cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
The globular cluster–dark matter halo connection

I present a simple phenomenological model for the observed linear scaling of the stellar mass in old globular clusters (GCs) with z = 0 halo mass in which the stellar mass in GCs scales linearly with progenitor halo mass at z = 6 above a minimum halo mass for GC formation. This model reproduces the observed MGCs-Mhalo relation at z = 0 and results in a prediction for the minimum halo mass at z = 6 required for hosting one GC: Mmin(z = 6) = 1.07 × 109 M⊙. Translated to z = 0, the mean threshold mass is Mhalo(z = 0) ≈ 2 × 1010 M⊙. I explore the observability of GCs in the reionization era and their contribution to cosmic reionization, both of which depend sensitively on the (unknown) ratio of GC birth mass to present-day stellar mass, ξ. Based on current detections of z ≳ 6 objects with M1500 10 are strongly disfavoured; this, in turn, has potentially important implications for GC formation scenarios. Even for low values of ξ, some observed high-z galaxies may actually be GCs, complicating estimates of reionization-era galaxy ultraviolet luminosity functions and constraints on dark matter models. GCs are likely important reionization sources if 5 ≲ ξ ≲ 10. I also explore predictions for the fraction of accreted versus in situ GCs in the local Universe and for descendants of systems at the halo mass threshold of GC formation (dwarf galaxies). An appealing feature of the model presented here is the ability to make predictions for GC properties based solely on dark matter halo merger trees.
Barriers and facilitators of antiretroviral therapy adherence in rural Eastern province, Zambia: the role of household economic status

In Zambia, more people living with HIV now have access to lifesaving antiretroviral therapy than ever before. However, progress in HIV treatment and care has not always resulted in lower mortality. Adherence remains a critical barrier to treatment success. The objective of this study was to examine the barriers and facilitators of antiretroviral therapy adherence, particularly the role of household economic status. The study included a cross-sectional sample of 101 people living with HIV (PLHIV) in two rural communities in eastern Zambia. Adherence was measured using patient self-assessment and pharmacy information. Household economic status included components such as occupation, income, assets, food security, and debt. Multivariable logistic regression was conducted to examine the associations between household economic factors and adherence. Our findings suggest that the role of economic status on adherence appears to be a function of the economic component. Debt and non-farming-related occupation were consistently associated with non-adherence. The association between assets and adherence depends on the type of asset. Owning more transportation-related assets was consistently associated with non-adherence, whereas owning more livestock was associated with self-reported adherence. Additionally, living in a community with fewer economic opportunities was associated with non-adherence. The associations between place of residence and pharmacy refill adherence and between transportation assets and self-reported adherence were statistically significant. Improving adherence requires a multifaceted strategy that addresses the role of economic status as a potential barrier and facilitator. Programmes that provide economic opportunities and life-skills training may help PLHIV to overcome economic, social, and psychological barriers.
"Top Performing" US Hospitals and the Health Status of Counties they Serve.

This study (a) examined the relationships between “top performing” US hospitals and the health status of counties they serve and (b) compared the health status of “top performing” US hospital counties versus that of remaining US counties. Statistical analyses considered US News and World Report Honor Roll ranking data, as a measure of hospital performance, and County Health Rankings (CHR) data, as a measure of county health status. “Top performing” hospital Honor Roll scores were correlated with measures of Clinical Care (p < 0.001). Counties with “top performing” US hospitals presented greater health status with regard to All Health Outcomes (p < 0.001), Length of Life (p < 0.001), Quality of Life (p < 0.001), All Health Factors (p < 0.001), Health Behaviors (p < 0.001), and Clinical Care (p < 0.001), than compared to remaining US counties. Hospital impact on county health status remains primarily recognized in clinical care and not in overall health. Also, counties that contain a “top performing” US hospital tend to present lower health risks to their citizens than compared to other US counties.
The prepaid electric meter: Rights, relationships and reification in Unguja, Tanzania

Abstract Sustainable Development Goal 7, with the light bulb and power button as its symbols, in effect promotes the universal right to basic electricity services. Access for all demands both affordability and cost-recovery, and utilities (and donors) increasingly require users to shoulder the greater burden of cost-recovery. We argue that the electricity system is underpinned by a set of relationships among user, provider and the service itself: these relationships are mediated by the meter, the technology of commodification. Using a constant-comparison approach, and based on a year of interviews and document analysis, we compare postpaid and prepaid meter regimes in Unguja, Tanzania. We ask: what difference does the mode of payment make to the (residential) user, the utility, and to the prospects for meeting SDG 7? We find that the prepaid meter becomes reified with its automated monitoring and measurement mechanism, rendering the once-familiar meter reader obsolete, and shutting off the flow of electricity as soon as the customer’s “units” have run down. Reification makes the utility more invisible to the customer, who now blames the meter rather than the utility for poor service or high bills. Our interviews reveal broad support for the prepaid meter, however, because economically vulnerable users expressed greater fear of debt than of the dark, and were willing to cede control of their consumption to the new meter. These findings undermine the common accusation of a “culture of nonpayment” in Africa. We also find that prepaid meters may incentivize the partial return to biomass-based fuels when cash is not available – exactly the behavior that universal access to electricity is supposed to prevent. We conclude that, if access to electricity in sub-Saharan Africa becomes entirely contingent on payment prior to use, this is not fully compatible with a commitment to universal basic access.
A Cyberplatform for Sharing Scientific Research Data at DataCenterHub

DataCenterHub is a new solution for preserving, sharing, and discovering data produced by scientific research. Datasets are organized by experiments, with a simple common structure for metadata, file collections, and key parameters. Researchers associate annotations, reports, media, and measurements to each experiment, and interactive viewers interpret data by type and use so that they can be investigated before downloading. Parameters are extracted for discovery of key data otherwise hidden in files. DataCenterHub provides an alternative discipline-neutral solution, with the goal of helping researchers classify and share data for easy discovery and exploration.
Field effect photoconductivity in graphene on undoped semiconductor substrates

Due to its high charge carrier mobility, broadband light absorption, and ultrafast carrier dynamics, graphene is a promising material for the development of high-performance photodetectors. Graphene-based photodetectors have been demonstrated to date using monolayer graphene operating in conjunction with either metals or semiconductors. Most graphene devices are fabricated on doped Si substrates with SiO2 dielectric used for back gating. Here, we demonstrate photodetection in graphene field effect phototransistors fabricated on undoped semiconductor (SiC) substrates. The photodetection mechanism relies on the high sensitivity of the graphene conductivity to the local change in the electric field that can result from the photo-excited charge carriers produced in the back-gated semiconductor substrate. We also modeled the device and simulated its operation using the finite element method to validate the existence of the field-induced photoresponse mechanism and study its properties. Our graphene phototransistor possesses a room-temperature photoresponsivity as high as ~7.4 A/W, which is higher than the required photoresponsivity (1 A/W) in most practical applications. The light power-dependent photocurrent and photoresponsivity can be tuned by the source-drain bias voltage and back-gate voltage. Graphene phototransistors based on this simple and generic architecture can be fabricated by depositing graphene on a variety of undoped substrates, and are attractive for many applications in which photodetection or radiation detection is sought.
Some Basic Properties of Sobolev Spaces

In the modern theory of partial differential equations, the smoothness of solutions is commonly described in terms of Sobolev spaces. They have nearly become the basic language of PDE. Detailed studies of Sobolev spaces can be found in [2, 138], for example. In this section, we will briefly introduce what these spaces are and some of their basic properties, to the extent that they are sufficient for the subsequent material in this book. The most important thing here is to understand the content of Theorems 2.1, 2.2 and 2.8 in this chapter. Their proofs, although not difficult to comprehend, do appear a little technical for an inexperienced reader and, thus, can be put off to the second reading.
Nonhormonal Treatments for Insomnia

Insomnia is a common and growing complaint; 54% of adults report experiencing at least one symptom of insomnia a few nights a week, and 33% of adults report experiencing at least one symptom every night, according to the National Sleep Foundation’s 2005 Sleep in America poll (1) Of those adults experiencing at least one symptom of insomnia a few nights a week, women comprise 57%, whereas men comprise 51% (1), although women are 1.5 times more likely than men to experience insomnia when using full diagnostic criteria (2.)
Geometric measures of robustness in signal processing

We have presented a newly originated geometric approach toward measuring the robustness of a variety of signal processors. This approach admits nonstationary and, in certain cases, dependent data in a manner which reflects the effects of essentially arbitrary perturbations in an underlying distribution about a nominal. In particular, we include extensive results for robust signal detection and parameter estimation, and observe that our expressions reveal important limitations in robustness schemes based on classical saddlepoint techniques, thus encouraging further investigations into appropriate alternatives. For example, such alternative signal processors could be designed with the goal of optimizing a weighted combination of performance and robustness, a design criterion which is of important practical interest and is not readily addressed by the nonquantitative classical saddlepoint criteria.
Loss-of-control eating after bariatric/sleeve gastrectomy surgery: Similar to binge-eating disorder despite differences in quantities.

Abstract Objective To characterize loss-of-control eating following sleeve gastrectomy surgery by comparing relevant patient groups. Method Participants were 431 adults seeking treatment for eating/weight concerns categorized into one of four groups: 1) overweight/obesity (OW/OB), 2) binge-eating disorder (BED), 3) “Bariatric Binge-Eating Disorder” (Bar-BED) defined as meeting all criteria for DSM-5 binge-eating disorder, except for the requirement of an unusually large amount of food, following sleeve gastrectomy surgery, and 4) “Bariatric Loss-of-Control Eating” (Bar-LOC Only), defined as experiencing at least once weekly loss-of-control eating episodes during the past month without the other associated clinical features and distress that characterize Bar-BED, following sleeve gastrectomy surgery. Results The Bar-BED and BED groups reported comparable levels of overall eating-disorder and depressive symptoms, and these levels were significantly higher than those levels reported by the OW/OB and Bar-LOC Only groups. Adjusting for age, body mass index, and race did not change the overall pattern of findings. Conclusion “Bariatric Binge-Eating Disorder” shares clinical features of DSM-5 binge-eating disorder, regardless of the quantity of food consumed. Careful assessment of loss-of-control eating, associated behavioral features, and distress is warranted following surgery. More broadly, our findings highlight the importance of assessing loss-of-control eating across patient groups with obesity.
Abstract 974: Alternative polyadenylation of androgen receptor variants in castration-resistant prostate cancer

The androgen receptor (AR), which is activated by androgens, functions in the normal prostate as a master transcriptional regulator. Accordingly, prostate cancer (PCa) presents as an androgen- and AR-dependent disease. Inhibition of AR transcriptional activity with androgen-deprivation therapy (ADT) is effective for patients with locally advanced and metastatic disease. All ADT suppresses AR via interference with its ligand binding domain (LBD)-dependent transcriptional activity. However, development of therapy resistance and transition to castration-resistant prostate cancer (CRPC) represents a major clinical challenge. CRPC circumvents ADT by expressing constitutively active AR variants (AR-Vs) that lack the LBD. Therapies targeting constitutively active AR variants are not currently available. To address this problem, we investigated the mechanisms underlying AR-V expression in CRPC. One particular AR-V, called AR-V7, consists of contiguously spliced exons 1, 2, 3, and a cryptic exon, CE3, and has been shown to be associated with clinical resistance to second-generation AR inhibitors abiraterone and enzalutamide. We noted that CE3 contains a consensus hexameric AAUAAA polyadenylation signal (PAS). We hypothesized that intronic polyadenylation promotes AR-V7 expression in CRPC. To test this, we developed a morpholino that sterically blocked the CE3 PAS to prevent splicing of AR-V7. We have demonstrated that the PAS in CE3 controls expression of AR-V7, as well as a broad array of AR variants arising by splicing of adjacent cryptic exons that use the shared CE3 PAS. Furthermore, our data demonstrate that the cleavage and polyadenylation complex (CPSF complex) is enriched in primary PCa tumors relative to normal tissues. We have also demonstrated that CPSF1, a member of the CPSF complex, controls expression of AR-Vs relative to full length AR and plays a global role in the determination of mRNA isoform length in prostate cancer cells. Collectively, these findings reveal alterations in the cellular machinery governing mRNA cleavage and polyadenylation in prostate cancer, and identify specific opportunities for therapeutic intervention. Citation Format: Jamie L. Van Etten, Michael Nyquist, Yingming Li, Rebecca LaRue, Yeung Ho, Rendong Yang, Daniel F. Voytas, Christine Henzler, Scott M. Dehm. Alternative polyadenylation of androgen receptor variants in castration-resistant prostate cancer [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the American Association for Cancer Research Annual Meeting 2018; 2018 Apr 14-18; Chicago, IL. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2018;78(13 Suppl):Abstract nr 974.
Maximizing Performance and Preventing Injury in Masters Athletes

Masters athletes exhibit persistently high levels of functional capacity helping them advance through a healthy aging process. When evaluating the trend of top performances among masters athletes, performance continues to improve within age categories [1, 2]. However, the capacity for performance in athletics does decrease as people age. The rate of decline has been evaluated by several studies. When examining the track and field performance of senior athletes, both male and female performance decreased at approximately 3.4% for each year after the age of 50 in a relatively linear fashion, until the age of 75, where performance begins to fall more precipitously, with a decline of greater than 7% in performance times annually [3]. Furthermore, the age of maximum performance increases with greater race distances, and the rate of slowing as athletes age decreases as competition distances increase [4]. This is consistent with known shifts that take place within skeletal muscle: the percentages of slow-twitch type I muscle fibers increase with increasing age [5–11]. Similar findings are noted in other sports as well [12]. Masters swimmers also demonstrate a modest, linear decrease in performance of 0.6–1% per year until age 70, when a more rapid decline is noted [13, 14]. In Ironman triathletes, age-related rates of decline in performance are 13% for men and 15% for women each decade until age 70; with greater declines noted in swimming and running than cycling [1].
Multiple-Partner Fertility in the United States: A Demographic Portrait

Multiple-partner fertility (MPF) occurs when a person has biological children with more than one partner. The 2014 Survey of Income and Program Participation (SIPP), a nationally representative panel study of individuals and households in the United States, is the first such survey to include a direct question about whether respondents are MPF parents. Understanding the prevalence of such families is important given the known socioeconomic correlates of MPF and the ramifications of entering MPF for both individuals and families. In this study, the new SIPP data are used to generate key benchmarks for a national sample, present subpopulation estimates, and describe the sample of adults with children by multiple partners.
Complexity of Complex System: How do we Measure it?

I want to raise a number of questions I feel we need to address in order to have real progress in the area of human-system interaction. One of the issues addressed during this conference is human error in complex systems. I belief that there are two areas which we need to consider. First, how do we know that the system is complex if basic relationships seem to work out to be very simple? If the system is complex then we can ask, have we really designed the system properly? Do we really expect that a human will be able to operate effectively in such a system? Is the design just not quite right? Or, maybe we should be matching the human attributes and take the human out of the equation and have the system run without people?
What sentimentalists should say about emotion

Recent work by emotion researchers indicates that emotions have a multilevel structure. Sophisticated sentimentalists should take note of this work – for it better enables them to defend a substantive role for emotion in moral cognition. Contra May's rationalist criticisms, emotions are not only able to carry morally relevant information, but can also substantially influence moral judgment and reasoning.
Reducing the TUTs that hurt: the impact of a brief mindfulness induction on emotionally valenced mind wandering

ABSTRACTNegative mood has been linked to poorer sustained attention and increased mind wandering. Mindfulness training appears to reduce negative mood and mind wandering. The current study examined...
Completing the Basic and Clinical Science Course as a First-Year Ophthalmology Resident

Background The Basic and Clinical Science Course (BCSC) is the primary educational curriculum for ophthalmology resident physicians in the United States. The Ophthalmic Knowledge Assessment Program (OKAP) examination is an annual evaluation completed by residents that is based primarily on the BCSC curriculum. First-year ophthalmology residents are encouraged to complete the 13 volume BCSC series in preparation for the OKAP examination while balancing a steep clinical learning curve and substantial call schedule. By calculating the daily time commitment necessary to read each volume in the series, we hope to help residents create a realistic study plan to compete the entire BSCS series before the OKAP examination. Methods We determine the word counts of each volume using an electronic copy of the 2018–2019 BCSC series. We include all text sections and legends, and we exclude all figures and tables. We calculate the time per day of dedicated reading required to complete a goal number of BCSC books between the start of ophthalmology residency (postgraduate year 2 [PGY2]) and the OKAP examination by developing a formula that is a function of self-assessed reading speed. Results A first-year ophthalmology (PGY2) resident with an average reading speed of 250 words per minute must read for 25.0 minutes per day to complete the entire BCSC series before the OKAP examination. If studying is initiated at the beginning of intern (PGY1) year, the resident must read for 10.2 minutes per day. We introduce a formula and provide a table to guide residents on the amount of time needed to dedicate to reading the BCSC each day as a function of self-assessed reading speed. Discussion Completion of all volumes of the BCSC requires a daily commitment with little room for missed sessions. The commitment is substantially more realistic if initiated during the PGY1 year; thus, residency programs should encourage an early start to OKAP preparation. We hope with a better understanding of the daily time commitment involved in completing the BCSC series, ophthalmology residents will be able to develop more successful study plans.
Patterned Erasure Correcting Codes for Low Storage-Overhead Blockchain Systems

Traditionally in blockchain systems, the sequence of transactions acts as a decentralized ledger where each node in the network is required to store an identical copy. As a result, the storage space required to store the entire blockchain can become prohibitively large. Erasure coding and network coding techniques were previously introduced to mitigate this storage burden. In this work, we first observe that node failures in the network can occur periodically. Next, we take advantage of this property to develop a coding scheme which corrects a predefined set of possible node erasure patterns. By explicitly focusing on certain erasure patterns, proposed codes have lower storage requirements than erasure codes which correct all possible erasure patterns, and moreover, our codes achieve the minimum average storage per node under the given assumptions.
Ethnic and economic regions in Slovakia: A statistical and visual exploration of contemporary patterns

When Czechoslovakia was formed after World War I from the remains of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, the national boundaries imposed at the time did not accurately portray the areal extent of some ethnic groups. This was particularly true for the Hungarian minority which was established along the southern border of Slovakia. Because of this boundary arrangement, ethnic and economic divisions have resulted within Czechoslovakia and have continued in the new state of Slovakia. This paper analyzes the contemporary regional extent of the major ethnic groups in Slovakia at the district and commune levels. It also analyzes these ethnic patterns in light of a number of economic characteristics. Methods include mapping and analysis of various statistical tests using 1991 Czechoslovak census data. A strong relationship between Hungarian communes and agricultural employment is shown as well as a connection between employment in industry and Slovak ethnic regions. These findings suggest that the Hungarian minority has experienced a substantial geopolitical shift from the group in power to a peripheral society within Slovakia that continues to exhibit higher levels of agricultural reliance than the majority of ethnic Slovakian regions.
Ad hoc Test Generation Through Binary Rewriting

When a security vulnerability or other critical bug is not detected by the developers’ test suite, and is discovered post-deployment, developers must quickly devise a new test that reproduces the buggy behavior. Then the developers need to test whether their candidate patch indeed fixes the bug, without breaking other functionality, while racing to deploy before attackers pounce on exposed user installations. This can be challenging when factors in a specific user environment triggered the bug. If enabled, however, record-replay technology faithfully replays the execution in the developer environment as if the program were executing in that user environment under the same conditions as the bug manifested. This includes intermediate program states dependent on system calls, memory layout, etc. as well as any externally-visible behavior. Many modern record-replay tools integrate interactive debuggers, to help locate the root cause, but don’t help the developers test whether their patch indeed eliminates the bug under those same conditions. In particular, modern record-replay tools that reproduce intermediate program state cannot replay recordings made with one version of a program using a different version of the program where the differences affect program state. This work builds on record-replay and binary rewriting to automatically generate and run targeted tests for candidate patches significantly faster and more efficiently than traditional test suite generation techniques like symbolic execution. These tests reflect the arbitrary (ad hoc) user and system circumstances that uncovered the bug, enabling developers to check whether a patch indeed fixes that bug. The tests essentially replay recordings made with one version of a program using a different version of the program, even when the the differences impact program state, by manipulating both the binary executable and the recorded log to result in an execution consistent with what would have happened had the the patched version executed in the user environment under the same conditions where the bug manifested with the original version. Our approach also enables users to make new recordings of their own workloads with the original version of the program, and automatically generate and run the corresponding ad hoc tests on the patched version, to validate that the patch does not break functionality they rely on.
Effect of the deformation in the inertia forces on the inverse dynamics of planar flexible mechanical systems

The inverse dynamics problem for articulated structural systems such as robotic manipulators is the problem of the determination of the joint actuator forces and motor torques such that the system components follow specified motion trajectories. In many of the previous investigations, the open loop control law was established using an inverse dynamics procedure in which the centrifugal and Coriolis inertia forces are linearized such that these forces in the flexible model are the same as those in the rigid body model. In some other investigations, the effect of the nonlinear centrifugal and Coriolis forces is neglected in the analysis and control system design of articulated structural systems. It is the objective of this investigation to study the effect of the linearization of the centrifugal and Coriolis forces on the nonlinear dynamics of constrained flexible mechanical systems. The virtual work of the inertia forces is used to define the complete nonlinear centrifugal and Coriolis force model. This nonlinear model that depends on the rate of the finite rotation and the elastic deformation of the deformable bodies is used to obtain the solution of the inverse dynamics problem, thus defining the joint torques that produce the desired motion trajectories. The effect of the linearization of the mass matrix as well as the centrifugal and Coriolis forces on the obtained feedforward control law is examined numerically. The results presented in this investigation are obtained using a slider crank mechanism with a flexible connecting rod.
Better Together? A Pilot Study of Romantic Partner Influence on Exercise Adherence and Cardiometabolic Risk in African-American Couples

African-Americans (AAs) have higher rates of inactivity, obesity, and cardiometabolic risk compared to other races/ethnicities. Romantic partners can positively influence health habits, yet whether or not couples have to exercise together in order to adopt regular exercise remains unclear. This study examined whether exercising together influences exercise adherence and cardiometabolic risk in AA couples. Nine AA romantic couples (age 62.8 ± 7.7 years; body mass index 31.0 ± 4.4 kg/m2; 6105 ± 1689 average steps/day) completed a 12-week walking (≥ 30 min, 3 days/week) plus resistance training (RT; 2 days/week) pilot intervention. Couples were randomized to either exercise together (ET) or separately (ES). Waist and hip circumferences, iDXA-measured body composition, blood pressure, and blood biomarkers (glucose, hemoglobin A1c (HbA1c), total cholesterol, high-density lipoprotein (HDL) cholesterol, triglycerides, C-reactive protein, and fibrinogen) were assessed pre- and post-intervention. Independent-sample t tests and generalized linear mixed models, controlling for gender, were used to analyze data. Significance was accepted at P < 0.05. There were no significant group × time interactions for any outcome. However, ET trended toward more walking (86.5 ± 57.7 min/week) than ES (66.1 ± 31.7 min/week). There were also significant overall time effects for waist circumference (P < 0.001), body fat (P = 0.020), fat mass (P = 0.007), gynoid fat (P = 0.041), HbA1c (P = 0.020), and HDL (P = 0.047), where all variables decreased. Trends showed exercising together may promote walking prescription adherence, although more research is needed in a larger sample. This intervention may also improve cardiometabolic risk factors in this population. These pilot data will inform the current investigators’ future exercise intervention research in AA adult dyads.
Evaluating the Impact of Surgeon Self-Awareness by Comparing Self vs Peer Ratings of Surgical Skill and Outcomes for Bariatric Surgery.

Objective To evaluate variation in self vs. peer-assessments of surgical skill using surgical videos and compare surgeon-specific outcomes with bariatric surgery. Summary background data Prior studies have demonstrated that surgeons with lower peer-reviewed ratings of surgical skill had higher complication rates after bariatric surgery. Methods This is a retrospective cohort study of 25 surgeons who voluntarily submitted a video of a typical laparoscopic sleeve gastrectomy (SG) between 2015-2016. Videos were self and peer-rated using a validated instrument based on a 5-point Likert scale (5="master surgeon" and 1="surgeon-in-training"). Risk adjusted 30-day complication rates were compared between surgeons who over-rated and under-rated their skill based on data from 24,186 SG cases as well as 12,888 gastric bypass (GBP) cases. Results Individual overall self-rating of surgical skill varied between 2.5 to 5. Surgeons in the top quartile for self:peer ratings (n=6, ratio 1.58) had lower overall mean peer-scores (2.98 vs 3.79, p = 0.0150) than surgeons in the lowest quartile (n = 6, ratio 0.94). Complication rates between top and bottom quartiles were similar after SG, however leak rates were higher with GBP among surgeons who over-rated their skill with sleeve gastrectomy (0.65 vs 0.27, p = 0.0181). Surgeon experience was similar between comparison groups. Conclusions and relevance Self-perceptions of surgical skill varied widely. Surgeons who over-rated their skill had higher leak rates for more complex procedures. Video assessments can help identify surgeons with poor self-awareness who may benefit from a surgical coaching program.
The Measurement of Inequality by Components of Total Expenditure

An informational approach is used for the measurement of the inequality of each component of total consumption expenditure. The approach is applied to data of the International Comparison Project.
Evaluating the effects of structural disorder on the magnetic properties of Nd 2 Zr 2 O 7

Motivated by the variation in reported lattice parameters of floating-zone-grown ${\mathrm{Nd}}_{2}{\mathrm{Zr}}_{2}{\mathrm{O}}_{7}$ crystals, we have performed a detailed study of the relationship between synthesis environment, structural disorder, and magnetic properties. Using a combination of polycrystalline standards, electron-probe microanalysis, and scattering techniques, we show that crystals grown under atmospheric conditions have a reduced lattice parameter relative to pristine polycrystalline powders due to occupation of the Nd site by excess Zr (i.e., negative stuffing). In contrast, crystals grown under high-pressure Ar are nearly stoichiometric with an average lattice parameter approaching the polycrystalline value. While minimal disorder of the oxygen sublattices is observed on the scale of the average structure, neutron pair-distribution function analysis indicates a highly local disorder of the oxygen coordination, which is only weakly dependent on growth environment. Most importantly, our magnetization, heat capacity, and single-crystal neutron scattering data show that the magnetic properties of crystals grown under high-pressure Ar match closely with those of stoichiometric powders. Neutron scattering measurements reveal that the signature of magnetic moment fragmentation---the coexistence of all-in-all-out (AIAO) magnetic Bragg peaks and diffuse pinch-point scattering due to spin-ice correlations--persists in these nearly stoichiometric crystals. However, in addition to an increased AIAO transition temperature, the diffuse signal is seemingly stabilized and remains nearly unchanged upon warming to 800 mK. This behavior indicates that both the AIAO magnetic order and spin-ice correlations are sensitive to deviations of the Nd stoichiometry.
Racial differences in survival and response to therapy in patients with metastatic colorectal cancer: A secondary analysis of CALGB/SWOG 80405 (Alliance A151931)

BACKGROUND The objective of this study was to evaluate the association between self-identified race and overall survival (OS), progression-free survival (PFS), and response to therapy among patients enrolled in the randomized Cancer and Leukemia Group B (CALGB)/SWOG 80405 trial. METHODS Patients with advanced or metastatic colorectal cancer who were enrolled in the CALGB/SWOG 80405 trial were identified by race. On the basis of covariates (treatment arm, KRAS status, sex, age, and body mass index), each Black patient was exact matched with a White patient. The association between race and OS and PFS was examined using a marginal Cox proportional hazard model for matched pairs. The interaction between KRAS status and race was tested in the model. The association between race and response to therapy and adverse events were examined using a marginal logistic regression model. RESULTS In total, 392 patients were matched and included in the final data set. No difference in OS (hazard ratio [HR], 0.92; 95% confidence interval [CI], 0.73-1.16), PFS (HR, 0.97; 95% CI, 0.78-1.20), or response to therapy (odds ratio [OR], 1.00; 95% CI, 0.65-1.52) was observed between Black and White patients. Patients with KRAS mutant status (HR, 1.31; 95% CI, 1.02-1.67), a performance statusscore of 1 (reference, a performance status of 0; HR, 1.49; 95% CI, 1.18-1.88), or ≥3 metastatic sites (reference, 1 metastatic site; HR, 1.67; 95% CI, 1.22-2.28) experienced worse OS. Black patients experienced lower rates and risk of grade ≥3 fatigue (6.6% vs 13.3%; OR, 0.46; 95% CI, 0.24-0.91) but were equally likely to be treated with a dose reduction (OR, 1.09; 95% CI, 0.72-1.65). CONCLUSIONS No difference in OS, PFS, or response to therapy was observed between Black patients and White patients in an equal treatment setting of the CALGB/SWOG 80405 randomized controlled trial. LAY SUMMARY Despite improvements in screening and treatment, studies have demonstrated worse outcomes in Black patients with colorectal cancer. The purpose of this study was to determine whether there was a difference in cancer-specific outcomes among Black and White patients receiving equivalent treatment on the CALGB/SWOG 80405 randomized clinical trial. In this study, there was no difference in overall survival, progression-free survival, or response to therapy between Black and White patients treated on a clinical trial. These findings suggest that access to care and differences in treatment may be responsible for racial disparities in colorectal cancer.
Prognostic Factors in Breast Cancer Patients With Clinical N3b (Ipsilateral Internal Mammary and Axillary) Disease.

Purpose/Objective(s) Patients with clinical N3b (cN3b) breast cancer often do not undergo surgical resection of gross internal mammary (IM) nodes. Therefore, radiation is important for curative therapy. However, limited data exist to guide treatment recommendations. Materials/Methods We retrospectively reviewed 119 patients with non-metastatic cN3b breast cancer treated at our institution between 2014 and 2019 with curative intent. Staging included u/s evaluation of all regional nodal basins. All patients received neoadjuvant chemotherapy (NAC), surgical resection of the breast primary and nodal dissection, followed by adjuvant radiation to the chest wall/breast, infraclavicular (ICV), SCV and IM nodes. Institutional nodal boost guidelines recommend 10 Gy to radiographically resolved N3b nodal basins, and 16 Gy to unresolved N3b nodes, normal tissue constraints permitting. Patient, tumor, and treatment characteristics were collected and analyzed using a saturated multivariable analysis (MVA) model with backwards elimination to identify variables associated with improved overall survival (OS) at P Results 119 patients were analyzed with a median follow-up of 2.78 years. Median age at diagnosis was 46 years, 56 (47%) were ER+/HER2-, 19 (16%) ER+/HER2+, 13 (11%) ER- /HER2+, and 31 (26%) ER-/HER2-, 86 (74%) had high grade histology, and 68 (57%) had cT3/T4 disease. Mastectomy was performed in 96 (81%) of patients, 36 (30%) had biopsy confirmed IMC involvement, and 8 (7%) had dissection of IM nodes. The median initial radiation dose was 50 Gy (range, 50-55), IMC boost 10 Gy (range, 8-16), and 41 (34%) received cumulative IMC dose > 60 Gy. The 3-year OS, FFDM, RC, and LC were 80%, 71%, 93%, and 94%, respectively. Patients with a nodal pCR of dissected nodes, had improved 3-year OS, 95% vs 71% (P = 0.008). Among patients who had a nodal pCR, nodal boost to > 60 Gy did not significantly improve 3-year OS, 100% vs. 93% (P = 0.40). In patients with less than a nodal pCR, who received IMC > 60 Gy, 3-year OS was numerically improved but was not statistically significant 81% vs. 64% (P = 0.33). In MVA, cumulative IMC dose > 60 Gy, nodal pCR, ER positivity, HER2 positivity, and lower clinical T-stage were independently associated with improved OS (Table 1). Conclusion Nodal pathologic response to NAC and cumulative IMC dose > 60 Gy were independently predictive for improved OS in patients with non-metastatic cN3b breast cancer treated with curative intent. Regional nodal control using a boost was excellent even among those with less than nodal pCR.
Arp2/3 complex activity is necessary for mouse ESC differentiation, times formative pluripotency, and enables lineage specification

Mouse embryonic stem cells (mESCs), a model for differentiation into primed epiblast-like cells (EpiLCs), have revealed transcriptional and epigenetic control of early embryonic development. The control and significance of morphological changes, however, remain less defined. We show marked changes in morphology and actin architectures during differentiation that depend on Arp2/3 complex but not formin activity. Inhibiting Arp2/3 complex activity pharmacologically or genetically does not block exit from naive pluripotency but attenuates increases in EpiLC markers. We find that inhibiting Arp2/3 complex activity delays formative pluripotency and causes globally defective lineage specification as indicated by RNA-sequencing, with significant effects on TBX3-depedendent transcriptional programs. We also identify two previously unreported indicators of mESC differentiation; MRTF and FHL2, which have inverse Arp2/3 complex-dependent nuclear translocation. Our findings on Arp2/3 complex activity in differentiation and the established role of formins in EMT indicate that these two actin nucleators regulate distinct modes of epithelial plasticity.
Podocyte Specific Deletion of Acid Ceramidase Predisposes Mice to Obesity-Induced Glomerular Injury

CONCLUSION Acid ceramidase (AC) as a key regulatory enzyme involved in ceramide metabolism plays a critical role in the intracellular lipid metabolism and molecular trafficking. Given recent reports that obesity enhances ceramide production, leading to the activation of NADPH oxidase and consequent development of glomerular sclerosis, the present study was designed to test whether AC contributes to the development of glomerular injury associated with obesity. First, we generated and characterized the podocyte-specific AC knockout mice by cross breeding loxP-floxed AC +/- and nephrin cre promoter mice. The podocyte specific AC heterozygous (Ac +/- /Neph cre ) and wild type (AC +/+ ) mice were fed a high fat diet (HFD) or normal chow (ND) for 12 weeks to produce obesity. Immunohistochemical analysis demonstrated that AC expression was reduced in glomeruli of Ac +/- /Neph cre mice compared to AC +/+ mice. In contrast, the ceramide level, and desmin expression were higher in glomeruli of Ac +/- /Neph cre than AC +/+ mice. Furthermore, Western blot, real time RT-PCR and Immunohistochemical analyses showed that HFD significantly decreased the AC expression in Ac +/- /Neph cre mice, but not in AC +/+ mice. Correspondingly, the urinary protein excretion was significantly higher in HFD fed Ac +/- /Neph cre than Ac +/+ mice. In in vitro studies of podocytes, AC inhibitor, D-NMAPPD decreased the podocin expression, VEGF level and increased the desmin expression compared to control cells. In conclusion, our observations reveal that normal expression of AC contributes to the function of podocytes and the defect of this gene expression is a critical mechanism triggering podocyte injury and ultimately resulting in obesity-associated end-stage renal disease (supported by NIH grants DK54927 and DK104031). BACKGROUND Acid ceramidase (N-acylsphingosine deacylase, AC) is the lipid hydrolase responsible for the degradation of ceramide into sphingosine and free fatty acids with in the lysosomes. AC not only hydrolyzes ceramide into sphingosine but also can synthesize ceramidase from sphingosine and free fatty acids in vitro and in situ. Acid ceramidase (AC) is a key regulatory enzyme involved in sphingolipid metabolism, and plays a role in the pathology of several diseases such as Farber disease, diabetes, Alzheimer disease, obesity and cancer.
Advances in photodetectors

Publisher Summary Numerous improvements and breakthroughs in photodetector and receiver technologies have facilitated the evolution of fiber optic digital transmission systems toward 40 Gb/s and beyond, development of microwave photonics, and emergence of multiple-component all-optical functions. This chapter focuses on three primary PLCs: high-speed waveguide photodiodes for systems that operate at 100 Gb/s and beyond, photodiodes with high saturation current for high-power applications, and recent advances of avalanche photodiodes (APDs) for applications in telecommunications. As a key element in optical fiber communications systems, photo detectors belong to a well-developed sector of photonics technology. Future advanced systems and special applications require sophisticated devices involving a deep understanding of device physics and technology. The evolution of photodetectors for high-bitrate receivers is influenced by two factors. First, conventional normal incidence photodiodes cannot achieve the requisite bandwidth-efficiency products for acceptable receiver sensitivities, hence, the move to waveguide photodiodes. Another factor is that, to date, APDs have not achieved the sensitivity advantage relative to PIN photodiodes at 40 Gb/s that they have demonstrated at lower bit rates.
TOP-C: Task-Oriented Parallel C for Distributed and Shared Memory

The “holy grail” of parallel software systems is a parallel programming language that will be as easy to use as a sequential one, while maintaining most of the potential efficiency of the underlying parallel hardware. TOP-C (Task-Oriented Parallel C) attempts such a model by presenting a task abstraction that hides much of the details of the underlying hardware. DSM (Distributed Shared Memory) also attemps such a model, but along an orthogonal direction. By presenting a shared memory model of memory, it hides much of the details of message-passing required by the underlying hardware. This article reviews the TOP-C model and then presents ongoing research on combining the advantages of both models in a single system.
Limited ability of existing nomograms to predict outcomes in men undergoing active surveillance for prostate cancer.

Objective To assess the ability of current nomograms to predict disease progression at repeat biopsy or at delayed radical prostatectomy (RP) in a prospectively accrued cohort of patients managed by active surveillance (AS). Materials and Methods A total of 273 patients meeting low-risk criteria who were managed by AS and who underwent multiple biopsies and/or delayed RP were included in the study. The Kattan (base, medium and full), Steyerberg, Nakanishi and Chun nomograms were used to calculate the likelihood of indolent disease (‘nomogram probability’) as well as to predict ‘biopsy progression’ by grade or volume, ‘surgical progression’ by grade or stage, or ‘any progression’ on repeat biopsy or surgery. We evaluated the associations between each nomogram probability and each progression outcome using logistic regression with (area under the receiver-operating characteristic curve (AUC) values and decision curve analysis. Results The nomogram probabilities of indolent disease were lower in patients with biopsy progression (P < 0.01) and any progression on repeat biopsy or surgical pathology (P < 0.05). In regression analyses, nomograms showed a modest ability to predict biopsy progression, adjusted for total number of biopsies (AUC range 0.52–0.67) and any progression (AUC range 0.52–0.70). Decision curve analyses showed that all the nomograms, except for the Kattan base model, have similar value in predicting biopsy progression and any progression. Nomogram probabilities were not associated with surgical progression in a subgroup of 58 men who underwent delayed RP. Conclusions Existing nomograms have only modest accuracy in predicting the outcomes of patients undergoing AS. Improvements to existing nomograms should be made before they are implemented in clinical practice and used to select patients for AS.
Unsupervised extraction of appraisal expressions

The goal of sentiment analysis is to characterize texts in terms of the opinions and evaluations they express As such, a wide variety of different tasks have been addressed in the field However, there is not yet a clear consensus on how to formalize the notion of “sentiment” or “subjective language” The most commonly studied kind of subjective language in sentimant analysis is evaluative language, that which gives a positive or negative evaluation of some target (Although positioning language, which relates the position of one opinion holder with respect to those of other opinion holders and intentional language and some aspects of modality have also been included.)