bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
Complementary Diagnostic and Prognostic Contributions of Cardiac Computed Tomography for Infective Endocarditis Surgery
Authors: Wang Tom Kai Ming , Bin Saeedan Mnahi , Chan Nicholas , Obuchowski Nancy A. , Shrestha Nabin , Xu Bo , Unai Shinya , Cremer Paul , Grimm Richard A. , Griffin Brian P. , Flamm Scott D. , Pettersson Gosta B. , Popovic Zoran B. , Bolen Michael A. 
Published: September 2020

Background:
Cardiac computed tomography (CT) is emerging as an adjunctive modality to echocardiography in the evaluation of infective endocarditis (IE) and surgical planning. CT studies in IE have, however, focused on its diagnostic rather than prognostic utility, the latter of which is important in high-risk diseases like IE. We evaluated the associations between cardiac CT and transesophageal echocardiography (TEE) findings and adverse outcomes after IE surgery.

Methods:
Of 833 consecutive patients with surgically proven IE during May 1, 2014 to May 1, 2019, at Cleveland Clinic, 155 underwent both preoperative ECG-gated contrast-enhanced CT and TEE. Multivariable analyses were performed to identify CT and TEE biomarkers that predict adverse outcomes after IE surgery, adjusting for EuroSCORE II (European System for Cardiac operative Risk Evaluation II).

Results:

CT and TEE were positive for IE in 123 (75.0%) and 124 (75.6%) of patients, respectively. Thirty-day mortality occurred in 3 (1.9%) patients and composite mortality or morbidities in 72 (46.5%). Pseudoaneurysm or abscess detected on TEE was the only imaging biomarker to show independent association with composite mortality or morbidities in-hospital, with odds ratio (95% CI) of 3.66 (1.76–7.59),
P
=0.001. There were 17 late deaths, and both pseudoaneurysm or abscess detected on CT and fistula detected on CT were the only independent predictors of total mortality during follow-up, with hazards ratios (95% CI) of 3.82 (1.25–11.7),
P
<0.001 and 9.84 (1.89–51.0),
P
=0.007, respectively.

Conclusions:
We identified cardiac CT and TEE features that predicted separate adverse outcomes after IE surgery. Imaging biomarkers can play important roles incremental to conventional clinical factors for risk stratification in patients undergoing IE surgery.
Who Has Seen Patients With ST‐Segment–Elevation Myocardial Infarction? First Results From Italian Real‐World Coronavirus Disease 2019
Authors: Cammalleri Valeria , Muscoli Saverio , Benedetto Daniela , Stifano Giuseppe , Macrini Massimiliano , Di Landro Alessio , Di Luozzo Marco , Marchei Massimo , Mariano Enrica Giuliana , Cota Linda , Sergi Domenico , Bezzeccheri Andrea , Bonanni Michela , Baluci Martino , De Vico Pasquale , Romeo Francesco 
Published: September 2020

Background
After the coronavirus disease 2019 outbreak, social isolation measures were introduced to contain infection. Although there is currently a slowing down of the infection, a reduction of hospitalizations, especially for myocardial infarction, was observed. The aim of our study is to evaluate the impact of the infectious disease on ST‐segment–elevation myocardial infarction (STEMI) care during the coronavirus disease 2019 pandemic, through the analysis of recent cases of patients who underwent percutaneous coronary intervention.

Methods and Results
Consecutive patients affected by STEMI from March 1 to 31, 2020, during social restrictions of Italian government, were collected and compared with patients with STEMI treated during March 2019. During March 2020, we observed a 63% reduction of patients with STEMI who were admitted to our catheterization laboratory, when compared with the same period of 2019 (13 versus 35 patients). Changes in all time components of STEMI care were notably observed, particularly for longer median time in symptom‐to‐first medical contact, spoke‐to‐hub, and the cumulative symptom‐to‐wire delay. Procedural data and in‐hospital outcomes were similar between the 2 groups, whereas the length of hospitalization was longer in patients of 2020. In this group, we also observed higher levels of cardiac biomarkers and a worse left ventricular ejection fraction at baseline and discharge.

Conclusions
The coronavirus disease 2019 outbreak induced a reduction of hospital access for STEMI with an increase in treatment delay, longer hospitalization, higher levels of cardiac biomarkers, and worse left ventricular function.
Getting to Know Someone: Familiarity, Person Recognition, and Identification in the Human Brain
Authors: Kovács Gyula 
Published: September 2020

Abstract
In our everyday life, we continuously get to know people, dominantly through their faces. Several neuroscientific experiments showed that familiarization changes the behavioral processing and underlying neural representation of faces of others. Here, we propose a model of the process of how we actually get to know someone. First, the purely visual familiarization of unfamiliar faces occurs. Second, the accumulation of associated, nonsensory information refines person representation, and finally, one reaches a stage where the effortless identification of very well-known persons occurs. We offer here an overview of neuroimaging studies, first evaluating how and in what ways the processing of unfamiliar and familiar faces differs and, second, by analyzing the fMRI adaptation and multivariate pattern analysis results we estimate where identity-specific representation is found in the brain. The available neuroimaging data suggest that different aspects of the information emerge gradually as one gets more and more familiar with a person within the same network. We propose a novel model of familiarity and identity processing, where the differential activation of long-term memory and emotion processing areas is essential for correct identification.
Scientific and Human Errors in a Snow Model Intercomparison
Authors: Menard Cecile B. , Essery Richard , Krinner Gerhard , Arduini Gabriele , Bartlett Paul , Boone Aaron , Brutel-Vuilmet Claire , Burke Eleanor , Cuntz Matthias , Dai Yongjiu , Decharme Bertrand , Dutra Emanuel , Fang Xing , Fierz Charles , Gusev Yeugeniy , Hagemann Stefan , Haverd Vanessa , Kim Hyungjun , Lafaysse Matthieu , Marke Thomas , Nasonova Olga , Nitta Tomoko , Niwano Masashi , Pomeroy John , Schädler Gerd , Semenov Vladimir A. , Smirnova Tatiana , Strasser Ulrich , Swenson Sean , Turkov Dmitry , Wever Nander , Yuan Hua 
Published: September 2020

AbstractTwenty-seven models participated in the Earth System Model–Snow Model Intercomparison Project (ESM-SnowMIP), the most data-rich MIP dedicated to snow modeling. Our findings do not support the hypothesis advanced by previous snow MIPs: evaluating models against more variables and providing evaluation datasets extended temporally and spatially does not facilitate identification of key new processes requiring improvement to model snow mass and energy budgets, even at point scales. In fact, the same modeling issues identified by previous snow MIPs arose: albedo is a major source of uncertainty, surface exchange parameterizations are problematic, and individual model performance is inconsistent. This lack of progress is attributed partly to the large number of human errors that led to anomalous model behavior and to numerous resubmissions. It is unclear how widespread such errors are in our field and others; dedicated time and resources will be needed to tackle this issue to prevent highly sophisticated models and their research outputs from being vulnerable because of avoidable human mistakes. The design of and the data available to successive snow MIPs were also questioned. Evaluation of models against bulk snow properties was found to be sufficient for some but inappropriate for more complex snow models whose skills at simulating internal snow properties remained untested. Discussions between the authors of this paper on the purpose of MIPs revealed varied, and sometimes contradictory, motivations behind their participation. These findings started a collaborative effort to adapt future snow MIPs to respond to the diverse needs of the community.
Can Weather Radars Be Used to Estimate Snow Accumulation on Alpine Glaciers? An Evaluation Based on Glaciological Surveys
Authors: Gugerli Rebecca , Gabella Marco , Huss Matthias , Salzmann Nadine 
Published: September 2020

AbstractThe snow water equivalent (SWE) is a key component for understanding changes in the cryosphere in high mountain regions. Yet, a reliable quantification at a high spatiotemporal resolution remains challenging in such environments. In this study, we investigate the potential of an operational weather radar–rain gauge composite (CombiPrecip) to infer the daily evolution of SWE on seven Swiss glaciers. To this end, we validate cumulative CombiPrecip estimates with glacier-wide manual SWE observations (snow probing, snow pits) obtained around the time of the seasonal peak during four winter seasons (2015–19). CombiPrecip underestimates the end-of-season snow accumulation by factors of 2.2 up to 3.7, depending on the glacier site. These factors are consistent over the four winter seasons. The regional variability can be mainly attributed to the empirical visibility of the Swiss radar network within the Alps. To account for the underestimation, we investigate three approaches to adjust CombiPrecip for the applicability to glacier sites. Thereby, we combine the factor of underestimation with a precipitation-phase parameterization. For further comparison, we apply a rain gauge catch-efficiency function based on wind speed. We validate these approaches with 14 manual point observations of SWE obtained on two glaciers during three winter seasons. All approaches show a similar improvement of CombiPrecip estimates. We conclude that CombiPrecip has great potential to estimate SWE on glaciers at a high temporal resolution, but further investigations are necessary to understand the regional variability of the bias throughout the Swiss Alps.
Insights into Supercells and Their Environments from Three Decades of Targeted Radiosonde Observations
Authors: Coniglio Michael C. , Parker Matthew D. 
Published: September 2020

AbstractHundreds of supercell proximity soundings obtained for field programs over the central United States are analyzed to reconcile differences in recent studies and to refine our knowledge of supercell environments. The large, storm-centric observation-based dataset and high vertical resolution of the sounding data provide an unprecedented look at supercell environments. Not surprisingly, storm-relative environmental helicity (SRH) is found to be larger in tornadic soundings than in nontornadic soundings. The primary finding that departs from previous studies is that storm-relative winds contribute substantially to the larger SRH. Stronger ground-relative winds and more rightward-deviant storm motions contribute to the larger storm-relative winds for the tornadic soundings. Spatial analyses of the soundings reveal lower near-ground pressure perturbations and stronger low- to midlevel cyclonic flow for the tornadic soundings, which suggests stronger mesocyclones, perhaps explaining the more rightward-deviant motions. Differences in the mean critical angle between the tornadic and nontornadic soundings are small and do not contribute to the larger mean SRH, but the tornadic soundings do have fewer instances of smaller (<60°) critical angles. Furthermore, the critical angle is shown to be a function of azimuth from the updraft. Other results include a low-to-the-ground (~250 m on average) hodograph kink for both the tornadic and nontornadic soundings and few notable differences in thermodynamic quantities, except for the expected lower LCLs related to higher RH for the tornadic soundings, somewhat smaller 0–3 km lapse rates in tornadic environments related to weaker/shallower capping inversions, and larger 0–3 km CAPE in near-field environments.
Information in the Welfare State: Problems and Approaches
Authors: Littunen Yrjö 
Published: September 2020

The most comprehensive approaches toward understanding information in modern ‘welfare states’ have been focussed on outlining state regulation in the monopoly stage of capitalism. This theoretical orientation has instigated a number of studies penetrating into the use of information for the purposes of state control and regulation, e.g. in income policies as well as in legislation. Less developed is the study of the other side of the dialectic: how do counter-processes manifest themselves in the course of increasing bureaucratic-corporativist regulation and control? Evidence on following tendencies in ‘welfare states’ in Western Europe and their accentuation in Scandinavia is discussed. (1) Fragmentation and partial isolation of the traditional information institutions (school, science, journalism) from contemporary information-steering processes, necessitated by increasing flows of raw information in the market of knowledge. (2) Emergence of new information-steering activities, often in organized, institutionalized forms. (3) New information-steering is developed for centralized, state-monopoly regulated information needs and, on the other hand, for democratic information needs: these trends and counter-trends depend not only on power changes in the class struggle but also on changes in the content and experience-coping of information available for the large majorities of the population.
Intensive Care Unit Bed Utilization and Head Injury Burden in a Resource-Poor Setting
Authors: Wong Abby , Prin Meghan , Purcell Laura N. , Kadyaudzu Clement , Charles Anthony 
Published: September 2020

Introduction In high-income countries (HICs), the intensive care unit (ICU) bed density is approximately 20-32 beds/100 000 population compared with countries in sub-Saharan Africa, like Malawi, with an ICU bed density of 0.1 beds/100 000 population. We hypothesize that the ICU bed utilization in Malawi will be high. Methods This is an observational study at a tertiary care center in Malawi from August 2016 to May 2018. Variables used to evaluate ICU bed utilization include ICU length of stay (LOS), bed occupancy rates (average daily ICU census/number of ICU beds), bed turnover (total number of admissions/number of ICU beds), and turnover intervals (number of ICU bed days/total number of admissions – average ICU LOS). Results 494 patients were admitted to the ICU during the study period. The average LOS during the study period was 4.8 ± 6.0 days. Traumatic brain injury patients had the most extended LOS (8.7 ± 6.8 days) with a 49.5% ICU mortality. The bed occupancy rate per year was 74.7%. The calculated bed turnover was 56.5 persons treated per bed per year. The average turnover interval, defined as the number of days for a vacant bed to be occupied by the successive patient admission, was 1.63 days. Conclusion Despite the high burden of critical illness, the bed occupancy rates, turn over days, and turnover interval reveal significant underutilization of the available ICU beds. ICU bed underutilization may be attributable to the absence of an admission and discharge protocols. A lack of brain death policy further impedes appropriate ICU utilization.
The borderline pattern descriptor in the International Classification of Diseases, 11th Revision: A redundant addition to classification
Authors: Mulder Roger T , Horwood L John , Tyrer Peter 
Published: September 2020

Objective: The International Classification of Diseases, 11th Revision classification of personality disorder removes all categories of disorder in favour of a single diagnostic spectrum extending from no personality dysfunction to severe personality disorder. Following concerns from some clinicians and Personality Disorder Societies, it was subsequently agreed to include a borderline pattern descriptor as a qualifier of the main diagnosis. We explore the value of this additional descriptor by examining personality data in patients with major depression. Method: We examined personality data obtained using the Structured Clinical Interview for Personality Disorder-II in 606 patients enrolled in five randomised controlled trials of depression. The Structured Clinical Interview for Personality Disorder-II uses the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders categorical system, which includes borderline personality disorder. The International Classification of Diseases, 11th Revision classification has five domain traits. Each of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders personality disorder symptoms or behaviours from Structured Clinical Interview for Personality Disorder-II was reordered into the five domains independently by two assessors. The relationship between the two systems was examined by tabular and correlational analysis. Results: The findings showed that the symptoms of borderline personality disorder were associated with greater severity of personality disturbance in the International Classification of Diseases, 11th Revision classification ( p < 0.0001) and were associated primarily with the Negative Affective, Dissocial and Disinhibited domains. There was only a weak association with the other two domains, Anankastia and Detachment. Conclusion: The addition of a borderline pattern descriptor is likely to add little to the International Classification of Diseases, 11th Revision classification of personality disorder. Its features are well represented within the severity/domain structure, which allows for more fine-grained description of the personality features that constitute the borderline concept.
The association between carotid atherosclerosis and treatment with lithium and antipsychotics in patients with bipolar disorder
Authors: Tsai Shang-Ying , Shen Ruei-Siang , Kuo Chian-Jue , Chen Pao-Huan , Chung Kuo-Hsuan , Hsiao Cheng-Yi , Huang Shou-Hung 
Published: September 2020

Objectives: Patients with bipolar disorder are at high risk of cardiovascular diseases. Among cardiovascular diseases, coronary heart disease and stroke are the leading causes of premature death and both share the pathogenesis of arterial atherosclerosis. Increased carotid intima-media thickness is sensitive for detecting early atherosclerosis and a practical index for predicting cardiovascular diseases. However, few studies investigated carotid intima-media thickness in adults with bipolar disorder. We attempted to determine the factors associated with carotid intima-media thickness in adults with bipolar disorder. Methods: The euthymic out-patients with bipolar I disorder aged over 20 years were recruited to measure the carotid intima-media thickness value through B-mode carotid ultrasound. Those with any psychiatric disorder, acute or life-threatening medical condition were excluded. All clinical information was obtained by reviewing medical records and directly interviewing patients with reliable others. Results: Of the 106 participants with a mean age of 44.5 years, 40.6% ( N = 43) had concurrent cardiovascular/endocrine/metabolic diseases. A multivariate regression indicated that higher assumed daily lithium dosage was significantly associated with a decreased carotid intima-media thickness in the whole sample. In the young subgroup (⩽45 years old, N = 63), higher current daily lithium dosage and lower body mass index were associated with lower carotid intima-media thickness. In those without concurrent cardiovascular/endocrine/metabolic diseases, higher ratio of first-generation antipsychotics exposure in relation to illness chronicity was associated with higher carotid intima-media thickness, after controlling for body mass index or age. Conclusion: Lithium treatment may be associated with less progression in carotid intima-media thickness and the reduced risk for atherosclerosis in adults with bipolar disorder, including those with high cardiovascular disease risk. In addition to age and body mass index, antipsychotics may increase carotid intima-media thickness even in the low cardiovascular disease-risk patients.
Corruption and the quality of transportation infrastructure: evidence from the US states
Authors: Chen Can , Liu Cheol , Lee Jekyung 
Published: September 2020

Few studies have linked public corruption to the quality of public infrastructure, particularly in developed countries. This article examines how public corruption affects the quality of transportation infrastructure in the context of the US states. Using state panel data for the period from 2002 to 2008, we found that public corruption had a negative impact on the quality of state roads, as captured by the International Roughness Index and overall road condition scores. This study concludes that the prevention of corruption is crucial to improving infrastructure quality and suggests preventive policy tools. Points for practitioners Transportation is one of the more corruption-prone sectors. This sector allows public officials discretion, attracts rent-seeking activities, and conceals malfeasance through secretive transactions. Our study finds that public corruption diminishes the quality of transportation infrastructure. Strengthening good governance is a critical way to improve public infrastructure performance. A variety of key anti-corruption strategies and actions are worth pursuing in the context of infrastructure development.
Correlates and Mediators of Dissociation: Towards a Transtheoretical Perspective
Authors: Aksen Damla E. , Polizzi Craig , Lynn Steven Jay 
Published: September 2020

We evaluated variables important to understanding dissociation ( N = 379 undergraduates). We investigated: (a) the correlations among dissociation and impulsivity, alexithymia, mindfulness, negative affect, neuroticism, sleep disturbances, and emotion dysregulation; (b) unique variance of these variables in statistically predicting dissociation scores; and (c) the statistical mediational role of emotion dysregulation and sleep in explaining dissociation. We found significant positive correlations between dissociation and emotion dysregulation, sleep, alexithymia, negative affect, impulsivity, and neuroticism as well as a significant negative correlation between mindfulness and dissociation, consistent with Lynn et al . Sleep, impulsivity, emotion dysregulation, and negative affect uniquely related to and explained significant variance in dissociation, in order from most to least variance accounted for. Sleep partially mediated the relation between emotion dysregulation and dissociation and the relation between impulsivity and dissociation. Emotion dysregulation partially mediated the relation between sleep and dissociation and the relation between impulsivity and dissociation. Additional findings provided support for bidirectional relations between sleep experiences and dissociation and emotion dysregulation and dissociation.