cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Neogene benthic foraminiferal assemblages and paleoenvironmental record for McMurdo Sound, Antarctica

The Antarctic Geological Drilling (ANDRILL) program recovered a 1,138-m-long core, AND-2A, during the austral spring 2007–2008 from the Victoria Land Basin for the Southern McMurdo Sound (SMS) Project. The main objective of the SMS Project was to establish a Neogene (ca. 24–2.5 Ma) history recording ice volume changes from an ice-proximal site, in particular the environmental response of the Antarctic margin during the middle Miocene climate transition. This study focuses on the foraminifera taxa recovered from AND-2A, providing a paleoenvironmental analysis including paleobathymetry and ice-proximity estimates. Three assemblages, Cibicides-Cassidulinoides , Ammoelphidiella , and Ehrenbergina , as well as two subassemblages within the Ammoelphidiella assemblage, Globocassidulina and Nonionella , were identified in this study using cluster analysis. Calcareous eurytopic taxa dominate every assemblage and display similarities between Fresh Shelf Water assemblages and Ice Edge Biofacies that were previously defined in other studies focused in the Southern Ocean, as well as assemblages recovered from previous drilling projects in the Ross Sea region. Paleoenvironmental interpretations include an early Miocene record of fluctuating periods of glacial influence from ice-distal, abrupt cooling followed by a continued warming and transition into a more ice-proximal setting in the uppermost middle Miocene. The well-preserved middle Miocene record reflects more productive stable environmental conditions with significant freshwater input from outlet glaciers and rivers at the East Antarctic margin, and coincides with previously published palynomorph data indicating a short abrupt warming. Furthermore, the persistent appearance of the planktonic species Neogloboquadrina pachyderma and glacial/sea ice assemblages can be related to the onset of progressive cooling at the Antarctic margin, including periods of fluctuating sea ice extent or glacial proximity. Finally, the Pliocene record contains taxa similar to that of Fresh Shelf Water assemblages and Ice Edge Biofacies recovered in the Southern Ocean today. Paleobathymetric estimates range from inner shelf depths (∼50–150 m) in the early Miocene reaching periods of outer-shelf depths (∼400 m) in the uppermost early–middle Miocene and Pliocene.
Solution of an Equation in a Linear Algebra by Means of the Minimal Polynomial

where A is an element (e.g., a matrix) which generates a finite dimensional linear algebra C [A] over the complex number field C. To do this we shall need certain ideas and results from linear algebra; these are presented in Section 2. In succeeding sections the main results of the paper are derived which lead to the principal theorem of the paper. In the final section a corollary is presented which answers the question that originally prompted this study: How can all kth roots of a matrix which are expressible as polynomials in the matrix be determined?
TOPOLOGY DESIGN USING A TWO-LEVEL DISPLACEMENT-BASED APPROACH

A displacement-based optimization method is used to solve structural topology design problems. The method is a two-level scheme that avoids the use of repeated finite element analysis often required in traditional structural optimization. The approach is based on an outer level that searches for the optimal displacements and an inner level which finds the optimal design for a given displacement field. For truss structures, the inner optimization problem is a linear programming problem and hence is efficiently solved. The method is applied to the topology design of trusses with linear and nonlinear behavior. The validity and efficiency of the approach for this class of problems is demonstrated through several test examples.
GEM: Design and Implementation of a Metadata Project for Education

summary The Gateway to Educational Materials (GEM) is a project funded by the Department of Education's National Library of Education and a special project of the ERIC Clearinghouse on Information & Technology. GEM catalogs and organizes educational materials on the Internet using metadata technology. This article focuses on the development of the GEM metadata profile, a key step in the development of the GEM project. Research activities contributing to the development and the refinement of the GEM metadata profile are presented, as well as two case studies that apply the GEM metadata profile.
Ch. F-7 Microbial Control of the Production of Sulfide

Abstract A microbial process to control the production of hydrogen sulfide by sulfate-reducing bacteria using mutant strains of Thiobacillus denitrificans was developed. T. denitrificans oxidizes sulfide to sulfate using oxygen or nitrate as the electron acceptor, but is inhibited by sulfide concentrations above 100 to 200 μM. A mutant of T. denitrificans (strain F) resistant to glutaraldehyde (40 mg/l) and sulfide (1500 μM) was obtained by repeated subculturing at increasing concentrations of the inhibitors. Strain F prevented the accumulation of sulfide by Desulfovibrio desulfuricans when both organisms were grown in liquid medium or in Berea sandstone cores. The wild-type strain of T. denitrificans did not prevent sulfide accumulation by D. desulfuricans. Strain F also prevented the accumulation of sulfide by a mixed population of sulfate-reducing bacteria enriched from an oil field brine. Fermentation balances showed that strain F stoichiometrically oxidized the biogenically produced sulfide to sulfate. Strain F grew at temperatures up to 40°C, salinities up to 2%, and pressures up to 120 atm. These data showed that strain F would be effective in controlling sulfide production in many oil reservoirs and other environments.
Transnational/Indigenous Youth: Learning, Feeling and Being in Globalized Contexts

The neoliberal restructuring of the Mexican state and the project of North American integration have worked to uproot indigenous and rural populations from their local subsistence economies and to incorporate them into the unprecedented growth of the service sector in the United States. In the context of a wide constellation of policy changes under neoliberal regimes, Mexican indigenous rural communities without previous experience of transnational migration were rapidly incorporated into transnational migratory circuits during the last decade of the twentieth century. New conceptual developments have attempted to comprehend the workings of contemporary migration phenomena in the context of neoliberalism. Rapid and massive transnational migration movements without networks of support constructed over several generations, which is understood as ‘accelerated migration’ (Binford 2000, 2003a, 2004), and the growing commercialization of international migration or the ‘migration industry’ (Gammeltoft-Hansen and Sorensen 2013) characterize the migratory patterns and networks that have emerged under neoliberal globalism.
The Regulatory Frameworks

The systems of environmental legislation specifically addressing hazardous and toxic waste problems are a recent development in the United States. Most of the legislative responses to toxic substances and hazardous wastes occurred in the post-World War II era, especially from the mid-1960s to the present. A series of environmental and technological disasters of epic proportions—including Bhopal, India, Love Canal, New York, Seveso, Italy, Chernobyl, Soviet Union, Exxon Valdez, Alaska, and numerous others, causing massive ecological destruction in both the built and natural environments galvanized public outcry and support for governmental regulation of environmental hazards both in the United States and across the globe. In the United States, environmental laws and their provisions are initiated, implemented, and enforced at the federal level. The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is the arm of the federal government charged with the task of enforcing environmental laws and regulations. However, state and local environmental protection agencies often act as proxies in the implementation and enforcement process. In fact, some states enact their own environmental legislation to protect unique environments under their jurisdiction. In general, however, state laws and regulation are patterned after the federal statutes. Thus, both the federal and the state government environmental agencies are charged with the tasks of implementing and enforcing applicable environmental laws.
The ethics of ICDs: History and future directions.

There is no ethical requirement that treatment, once started, must continue against the patient’s wishes.
The Quantum Future of Computation

Still in early development, quantum computing is already overturning our contemporary notions of computational methods and devices. Understanding the applications enabled by quantum computing--and how to harness them--will alter the economic, industrial, academic, and societal landscape.
Front-Page Girls: Women Journalists in American Culture and Fiction, 1880–1930 by Jean Marie Lutes Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 2006, 226 pp

(2007). Front-Page Girls: Women Journalists in American Culture and Fiction, 1880–1930 by Jean Marie Lutes Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 2006, 226 pp. American Journalism: Vol. 24, No. 1, pp. 116-118.
Neurobehavioral Effects and Biomarkers of Sleep Loss in Healthy Adults

This article reviews the neurobehavioral deficits resulting from sleep loss in adults, various countermeasures to mitigate these effects, and biomarkers to identify individual differences in neurobehavioral responses. Total sleep deprivation and chronic sleep restriction increase the homeostatic sleep drive and diminish waking neurobehavioral functioning, producing deficits in attention, memory and cognitive speed, increases in sleepiness and fatigue, and unstable wakefulness. Recovery sleep, extension of sleep, and use of caffeine and/or naps are all effective countermeasures to mitigate these responses. Candidate gene and various “omics” approaches have identified biomarkers that may predict such responses. Sleep loss is increasingly prevalent and produces reliable, differential neurobehavioral deficits across individuals. Recent research has identified biomarkers to predict these responses, though future work is warranted, such that precise determination of who will develop neurobehavioral decrements from sleep loss will be possible.
Imaging of Combat-Related Thoracic Trauma - Review of Penetrating Trauma

Introduction Combat-related thoracic trauma is a significant contributor to morbidity and mortality of the casualties from Operation Enduring Freedom (OEF) and Operation Iraqi Freedom (OIF). Penetrating, blunt, and blast injuries were the most common mechanisms of trauma. Imaging plays a key role in the management of combat-related thoracic trauma casualties. This review discusses the imaging manifestations of thoracic injuries from penetrating trauma, emphasizing epidemiology and diagnostic clues seen during OEF and OIF. Materials and methods The assessment of radiologic findings in patients who suffer from combat-related thoracic trauma is the basis of this review article. The imaging modalities for this study include multi-detector computed tomography and chest radiography. Results High-velocity penetrating projectile injuries appear as hemorrhage and re-expansion pulmonary edema from the temporary cavity and a linear, blood-filled track from the permanent cavity. In cases where the projectile passes totally through the body, entrance wounds at the skin surface and tracks through the subcutaneous tissues may be the only indications of penetrating trauma. When assessing vascular injury, special attention should be paid to the right hilum in contrast-enhanced multi-detector computed tomography, as contrast is concentrated in the superior vena cava and superior cavoatrial junction may obscure small fragments. Additionally, CT angiography may show vessel disruption or extravasation of contrast distal to normal vessel location in addition to intraluminal filling defects and pseudo-aneurysms. Tension pneumopericardium may rarely complicate penetrating or blunt chest trauma. On imaging, distension of the pericardial sack by pneumopericardium and compression of the heart support the diagnosis of tension. On multi-detector computed tomography in the acute trauma setting, fluid in the pleural space should be considered hemothorax, particularly when Hounsfield units are above 35. Acutely, extravasated blood will have similar attenuation to the thoracic vasculature, whereas clotted blood will have higher values of 50-90 Hounsfield units. Conclusion Combat-related thoracic trauma continues to be a significant contributor to the morbidity and mortality of those injured during OEF and OIF. This review of the imaging manifestations of penetrating thoracic injury during OEF and OIF focuses on key diagnostic findings for clinicians caring for combat casualties. The distinct injury pattern and atypical imaging manifestations of penetrating trauma are important to recognize early due to the acuity of this patient population and the influence of accurate diagnosis on clinical management.
METHCOMP: a special purpose compression platform for DNA methylation data.

Motivation DNA methylation is one of the most important epigenetic mechanisms in cells that exhibits a significant role in controlling gene expressions. Abnormal methylation patterns have been associated with cancer, imprinting disorders and repeat-instability diseases. As inexpensive bisulfite sequencing approaches have led to significant efforts in acquiring methylation data, problems of data storage and management have become increasingly important. The de facto compression method for methylation data is gzip, which is a general purpose compression algorithm that does not cater to the special format of methylation files. We propose METHCOMP, a new compression scheme tailor-made for bedMethyl files, which supports random access. Results We tested the METHCOMP algorithm on 24 bedMethyl files retrieved from four randomly selected ENCODE assays. Our findings reveal that METHCOMP offers an average compression ratio improvement over gzip of up to 7.5x. As an example, METHCOMP compresses a 48 GB file to only 0.9 GB, which corresponds to a 98% reduction in size. Availability and implementation METHCOMP is freely available at https://github.com/jianhao2016/METHCOMP. Supplementary information Supplementary data are available at Bioinformatics online.
Thirty-day unplanned hospital readmission in ovarian cancer patients undergoing primary or interval cytoreductive surgery: systematic literature review.

Abstract Objectives Thirty-day readmission rate has been proposed as metric of quality and remains an ongoing clinical concern in the primary treatment of patients with advanced-stage ovarian epithelial ovarian cancer. We conducted a review of the literature to identify rates, risk factors, and predictors for 30-day readmission in this population. Methods A 10-year period MEDLINE (PubMed) search of English literature studies published between January 01, 2008-January 01, 2018 was performed to identify appropriate studies for review. Results Thirty -day readmission rates for ovarian cancer patients undergoing primary treatment ranged from 2.5–19.3%. Neoadjuvant chemotherapy and interval cytoreductive surgery (NACT-ICS) surgery was associated with lower readmission rates, when compared to primary debulking surgery (PDS). The most frequently reported adverse events resulting in readmission include inpatient management of ileus/small bowel obstruction, wound-related complications, and thromboembolic events. Readmission predictors included the presence of other medical comorbidities, re-operation, and major complications occurring after initial hospital discharge. Some studies reported lower rates of readmission and survival in patients treated by NACT-ICS. Conclusions Policies and programs should be designed to measure short- and long-term outcomes in this patient population to avoid bias in assigning patients to NACT-ICS to maintain low 30-day readmission rates.
ON THE BENEFITS OF DISTRIBUTIONAL INFORMATION IN ROBUST LINEAR OPTIMIZATION 1

Abstract Robust linear optimization techniques produce formulations (not necessarily linear) that guarantee the feasibility of a solution for all realizations of the uncertain data. A recent methodology developed by Bertsimas and Sim (2004) maintains the linearity of the formulation and is able to strike a balance between the conservatism and quality of a solution. In this work we adopt their robust model and demonstrate how to use distributional information on the uncertain data to improve solutions to the robust model. We obtain results when full distributions are available, as well as, when only first and second moments are known. We apply our methodology to a stochastic inventory control problem with quality of service constraints.
Heidegger’s Transcendental-Phenomenological “Justification” of Science

Heidegger’s remarks on the nature and limitiations of science in Being and Time 1 have their most immediate historical roots in the Brentano-Husserl tradition which insists that mind or consciousness has a unique property (namely, “intentionality”) distinguishing it from physical nature and “irreducible” to any nonintentional phenomena; second, they follow in the tradition of Wilhelm Dilthey and the southwest German neo-Kantian, Heinrich Rickert, that explanation in the human, historical sciences (Geisteswissenschafteri) differs in kind from explanation in the natural sciences (Naturwissenschaften). Yet, it is also fruitful to view his comments as a further chapter in the more remote philosophical saga that, from a “modern” point of view at least, began with Descartes‘ separation of res cogitans and res extensa, was furthered by Kant‘s distinction between phenomenal things of nature and noumenal things-in-themselves, and was carried on in the nineteenth century by Hegel‘s distinction between Geist (mind or spirit) and Natur. It is in the spirit of these distinctions that I shall present the Heidegger of Being and Time as offering, on the one hand, a transcendental-phenomenological “justification” of science, or what Heidegger himself calls an “existential conception of science.” Heidegger does not deny the fact of science as a human activity that yields its own, but genuine empirical or “ontic” knowledge.
Linking Collaboration with Improved Administration: A Commentary on Heckscher and Martin-Rios’ Article on Collaborative Universities

There is little doubt that higher education is under pressure to transform as outlined succinctly by Heckscher and Martin-Rios. They argue that the “guild” model on which they are built is outlived. The common response in recent times is a shift to an administrative/bureaucratic model to improve efficiency and responsiveness. The authors make an important point by highlighting the inherent paradox of this solution: right as corporations moved away from hierarchy and bureaucracy towards a collaborative model of teamwork, universities would be ill advised to implement a purely administrative solution. Instead, Heckscher and Martin-Rios argue, universities should move from rigid “guild” structures towards a collaborative stakeholder model where customers and suppliers work together to design and deliver a shared educational agenda.
Fallübergreifende Betrachtung: Aspekte professionellen Leseförderwissens

Im folgenden Kapitel werden die in der fallbezogenen Analyse rekonstruierten Vorstellungen und Orientierungen dargestellt, welche im Kontext professioneller schulischer Leseforderarbeit fur besonders bedeutend befunden wurden. Die Darstellung erfolgt kategorial geordnet nach Basistypiken, von denen jeweils fallbezogene Auspragungen vorgestellt werden.
The Political Impacts of Address or Avoiding Issues of Race and Gender

During the 2012 presidential campaign, both race and gender were at the center of political discourse. Progressive and mainstream media outlets as well as some African American political elites questioned the extent to which President Barack Obama was sufficiently addressing issues of race, even offering that he was intentionally avoiding such issues. There were similar media and elite claims that the Republican party’s congressional and Presidential — Mitt Romney — candidates were similarly avoiding issues of gender. Questions abound about whether the public agreed with these assertions, and more importantly whether or not such claims would actually have any substantive political implications. Using survey experimental data from the 2012 Collaborative Multi-Racial Post Election Survey (CMPS), this paper examines paper the extent to which voters’ perceptions of political targets as either address or avoiding issues of concern to their racial and gender group has any significant effect on vote choice for Obama vs. Romney or the Democrat vs. Republican Congress. The experiment randomized the political target to be President Obama or the United States Congress and we will assess these political information effects controlling for group interest (race and gender). The paper will also discuss perceived rationales for the political targets addressing or avoiding, race/gender issues, and the implications for future national elections.
The double-stage delay-multiply-and-sum image reconstruction method improves imaging quality in a LED-based photoacoustic array scanner.

Abstract Light-emitting diode-based photoacoustic imaging is more compact and affordable than laser-based systems, but it has low power and hence a high number of replicates. Here, we describe double-stage delay-multiply-and-sum (DS-DMAS) to improve image quality collected on a LED-based scanner. DS-DMAS was evaluated experimentally using point targets (in different laterals and depths) as well as a hair and a rabbit eye. This algorithm can compensate for the low SNR of LED-based systems and offer better lateral resolution of about 60%, 25%, higher contrast ratio of about 97%, 34%, and better full-width-half-maximum of about 60%, 25%, versus delay-and-sum) and delay-multiply-and-sum, respectively. More importantly, DS-DMAS offers this using a smaller number of frames (only 2% of all the frames). These results indicate that DS-DMAS might be a valuable tool in the translation of LED-based and other low power PAI systems.
Readmission Prediction Using Trajectory-Based Deep Learning Approach

Hospital readmission refers to the situation where a patient is re-hospitalized with the same primary diagnosis after discharge. It causes $26 billion preventable expense to the U.S. health systems annually and may indicate suboptimal care for patients. Predicting readmission risk is essential to alleviate such financial and medical consequences. Yet such prediction is challenging due to the dynamic and complex nature of the hospitalization trajectory. The state-of-the-art studies apply statistical models with unified parameters for all patients and use static predictors in a period, failing to consider patients’ heterogeneous illness trajectories. Our approach – TADEL (Trajectory-BAsed DEep Learning) – addresses the present challenge and captures various illness trajectories. We evaluate TADEL on a unique five-year national Medicare claims dataset, reaching a precision of 0.780, a recall of 0.985, and an F1-score of 0.870. This study contributes to IS literature and methodology by formulating the readmission prediction problem and developing a novel personalized readmission risk prediction framework. This framework provides direct implications for health providers to assess patients’ readmission risk and take early interventions to avoid potential negative consequences.
Ant-plant interactions evolved through increasing interdependence.

Ant–plant interactions are diverse and abundant and include classic models in the study of mutualism and other biotic interactions. By estimating a time-scaled phylogeny of more than 1,700 ant species and a time-scaled phylogeny of more than 10,000 plant genera, we infer when and how interactions between ants and plants evolved and assess their macroevolutionary consequences. We estimate that ant–plant interactions originated in the Mesozoic, when predatory, ground-inhabiting ants first began foraging arboreally. This served as an evolutionary precursor to the use of plant-derived food sources, a dietary transition that likely preceded the evolution of extrafloral nectaries and elaiosomes. Transitions to a strict, plant-derived diet occurred in the Cenozoic, and optimal models of shifts between strict predation and herbivory include omnivory as an intermediate step. Arboreal nesting largely evolved from arboreally foraging lineages relying on a partially or entirely plant-based diet, and was initiated in the Mesozoic, preceding the evolution of domatia. Previous work has suggested enhanced diversification in plants with specialized ant-associated traits, but it appears that for ants, living and feeding on plants does not affect ant diversification. Together, the evidence suggests that ants and plants increasingly relied on one another and incrementally evolved more intricate associations with different macroevolutionary consequences as angiosperms increased their ecological dominance.
Postoperative Radiotherapy for Multiple Myeloma of Long Bones: Should the Entire Rod Be Treated?

Abstract Purpose To characterize local relapse after surgical fixation and postoperative radiotherapy (RT) for multiple myeloma (MM) with cortical involvement of long bones. Patients and Methods We retrospectively identified patients with MM involving cortical long bones treated with surgical fixation followed by postoperative RT at our institution. Local failures, defined as radiographic recurrence along the surgical hardware, were documented, and potential associations of independent variables (RT dose, fractionation, and extent of hardware coverage) with local failure were assessed by univariate Cox regression. Results We identified 33 patients with 40 treated sites with a median follow-up of 25.7 months; 68% of treatments were for pathologic fracture, and 32% were for impending fracture. The most common dose and fractionation were 20 to 25 Gy in 8 to 12 fractions. On average, 76% of the surgical hardware was covered by the postoperative RT field (median, 80%; range, 28%-100%). Local failure was observed in 5 cases (12.5%), 2 within the RT field and 3 out of field. None of the relapses resulted in hardware failure, and 2 were retreated with RT. The extent of hardware coverage predicted disease relapse along the hardware (hazard ratio = 6.44; 95% confidence interval, 1.09-37.97; P = .04); however, total RT dose, biologically effective dose, and number of fractions did not. Conclusion After internal fixation of long bones with MM, full hardware coverage with the RT field could reduce the risk, though small, of disease developing in the future in the proximate hardware. Postoperative RT doses of 20 to 25 Gy in 8 to 10 fractions can achieve excellent local control.
Activation Mechanism and Surface Intermediates during Olefin Metathesis by Supported MoOx/Al2O3 Catalysts

The activation of supported MoOx/Al2O3 catalysts and the resulting surface intermediates was examined with in situ diffuse reflectance infrared Fourier transform spectroscopy during olefin metathes...
The Liquidity of Teaching

While we believe that an appropriate form of polymodal education involves non technologized practices, digital technologies are a necessary component of learning in the 21st century. Teachers must be effective users of technology, combining functional and critical abilities to become reflective consumers/producers of digital content. Thus, teachers and students can fully participate in the dominant computer culture while avoiding indoctrination into its value systems of consumerism and the technocracy described in chapter one.
Income Inequality and Health: Expanding Our Understanding of State-Level Effects by Using a Geospatial Big Data Approach:

Merging geospatial analytics with big data approaches provides a mechanism for leveraging and maximizing uses of traditional survey data to further extant work in meaningful ways. This study examin...
Inhibitor, Co-Catalyst, or Co-Reactant? Probing the Different Roles of H2S during CO2 Hydrogenation on the MoS2 Catalyst

Natural gas is often sour, containing varying amounts of H2S and CO2. Gas sweetening processes that are routinely used rely on processes such as amine-based adsorption–desorption cycles, membrane s...
Acoustic levitation and infrared thermography: a sound approach to studying droplet evaporation

Herein we report a new technique combining acoustic levitation and infrared thermography to directly monitor droplet surface temperatures. Using it, temperature profiles were recorded during the evaporation of deionized water, methanol, n-propanol, and isopropanol. Results support the viability of this inexpensive and easily-accessed technique for studying chemical and physical changes in droplets.
Major Adverse Events with an LVAD: Patient-Reported Outcome Trajectory Changed

Purpose Left ventricular assist devices (LVAD) are being implanted at a higher rate than ever before to treat end stage heart failure, and are known to decrease mortality and increase quality of life (QOL) for patients. However, major adverse events, including major bleeding and infection (INTERMACS definitions), are common in patients with an LVAD. These events have great potential to impair patient experiences of living with an LVAD.The purpose of this analysis was to examine whether having a major adverse event would alter patient-reported outcomes over time, including depressive symptoms and QOL. Methods Using latent growth modeling, in a sample of 96 patients, with data pre-implant, and at 30, 90 and 180 days post LVAD implantation, we compared changes over time in patient-reported outcomes between patients who had had and those who did not have major adverse events. Results Twenty two percent of the sample had had adjudicated major bleed within 180 days of implantation, and 53% had an infection. Patients who had a major bleed post-LVAD had more depressive symptoms and lower QOL at baseline compared to those without a major bleed. Both depressive symptoms and QOL improved for those with and without a major bleed, however, those with a major bleed had smaller improvements in QOL and depressive symptoms over time compared to those who did not experience a bleed. Similarly, patients who had an infection post-LVAD had more depressive symptoms and lower QOL at baseline compared to patients who never had an infection within 180 days. Both groups saw a slight decline in QOL at six months, however, those who did not have an infection saw a smaller decline in QOL over time. Conclusion Pre-implant patient-reported outcomes may help identify patients who are at risk of major adverse events post-LVAD. Moreover, patients experiencing an adverse event are not likely to have as much improvement in patient-reported outcomes compared with those who are major adverse event-free. Our approaches to evaluating and managing LVAD patients need to address the whole person, and not just objective metrics and clinical events.
Primary Melanoma Treatment

An improved understanding of the clinical behavior and molecular biology of melanoma has led to multiple practice-changing advancements in recent decades. Nevertheless, the gold standard for primary melanoma treatment, in most cases, continues to be complete surgical removal of the tumor with a wide excision. Data from multiple prospective randomized trials have led to the development of evidence-based clinical recommendations for melanoma resection margins that are based on a lesion’s Breslow depth. Although resection presents the most effective means of local disease control, some patients are not surgical candidates for a variety of anatomic, cosmetic, or medical reasons. These patients may benefit from non-operative treatment options, which including topical therapies, intralesional injections, radiation therapy, and systemic therapy.
How Public Managers Make Tradeoffs Regarding Lives: Evidence From a Flood Planning Survey Experiment:

Public managers make decisions that may directly or indirectly affect the loss of human life, but there are few empirical analyses of whether and how public managers make tradeoffs among lives and ...
Association of maternal pre-pregnancy body mass index and gestational weight gain with preschool children's overweight and obesity

Background To investigate the association of maternal pre-pregnancy body mass index (BMI) and gestational weight gain (GWG) with childhood overweight and adiposity in preschool children. Methods A total of 4303 preschool children aged 3-5years were enrolled in our study. Children were defined as overweight and obesity according the criteria of World Health Organization (WHO) and maternal pre-pregnancy body status were …
The Role of Donor Rim Fungal Cultures.

ABSTRACT Culturing all donor rims for fungus makes no sense. Only 1% of all cultures will be positive, and of those positive cultures, only 6% will also have a clinical infection. Prophylactically treating all positive cultures means 94% of patients will be treated unnecessarily. Fungal cultures do not reliably direct specific medication choice, and fungal infections of the interface in endothelial keratoplasty and deep anterior lamellar keratoplasty are nearly impervious to medical therapy. Suspected fungal infections of the deep stromal interface should be treated expeditiously with penetrating keratoplasty before peripheral spread or endophthalmitis occur.
Race After Technology: Abolitionist Tools for the New Jim Code: by Ruha Benjamin, Cambridge, UK, Polity Press, 2019, 285 pp., $19.85 (paperback), ISBN 978-1-5095-2640-6

Dr Ruha Benjamin is currently an Associate Professor in the Department of African American Studies and is the Founder of the Ida B. Wells Just Data Lab, at Princeton University. Her scholarship ref...
ChinaAS Model of Managing the Financial System

China's economic model involves active government intervention in financial markets. We develop a theoretical framework in which interventions prevent a market breakdown and a volatility explosion caused by the reluctance of short-term investors to trade against noise traders. In the presence of information frictions, the government can alter market dynamics since the noise in its intervention program becomes an additional factor driving asset prices. More importantly, this may divert investor attention away from fundamentals and totally toward government interventions (as a result of complementarity in investors' information acquisition). A trade-off arises: government's objective to reduce asset price volatility may worsen, rather than improve, information efficiency of asset prices. Institutional subscribers to the NBER working paper series, and residents of developing countries may download this paper without additional charge at www.nber.org.
Acoustic levitation and the acoustic radiation force

10.1119/10.0002764.1We investigate acoustic levitation in a vertical standing wave in an attempt to understand the basic physical mechanism responsible for this phenomenon. We find that a description in terms of a simple pressure force leads to the prediction of stable equilibria that occur slightly below the anti-nodes of the standing pressure wave. We then demonstrate that such a prediction is at odds with experimental data, which show that levitating particles come to rest slightly below the nodes of the standing pressure wave. Finally, we outline a theoretical approach based on fluid dynamics that correctly predicts the locations of the levitating particles, which leads to a simple qualitative description for this fascinating phenomenon.
Editorial: Noninvasive Fibrosis Biomarkers in Patients With NASH With Diabetes

This is an editorial about non-invasive fibrosis markers in patients with NASH and type 2 diabetes mellitus.
The incubator hypothesis : Evidence from five SMSAs

The purpose of this paper is to review the past evidence and to offer some new data to assess whether the incubator hypothesis can be empirically supported. In particular the two general aspects of the hypothesis will be tested. First, we will examine the proposition that highly centralized locations are attracting a disproportionate number of new firms and/or the employment associated with new firms. Second, we will test the hypothesis that new firms which are formed in high density areas move outward from such sites in their early years of existence in order to expand their productive activities. We refer to these as the "simple and "dynamic" hypotheses in the rest of the paper. Our analysis is based on the experience of all manufacturers in several U.S. cities. We recognize that it is quite possible that the hypothesis could hold for certain industries even if it is unsupported for all firms together. Our intent, however, is to test the validity of the hypothesis as a general theory of intraurban location behavior. The paper consists of three sections. The first two present evidence on the "simple" and "dynamic" hypotheses. The final section summarizes our findings and offers some conclusions.
Two Hats Are Better Than One: How Managers’ Role Identity Complexity Impacts Performance Management

We introduce the concept of performance management (PM) identity complexity, integrating research on identity, work identity complexity, and perspective-taking with managers’ PM-related responsibil...
How does the general public define self-forgiveness? Examination in a college student sample

Self-forgiveness has been proposed as a method for moving on from transgressions committed against another person. Although definitions of self-forgiveness have proliferated in the scientific literature, little has been done to understand how the general public understands self-forgiveness. To understand similarities between scientific and lay definitions of self-forgiveness, we examined responses from 347 college students to the question “How would you define or describe self-forgiveness?” We used content coding to identify 21 codes to capture participants’ definitions. We also examined these codes within broad themes of internal versus relational focus, and whether the emphasis was on increasing positive or decreasing negative thoughts, feelings, and/or behaviors. Most participants (92.4%) included an internal focus in their definitions, while only about half (49.4%) included a relational focus. We found a significant overlap between how professionals have defined self-forgiveness and how this sample described self-forgiveness. We also found three additional themes to the process of self-forgiveness–using religion to cope, finding peace, and not judging others for their mistakes—that are not typically found in professional definitions. Pseudo self-forgiveness constructs were also found in some participants’ definitions of self-forgiveness, exemplifying the importance for future applied work (e.g., counseling applications, outreach programming) to address these pseudo self-forgiveness conceptualizations that may be held by some individuals seeking services.
Pandemic Relief for Latino-Owned Businesses: Lessons from the Washington DC Metropolitan Area (preprint)

This report offers an in-depth case study of the challenges encountered by Latino businesses in the Washington DC metropolitan area (DMV) when seeking aid to weather the ongoing COVID-19 crisis. We begin by reviewing the importance of Latino-owned businesses for the region’s economy prior to the pandemic. Building upon previous research, we then describe the economic impacts of the pandemic upon the area’s Latino-owned businesses, and the difficulties business owners encountered in accessing successive rounds of federal Paycheck Protection Program relief funds. We go on to compare jurisdictions throughout the DMV in terms of their handling of federal and state aid, development and promotion of their own relief programs, institutional mechanisms for delivering aid, and customized efforts to reach Latino business owners. Finally, in anticipation of the next crisis, we identify steps to limit the vulnerability of the region's Latino-owned businesses by strengthening the institutional ecosystem of support for these businesses.
Leveraging features and networks for probabilistic tensor decomposition

We present a probabilistic model for tensor decomposition where one or more tensor modes may have side-information about the mode entities in form of their features and/or their adjacency network. We consider a Bayesian approach based on the Canonical PARAFAC (CP) decomposition and enrich this single-layer decomposition approach with a two-layer decomposition. The second layer fits a factor model for each layer-one factor matrix and models the factor matrix via the mode entities' features and/or the network between the mode entities. The second-layer decomposition of each factor matrix also learns a binary latent representation for the entities of that mode, which can be useful in its own right. Our model can handle both continuous as well as binary tensor observations. Another appealing aspect of our model is the simplicity of the model inference, with easy-to-sample Gibbs updates. We demonstrate the results of our model on several benchmarks datasets, consisting of both real and binary tensors.
The integrated CWB-NC/PIOATool for functional verification and performance analysis of concurrent systems

This paper reports on an effort to integrate two verification tools, the Concurrency Workbench of the New Century (CWB-NC) and PIOATool. Our aim is to build a single tool that combines the "functional" analysis capabilities of the CWB-NC with the compositional performance-analysis features of PIOATool. We discuss some of the issues involved in the integration, highlighting a particular integration paradigm in which one tool becomes a subshell of the other.
PEGO powerpack: A modular power electronics learning platform

While the past decade has seen a widespread adoption of power electronics curriculum at various university electrical engineering programs, authentic laboratory experiences for students remains to be a challenge for inclusion in the programs. This paper discusses a modular power electronics learning platform called PEGO. PEGO consists of self-contained two terminal modular building blocks for power converters which may be cascaded stage by stage to achieve an overall functional objective. The system has been developed to complement a lecture based design oriented theory course in power electronics. The theory course and the laboratory platform are designed to lead to a system level project experience for the students. A primitive UPS system consisting of a battery charger, high frequency isolated dc-dc converter and a low frequency pulse width modulated inverter is illustrated as a candidate project experience. A detailed description of the system along with sample results from the hardware/software exercises are presented in the paper.
How you talk about climate change matters: A communication network perspective on epistemic skepticism and belief strength

Abstract A population’s attitudes toward climate change can strongly influence governmental policies as well as community and individual climate-related behaviors. These attitudes have been explained with a variety of factors, including cultural worldviews, environmental attitudes, political ideology, knowledge of climate change, severe weather exposure, and sociodemographic characteristics. These studies typically assume an individual forms attitudes on the basis of preexisting values or beliefs and do not account for dynamic social interaction as a source of influence. This study introduces a network perspective that accounts for the social embeddedness of individuals, using network variables to predict climate attitudes, including homophily, network strength, attitude diversity, centrality, network size, and network valence. An exploratory factor analysis identified two distinct attitudinal dimensions: climate change epistemic skepticism and belief strength . Using egocentric data from a nationally representative survey collected in 2011, this study found that network variables were significant in predicting both climate attitude dimensions; hierarchical regression analyses accounting for other known predictors found two different predictive models for epistemic skepticism and belief strength . Homophily, network strength, attitude diversity, and network valence predicted epistemic skepticism ( R 2 change = 4.8%), while centrality and network strength predicted belief strength ( R 2 change = 8.9%) . The analyses also found support for cultural factors as significant predictors of climate attitudes, particularly Christianity and cultural worldviews. The results of this study suggest that interpersonal influence through communication networks is a promising avenue for continued research, and should be included in studies of climate attitude formation and change.
The Mundane Matters

By definition, the “everyday” appears inconsequential. How could paying attention to who makes breakfast add to our analytical powers? How could monitoring laundry take us deeper into causality? Surely, assigning weight to casual chats in the elevator or before meetings begin would be a waste of precious intellectual energy. The everyday is routine. It is what appears to be unexceptional. Devoid of decision making. Seemingly pre-political. For an embarrassingly long time, I didn't pay attention to the everyday. I, of course, lived it. My relationships with others—parents, friends, colleagues, interviewees—depended on my everyday routines somehow meshing with theirs. But I didn't think to spell them out when I engaged in formal analytical efforts. I presumed that my task was to reveal the workings of—and consequences of—power, and that those workings would manifest themselves by standing out from the mundane. If this were true in my attempts to understand ethnic politics in Malaysia (my initial research), it would be, I imagined, all the more true when I began to investigate the causes and consequences of international politics. I was wrong. It was feminist analysts who opened my eyes to how wrong I was and what exactly I was missing in the dynamics of international politics by naively imagining that the everyday was pre-political, analytically trivial, and causally weightless. The most famous late twentieth-century feminist theoretical pronouncement is, “The personal is political.” Its crafters were calling on women (and any men who had sufficient nerve) to look to the everyday dynamics in their lives to discover the causes of patriarchal social systems’ remarkable sustainability. This call would have profound implications, we gradually learned, for understanding the flows of causality, the constructions of political cultures and the inter-locked structures of relationships between those actors we so simplistically call “states.” The sites for research, …