cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Impact on family and parental stress of prenatal vs postnatal repair of myelomeningocele.

Background The Management of Myelomeningocele Study was a multicenter, randomized controlled trial that compared prenatal repair with standard postnatal repair for fetal myelomeningocele. Objective We sought to describe the long-term impact on the families of the women who participated and to evaluate how the timing of repair influenced the impact on families and parental stress. Study Design Randomized women completed the 24-item Impact on Family Scale and the 36-item Parenting Stress Index Short Form at 12 and 30 months after delivery. A revised 15-item Impact on Family Scale describing overall impact was also computed. Higher scores reflected more negative impacts or greater stress. In addition, we examined Family Support Scale and Family Resource Scale scores along with various neonatal outcomes. Repeated measures analysis was conducted for each scale and subscale. Results Of 183 women randomized, 171 women completed the Impact on Family Scale and 172 completed the Parenting Stress Index at both 12 and 30 months. The prenatal surgery group had significantly lower revised 15-item Impact on Family Scale scores as well as familial-social impact subscale scores compared to the postnatal surgery group ( P = .02 and .004, respectively). There was no difference in total parental stress between the 2 groups ( P = .89) or in any of the Parenting Stress Index Short Form subscales. In addition, walking independently at 30 months and family resources at 12 months were associated with both family impact and parental stress. Conclusion The overall negative family impact of caring for a child with spina bifida, up to 30 months of age, was significantly lower in the prenatal surgery group compared to the postnatal surgery group. Ambulation status and family resources were predictive of impact on family and parental stress.
ANALYSIS OF BROOKHAVEN $sup 235$U--GRAPHITE CRITICAL EXPERIMENTS.

Analysis of the nearly homogeneous enriched uranium-graphite critical assemblies described in the preceding paper by Phelps and Weinstock are reported in this paper. These assemblies are characteri...
Multispectral Photonic Crystal Photo Sensor

A novel photo sensor pixel using a one-dimensional (1D) photonic crystal structure incorporating photoconductive layers has been realized. The fabricated device exploits mode discrimination to provide simultaneous multispectral photo sensing capability. Resonant cavity enhancement (RCE) design allows the use of very thin photoconductive layer to achieve dramatically suppressed shot noise, as well as high quantum efficiency. Low cost amorphous silicon is used to be photoconductive material and the simply fabrication process is completely CMOS-compatible. Detectivities as high as 2.6×1010 cmHz1/2W-1 and 2.0×1010 cmHz1/2W-1 at the two pre-selected wavelengths, 632nm and 728nm, were achieved, respectively.
Systemic Antibiotic Treatment of Skin, Skin Structure, and Soft Tissue Infections in the Outpatient Setting

PURPOSE: To enhance the learner’s competence with knowledge of systemic antibiotic treatment of skin, skin structure, and soft tissue infections in the outpatient setting. TARGET AUDIENCE: This continuing education activity is intended for physicians and nurses with an interest in skin and wound care. OBJECTIVES: After participating in this educational activity, the participant should be better able to: OBJECTIVES: 1. Use information about skin and soft tissue infection pathogens to appropriately identify infections. OBJECTIVES: 2. Apply recommended infection treatment modalities to patient care. The unnecessary use of systemic antimicrobial agents can be reduced with more careful consideration when treating patients with skin, skin structure, and deep soft tissue infections. Improved prescribing habits will reduce potential adverse events for patients and help fight against the development of multidrug-resistant bacteria especially in the era of methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus.
Umbilical cord stem cells

Until recently, blood that remained in the umbilical cord and placenta after delivery was routinely discarded. Now that this blood is known to contain both hematopoietic stem cells and pluripotent mesenchymal cells, there has been a substantial increase in the clinical use and research investigation of umbilical cord blood in hematopoietic transplantation and regenerative medicine. Until now, standards for collection and processing were not well established. The debate continues regarding the private banking of autologous blood for "biologic insurance" versus public banking for access by the general population. Obstetricians should support the acquisition of cord units for public banking in their geographic location where cord blood banks have established collection procedures. Issues related to cost, quality control, and the need for ethnic diversity in public banks preclude the universal collection of units from all obstetric deliveries. Directed donation of cord blood should be considered when there is a specific diagnosis of a disease within a family known to be amenable to stem cell transplantation.
Composition of Ventilation and Exhaustion System of Metro Station and System Operation Models of Fire Condition

The system of ventilation and exhaustion of subway station is composed of lots of subsystem.It may be insured normal running if only the subsystems cooperated harmoniously with each other.This paper introduces the system composition of ventilation and exhaustion of subway station and the operation models of fire condition of the ventilation and exhaustion system,as well as evacuating principle on condition that the subway station fire happens.
Diagnosis and Treatment of 6 Children with Anomalous Origin of the Left Coronary Artery from the Pulmonary Artery

Objective To analyze diagnostic experience of children with anomalous origin of the left coronary artery from the pulmonary artery (ALCAPA) and assess its surgical results.Methods Six children with ALCAPA had been diagnosed in our hospital from Mar. 2006 to Oct.2007 aged from 6 months to 10 years old(median 43.5 months).The medical data included common clinical presentations,the findings of electrocardiogram(ECG),the echocardiogram,ECG-gated 64-slice computed tomography,the digital subtraction angiogram (DSA),surgical records and the outcome.Results Diaphoresis,fantod,breathlessness and difficult feeding were commonly presented in 5 cases ALCAPA and the 5 children presented with left ventricular failure in infancy.The predominant ECG findings were Q waves and ST segment changes in the anterolateral chest leads in 4 cases,ST changes in 1 case,and normal ECG in 1 case.Cross-sectional echocardiography showed dilated left ventricles with poor contractility in 4 cases,medium mitral regurgitation in 2 cases and severe mitral regurgitation in 2 cases,aneurysmal dilatation of the right coronary artery(RCA) in 2 cases.CT and DSA examinations showed characteristic changes in these children.The surgical reestablishment of a two-coronary system was performed in 5 cases,direct reimplantation in 2 cases and creation of an autologous extrapulmonary tunnel in 3 cases.Simultaneous mitral annuloplasty was performed in 2 cases.After operation,the symptoms of 5 cases were all improved and none died.Conclusions Understanding the clinical manifestations and lab findings of ALCAPA is helpful to making an early diagnosis of ALCAPA.Early surgical treatment can improve the patients′ outcome.
Student Visual Communication of Evolution

Despite growing recognition of the importance of visual representations to science education, previous research has given attention mostly to verbal modalities of evolution instruction. Visual aspects of classroom learning of evolution are yet to be systematically examined by science educators. The present study attends to this issue by exploring the types of evolutionary imagery deployed by secondary students. Our visual design analysis revealed that students resorted to two larger categories of images when visually communicating evolution: spatial metaphors (images that provided a spatio-temporal account of human evolution as a metaphorical “walk” across time and space) and symbolic representations (“icons of evolution” such as personal portraits of Charles Darwin that simply evoked evolutionary theory rather than metaphorically conveying its conceptual contents). It is argued that students need opportunities to collaboratively critique evolutionary imagery and to extend their visual perception of evolution beyond dominant images.
Venture Capital Dynamics: Challenges in Financing Technological Entrepreneurship

The venture capital process is fraught with risk to the venture capitalist induced by agency costs, information asymmetry and moral hazard. Venture capitalists employ sophisticated contracting techniques to mitigate these risks, often at the expense of the entrepreneur. Additional complexity can arise depending on the affiliation of the venture capitalist. This work highlights the common pitfalls that high-technology entrepreneurs face as a result of the circumstances inherent in the fund raising process, and makes recommendations for mitigating these pitfalls.
Strategies that target leukocyte traffic in inflammatory bowel diseases: recent developments.

PURPOSE OF REVIEW We review the most recent developments regarding the targeting of molecules involved in the traffic of leukocytes for the treatment of inflammatory bowel diseases (IBD). RECENT FINDINGS We discuss the most important findings of one published phase II trial that targeted the β7 integrin (etrolizumab), two phase II trials that targeted the α4β7 integrin ligand: mucosal addressin cell adhesion molecule 1 (MAdCAM-1, PF-00547659), a phase II trial targeting the chemokine IP-10 (CXCL10) in Crohn's, and a phase II trial that targeted the sphingosine-1-phosphate receptor-1: ozanimod in patients with ulcerative colitis. SUMMARY Targeting molecules involved in leukocyte traffic has recently become an effective and well tolerated strategy for the treatment of IBD. Novel approaches now not only target the integrins on the lymphocyte surface, but also its endothelial ligand: MAdCAM-1. As with vedolizumab, antibodies against MAdCAM-1 appear most effective in ulcerative colitis rather than in Crohn's. Targeting chemokines or their receptors does not appear to have the same efficacy as those that target the most stable integrin: immunoglobulin superfamily interactions between the lymphocyte and endothelium. Preliminary results also suggest that the sphingosine-1-phosphate pathway might also be targeted therapeutically in IBD, no longer with parenterally administered antibodies but with orally administered small molecules.
Mining Persistent and Dynamic Spatio-Temporal Change in Global Climate Data

The potential impacts of climate change on natural and man-made systems can have a drastic effect on life on Earth. The application of data mining algorithms on global climate data can result in a better understanding of the climate system. Of which, change detection has proven to be a very useful approach when mining climate data. Understanding spatio-temporal change can give insight to interesting patterns that can be used to predict climate events. This paper proposes a method to generate spatial homogeneous regions that uses a novel indexing structure for the analysis of spatial change including homogeneous change and heterogeneous change. The resulting regions are then used to analyze persistent and dynamic regions at longer time scales. The efficacy of the approach was demonstrated on a real-world climate dataset and the results suggest interesting patterns that are explained by known climate phenomena.
Recent developments from MPEG in HDR video compression

In this paper we review the current status and ongoing development of High Dynamic Range and Wide Color Gamut (HDR/WCG) video compression within MPEG. We review how existing MPEG, ITU-R and SMPTE standards may be used for coding HDR content. The history of an exploratory activity within MPEG investigating technologies for improved compression of HDR/WCG content is reviewed. An overview of the MPEG Call for Evidence related to HDR/WCG compression technology is provided. An overview of activities within MPEG related to HDR/WCG coding including progress and a snapshot of ongoing core experiments as of December, 2015 is given. Future outlook for this activity is described.
Effect of allylisopropylacetamide on glutathione metabolism in the rat liver. The possible role of glutathione in the induction of 5-aminolaevulinate synthase.

Administration of allylisopropylacetamide to rats caused a marked decline in the concentrations of reduced and oxidized glutathione in the liver. However, this decrease occurred in the presence of uninhibited activities of γ-glutamylcysteine synthase and glutathione reductase, and unaltered activities of glutathione transferases A, B and C. The administration of cysteine, the rate-limiting precursor of glutathione formation, to rats treated with allylisopropylacetamide potentiated the inductive effects of the agent on 5-aminolaevulinate synthase, and markedly decreased the extent of decrease in glutathione concentrations by the agent. Conversely, the administration of diethyl maleate, which depletes the hepatic glutathione concentrations, to allylisopropylacetamide-pretreated rats (1h) diminished the extent of 5-aminolaevulinate synthase induction and the production of porphyrins by nearly 50%, when measured at 16h. This treatment did not alter the extent of non-enzymic degradation of liver haem by allylisopropylacetamide. When diethyl maleate was administered to the animals possessing high 5-aminolaevulinate synthase activity (at 3, 7 and 15h after allylisopropylacetamide), in 1h the enzyme activity was markedly decreased. Diethyl maleate had no effect on induction of 5-aminolaevulinate synthase by 3,5-diethoxycarbonyl-1,4-dihydrocollidine, also a potent porphyrinogenic agent. Diethyl maleate alone neither inhibited 5-aminolaevulinate synthase activity nor decreased the cellular content of porphyrins and haem. The data suggest that the decreases observed in the glutathione concentrations after allylisopropylacetamide administration are not the result of decreased production of the tripeptide. Rather, they most likely reflect the increased utilization of glutathione. The findings further suggest that the inhibition by diethyl maleate of allylisopropylacetamide-stimulated 5-aminolaevulinate synthase involves the inhibition of induction processes.
The speech we do not speak: Dialogic mind, praxis, and ethics

This essay investigates three distinct modalities of the dialogic: dialogic mind, dialogic praxis, and dialogic ethics. Although each modality shares central dialogic characteristics of polyphony, polymodality, and polychronicity ( Bakhtin, 1981 , 1984 , 1986 ; Lipari, 2014 ), each also differs in important ways, some of which are lost by using the single word ‘dialogue’ to refer to them. Rather, I will here explore how the dialogic is not merely a mode of communicative praxis, but it is also a mode of communicative consciousness and a mode of communicative ethics. Each dialogic modality describes different manifestations of what might otherwise be called the dialogic; each mode differs from the others in important ways while also sharing similar attributes.
Investigating the Influence of Gender on Student Perceptions of the Clicker in a Small Undergraduate General Chemistry Course

The use of electronic response pads or “clickers” is a popular way to engage students and create an active-learning environment, especially within large chemistry courses. We examined students’ perceptions of how the clicker affected their learning, participation, and engagement in the classroom, as well as their overall experience within a first-semester general chemistry course at a liberal arts institution. Overall, students perceived that clickers provided a significant enhancement to their learning, with women valuing the technology to a greater extent.
Applicability of Current HRA Quantification Techniques to Human Failures Related to Digital Control Systems

This paper examines current error quantification techniques to determine their applicability to failures related to digital control systems. Methods are examined for relevant categories of analysis using design principles from digital control and display guidance. In addition, inherent differences at the system and task are examined for instances that might contribute to performance shaping factors not addressed or defined in current methods. The premise being that if digital systems are designed to meet design standards such as readability, information density, illumination, organization-location, etc. then, perhaps current methods may be applicable. Identification of and presentation of fundamental differences are presented along with recommendations for potential accommodations to current quantification techniques and future directions.
Grinding Chatter and Vibrations

Grinding is a widely used machining process in applications requiring high production rates and very good dimensional accuracy and surface finish. It is also one of the more complex metal working processes and one of the less understood1. Consequently, successful use of grinding in practice is highly dependent on the level of expertise of the machinist and engineer. Grinding is also viewed as an unpredictable process because of the large number of variables involved and inadequate understanding of the relationships between those variables and the grinding process performance. That is particularly true of vibration in grinding operations, commonly referred to as grinding chatter.
Effects of cortisone and hydrocortisone on the numbers of thoracic duct lymphocytes.

The effects of cortisone and hydrocortisone on the levels of thoracic duct lymphocytes have been studied in normal and hypophysectomized rats under standardized conditions. It is shown that: 1. Four hours after its administration, hydrocortisone causes a marked thoracic duct lymphocytopenia, the effect being even more marked in hypophysectomized than in normal rats. 2. At comparable dose levels, hydrocortisone is demonstrably and significantly more effective in producing a thoracic duct lymphocytopenia than is cortisone.
Eigenvalues of the covariance matrix as early warning signals for critical transitions in ecological systems

Many ecological systems are subject critical transitions, which are abrupt changes to contrasting states triggered by small changes in some key component of the system. Temporal early warning signals such as the variance of a time series, and spatial early warning signals such as the spatial correlation in a snapshot of the system's state, have been proposed to forecast critical transitions. However, temporal early warning signals do not take the spatial pattern into account, and past spatial indicators only examine one snapshot at a time. In this study, we propose the use of eigenvalues of the covariance matrix of multiple time series as early warning signals. We first show theoretically why these indicators may increase as the system moves closer to the critical transition. Then, we apply the method to simulated data from several spatial ecological models to demonstrate the method's applicability. This method has the advantage that it takes into account only the fluctuations of the system about its equilibrium, thus eliminating the effects of any change in equilibrium values. The eigenvector associated with the largest eigenvalue of the covariance matrix is helpful for identifying the regions that are most vulnerable to the critical transition.
Augmented reality glasses improve adherence to evidence-based intubation practice

Background: The risk of failing or delaying endotracheal intubation in critically ill patients has commonly been associated with inadequate procedure preparation. Clinicians and trainees in simulation courses for tracheal intubation are encouraged to recall the steps of how to intubate in order to mitigate the risk of a failed intubation. The purpose of this study was to assess the effectiveness of using optical head mounted display augmented reality (AR) glasses as an assistance tool to perform intubation simulation procedure. Methods: A total of 32 subjects with a mean age of 30±7.8, AR (n1=15) vs non-augmented reality(non-AR) (n2=17). The majority were males (n=22, 68.7%). Subjects were randomly assigned into two groups: the AR group and the non-AR group. Both groups reviewed a video on how to intubate following the New England Journal of Medicine (NEJM) intubation guidelines. The AR group had to intubate using the AR glasses head mount display compared to the non-AR where they performed regular intubation. Results: The AR group took longer median (min, max) time (seconds) to ventilate than the non-AR group (280 (130,740) vs 205 (100,390); η2=1.0, p=0.005, respectively). Similarly, there was a higher percent adherence of NEJM intubation checklist (100% in the AR group vs 82.4% in the non-AR group; η2=1.8, p<0.001). Conclusion: The AR glasses showed promise in assisting different health care professionals on endotracheal intubation simulation. Participants in the AR group took a longer time to ventilate but scored 100% in the developed checklist that followed the NEJM protocol. This finding shows that the AR technology can be used in a simulation setting and requires further study before clinical use.
Augmented β2-adrenergic signaling dampens the neuroinflammatory response following ischemic stroke and increases stroke size

Ischemic stroke provokes a neuroinflammatory response and simultaneously promotes release of epinephrine and norepinephrine by the sympathetic nervous system. This increased sympathetic outflow can act on β2-adrenergic receptors expressed by immune cells such as brain-resident microglia and monocyte-derived macrophages (MDMs), but the effect on post-stroke neuroinflammation is unknown. Thus, we investigated how changes in β2-adrenergic signaling after stroke onset influence the microglia/MDM stroke response, and the specific importance of microglia/MDM β2-adrenergic receptors to post-stroke neuroinflammation. To investigate the effects of β2-adrenergic receptor manipulation on post-stroke neuroinflammation, we administered the β2-adrenergic receptor agonist clenbuterol to mice 3 h after the onset of photothrombotic stroke. We immunostained to quantify microglia/MDM numbers and proliferation and to assess morphology and activation 3 days later. We assessed stroke outcomes by measuring infarct volume and functional motor recovery and analyzed gene expression levels of neuroinflammatory molecules. Finally, we evaluated changes in cytokine expression and microglia/MDM response in brains of mice with selective knockout of the β2-adrenergic receptor from microglia and monocyte-lineage cells. We report that clenbuterol treatment after stroke onset causes enlarged microglia/MDMs and impairs their proliferation, resulting in reduced numbers of these cells in the peri-infarct cortex by 1.7-fold at 3 days after stroke. These changes in microglia/MDMs were associated with increased infarct volume in clenbuterol-treated animals. In mice that had the β2-adrenergic receptor specifically knocked out of microglia/MDMs, there was no change in morphology or numbers of these cells after stroke. However, knockdown of β2-adrenergic receptors in microglia and MDMs resulted in increased expression of TNFα and IL-10 in peri-infarct tissue, while stimulation of β2-adrenergic receptors with clenbuterol had the opposite effect, suppressing TNFα and IL-10 expression. We identified β2-adrenergic receptor signaling as an important regulator of the neuroimmune response after ischemic stroke. Increased β2-adrenergic signaling after stroke onset generally suppressed the microglia/MDM response, reducing upregulation of both pro- and anti-inflammatory cytokines, and increasing stroke size. In contrast, diminished β2-adrenergic signaling in microglia/MDMs augmented both pro- and anti-inflammatory cytokine expression after stroke. The β2-adrenergic receptor may therefore present a therapeutic target for improving the post-stroke neuroinflammatory and repair process.
Cross-resistance to phage infection in Listeria monocytogenes serotype 1/2a mutants

Bacteriophage-based biocontrols are one of several tools available to control Listeria monocytogenes in food and food processing environments. The objective of this study was to determine if phage-resistance that has been characterized with a select few Listeria phages would also confer resistance to a diverse collection of over 100 other Listeria phages. We show that some mutations that are likely to emerge in bacteriophage-treated populations of serotype 1/2a L. monocytogenes can lead to cross-resistance against almost all types of characterized Listeria phages. Out of the 120 phages that showed activity against the parental strain, only one could form visible plaques on the mutant strain of L. monocytogenes lacking rhamnose in its wall teichoic acids. An additional two phages showed signs of lytic activity against this mutant strain; although no visible plaques were observed. The findings presented here are consistent with other studies showing mutations conferring phage resistance through loss of rhamnose likely pose the greatest challenge for phage-based biocontrol in serotype 1/2a strains.
Well-Distributed Great Circles on $$\mathbb {S}^2$$

Let $$C_1, \dots , C_n$$ denote the 1 / n-neighborhood of n great circles on $$\mathbb {S}^2$$ . We are interested in how much these areas have to overlap and prove the sharp bounds $$\begin{aligned} \mathop {\mathop {\sum }\limits _{i, j = 1}}\limits _ {i \ne j}^{n}{|C_i \cap C_j|^s} \gtrsim _s {\left\{ \begin{array}{ll} n^{2 - 2s} \qquad &{}\text{ if }~0 \le s 2. \end{array}\right. } \end{aligned}$$ For $$s=1$$ there are arrangements for which the sum of mutual overlap is uniformly bounded (for the analogous problem in $$\mathbb {R}^2$$ this is impossible, the lower bound is $$\gtrsim \log {n}$$ ). There are strong connections to minimal energy configurations of n charged electrons on $$\mathbb {S}^2$$ (the Thomson problem).
Fundamental length from algebra

Advances in physics have required the application of more and more sophisticated mathematics. I present arguments supporting the contention that the next advance beyond quantum field theory will require the application of a non-associative algebra. The principle observable effect would be the appearance of a fundamental length. An experimental search for such an effect may be feasible.
Human Placenta Blood Flow During Early Gestation With Pseudocontinuous Arterial Spin Labeling MRI

BACKGROUND Noninvasive measurement of placental blood flow is the major technical challenge for predicting ischemic placenta (IPD). Pseudocontinuous arterial spin labeling (pCASL) MRI was recently shown to be promising, but the potential value in predicting the subsequence development of IPD is not known. PURPOSE To derive global and regional placental blood flow parameters from longitudinal measurements of pCASL MRI and to assess the associations between perfusion-related parameters and IPD. STUDY TYPE Prospective. POPULATION Eighty-four women completed two pCASL MRI scans (first; 14-18 weeks and second; 19-24 weeks) from prospectively recruited 118 subjects. A total of 69 subjects were included for the analysis, of which 15 subjects developed IPD. FIELD STRENGTH/SEQUENCE 3T/T2 -weighted half-Fourier single-shot turbo spin-echo (HASTE) and pCASL. ASSESSMENT Four perfusion-related parameters in the placenta were derived: placenta volume, placental blood flow (PBF), high PBF (hPBF), and relative hPBF. The longitudinal changes of the parameters and their association with IPD were tested after being normalizing to the 16th and 20th weeks of gestation. STATISTICAL TESTS Comparisons between two gestational ages within subjects were performed using the paired Wilcoxon tests, and comparisons between normal and IPD groups were performed using the unpaired Wilcoxon tests. RESULTS The difference between the first and second MRI scans was statistically significant for volume (156.6 cm3 vs. 269.7 cm3 , P < 0.001) and PBF (104.9 ml/100g/min vs. 111.3 ml/100g/min, P = 0.02) for normal subjects, indicating an increase in pregnancy with advancing gestation. Of the parameters tested, the difference between the normal and IPD subjects was most pronounced in hPBF (278.1 ml/100g/min vs. 180.7 ml/100g/min, P < 0.001) and relative hPBF (259.1% vs. 183.2%, P < 0.001) at 16 weeks. DATA CONCLUSION The high perfusion-related image parameters for IPD were significantly decreased from normal pregnancy at 14-18 weeks of gestation. LEVEL OF EVIDENCE 2 TECHNICAL EFFICACY STAGE: 1 J. Magn. Reson. Imaging 2020;51:1247-1257.
Changes in neovascular activity following fixed dosing with an anti-vascular endothelial growth factor agent over 52 weeks in the phase III VIEW 1 and VIEW 2 studies

Background/aims To understand changes in disease activity as assessed by leakage and retinal fluid status in patients with neovascular age-related macular degeneration (nAMD) receiving fixed dosing with an anti-vascular endothelial growth factor (anti-VEGF) agent. Methods In the phase III VIEW 1 (NCT00509795) and VIEW 2 (NCT00637377) studies, eyes with nAMD were treated with intravitreal aflibercept or ranibizumab. Independent, masked reading centres determined the presence/absence of leakage (fluorescein angiography) and retinal fluid (optical coherence tomography) at baseline, week 24 and week 52. In this integrated, post hoc analysis of the VIEW studies, the relationship between leakage/fluid status and best-corrected visual acuity (BCVA) was assessed. The impact of baseline lesion type (predominantly classic (PC), minimally classic (MC), occult) was also evaluated. Data from all treatment groups were pooled. Results 2373 eyes were included in this analysis. At baseline, 95.4% of eyes presented with both leakage and fluid. By week 52, leakage and fluid were present in 16.0% of eyes. Mean BCVA gains at week 52 were numerically greater in eyes without leakage and fluid versus eyes with both leakage and fluid (10.3 vs 9.2 letters). At week 52, 11.6%, 15.3% and 20.1% of eyes with PC, MC and occult lesions, respectively, had both leakage and fluid present. Conclusion In this post hoc analysis, fixed dosing with an anti-VEGF agent over 52 weeks eliminated disease activity (absence of both leakage and fluid) in most eyes. The effect of anti-VEGF treatment on leakage/fluid status favoured PC versus occult lesions.
What is decidable about gradual types

Programmers can use gradual types to migrate programs to have more precise type annotations and thereby improve their readability, efficiency, and safety. Such migration requires an exploration of the migration space and can benefit from tool support, as shown in previous work. Our goal is to provide a foundation for better tool support by settling decidability questions about migration with gradual types. We present three algorithms and a hardness result for deciding key properties and we explain how they can be useful during an exploration. In particular, we show how to decide whether the migration space is finite, whether it has a top element, and whether it is a singleton. We also show that deciding whether it has a maximal element is NP-hard. Our implementation of our algorithms worked as expected on a suite of microbenchmarks.
Behavioral Risk Factors: A Guide for Oncology Nurses Counseling Patients

Background Although many genetic and environmental causes of cancer are uncontrollable, individuals can choose behaviors that significantly increase or reduce their risk for cancer. Objectives This article discusses known cancer-protective behaviors, including exercising regularly, maintaining a healthy weight, vaccinating against cancer-associated viruses, and minimizing exposure to tobacco products, alcohol, processed meats, and ultraviolet light. Methods The author performed a review of guidelines and techniques for counseling patients about risky behaviors, with an emphasis on patients with cancer. Findings Much remains to be learned about the most effective clinical interventions for encouraging patients to adopt healthy behaviors, but oncology nurses should become familiar with the fundamental principles of counseling patients about health-promoting behaviors.
Recent advances in endoscope disinfection: where do we stand in the COVID era?

Over sixteen million cases worldwide, severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 has profoundly affected healthcare as we know it. Given reports of GI involvement and viral shedding in the stool, it is unsurprising there are concerns that endoscopic equipment may be a potential vector of viral transmission. Here, we provide an overview of existing practices for endoscope reprocessing, recent developments in the field, and challenges in the COVID-19 environment. Current multi-society guidelines do not advise any change to endoscope disinfection protocols but emphasize strict adherence to recommended practices. However, endoscopy reprocessing staff may benefit from supplemental personal protective equipment measures, especially in high risk situations. Because thorough endoscope reprocessing is highly operator dependent, adequate training of personnel is critical for proper manual cleaning and disinfection of endoscopes that have potential to harbor virus. Bacterial contamination of duodenoscopes has caused outbreaks of infection from multidrug resistant organisms, highlighting vulnerable areas. The emphasis of current studies is on optimization of disinfection and drying, minimization of simethicone use, and on quality control of endoscope reprocessing with sampling and microbiological culturing. Recent advances include novel approaches to endoscope sterilization, infection barrier methods, and design of partially or fully disposable duodenoscopes. Overall, the available data indicate that, when correctly executed, current reprocessing practices are sufficient in preventing SARS-COV-2 transmission.
INCENTIVES FOR CORRUPTIBLE AUDITORS IN THE ABSENCE OF COMMITMENT

In the absence of commitment to auditing, we study the optimal auditing contract when collusion between an agent and an auditor is possible. We show that the auditor can be totally useless if the auditor's independence can be compromised with relative ease. Even very stiff sanctions on fraud will be unable to make auditing optimal. We then derive a demand for independent external auditing. We endogenize collusion cost as the cost from the risk of future detection. We also derive a justification for the focus of the recent audit reforms on penalties on CEOs in cases of audit fraud.
New horizons in imaging and surgical assessment of breast cancer lymph node metastasis

Axillary nodal status is one of the most important prognostic factors in breast cancer. While sentinel lymph node biopsy (SLNB) is a safe and validated procedure for clinically node-negative patients, axillary management of clinically node-positive patients has been more controversial. Patients with clinically detected axillary metastases often benefit from neoadjuvant chemotherapy (NAC). Those who convert to node-negative disease following NAC are important to identify, since they can often be spared significant morbidity from axillary dissection. SLNB has shown widely varying false-negative rates (FNR) but with the use of dual mapping and surgical biopsy of 3 or more nodes, it is considered an acceptable method to stage the axilla in clinically node-positive patients who receive NAC. Various methods including targeted axillary dissection (TAD) have been shown to decrease the FNR of SLNB. We will review appropriate methods to identify a metastatic node and subsequent ultrasound-guided biopsy with tissue marking techniques. We underscore key points in monitoring axillary response, techniques to accurately localize the biopsied and clipped known metastatic node for surgical excision and the effect of various methods in reducing the FNR of SLNB, including the emerging concept of TAD on patient care.
Clinical outcomes in patients with malignant brain tumors admitted to the ICU.

e14034Background: Primary brain malignancy is distinct from other oncologic diagnoses in its presentation and course. Recent treatment advances have modestly improved survival; yet, prognoses for a...
Engineered epsilon-near-zero metafilm with Ag-SiNx multilayer structure

In this summary, we report an experimental demonstration of a low-loss multilayer-based ENZ metafilm. The demonstrated ENZ metafilm consists of alternating layers of Ag and SiN. The optical properties, such as the effective plasma frequency and damping coefficients, of the demonstrated metafilm were controlled by changing the volume fraction of the metal layer. The measured effective permittivity values from an ellipsometry analysis show good agreement with the calculated results using a simple Maxwell-Garnett effective medium theory.
Non-Steroidal Anti-Inflammatory Drugs (NSAIDS) and their Effect on Old World Vultures: A Scoping Review

Diclofenac, a non-steroidal anti-inflammatory (NSAID), was the cause of the rapid vulture population decline in the Indian subcontinent in the 1990s. Since 2013, diclofenac has been approved for veterinary use in Spain. The Iberian Peninsula (Portugal and Spain) hosts more than 95% of the Old World vulture population in Europe, so this situation poses a significant potential threat for European vultures. Other NSAIDs may also pose a risk to vultures, but a thorough review of available evidence has not been conducted. We conducted a scoping review to analyze the published research on the impact of NSAIDs to Old World vultures to ultimately use the synthesized information to inform risk assessments. We implemented a search strategy of four bibliographic databases (1990–2019). Publications were screened in two steps, and two reviewers independently extracted data relevant to the phases of a risk assessment (release, exposure, and consequences). Among the 78 studies included in the review, 41% focused on India, 21.8% studied the White-rumped Vulture (Gyps bengalensis), 38.5% evaluated diclofenac, and 12.8% meloxicam. There was substantial evidence that diclofenac can lead to mortality in Old World vultures. There was also some evidence of mortality and clinical signs caused by carprofen, ketoprofen, and flunixin meglumine. Mild clinical signs were reported for phenylbutazone, and nimesulide, and no consequences were reported for meloxicam. However, the effects of all these other NSAIDs to vultures need further research.
Distinguishing rule- and exemplar-based generalization in learning systems.

Despite the increasing scale of datasets in machine learning, generalization to unseen regions of the data distribution remains crucial. Such extrapolation is by definition underdetermined and is dictated by a learner's inductive biases. Machine learning systems often do not share the same inductive biases as humans and, as a result, extrapolate in ways that are inconsistent with our expectations. We investigate two distinct such inductive biases: feature-level bias (differences in which features are more readily learned) and exemplar-vs-rule bias (differences in how these learned features are used for generalization). Exemplar- vs. rule-based generalization has been studied extensively in cognitive psychology, and, in this work, we present a protocol inspired by these experimental approaches for directly probing this trade-off in learning systems. The measures we propose characterize changes in extrapolation behavior when feature coverage is manipulated in a combinatorial setting. We present empirical results across a range of models and across both expository and real-world image and language domains. We demonstrate that measuring the exemplar-rule trade-off while controlling for feature-level bias provides a more complete picture of extrapolation behavior than existing formalisms. We find that most standard neural network models have a propensity towards exemplar-based extrapolation and discuss the implications of these findings for research on data augmentation, fairness, and systematic generalization.
Antitrust and Institutions: Design and Change

This paper is about comparative institutional design of competition law and policy systems, and the relationship of design to context.1 It is also about design and change. Jurisdictions need sound and thoughtful institutional design that will best help to advance their competition law and policy, and do so with transparency, fairness, and due process. Many designs may achieve these ends.2 This paper is not about available choices or global models. Rather, albeit selectively and anecdotally, it concerns the design choices that nations make.3
On the non-existence of adjacent equilibrium states at bifurcation points

In the “adjacent equilibrium” method of stability theory, it is assumed that, at a critical point on an equilibrium branch, therealways exists for the same load, in addition to the fundamental equilibrium configuration, also adjacent equilibrium states. The validity of this assumption was recently questioned byA. D. Kerr. In the present paper it is shown, using the regular perturbation method, that for a number of structures adjacent equilibrium states indeed donot exist at bifurcation points; thus proving that adjacent equilibrium states do not exist in general and hence that the physical argument of the adjacent equilibrium method is not generally valid.
The Politics of Attention: How Government Prioritizes Problems, by Bryan D. Jones and Frank R. Baumgartner: University of Chicago Press, 2005. 316 pp. $70.00 cloth, $25.00 paper

Trying to predict the outcomes of the policy process is like trying to predict how each kernel of popcorn will behave when exposed to heat. The process is not simply complicated by the number and s...
Role of gastric pH in isolation of Helicobacter mustelae from the feces of ferrets

Abstract Background: Helicobacter mustelae colonizes the gastric mucosa of ferrets and causes persistent chronic gastritis. Methods: Hypochlorhydria, as measured by gastric pH probe, was induced by administering oral omeprazole, a proton pump inhibitor of the parietal cell, to adult ferrets in two separate experiments. Feces of ferrets were cultured for H. mustelae before, during, and after omeprazole therapy. Results: H. mustelae was isolated in 23 of 55 (41.8%) sequential fecal samples collected during omeprazole therapy. The same ferrets with acidic gastric pH had H. mustelae isolated in 6 of 62 (9.7%) of the fecal cultures ( P H. mustelae probe confirmed the presence of the organism in both the stomach and feces of all 5 ferrets. In 4 of 5 ferrets restriction enzyme patterns of the gastric H. mustelae were identical to those of the fecal H. mustelae strains. Conclusions: Hypochlorhydria promotes fecal transmission of a gastric Helicobacter organism. The H. mustelae -colonized ferret provides an ideal model to study the epidemiology and pathogenesis of Helicobacter pylori -induced gastritis.
Bayesian face recognition and perceptual narrowing in face‐space

During the first year of life, infants' face recognition abilities are subject to 'perceptual narrowing', the end result of which is that observers lose the ability to distinguish previously discriminable faces (e.g. other-race faces) from one another. Perceptual narrowing has been reported for faces of different species and different races, in developing humans and primates. Though the phenomenon is highly robust and replicable, there have been few efforts to model the emergence of perceptual narrowing as a function of the accumulation of experience with faces during infancy. The goal of the current study is to examine how perceptual narrowing might manifest as statistical estimation in 'face-space', a geometric framework for describing face recognition that has been successfully applied to adult face perception. Here, I use a computer vision algorithm for Bayesian face recognition to study how the acquisition of experience in face-space and the presence of race categories affect performance for own and other-race faces. Perceptual narrowing follows from the establishment of distinct race categories, suggesting that the acquisition of category boundaries for race is a key computational mechanism in developing face expertise.
Lloyd George's Timing of the 1918 Election

The full story of the 1918 election can never be told, although its importance as a watershed is, and was at the time, undoubted. Private papers have disappeared and fire destroyed records of the Local Government Board and Home Office. An especially interesting kind of record, the expenditure of candidates, was not even collected, and no questions were raised about this until it was too late.Churchill was among those who understood that “an election is to be fought, the result of which will profoundly affect political relationships and political issues for several years to come ….” Recent scholarship has concentrated on the divisions within the Liberal Party prior to the election, the special questions of Ireland and of National Democratic Party candidates, and “the stages” by which the drama unfolded in the autumn of 1918. But there has been no explanation of the timing: why did Lloyd George wait so long, and, having waited so long, why did he hurry into a December election, knowing the problems of voter registration and the signs of apathy and even hostility to an election? Moreover, all the discussion of why “coupons” were awarded as they were has obscured the difficulty of planning a coalition program, which was the precondition of any allocation of “coupons.”The constraints upon Lloyd George went back to 1916. From the moment he succeeded Asquith he was “a Prime Minister without a party.” His claim to have 136 Liberal supporters in the Commons was never substantiated by a name list or verified in the division lobbies.
Thermogravimetric determination of magnesium, potassium and lead by precipitation with dilituric acid

Abstract The thermolysis curves of magnesium, potassium, and lead diliturate have established that either the hydrated or anhydrous forms of these precipitates are stable enough for their gravimetric use to be possible. Magnesium and lead were determined by precipitation with dilituric acid while potassium was precipitated with trimethylamine diliturate.
Structure–Activity Relationships of Organofluorine Inhibitors of β‐Amyloid Self‐Assembly

A broad group of structurally diverse small organofluorine compounds were synthesized and evaluated as inhibitors of β-amyloid (Aβ) self-assembly. The main goal was to generate a diverse library of compounds with the same functional group and to observe general structural features that characterize inhibitors of Aβ oligomer and fibril formation, ultimately identifying structures for further focused inhibitor design. The common structural motifs in these compounds are CF(3) -C-OH and CF(3) -C-NH groups that were proposed to be binding units in our previous studies. A broad range of potential small-molecule inhibitors were synthesized by combining various carbocyclic and heteroaromatic rings with an array of substituents, generating a total of 106 molecules. The compounds were tested by standard methods such as thioflavin-T fluorescence spectroscopy for monitoring fibril formation, biotinyl Aβ(1-42) single-site streptavidin-based assays for observing oligomer formation, and atomic force microscopy for morphological studies. These assays revealed a number of structures that show significant inhibition against either Aβ fibril or oligomer formation. A detailed analysis of the structure-activity relationship of anti-fibril and -oligomer properties is provided. These data present further experimental evidence for the distinct nature of fibril versus oligomer formation and indicate that the interaction of the Aβ peptide with chiral small molecules is not stereospecific in nature.