cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Evaluation of autologous platelet rich plasma for cardiac surgery: outcome analysis of 2000 patients

Deep and superficial sternal wound infections (DSWI & SWI) following cardiac surgery increase morbidity, mortality and cost. Autologous platelet rich plasma (PRP) derived from the patient’s own blood has been used in other surgical settings to promote successful wound healing. The goal of this study was to analyze the addition of PRP using a rapid point of care bedside system to standard wound care in all patients undergoing sternotomy for cardiac surgical procedures. Over a 7 year period, 2000 patients undergoing open cardiac operations requiring sternotomy were enrolled. One thousand patients received standard of care sternal closure. The other 1000 patients received standard of care sternal closure plus PRP applied to the sternum at the time of closure. The outcomes related to wound healing, infection, readmissions, and costs were analyzed. In the 2000 patients, there were more ventricular assist device implants/heart transplants and emergency operations in the PRP group; otherwise there were no significant differences. The use of PRP reduced the incidence of DSWI from 2.0 to 0.6 %, SWI from 8.0 to 2.0 %, and the readmission rate from 4.0 to 0.8 %. The use of PRP reduced the costs associated with the development of deep and superficial wound complications from $1,256,960 to $593,791. The use of PRP decreases the incidence and costs of sternal wound complications following cardiac surgery. The routine use of platelet rich plasma should be considered for all patients undergoing sternotomy for cardiac surgical procedures. Clinicaltrials.gov ( NCT00130377 ) for the data registry.
Control of Pd catalyst selectivity with mixed thiolate monolayers

Abstract Metal catalysts coated with self-assembled monolayers have been found to exhibit improved performance in a number of reactions, but previous work has focused on deposition of uniform layers from a single precursor. In this study, we investigate how the use of variable-composition monolayers formed from mixtures of 1-adamantanethiol (AT) and 1-octadecanethiol (C18) can be used to control catalyst performance and provide insights into both monolayer ordering and surface reaction mechanisms. Benzyl alcohol hydrodeoxygenation to toluene was used as a probe reaction for these studies. The mixed monolayer composition was controlled by varying the proportion of AT to C18 in an ethanol solution used for deposition. For AT-modified catalysts, toluene selectivity was higher than that for the uncoated catalyst. Increases in the C18 surface fraction ( y C18 ) in the monolayers resulted in further increases in toluene selectivity, with selectivity approaching 98% near complete conversion at full C18 coverage. Infrared spectra collected after dosing CO or benzyl alcohol also indicated that increasing y C18 lowered the ratio of bridging and three-fold adsorption on high coordination sites compared to linear adsorption on low coordination sites. These results suggested that the mechanism for selectivity enhancement was at least partly due to selective poisoning of terrace sites and reduction of contiguous active sites. Whereas selectivity was observed to follow a continuous increasing trend with increasing thiolate coverage, trends in reaction rates were more complex. A sharp 60% decrease in the rate of the undesired decarbonylation (DC) reaction was observed when y C18 was increased from zero to 0.15. This sharp decrease at low y C18 was attributed to filling in defects in AT monolayers by C18. Control of mixed monolayer composition allowed for tuning of the catalyst performance such that the rate of toluene production could match that over the uncoated catalyst, while the decarbonylation rate was decreased by an order of magnitude, providing an active, highly selective catalyst. Beyond catalyst design, these investigations demonstrate that catalyst evaluation can serve as a valuable tool for understanding monolayer organization.
Altering the tumor microenvironment: A phase II study of copper depletion using tetrathiomolybdate (TM) in patients (pts) with breast cancer (BC) at high risk for recurrence.

11008 Background: Bone marrow derived endothelial progenitor cells (EPCs) and copper-dependent pathways are critical components to remodeling the tumor microenvironment and creating the pre-metasta...
Characteristic analysis of registered pulmonary tuberculosis patients in Shunchang county 2002-2010

[Objective]To analyze the visiting characteristics of active pulmonary tuberculosis(PTB) and new smear positive tuberculosis patients who were registered in Shunchang county of Fujian province in the past years,provide the evidence for the sustainable strategies of tuberculosis control.[Methods]The general characteristics of active PTB and new smear positive tuberculosis patients in Shunchang county from 2002 to 2010 were analyzed according to sex and age.The composition of visiting source types with different sexes was statistically analyzed.The occupational classification was conducted in patients,and the therapeutic condition of new smear positive tuberculosis patients with different occupations were statistically analyzed.[Results]During 2002-2010,a total of 1012 cases of active PTB patients and 567 cases of new smear positive tuberculosis patients were registered in the county,and the male-to-female ratio was 2.65∶1 and 2.81∶1,respectively.Most of patients were people over 65 years old,patients aged 15-54 years old respectively accounted for 60.08% and 60.85% of active PTB patients and new smear positive tuberculosis patients.There was no significant difference in composition of visiting source types between male and female patients.The referral was the main source,followed by clinical symptomatic inspection.The majority of TB patients in Shunchang county were farmers,which respectively accounted for 50.3% and 49.74% of active PTB patients and new smear positive tuberculosis patients.According to different occupations,the cure rates of students,teachers,cadres and medical staff were high,and that of farmers and retirees were low.There were significant differences in cure rates among attendants in public places,commercial service staff,workers,migrant workers,farmers,retirees,homemaking staff,home service staff and job-waiting people.[Conclusion]There are some characteristics in sex,age,composition of visiting source,occupational structure and therapeutic condition of TB patients in Shunchang county.In the future,the elderly TB patients cannot be neglected,and rural TB patients are the emphasis on TB control.
Oncologic reconstruction of the hand and upper extremity: Maximizing functional outcomes

Upper extremity malignancies have the potential to create significant functional impairment, and as such represent an opportunity for collaborative reconstruction to minimize potential morbidity. Given the increased complexity and array of potential reconstruction solutions, functional limb preservation is overwhelmingly and increasingly successful in appropriately selected patients. The purpose of this review is to familiarize the reader with the general functional considerations of the upper extremity, review major reconstructive options, and present a general algorithm for reconstruction and maintenance of function. J. Surg. Oncol. 2016;113:946-954. © 2016 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.
Oral Corrective Feedback Research

Research into oral corrective feedback has enjoyed considerable attention and aroused much debate among scholars and language teaching methodologists alike for almost three decades. In the 1970s and 1980s, descriptive studies of CF flourished. While this line of research shed light on the characteristics and frequency of interactional moves involved when teachers/native speakers and students/non-native speakers participate in corrective feedback episodes, the acquisitional value of CF could not be demonstrated. As the debate regarding whether CF is of value to learners and learning intensifies, researchers have more recently designed studies of an experimental nature in an attempt to investigate what effect CF has on learning.
Technical feasibility and safety of an intraoperative head-up display device during spine instrumentation.

Background The primary aim of this study was to determine the safety and feasibility of capturing and streaming neuronavigation images onto a head-up display during spine instrumentation. Methods Using a novel device, neuronavigation images were captured and transferred wirelessly via a password-encrypted network to the head-up display. At the end of the procedure, the surgeons completed a survey to gather their opinions of the system. Results Forty pedicle screws were placed using the head-up display. The average screw placement time was slightly shorter when the head-up display was used (4.13 min with vs. 4.86 min without). The post-procedure survey demonstrated that 79% of surgeon's responses were positive. Conclusion A wearable head-up display can benefit current neuronavigation systems, but larger, outcomes-based trials are needed. Higher processing speed would allow streaming of higher resolution images. Along with an enlarged display, these may significantly improve utilization of this technology. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Design of plasmonic near-field transducers in heat-assisted magnetic recording: 1D Fourier approach

Heat-assisted magnetic recording (HAMR) is a potential enabling technology for ultrahigh density data storage systems. In HAMR, a near-field transducer (NFT) delivers a subdiffraction heat spot to record bits of data on a high-anisotropy magnetic media. We developed an intuitive 1D Fourier model that expedites the analysis and design of the NFT. Among other strengths, the simple model predicts rather surprisingly and in agreement with 3D simulations, that for metallic nanoresonators the longitudinal component of the electric field dominates the heat transfer to the media. The proposed Fourier model serves well as a platform to study electromagnetic behavior such as field confinement and heat spot generation of 3D NFT designs.
III-V nitride-based LEDs and lasers: Current status and future opportunities

Solid-state lighting is based on short wavelength nitride-based light emitting diodes (LEDs) or laser diodes (LDs), that can produce white light. Presently, nitride-based LEDs have efficiencies exceeding those of incandescent light bulbs and most likely, will surpass those of fluorescent lights in the near future. In this talk, the latest performance of nitride-based ultraviolet (UV)/blue/green/amber/white LEDs and violet/blue LDs will be discussed.
An Ice-Phase Microphysics Forward Model and Preliminary Results of Polarimetric Radar Data Assimilation

AbstractIn this study, an ice-phase microphysics forward model has been developed for the Weather Research and Forecasting (WRF) Model three-dimensional variational data assimilation (WRF 3D-Var) system. Radar forward operators for reflectivity and the polarimetric variable, specific differential phase (KDP), have been built into the ice-phase WRF 3D-Var package to allow modifications in liquid (cloud water and rain) and solid water (cloud ice and snow) fields through data assimilation. Experiments have been conducted to assimilate reflectivity and radial velocity observations collected by the Weather Surveillance Radar-1988 Doppler (WSR-88D) in Hytop, Alabama, for a mesoscale convective system (MCS) on 15 March 2008. Numerical results have been examined to assess the impact of the WSR-88D data using the ice-phase WRF 3D-Var radar data assimilation package. The main goals are to first demonstrate radar data assimilation with an ice-phase microphysics forward model and second to improve understanding on ho...
Stancetaking and Language Ideologies in Heritage Language Learner Classroom Discourse

ABSTRACTDrawing on linguistic anthropological notions of language ideologies and sociolinguistic approaches to stance, this study examines the meaning-making resources through which Spanish heritage language (HL) learners orient toward ideological perspectives on language value and linguistic expertise in classroom interaction. Part of a larger ethnographic study, data in the present study include about 26 hours of audio and video recordings from three different intermediate Spanish HL classrooms and filmed interviews with the students. The analysis indicates that discourses of legitimacy and expertise are embodied within multiple levels of classroom interaction, including affective stancetaking, expert/novice positioning, and the reframing of both ascribed social positions and previous discourse. Results suggest that the role of language ideologies in HL learning can be better understood through an examination of stancetaking in interaction and that the construction of different kinds of expertise should...
IgG4-Related Disease: Diagnostic Testing by Serology, Flow Cytometry, and Immunohistopathology

IgG4-related disease (IgG4-RD) is a multiorgan immune-mediated condition that mimics many malignant, infectious, and inflammatory disorders (1–3). The diagnosis links numerous conditions once regarded as isolated, single-organ diseases that existed outside of any known underlying systemic condition (Table 1). The histopathological findings in IgG4-RD are consistent across the wide range of organ systems that can be involved. IgG4-RD is often confused with a malignancy upon presentation because it has a tendency to form mass lesions. In addition, IgG4-RD can mimic a host of immune-mediated conditions, e.g., primary sclerosing cholangitis, idiopathic interstitial lung disease, Sjogren's syndrome, granulomatosis with polyangiitis, and idiopathic membranous nephropathy.
An experimental investigation on the unsteady heat transfer process over an ice accreting airfoil surface

Abstract In the present study, an experimental investigation was performed in an Icing Research Tunnel available at Iowa State University (i.e., ISU-IRT) to quantify the unsteady heat transfer and dynamic ice accretion process over an airfoil/wing surface under different icing conditions (i.e., dry rime ice accretion vs. wet glaze ice accretion). A theoretic model was developed at first to evaluate the unsteady heat transfer process over the ice accreting airfoil/wing surface in the term of convective heat transfer coefficient. During the experiments, a high-speed infrared (IR) thermal imaging system was used to achieve temporally-resolved measurements of the surface temperature distribution over the ice accreting airfoil/wing surface. The transient behaviors of droplets impingement, surface water runback and dynamic phase changing processes over the airfoil/wing surface were characterized quantitatively based on the quantitative surface temperature measurements. Based on the time evolution of the measured surface temperature distributions over the airfoil/wing surface for the rime ice accretion case, the water collection efficiency distribution around the airfoil surface was determined quantitatively, which was then imported into the theoretic heat transfer model to estimate the convective heat transfer coefficients over the ice accreting airfoil/wing surface. The convective heat transfer coefficient was found to reach its maximum value at the airfoil stagnation point, and decrease gradually at the downstream locations. The formation of the ice roughness near the airfoil leading edge was found to be able to enhance the convective heat transfer process over the airfoil surface, which would further promote the ice formation and accretion over the roughed airfoil surface.
Lasting pathologic complete response to chemotherapy for ovarian cancer after receiving antimalarials for dermatomyositis

Could hydroxychloroquine and quinacrine antimalarial therapy for dermatomyositis later attributed to a paraneoplasic manifestation of an ovarian cancer enhance its subsequent response to chemotherapy? Five months after being diagnosed with dermatomyositis, while somewhat improved with hydroxychloroquine, quinacrine and methotrexate, this 63-year-old woman presented with an advanced intra-abdominal epithelial ovarian cancer documented (but not resected) at laparotomy. Neoadjuvant carboplatin/paclitaxel resulted in remarkable improvement of symptoms, tumour markers and imaging findings leading to thorough cytoreductive surgery at completion of five cycles. No tumour was found in the resected omentum, gynaecologic organs, as well as hepatic and nodal sampling thus documenting a complete pathologic response; a subcutaneous port and an intraperitoneal (IP) catheter were placed for two cycles of IP cisplatin consolidation. She remains free of disease 3 years after such treatment and her dermatomyositis is in remission in the absence of any treatment. We discuss a possible role of autophagy in promoting tumour cell survival and chemoresistance that is potentially reversed by antimalarial drugs. Thus, chemotherapy following their use may subsequently lead to dramatic potentiation of anticancer treatment.
Looking at Disability Through a Different Lens: Reinterpreting Disability Images in Line with Positive Psychology

The media annals for the last 75 years form a veritable social history with values, attitudes, habits, and prejudices evolving over this time span. Movies have been especially powerful when portraying stereotypes, especially those of stigmatized groups including people with disabilities. If we look at films conceived after the passage of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA; 1990), we find that people with disabilities are now portrayed in cameo and background roles that do not lead to inspiration as they did previously (e.g., Helen Keller in The Miracle Worker and Don in Butterflies Are Free). Older films reveal an interesting phenomenon, that is, many of the films discussed in this chapter do have the positive psychology approach of offering a balanced portrayal of a character overcoming obstacles in an uplifting or inspirational manner. Reasons for this seeming paradox are discussed; whereas the law now protects the civil rights of those with disabilities, these people seem to have lost their interest as major dramatic personae.
Comprehension and Use of Information

It is conventional to make a distinction between learning and memory when reviewing research related to the understanding and retention of previously presented information. The two processes are obviously related, because both are necessary to infer the existence of either, and thus the basis for the learning-memory distinction is often arbitrary. For example, Craik suggests that: ... “learning” may be thought of as referring to the acquisition of general rules and knowledge about the world, while “memory” refers to the retention of specific events which occurred at a given time in a given place. (1977, p. 385)
Culture and Economic Development: Cultural Concerns

Economic development presupposes not just the existence of formal institutions, but also certain norms or social values that promote exchange, savings, and investment. Thus, there is a cultural dimension to economic behavior. The importance of cultural factors for economic behavior has long been controversial, with some social scientists—particularly economists—arguing that it constitutes a small and difficult-to-measure residual variable, and others asserting that social norms are constitutive of economic life itself. While culturalist explanations of development took a back seat to structural ones in the 1960s and 1970s, they have seen something of a revival in the 1980s and 1990s as a result of observing the economic performance of culturally distinctive regions like East Asia and formerly communist countries. Most recently, cultural factors have been discussed under the rubric of ‘social capital.’ Social capital is a norm promoting social cooperation, which is seen to be productive of wealth as much as physical and human capital. A major research question for the future is how to measure social capital, and more broadly, how to incorporate qualitative factors like social relationships and cultural habits into the mathematical models that dominate contemporary economics.
The Elastic Fiber

With the development of higher organisms came the need for tissue flexibility and the necessity to withstand stretch. Several unrelated proteins have evolved to satisfy this requirement, including resilin in arthropods, abductin in molluscs, and elastin in the vertebrates (Sage and Gray, 1979). Phylogenetic studies have shown that elastin occurs only in vertebrates and arose first in cartilaginous fish where its appearance coincides with the achievement of a fully closed circulatory system. The occurrence of elastin in both primitive and modern sharks, and in chondrostean fishes suggests that the protein appeared in an early Devonian ancestor of all present-day fish, at some point after the divergence of the cyclostome and gnathostome lines (Sage, 1983).
Explaining information technology use with the usefulness scale: a comparison with user age.

Abstract Understanding and predicting the use of information technology is an important problem in healthcare management. The relationships among user characteristics and information technology have generally been weak. This paper describes a recently developed scale that measures perceived usefulness of information technology. Following this description, the scale is compared with user age in ability to explain information technology use. The results suggest perceived usefulness explains a significant proportion of the variance in use (r2 = .13, p < or = 0.0001), while age was not a significant predictor. Implications and suggestions for use of the usefulness scale are discussed.
Techniques of Astrodynamics

We now consider techniques used in the study of the controlled flight paths of human-made vehicles, beginning with algorithms for propagating the spacecraft’s trajectory and then defining Keplerian parameters, which describe the orbit’s size, shape, and orientation. Lambert’s Problem is used to generate mission design curves, called “pork chop plots.” Other models advance our study to treat n bodies and distributed masses instead of just two point masses. Lastly, we consider how to measure time, which is fundamental to the equations of motion.
Immunosuppression and Malignant Disease

In recent years, great progress has been made in the field of immunology. As part of this process, there has been a recrudescence of interest in the relationship between immunity and cancer. In experimental animals and in man, tumor-specific antigens have been demonstrated in at least some neoplasms, as well as cellular and humoral immune responses to these antigens. An important advance in our knowledge was the finding that states of immune deficiency are associated with an increased incidence of malignancies, particularly of lymphomas. This increase has been observed both in naturally occurring diseases (Gatti and Good, 1971; Kersey et al., 1973) and in conditions produced by iatrogenic manipulations of immunity (Penn, 1970, 1973, 1974a,b, 1976, 1978; Penn and Starzl, 1972, 1973; Penn et al., 1969). Important among the latter conditions is the immunosuppression produced in organ-transplant recipients. In 1968, we first drew attention to an increased incidence of neoplasms in this group of patients (Penn et al., 1969). Since then, we have maintained an informal registry to which physicians from many countries have generously contributed data. The cases reported up to January 1, 1976, provide the clinical material on which this chapter is based.
A Test of the Application of Vorticity Charts

A brief description is given of the preparation of charts depicting vorticity and space-mean flow patterns, in a manner similar to that proposed by Fjortoft (1952). A comparison of the velocity of ...
Notation and Preliminaries

This preliminary chapter is a quick-reference guide to the notation, terminology, and background information that will be assumed throughout the volume. Unlike the rest of the text, in this preliminary chapter we may state results without proof or without the motivation and discussion that is provided throughout the later chapters. Proofs of the facts reviewed in Sections 1.1–1.9 can be found in most calculus texts (such as [HHW18]), or in undergraduate analysis texts (such as [Rud76]).
Individual differences in working memory capacity and long-term memory: The influence of intensity of attention to items at encoding as measured by pupil dilation.

Abstract The present study used pupil dilation as an index of the intensity of attention to determine if variation in attention at encoding partially accounts for the relation between working memory capacity (WMC) and long-term memory (LTM). In Experiment 1, participants completed a delayed free recall task while pupil dilation was simultaneously recorded. Results revealed high WMC individuals displayed an increase in pupil dilation across serial positions, whereas low WMC individuals exhibited a decline in pupil dilation. Experiment 2 employed a similar method but manipulated encoding conditions via value–directed remembering. Results demonstrated when later serial positions were labeled as more important, the pupillary response no longer declined for low WMC individuals. Instead, low WMC individuals increased attention across serial positions, with the caveat being that these individuals devoted less attention than high WMC individuals to all items under these conditions. Overall, results support the notion that high WMC individuals outperform low WMC individuals in delayed free recall, which is partly explained by the amount of attention devoted to items at encoding.
Triggered EMG (T-EMG) Values of Pedicle Screws with a Powered Screwdriver vs A Standard Probe in Adolescent Idiopathic Scoliosis Do Not Agree: A Prospective Validation Study

Triggered electromyography (t-EMG) is a common technique used during spinal instrumentation in surgery for adolescent idiopathic scoliosis. This study tests the validity of t-EMG values obtained wi...
Two stumbling blocks to a general account of selection: Replication and information

When one takes the evolution of operant behavior as prototype, one sees that the term replication is too tied to the peculiarities of genetic evolution. A more general term is recurrence. The important problem raised by recurrence is not “information” but relationship: deciding when two occurrences belong to the same lineage. That is solved by looking at common environmental effects.
Are E-cigarettes more effective in supporting smoking cessation than nicotine-replacement therapy?

Commentary on: Hajek P, Phillips-Waller A, Przulj D, et al . A randomized trial of E-cigarettes versus nicotine-replacement therapy. N Engl J Med 2019;380:629-37. doi: 10.1056/NEJMoa1808779. A total of 34.3 million people are smokers in the USA.1 Smoking leads to disease, disability and harms to nearly every organ of the body.1 Treating smoking addictions has received a great deal of attention in recent years, but there is limited evidence on the effectiveness of smoking cessation treatments using e-cigarettes versus nicotine-replacement therapy.2 Eight hundred and eighty-six participants underwent randomisation by assigning two groups from the UK National Health Service in three sites. Participants were …
Self localizing sensor network architectures

This paper faces the problem of configuration and communication in a distributed radio sensor network composed of identical sensors randomly placed in a 2 or 3 dimensional space. The reference is provided by objects with known position called masters. Two architectures are shown, the first uses one master, the second three masters. The one master architecture makes it possible to identify and locate all the sensors in space and to calculate for each of them the lowest energy transmission path to reach the master. The three master architecture locates each sensor when a transmission of information occurs by triangulation and can not optimize energy consumption during sensor communication. On the other hand, it is able to localize also moving sensors or to handle dynamically changing sensor topologies. The results show that the three master architecture is faster, but it implies an energy waste of 26 times greater than the one master architecture.
Utilization of Conventional and High Oleic Soybean Oil Oleogels Structured with Rice Bran Wax to Replace Pork Fat in Mechanically Separated Chicken-Based Bologna Sausage

ObjectivesThe objective of this study was to assess the quality and organoleptic attributes of bologna formulated with soybean oil/rice bran wax (RBW) oleogels made with either conventional (CO) or high oleic (HO) soybean oil as pork fat replacers.Materials and MethodsSix bologna treatments were manufactured using combinations of mechanically separated chicken and a lipid source to achieve a finished product fat target of 25.5%. The lipid sources used were: (1) 90% CO:10% RBW oleogel (C90); (2) 97.5% CO:2.5% RBW oleogel (C97.5); (3) 90% HO:10% RBW oleogel (H90); (4) 97.5% HO:2.5% RBW oleogel (H97.5), (5) liquid CO (CO); and (6) pork back fat (PF; control treatment). Treatments 1–5 were designed to replace 100% of the pork fat, which was approximately 41% of total fat. Treatment effects on emulsion stability, cook/chill yields, instrumental texture (Texture Profile Analysis [TPA] and incisor puncture) and color (CIE L*a*b*), lipid oxidation (TBARS), and sensory parameters were evaluated over a storage period of 98 d at 0–1°C. The experiment was replicated three times. Statistical analysis was conducted as a mixed model using JMP Pro 13.2.0 (SAS Institute, Cary, NC).ResultsNo treatment effects were observed for fat loss in emulsion stability, but CO resulted in significantly higher (P 0.05) among treatments. No treatment effects were observed for incisor peak force values (P 0.05). There were significant (P < 0.05) treatment effects on lipid oxidation, with TBARS values being lowest for PF and CO; however, none exceeded 0.29 mg malondialdehyde/kg over the length of the study, indicating acceptable oxidative stability for all treatments throughout the entire storage period. Microstructure analysis showed fat globule size was larger in PF and smaller in CO than in all other treatments, which could be partly responsible for the lower emulsion stability observed.ConclusionOleogels made with either high oleic or conventional soybean oil resulted in bologna products of similar quality and organoleptic properties, indicating they are easily interchangeable for this application. Use of high oleic soybean oil, however, would result in a product with a more favorable fatty acid profile. Pork fat replacement with liquid oil, while possible, could result in more unstable raw batters, less desirable color and lower flavor intensity.
Understanding the Victimization-Delinquency Overlap Among Latino Adolescents: The Role of Cultural and Mental Health Factors:

The aim of this analysis was to evaluate whether cultural factors and mental health variables distinguish Latino youth who are delinquent-victims, primarily victims, or primarily delinquent. This s...
Are Small Farms Sustainable by Nature?—Review of an Ongoing Misunderstanding in Agroecology

Today, agroecology is more than a science; it is a movement that advocates for a sustainable redesign of the global food system. Some of its acknowledged protagonists plead for a redesign based on the support of and for small-scale farming because small farms are considered more sustainable than large farms. The present review explores the arguments that leading agroecologists use for justifying their preference for small (frequently peasant) farms. In this review, small farms are defined as possessing a mean agricultural area of maximum two hectares, being family-owned, emphasizing outdoor production, and annually producing at least two different crops or livestock. Peasant farms are defined as subsistent small farms in developing countries. The review includes an overview of the current state of small farms and their most severe challenges. Agroecological publications of the last thirty years were scanned for arguments that sustain the hypothesis that small farms are more sustainable. It was found that there are no studies that directly compare the sustainability of farms based on their size. Instead, most studies cited to confirm the sustainability of small farms compare farms that differ in terms of both, size and farm management. Hence, it is likely that the reason for the advanced sustainability of small farms is their management, not their size. The assertion that small farms are a priori more sustainable than large ones is not supportable. Misleading use of the term “small farms” may impede the efforts of agroecology to stimulate sustainable food production.
The Magic of Debunking: Interrogating Fake Facts in the United States since the Eighteenth Century

This article describes the work of debunkers, people who call out fake facts and ‘correct’ the record. While we are familiar with many of the journalists today who are carrying out this important w...
Misoprostol Dosing for First-Trimester Abortion.

Vaginal, oral, and sublingual misoprostol in single doses of 600 to 800 mcg are equally effective for promoting completed abortion in patients with an incomplete first-trimester spontaneous abortion.
Neuro-Ophthalmologic Complications of Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19).

Multiple neuro-ophthalmological manifestations have been described in association with COVID-19. These symptoms and signs may be the result of a range of pathophysiological mechanisms throughout the course from acute illness to recovery phase. Optic nerve dysfunction, eye movement abnormalities and visual field defects have been described.
Mimics of hepatocellular carcinoma: a review and an approach to avoiding histopathological diagnostic missteps.

Summary Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is one of the commonest carcinomas and leading causes of cancer-related death. Although, in patients with cirrhosis, radiologic diagnosis has improved significantly over the years, needle biopsy and histopathological assessment remains an important diagnostic modality. Most importantly, histopathological diagnosis is essential in patients with contending extrahepatic primaries, those with no known HCC risk factors, patients with ambiguous radiological features, and many other clinical contexts. Helpful features such as high serum alpha-fetoprotein (AFP) serologies are known to be present in many other tumor (including but not only HCC) and nontumor contexts and therefore not only lack sufficient diagnostic specificity for HCC but also create the potential to overlook non-HCC AFP-producing tumors, of which there are many. Therefore, using clinical examples and other examples from the medical literature, this review discusses several clinical and histological mimics of HCC and proffers an approach for practicing pathologists geared toward avoiding missteps.
Expert elicitation survey predicts 37% to 49% declines in wind energy costs by 2050

Wind energy has experienced accelerated cost reduction over the past five years—far greater than predicted in a 2015 expert elicitation. Here we report results from a new survey on wind costs, compare those with previous results and discuss the accuracy of the earlier predictions. We show that experts in 2020 expect future onshore and offshore wind costs to decline 37–49% by 2050, resulting in costs 50% lower than predicted in 2015. This is due to cost reductions witnessed over the past five years and expected continued advancements. If realized, these costs might allow wind to play a larger role in energy supply than previously anticipated. Considering both surveys, we also conclude that there is considerable uncertainty about future costs. Our results illustrate the importance of considering cost uncertainty, highlight the value and limits of using experts to reveal those uncertainties, and yield possible lessons for energy modellers and expert elicitation. Costs of renewable energy generation have fallen rapidly in recent years, often faster than predicted. Wiser et al. undertake an expert elicitation survey to project wind power costs to 2050, finding substantial continued cost reductions, and compare back to a previous survey to understand what has changed.
Endocrine disrupting chemicals: strategies to protect present and future generations.

Introduction: Endocrine disrupting chemicals (EDCs) are chemicals that alter the actions of hormones. In the 21st Century, numerous expert groups of clinicians, scientists, and environmental activi...
Rock climbing confers distinct injury risk in pediatric versus adult populations: an analysis of twenty-year national trends.

Objectives: The sport of rock climbing has recently gained in popularity due in part to its adoption by non-competitive athletes as a physical activity with a level of intensity that can be self-re...
Suicide squeeze: How minor league cities chase economic development with big-league stadium schemes

Economic development practitioners often chase the next great idea to grow their economy, especially their downtowns. A project that many large cities have looked to as a panacea is the sports stad...
Negotiating the Moral Politics of Transnational Motherhood: Conducting Ethnographic Research in Central America

In this narrative, the author reflects on the personal and ethical dilemmas she faces currently in the beginning stages of conducting dissertation research fieldwork, an aspect often glossed over by retrospective accounts. She is conducting ethnography of Nicaraguan labor migrant women working in Costa Rica's coffee agro-industry, with an emphasis on reproductive health and motherhood. In addition to her social position as a Western, advanced graduate student-researcher, Goldade is also a wife and mother, arriving in the field with her baby daughter just under 4 months of age. She grapples with the challenges of negotiating the moral politics of motherhood and ethnography, seeking collaboration among host country nationals and recruiting study participants, as well as the balancing act of working motherhood.
WAVES OF MAXIMUM HEIGHT ON UNIFORM CURRENTS.

Offshore design often involves the use of maximum wave height for a given water depth, yet the presence of a current is usually neglected. A constant current, having the same magnitude over the water depth, can be simply included in design by relating the wave propagating on a current to an equivalent wave propagating in still water. By relating the maximum height values for still water to those on a current, a breaking index curve is generated for waves on uniform currents. The effect of the current on the wave crest displacement is also examined. Finally, a curve is presented to show the magnitude of the maximum opposing currents for which wave groups can propagate upstream. Two examples are provided to illustrate the use of the results.
Mutual trust based scheduling for (semi)autonomous multi-agent systems

Mutual trust is a key factor in human-human collaboration. Inspired by this social interaction, we propose to analyze human-agent mutual trust in the collaboration of human and (semi)autonomous multi-agent systems. Human-agent mutual trust should be bidirectional and determines the human's acceptance and use of autonomous agents as well as agents' willingness to take human's command. It is especially important when a human collaborates with multiple agents concurrently. In this paper, we propose time-series human-agent mutual trust models based on well known results from human factors engineering. To avoid both “over-trust” and “under-trust”, we set up dynamic timing models for the multi-agent scheduling problem and develop necessary and sufficient conditions to test the schedulability of the human multi-agent collaborative task. We demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed scheduling algorithm using Matlab simulations. It shows that the proposed algorithm guarantees the effective real-time scheduling of the human multi-agent collaboration system while ensuring a proper level of mutual trust.
Components for building desktop-application-like interface in web applications

Web-based applications have become ubiquitous over the past few years. These applications rely on a simple document markup language called HTML. However, the click-and-link interface provide by HTML-based technology is too limited for building next generation highly interactive Web applications. Hence, we investigate a technique based on a highly interactive rich internet application approach for building desktop-application-like web applications. We discuss the design and architecture of our client and server components, show the efficient use of client, server, and network resources, and conduct server-side component performance evaluations. Usability, universality, reusability and usefulness of our components are our primary objectives. Desktop graphical user interface features such as drag-and-drop, image zoom-in, and folder navigation are now possible for building web-based applications using our components.
Themis-1: an agent-based model of a modern monetary reserve system

We present Themis, an agent-based simulation of a modern reserve system, along with the financial components of the public sector, and a proxy for the nonbank members of the private sector. The simulation primarily revolves around the key interest rate that benchmarks private lending, which arises from agents' trading within a market for bonds and loans, along with the financial implications of that interest rate. Several tunable parameters allow a user to experiment with different policy configurations and levels of private demand for loans. We both validate the simulation against real-world data, and show the results of three unconventional policy settings: one in which the central bank "loses its appetite" for public debt, a second in which the treasury runs deficits without corresponding debt issuance, and a third in which the central bank uses other policy tools to correct for some of the consequences of the second scenario.
Isotope Effects on Chemical Shifts and Coupling Constants

The sections in this article are 1 Introduction 2 Isotope Shifts: Observations 3 Rovibrational Theory of Isotope Shifts 4 General Trends in the Electronic Factors 5 Isotope Shifts Over Two or More Bonds 6 Isotope Effects on Spin–Spin Coupling 7 Biographical Sketch Related Articles
Did Davy melt Ice by Friction in a Vacuum

QUITE firmly entrenched in scientific literature, including some very recent English histories of science, is the statement that Sir Humphry Davy contrived a clockwork by which two pieces of ice were rubbed together and made to melt under the exhausted receiver of an air-pump. This is incorrect. A reference to Davy's works (Davy, “Collected Works,” vol. 2, 1839, p. 11, 12, “Experiment II.” and “Experiment III.”) indicates that in one experiment he melted ice at 29° F., by friction, in the open, and that in another experiment he caused wax to melt by friction of two metals (wheel and plate) in a vacuum. Davy did not melt ice by rubbing together pieces of ice in a vacuum.
Spontaneous Left Atrial Dissection and Hematoma Mimicking a Cardiac Tumor Findings From Echocardiography, Cardiac Computed Tomography, Magnetic Resonance Imaging, and Pathology

A 59-year-old woman with no history of cardiac surgery or thoracic trauma presented to the emergency department with tachycardia and dyspnea. The ECG showed sinus rhythm (110 bpm). X-rays showed interstitial pulmonary edema. Transthoracic echocardiography revealed a mild enlargement of the left atrium (LA), normal left ventricular function, and a large fixed mass occupying almost entirely the LA and arriving just near the posterior mitral annulus. Moderate mitral regurgitation was present. Transesophageal echocardiography confirmed the presence of an inhomogeneous cyst-like mass with a thin hyperechogenic wall coming from …
The effects of oxalic acid on transgenic Castanea dentata callus tissue expressing oxalate oxidase

The American chestnut, Castanea dentata (Marsh.) Borkh, has been decimated by chestnut blight which is caused by an exotic, oxalate producing pathogen, Cryphonectria parasitica (Murrill.) Barr. Many pathogenic and saprophytic fungi produce oxalate to facilitate in colonization of plant tissue, and therefore, discovering ways to protect plants from the detrimental effects of oxalate could be very beneficial. Germin-like oxalate oxidases have been found to degrade oxalate into hydrogen peroxide and carbon dioxide. Hydrogen peroxide plays several important roles in plant defense, including lignification of the plant cell wall. In this study, American chestnut wildtype callus tissue and callus tissue transformed with an oxalate oxidase gene were cultured on media containing various concentrations of oxalic acid. Thermogravimetric analysis (TGA) was employed to test the cellulose, hemicellulose, and lignin content of the calli. In the presence of oxalic acid, wildtype tissues demonstrated a significant decrease in lignin content and increase in cellulose content, while transformed tissues did not. Transforming American chestnut with an oxalate oxidase gene may prove to be useful in preventing changes in the cell wall composition caused by the oxalate produced during C. parasitica infection and could possibly enhance resistance.
Failure surfaces in principal stress space

Criteria for failure in multiaxial states of stress have associated with them geometrical representations as surfaces in principal stress space. Any combination of stresses is safe if the corresponding point in principal stress space falls within the failure surface. The material will fail if the point lies on or outside of the surface. The geometry of some simple surfaces and means for determining them on isotropic bodies are discussed, and the scanty information on failure surfaces for polymeric materials is reviewed.
Discrepancies between ex ante and ex post efficiency under identical subjective probabilities

Starr (1973) showed that, if people have different subjective probabilities, ex ante and ex post efficiency conflict. Conversely, under the simple preferences that he considered, the discrepancy between ex ante and ex post efficiency disappears when subjective probabilities are identical. Here I consider identical subjective probabilities, but more general preferences. First, risk attraction is admitted. Second, I dispense with the double requirement (dubbed IZU) of additive separability and state-independence of the utility of zero-date consumption, an unrealistic requirement when modeling the investment in durable goods. I find that, under IZU, and as long as ex post preferences satisfy the natural assumption of quasiconcavity (and satisfy some technical qualifications), an ex ante efficient allocation is indeed ex post efficient, but the converse is not necessarily true under risk attraction. If, on the other hand, IZU is violated, then one can have ex ante efficient allocations that are not ex post efficient, and vice-versa, even under risk aversion.
David Mitchell's Ghostwritten: Ghosts, Doubles, and Writing

(2009). David Mitchell's Ghostwritten: Ghosts, Doubles, and Writing. The Explicator: Vol. 67, No. 2, pp. 84-86.
MD studies of the interactions of low energy particles and clusters with surfaces

Abstract The interaction of low-energy particles and clusters with metal surfaces has been investigated using molecular dynamics computer simulations. For the particle interactions, a new mechanism for producing damage at surfaces was revealed in simulations of 10 and 20 keV Au bombardment of Au surfaces. Macroscopic modeling of this phenomenon illustrates the important parameters. For the cluster interactions, many different clusters and substrates were employed: the energies were varied from less than one eV (soft landings) to over 3 keV; the size of the clusters was varied from 87 to 1000, the angle of incidence was varied from near glancing to near normal, and both solid and liquid clusters were examined. Embedded atom method potentials were employed to represent the different metals and alloys. A broad range of behavior was observed in the simulations: splatting of the cluster over the surface, the formation of globs, the penetration of the clusters deep into the substrate. General rules are suggested for predicting which type of behavior prevails.