cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Mindfulness and spirituality as predictors of personal maturity beyond the influence of personality traits

Historically, the concept of human maturity has been discussed in the social science field. The process of attaining maturity has also been explored since last century. This study investigates the possible influences of mindfulness practice and spirituality in predicting maturity. The model of causes of maturity in this study assesses the contributions of personality, mindfulness, and spirituality in the prediction of maturity in a random sample of 537 Chinese adults. Results indicated that personality, mindfulness, and spirituality all correlated with maturity in many aspects. Multiple regression analyses found that mindfulness and spirituality each added an additional significant amount of variance in maturity after controlling for the influence of age and personality. As expected, when mindfulness and spirituality were practiced together, the amount of combined incremental influence on maturity was significantly greater than the amounts of incremental influence mindfulness and spirituality each alone h...
Mounting macerated plant tissues with adhesives.

Adhesives are important in standard paraffin methods, and they are also utilized in preparing permanent slides of diatoms (Conger, 1925a and b; Hanna and Grant, 1939) and other algae (Adams, 1940; Alcorn, 1935; Johansen, 1940). Such procedures involve the transfer of prepared materials to adhesive-coated slides or cover slips. Aldaba (1927) followed such a method for studying extremely long ramie fibers by floating them onto strips of window glass “coated with fixative”. It appears, however, that adhesives have not been employed generally in the preparation of macerated materials. The schedule to be presented was developed for handling macerated xylem elements of sorghum roots.
An optimistic checkpointing and message logging approach for consistent global checkpoint collection in distributed systems

Checkpointing and rollback recovery are widely used techniques for achieving fault-tolerance in distributed systems. In this paper, we present a novel checkpointing algorithm which has the following desirable features: A process can independently initiate consistent global checkpointing by saving its current state, called a tentative checkpoint. Other processes come to know about a consistent global checkpoint initiation through information piggy-backed with the application messages or limited control messages if necessary. When a process comes to know about a new consistent global checkpoint initiation, it takes a tentative checkpoint after processing the message (not before processing the message as in existing communication-induced checkpointing algorithms). After a process takes a tentative checkpoint, it starts logging the messages sent and received in memory. When a process comes to know that every other process has taken a tentative checkpoint corresponding to current consistent global checkpoint initiation, it flushes the tentative checkpoint and the message log to the stable storage. The tentative checkpoints together with the message logs stored in the stable storage form a consistent global checkpoint. Two or more processes can concurrently initiate consistent global checkpointing by taking a new tentative checkpoint; in that case, the tentative checkpoints taken by all these processes will be part of the same consistent global checkpoint. The sequence numbers assigned to checkpoints by a process increase monotonically. Checkpoints with the same sequence number form a consistent global checkpoint. We also present the performance evaluation of our algorithm.
Teaching Research to Graduate Nursing Students: A Strategy Using Clinically Based Research Projects

This article describes an approach to teaching advanced practice nursing students the research process through the application of the research process to clinical problems. In the course, students propose solutions to clinically based research projects through conceptualizing the problem, identifying an appropriate theoretical framework, conceptualizing the intervention or clinical guidelines, and designing a project that includes the research design, sampling strategies, procedures for implementation of the project, and plans for data collection and analysis. These strategies challenge the advanced practice nursing student to apply research concepts to problems encountered in clinical practice and reinforces the skills needed to critique the literature, to summarize the published findings on a problem, to conceptualize a research study, and to disseminate their findings in oral presentations.
Energy Efficient Multi-Object Tracking in Sensor Networks

The problem of tracking multiple objects moving through a network of wireless sensors is studied. It is assumed that each sensor has a limited range for detecting the presence of the object, and that the network is sufficiently dense so that the sensors cover the area of interest. In order to conserve energy the sensors may be put into a sleep mode with a timer that determines the sleep duration. It is assumed that a sensor that is asleep cannot be communicated with or woken up, and hence the sleep duration needs to be determined at the time the sensor goes to sleep based on all the information available to the sensor. The objective is to track the location of the objects to within the accuracy of the range of the sensor. Having sleeping sensors in the network could result in tracking errors, and therefore there is a tradeoff between the energy savings and the tracking errors that result from the sleeping actions at the sensors. Sleeping policies that optimize this tradeoff are designed, and their performance analyzed. This work is an extension of previous work that considered the tracking of only a single object.
Conifer density within lake catchments predicts fish mercury concentrations in remote subalpine lakes.

Remote high-elevation lakes represent unique environments for evaluating the bioaccumulation of atmospherically deposited mercury through freshwater food webs, as well as for evaluating the relative importance of mercury loading versus landscape influences on mercury bioaccumulation. The increase in mercury deposition to these systems over the past century, coupled with their limited exposure to direct anthropogenic disturbance make them useful indicators for estimating how changes in mercury emissions may propagate to changes in Hg bioaccumulation and ecological risk. We evaluated mercury concentrations in resident fish from 28 high-elevation, sub-alpine lakes in the Pacific Northwest region of the United States. Fish total mercury (THg) concentrations ranged from 4 to 438 ng/g wet weight, with a geometric mean concentration (±standard error) of 43 ± 2 ng/g ww. Fish THg concentrations were negatively correlated with relative condition factor, indicating that faster growing fish that are in better condition have lower THg concentrations. Across the 28 study lakes, mean THg concentrations of resident salmonid fishes varied as much as 18-fold among lakes. We used a hierarchal statistical approach to evaluate the relative importance of physiological, limnological, and catchment drivers of fish Hg concentrations. Our top statistical model explained 87% of the variability in fish THg concentrations among lakes with four key landscape and limnological variables: catchment conifer density (basal area of conifers within a lake's catchment), lake surface area, aqueous dissolved sulfate, and dissolved organic carbon. Conifer density within a lake's catchment was the most important variable explaining fish THg concentrations across lakes, with THg concentrations differing by more than 400 percent across the forest density spectrum. These results illustrate the importance of landscape characteristics in controlling mercury bioaccumulation in fish.
The Impact of Prior Poor Birth Outcomes on Smoking Behavior on Subsequent Pregnancies: Analysis of the National PRAMS Data

Objectives The link between cigarette smoking and poor birth outcomes has been well established. However, there is paucity of research investigating the effect of previous history of poor birth outcomes on smoking behavior during subsequent pregnancies. The present study seeks to determine whether a previous preterm or low birth weight delivery impacts maternal smoking during the subsequent pregnancy. Methods Data from the National Pregnancy Risk Assessment Monitoring System (PRAMS) was analyzed. Multiparous women who currently had singleton birth were included in the analysis (N = 137,297). Previous poor birth outcome and smoking were defined based on the PRAMS question that asked women whether their immediate previous baby was born preterm or low birth weight and if they smoked during the index pregnancy. Results Approximately 16.3 % of the women who reported previous poor birth outcome also reported smoking during the subsequent pregnancy. Multiple logistic regression analysis revealed that women who had previous poor birth outcome had 22 % higher odds of smoking during the subsequent pregnancy. Similarly, the odds of smoking during pregnancy were 30 and 13 % higher among women who had previous low birth weight and preterm birth, respectively. Conclusions Women who experienced previous preterm or low birth weight baby had higher prevalence of smoking during the subsequent pregnancy. The occurrence of a preterm/low birth weight may present a critical intervention point for providers to educate women on the risks of repeated poor birth outcomes and provide intervention programs to address high-risk behaviors.
Keynote Lecture: The Problems and Challenges in Biomedical Sciences

Distressed by the perverse incentives that have generated the current hyper-competitive biomedical research environment in the United States, four of us published an open-access article in April 2014 entitled: Rescuing US biomedical research from its systemic flaws (Alberts, B., Kirschner, Marc W., Tilghman, Shirley, and Varmus, H.; Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 111, 5773-5777 (2014)). As announced in our follow-up piece, Opinion: Addressing systemic problems in the biomedical research enterprise (Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 112, 1912-1913 (2015)), we have formed a 16-member steering committee to oversee a new website that is designed to collect suggestions for actions that can ameliorate the identified problems, as well as to highlight promising changes that are either underway or proposed (see http://rescuingbiomedicalresearch.org). Despite widespread agreement concerning the problems, any substantial change in the system is bound to be controversial. Experiments are therefore needed. In my talk, I will outline some possible ideas for overcoming the inertia that prevents moving forward. We are encouraging both national and international contributions to this effort, since the problems that we have described are by no means unique to the United States.
Photophysical and Photosensitizing Properties of Phthalocyanines

Solid tumors selectively retain certain porphyrins; on subsequent illumination the tumors can often be destroyed with relatively little damage to the adjacent normal tissue. This modality, termed photodynamic therapy (PDT), has been used with several thousand cancer patients with generally favourable results (Dougherty, 1987). Porphyrins absorb light poorly in the red region of the spectrum where light penetration into tissues is high. However, several groups of “second generation” PDT sensitizers that absorb more effectively in the red have now been identified, among them the phthalocyanines (PCs). Phthalocyanines have a number of characteristics that recommend their application in PDT. These include strong red absorption (670–680nm), selective retention in tumors, efficient photosensitizing properties, apparent low toxicity, ease of synthesis, and resistance to chemical and photochemical degradation; several types of implanted tumors in laboratory animals have been successfully treated by PC sensitized PDT (see Spikes, 1986;Ben-Hur et al., 1987;Van Lier et al., 1988). The present paper briefly reviews the chemistry, photophysics, photochemistry and photosensitizing properties of PCs, primarily as examined under physiological conditions in aqueous solutions at pH 7.4. Phthalocyanines are blue-green compounds that are widely used as pigments for paints and inks, as light absorbers in electrocatalysis, in photovoltaic applications, as sensitizers in photocatalysis, as photoconductors, as electrochromic agents and as chemical sensors; some 4900 PCs are known (Lever, 1987).
Unconventional Monetary Policy and Uncertainty

Using a structural factor-augmented vector autoregression (FAVAR) model and a large database of daily time series, we examine the impact of unconventional monetary policy on multiple proxies of economic and financial uncertainty. Our findings indicate that expansionary unconventional monetary policy shocks lead to large reductions in uncertainty across markets. More specifically, a surprise unconventional monetary easing lowers equity market, policy, housing and mortgage market, exchange rate, and Treasury market uncertainty. Research results further suggest that these reductions in uncertainty differ in magnitude across asset classes and largest for equity markets. Lastly, we find that the effects of these monetary shocks on uncertainty attenuate quickly and dissipate after about 150 days.
Monopolização De 'Aftermarkets': Racionalidade, Potencial Anticompetitivo E Efeitos No Mercado (Monopolization of Aftermarkets: Rationality, Anticompetitive Potential and Effects)

Portuguese Abstract: O presente trabalho e resultado de um estudo e de reflexoes a respeito da monopolizacao de aftermarkets. Discutem-se os argumentos que foram considerados no estudo, realizado a partir de dois julgados: os casos Kodak e Power-tech/MATEC. Apos, na Tabela 1 apresentam-se diferentes configuracoes de mercado hipoteticas (mercados principais concorrenciais, oligopolios ou monopolicos; mercados derivados monopolizados ou concorrenciais), realizando-se um exercicio de previsao das possiveis consequencias advindas de cada hipotese. Em seguida, na Tabela 2 enumeram-se as vantagens e desvantagens de cada configuracao de mercado. Por fim, sugerem-se questoes a serem verificadas pela autoridade antitruste no curso da analise da conduta. English Abstract: This article is based on a case law study of the classic Kodak and the Brazilian Power-tech/Matec. As a result, Table 1 presents hypothetical market configurations (competitive, oligopolistic and monopolistic primary markets; monopolistic or competitive secondary markets). Table 2 presents the advantages and disadvantages of each market configuration. Finally, issues to be considered by the antitrust authority in the course of the analysis are suggested.
Design and Construction of Protective Structure for New Reef Runway, Honolulu International Airport

This paper describes the design and construction of the protective structure for a new Reef Runway at the Honolulu International Airport with special emphasis on the use of dolosse concrete armor units.
Strain Differences in Egg Shell Mottling, Internal Quality, Shell Thickness, Specific Gravity, and the Interrelationships Between These Factors

ABSTRACT THE basic purpose of this experiment was to find out more about egg shell mottling; its inheritance, and its relationship to other characteristics of the egg. Egg shell mottling is described by Baker and Curtiss (1957) as light-colored, translucent spots of various sizes and shapes appearing in the shell under candling Holst, Almquist and Lorenz (1932) state that shell mottling is caused by moisture distributed in a non-uniform manner throughout the shell proper. They point out that egg shell mottling is not a permanent characteristic and can vary in amount after the egg is laid. The mottling of the shell is not affected by the porosity of the shell according to Almquist (1933). Jeffrey and Darago (1940) point out that high relative humidities reduce the amount of egg shell mottling. They also state that the incidence of shell mottling is greatest at low relative humidities. Baker and Curtiss (1957) state . . .
Immersive Terrestrial Scuba Diving Using Virtual Reality

SCUBA diving as a sport has enabled people to explore the magnificent ocean diversity of beautiful corals, striking fish, and mysterious wrecks. However, only a small number of people are able to experience these wonders as diving is expensive, mentally and physically challenging, needs a large time investment, and requires access to large bodies of water. Most existing SCUBA diving simulations in VR are limited to visual and aural displays. We propose a virtual reality system, Amphibian that provides an immersive SCUBA diving experience through a convenient terrestrial simulator. Users lie on their torso on a motion platform with their outstretched arms and legs placed in a suspended harness. Users receive visual and aural feedback through the Oculus Rift head-mounted display and a pair of headphones. Additionally, we simulate buoyancy, drag, and temperature changes through various sensors. Preliminary deployment shows that the system has potential to offer a high degree of presence in VR.
The clinic experience of coronary stent in small vessel

Objective To compare the acute complication and short term effect between angioplasty and stent in coronary arteries less than 3 mm Methods There were forty two patients and fifty two vessels attending to the study During procedure, native vessel diameter, stenosis degree and MLD were measured pre operation and post operation, and the clinic features of acute occlusion, subacute thrombosis, acute MI, emergent CABG and death were followed within thirty days after operation Results Stent group showed larger balloon, higher pressure during balloon dilatation, larger vessel lumen and lower residue stenosis than balloon group There were no acute MI, emergent CABG and death in two groups, but one subacute thrombosis in stent group and one acute occlusion in balloon group Conclusion Selective stent in small vessel may reduce acute complication and restenosis after interventional therapy
Humoral factors in aplastic anemia: relationship of liver dysfunction to lack of serum stimulation of bone marrow growth in vitro

Sera from 26 patients with aplastic anemia (AA) were examined for their effects in vitro on autologous AA marrow and heterologous normal bone marrow proliferation. Two groups of patients with respect to serum activity were defined, one group (13 patients) in which serum stimulated autologous and normal marrow cell growth relative to the effects of normal serum, and another in which serum was nonstimulatory (5 patients within the normal range, 8 patients inhibitory). The consistently demonstrable effects of these individual sera on cultured normal marrow cell 3 H-TdR incorporation, 3 H-TdR labeling index, cell counts, and morphologic differentials, and on overall autologous AA marrow cell growth, did not relate to patient age, peripheral blood counts, bone marrow cellularity or content, the presence or absence of serum cytotoxicity, or serum erythropoietin content. Ten of thirteen with stimulatory sera had no discernible cause for their AA. The other 13 patients, whose sera were nonstimulatory, were those who had precedent histories of Australia antigen (HAA)-negative hepatitis and/or biochemical evidence of active liver dysfunction (10/13). These patients in whom liver disease and AA appeared to coincide were more likely to be males (8/10 patients) with type O blood (6/8 males). The serum inhibition could be neutralized in vitro by mixing that serum with stimulatory serum obtained from patients with normal bone marrow during drug-induced aplasia.
Laboratory NMR Measurements on Methane Saturated Barnett Shale Samples

The NMR signature of methane saturated Barnett shale core plugs measured in a non-gradient magnetic field is dramatically different from what would be seen if the methane relaxed as a bulk fluid. At laboratory temperatures, the methane T 2 relaxation spectra have modes on the order of 10 ms. This is consistent with a significant percentage of the methane being located in nanometer scale hydrophobic organic pores, and relaxing by a dipole-dipole interaction with the hydrogen molecules in the organic material. For pores of this size any gradient field diffusion induced relaxation would be strongly suppressed, consequently the effects of internal gradients should be of second order. Methane in these pores would not be displaced by invasion of water-based mud, so an NMR log should register the total gas stored in these pores within its signal. The NMR water signals in Barnett core plugs have T 2 relaxation spectra with a mode on the order of 1 ms. This observation is consistent with either the water being clay bound, or at the least the water is located in very small pores that are at least partly water wet. This study shows that NMR logging measurements should be able to provide quantitative estimates of the free gas storage and information on the percentage of free gas stored in organic pores. However, this will require development of new interpretation methodologies, and application of traditional methodologies, based on the gas signature in conventional reservoirs, will produce erroneous results.
Development of the superior colliculus/optic tectum

The superior colliculus (SC) and its non-mammalian homologue, the optic tectum (OT) are visually-dominant structures in the midbrain. However, they also receive substantial auditory and somatosensory inputs that aid in the task of transforming sensory cues into motor commands. The best known behavioral role of this brain region is the control of orientiation, especially shifts of gaze. The present chapter focuses on the development of the neural properties (primarily of the SC) that underlie this function. Of special concern is the overlapping and map-like form of each of the SC sensory representations, and the multisensory neurons that integrate information from multiple senses. The sensory topographies in the SC are linked to motor outputs and their overlapping organization ensures consistency in the way different sensory cues derived from the same event are located with respect to the motor effectors. Multisensory neurons use this information to enhance the physiological impact of such cross-modal events so that they have a higher likelihood of eliciting an overt orientation response. However, both the topographic organization of these sensory representations and the multisensory integration capabilities of SC neurons develop gradually as the brain accumulates experience with such events. This appears to ensure that the physiological properties of these neurons are best adapted to the environment in which they will be used. These maturational issues and their functional impact are discussed in depth.
Impact of piperacillin-tazobactam shortage on meropenem use: implications for antimicrobial stewardship programs

Drug shortages pose a clear detriment to antimicrobial stewardship (AS) efforts. Our objective was to evaluate the effect of a piperacillin-tazobactam shortage on meropenem use, related costs, and associated changes in AS activity. A quasi-experimental quality improvement review compared adult patients receiving meropenem ≥72h three months pre-shortage and three months during the shortage. 320 patients were included (pre-shortage: 103; shortage: 217). Baseline characteristics were similar, but the length of stay was slightly longer in pre-shortage [19 (11-32) days] versus shortage [16 (11-32) days] (p=0.094). In pre-shortage and shortage, median days of therapy and estimated meropenem cost were 7 (5-11) and 7 (5-10) and $309.93 ($173.60-$507.03) and $255.30 ($204.24-$424.31), respectively (p=0.411 and p=0.050). Frequency of ID consultation was similar (16.8% in pre- and 25.3% in shortage, p=0.091). AS interventions increased during the shortage period (99 in pre-shortage and 205 in shortage). De-escalation occurred in 19.4% versus 32.7% of the patients in pre-shortage and shortage (p=0.014). The piperacillin-tazobactam shortage was associated with a 111% increase in meropenem prescriptions despite active AS, but was not associated with changes in mortality, length of therapy, or meropenem costs. AS should be aware that shortages may require proactive countermeasures to avoid inappropriate antimicrobial use during shortage periods.
Theory of harmonic grid generation. II

In this paper we will continue the study of harmonic grid generation methods initiated in the earlier paper. New aspects of the results are the regularity properties and the underlying variational principle.
Correcting the literature.

We make important therapeutic decisions based on the best available evidence and it is important to correct the literature when results are in question. Appropriate actions may include publication of a correction, links to previously cited data to avoid double counting of outcomes, expressions of concern about study methods or integrity, and retraction of a published article. Corrections should be published as soon as possible, appear in a prominent position on a numbered page in the journal that originally published the article, and include the complete original citation to help ensure that an appropriate reference to the published erratum will be added to the MEDLINE citation. A retracted work should still be searchable, but should bear a clear indication that it was retracted and a statement regarding why the retraction occurred. As others may have acted upon the published data, it is important that corrections are appropriately visible and that the work doesn’t simply disappear from literature searches.
Obstructive sleep apnea and cortical thickness in females and males

Introduction Obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) affects approximately 10% of adults, and alters brain gray and white matter. Psychological and physiological symptoms of the disorder are sex-specific, perhaps related to greater injury occurs in female than male patients in white matter. Our objective was to identify influences of OSA separated by sex on cortical gray matter. Methods We assessed cortical thickness in 48 mild-severe OSA patients (mean age±std[range] = 46.5±9.0[30.8–62.7] years; apnea-hypopnea index = 32.6±21.1[6–102] events/hour; 12 female, 36 male; OSA severity: 5 mild, 18 moderate, 25 severe) and 62 controls (mean age = 47.7±8.9[30.9–65.8] years; 22 female, 40 male). All OSA patients were recently-diagnosed via polysomnography, and control subjects screened and a subset assessed with sleep studies. We used high-resolution magnetic resonance imaging to identify OSA-related cortical thinning, based on a model with condition and sex as independent variables. OSA and OSA-by-sex interaction effects were assessed (P<0.05, corrected for multiple comparisons). Results Multiple regions of reduced cortical thickness appeared bilaterally in the superior frontal lobe in female OSA vs. all other groups. Significant thinning within the pre- and post-central gyri and the superior temporal gyrus, extending into the insula, appeared between the general OSA populations vs. control subjects. No areas showed increased thickness in OSA vs. controls or positive female OSA interaction effects. Conclusions Reduced cortical thickness likely represents tissue atrophy from long term injury, including death of neurons and supporting glia from repeated intermittent hypoxic exposure in OSA, although disease comordities may also contribute to thinning. Lack of polysomnography in all control subjects means results may be confounded by undiagnosed OSA. The greater cortical injury in cognitive areas of female OSA patients may underlie enhanced symptoms in that group. The thinning associated with OSA in male and females OSA patients may contribute to autonomic dysregulation and impaired upper airway sensori-motor function.
Improving Performance Portability in OpenCL Programs

We study the performance portability of OpenCL across diverse architectures including NVIDIA GPU, Intel Ivy Bridge CPU, and AMD Fusion APU. We present detailed performance analysis at assembly level on three exemplar OpenCL benchmarks: SGEMM, SpMV, and FFT. We also identify a number of tuning knobs that are critical to performance portability, including threads-data mapping, data layout, tiling size, data caching, and operation-specific factors. We further demonstrate that proper tuning could improve the OpenCL portable performance from the current 15% to a potential 67% of the state-of-the-art performance on the Ivy Bridge CPU. Finally, we evaluate the current OpenCL programming model, and propose a list of extensions that improve performance portability.
Human papillomavirus vaccine among adult women: disparities in awareness and acceptance.

Background Human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccines have been shown to be safe and highly effective in young and middle-aged women. Purpose This study aimed to assess vaccine awareness and desire for vaccination among adult women aged 18–55 years residing in Los Angeles County CA. Methods This study is nested in the 2007 Los Angeles County Health Survey. Included in the analyses were 2295 women aged 18–55 years. Logistic regression was used to evaluate vaccine awareness and intention to become vaccinated in association with various factors. All analyses employed weighted data and were conducted in 2009. Results Only 5% of women aged 18–26 years had received the HPV vaccine in its first year on the market. Overall, 67% of women aged 18–55 years had heard of the vaccine. Among those who knew of the vaccine but had not received it, 61% reported they were likely to receive the vaccine. Latina, black, and Asian/Pacific Islander women were only half as likely to have heard of the vaccine as white women, but Latinas and Asian/Pacific Islander women were more willing to be vaccinated than white or black women. Education was associated positively with awareness, but inversely associated with intention to be vaccinated. Awareness and desire for vaccination also varied substantially by other factors such as language spoken at home. Conclusions This population-based study of diverse women reveals important disparities in HPV vaccine awareness and intention to be vaccinated. Culturally and linguistically competent educational campaigns about HPV immunization are warranted, and should target high-risk populations.
Management strategies for high-risk cardiac surgery: improving outcomes in patients with heart failure.

BACKGROUND Surgical heart failure management is the fastest growing aspect of cardio-vascular surgery. Advances in cardiac surgical techniques have changed the number and types of operations permitted physicians and thus broadened the complexity of patients recommended for operation. METHODS Surgeons, anesthesiologists and cardiologists face hemodynamic and patho-physiological challenges that can be optimally overcome only by modifying treatment strategies. Because many treatment standards are still evolving in this rapidly advancing field, a team of cardiovascular surgeons and anesthesiologists convened to share clinical experience and impressions and discuss practical issues related to high-risk patients undergoing heart surgery. RESULTS Heart failure pathophysiology, surgical heart failure management, including mitral reconstruction and left ventricular remodeling, cardiopulmonary bypass weaning, inotropic support, transesophageal echocardiography and acute cardiovascular collapse after cardiac surgery are discussed. CONCLUSION This article is intended to guide clinicians to improve patient care and outcomes in this special population by providing specific guidance on the appropriate use of inotropic and mechanical support in patients undergoing high-risk procedures using innovative techniques.
The Delayed “Sea Breezes” in the Sacramento Valley and the Resulting Favorable Conditions for Application of Pesticides

Hourly wind recordings at Davis and Grimes, California, revealed that spraying operations by aircraft in summer can frequently be extended beyond the customary sunrise hours without damage by drift...
Strengthening information technology security through the failure modes and effects analysis approach

Proper protection of information systems is a major quality issue of organizational risk management. Risk management is a process whereby risk factors are identified and then virtually eliminated. Failure modes and effects analysis (FMEA) is a risk management methodology for identifying system’s failure modes with their effects and causes. FMEA identifies potential weaknesses in the system. This approach allows companies to correct areas identified through the process before the system fails. In this paper, we identify several critical failure factors that may jeopardize the security of information systems. In doing this, we systematically identify, analyze, and document the possible failure modes and the possible effects of each failure on the system. The proposed cybersecurity FMEA (C-FMEA) process results in a detailed description of how failures influence the system’s performance and how they can be avoided. The applicability of the proposed C-FMEA is illustrated with an example from a regional airport.
Aspirin for venous thromboembolism prophylaxis after hip or knee arthroplasty: An updated meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials.

Abstract Background Patients who undergo knee or hip arthroplasty are at a significant risk of venous thromboembolism (VTE) development (pulmonary embolism and/or deep-vein thrombosis). Many different thromboprophylactic strategies have been used for the prevention of VTE in these patients with different outcomes. Therefore, our aim was to evaluate the efficacy and safety of aspirin prophylaxis when compared with placebo or anticoagulants in this population of patients. Methods A comprehensive electronic database search was conducted for all randomized controlled trials (RCTs) comparing the clinical outcomes of aspirin versus placebo or anticoagulants for the prevention of VTE after knee or hip arthroplasty. The primary outcome was VTE incidence. Secondary outcomes included any bleeding, major bleeding and mortality. We calculated risk ratios (RRs) and 95% confidence intervals (CIs) using a random-effects model at the longest possible follow-up period. Results We included 13 RCTs with a total of 20,115 patients with a mean age of 67.15 ± 9.54 and 24.39% males. Aspirin was found to be associated with a non-significantly reduced VTE events compared with other thromboprophylactic methods (RR 0.87; 95% CI: 0.61–1.23; P = 0.43). Compared with placebo, aspirin was associated with significant reduction of VTE (RR 0.65; 95% CI: 0.47–0.89; P = 0.008). There were no significant differences in the clinical outcomes between all groups with regard to mortality (RR 0.98; 95% CI: 0.86–1.11; P = 0.72), major bleeding events (RR 0.96; 95% CI: 0.50–1.84; P = 0.91), and any bleeding events (RR: 1.09; 95% CI: 0.82–1.44; P = 0.56). Conclusion Among patients who underwent knee or hip arthroplasty, aspirin prophylaxis was found to be associated with similar efficacy and safety outcomes when compared with anticoagulants. When compared with placebo, aspirin prophylaxis was associated with significantly reduced VTE and a comparable safety profile.
Of Regulating Healthcare AI and Robots

This article argues that advances in healthcare artificial intelligence (AI) will seriously challenge the robustness and appropriateness of our current healthcare regulatory models. Initially healthcare AI will join other technologies such as big data and mobile health apps in highlighting the current deficiencies in our regulatory models (particularly data protection). In the near future they will challenge regulatory models that use binary formulations such as “safe” or “unsafe.” The regulation of AI will require some fresh thinking. Underpinned by broadly embraced ethical and moral values future AI regulation must be holistic, universal, contextually aware, and responsive to what will be major shifts in the man-machine relationship. The article seeks to provide context for these discussions by suggesting a typology for the healthcare AI technologies of our present and near future, a typology based in part on their substitutive effects. That is followed by a critical look at the existing healthcare regulatory structure as it would be applied to AI. The core of the article then then suggests the imperatives for a new regulatory structure, one that relies less on the senses that we know the “practice of medicine” or “device” when we see it, and more on generally accepted normative principles. Those imperatives include quality, safety, cost-effectiveness, improved data protection, protections against discrimination and in support of health equity.
Supporting Postdivorce Stepfathering: Directions for Family Counselors:

With the growth in the numbers of stepfamilies, plus the scholarly and clinical attention paid to their sustainability and success, their dissolution rate still exceeds that of nuclear families. Th...
A -80.9dBm 450MHz Wake-Up Receiver with Code-Domain Matched Filtering using a Continuous-Time Analog Correlator

A continuous-time, clockless analog correlator uses pulse-position-encoded analog signal processing with VCOs as integrators and pulse-controlled relaxation delays; it operates as a matched filter to despread asynchronous wake-up codes. A correlator prototype has been designed in 65nm CMOS-LP technology, consumes 37nW from 0.54V, and performs code-domain filtering with an 11-bit Barker code for a wake-up receiver. The hardware of the proposed n-bit correlator architecture scales with O(n) compared to O(n2) for asynchronous switched-capacitor correlators. A -80.9dBm 40nW wake-up receiver with 9dB better sensitivity and 3dB improved selectivity to AM interference thanks to the correlator is demonstrated.
A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis on the Effects of Probiotic Species on Iron Absorption and Iron Status.

Background: Strategies to prevent iron deficiency anemia (IDA) have varying effectiveness. The purpose of this systematic review of the literature and meta-analysis was to examine the effects of probiotics on iron absorption and iron status-related markers in humans. Methods: We followed the preferred reporting items for systematic reviews and meta-analyses (PRISMA) reporting guidelines. Relevant articles were identified from Embase, Pubmed, Scopus, and CINAHL from inception to February, 2019. We conducted a meta-analysis for eight studies examining the effect of the probiotic Lactobacillus plantarum 299v (Lp299v) on iron absorption. Results: Fifteen studies reported in 12 articles were identified (N = 950). Our meta-analysis of eight studies using a random-effects model demonstrated a significant increase in iron absorption following administration of the probiotic Lp299v with a pooled standardized mean difference (an average intervention effect size) of 0.55 (95% CI 0.22–0.88, p = 0.001). Of the seven randomized clinical trials (RCTs) and nonrandomized clinical trials examining a range of probiotic species on iron status, only one study supplementing with Lp299v showed improvement in serum iron; no other studies reported improvement in iron status-related indices with probiotic treatment. Conclusions: Lp299v significantly improved iron absorption in humans. Future research should include the assessment of Lp299v effect on iron absorption and iron status in populations at high risk of IDA, including pregnant women.
Applications for osteochondral allografts

Transplantation of fresh osteochondral allografts (OCA) can be used in a wide variety of different injuries and joint diseases as well as a salvage procedure after primary failed cartilage repair. Large and deep osteochondral defects can be completely reconstructed in a one-stage procedure without having the issue of donor site morbidity. For the patient, OCA transplantation provides reliable symptomatic pain relief and lasting functional improvements with the possibility of delaying or eliminating the need for arthroplasty.
Coupling Pressure Sensing with Optical Coherence Tomography to Evaluate the Internal Nasal Valve

Purpose:To evaluate endoscopic long-range optical coherence tomography system combined with a pressure sensor to concurrently measure internal nasal valve cross-sectional area and intraluminal pres...
Small Patients and Tiny CAUTI Rates: Sustained CAUTI Reduction in a Children's Hospital

Background The pediatric catheter associated urinary tract infection (CAUTI) prevention team was formed in August 2015 to address a patient safety need. CAUTI rates, specifically in the pediatric intensive care unit (PICU), was consistently above national benchmarks, resulting in unnecessary harm to patients. Methods The CAUTI prevention team is a multidisciplinary team made up of bedside staff, physicians, and specialists. The team discusses metrics, bundle compliance and new products, and makes recommendations for Foley use and care. Education is provided regularly to bedside staff and physicians, with real time notification of CAUTI events. Since the development in 2015, the team has been able to move from general CAUTI education to specific and targeted reduction tactics. The team provides real-time notification to bedside staff to discuss Foleys in place greater than 2 days in order to facilitate removal. The team also provides weekly personalized utilization rates to ICU physicians for their own trending. Additionally, the team has expanded standardized patient bathing across the hospital, and developed tools for decreased discomfort and anxiety during catheterization processes. Results Since the team was formed in 2015, sustained improvement has been seen in CAUTI reduction with a 56% decrease hospital-wide and a 67% decrease specifically in the pediatric intensive care unit (PICU). Additionally, a process shift for Foley utilization in the PICU was seen in August 2016, and has been sustained to date. Prior to committee formation, Foley utilization was as high as 30%. In the last quarter, utilization averaged 10%, a 66% decrease. Conclusions The team has established, and more importantly sustained, standards for Foley use and care that have had significant impact on CAUTI rates in our hospital, preventing our patients from harm.
On learning particle distributions in the 1D implicit Monte Carlo simulations of radiation transport

Monte Carlo based thermal radiative transfer (TRT) codes provide a flexible framework for large-scale high-energy-density simulations. Compared to their deterministic counterparts, Monte Carlo methods are easier to implement in complex geometries and higher dimensions. However, the probabilistic nature of the Monte Carlo approach and the complexity of the underlying TRT equations describing nonlinear interactions between radiation and matter imply that Monte Carlo radiation transport codes involve massive amounts of particle data and have enormous memory footprints. This study is focused on building a statistical learning framework that can be employed to `compress' IMC data into a few probability density functions characterized by a relatively small number of distribution parameters. In order to learn complex distributions describing Monte Carlo data, we employ the Expectation Maximization (EM) method and finite mixture models adapted to learn particle distributions in the energy and angular domains targeting Implicit Monte Carlo (IMC) simulations in 1-d. Specifically, we couple EM iteration to the weighted hyper-Erlang finite mixture model in order to learn parameters of the photon distributions. We couple the EM iteration to the von Mises (Circular Normal) finite mixture model in order to learn angular distributions. The learning approach proposed in this study promises accurate resampling and significant memory savings at checkpointing and restarts of the IMC and other Monte Carlo radiation transport codes.
Grid Forming Energy Router: Investigation of Load Control and Stability Response

Large scale integration of Renewable Energy Sources (RES) with smart devices into the grid is becoming an attractive concept to meet increasing energy demand, and to reduce the stress on conventional grid. However, it comes with its concerns of controlling large number of inverter based RES, with low inertial energy to achieve grid stability and efficient power transfer among RES, grid, and the loads. In order to incorporate smart devices and energy efficient RES with real-time control of energy supply and demand, Grid Forming (GFM) Energy Routers (ER) are required. ER is a compact, intelligent ac-dc interface for RES and grid integration, which dynamically manages the energy supply/demand and information exchange within the grid. GFM control emulates the behavior of a Synchronous Machine (SM) to reduce/eliminate the frequency deviations and grid instability issues due to low inertia of inverter based RES, resulting in efficient and stable RES and grid integration. This paper investigates the stability response and load control of proposed GFM ER for RES and grid integration.
Sex and Race‐Ethnic Disparities in Door‐to‐CT Time in Acute Ischemic Stroke: The Florida Stroke Registry

Background Less than 40% of acute stroke patients have computed tomography (CT) imaging performed within 25 minutes of hospital arrival. We aimed to examine the race‐ethnic and sex differences in d...
Sunlight-activated phase change materials for controlled heat storage and triggered release

We report the design of photo-responsive organic phase change materials that can absorb filtered solar radiation to store both latent heat and photon energy via simultaneous phase transition and photo-isomerization. The activation of photo-switches by long wavelengths ≥530 nm in the visible light range at a low irradiance is achieved, in the absence of high-intensity light sources, by the ortho-substitution of azobenzene units. The facile transition from crystalline to liquid phase is enabled by appending an aliphatic group on the photochromic moiety. The sunlight-activated liquid phase exhibits an exceptionally long heat storage without crystallization for nearly two months, and the release of energy is triggered by a short irradiation at 430 nm. The successful demonstration of photo-controlled latent heat storage accomplished by solar irradiation opens a new horizon on solar energy harvesting by functional organic materials, as a complementary system to photocatalysts and photovoltaic materials.
Civil Disobedience Today: Some Basic Problems and Possibilities

Trust in our legal and political institutions has been eroding for decades. Civil disobedience as, variously, a form of resistance; as a means of promoting social change; or as a public statement, is likely to take on greater prominence under such circumstances. This Article first addresses the most important, and evidently unresolvable, questions of the definition and justification of civil disobedience. These questions focus on, respectively, openness or publicity; the role of violence; acceptance of legal punishment; ‘direct’ versus ‘indirect’ civil disobedience; civil disobedience as a moral right or as a moral duty; and the relations between civil disobedience and the democratic rule of law. However we attempt to resolve any of these questions, we should, more crucially, consider other ways in which civil disobedience cases might be judicially tried. Our culture of mutual alienation and distrust undersupplies opportunities for sustained, meaningful dialogue on complex issues of public policy. Civil disobedience trials should be reconceived and restructured precisely to encourage such dialogue, to the typical benefit of civilly disobedient actors, policy-enforcing governments, and the broader public.