cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Patterns of functional and taxonomic organization of stream fishes: inferences based on α, β, and γ diversities.

The primary objective of this study was to determine whether total biodiversity (γ) is partitioned into within-community (α) and among-community (β) components differently for taxonomic and functional organization. I hypothesized that α diversity will contribute more to the functional organization of γ diversity and that β diversity will contribute more to the taxonomic organization of γ diversity. A secondary objective was to determine whether the relationship between taxonomic and functional diversity is scale dependent. Species abundance data was obtained from fisheries surveys conducted by the Texas Parks and Wildlife Dept that focused on least disturbed streams from 11 different ecoregions of Texas, including 62 localities from 18 drainages. Functional and taxonomic organization of assemblages was quantified with two different measures of biodiversity, including richness and the numbers equivalent of Shannon diversity. Scale-dependent effects on these indices were assessed by multiplicatively partitioning γ into α and β components. The contribution of α and β components to γ diversity differed between functional and taxonomic organization and among different measures of biodiversity. Among-community components were more influential in structuring the taxonomic organization of stream-fish assemblages, whereas within-community components were more important in structuring the functional organization of assemblages. The relationship between taxonomic and functional diversity differed between α and β components and between spatial scales. Indeed, ecological patterns not only change with spatial scale, but how they change is dependent on which aspect of biodiversity is considered.
National technology foundation proposal

A bill that would combine sections of the National Science Foundation and the Department of Commerce into a National Technology Foundation was introduced in June by Rep. George E. Brown, Jr. (D-Calif.), chairman of the House Science and Technology Committee. Purpose of the foundation would be to ‘promote the advance of technology, technological innovation, technology utilization, and the supply of technological manpower for the improvement of the economic, environmental, and social well-being of the United States.’ The bill has been sent to congressional committee. ‘Among other things, the National Technology Foundation would recognize the importance of engineering and help harness its potential,’ Brown told the House.
Single-Fiber Interception Efficiency for Elliptical Fibers

Synthetic fibers with non-circular cross-sections are used in air filters. These fibers may offer performance advantages over traditional fibers with circular cross sections because they have more surface per unit volume of fiber upon which particles can collect. Starting with a solution for the velocity field around fibers with elliptical cross-sections, expressions for predicting the single-fiber efficiency for particle collection by the interception mechanism were developed for elliptical fibers. The interception efficiency predictions depend on filter solidity, fiber properties such as size, aspect ratio, and orientation of the cross section relative to the incoming flow, and particle diameter. The expressions demonstrate that single fiber interception efficiency for elliptical fibers generally increases with increasing particle diameter, increasing solidity, increasing aspect ratio, and as the major axis of the ellipse becomes more perpendicular to the incoming air flow.
TRACKS: Bailouts and Unwanted Coordination

This paper demonstrates that ex post bailouts prompted by a noncontractible signal of output can lead to ex ante tacit collusion. The possibility of being bailed out whenever they fail can decrease the incentives of agents to do a good job in the first place.
Analytical (mathematical) predictive modeling in fiber optics structural analysis (FOSA): review and extension

An updated version of the paper with revised references has been published The review part of the paper addresses analytical (mathematical) modeling in structural analysis in fiber optics engineering, mostly fiber optics interconnects, and deals with optical fibers subjected to thermal and/or mechanical loading (stresses) in bending, tension, compression, or to the combinations of such loadings. Attributes and significance of predictive modeling are indicated and discussed. The review is based mostly on the author’s research conducted at Bell Laboratories, Physical Sciences and Engineering Research Division, Murray Hill, NJ, USA, during his tenure with this company, and, to a lesser extent, on his recent work in the field. The addressed structures include, but are not limited to, optical fibers of finite length: bare fibers; jacketed and dual-coated fibers; fibers experiencing thermal loading; fibers soldered into ferrules or adhesively bonded into capillaries; as well as the roles of geometric and material non-linearity; dynamic response to shocks and vibrations; and possible applications of nano-materials in new generations of coating and cladding systems. The extension part is concerned with a novel, fruitful and challenging directionprobabilistic design for reliability (PDfR) of opto-electronic and photonic products, including optical fibers and interconnects. The rationale behind the PDfR concept is that there is no such thing as zero probability of failure, that the difference between a highly reliable product and an insufficiently reliable product is “merely” in the level of the never zero probability of its failure and that when the operational performance of the product is imperative, the ability to predict, quantify, assure and, if possible and appropriate, even specify its reliability is highly desirable. Accordingly, the objective of the PDfR effort is to quantify the likelihood of an operational failure of a material, device or a system, including the field of fiber optics.
Elimination of avoidance behavior in the clinic and its transfer to the normal environment

Abstract Extinction procedures and reinforcement of incompatible behavior in the laboratory-clinic eliminated the conditioned anxiety responses and avoidance of solid food of a 4-year-old child. The behavior modification plan was not directed at changing the complex stimulus configuration in the child's normal environment which maintained the disruptive behavior, but at modifying the functional properties of these conditions. Functional analysis defined the disruptive behavior as an ‘anticipatory’ response to a noxious stimulus. Procedures directed at eliminating the conditioned anxiety responses to the noxious stimulus in the laboratory were effective in eliminating the disruptive ‘anticipatory’ responses that had appeared in the natural environment. Direct manipulation of the home environment was not included in the behavior modification plan since the goal of treatment was the modification of the child's behavior in her normal environment.
Anomalous thresholds as limits of complex singularities

Abstract It is well-known that a vertex function H(z1, z2, z3) satisfying certain spectral conditions may exhibit anomalous cuts. This happens e.g. when z1 and z2 are real and below their threshold values. Then H(z) is analytic in the cut z3-plane, but the cut may start at a value below the normal threshold value. We here show that the anomalous part of this cut can conveniently be understood as the limit of complex singularities which approach the real axis when z1 and z2 simultaneously approach real values. In contradistinction to this, the normal static cut always is a singularity on the real axis. We study this phenomenon for those vertex functions which can be obtained from a superposition of triangle diagrams.
Time Dependence of Component Temperatures in Microwave Heated Immiscible Liquid Mixture

Measured influence of microwave heating on time dependencies of component temperatures for two immiscible liquids in a mixture shows differences for polar (water) and non-polar (cyclohex-ane or carbon tetrachloride) liquids. The rate of increase for the temperature of water with time of microwave heating is larger than other liquids in the mixture (maximum rate of temperature growth for water is 8 times larger than corresponding rate for carbon tetrachloride and 2 times larger than cyclohexane). This leads to creating, for a considerable time period, a unique environment where there is a significant temperature difference between two liquids in a mixture. The maximum value of the difference between water and carbon tetrachloride temperatures in the mixture was 107 °C at 300 sec of microwave heating. While the maximum value of the difference between water and cyclohexane temperatures in the mixture was 57 °C at 135 sec microwave heating. This suggests that electromagnetic waves lose most of their energy to...
A discussion on adopting peer instruction in a course focused on risk management

Peer Instruction (PI) has been shown to promote learning in introductory CS courses as well as upper-division courses such as architecture. A common thread among PI courses is that they focus on programs, algorithms, or equations that follow clear rules. In these courses there is usually one answer, though there may be varying approaches to finding it. An open-question in the PI research is: How could PI be incorporated in a course such as Software Engineering, where the focus is risk management and is therefore situational and dependent on personal experience and resources? This paper addresses one approach to developing PI materials for such a course. The pedagogy has been slightly modified: the instructor asks clicker questions, but then asks the students to call out suggestions for the answers. This paper describes this change and presents data from a student survey about their experiences. A call to the community is made to discuss how this and other modifications may be beneficial pedagogical changes to PI.
Depression Risk Predicts Blunted Neural Responses to Gains and Enhanced Responses to Losses in Healthy Children

Objective Maternal major depressive disorder (MDD) increases risk for MDD and predicts reduced reward responding in adolescent offspring. However, it is unclear whether alterations in neural response to reward can be detected in school-aged children at high risk before the typical increase in reward response observed in adolescence. Method To assess relationships between neural response to gain/loss feedback, MDD risk, and child depressive symptoms, 47 psychiatrically healthy 7- to 10-year-old children (16 at high risk given maternal MDD) completed questionnaires and a functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) card-guessing game in which candy was gained and lost. Results High-risk children showed both blunted response to gain and greater deactivation/reduced activation to loss within the ventral striatum and anterior insula. Within the striatum, risk-group differences in response to loss feedback were significantly larger than for gain, with greater deactivation to loss predicting risk-group status above and beyond blunted gain activation. Anhedonia was related to reduced deactivation to loss (i.e., reduced sensitivity to loss), whereas negative mood was related to enhanced deactivation to loss (i.e., enhanced sensitivity to loss) in the ventral striatum. Conclusion High-risk children showed blunted ventral striatal activation to gain feedback, but ventral striatal deactivation to loss was a stronger predictor of MDD risk. Furthermore, relationships between response to loss and elevated depressive symptoms within the ventral striatum and cingulate differed depending on the type of depressive symptom. Together these results highlight the potentially important role of response to loss of reward in childhood risk for depression.
Whom Does Your Android App Talk To

Smartphone privacy and security work has focused mostly on malicious apps. We take a different angle by questioning whether good apps suffer from a lack of judgment and interact with "bad" websites. We use the term bad websites to refer to entities that engage in dangerous or annoying activities that range from distributing malware, to phishing and overly aggressive ad spamming. The focus of our work is this relatively neglected aspect of security: "Whom does an app talk to?" In this paper, we design and implement AURA, a framework for identifying the hosts that an app talks to and evaluating the risks this communication entails. AURA makes use of both static and dynamic analysis. We studied 13,500 popular free Android apps that connect to 254,022 URLs and 1,260 malicious Android apps that connect to 19,510 URLs. Our main contribution is showing that good apps pose security risks as they contact at least one website that: (a) distributes malware (8.8% of apps), (b) are in a blacklist (15% of apps) based on the classification by VirusTotal and Web of Trust. Our work can raise awareness that even good apps need to be carefully evaluated, especially as people become more concerned about smartphone security and privacy.
Platelet-activating factor is a potent pyrogen and cryogen, but it does not mediate lipopolysaccharide fever or hypothermia

We examined whether platelet-activating factor (PAF) and its receptor mediate lipopolysaccharide (LPS)-induced fever and hypothermia in rats. Two highly potent, structurally distinct antagonists of the PAF receptor, CV6209 and WEB2086, were used. At a neutral ambient temperature (Ta) of 30oC, administration of LPS at a low (10 μg/kg, i.v.) or high (1,000 μg/kg, i.v.) dose resulted in fever. The response to the high dose was turned into hypothermia at a subneutral Ta of 22oC. Neither LPS-induced fever nor hypothermia was affected by pretreatment with CV6209 (5 mg/kg, i.v.) or WEB2086 (5 mg/kg, i.v.). However, both PAF antagonists were efficacious in blocking the thermoregulatory response caused by PAF (334 pmol/kg/min, 1 h, i.v.), regardless of whether the response was a fever (at 30oC) or hypothermia (at 22oC). Additional experiments showed that the thermoregulatory responses to LPS and PAF are also distinct in terms of their mediation by prostaglandins. Neither PAF fever nor PAF hypothermia was affected by pretreatment with the cyclooxygenase-2 inhibitor SC236 (5 mg/kg, i.p.), which is known to abrogate LPS fever. The responses to PAF were also unaffected by pretreatment with the cyclooxygenase-1 inhibitor SC560 (5 mg/kg, i.p.), which is known to attenuate LPS hypothermia. In conclusion, PAF infusion at a picomolar dose causes fever at thermoneutrality but hypothermia in a subthermoneutral environment, both responses being dependent on the PAF receptor and independent of prostaglandins. However, the PAF receptor does not mediate LPS-induced fever or hypothermia, thus challenging the dogma that PAF is an upstream mediator of responses to LPS.
Stillbirth associated with Pseudomonas septicemia; report of two cases.

Abstract The literature concerning abortion, stillbirth, and neonatal death associated with Pseudomonas aeruginosa has been reviewed briefly and two new cases reported. A short description of the autopsy findings in one of these was given.
Governance Effects of LBO Events

We examine the effects of leveraged buyouts (LBOs) on the industry rivals of the firms that undertake the LBO. Specifically, we are interested in determining whether or not the rivals that remain public take steps to change their governance mechanisms to emulate the firms that go private. Specifically, we examine CEO compensation, and the compensation and composition of the board of directors. We document an increase in the number of options awarded to CEOs following LBO activity in an industry, and a decrease in annual bonuses and restricted stock grants as LBO activity slows down. Our results also indicate the likelihood of changing the CEO is positively correlated with LBO activity. We also demonstrate significant changes in the pay for directors and the structure of the board after LBOs occur in an industry. Overall, our examination yields results that indicate firms effectuate significant corporate governance changes following an LBO event in their industry.
Getting Past No in Cancer Care

The rising cost of cancer care, and especially the rising cost of cancer drugs, is widely held to be unsustainable. At the heart of this debate is the belief that the benefit society is receiving is out of register with the cost—that we are not getting good value—and there is evidence to support that view [1]. This is not a debate about the amazing progress that has been made in the fundamental understanding of cancer or on the breathtaking outcomes achieved with some of the new targeted therapies or immuno-oncologic agents. Rather, it is the concern that many of the new therapies being brought to market are priced at a premium irrespective of clinical impact, resulting in a fundamental misalignment between cost and benefit. In his payer perspective, Dr. Newcomer [2] proposes solutions to the frequently discussed challenge of controlling the rapidly increasing costs of cancer care. He reviews why the free market has failed (i.e., because it is not really a free market). He goes on to delineate four specific “simple” steps: (a) eliminate coverage mandates; (b) allow for true comparative effectiveness and cost-effectiveness research; (c) eliminate site of service differentials; and (d) build a rapid learning system, apply it initially to personalized medicine, and empower it to be a major tool of clinical research. Each of these has merits, but each has shortcomings, particularly when considering the pragmatic perspective of “how to get it done.” It is not merely, as the author suggests, a matter of “commitment, rigor, and courage.” Most of the proposals impact the cost of cancer care but only indirectly address the cost of cancer drugs. It behooves us to consider each in turn, as well as in the context of numerous other proposed solutions.
'A Belt of Corpses': The Mobile Remains of Three Caribbean Intellectuals

French Caribbean territories have long occupied a peculiar space between Africa and France, and French Caribbean intellectuals have reacted to this middle position in various ways: serving the French colonial administration in Africa; trying to reconcile criticisms of imperialism and racism within a Greater France; and calling for violent opposition to the French empire. This paper argues that the tensions of assimilation, colonialism, and decolonization apparent in this trajectory are mirrored in the decisions French Caribbean intellectuals made about their bodily remains?as well as in the ways the French state involved itself in these decisions. Felix Eboue died in Cairo in 1944 after a long career as a colonial administrator. Five years later, his ashes were moved to Paris and enshrined in the Pantheon along with Victor Schoelchers remains. Aime Cesaire resisted an official memorialization by France and was buried in Martinique in 2008, but in 2011 a plaque was put up in his honour in the Pantheon. Finally, Frantz Fanon died in the USA in 1961, but was buried in Algeria as he had requested. I am using this belt of corpses?Cesaire's words?to chart the intellectual evolution of the French Caribbean and explore the complexities of colonialism and diaspora.
Olecranon Osteotomy With Tension Band Wire Repair.

Purpose The purpose of this video is to demonstrate the surgical technique of olecranon osteotomy with tension band wire repair. Methods A patient with a comminuted, intra-articular distal humerus fracture requiring ORIF is presented in this video demonstration of the surgical technique of an olecranon osteotomy. The olecranon osteotomy is an established technique for approaching the distal humerus for surgical repair of fracture. In the video, the patient is positioned laterally allowing a dorsal incision. The ulnar nerve is identified and protected. A chevron osteotomy, apex distally based, is created in the proximal ulna using osteotomes, centering the osteotomy within the sulcus of the proximal ulna. Once the osteotomy has been completed, the proximal ulna is reflected proximally to allow access to the distal humerus. The osteotomy is repaired using a tension band wire technique. The 2 longitudinal K-wires (0.062 inches) engage the volar cortex of the ulna and the tips of the pins are buried beneath the triceps tendon. A figure 8, 18-gauge cerclage wire is twisted to compress the osteotomy site at the end of the procedure to promote stability and healing. Results The video is 10 minutes, 30 seconds duration in time and 2,048,409,000 bytes in size. Conclusions Various techniques of olecranon osteotomy have been described. The principles of a well-centered osteotomy and a stable repair are essential to this technique. This is demonstrated in the video of an olecranon osteotomy using osteotomes and a tension band repair.
Use of late-binding technology for workload management system in CMS

Condor glidein-based workload management system (glideinWMS) has been developed and integrated with distributed physics analysis and Monte Carlo (MC) production system at Compact Muon Solenoid (CMS) experiment. The late-binding between the jobs and computing element (CE), and the validation of WorkerNode (WN) environment help significantly reduce the failure rate of Grid jobs. For CPU-consuming MC data production, opportunistic grid resources can be effectively explored via the extended computing pool built on top of various heterogeneous Grid resources. The Virtual Organization (VO) policy is embedded into the glideinWMS and pilot job configuration. GSI authentication, authorization and interfacing with gLExec allows a large user basis to be supported and seamlessly integrated with Grid computing infrastructure. The operation of glideinWMS at CMS shows that it is a highly available and stable system for a large VO of thousands of users and running tens of thousands of user jobs simultaneously. The enhanced monitoring allows system administrators and users to easily track the system-level and job-level status.
A novel simulation based approach for trace signal selection in silicon debug

With the fabrication technology fast approaching 7nm, post-silicon validation has become an integral part of integrated circuit design to capture and eliminate functional bugs that escape pre-silicon validation. The major roadblock in post-silicon functional verification is limited observability of internal signals in a design. A possible solution to address this roadblock is to make use of embedded memories on chip called trace buffers. The amount of debug data that can be acquired from the trace buffer depends on its width and depth. The width of the trace buffer limits the number of signals that can be traced and the depth of the trace buffer limits the number of samples that can be acquired. Using the acquired data from the trace buffer, the values of other nodes in the circuit can be reconstructed. These trace buffers have limited area, hence only a few critical signals can be recorded by it. In this work we used the simulated annealing heuristic to select trace signals. We developed this idea from the fact that trace signal selection can be viewed as a bi-partitioning problem, the set of flip-flops being tapped onto the trace buffer is one partition and remaining flip-flops form the other partition. Experimental results demonstrate that our approach can result in better restoration ratio compared to the state-of-the-art techniques.
Consideration for routine outpatient pediatric cochlear implantation: A retrospective chart review of immediate post-operative complications.

Abstract Introduction Cochlear implantation is well accepted as the treatment of choice for prelingual deafness in children [1]. However, the safety of routinely performing this procedure on an outpatient basis is debated. We aim to assess immediate postoperative complications that would affect a surgeon's decision to perform pediatric cochlear implantation on an outpatient basis. Methods A retrospective chart review was conducted which included all children 17 years old or younger who underwent cochlear implantation from 2004 to 2014 in a private neurotology practice. The immediate postoperative complication rates and types of complications were then examined. Results A total of 579 cochlear implants were placed in children ages 1–17 years old from 2004 to 2014. The most common complications were nausea/vomiting and dizziness/imbalance. The odds ratio of developing complications in the group ages 1–3 years old versus all other age patients was found to be statistically insignificant (OR 0.90, 95% CI 0.61 to 1.32, p = 0.58). The odds ratio of developing a complication after bilateral implantation compared to unilateral implantation was statistically significant (OR 1.96, 95% CI 1.18 to 3.28, p = 0.01). There was no difference in complication rates when comparing lateral wall and perimodiolar insertions. A total of 6 of 579 (1%) cochlear implants resulted in a complication requiring unplanned medical attention. Conclusions Overall, this series offers a decade of experience in pediatric cochlear implantation that shows a low incidence of the need for unplanned medical attention in the immediate postoperative period. The most common complication seen is Post-operative nausea and vomiting (PONV) that appears to be amenable to outpatient management even in the youngest populations. This supports providers routinely performing pediatric cochlear implantation on an outpatient basis.
Diagnosis and Management of Coccidioidomycosis

Coccidioidomycosis is a leading cause of community-acquired pneumonia within its traditional endemic zone in the Southwestern United States and portions of Mexico and Central and South America. Its incidence has increased dramatically within the endemic region; its presence outside of the region, facilitated by a mobile society, is also now substantial. Although only a fraction of the incident disease progresses beyond subclinical illness, this proportion is large in absolute terms and causes substantial disease burden. Diagnosis often depends on serologic interpretation. Treatment has been revolutionized by azole therapy. Controversy remains regarding the decision to treat in less severe disease.
Usefulness of Epicardial Area in the Short Axis to Identify Elevated Left Ventricular Mass in Men.

Left ventricular (LV) hypertrophy is strongly associated with increased cardiovascular morbidity and mortality. The 2-dimensional LV mass algorithms suffer from measurement variability that can lead to misclassification of patients with LV hypertrophy as normal, or vice versa. Among the 4 echocardiographic measurements required by the 2-dimensional LV mass algorithms, epicardial and endocardial area have the lowest interobserver variation and could be used to corroborate LV mass calculations. We sought cut-off values that are able to discriminate between elevated and normal LV mass based on endocardial or epicardial area alone. Using data from 664 men enrolled in the Mind Your Heart Study, we calculated the correlation of LV mass index with epicardial area and endocardial area. We then used receiver operator characteristic curves to identify epicardial and endocardial area cut-points that could discriminate subjects with normal LV mass and LV hypertrophy. LV mass index was more strongly correlated with epicardial area compared with endocardial area, r = 0.70 versus r = 0.27, respectively. Epicardial area had a significantly higher area under the receiver operator characteristic curve (p
Testability Enhancement for Control-Flow Intensive Behaviors

A BIST-based test synthesis methodology for control-flow intensive behaviors is proposed. This methodology targets the control statements in a behavioral description, such as if-then-else and loop statements, because such statements can introduce testability problems in the resulting circuit. How well the operations in each branch of a control statement can be tested depends on the probability of taking each branch and the quality of the test patterns used in each branch. Behavioral modifications are presented that can resolve these testability issues. The proposed methodology systematically identifies poor testability areas within a behavior and applies the behavioral modifications to improve the testability. Experimental results from six practical examples show that this technique is effective.
Renin-angiotensin system inhibition for aortic stenosis "A II, Bruté?".

In the developed world, aortic stenosis (AS) is the most prevalent valvular heart disease and, after hypertension and coronary artery disease, the most common heart disease overall in Europe and North America ([1][1]). In the elderly, the prevalence of AS has been reported to be between 2% and 9% ([
A Dialogue: Ethics, Law, and the Question of Detention in Non-International Armed Conflicts

This chapter begins with the observation that non-international armed conflicts pose serious challenges to the efforts to regulate war in both international law and recent ethical discourse, and argues that neither has responded well to these challenges. Various problems in both are identified. The second part of the chapter examines the historical conception of just war accepted as consensual in the West from the high Middle Ages till early in the modern period, arguing that it provides a helpful frame for thinking ethically about non-international armed conflicts. The third section of the chapter carries this reasoning forward, applying it to non-international armed conflicts generally and to the problem of detention in such conflicts specifically.
Postoperative opioid prescribing practices and the impact of the hydrocodone schedule change.

Abstract Background In 2014, hydrocodone was moved from Schedule III to II, thus it could no longer be “called in” to a pharmacy. We analyzed current postoperative opioid prescribing patterns and the impact of the schedule change on the type and amount prescribed. Methods Opioid prescriptions for common surgeries at 1 medical center from 2013 to 2016 were analyzed retrospectively. Milligram morphine equivalents prescribed before and after the schedule change were compared by t tests, and interrupted time series models and drug frequencies were compared by χ2 and Fisher exact tests. Results Data from 7,046 patients (7,361 prescriptions) after 29 different operations were analyzed. Milligram morphine equivalents prescribed for minor open procedures ranged from 211 to 342 milligram morphine equivalents, from 323 to 1297 for major open procedures, from 238 to 359 for basic laparoscopic procedures, and from 221 to 868 for complex laparoscopic procedures. Mean milligram morphine equivalents prescribed were not affected for most procedures, but over the entire population, milligram morphine equivalents prescribed began decreasing after the rule change. The percentage of hydrocodone prescriptions decreased after the rule change (from 33.8% down to 27.0%) and oxycodone and tramadol prescriptions increased. Conclusion Before versus after the rule change, hydrocodone prescriptions decreased and oxycodone and tramadol prescriptions increased. Milligram morphine equivalents prescribed varied considerably across and within classes of procedures, but the schedule change did not affect mean milligram morphine equivalents prescribed for most procedures.
Can Empathy Explain Gender Differences in Economic Policy Views in the United States

This paper shows that different levels of empathy of men and women explain the well-documented gender differences in interventionist government economic policy views in the United States. Using the...
Will research preprints improve healthcare for patients

Early publication of research findings without peer review could speed up knowledge dissemination and changes to clinical practice, argue Harlan M Krumholz and Joseph S Ross. But Catherine M Otto worries that publication without that quality control has the potential to confuse and cause harm
Noninvasive tissue adhesive for cardiac implantable electronic device pocket closure: the TAPE pilot study

Device infection is a serious complication of cardiac implantable electronic devices (CIED). Ensuring complete pocket closure can be time consuming, but remains vital to prevent infection. The Zip® Surgical Skin Closure (ZIP) is a noninvasive adhesive device applied to the skin as an alternative to subcuticular sutures for skin closure. We hypothesized that using this device would decrease pocket closure times without increasing the risk of pocket infections. This is a single center, retrospective cohort study to compare pocket closure times and infection rates between ZIP and standard suture for CIED pocket closure. Two separate groups of consecutive new intravenous implants, upgrades, and pulse generator replacements from October 2015 to April 2017 were included. A total of 175 patients were included, using either ZIP (n = 80) or suture (n = 95). Total procedure time (local anesthetic to dressing application) and pocket closure time (fascial suture to dressing application) were compared. Pocket infections were defined as infections leading to CIED extraction or wound dehiscence requiring repeat procedure. Statistical analysis was performed using chi square test and Student’s t test. Pocket closure time and procedure time were significantly shorter for the ZIP group (14.9 ± 6.8 vs 20.1 ± 11.09 min, p = 0.0003) and (65.02 ± 30.4 vs 83.83 ± 40.3 min, p = 0.0008), respectively. No pocket infections occurred in the Zip group, while the suture group had 2:1 wound dehiscence and 1 pocket infection. The ZIP device resulted in significantly shorter pocket closure and procedure times without increasing device pocket infections.
ACCELERATIONISM’S QUEER OCCULTURE: “or, thinking according to the alien ovum of nature”

AbstractAccelerationism offers a uniquely robust theory of the future as a subject for political contestation. In this way, it is surprisingly close to the concerns of queer theory. Like queer theory in its engagement with temporality, acclerationism works to describe the causal relations between past, present, and future. However, where queer theory attributes agency to affect and aesthetics, accelerationists look to rational control. In this contribution, I demonstrate that accelerationist rationality undoes itself, involuting into a form of demonic possession that might also be the basis for a queer future-working.
The Resident Outcome Project: Increased Academic Productivity Associated with a Formal Clinical Research Curriculum

Purpose A formal 2-year clinical research project in conjunction with a system-based practice and practice-based learning and improvement curriculum was initiated for all residents in our program. Within the structure of this formal clinical research curriculum, residents are required to develop a research hypothesis, develop an appropriate study design, collect and analyze data, and present a completed project. Methods At the end of the PGY1 year, residents select a project with an emphasis on quality improvement or clinical outcomes. The first 6 months of the 2-year program are dedicated to the identification of a faculty mentor and submission of a formal proposal to both the departmental education committee and to the institutional IRB. Over the following 12 months, residents meet monthly for required group research meetings. The final 6 months are focused on data analysis and project completion. Results Seventy-five residents have successfully completed the clinical research program since it was initiated in 2002. Completed projects led to abstracts accepted at 33 national or regional meetings and 11 peer reviewed publications to date. In addition, 3 major hospital wide quality improvement measures were initiated based on project findings. Following the first peer reviewed publication associated with these research projects in 2006, there have been significant increases in not only the number of accepted abstracts from these resident projects (3/18 [17%] vs 30/57 [53%], p = 0.008) but also the total number of all accepted resident clinical research (mean accepted abstracts per year 7.9 vs 1.0, p = 0.009 and mean peer reviewed publications per year 6.8 vs 2.0, p = 0.003.) Discussion Increased academic productivity was observed after a formal resident clinical research program was initiated in our program. Resident research efforts extended beyond the specific initial outcome projects as skills gained allowed for future independent clinical research.
Computer Generation of Birds of a Feather Puzzles

In this article, we describe a computer-aided design process for generating high-quality Birds of a Feather solitaire card puzzles. In each iteration, we generate puzzles via combinatorial optimization of an objective function. After solving and subjectively rating such puzzles, we compute objective puzzle features and regress our ratings onto such features to provide insight for objective function improvements. Through this iterative improvement process, we demonstrate the importance of the halfway solvability ratio in quality puzzle design. We relate our observations to recent work on tension in puzzle design, and suggest next steps for more efficient puzzle generation.
Expanding State Fiscal Capacity, Part I: Combining an Entity-Level Consumption Tax, Improved Sales Factor Apportionment, and a Tax on a Federal Windfall (the QBI Deduction)

The Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (TCJA) was the most significant piece of federal tax legislation passed in thirty years. Not surprisingly, the TCJA has spurred the states to rethink their tax systems. This rethinking of state taxes was necessary even before the TCJA. To date, the states have primarily considered reforms that respond to the capping of the State and Local Tax (SALT) deduction, and the current proposals, if enacted and successful, would only return the states to where they were in 2017, which is to say to quite mediocre revenue systems. This Article, the first in a series, argues that the TCJA should provide the final motivation to move the states to reform their tax systems in fundamental ways that made sense even before the passage of the TCJA. The reform that is the focus of this Article is the implementation of entity-level consumption taxes. The states should have implemented such taxes long ago for a number of reasons. Prominent among such reasons is that the United States under-taxes the consumption tax base generally and, if well-designed, a low-rate entity-level tax is not likely to spur much additional evasion. The passage of the TCJA makes such a tax more appealing because this tax would be imposed on business entities, and businesses can still deduct state and local taxes. Thus, this proposal represents a response to the new SALT cap. Two other complementary reforms are developed. First, states should tax the windfall given to certain unincorporated businesses by the TCJA. This too can be a form of SALT workaround, as the tax on the windfall can be reduced for those taxpayers hurt by the capping of the SALT deduction. Finally, states should bolster their laws governing the apportioning of the income of multistate corporations. These laws already govern the apportionment of the state corporate income and would also control the apportionment of the tax base for the two new taxes proposed in this Article (namely, a new tax on consumption and on the federal windfall).
Validating a 3E Rubric Assessing Pre-service Science Teachers’ Practical Knowledge of Inquiry Teaching

Inquiry teaching in science education has been widely advocated for decades. It is a critical learning objective in many science teacher preparation programs. Despite its importance, it is not effectively implemented in science classrooms. One of the reasons is the lack of reliable and valid instruments that provide practical definition, concrete guideline, and objective assessment for the practice of inquiry teaching. To fill this gap, we designed a 3E rubric based on the 5E learning model as one specific form of inquiry teaching to measure preservice teachers’ practice at different phases of a science lesson. In this study, we thoroughly introduced the 3E rubric and its use. Through drawing on 76 elementary pre-service science teachers’ teaching videos, we analyzed its reliability and validity with the tools of Intraclass Correlation Coefficient, Fleiss’ kappa, and Pearson correlation. According to the results, the 3E rubric is a reliable and valid tool to assess pre-service teachers’ practical knowledge of inquiry teaching. The contributions of this rubric to the teaching and research in science teacher preparation are discussed and future research directions are proposed.
Isolated Pure Malignant Rhabdoid Tumor (MRT) of the Bladder: Case Report and Lessons Learned

Pediatric extrarenal malignant rhabdoid tumors (MRTs) are rare, aggressive tumors with a poor prognosis (20% 5-year survival). There are currently fewer than 10 published case reports of primary MRT of the bladder. We report the case of an 18-month-old female with an isolated MRT of the bladder which was initially misdiagnosed as an inflammatory myofibroblastic tumor on biopsy. We review the history, tumor biology, histology, and current management of extrarenal MRT, along with lessons learned from the difficulty with the patient's initial diagnosis.
Transport Property of Topological Insulator/Superconductor Interface

Superconducting proximity coupled topological surface state is theoretically expected to exhibit topological superconductivity. In this chapter, to study the unique characteristics of the superconductivity, we focus on the interfacial superconductivity of Bi\(_2\)Te\(_3\)/FeTe. The nonreciprocal measurement is shown to be largely enhanced below the superconducting temperature, which is attributed to the interplay between spin-momentum locking and superconductivity.
Abstract IA22: Single cell proteomics to capture human dysplasia and dysfunction

Single cell analysis, starting with the earliest low parameter fluorescent cytometry and microscopy experiments, helped define the major cell subsets of human cellular systems as we understand them today. Now, a novel combination of elemental mass spectrometry with single cell analysis (mass cytometry – CyTOF, Science 2011) and imaging (multiplexed ionbeam imaging – MIBI, Nature Med. 2014, Cell 2018) offers routine examination of >50 parameters without fluorescent agents or interference from spectral overlap using heavy metal isotopes as reporters. With these platforms, we have reached new levels of organizational understanding in human pathobiology. Here, we will review the evolution of these technologies and present our latest efforts to create assays with these platforms in order to quantify multiple levels of regulation including metabolism, proteome dynamics, and chromatin content regulating the epigenome. Further to this, we will highlight recent efforts to leverage structural characteristics of leukemia dysplasias to facilitate automated identification and classification from multiplexed single cell datasets (Tsai & Glass et al. Nature Med. 2020). Overall, these new approaches can reveal new layers of human cellular organization and structure that can be exploited to understand dysfunction in general and provide avenues for more automated and robust clinical classification. Citation Format: Sean Bendall. Single cell proteomics to capture human dysplasia and dysfunction [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the AACR Virtual Special Conference on Tumor Heterogeneity: From Single Cells to Clinical Impact; 2020 Sep 17-18. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2020;80(21 Suppl):Abstract nr IA22.
Dynamic Error in Strain-Induced Magnetization Reversal of Nanomagnets Due to Incoherent Switching and Formation of Metastable States: A Size-Dependent Study

Modulation of stress anisotropy of magnetostrictive nanomagnets with strain offers an extremely energy-efficient method of magnetization reversal. The reversal process, however, is often incoherent and hence, error-prone in the presence of thermal noise at room temperature. Occurrence of incoherent metastable states in the potential landscape of the nanomagnet can further exacerbate the error. Stochastic micromagnetic simulations at room temperature are used to understand and calculate energy dissipations and switching error probabilities in this important magnetization switching methodology. We find that these quantities have an intriguing dependence on nanomagnet size. Small nanomagnets perform better owing to the fact that they are more resilient to the formation of metastable states and magnetization dynamics in them is more coherent. However, for a fixed stress anisotropy energy density, smaller nanomagnets will also have poorer resilience against thermal instability. Thus, the challenge in straintronics is to maximize the stress anisotropy energy density by developing materials and processes that yield the largest magnetostriction.
Plasma cell immunoglobulin heavy chain repertoire dynamics before and after tetanus booster vaccination

Antibody sequence repertoire analysis of plasma cells (PC) isolated before and 1 week after a vaccine provides time-specific snapshots of the antibody response. Comparison of the immunoglobulin (Ig) sequences pre- and post-vaccination allows analysis of maturation over time and identification of antigen specific Ig. Here we compare the Ig heavy chain (Ig-H) repertoire of circulating PCs isolated from 109 peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMC) collected by apheresis 1 week after a tetanus toxoid vaccine booster with the Ig-H repertoire of PCs collected 2 and 11 weeks prior to the booster. A total of 21,060 unique Ig nucleotide sequences encoding 14,307 unique heavy chain complementarity determining region 3 (CDR-H3) amino acid sequences, also called clonotypes, were identified. Only 466 clonotypes (3.3%) were present at all 3 time points. In contrast, 90% of the 30 highest frequency CDR-H3 regions at +1w were also identified at another time point and 50% were present at all time points, suggesting the rapid expansion of a memory B cell population. The tetanus toxoid specificity of the CDR-H3 region with the 7th highest frequency at +1w was confirmed using immunoprecipitation and mass spectroscopy, and two public tetanus toxoid-specific CDR-H3 regions were also overrepresented at +1w. In summary, we have used the tetanus vaccine model system to demonstrate that bulk PC Ig repertoire analysis can identify PC populations that expand and mature following antigen exposure. The application of this approach before and after clinical infections should advance our understanding of clinical protection and facilitate vaccine design.