bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
An iterative frequency-sweeping approach for stability analysis of linear systems with multiple delays
Authors: Li Xu-Guang , Niculescu Silviu-Iulian , Çela Arben 
Published: October 2017

AbstractIn this article, we study the stability of linear systems with multiple (incommensurate) delays, by extending a recently proposed frequency-sweeping approach. First, we consider the case where only one delay parameter is free while the others are fixed. The complete stability w.r.t. the free delay parameter can be systematically investigated by proving an appropriate invariance property. Next, we propose an iterative frequency-sweeping approach to study the stability under any given multiple delays. Moreover, we may effectively analyse the asymptotic behaviour of the critical imaginary roots (if any) w.r.t. each delay parameter, which provides a possibility for stabilizing the system through adjusting the delay parameters. The approach is simple (graphical test) and can be applied systematically to the stability analysis of linear systems including multiple delays. A deeper discussion on its implementation is also proposed. Finally, various numerical examples complete the presentation.
Relative Szegő Asymptotics for Toeplitz Determinants
Authors: Duits Maurice , Kozhan Rostyslav 
Published: October 2017

Abstract
We study the asymptotic behaviour, as $n \to \infty$, of ratios of Toeplitz determinants $D_n({\rm e}^h {\rm d}\mu)/D_n({\rm d}\mu)$ defined by a measure $\mu$ on the unit circle and a sufficiently smooth function $h$. The approach we follow is based on the theory of orthogonal polynomials. We prove that the second order asymptotics depends on $h$ and only a few Verblunsky coefficients associated to $\mu$. As a result, we establish a relative version of the Strong Szegő Limit Theorem for a wide class of measures $\mu$ with essential support on a single arc. In particular, this allows the measure to have a singular component within or outside of the arc.
Are all certified EHRs created equal? Assessing the relationship between EHR vendor and hospital meaningful use performance
Authors: Holmgren A Jay , Adler-Milstein Julia , McCullough Jeffrey 
Published: October 2017

AbstractObjectiveThe federal electronic health record (EHR) certification process was intended to ensure a baseline level of system quality and the ability to support meaningful use criteria. We sought to assess whether there was variation across EHR vendors in the degree to which hospitals using products from those vendors were able to achieve high levels of performance on meaningful use criteria.Materials and MethodsWe created a cross-sectional national hospital sample from the Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology EHR Products Used for Meaningful Use Attestation public use file and the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services Medicare EHR Incentive Program Eligible Hospitals public use file. We used regression models to assess the relationship between vendor and hospital performance on 6 Stage 2 Meaningful Use criteria, controlling for hospital characteristics. We also calculated how much variation in performance is explained by vendor choice.ResultsWe found significant associations between specific vendor and level of hospital performance for all 6 meaningful use criteria. Epic was associated with significantly higher performance on 5 of the 6 criteria; relationships for other vendors were mixed, with some associated with significantly worse performance on multiple criteria. EHR vendor choice accounted for between 7% and 34% of performance variation across the 6 criteria.DiscussionA nontrivial proportion of variation in hospital meaningful use performance is explained by vendor choice, and certain vendors are more often associated with better meaningful use performance than others. Our results suggest that policy-makers should improve the certification process by including more “real-world” scenario testing and provider feedback or ratings to reduce this variation. Hospitals can use these results to guide interactions with vendors.ConclusionVendor choice accounts for a meaningful proportion of variation in hospital meaningful use performance, and specific vendors are consistently associated with higher or lower performance across criteria.
Permanent budget surpluses as a fiscal regime
Authors: Haffert Lukas 
Published: October 2017

AbstractThis article challenges the focus on budget deficits that permeates the literature on the comparative political economy of fiscal policy. It analyzes countries running budget surpluses and asks why some preserved these surpluses while others did not. Whereas several OECD members recorded surpluses for just a few years, balanced budgets became the norm in Australia, Canada, Denmark, Finland, New Zealand and Sweden in the late 1990s. The article compares both types of countries. Focusing on Canada and Sweden, it argues that a path-dependent shift in the balance of power among competing fiscal policy coalitions explains why surpluses persisted in one group of countries but not in the other. This reconfiguration of fiscal conflict was triggered by a deep fiscal crisis and an ensuing expenditure-led consolidation. It can be interpreted as creating a ‘surplus regime,’ in which fiscal policy became structured around the goals of balancing the budget and cutting taxes.
Vision and Vestibular System Dysfunction Predicts Prolonged Concussion Recovery in Children
Authors: Master Christina L. , Master Stephen R. , Wiebe Douglas J. , Storey Eileen P. , Lockyer Julia E. , Podolak Olivia E. , Grady Matthew F. 
Published: October 2017

Objective:Up to one-third of children with concussion have prolonged symptoms lasting beyond 4 weeks. Vision and vestibular dysfunction is common after concussion. It is unknown whether such dysfunction predicts prolonged recovery. We sought to determine which vision or vestibular problems predict prolonged recovery in children.Design:A retrospective cohort of pediatric patients with concussion.Setting:A subspecialty pediatric concussion program.Patients (or Participants):Four hundred thirty-two patient records were abstracted.Assessment of Risk Factors:Presence of vision or vestibular dysfunction upon presentation to the subspecialty concussion program.Main Outcome Measures:The main outcome of interest was time to clinical recovery, defined by discharge from clinical follow-up, including resolution of acute symptoms, resumption of normal physical and cognitive activity, and normalization of physical examination findings to functional levels.Results:Study subjects were 5 to 18 years (median = 14). A total of 378 of 432 subjects (88%) presented with vision or vestibular problems. A history of motion sickness was associated with vestibular dysfunction. Younger age, public insurance, and presence of headache were associated with later presentation for subspecialty concussion care. Vision and vestibular problems were associated within distinct clusters. Provocable symptoms with vestibulo-ocular reflex (VOR) and smooth pursuits and abnormal balance and accommodative amplitude (AA) predicted prolonged recovery time.Conclusions:Vision and vestibular problems predict prolonged concussion recovery in children. A history of motion sickness may be an important premorbid factor. Public insurance status may represent problems with disparities in access to concussion care. Vision assessments in concussion must include smooth pursuits, saccades, near point of convergence (NPC), and accommodative amplitude (AA). A comprehensive, multidomain assessment is essential to predict prolonged recovery time and enable active intervention with specific school accommodations and targeted rehabilitation.
Transcatheter Arterial Embolization Compared With Surgery for Uncontrolled Peptic Ulcer Bleeding
Authors: Sverdén Emma , Mattsson Fredrik , Lindström David , Sondén Anders , Lu Yunxia , Lagergren Jesper 
Published: October 2017

Objective:
To compare key outcomes after transcatheter arterial embolization (TAE) with conventional surgery for peptic ulcer bleeding when endoscopic intervention fails to achieve hemostasis.

Background:
Mortality in peptic ulcer bleeding remains high, especially in patients who require surgical treatment.

Methods:
A population-based cohort study in Stockholm, Sweden, in 2000 to 2014, assessing the main outcome all-cause mortality and the secondary outcomes re-bleeding, re-intervention, length of hospitalization, and complications, was conducted. Data were taken from well-maintained registries and medical records. Multivariable Cox-regression provided hazard ratios (HRs) with 95% confidence intervals (CIs) adjusted for age, sex, ulcer history, comorbidity, and calendar period were considered.

Results:
Included were 282 patients, 97 in the TAE group and 185 in the surgery group. Compared with the surgery group, the overall hazard of death was 34% decreased in the TAE group (adjusted HR 0.66, 95% CI 0.46–0.96). The corresponding HRs for mortality within 30 days, 90 days, 1 year, and 5 years were 0.70 (95% CI 0.37–1.35), 0.69 (95% CI 0.38–1.26), 0.88 (95% CI 0.53–1.47), and 0.67 (95% CI 0.45–1.00), respectively. The risk of re-bleeding was higher after TAE compared with surgery (HR 2.48, 95% CI 1.33–4.62). The median length of hospital stay was shorter in the TAE group—8 versus 16 days—acceleration factor 0.59 (95% CI 0.45–0.77) and the risk of complications was lower (8.3% vs 32.2%; P < 0.0001).

Conclusions:
This study indicates that TAE compares favorably with surgery regarding prognosis after refractory peptic ulcer bleeding, and the shorter length of hospital stay and fewer complications outweigh a higher risk of re-bleeding. TAE could be recommended as first-line treatment for these patients.
The niche construction of cultural complexity: interactions between innovations, population size and the environment
Authors: Fogarty Laurel , Creanza Nicole 
Published: October 2017

Niche construction is a process through which organisms alter their environments and, in doing so, influence or change the selective pressures to which they are subject. ‘Cultural niche construction’ refers specifically to the effect of cultural traits on the selective environments of other biological or cultural traits and may be especially important in human evolution. In addition, the relationship between population size and cultural accumulation has been the subject of extensive debate, in part because anthropological studies have demonstrated a significant association between population size and toolkit complexity in only a subset of studied cultures. Here, we review the role of cultural innovation in constructing human evolutionary niches and introduce a new model to describe the accumulation of human cultural traits that incorporates the effects of cultural niche construction. We consider the results of this model in light of available data on human toolkit sizes across populations to help elucidate the important differences between food-gathering societies and food-producing societies, in which niche construction may be a more potent force. These results support the idea that a population's relationship with its environment, represented here by cultural niche construction, should be considered alongside population size in studies of cultural complexity.This article is part of the themed issue ‘Process and pattern in innovations from cells to societies’.
Divergent migration within lake sturgeon (Acipenser fulvescens) populations: Multiple distinct patterns exist across an unrestricted migration corridor
Authors: Kessel Steven T. , Hondorp Darryl W. , Holbrook Christopher M. , Boase James C. , Chiotti Justin A. , Thomas Michael V. , Wills Todd C. , Roseman Edward F. , Drouin Richard , Krueger Charles C. 
Published: October 2017

Abstract

Population structure, distribution, abundance and dispersal arguably underpin the entire field of animal ecology, with consequences for regional species persistence, and provision of ecosystem services. Divergent migration behaviours among individuals or among populations are an important aspect of the ecology of highly mobile animals, allowing populations to exploit spatially or temporally distributed food and space resources.

This study investigated the spatial ecology of lake sturgeon (Acipenser fulvescens) within the barrier free Huron‐Erie Corridor (HEC), which connects Lake Huron and Lake Erie of the North American Laurentian Great Lakes.

Over 6 years (2011–2016), movements of 268 lake sturgeon in the HEC were continuously monitored across the Great Lakes using acoustic telemetry (10 years battery life acoustic transmitters). Five distinct migration behaviours were identified with hierarchical cluster analysis, based on the phenology and duration of river and lake use.

Lake sturgeon in the HEC were found to contain a high level of intraspecific divergent migration, including partial migration with the existence of residents. Specific behaviours included year‐round river residency and multiple lake‐migrant behaviours that involved movements between lakes and rivers. Over 85% of individuals were assigned to migration behaviours as movements were consistently repeated over the study, which suggested migration behaviours were consistent and persistent in lake sturgeon. Differential use of specific rivers or lakes by acoustic‐tagged lake sturgeon further subdivided individuals into 14 “contingents” (spatiotemporally segregated subgroups).

Contingents associated with one river (Detroit or St. Clair) were rarely detected in the other river, which confirmed that lake sturgeon in the Detroit and St. Clair represent two semi‐independent populations that could require separate management consideration for their conservation. The distribution of migration behaviours did not vary between populations, sexes, body size or among release locations, which indicated that intrapopulation variability in migratory behaviour is a general feature of the spatial ecology of lake sturgeon in unfragmented landscapes.
An evolutionary framework outlining the integration of individual social and spatial ecology
Authors: Webber Quinn M. R. , Vander Wal Eric 
Published: October 2017

Abstract

Behaviour is the interface between an organism and its environment, and behavioural plasticity is important for organisms to cope with environmental change. Social behaviour is particularly important because sociality is a dynamic process, where environmental variation influences group dynamics and social plasticity can mediate resource acquisition. Heterogeneity in the ecological environment can therefore influence the social environment. The combination of the ecological and social environments may be interpreted collectively as the “socioecological environment,” which could explain variation in fitness.

Our objective was to outline a framework through which individual social and spatial phenotypes can be integrated and interpreted as phenotypes that covary as a function of changes in the socioecological environment. We propose the socioecological environment is composed of individual behavioural traits, including sociality and habitat selection, both of which are repeatable, potentially heritable and may reflect animal personality traits. We also highlight how ecological and social niche theory can be applied to the socioecological environment framework, where individuals occupy different socioecological niches. Individual sociality and habitat selection are also density‐dependent, and theory predicts that density‐dependent traits should affect reproduction, survival, and therefore fitness and population dynamics.

We then illustrate the proximate links between sociality, habitat selection and fitness as well as the ultimate, and possibly adaptive, consequences associated with changes in population density. The ecological, evolutionary and applied implications of our proposed socioecological environment framework are broad and changes in density could influence individual fitness and population dynamics. For instance, human‐induced environmental changes can influence population density, which can affect the distribution of social and spatial phenotypes within a population. In summary, we outline a conceptual framework that incorporates individual social and spatial behavioural traits with fitness and we highlight a range of ecological and evolutionary processes that are likely associated with the socioecological environment.
Neoadjuvant chemoradiation for non‐metastatic pancreatic cancer increases margin‐negative and node‐negative rates at resection
Authors: Berriochoa Camille A. , Abdel‐Wahab May , Leyrer Charles M. , Khorana Alok , Matthew Walsh R. , Kumar Aryavarta M. S. 
Published: October 2017

OBJECTIVETo compare neoadjuvant to adjuvant chemoradiation in non‐metastatic pancreatic cancer patients.METHODSSingle‐institution data were obtained for patients with non‐metastatic pancreatic cancer treated with concurrent chemoradiation from 2011 to 2014. Univariate analyses were performed to evaluate clinical and pathological outcomes.RESULTSFifty‐two well‐matched patients were enrolled (21 underwent neoadjuvant chemoradiation, 11 with adjuvant chemoradiation and 20 in the definitive group). Median tumor size was 2.6 cm pretreatment and 2.5 cm after neoadjuvant chemoradiation but 3.2 cm on pathology, with a treatment effect in 95.2% of specimens. Clinical node positivity at diagnosis for neoadjuvant and adjuvant chemoradiation groups was similar (28.6% vs 27.3%, P = 0.12). Of the 36 neoadjuvant patients, 21 (58.3%) underwent complete resection. In the neoadjuvant vs adjuvant chemoradiation groups, positive margins were decreased (4.8% vs 63.6%, P < 0.001), as was pathological nodal positivity (23.8% vs 90.9%, P < 0.001). After a median follow‐up of 13.3 months, locoregional control for neoadjuvant and adjuvant chemoradiation was 7.7 and 7.2 months, respectively (P = 0.12) and the definitive group was 1.2 months (P = 0.014 compared with the surgical cohort). One‐year overall survival was better with neoadjuvant than with adjuvant chemoradiation but this was not significant (94% vs 82%, P = 0.20); 1‐year survival for the definitive group was 59% (P = 0.03 compared with the surgical cohort).CONCLUSIONSNeoadjuvant chemoradiation remains a promising approach for non‐metastatic pancreatic cancer for improving resectability and pathological and clinical findings. Computed tomography may not fully demonstrate the effectiveness of neoadjuvant treatment.
Genetic association and phenotypic correlation of TLR4 but not NOD2 variants with Tunisian inflammatory bowel disease
Authors: Feki Sawsan , Bouzid Dorra , Abida Olfa , Chtourou Lassaad , Elloumi Nesrine , Toumi Amina , Hachicha Hend , Amouri Ali , Tahri Nabil , Masmoudi Hatem 
Published: October 2017

OBJECTIVEThe common association between NOD2/CARD15 and TLR4 gene variants with inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) has not been replicated in all studies. We studied the polymorphism of these two genes in Tunisian patients with IBD.METHODSPolymorphisms of NOD2 (R702W, G908R and L1007fs) and TLR4 (Asp299Gly and Thr399Ile) genes were analyzed in 106 patients with IBD (68 with ulcerative colitis [UC], 38 with Crohn's disease [CD]) and 160 healthy controls using polymerase chain reaction‐restriction fragment length polymorphism. Genotypes and phenotypes were correlated.RESULTSThe mutated allele of TLR4‐Thr399Ile was strongly associated with IBD (9.4% in IBD, 7.4% in UC and 13.2% in CD vs 2.5% in controls; P = 0.0004, 0.014 and 0.00006, respectively). Heterozygous genotypes were significantly more frequent in patients with IBD (17.0%), UC (14.7%) and CD (21.1%) than in controls (5.0%) (P = 0.0012, 0.012 and 0.001, respectively). Interestingly, the wild genotype was found to be protective (odds ratio 0.24). The mutated allele of TLR4‐Asp299Gly was more frequent in controls (6.8%) than in patients with IBD (2.9%). A phenotypic correlation of Asp299Gly‐AG genotype with arthritis in UC patients was detected (P = 0.003). Regarding the NOD2 gene, the common variations studied were not polymorphic and there was no genetic association with IBD.CONCLUSIONThe TLR4‐Thr399Ile variant was strongly associated with susceptibility to IBD, whereas TLR4‐Asp299Gly seems to play a role in the clinical expression of UC. The rarity and non‐association of NOD2 mutations with IBD may reveal a genetic characteristic of the population in our region.
Performance of non‐traditional hyperglycemia biomarkers by chronic kidney disease status in older adults with diabetes: Results from the Atherosclerosis Risk in Communities Study
Authors: Jung Molly , Warren Bethany , Grams Morgan , Kwong Yuenting D. , Shafi Tariq , Coresh Josef , Rebholz Casey M. , Selvin Elizabeth 
Published: October 2017

AbstractBackgroundIn people with chronic kidney disease (CKD), HbA1c may be a problematic measure of glycemic control. Glycated albumin and fructosamine have been proposed as better markers of hyperglycemia in CKD. In the present study we investigated associations of HbA1c, glycated albumin, and fructosamine with fasting glucose by CKD categories.MethodsA cross‐sectional analysis was performed of 1665 Atherosclerosis Risk in Communities Study participants with diagnosed diabetes aged ≥65 years. Spearman's rank correlations (r) were compared and Deming regression was used to obtain root mean square errors (RMSEs) for the associations across CKD categories defined using estimated glomerular filtration rate and urine albumin:creatinine ratio.ResultsCorrelations of HbA1c, glycated albumin, and fructosamine with fasting glucose were lowest in people with severe CKD (HbA1c r = 0.52, RMSE = 0.91; glycated albumin r = 0.39, RMSE = 1.89; fructosamine r = 0.41, RMSE = 1.87) and very severe CKD (r = 0.48 and RMSE = 1.01 for HbA1c; r = 0.36 and RMSE = 2.14 for glycated albumin; r = 0.36 and RMSE = 2.22 for fructosamine). Associations of glycated albumin and fructosamine with HbA1c were relatively similar across CKD categories.ConclusionsIn older adults with severe or very severe CKD, HbA1c, glycated albumin, and fructosamine were not highly correlated with fasting glucose. The results suggest there may be no particular advantage of glycated albumin or fructosamine over HbA1c for monitoring glycemic control in CKD.