue life of fixed-wing unmanned aerial vehicle engines operating under a stressed environment. Grey forecasting models are used for fatigue life estimation of the unmanned aerial vehicle engine using degradation data of output power for reliable flight hours (50 h). The result of grey forecasting models reveals that under normal operation, engine power drops to a threshold value of 9.4 kW (below this engine does not remain flight worthy) after 100 h. The forecasted life is in close agreement with the specification of the engine under normal operating conditions. This validates the accuracy of forecasting models. Furthermore, the forecast models are applied to estimate the fatigue life using degradation data in a stressed environment, which comes out to be 70 h. The study proposes application of grey forecasting to predict mechanical degradation and early failures by considering single or multiple parameters undergoing degradation and having limited data samples. Forecasting results are compared with other prediction tools like autoregressive–moving-average and found more accurate which shows the significance of grey forecasting models in a limited data sample environment. The results are also compared with exponential regression and found in close agreement but more robust.
An error-based active disturbance rejection control with memory structure
Authors: Chen Sen , Chen Zhixiang , Zhao Zhiliang
Published: May 2020

The paper studies the control problem for nonlinear uncertain systems with the situation that only the current reference signal is available. By constructing a memory structure to save the previous reference signals, a novel error-based active disturbance rejection control with an approximation for the second-order derivative of reference signal is proposed. The transient performance of the proposed method is rigorously studied, which implies the high consistence of the closed-loop system. More importantly, to attain the satisfactory tracking performance, the necessary condition for nominal control input gain is quantitatively investigated. Furthermore, the superiority of the proposed method is illuminated by contrastively evaluating the sizes of the total disturbance and its derivative. The proposed method can alleviate the burden of the estimation and compensation for total disturbance. Finally, the experiment for a manipulator platform shows the effectiveness of the proposed method.
Automatic detection of petiole border in plant leaves
Authors: Elen Abdullah , Avuçlu Emre
Published: May 2020

Plants are our source of oxygen and nutrients on earth. Therefore, conservation of biodiversity is vital for the survival of other species. With the developing technology, plant species can be examined more closely. Image processing, which is a subject of computer science, has an important role in this field. In this study, an image processing–based method has been developed to automatically separate the petiole region of the plant leaves. To determine the boundary line of the petiole region, the cumulative pixel distributions of the input images in binary format according to the X- and Y-axis are analyzed. Accordingly, optimum thresholds and petiole boundary points are determined. The proposed method was tested on 795 leaf images from 90 different plant species that grow both as trees and shrubs in the Czech Republic. According to the results obtained in experimental studies, it is thought that the proposed method will make an important contribution especially in studies such as automatic classification of plants and leaves and determination of plant species in botanical science.
Angular velocity fusion of the microelectromechanical system inertial measurement unit array based on extended Kalman filter with correlated system noises
Authors: Xing Li , Tu Xiaowei , Qian Weixing , Jin Yang , Qi Pei
Published: May 2020

The paper proposes an angular velocity fusion method of the microelectromechanical system inertial measurement unit array based on the extended Kalman filter with correlated system noises. In the proposed method, an adaptive model of the angular velocity is built according to the motion characteristics of the vehicles and it is regarded as the state equation to estimate the angular velocity. The signal model of gyroscopes and accelerometers in the microelectromechanical system inertial measurement unit array is used as the measurement equation to fuse and estimate the angular velocity. Due to the correlation of the state and measurement noises in the presented fusion model, the traditional extended Kalman filter equations are optimized, so as to accurately and reliably estimate the angular velocity. By simulating angular rates in different motion modes, such as constant and change-in-time angular rates, it is verified that the proposed method can reliably estimate angular rates, even when the angular rate has been out of the microelectromechanical system gyroscope measurement range. And results show that, compared with the traditional angular rate fusion method of microelectromechanical system inertial measurement unit array, it can estimate angular rates more accurately. Moreover, in the kinematic vehicle experiments, the performance advantage of the proposed method is also verified and the angular rate estimation accuracy can be increased by about 1.5 times compared to the traditional method.
Improved gravity model under policy control in regional logistics
Authors: Wang Hongchun , Li Mengyao
Published: May 2020

Regional logistics has become an important direction of logistics development. The rationality of regional logistics network layout will affect the regional development. And the measurement and calculation of node gravity is an important aspect affecting the layout of logistics network. Nowadays, the traditional gravity model cannot measure the condition of a network properly. This paper focuses on the nodal gravity measurement in the logistics network and constructs an improved gravity model considering the role of policy. Quantifying the policy factors makes the measurement more realistic. We test our model on a famous regional logistics network in China. Result shows that cities are greatly influenced by policies, which change the node gravity obviously and even change the gravity level of logistics. This paper shows that the traditional gravity model ignores the impact of policy quantification on logistics gravity, and the improved gravity model that proposed in this paper has more practical significance.
Efficient neural learning control of nonlinear dynamics with applications
Authors: Liu Ruixin , Huang Xiaogang , Liu Chunning , Liu Fucheng
Published: May 2020

The control of nonlinear dynamics is gaining increasing attention since many practical systems are with such kind of characteristics. To deal with the system uncertainty, in this paper, the efficient learning control using neural network is proposed for the nonlinear strict-feedback system. The whole scheme is with the back-stepping design, while the novel learning is proposed for the neural network weights update. To deal with the approximation error, the robust item is added. The stability of the closed-loop dynamics is analysed and the effectiveness of the design is verified through flight simulation.
U.S. Empire and an Immigrant’s Counternarrative: Conceptualizing Imperial Privilege
Authors: Chávez-Moreno Laura C.
Published: May 2020

U.S. teacher education has largely overlooked a sociopolitical-historical context that affects both immigrants and nonimmigrants: American empire. To address the pressing need for teacher education to acknowledge U.S. imperialism, the author stages an argument in three parts. First, she argues that the field should account for empire and its impact on immigrants, and suggests conceptualizing immigrants within a nuanced framework of white supremacy. Next, she relates her own immigrant counternarrative to expose masternarratives that operate against immigrants. By sharing her journey toward understanding imperialism and her own positionality, she also contributes an immigrant perspective to the field. Third, the author introduces the concept of imperial privilege, inviting the field to recognize and challenge masternarratives. The author concludes by inviting readers to historicize U.S. imperialism in their research and practice, and thus embrace more humanizing narratives. While the argument focuses on the United States, it also applies broadly to other high-income imperialist countries.
The Politics of Inclusion and Exclusion: Chinese Dual-Pension Regimes in the Era of Labor Migration and Labor Informalization
Authors: Yang Yujeong
Published: May 2020

Why do some Chinese local governments include informal workers in their welfare systems while others exclude them? This article argues that local officials attempt to balance multiple, conflicting, top-down career-evaluation criteria by developing different inclusion mechanisms. The central mandate to build an inclusive welfare regime incentivizes local officials to embrace welfare “outsiders” (informal workers and nonlocal workers). However, other top-down policy goals and the locally defined citizenship ( hukou) system disincentivize the full integration of outsiders. Faced with this political dilemma, local officials have strategically incorporated different types of outsiders into their welfare regimes. Their strategies depend on local labor market structures—specifically, the extent to which informal workers overlap with nonlocal workers. This hypothesis is tested using an original data set derived from thirty-one Chinese provinces, covering the period between 2005 and 2015, as well as two rounds of national-level survey data. Findings suggest that recent Chinese welfare expansion has ironically consolidated, even exacerbated, regional inequality.
Transportation-oriented spatial allocation of land use development: a simulation-based optimization method
Authors: Lin Hongzhi , Zhang Yongping
Published: May 2020

Urban development usually deteriorates the transportation system. For sustainable urban development, policymakers often face the challenging problem of how to optimally allocate overall land use quotas across a number of residential locations according to the performance of the transportation system. This is a kind of Stackelberg competition, where policymakers make land use decisions and travelers make behavioral responses. A novel bi-level model is formulated to solve this problem. The upper-level model minimizes the total system travel time by land use allocation, while at the lower level are sequential models with feedback for transportation system equilibrium. The Dirichlet allocation algorithm, a simulation-based heuristic algorithm, is designed to solve this bi-level model. A simulation experiment using the Nguyen–Dupuis network is then used to verify the proposed model and algorithm. The results from the simulation experiment demonstrate that not only are the model and algorithm operational but that they also provide an effective tool for policymakers to plan for land use development.
The local low skills equilibrium: Moving from concept to policy utility
Authors: Sissons Paul
Published: May 2020

It is more than three decades since the publication of Finegold and Soskice’s (1988) influential article ‘The failure of training in Britain: Analysis and prescription’. This widely cited publication popularised the notion of the low skills equilibrium (LSEq). The LSEq described how at the national level, weakness in the education and training system, aligned with the nature of political-economic institutions, acted as both a cause, but was also a consequence, of weak economic performance. In the period since, the LSEq thesis has been developed and deployed in a range of ways, including with an increasing emphasis on localised low skills equilibria and their relationship to spatially uneven development. However, there are a number of unresolved concerns with the use of the LSEq to describe regional, urban and local outcomes. These include the limits to aggregate analysis, which obscures detailed assessment of causal mechanisms; weaknesses in approaches to measurement to test the LSEq; and insufficient attention to change over time. This article makes three central contributions. First, it assesses the important conceptual issues associated with the development of the LSEq, its application to regional and local economies and the related measurement issues. Secondly, the article outlines a set of research gaps and an agenda to help identify the ways these issues might be resolved. Thirdly, the article addresses the question of policy, and the extent to which a better understanding of the problem might facilitate interventions aimed at unlocking the local LSEq.
The Hidden Costs of Requiring Accounts: Quasi-Experimental Evidence From Peer Production
Authors: Hill Benjamin Mako , Shaw Aaron
Published: May 2020

Online communities, like Wikipedia, produce valuable public information goods. Whereas some of these communities require would-be contributors to create accounts, many do not. Does this requirement catalyze cooperation or inhibit participation? Prior research provides divergent predictions but little causal evidence. We conduct an empirical test using longitudinal data from 136 natural experiments where would-be contributors to wikis were suddenly required to log in to contribute. Requiring accounts leads to a small increase in account creation, but reduces both high- and low-quality contributions from registered and unregistered participants. Although the change deters a large portion of low-quality participation, the vast majority of deterred contributions are of higher quality. We conclude that requiring accounts introduces an undertheorized tradeoff for public goods production in interactive communication systems.
Testing an Interactionist Theory of Treatment Engagement in a Pennsylvania Prison-Based Therapeutic Community
Authors: Davidson Kimberly M.
Published: May 2020

The prison-based Therapeutic Community (TC) is a promising substance use treatment program that emphasizes peer influence. Although program evaluations demonstrate positive results, the cognitive, behavioral, and social processes that define the prison-based TC are largely unknown. The TC model presumes that residents increase their treatment engagement and willingness to change through peer interactions and role modeling, but this process has received virtually no research attention. This study explores these peer-driven mechanisms by examining self, reflected, and peer appraisals of willingness to change of 177 male TC residents, predicting within-person changes in treatment engagement by changes in appraisal measures. Results suggest that self, peer, and reflected appraisals converge over time in treatment. In addition, fixed effects models demonstrate that changes in reflected appraisals are most predictive of changes in treatment engagement. Such results, consistent with symbolic interactionist perspectives, inform prison-based programming and contribute to research on individual-level trajectories of desistance and recovery.
Assessing Consistency in Single-Case Alternation Designs
Authors: Manolov Rumen , Tanious René , De Tamal Kumar , Onghena Patrick
Published: May 2020

Consistency is one of the crucial single-case data aspects that are expected to be assessed visually, when evaluating the presence of an intervention effect. Complementarily to visual inspection, there have been recent proposals for quantifying the consistency of data patterns in similar phases and the consistency of effects for reversal, multiple-baseline, and changing criterion designs. The current text continues this line of research by focusing on alternation designs using block randomization. Specifically, three types of consistency are discussed: consistency of superiority of one condition over another, consistency of the average level across blocks, and consistency in the magnitude of the effect across blocks. The focus is put especially on the latter type of consistency, which is quantified on the basis of partitioning the variance, as attributed to the intervention, to the blocking factor or remaining as residual (including the interaction between the intervention and the blocks). Several illustrations with real and fictitious data are provided in order to make clear the meaning of the quantification proposed. Moreover, specific graphical representations are recommend for complementing the numerical assessment of consistency. A freely available user-friendly webpage is developed for implementing the proposal.
Evaluation of Free-operant Preference Assessment: Outcomes of Varying Session Duration and Problem Behavior
Authors: Clay Casey J. , Schmitz Brittany A. , Clohisy Anne M. , Haider Aqdas F. , Kahng SungWoo
Published: May 2020

Previous researchers have found brief versions of preference assessments correspond to outcomes of longer preference assessments, and that varying levels of problem behavior occur in different preference assessments. Researchers conducted two studies to examine 1-, 2-, and 5-min duration outcomes of the free-operant preference assessment and evaluated the correspondence between the shorter and longer session durations and to identify frequency of problem behavior at each duration. Researchers also assessed relative reinforcing efficacy of the highest preferred stimulus from the shortest duration sessions. Moderate to high correlations were found between the 1- and 2-min sessions and 1- and 5-min sessions across six of eight participants diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder in Study 1 and two of three participants in Study 2. Furthermore, all highest preference stimuli identified in the shortest duration assessment served as reinforcers. Researchers found problem behavior generally occurred more in longer duration sessions.
A Privileged Point of View: Effects of Subjective Socioeconomic Status on Naïve Realism and Political Division
Authors: Brown-Iannuzzi Jazmin L. , Lundberg Kristjen B. , Kay Aaron C. , Payne B. Keith
Published: May 2020

In the United States, both economic inequality and political conflict are on the rise. We investigated whether subjective socioeconomic status (SSS) may help explain why these dual patterns emerge. We hypothesized that higher SSS may increase naïve realism—the belief that one perceives the world as it is, rather than as interpreted through one’s own knowledge and beliefs—regarding political issues. Using a representative sample of the American electorate, we found that higher SSS predicted more political naïve realism toward those from a different political party (Study 1). The remaining experiments examined the causal relationship between SSS and political naïve realism (Studies 2–5). We extended these findings by investigating whether SSS influenced participants’ willingness to exclude those with contrary views from a vote (Studies 4 and 5). Together, these studies demonstrate that SSS enhances political naïve realism and can lead to the exclusion of others with contrary opinions.
Uncertainty in Latent Trait Models
Authors: Tutz Gerhard , Schauberger Gunther
Published: May 2020

A model that extends the Rasch model and the Partial Credit Model to account for subject-specific uncertainty when responding to items is proposed. It is demonstrated that ignoring the subject-specific uncertainty may yield biased estimates of model parameters. In the extended version of the model, uncertainty and the underlying trait are linked to explanatory variables. The parameterization allows to identify subgroups that differ in uncertainty and the underlying trait. The modeling approach is illustrated using data on the confidence of citizens in public institutions.
Development and Testing of a Measure of Self-awareness Among Nurses
Authors: Rasheed Subia Parveen , Sundus Amara , Younas Ahtisham , Fakhar Joel , Inayat Shahzad
Published: May 2020

Self-awareness is an essential nursing competency and there is limited knowledge about nurses’ levels and application of self-awareness and instruments to measure nursing-specific self-awareness. Using mixed methods, we developed and tested a scale to measure nurses’ self-awareness. First, 13 nurses were interviewed to understand their meanings of self-awareness and to develop nursing-specific self-awareness scale. Qualitative analysis generated professional, personal, contextual, and contentious aspects of self-awareness. Second, a 25-item scale assessed through expert consultations and pilot testing with 252 nurses. The content validity index was 0.94. After psychometric testing, seven items were deleted. Cronbach’s alpha for the 18-item scale was 0.87 and the four-factor structure accounted for 45.55% of the variance. Lastly, the final scale was administered to 216 nurses. Nurses’ had moderate self-awareness (59.65 ± 7.01), significantly associated with age and years of the clinical and educational experience. Intensive care nurses were more self-aware than nurses in other settings.
School involvement experiences of fathers of children with deafblindness
Authors: Pancsofar Nadya , Petroff Jerry G , Schleppy Marcia
Published: May 2020

This pilot study examines the school involvement experiences of fathers of children with deafblindness. Survey data were collected from 25 fathers of children with deafblindness in the United States. Data addressed fathers’ frequency of school involvement activities, roles in their family, satisfaction in their school involvement, resources and knowledge for school involvement, and emotional support. The findings of this study suggest that these fathers may be more likely to be present for formal discussion with their child’s teachers/therapists but less likely to engage in frequent ongoing informal communication with their child’s teacher/therapists. Findings regarding fathers’ satisfaction suggest that fathers may be looking for additional opportunities to volunteer in school settings or to further their knowledge through workshops or training opportunities. Fathers reported having relatively lower levels of time, energy, and resources to help out at their child’s school. Fathers reported that they may be more apt to experience informal supports through their co-parents, family, or friends, than more formal supports from schools or organizations. Exploratory analyses of the associations between these different facets of fathers’ school involvement suggest that greater resources and knowledge for fathers of children with deafblindness may be associated with more frequent school involvement and overall satisfaction regarding school involvement. Implications for future research and professional practice are discussed.
The “BURP” maneuver improves the glottic view during laryngoscopy but remains a difficult procedure
Authors: Yu Tao , Wu Rong-rong , Longhini Federico , Wang Bin , Wang Ming-fang , Yang Fang-fang , Hua Fu-zhou , Yao Wei-dong , Jin Xiao-ju
Published: May 2020

Objective

We investigated the “BURP” maneuver’s effect on the association between difficult laryngoscopy and difficult intubation, and predictors of a difficult airway.

Methods

Adult patients who underwent general anesthesia and tracheal intubation from September 2016 to May 2018 were included. The “BURP” maneuver was performed when glottic exposure was classified as Cormack–Lehane grade 3 or 4, suggesting difficult laryngoscopy. The thyromental distance, modified Mallampati score, and interincisor distance were assessed before anesthesia.

Results

Among this study’s 2028 patients, the “BURP” maneuver decreased difficult laryngoscopies from 428 (21.1%) to 124 (6.1%) cases and increased the difficult intubation to difficult laryngoscopy ratio from 53/428 (12.4%) to 52/124 (41.9%). For laryngoscopies classified as difficult without the “BURP” maneuver, the area under the curve (AUC) of the thyromental distance, modified Mallampati score, and interincisor distance was 0.60, 0.57, and 0.66, respectively. In difficult laryngoscopies using the “BURP” maneuver, the AUC of the thyromental distance, modified Mallampati score, and interincisor distance was 0.71, 0.67, and 0.76, respectively.

Conclusions

The “BURP” maneuver improves the laryngoscopic view and assists in difficult laryngoscopies. Compared with difficult laryngoscopies without the “BURP” maneuver, those with the “BURP” maneuver are more closely associated with difficult intubations and are more predictable. Trial registration: www.chictr.org.cn identifier: ChiCTR-ROC- 16009050.
Greater increase in femoral offset with use of collum femoris-preserving stem than Tri-Lock stem in primary total hip arthroplasty
Authors: Yao Mengxuan , Wang Yuchuan , Wei Congcong , Han Yongtai , Li Huijie
Published: May 2020

Objective

This study was performed to compare the clinical outcomes and performance of the collum femoris-preserving (CFP) stem (Waldemar Link GmbH & Co., Hamburg, Germany) and the Tri-Lock stem (DePuy Orthopaedics, Warsaw, IN, USA) in terms of femoral offset (FO) and leg length reconstruction.

Methods

Clinical and radiographic data of patients who underwent total hip arthroplasty with either a CFP stem or Tri-Lock stem from January 2016 to March 2017 were compared (65 and 57 patients, respectively). The Harris hip score and Western Ontario and McMaster Universities Osteoarthritis Index were recorded. The FO, femoral vertical offset, and neck–shaft angle were measured at the last follow-up. The occurrence of dislocation and periprosthetic fracture during the follow-up period was recorded.

Results

The CFP stem induced significantly more FO than did the Tri-Lock stem on the operated side than contralateral side (3.63 ± 4.28 vs. 0.83 ± 5.46 mm). Significantly fewer patients had a >5-mm decrease in FO on the unaffected side in the CFP stem group ( n = 1) than Tri-Lock stem group ( n = 10).

Conclusion

Both stems similarly improved hip function and reconstructed the leg length, but the CFP stem was superior to the Tri-Lock stem in reconstructing FO.
Activity of lenvatinib plus everolimus combination in a heavily pretreated patient with papillary renal cell carcinoma: a case report
Authors: Zielli Teresa , Gnetti Letizia , Buti Sebastiano
Published: May 2020

Background:

Papillary renal cell carcinoma (pRCC) represents the second most common histologic subtype of renal cell carcinoma and comprises 2 subtypes. Prognosis for type 2 is associated with poor clinical outcome. Current guidelines are based on phase II trials, phase III trials in patients with clear cell histology, or retrospective data.

Case description:

To our knowledge, we describe for the first time a case of a patient with heavily pretreated metastatic pRCC who benefited from the combination of lenvatinib plus everolimus for more than 2 years.

Conclusion:

According to immunohistologic and biological findings in our patient both on primary tumor and liver metastasis, we hypothesize that selected patients with metastatic pRCC, progressed to standard/available treatments (including angiogenic drugs, mTOR inhibitors, and immunotherapy) and dissociated response to everolimus, could benefit from adding lenvatinib to everolimus.
Rethinking cluster evolution: Actors, institutional configurations, and new path development
Authors: Harris Jack Laurie
Published: May 2020

Despite a flourishing evolutionary economic geography, the cluster evolution literature has been somewhat left behind, and remains somewhat simplistic and deterministic. This article seeks to form a synthesis from recent conceptual advancements in the evolutionary and institutional economic geographies, in pursuit of expanding the cluster evolution literature. In the process it produces a novel way of exploring cluster evolution, through the concept of cluster institutional configurations, which focuses on the ability of different actors to navigate potential lock-ins and to drive cluster evolution, and connects it to broader debates in economic geography.
Evaluation of CO2 Emission at Airports from Aircraft Operations within the Landing and Take-Off Cycle
Authors: Dissanayaka D. M. M. S. , Adikariwattage V. V. , Pasindu H. R.
Published: May 2020

The importance of airport emission inventory is more specific in the local context as it directly affects the local air quality. The specific gap addressed by this research is evaluating the CO2 emission from aircrafts within the landing and take-off (LTO) cycle. Using currently available methodologies for assessing emission within the LTO cycle in the Sri Lankan context has significant limitations, such as unavailability of relevant operational data and the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO)-specified “time-in-mode”(TIM) (e.g., take-off, climb-out, idle, and approach) estimates at different phases of the LTO cycle being inconsistent with local conditions. Such industry-wide standards have been found to over or underestimate actual volumes specific to local conditions. In this research, data collected from online flight-tracking services and daily aircraft movement record (DAMR) data maintained by the local air traffic service provider were used to estimate TIM values according to site-specific conditions. Existing literature to some extent addresses the assessment of CO2 emission levels under different phases of flight separately. In this research, a methodology was developed with available data sources to estimate CO2 emission levels under different phases of flight separately within the LTO cycle. The methodology was applied to Bandaranaike International Airport, Sri Lanka. This approach can be applied to similar scenarios in which operational data limitations exist as elaborated in the study.
Modeling Social Distance and Activity-Travel Decision Similarity to Identify Influential Agents in Social Networks and Geographic Space and Its Application to Travel Mode Choice Analysis
Authors: Kim Jinhee , Bae Yun Kyung , Chung Jin-Hyuk
Published: May 2020

Because humans are social beings, people are members of social networks and interact with other members. As a result of social interaction, people can be influenced by the behavior of others. The present study addresses conformity behavior in activity-travel decisions, implying that in making such decisions people mimic the behavior of other members of their social networks. The presence of conformity behavior in social networks implies that sustainable behavior can be dispersed through networks. Therefore, knowing which people in a network are influential can help make a sustainable transportation policy more effective. In particular, information about the topology of social networks and geographical distribution can help maximize the policy’s spill-over effects in social and geographic spaces. This study suggests a framework to locate influential agents in relation to activity-travel decisions using three procedures: (1) estimating social distance associated with similarity in activity-travel decisions, (2) identifying influential agents by measuring centralities, and (3) exploring the spatial and activity-travel characteristics of the influential agents. The suggested framework is applied using the travel mode choices of people who had recently taken trips by road beside/alongside the Han River in Seoul, South Korea.
Development and Validation of Caregiver Risk Evaluation (CaRE): A New Algorithm to Screen for Caregiver Burden
Authors: Guthrie Dawn M. , Williams Nicole , Beach Cheryl , Maxwell Colleen J. , Mills Deborah , Mitchell Lori , Reid R. Colin , Poss Jeffrey W.
Published: May 2020

Objective: The main objective was to develop a decision-support tool to assess the risk of caregiver burden, the Caregiver Risk Evaluation (CaRE) algorithm. Methods: Home care clients were assessed using the Resident Assessment Instrument for Home Care (RAI-HC). Their caregiver completed the 12-item Zarit Burden Interview (ZBI), the main dependent measure, which was linked to the RAI-HC. Results: In the sample ( n = 344), 48% were aged 85+ years and 61.6% were female. The algorithm can be collapsed into four categories (low, moderate, high, and very high risk). Relative to the low-risk group, clients in the very high-risk group had an odds ratio of 5.16 (95% confidence interval: [2.05, 12.9]) for long-term care admission, after adjusting for client age, sex, and regional health authority. Discussion: The CaRE algorithm represents a new tool to be used by home care clinicians as they proactively plan for the needs of clients and their caregivers.
Using Rapid Ethnography to Unpack Performances of Community Authenticity: An Art Festival Case from Victoria, British Columbia
Authors: Tate Laura E.
Published: May 2020

Planning often tries to shape human behavior for public benefit. Planning also seeks to implement broad constructs, like livability and sustainability. In response to both tasks, qualitative explanatory research can help build crucial understanding. Still, qualitative approaches are often underused and undertheorized due to misconceptions about their resource and time-demands. This paper explores how rapid ethnography, already used in health and other disciplines, could help planning researchers improve their understanding of human behavior and of broad constructs. It then illustrates the methodology through a case study exploring performances of authentic community at an arts festival in Victoria, BC, Canada.
The J. Sanford Saltus Award
Authors: Van Alfen Peter
Published: May 2020

This article traces the origins and recent developments of the J. Sanford Saltus Award for Lifetime Achievement in Medallic Art. Initiated in 1913 at the American Numismatic Society (ANS) and first awarded in 1919, the Saltus Award continued to be one of the most prestigious and most coveted awards for sculptors and other artists engaged in numismatic design and handheld sculpture.