bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Wool nonwovens as candidates for commodity auxetic materials
Authors: Verma Prateek , Smith Casey L , Griffin Anselm C , Shofner Meisha L
Published: December 2020

Advances in the field of auxetics have realized fabricated auxetic materials such as foams, fabrics, and fibers as well as a better theoretical understanding of the auxetic response. Because of their unique properties and applications, commodity auxetic materials are particularly desirable. Needle-punched nonwovens, several kinds of paper, and many knitted and woven fabrics have the potential to be auxetic, either as-produced or through a processing or design solution. In this study, we examine the out-of-plane Poisson’s ratio of as-produced and heat-compressed wool nonwovens. The wool nonwovens were found to be out-of-plane auxetic as-produced, and their auxetic character became more pronounced at higher treatment temperatures. Their behavior could be similar to that of paper, where straightening of a bent fiber was responsible for thickness increase. The prescribed processing conditions to enhance auxeticity could potentially be incorporated in their existing production, providing a pathway to generating commodity auxetics.
Superpositions of unitary operators in quantum mechanics
Authors: Williams Hollis
Published: December 2020

We discuss the significance of superpositions of unitary operators in the formalism of quantum mechanics. We show that with this viewpoint, it can be demonstrated that one can observe a measurement with zero Ozawa uncertainty in a physically realisable feedback set-up which uses polarised photons coupled to spin. We derive a set of conditions under which a linear combination of unitary matrices is also a unitary matrix and confirm that the conditions are met by a realistic quantum gate.
A survey of US hospitals’ criteria for the allocation of remdesivir to treat COVID-19
Authors: Mun Frederick , Hale Cory M , Hennrikus Eileen F
Published: December 2020

Purpose

To determine how hospitals across the United States determined allocation criteria for remdesivir, approved in May 2020 for treatment of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) through an emergency use authorization, while maintaining fair and ethical distribution when patient needs exceeded supply.

Methods

A electronic survey inquiring as to how institutions determined remdesivir allocation was developed. On June 17, 2020, an invitation with a link to the survey was posted on the Vizient Pharmacy Network Community pages and via email to the American College of Clinical Pharmacy’s Infectious Disease Practice and Research Network listserver.

Results

66 institutions representing 28 states responded to the survey. The results showed that 98% of surveyed institutions used a multidisciplinary team to develop remdesivir allocation criteria. A majority of those teams included clinical pharmacists (indicated by 97% of respondents), adult infectious diseases physicians (94%), and/or adult intensivists (69%). Many teams included adult hospitalists (49.2%) and/or ethicists (35.4%). Of the surveyed institutions, 59% indicated that all patients with COVID-19 were evaluated for treatment, and 50% delegated initial patient identification for potential remdesivir use to treating physicians. Prioritization of remdesivir allocation was often determined on a “first come, first served” basis (47% of respondents), according to a patient’s respiratory status (28.8%) and/or clinical course (24.2%), and/or by random lottery (22.7%). Laboratory parameters (10.6%), comorbidities (4.5%), and essential worker status (4.5%) were rarely included in allocation criteria; no respondents reported consideration of socioeconomic disadvantage or use of a validated scoring system.

Conclusion

The COVID-19 pandemic has exposed the inconsistencies of US medical centers’ methods for allocating a limited pharmacotherapy resource that required rapid, fair, ethical and equitable distribution. The medical community, with citizen participation, needs to develop systems to continuously reevaluate criteria for treatment allocation as additional guidance and data emerge.
Test-Retest Reliability of the BREAST-Q IS in the Australian Breast Device Registry
Authors: Merenda Michelle , Vishwanath Swarna , Ng Sze , Parker Emily , Earnest Arul , Klassen Anne , Pusic Andrea , Hopper Ingrid
Published: December 2020

Background

Patient-reported outcome measures (PROMs) are increasingly employed in healthcare to assess outcomes. The BREAST-Q Implant Surveillance module (BREAST-Q IS) is a 5-question PROM utilized by the Australian Breast Device Registry to monitor the performance of breast devices. Validation of this tool is needed to assess its utility in this setting.

Objectives

The objective of this study was to assess the test-retest reliability of the BREAST-Q IS among breast implant recipients within a registry setting.

Methods

A test-retest reliability study was undertaken. Patients who underwent breast augmentation or breast reconstruction and registered with the Australian Breast Device Registry were eligible to participate. A total of 250 surveys were distributed. The BREAST-Q IS was administered to the same group of participants on 2 separate occasions with a 2-week test interval. Participants were divided into 2 groups: breast augmentation and breast reconstruction. A weighted kappa coefficient was calculated to assess the degree of test-retest reliability of the BREAST-Q IS.

Results

A total of 207 participants completed both tests. The response rate was 82% (n = 113) for the breast augmentation group and 94% (n = 94) for the breast reconstruction group. All 5 questions on the BREAST-Q IS obtained weighted kappa scores above 0.74 among both groups.

Conclusions

The BREAST-Q IS has good to excellent test-retest reliability for utilization among breast implant recipients in a registry setting. Further validation of the BREAST-Q IS will be required to establish the BREAST-Q IS as a valid and reliable PROM tool for breast implant recipients following breast device surgery.
crisscrosslinkeR: identification and visualization of protein–RNA and protein–protein interactions from crosslinking mass spectrometry
Authors: Gail Emma H , Shah Anup D , Schittenhelm Ralf B , Davidovich Chen
Published: December 2020

Unbiased detection of protein–protein and protein–RNA interactions within ribonucleoprotein complexes are enabled through crosslinking followed by mass spectrometry. Yet, different methods detect different types of molecular interactions and therefore require the usage of different software packages with limited compatibility. We present crisscrosslinkeR, an R package that maps both protein–protein and protein–RNA interactions detected by different types of approaches for crosslinking with mass spectrometry. crisscrosslinkeR produces output files that are compatible with visualization using popular software packages for the generation of publication-quality figures.

Availability and implementation

crisscrosslinkeR is a free and open-source package, available through GitHub: github.com/egmg726/crisscrosslinker.

Supplementary information

Supplementary data are available at Bioinformatics online.
Methrix: an R/Bioconductor package for systematic aggregation and analysis of bisulfite sequencing data
Authors: Mayakonda Anand , Schönung Maximilian , Hey Joschka , Batra Rajbir Nath , Feuerstein-Akgoz Clarissa , Köhler Kristin , Lipka Daniel B , Sotillo Rocio , Plass Christoph , Lutsik Pavlo , Toth Reka
Published: December 2020

Motivation

Whole-genome bisulfite sequencing (WGBS) measures DNA methylation at base pair resolution resulting in large bedGraph like coverage files. Current options for processing such files are hindered by discrepancies in file format specification, speed, and memory requirements.

Results

We developed methrix, an R package, which provides a toolset for systematic analysis of large datasets. Core functionality of the package includes a comprehensive bedGraph or similar tab-separated text file reader—which summarizes methylation calls based on annotated reference indices, infers and collapses strands and handles uncovered reference CpG sites while facilitating a flexible input file format specification. Additional optimized functions for quality control filtering, subsetting and visualization allow user-friendly and effective processing of WGBS results. Easy integration with tools for differentially methylated region (DMR) calling and annotation further eases the analysis of genome-wide methylation data. Overall, methrix enriches established WGBS workflows by bringing together computational efficiency and versatile functionality.

Availability and implementation

Methrix is implemented as an R package, made available under MIT license at https://github.com/CompEpigen/methrix and can be installed from the Bioconductor repository.

Supplementary information

Supplementary data are available at Bioinformatics online.
Wide unroofed coronary sinus and cryptogenic stroke: a case report
Authors: Babapoor-Farrokhran Savalan , Kalla Aditi , Bozorgnia Behnam , Amanullah Aman
Published: December 2020

Background 

Unroofed coronary sinus (UCS) is a rare congenital cardiac anomaly in which there is complete or partial absence of the roof of the coronary sinus (CS) resulting in a communication between the right and left atria. There are four types of UCS described in the literature. While usually asymptomatic and discovered incidentally on imaging, UCS can be the source of a brain abscess or paradoxical embolism.

Case summary 

A 62-year-old gentleman presented to the emergency department with sudden onset of right-sided weakness and subsequent unresponsiveness. His brain computed tomography (CT) was consistent with left-sided stroke. Transthoracic echocardiography was remarkable for a dilated CS and an agitated saline study was suggestive of an UCS. A gated cardiac CT with coronary angiography confirmed a wide communication between the CS and left atrium. Right heart catheterization did not show evidence of left to right shunt. He had no abnormal rhythm on telemetry monitoring throughout his hospital stay.

Discussion 

Unroofed coronary sinus is the least prevalent form of an atrial septal defect. Unroofed coronary sinus is usually asymptomatic and is diagnosed incidentally in imaging studies, however, it should be suspected in patients with cerebral emboli or evidence of left to right shunt with unexplained arterial desaturation. Transthoracic echocardiography is the most widely used imaging modality for the diagnosis of UCS but is limited in its ability to visualize the posterior cardiac structures such as the CS and pulmonary veins. Gated cardiac CT is a great diagnostic tool for UCS.
Fulminant eosinophilic myocarditis treated with steroids and mechanical unloading: a case report
Authors: Balthazar Tim , Adriaenssens Tom , Droogne Walter , Vandenbriele Christophe
Published: December 2020

Background

Eosinophilic myocarditis is a rare form of myocardial inflammatory disease. Eosinophilic infiltration of the myocardium is often the consequence of a systemic disorder but can remain unexplained in up to a third of patients. The disease course can range from mild to fulminant myocarditis and mortality remains high for fulminant cases.

Case summary

A 42-year-old male was admitted for cardiogenic shock. He presented in another hospital with fever, low blood pressure, diffuse electrocardiogram-abnormalities, and elevated troponin T (4.5 µg/L; reference <0.013 µg/L) levels. Coronary angiography was unremarkable. Mechanical circulatory support with the ImpellaTM CP device was initiated. Since fulminant myocarditis was suspected and magnetic resonance imaging was not feasible in urgency, an endomyocardial biopsy was performed. He transiently developed right ventricular failure after ImpellaTM implantation, requiring the re-institution of an inotropic agent. Biopsy showed eosinophilic myocarditis, even though there was no increase in the peripheral blood eosinophil count. Methylprednisone and Ramipril were initiated to which he responded well. No systemic disease or parasitic infection was found during further work-up. Left ventricular ejection fraction rapidly improved and was completely normalized at discharge.

Discussion

This case demonstrates the usefulness of myocardial biopsy in fulminant myocarditis since the only histopathology guided us towards the diagnosis of eosinophilic myocarditis. Treatment with methylprednisone and an angiotensin-converting enzyme-inhibitor resulted in rapid improvement. Awake mechanical circulatory support with the ImpellaTM device proved feasible and might have helped by unloading the left ventricle, as was reflected in an immediate decrease in troponin levels, even before methylprednisone initiation.
Cardiovascular health after menopause transition, pregnancy disorders, and other gynaecologic conditions: a consensus document from European cardiologists, gynaecologists, and endocrinologists
Authors: Maas Angela H E M , Rosano Giuseppe , Cifkova Renata , Chieffo Alaide , van Dijken Dorenda , Hamoda Haitham , Kunadian Vijay , Laan Ellen , Lambrinoudaki Irene , Maclaran Kate , Panay Nick , Stevenson John C , van Trotsenburg Mick , Collins Peter
Published: December 2020

Women undergo important changes in sex hormones throughout their lifetime that can impact cardiovascular disease risk. Whereas the traditional cardiovascular risk factors dominate in older age, there are several female-specific risk factors and inflammatory risk variables that influence a woman’s risk at younger and middle age. Hypertensive pregnancy disorders and gestational diabetes are associated with a higher risk in younger women. Menopause transition has an additional adverse effect to ageing that may demand specific attention to ensure optimal cardiovascular risk profile and quality of life. In this position paper, we provide an update of gynaecological and obstetric conditions that interact with cardiovascular risk in women. Practice points for clinical use are given according to the latest standards from various related disciplines (Figure 1).
Laminin-111 Improves the Anabolic Response to Mechanical Load in Aged Skeletal Muscle
Authors: Garg Koyal , Mahmassani Ziad S , Dvoretskiy Svyatoslav , Valero M Carmen , Huntsman Heather D , Lapp Samuel , Wu Yu-Fu , Hauschka Stephen D , Burkin Dean J , Boppart Marni D
Published: December 2020

Anabolic resistance to a mechanical stimulus may contribute to the loss of skeletal muscle mass observed with age. In this study, young and aged mice were injected with saline or human LM-111 (1 mg/kg). One week later, the myotendinous junction of the gastrocnemius muscle was removed via myotenectomy (MTE), thus placing a chronic mechanical stimulus on the remaining plantaris muscle for 2 weeks. LM-111 increased α7B integrin protein expression and clustering of the α7B integrin near DAPI+ nuclei in aged muscle in response to MTE. LM-111 reduced CD11b+ immune cells, enhanced repair, and improved the growth response to loading in aged plantaris muscle. These results suggest that LM-111 may represent a novel therapeutic approach to prevent and/or treat sarcopenia.
Omega-3 Supplementation Improves Isometric Strength But Not Muscle Anabolic and Catabolic Signaling in Response to Resistance Exercise in Healthy Older Adults
Authors: Dalle Sebastiaan , Van Roie Evelien , Hiroux Charlotte , Vanmunster Mathias , Coudyzer Walter , Suhr Frank , Bogaerts Stijn , Van Thienen Ruud , Koppo Katrien
Published: December 2020

Old skeletal muscle exhibits decreased anabolic sensitivity, eventually contributing to muscle wasting. Besides anabolism, also muscle inflammation and catabolism are critical players in regulating the old skeletal muscle’s sensitivity. Omega-3 fatty acids (ω-3) are an interesting candidate to reverse anabolic insensitivity via anabolic actions. Yet, it remains unknown whether ω-3 also attenuates muscle inflammation and catabolism. The present study investigates the effect of ω-3 supplementation on muscle inflammation and metabolism (anabolism/catabolism) upon resistance exercise (RE). Twenty-three older adults (65–84 years; 8♀) were randomized to receive ω-3 (~3 g/d) or corn oil (placebo [PLAC]) and engaged in a 12-week RE program (3×/wk). Before and after intervention, muscle volume, strength, and systemic inflammation were assessed, and muscle biopsies were analyzed for markers of anabolism, catabolism, and inflammation. Isometric knee-extensor strength increased in ω-3 (+12.2%), but not in PLAC (−1.4%; pinteraction = .015), whereas leg press strength improved in both conditions (+27.1%; ptime < .001). RE, but not ω-3, decreased inflammatory (p65NF-κB) and catabolic (FOXO1, LC3b) markers, and improved muscle quality. Yet, muscle volume remained unaffected by RE and ω-3. Accordingly, muscle anabolism (mTORC1) and plasma C-reactive protein remained unchanged by RE and ω-3, whereas serum IL-6 tended to decrease in ω-3 (pinteraction = .07). These results show that, despite no changes in muscle volume, RE-induced gains in isometric strength can be further enhanced by ω-3. However, ω-3 did not improve RE-induced beneficial catabolic or inflammatory adaptations. Irrespective of muscle volume, gains in strength (primary criterion for sarcopenia) might be explained by changes in muscle quality due to muscle inflammatory or catabolic signaling.
Runaway Slaves, Militant Abolitionists, and the Critique of American Prisons, 1830–60
Authors: Olsavsky Jesse
Published: December 2020

This essay reveals the ways that runaways and abolitionists, through their critiques of American prisons in the decades prior to the American Civil War, collectively originated the ideas and practices of prison abolition. It began with fugitive slaves who named slavery the ‘prison house’. Runaways, and the most radical amongst abolitionists, many of whom served time for their activism, used fugitives’ carceral language to grasp the place of prisons within the greater ‘prison house’ of American slavery. They actively assisted others to escape this ‘prison house’. They engaged in projects of prison reform and abolition of capital punishment. They freed incarcerated runaways and abolitionists from jails, and resisted racist policing. In the process, these radicals became disenchanted with the modernizing reform project known as the ‘penitentiary’, in some cases calling for the abolition of prisons and police, alongside the abolition of slavery. In short, because the plantation and the penitentiary merged after the Civil War, abolitionist critiques of both provided the little-studied roots of contemporary prison-abolitionist thought.
Converging Evidence on D-Amino Acid Oxidase–Dependent Enhancement of Hippocampal Firing Activity and Passive Avoidance Learning in Rats
Authors: Nagy Lili Veronika , Bali Zsolt Kristóf , Kapus Gábor , Pelsőczi Péter , Farkas Bence , Lendvai Balázs , Lévay György , Hernádi István
Published: December 2020

Background

N-methyl-D-aspartate (NMDA) receptor activation requires the binding of a co-agonist on the glycine-binding site. D-serine is the main endogenous co-agonist of NMDA receptors, and its availability significantly depends on the activity of the metabolic enzyme D-amino acid oxidase (DAAO). Inhibition of DAAO increases the brain levels of D-serine and modulates a variety of physiological functions, including cognitive behavior.

Methods

Here, we examined the effects of a novel 4-hydroxypyridazin-3(2H)-one derivative DAAO inhibitor, Compound 30 (CPD30), on passive avoidance learning and on neuronal firing activity in rats.

Results

D-serine administration was applied as reference, which increased cognitive performance and enhanced hippocampal firing activity and responsiveness to NMDA after both local and systemic application. Similarly to D-serine, CPD30 (0.1 mg/kg) effectively reversed MK-801–induced memory impairment in the passive avoidance test. Furthermore, local iontophoretic application of CPD30 in the vicinity of hippocampal pyramidal neurons significantly increased firing rate and enhanced their responses to locally applied NMDA. CPD30 also enhanced hippocampal firing activity after systemic administration. In 0.1- to 1.0-mg/kg doses, CPD30 increased spontaneous and NMDA-evoked firing activity of the neurons. Effects of CPD30 on NMDA responsiveness emerged faster (at 10 minutes post-injection) when a 1.0-mg/kg dose was applied compared with the onset of the effects of 0.1 mg/kg CPD30 (at 30 minutes post-injection).

Conclusions

The present results confirm that the inhibition of DAAO enzyme is an effective strategy for cognitive enhancement. Our findings further facilitate the understanding of the cellular mechanisms underlying the behavioral effects of DAAO inhibition in the mammalian brain.
Prevalence and genomic analysis of ESBL-producingEscherichia coliin retail raw meats in Singapore
Authors: Guo Siyao , Aung Kyaw Thu , Leekitcharoenphon Pimlapas , Tay Moon Y F , Seow Kelyn L G , Zhong Yang , Ng Lee Ching , Aarestrup Frank Møller , Schlundt Joergen
Published: December 2020

Objectives

To determine the prevalence and genetic characteristics of ESBL-producing Escherichia coli in retail raw meats from Singapore markets.

Methods

A total of 634 raw meat (chicken, pork and beef) samples were collected from markets in Singapore during June 2017–October 2018. The samples were enriched overnight and then incubated on Brilliance™ ESBL Agar. Presumptive ESBL isolates were confirmed using the double-disc synergy test. Confirmed ESBL-producing E. coli were sent for WGS and bioinformatic analysis was performed.

Results

The prevalence of ESBL-producing E. coli in chicken, pork and beef meats was 51.2% (109/213), 26.9% (58/216) and 7.3% (15/205), respectively. A total of 225 ESBL-producing E. coli were isolated from 184 samples. β-Lactam resistance genes were detected in all isolates. After β-lactam resistance genes, the most common antimicrobial resistance genes detected were aminoglycoside resistance genes (92.4%). One hundred and seventy-two (76.4%), 102 (45.3%) and 52 (23.1%) isolates carried blaCTX-M genes, blaTEM genes and blaSHV genes, respectively. blaCTX-M-55 (57/225, 25.3%) and blaCTX-M-65 (40/225, 17.8%) were the most frequent ESBL genes. Colistin resistance genes (including mcr-1, mcr-3 and mcr-5) were found in 15.6% of all isolates.

Conclusions

This study indicates that ESBL-producing E. coli are widely found in retail raw meats, especially chicken, in Singapore. Occurrence of MDR (resistance to at least three classes of antimicrobial) and colistin resistance genes in retail raw meat suggests potential food safety and public health risks.
The risk of racial bias while tracking influenza-related content on social media using machine learning
Authors: Lwowski Brandon , Rios Anthony
Published: December 2020

Objective

Machine learning is used to understand and track influenza-related content on social media. Because these systems are used at scale, they have the potential to adversely impact the people they are built to help. In this study, we explore the biases of different machine learning methods for the specific task of detecting influenza-related content. We compare the performance of each model on tweets written in Standard American English (SAE) vs African American English (AAE).

Materials and Methods

Two influenza-related datasets are used to train 3 text classification models (support vector machine, convolutional neural network, bidirectional long short-term memory) with different feature sets. The datasets match real-world scenarios in which there is a large imbalance between SAE and AAE examples. The number of AAE examples for each class ranges from 2% to 5% in both datasets. We also evaluate each model's performance using a balanced dataset via undersampling.

Results

We find that all of the tested machine learning methods are biased on both datasets. The difference in false positive rates between SAE and AAE examples ranges from 0.01 to 0.35. The difference in the false negative rates ranges from 0.01 to 0.23. We also find that the neural network methods generally has more unfair results than the linear support vector machine on the chosen datasets.

Conclusions

The models that result in the most unfair predictions may vary from dataset to dataset. Practitioners should be aware of the potential harms related to applying machine learning to health-related social media data. At a minimum, we recommend evaluating fairness along with traditional evaluation metrics.
HITECH to 21st century cures: clinician burden and evolving health IT policy
Authors: Gettinger Andrew , Zayas-Cabán Teresa
Published: December 2020

Adoption and use of health information technology (IT) was identified as 1 solution to quality and safety issues that permeate the United States health care system. Implementation of health IT has accelerated across the US over the past decade, in part, as a result of legislative and regulatory requirements and incentives. However, adoption of these systems has burdened clinician users due to design, configuration, and implementation issues, resulting in poor usability, challenges to workflow integration, and cumbersome documentation requirements. The path to alleviating these clinician burdens requires a clear understanding of the intent and evolution of pertinent regulations and the context in which they exist. This article reviews the Office of the National Coordinator of Health Information Technology’s efforts, documents current regulatory actions, and discusses additional policy opportunities that can further improve clinician satisfaction and effectiveness in providing health care with health IT that is an asset, not an obstacle.
Laboratory Selection, Cross-Resistance, Risk Assessment to Lambda-Cyhalothrin Resistance, and Monitoring of Insecticide Resistance for Plant BugLygus pratensis(Hemiptera: Miridae) in Farming-Pastoral Ecotones of Northern China
Authors: Tan Yao , Ma Yi , Jia Bing , Homem Rafael A , Williamson Martin S , Gao Shu-Jing , Han Hai-Bin , Xiang Kai-Feng , Sun Xue-Tao , Gao Xia , Pang Bao-Ping
Published: December 2020

The plant bug Lygus pratensis Linnaeus (Hemiptera: Miridae) is an important insect pest of alfalfa in grassland farming in northern China. A field population of L. pratensis was selected in the laboratory for 14 consecutive generations with lambda-cyhalothrin to generate 42.555-fold resistance. Selection also induced low cross-resistance to imidacloprid and beta-cypermethrin, and medium cross-resistance to deltamethrin. Realized heritability (h2) of lambda-cyhalothrin resistance was 0.339. Susceptible baselines of L. pratensis were established for five insecticides using the glass-vial method, the values of which were 6.849, 3.423, 8.778, 3.559, and 117.553 ng/cm2 for phoxim, methomyl, imidacloprid, lambda-cyhalothrin, and avermectin, respectively, along with the calculated LC99 diagnostic doses. This resistance risk assessment study suggests that a high risk of lambda-cyhalothrin resistance exists in the field. In addition, a 5-year field investigation of resistance monitoring of L. pratensis was conducted in seven alfalfa regions in farming-pastoral ecotones in northern China. The resistance levels of most populations were very low for phoxim, methomyl, and avermectin, with an upward trend for lambda-cyhalothrin resistance in the DK (Dengkou County), TKT (Tuoketuo County), XL (Xilinhot), and LX (Linxi County) populations during 2015–2019, and medium resistance level to imidacloprid in the TKT population in five years we sampled. The study provided information on chemical control, lambda-cyhalothrin resistance development, baseline susceptibility, and the status of resistance to five commonly-used insecticides against L. pratensis. These results could be used to optimize pyrethroid insecticide use as part of a pest integrated resistance management strategy against this key insect pest of alfalfa.
Social Influence in Prosocial Behavior: Evidence from a Large-Scale Experiment
Authors: Goette Lorenz , Tripodi Egon
Published: December 2020

We propose a novel experiment that prevents social learning, thus allowing us to disentangle the underlying mechanisms of social influence. Subjects observe their peer’s incentives, but not their behavior. We find evidence of conformity: When individuals believe that incentives make others contribute more, they also increase their contributions. Conformity is driven by individuals who feel socially close to their peer. However, when incentives are not expected to raise their peer’s contributions, participants reduce their own contributions. Our data are consistent with an erosion of norm adherence when prosocial behavior of the social reference is driven by extrinsic motives, and cannot be explained by incentive inequality or altruistic crowding out. These findings show scope for social influence in settings with limited observability and offer insights into the mediators of conformity.
Bone marrow lesions: etiology and pathogenesis at the hip
Authors: Munsch Maria A , Safran Marc R , Mai Matthew C , Vasileff W Kelton
Published: December 2020

Bone marrow lesions (BML) are painful changes in subchondral bone which can be reliably identified on magnetic resonance imaging and have been identified in patients suffering from hip osteoarthritis (OA) and related conditions. Created via repetitive microdamage at the articular surface and dysregulated subchondral healing, BML have been linked to traumatic, inflammatory, degenerative, metabolic and neoplastic processes. While BML are known to be a common pathology throughout the body, BML at the hip have not been extensively studied in comparison to those at the knee. Due to the hip’s unique biomechanical architecture, function and loading, and independent risk factors leading to hip OA, hip BMLs must be independently understood. The identification of BML in the setting of a pre-osteoarthritic condition may provide a target for treatment and prevention of joint degeneration. By continuing to define and refine the relationships between BML, subchondral bone cysts and OA, prevention, diagnosis and treatment of OA could shift, leading to an improved quality of life and increased longevity of individuals’ native hips.
Assessment of Ki67 in Breast Cancer: Updated Recommendations From the International Ki67 in Breast Cancer Working Group
Authors: Nielsen Torsten O , Leung Samuel C. Y , Rimm David L , Dodson Andrew , Acs Balazs , Badve Sunil , Denkert Carsten , Ellis Matthew J , Fineberg Susan , Flowers Margaret , Kreipe Hans H , Laenkholm Anne-Vibeke , Pan Hongchao , Penault-Llorca Frédérique M , Polley Mei-Yin , Salgado Roberto , Smith Ian E , Sugie Tomoharu , Bartlett John M. S , McShane Lisa M , Dowsett Mitch , Hayes Daniel F
Published: December 2020

Ki67 immunohistochemistry (IHC), commonly used as a proliferation marker in breast cancer, has limited value for treatment decisions due to questionable analytical validity. The International Ki67 in Breast Cancer Working Group (IKWG) consensus meeting, held in October 2019, assessed the current evidence for Ki67 IHC analytical validity and clinical utility in breast cancer, including the series of scoring studies the IKWG conducted on centrally stained tissues. Consensus observations and recommendations are: 1) as for estrogen receptor and HER2 testing, preanalytical handling considerations are critical; 2) a standardized visual scoring method has been established and is recommended for adoption; 3) participation in and evaluation of quality assurance and quality control programs is recommended to maintain analytical validity; and 4) the IKWG accepted that Ki67 IHC as a prognostic marker in breast cancer has clinical validity but concluded that clinical utility is evident only for prognosis estimation in anatomically favorable estrogen receptor–positive and HER2-negative patients to identify those who do not need adjuvant chemotherapy. In this T1-2, N0-1 patient group, the IKWG consensus is that Ki67 5% or less, or 30% or more, can be used to estimate prognosis. In conclusion, analytical validity of Ki67 IHC can be reached with careful attention to preanalytical issues and calibrated standardized visual scoring. Currently, clinical utility of Ki67 IHC in breast cancer care remains limited to prognosis assessment in stage I or II breast cancer. Further development of automated scoring might help to overcome some current limitations.
Improving Cervical Precancer Surveillance: Validity of Claims-Based Prediction Models in ICD-9 and ICD-10 Eras
Authors: Shing Jaimie Z , Griffin Marie R , Nguyen Linh D , Slaughter James C , Mitchel Edward F , Pemmaraju Manideepthi , Rentuza Alyssa B , Hull Pamela C
Published: December 2020

Background

Human papillomavirus vaccine (HPV) impact on cervical precancer (cervical intraepithelial neoplasia grades 2+ [CIN2+]) is observable sooner than impact on cancer. Biopsy-confirmed CIN2+ is not included in most US cancer registries. Billing codes could provide surrogate metrics; however, the International Classification of Diseases, ninth (ICD-9) to tenth (ICD-10) transition disrupts trends. We built, validated, and compared claims-based models to identify CIN2+ events in both ICD eras.

Methods

A database of Davidson County (Nashville), Tennessee, pathology-confirmed CIN2+ from the HPV Vaccine Impact Monitoring Project (HPV-IMPACT) provided gold standard events. Using Tennessee Medicaid 2008-2017, cervical diagnostic procedures (N = 8549) among Davidson County women aged 18-39 years were randomly split into 60% training and 40% testing sets. Relevant diagnosis, procedure, and screening codes were used to build models from CIN2+ tissue diagnosis codes alone, least absolute shrinkage and selection operator (LASSO), and random forest. Model-classified index events were counted to estimate incident events.

Results

HPV-IMPACT identified 983 incident CIN2+ events. Models identified 1007 (LASSO), 1245 (CIN2+ tissue diagnosis codes alone), and 957 (random forest) incident events. LASSO performed well in ICD-9 and ICD-10 eras: 77.3% (95% confidence interval [CI] = 72.5% to 81.5%) vs 81.1% (95% CI = 71.5% to 88.6%) sensitivity, 93.0% (95% CI = 91.9% to 94.0%) vs 90.2% (95% CI = 87.2% to 92.7%) specificity, 61.3% (95% CI = 56.6% to 65.8%) vs 60.3% (95% CI = 51.0% to 69.1%) positive predictive value, 96.6% (95% CI = 95.8% to 97.3%) vs 96.3% (95% CI = 94.1% to 97.8%) negative predictive value, 91.0% (95% CI = 89.9% to 92.1%) vs 88.8% (95% CI = 85.9% to 91.2%) accuracy, and 85.1% (95% CI = 82.9% to 87.4%) vs 85.6% (95% CI = 81.4% to 89.9%) C-indices, respectively; performance did not statistically significantly differ between eras (95% confidence intervals all overlapped).

Conclusions

Results confirmed model utility with good performance across both ICD eras for CIN2+ surveillance. Validated claims-based models may be used in future CIN2+ trend analyses to estimate HPV vaccine impact where population-based biopsies are unavailable.
The Imperial Makings of Medical Work: Peter Johnstone Freyer and the Practice of Genitourinary Medicine in Britain and the Raj, c. 1875–1921
Authors: Fitzpatrick Kieran
Published: December 2020

This article establishes the social history that connected British imperialism, the medical profession, and the meaning of its work through the career of a prominent Irish surgeon, Peter Johnstone Freyer, between 1875 and 1921. Although the social history of professions has been of frequent interest among contributors to this journal, their readings have maintained particularly “structural” accounts of what provides professions with their power and authority. From this perspective, professions are made and maintained by formal education, the strength of the associations between their members, and how they practice their knowledge. In recent years, however, such accounts have been called into question by scholars who seek to emphasize the “imaginative” qualities of professions, that is, the active processes by which they situate their ethics, values, and institutions in relation to particular cultures external to the formal structures of the profession itself. This is the premise from which I work in order to demonstrate the ways in which the social and cultural contexts provided by British imperialism shaped the meaning of Freyer’s practice in genitourinary medicine, both in India and metropolitan London. As a result, I augment pre-existing accounts of this medical specialty, which have been written in line with structural accounts of the social history of professions.
Parameterized complexity of abduction in Schaefer’s framework
Authors: Mahmood Yasir , Meier Arne , Schmidt Johannes
Published: December 2020

Abductive reasoning is a non-monotonic formalism stemming from the work of Peirce. It describes the process of deriving the most plausible explanations of known facts. Considering the positive version, asking for sets of variables as explanations, we study, besides the problem of wether there exists a set of explanations, two explanation size limited variants of this reasoning problem (less than or equal to, and equal to a given size bound). In this paper, we present a thorough two-dimensional classification of these problems: the first dimension is regarding the parameterized complexity under a wealth of different parameterizations, and the second dimension spans through all possible Boolean fragments of these problems in Schaefer’s constraint satisfaction framework with co-clones (T. J. Schaefer. The complexity of satisfiability problems. In Proceedings of the 10th Annual ACM Symposium on Theory of Computing, May 1–3, 1978, San Diego, California, USA, R.J. Lipton, W.A. Burkhard, W.J. Savitch, E.P. Friedman, A.V. Aho eds, pp. 216–226. ACM, 1978). Thereby, we almost complete the parameterized complexity classification program initiated by Fellows et al. (The parameterized complexity of abduction. In Proceedings of the Twenty-Sixth AAAI Conference on Articial Intelligence, July 22–26, 2012, Toronto, Ontario, Canada, J. Homann, B. Selman eds. AAAI Press, 2012), partially building on the results by Nordh and Zanuttini (What makes propositional abduction tractable. Artificial Intelligence, 172, 1245–1284, 2008). In this process, we outline a fine-grained analysis of the inherent parameterized intractability of these problems and pinpoint their FPT parts. As the standard algebraic approach is not applicable to our problems, we develop an alternative method that makes the algebraic tools partially available again.
A Prospective Assessment of a Novel, Disposable Video Laryngoscope With Physician Assistant Trainees Using a Synthetic Cadaver Model
Authors: Schauer Steven G , Davis William T , Johnson Michelle D , Escandon Mireya A , Uhaa Nguvan , Maddry Joseph K , Naylor Jason F , Van Arnem Kerri A , April Michael D
Published: December 2020

Background

Airway obstruction is the second leading cause of preventable death on the battlefield. Video laryngoscopy has improved airway management in the emergency setting for several decades, and technology continues to improve. Current technology in the supply chain is cost-prohibitive to incorporate at Role 1 facilities, which is where many intubations occur by novice intubators. The i-view is a novel video laryngoscopy device that is handheld, inexpensive, and disposable. The aim of this study was to determine if the i-view is suitable based on performance assessments by physician assistant trainees and survey feedback.

Materials and Methods

We prospectively enrolled physician assistant students at the Interservice Physician Assistant Program at Joint Base San Antonio—Fort Sam Houston. We provided them structured training on how to use the device, and then, a board-certified emergency medicine physician or certified registered nurse anesthetist assessed their intubations performed on a SynDaver mannequin model. We surveyed the participants afterward.

Results

We enrolled 60 Interservice Physician Assistant Program students. Most participants were male (75%) with a median age of 32 years. Service affiliations included Army (50%), Navy (23%), Air Force (18%), and Coast Guard (8%). Most (70%) had previous deployment experience. All the participants successfully cannulated the mannequins and 98% achieved first-attempt success. Most participants (78%) reported a grade 1 view. On postprocedure survey, 91% strongly agreed with using this device in the deployed setting and 89% strongly agreed with finding it easy to use.

Conclusions

All physician assistant trainees successfully and rapidly performed endotracheal intubation using the disposable i-view video laryngoscope. Study participants rated the device as easy to use and desirable for deployment. Further research is necessary to validate this novel device in the clinical setting before recommending dissemination to the deployed military medical force sets, kits, and outfits.
Completeness of the Gaia-verse III: using hidden states to infer gaps, detection efficiencies, and the scanning law from the DR2 light curves
Authors: Boubert Douglas , Everall Andrew , Fraser Jack , Gration Amery , Holl Berry
Published: December 2020

The completeness of the Gaia catalogues heavily depends on the status of that space telescope through time. Stars are only published with each of the astrometric, photometric, and spectroscopic data products if they are detected a minimum number of times. If there is a gap in scientific operations, a drop in the detection efficiency or Gaia deviates from the commanded scanning law, then stars will miss out on potential detections and thus be less likely to make it into the Gaia catalogues. We lay the groundwork to retrospectively ascertain the status of Gaia throughout the mission from the tens of individual measurements of the billions of stars, by developing novel methodologies to infer both the orientation and angular velocity of Gaia through time and gaps and efficiency drops in the detections. We have applied these methodologies to the Gaia data release 2 variable star epoch photometry – which are the only publicly available Gaia time-series at the present time – and make the results publicly available. We accompany these results with a new python package scanninglaw that you can use to easily predict Gaia observation times and detection probabilities for arbitrary locations on the sky.
Galaxy And Mass Assembly (GAMA): the interplay between galaxy mass, SFR, and heavy element abundance in paired galaxy sets
Authors: Garduño L E , Lara-López M A , López-Cruz O , Hopkins A M , Owers M S , Pimbblet K A , Holwerda B W
Published: December 2020

We study the star formation rate (SFR), stellar mass (M⋆), and the gas metallicity (Z) for 4636 galaxy pairs using the Galaxy And Mass Assembly (GAMA) survey. Our galaxy pairs lie in a redshift range of 0 < z < 0.35, mass range of 7.5 < log(M⋆/M⊙) < 11.5 and ΔV < 1000 km s−1. We explore variations in SFR and Z from three point of views: multiplicity, pair separation, and dynamics. We define multiplicity as the number of galaxies paired with a single galaxy, and analyzed for the first time variations in SFR and Z for both, single pairs and pairs with higher multiplicity. For the latter, we find SFR enhancements from 0.025–0.15 dex, that would shift the M–SFR relation of single pairs by 27${{\ \rm per\ cent}}$ to higher SFRs. The effect of Z, on the other hand, is of only 4${{\ \rm per\ cent}}$. We analyse the most and least massive galaxy of major/minor pairs as a function of the pair separation. We define major pairs those with mass ratios of 0.5 < M1/M2 < 2, while pairs with more discrepant mass ratios are classified as minor pairs. We find SFR enhancements of up to two and four times with respect to their control sample, for major and minor pairs. For the case of Z, we find decrements of up to 0.08 dex for the closest pairs. When we focus on dynamics, Z enhancements are found for minor pairs with high-velocity dispersion $(\sigma _p \gt 250 \,\, \mathrm{km\, s ^{-1}})$ and high multiplicity.
Using angular momentum maps to detect kinematically distinct galactic components
Authors: Irodotou Dimitrios , Thomas Peter A
Published: December 2020

In this work, we introduce a physically motivated method of performing disc/spheroid decomposition of simulated galaxies, which we apply to the eagle sample. We make use of the healpix package to create Mollweide projections of the angular momentum map of each galaxy’s stellar particles. A number of features arise on the angular momentum space which allows us to decompose galaxies and classify them into different morphological types. We assign stellar particles with angular separation of less/greater than 30° from the densest grid cell on the angular momentum sphere to the disc/spheroid components, respectively. We analyse the spatial distribution for a subsample of galaxies and show that the surface density profiles of the disc and spheroid closely follow an exponential and a Sérsic profile, respectively. In addition discs rotate faster, have smaller velocity dispersions, are younger and are more metal rich than spheroids. Thus, our morphological classification reproduces the observed properties of such systems. Finally, we demonstrate that our method is able to identify a significant population of galaxies with counter-rotating discs and provide a more realistic classification of such systems compared to previous methods.
The Thousand-Pulsar-Array programme on MeerKAT – II. Observing strategy for pulsar monitoring with subarrays
Authors: Song X , Weltevrede P , Keith M J , Johnston S , Karastergiou A , Bailes M , Barr E D , Buchner S , Geyer M , Hugo B V , Jameson A , Parthasarathy A , Reardon D J , Serylak M , Shannon R M , Spiewak R , van Straten W , Venkatraman Krishnan V
Published: December 2020

The Thousand-Pulsar-Array (TPA) programme currently monitors about 500 pulsars with the sensitive MeerKAT radio telescope by using subarrays to observe multiple sources simultaneously. Here we define the adopted observing strategy, which guarantees that each target is observed long enough to obtain a high-fidelity pulse profile, thereby reaching a sufficient precision of a simple pulse shape parameter. This precision is estimated from the contribution of the system noise of the telescope, and the pulse-to-pulse variability of each pulsar, which we quantify under some simplifying assumptions. We test the assumptions and choice of model parameters using data from the MeerKAT 64-dish array and the Lovell and Parkes telescopes. We demonstrate that the observing times derived from our method produce high-fidelity pulse profiles that meet the needs of the TPA in studying pulse shape variability and pulsar timing. Our method can also be used to compare strategies for observing large numbers of pulsars with telescopes capable of forming multiple subarray configurations. We find that using two 32-dish MeerKAT subarrays is the most efficient strategy for the TPA project. We also find that the ability to observe in different array configurations will become increasingly important for large observing programmes using the Square Kilometre Array telescope.