cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Comparison of atlas-based segmentation of subcortical structures in magnetic resonance brain images

This paper presents an atlas-based segmentation method for subcortical structures in magnetic resonance brain images. This method utilizes our previously introduced two-step registration comprising an affine transformation applied to the entire brain area followed by a local nonrigid transformation applied to subcortical structures. This method is compared to three existing atlas-based segmentation methods by using two objective segmentation indices, namely dice and relative error on volume. The IBSR database is considered for which expert segmented subcortical structures are available. The results obtained show that the proposed atlas-based segmentation method outperforms the existing atlas-based segmentation methods.
Political Corruption and Presidential Elections, 1929-1992

We develop an aggregate model of the presidential vote based on the appropriation of political as well as economic information by a rational voter. We argue that, depending on historical context, information about political corruption is relevant to individual, and hence aggregate, vote choice. In preindustrial, community-oriented machine politics, the rational voter exchanged votes for particularistic benefits. As the social and political perspective shifted to a universalistic standard, information about corruption has become for him or her one of the criteria by which to evaluate the performance of the incumbent party. By including information about corruption alongside information about the economy, our model significantly improves upon conventional economic voting models in explaining post-New Deal presidential election outcomes.
When the data won't get you there: the ethics of scientific error, and worse.

A surgical scientist is informed by his research assistant and statistician, after they've reviewed data for a new publication, that the conclusions of a previously published paper may be incorrect. The prospectively collected data were assembled from experiences at several hospitals. The criteria for inclusion were not precisely observed, and a number of experimental-arm patients at one institution were mistakenly excluded from the analysis after enrollment. A computer glitch has corrupted much of the original data, and the backups are not to be found. Huge study samples and data sets, and the long interval since the data were collected, make chart retrieval effectively impossible. The study's conclusion did not alter conventional surgical practice; it supported current assumptions and techniques. The statistician now cannot confirm whether the data did or did not support the conclusions. The people who worked on the project all feel that even if the contaminated data were excluded, the recalculated data would support the published paper. But a recalculation is not possible. What should be done?
Rare Causes of Cholestasis

Cholestasis is an important manifestation of a variety of liver diseases. Intrahepatic cholestasis can result from a variety of genetic defects of hepatocytes that may be associated with multisystem manifestation. Extrahepatic cholestasis can result from a spectrum of obstructive processes. Cholestatic syndromes have different phenotypic expression, diagnosis method, natural course, prognosis, and therapy. Molecular studies in humans have provided insights into rare cholestatic syndromes and may be the target of new interventions.
Old, socially housed rhesus monkeys manipulate objects

Recent research has indicated that old, individually housed monkeys show little interest in novel objects. Yet unanswered is whether this effect is caused primarily by age or housing condition. The purpose of this study was to assess the role of social living in promoting responsiveness to objects. We measured the rates of object manipulation in older animals, assessed responsiveness over time to particular objects as a measure of habituation, and examined social influences on object use. Several social groups of rhesus monkeys that contained older adults were studied. These groups were housed in indoor pens or in an outdoor enclosure, and all monkeys had continuous access to a variety of objects in their home environment. In contrast to previous studies of individually housed monkeys, our group-housed monkeys showed sustained interest in objects. Old monkeys manipulated objects extensively, and this response was all the more significant, given that the objects were not novel. Monkeys housed in an outdoor enclosure showed object manipulation patterns that were not different from monkeys housed in indoor pens. However, females exhibited much higher object-related responses than males. Social facilitation played a role in the reactions of some monkeys to objects. Patterns of social facilitation as well as avoidance were present in two of the three indoor groups that were observed. Failure to manipulate objects in rhesus macaques appears to be more a function of individual housing than of old age. Factors such as environmental complexity, social needs, and early experience should be considered in order to understand why individually housed rhesus monkeys are unresponsive to objects. © 1993 Wiley-Liss, Inc.
Fan Acoustic Signatures in an Anechoic Wind Tunnel

One-third octave band and narrowband spectra and continuous directivity patterns radiated from an inlet are presented over ranges of fan operating conditions, tunnel velocity, and angle of attack. Compared to the tunnel static condition, tunnel flow markedly reduced the unsteadiness and level of the blade passage tone, revealed the cutoff design feature of the blade passage tone, and exposed a lobular directivity pattern for the second harmonic tone. The effects of tunnel flow are shown to be complete above a tunnel velocity of 20 m/sec. The acoustic signatures are also shown to be strongly affected by fan rotational speed, fan blade loading, and inlet angle of attack.
Anger and Depression Management: Psychoeducational Skill Training Interventions for Women Caregivers of a Relative With Dementia

Purpose: This study examines the short-term impact of two theoretically based psychoeducational small group interventions with distressed caregivers, and it also examines the role of specific moderator and mediator variables on caregiver outcomes. Design and Methods: Female participants (N ¼ 169) aged 50 and older who were caring for a communitydwelling relative with a dementing illness were randomly assigned to one of three treatment interventions: anger management, depression management, or a wait-list control group. These interventions took place over a 3- to 4-month period. The primary outcomes examined were anger or hostile mood, depressed mood, frequency of use of positive and negative coping strategies, and perceived caregiving self-efficacy. Results: Significant main effects in the expected direction were found for changes in most of these measures. Participants in both anger management and depression management groups had significant reductions in their levels of anger or hostility and depression from Time 1 to Time 2 in comparison to participants in the wait-list control group. Use of positive cognitive coping strategies increased in the anger management group only. Self-efficacy significantly increased for participants in both intervention groups, and it was also demonstrated to function as a mediator of intervention effects. Pretreatment levels of depressive symptoms and anger expression style (Anger Expression-Out) moderated the relative effects of the two interventions on mood and coping. Implications: These data are consistent with a growing body of evidence supporting the effectiveness of skills training, in small groups, to improve both the affective states and the type of coping strategies used by caregivers. In addition, this study underscores the need to evaluate key pretreatment variables in order to determine which form of treatment may be more compatible with caregiver characteristics and thus more likely to be beneficial to individuals.
Similarity searches in genome-wide numerical data sets

We present psi-square, a program for searching the space of gene vectors. The program starts with a gene vector, i.e., the set of measurements associated with a gene, and finds similar vectors, derives a probabilistic model of these vectors, then repeats search using this model as a query, and continues to update the model and search again, until convergence. When applied to three different pathway-discovery problems, psi-square was generally more sensitive and sometimes more specific than the ad hoc methods developed for solving each of these problems before.
Spoken language recognition-a step toward multilinguality in speech processing

Automatic recognition of spoken languages has become an important feature in a variety of speech-enabled multilingual applications which, besides accuracy, also demand for efficient and "linguistically scalable" algorithms. This paper deals with a particularly successful approach based on phonotactic-acoustic features and presents systems for language identification as well as for unknown-language rejection. An architecture with multipath decoding, improved phonotactic models using binary-tree structures, and acoustic pronunciation models serve as a framework for experiments and discussion on these two tasks. In particular, language identification accuracy on a telephone-speech task (NIST'95 evaluation) in six and nine languages is presented together with results from a perceptual experiment carried out with human listeners. The performance of language rejection based on phonotactic modeling combined with a monolingual LVCSR system in the domain of broadcast news transcription is also reported. Besides yielding state-of-the-art performance, the described systems are computationally inexpensive and easily extensible (scalable) to new languages without the need for linguistic experts.
Thermally induced core-electron binding-energy shifts in transition metals: An experimental investigation of Ta(100).

High-resolution photoemission spectra from the 4 f 7/2 levels of Ta~100! have been obtained between 77 K and room temperature. The data show an increase in both the surface and bulk core-level binding energies ~BE’s ! as the temperature is raised: between 77 and 293 K the bulk and surface BE’s increase by 31 63 and 1362 meV, respectively. A model calculation of the bulk binding-energy increase, which is based upon the lattice expansion of the solid, is in good agreement with the experimental results and indicates that the shifts arise from both initial- and final-state effects that are of comparable magnitude. The model is further used to estimate thermally induced shifts for the whole 5 d transition-metal series. @S0163-1829~96!02348-X#
The phosphorescent state of γ-thiopyrones: Optically-resolved zero-field splittings

Abstract The phosphorescence spectra, ODMR, and triplet sublevel kinetics are reported for the thioketones, 4H-pyran-4-thione (PT) and 2,6-dimethyl-4H-pyran-4-thione (DMPT). Extremely large ZFS parameters, D = −24, and −28 cm −1 , are assigned to two distinct trap sites of PT in n -pentane and D = −24 cm −1 for the major site of DMPT in n -hexane.
Exogenous oxytocin stimulates uterine secretion of prostaglandin F2 alpha in cyclic and early pregnant swine.

Oxytocin (OT) stimulates endometrial secretion of prostaglandin (PG) F 2,, around the time of corpus luteum regression in ruminants, but the stimulus for luteolytic PGF2, release in cyclic pigs is not clear. We previously reported that OT stimulates endometrial phosphoinositide hydrolysis and PGF2,, release in vitro, and that exogenous OT administered on Days 10-16 caused a uterine-dependent reduction in interestrous interval. In this study, the development of endometrial responsiveness to OT in cyclic, early pregnant, and ovarian-intact hysterectomized gilts was investigated. On Day 7 (onset of estrus = Day 0), 26 gilts were fitted with indwelling jugular catheters, and 5 of these gilts were hysterectomized. Cyclic (n = 5), pregnant (n = 6), and ovarian-intact hysterectomized (n = 5) gilts received i.v. injections of 20 USP units OT (equivalent to 20 IU or 40 ILg/ ml) on Days 10, 12, 14, and 16; and cyclic controls (n = 5) and pregnant controls (n = 5) received i.v. injections of vehicle. Concentration of 13,14-dihydro-15-keto-PGF 2,, (PGFM; the major stable metabolite of PGF2 ,,) was measured in jugular venous plasma collected at 1 0-min intervals, from 20 min before to 120 min after i.v. injections of OT or vehicle. Plasma progesterone was measured in blood samples collected daily from Day 9 through return to estrus (cyclic gilts) or through Day 30 (pregnant and hysterectomized gilts). Vehicle-treated and OT-treated cyclic gilts were not responsive to OT on Days 10 and 12, and had similar plasma PGFM profiles on these days. However, OT-treated cyclic gilts were responsive (p < 0.01) to OT on Days 14 and 16, and peak concentrations of PGFM were detected in jugular plasma 10 min after OT injection. Concentrations of PGFM did not increase after vehicle injection on any day in controls. Similarly, PGFM in ovarian-intact hysterectomized gilts did not increase on any day after OT injection, indicating that the uterus was probably the source of OT-induced PGFM in cyclic gilts. Pregnant vehicle-treated gilts also did not have increased PGFM on any day after injection of vehicle. Pregnant OT-treated gilts had increased (p < 0.01) PGFM concentrations after OT injection on all days that were higher than concentrations in cyclic gilts on Days 10 and 12, but lower than those in cyclic gilts on Days 14 and 16 (p < 0.01). The concentration of plasma progesterone in cyclic gilts did not decrease until Days 15-16 (p < 0.01). Plasma progesterone was maintained in pregnant and hysterectomized gilts and was not influenced by OT treatment. These results indicated that 1) endometrial responsiveness to OT in cyclic gilts developed between Days 12 and 14 postestrus, 2) endometrial responsiveness to OT developed before luteolysis was initiated, and 3) endometrial responsiveness to OT in pregnant pigs developed before Day 10 of pregnancy and was attenuated on Days 14 through 16. These results
Seven-valent pneumococcal conjugate vaccines for developing countries.

Protein conjugate bacterial vaccines for invasive pneumococcal diseases have revolutionized the epidemiology of invasive bacterial disease in young children in most of the developed world, but only a small proportion of children at greatest risk of dying from this disease are vaccinated in less developed countries. Pneumococcal disease kills more children than any other illness – more than AIDS, malaria and measles combined. While the noble effort of international agencies to promote the use of pneumococcal vaccines is commendable, studies from several developing countries have failed to recognize invasive pneumococcal disease as a major problem. Thus, even at considerably subsidized vaccine pricing, this failure to recognize the pneumococcal disease burden will deter the introduction of vaccine programs in areas where it is most needed. This lack of awareness creates an impasse for the acceptance of a ‘solution’. Whether this absence of evidence is real or simply misleading deserves further urgent evalua...
Subpapillary Continuous Sling Suturing Method for Soft Tissue Grafting with the Tunneling Technique

This paper describes a new suturing method, the subpapillary continuous sling suture, for use with soft tissue grafts in tunnel procedures to treat gingival recession. This method combines the graft suture and the sutures used to advance the pouch margins over the graft into a single continuous sling suture. It is indicated particularly for sites with shallow recessions and those treated for augmentation rather than root coverage because of a lack of graft access for standard suture placement. The single-suture method may also be used for sites with moderate to severe recession. The advantages of this method include elimination of the need to place additional sutures for coronal advancement of the pouch, resulting in reduced suturing time and reduced opportunity to inadvertently cut the continuous suture with the needle when suturing the pouch.
Potentially avoidable hospitalizations in Tennessee: analysis of prevalence disparities associated with gender, race, and insurance.

SYNOPSIS Objectives. We determined (1 ) the relative rates of potentially avoidable hospitalizations (PAHs) in Tennessee; (2 ) relative rates of PAHs among gender, race, and insurance subgroups; and (3) adjusted population-based relative rates of PAHs, taking into account the influences of unobservable factors such as patient preferences, physician practice patterns, and availability of hospital beds that can also affect PAHs. Methods. We applied the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality’s definitions of ambulatory care sensitive conditions (ACSCs) to Tennessee hospitalization records to identify PAHs. Patient discharge records for 2002 came from Tennessee’s Hospital Discharge Data System. Population estimates came from the U.S. Census Current Population Survey. Hospital discharges with a complete record from all nonfederal acute-care hospitals in Tennessee were considered. Results. The relative rates of PAHs in Tennessee were higher than the U.S. rates in each of the ACSC categories. The relative rates were sensitive to adjustment for unmeasured factors such as patient preferences, physician practice patterns, and the physician supply that were reflected implicitly in the hospitalization rates of each subgroup for all discharge conditions. Within Tennessee, the type of insurance each person held was the greatest determinant of the likelihood of having a PAH, particularly for a chronic condition. Conclusions. The results indicate poor health of the general population in Tennessee and suggest opportunities to improve the provision of primary care for specific ACSCs and population subgroups to reduce PAHs, particularly the uninsured and individuals enrolled in Tennessee’s Medicaid managed care program.
Development of a Comprehensive Naphtha Catalytic Cracking Kinetic Model

A comprehensive naphtha cracking kinetic model was developed and regressed to predict the cracking of FCC (olefinic) and saturated naphthas with blends of Y-based and ZSM-5 based catalysts. A comprehensive model was required because hydrogen transfer reactions occurring on the Y-zeolite portion of the catalyst affect the apparent activity for naphtha conversion and the selectivity of olefins even when the olefins are formed in the ZSM-5 portion of the catalyst blend. The model accounted for 13 reaction classes comprising 360 separate reactions applied to 37 lumps consisting of paraffins, olefins, naphthenes, and aromatics broken down based on carbon number. Because the regression was overdetermined, it was simplified by regressing compensation effects for individual reaction classes plotted on W – Ea variable space where W = ln Ao. The model was validated by predicting the effect of changing temperature and catalyst composition on the conversion and product selectivity. Butene-to-butane and C3-to-C4 ratio...
Quando O Segredo É a 'Alma Do Negócio' – Definição De Um Conceito (When is There a Trade Secret – About the Concept)

Portuguese Abstract: O presente artigo analisa o conceito de segredo de negocio ("informacoes nao divulgadas") tal como plasmado no acordo TRIPs e transposto pelo legislador portugues em diversos regimes normativos. Trata igualmente da relacao do segredo de negocio com o conceito de know-how utilizado no direito da Uniao Europeia e com o conceito de privacidadeEnglish Abstract: This paper analyses the concept of trade secrecy ("undisclosed information") as found in the TRIPs Agreement and implemented by the Portuguese legislator. It also approaches the relationship between secrets and privacy, as well as those with the EU law notion of know-how.
Benzodiazepines, Alcohol, and Stimulant Use in Combination with Opioid Use

The exponential increase in opioid sales in the USA between 1997 and 2008 has resulted in greater availability of opioids for both legitimate and illicit use of these medications [1]. Over 1 million practitioners prescribe opioids to patients now. Unfortunately, a greater-than-4-fold rise in the deaths from prescription opioids has occurred from 1999 to 2010, and 82 % of those were classified as unintentional.
Mathematical Underpinnings for Achieving Design Functional Requirements

Abstract The two types of failure to achieve design functional requirements (FRs) are: Type I, the design cannot hit the FR targets; Type II, it cannot hit them consistently. The causes are due to inter-dependence among the FRs in Type I; and due to build and usage variability of the design in Type II. In this paper, we develop a mathematical understanding for the two types of failures. The underpinnings are Jacobian matrix of FR with respect to input variables for Type I failure; and Jacobian matrix of FR with respect to noise (sources of variability) variables for Type II. Since Independence axiom and Information axiom of Axiomatic Design relate to the interdependence and variability of FRs, the understandings developed herein also serve as the mathematical underpinnings for the two design axioms. The design of snap-fit is used to illustrate the concept and process involved.
Improved space object detection via scintillated short exposure image data

Since telescopes were first trained on the heavens, nearly every attempt to locate new objects in the sky has been accomplished using long-exposure images (images taken with exposures longer than one second). For many decades astronomers have utilized short-exposure images to achieve high spatial resolution and mitigate the effect of Earth’s atmosphere. This is due to the fact that short-exposure images contain higher spatial frequency content than their long exposure counterparts. New objects, such as dim companions of binary stars have been revealed using these techniques, thus achieving some discoveries via short-exposure images, but always in context of a detailed analysis of a specific area of the sky, not through a synoptic search of the heavens like the kind carried out by asteroid research programs like Space Watch, PAN-STARRS or the Catalina Sky Survey. In this paper simulated short-exposure images are processed to detect simulated stars in the presence of strong atmospheric turbulence. The strong turbulence condition produces long-exposures with wide star patterns, while the short-exposure images feature better concentration of the available photons, but large random position variance. A new processing strategy involving a matched-filter technique using a short-exposure atmospheric impulse response model is utilized. The results from this process are compared to efforts to detect stars in long exposure images taken over the same interval the short-exposure images are collected. The two techniques are compared and the short-exposure imaging technique is found to produce the higher probability of detection.
Non-invasive assessment of tumor proliferation using triple quantum filtered /sup 23/Na MRI: technical challenges and solutions

We address the development of triple-quantum-filtered sodium MRI as a non-invasive surrogate measure for cell proliferation in brain tumors. We demonstrate that through careful consideration of the theoretical description of the signal, triple-quantum-filtered sodium images of adequate signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) can be acquired in clinically acceptable imaging times.
Linguistic Problems in a New Hispanic Etymological Dictionary

(1956). Linguistic Problems in a New Hispanic Etymological Dictionary. WORD: Vol. 12, No. 1, pp. 35-50.
The metal and metalloprotein profile of human plasma as biomarkers for stroke diagnosis

Stroke, a major cause of disability and mortality, affects someone in the United States every 40s. Stroke biomarkers, including those that could be used as a blood test for diagnosis of stroke, have been particularly elusive. We performed a double blind study to identify human plasma biomarkers for the diagnosis of stroke, including acute ischemic stroke (AIS) and intracerebral hemorrhage (ICH). We utilized a three-track approach based on the total metal profile, the metal cofactor levels among metalloproteins, and the identification of stroke-related metalloproteins. The study included 14 case-control pairs of AIS and 23 case-control pairs of ICH. Controls were matched to cases based on gender, ethnicity, and age (±5 years). AIS cases were statistically higher from their respective controls for protein bound co-factors Se and Cd, while unique correlations of metal cofactor concentrations among metalloproteins were identified between Pb-W, Sr-W, Pb-V, and Cu-V. ICH cases were statistically higher from their respective controls for Se and Co cofactors, whereas Cd and Pb were statistically lower. Unique correlations between metal cofactors for ICH cases were identified between Pb-W, Sr-W, Pb-V, and Cu-V. Stroke-related metalloproteins were identified, including calpain-15, protein-activated inward rectifier potassium channel 1, tau-tubulin kinase 1, and voltage-dependent L-type calcium channel subunit beta-3. Linear discriminant analysis (LDA) was able to classify patients between stroke cases or controls with 93% accuracy as well as classify patients with one of the four stroke groups with 85% accuracy. Additionally, this study found utmost importance in vanadium (V) and tungsten (W) correlations for both bound and total metal concentrations, suggestive of binding to transferrin or inhibition of oxidoreductases. Future work in stroke patients will seek to quantify varying selenoproteins, including selenoprotein P and glutathione peroxidase and identified zinc finger tissue leakage proteins, and further explore the role of trace metal fluctuations with transferrin.
Basic Plasma Parameters Described by Kappa Distributions

Abstract This chapter presents the derivation of basic plasma parameters within the framework of kappa distribution theory. We examine the thermodynamic processes of polytropes and the physics behind the notion of polytropic index, the correlations between any two particle energies or other statistical moments, the Debye shielding and length scale, the electrical conductivity, the collision frequency for electrons colliding with ions and the respective mean free path, the plasma magnetization, the Pierre Curie's law and the Curie constant, and the topic of large-scale quantization constant. It is now straightforward to apply these developments to study space, geophysical, laboratory, or other plasmas out of thermal equilibrium.
Relative thrombocytosis following chemoradiation of patients with glioblastoma to predict survival.

e13527Background: Thrombocytosis is associated with poor survival in several malignancies and is both triggered by and promoting of tumor growth. We hypothesized that an increase in circulating pla...
Inhibition of leukocyte adhesion by the in vivo and in vitro administration of cannabinoids

Cannabinoids have been shown to affect various aspects of arachidonic acid metabolism both in vivo and in vitro. Eicosanoid metabolites of arachidonate and related octadecanoate are believed to be involved in cell adhesion processes as agonists in some instances and as antagonists in other cases. This report shows data in which cannabinoids exhibit marked inhibitory effects on the adhesion of mouse peritoneal cells to polystyrene culture dishes. The effects could be seen by in vivo administration of the drugs as well as by direct exposure of the cells in vitro. The data suggest that this inhibition of adhesion is mediated by one or more products generated by stimulation of a lipoxygenase pathway.
Coevolving Fitness Models for Accelerating Evolution and Reducing Evaluations

Fitness models are used to reduce evaluation frequency and cost. There are three fundamental challenges faced when using fitness models: (1) the model learning investment, (2) the model level of approximation, and (3) the lack of convergence to optima. We propose a coevolutionary algorithm to resolve these problems automatically during evolution. We discuss applications of this approach and measure its impact in symbolic regression. Results show coevolution yields significant improvement in performance over other algorithms and different fitness modeling approaches. Finally we apply coevolution to interactive evolution of pen stroke drawings where no true fitness function is known. These results demonstrate coevolution’s ability to infer a fitness landscape of a user’s preference while minimizing user interaction.
Bootstrapping trust in a trusted platform

For the last few years, many commodity computers have come equipped with a Trusted Platform Module (TPM). Existing research shows that the TPM can be used to establish trust in the software executing on a computer. However, at present, there is no standard mechanism for establishing trust in the TPM on a particular machine. Indeed, any straightforward approach falls victim to a cuckoo attack. In this work, we propose a formal model for establishing trust in a platform. The model reveals the cuckoo attack problem and suggests potential solutions. Unfortunately, no instantiation of these solutions is fully satisfying, and hence, we pose the development of a fully satisfactory solution as an open question to the community.
Real-valued single-tone frequency estimation using half-length autocorrelation

Abstract In this paper a new autocorrelation method called half-length autocorrelation (HLA) is introduced. Unlike regular (biased or unbiased) autocorrelations, the exact statistical characteristics of the HLA can be calculated, which makes the analytical calculation of the variance of the frequency estimator possible. The HLA is also used in two different frequency estimation methods namely, Modified Covariance (MC) and Modified Pisarenko Harmonic Decomposition (MPHD). It is shown that the application of the HLA in these frequency estimators improves their performance, particularly in lower signal-to-noise ratios (SNR). The analytical calculation of the variance (mean square error) of the estimators is also provided in this paper. Simulation results are in agreement with the theoretical calculations. For the MPHD estimator using the HLA (MPHD-HLA), the estimated frequency is very close to the theoretical calculations for SNRs as low as −2 dB.
Air Leak Management Program With Digital Drainage Reduces Length of Stay After Lobectomy.

Background Air leaks can impede recovery from lung resection. To help prevent and manage air leaks, we developed a comprehensive program that includes using precompression of lung staple lines, sealant, fissureless video-assisted thoracoscopic (VATS) lobectomy, a digital drainage system, and endobronchial valve placement for prolonged air leak. We assessed the effectiveness of this program on air leak duration, hospital length of stay (LOS), and chest tube duration in our high-risk veteran population. Methods Using a prospectively maintained database, we retrospectively analyzed data from 226 patients who underwent lung resection for cancer by VATS lobectomy in a Veterans Affairs center. Patients were divided into two groups. Group A (n = 134; historical controls) underwent lobectomy from July 2009 through October 2013; group B (n = 92; intervention group) underwent lobectomy from November 2013 through July 2016 and received care per the comprehensive program. Results The median hospital LOS was significantly shorter in group B than in group A patients (5 days versus 6 days, respectively; p = 0.0001). Group B had a shorter median chest tube duration (2 days versus 3 days, p = 0.027). Prolonged air leak (more than 5 days) occurred in 5.4% of group B and 9.7% of group A patients (p = 0.24). Prolonged LOS (more than 14 days) was less frequent in group B (1.1%) than in group A (8.2%, p = 0.030). Multivariable analysis showed that predictors of decreased air leak duration, chest tube duration, and LOS included undergoing surgery in the later period (group B). Conclusions Our comprehensive program was associated with reduced chest tube days and hospital LOS.
Red Junglefowl Introductions in the Southeastern United States: History and Research Legacy

As part of the US government's Foreign Game Investigation Program (FGIP), there was an extensive and sustained effort in the 1960s to introduce Gallus gallus (Red Junglefowl) in the southeastern United States. We review the history of this effort with the objective of showing how well-documented introductions such as those carried out by FGIP can shed light on current research questions. The stock for the junglefowl introductions was captured in northern India under the direction of Gardiner Bump in areas thought to be free of hybridization with domestic Gallus gallus domesticus (Chicken). A total of 117 wild-caught birds was shipped to the United States as breeding stock, and over a 10-year period nearly 10,000 Red Junglefowl were introduced into at least 52 sites in 8 states. Despite this massive effort, no wild populations of Red Junglefowl have persisted in the Southeast. However, descendants of the FGIP junglefowl still exist in captivity. Careful breeding of birds from the original FGIP has resulted in a captive population of 100–200 Red Junglefowl distributed among several aviculturists in the Southeast and thought to be derived from populations that predate introgression with domestic Chickens. Because of their well-documented origins, these descendants of FGIP junglefowl are probably the genetically purest captive population of this species, and they have a tremendous research legacy for the conservation of Red Junglefowl and study of the genetic changes associated with domestication.
Physical activity and health-related quality of life in chronic non-bacterial osteomyelitis

Chronic non-bacterial osteomyelitis (CNO) is an autoinflammatory disorder of the skeletal system of yet unknown etiology. Patients present with local bone pain and inflammation and - to our experience - often suffer from functional impairment with significant disabilities of daily life. The objective of this study was to assess physical activity, fitness and health-related quality of life (HRQOL) in adolescents with established diagnosis of CNO versus healthy controls (HC). 15 patients with CNO and 15 age and gender matched HC aged 13–18 years, completed questionnaires, performed an incremental exercise test with gas exchange measures up to voluntary fatigue and wore an accelerometer over 7 days at home to assess physical activity behavior. At the time of assessment, 5 CNO patients were in clinical, one in radiological and 5 in clinical and radiological remission. 7 did not receive any therapy at the time of assessment. The results of the exercise test and of the accelerometry did not show any significant difference between CNO and HC. However, reported sports participation was lower in patients with CNO and PedsQL3.0 and 4.0 showed significant lower values in most of the scores indicating reduced HRQOL. Although most CNO patients showed a favorable course of disease without any relevant differences in objective measurements of physical activity and fitness versus HC at the time of assessment, questionnaires revealed perceived limitations. Further studies are needed to measure HRQOL and to validate questionnaires in patients with CNO against objective measures including more participants with a higher level of disease activity.
Una nota sobre el crecimiento de México

espanolCon base en una descomposicion contable del crecimiento basada en elasticidades, esta nota identifica el insuficiente dinamismo exportador y la inercia de una economia segmentada como razones centrales del lento crecimiento economico de Mexico. Elevar el dinamismo de las exportaciones sin exacerbar fricciones proteccionistas requeriria una mayor orientacion hacia productos novedosos o con demandas mas elasticas. Esto implicaria un salto hacia la economia del conocimiento, una mayor exportacion de servicios personales y un Mexico mas atractivo para las personas, es decir, colocar el fortalecimiento del Estado de derecho y la preservacion del patrimonio ecologico y turistico en el centro de la agenda de politica. EnglishBuilding on a novel elasticities-based growth accounting decomposition, this note puts the insufficient dynamism of Mexico’s exports and the inertia of its segmented economy at the heart of its unsatisfactory per capita GDP growth. Boosting exports without exacerbating protectionism would require a shift toward more innovative products or with higher demand elasticities. This in turn would imply a greater shift toward a knowledge economy and exports of personal services. Making Mexico more attractive to people through strengthening the rule of law and preserving the country’s ecological and touristic capital should therefore be at the center of the country’s growth agenda.
Mechanistic integration of exposure and effects: advances to apply systems toxicology in support of regulatory decision-making

Abstract Modernizing risk assessment methods that underlie risk management decisions developed to protect public and environmental health will require interdisciplinary dialog and communication. Alignment of exposures across traditional data streams such as data from in vivo laboratory animal and epidemiological or clinical studies, as well as integration of novel data types from emerging testing technologies and new methods of analysis, will improve causal inference. We propose a mechanistic scaffold that supports a source-to-outcome structure and an associated workflow pipeline which facilitates needed data curation and transparency regarding operational assumptions. The scaffold and workflow components enhance the utility and repurposing of data with the flexibility to support regulatory decision-making in a fit-for-purpose fashion. Efficient use of data based on this scaffold across various modeling approaches will promote “one health” characterization to improve, promote, and protect the health of all species and the environment. Associated data standards to facilitate leveraging and sharing of data will increase communication and collaboration across different disciplines to enable that end.
Torso kinematics during gait and trunk anthropometry in pregnant fallers and non-fallers

Abstract Background Pregnant women experience numerous physiological and biomechanical alterations which may be associated with their increased risk of experiencing a fall. Gait alterations in other populations who fall include increased step width and mediolateral trunk motion. It is not known if pregnant women who have fallen exhibit these alterations. Research question Our purpose was to examine torso kinematics and step width during gait in pregnant fallers, pregnant non-fallers and non-pregnant controls. We also examined trunk anthropometry in the pregnant groups to determine if pregnant fallers have different trunk physiques than pregnant non-fallers. Methods 3D kinematic data were collected on 14 pregnant fallers, 15 pregnant non-fallers and 40 non-pregnant controls. Pregnant women were in their second or third trimester of pregnancy. Frontal plane translations of C7 and L4, step width, stride length, walking velocity, and 3D thoracic and pelvic kinematics were determined. Anthropometric torso measurements were obtained on the pregnant women. A series of MANCOVAs was performed (covariate: walking velocity, α = 0.05) to compare the dependent variables between pregnant fallers, pregnant non-fallers, and controls. Tukey post-hoc analyses were performed when appropriate (α = 0.05). A MANOVA compared anthropometric variables between pregnant fallers and non-fallers (α = 0.05). Results Pregnant non-fallers exhibited greater step width and frontal and transverse plane angles at heel contact and range of motion over the gait cycle when compared to the fallers. Trunk anthropometry did not differ between pregnant fallers and non-fallers. Significance Pregnancy-associated gait alterations differed between fallers and non-fallers. Greater step width of the pregnant non-fallers increased the base of support, thus increasing stability. Exercise participation may allow pregnant women to better adapt to their altered physiques and be more able to prevent a fall should a trip or slip occur.
Na-Ion Batteries: Sodium-Ion Batteries Paving the Way for Grid Energy Storage (Adv. Energy Mater. 32/2020)

Author(s): Hirsh, Hayley S; Li, Yixuan; Tan, Darren HS; Zhang, Minghao; Zhao, Enyue; Meng, Y Shirley
Factors Associated with Dialysis Discontinuation Outside of the Acute Care Setting

Elective discontinuation of dialysis is an increasingly common occurrence among patients with ESKD (1,2). Numerous studies have assessed predictors of the decision to stop dialysis in the inpatient setting and have consistently highlighted factors associated with a higher likelihood of this decision, including White race, female sex, and older age (3,4). In these settings, the decision to stop dialysis is often made in the context of acute medical complications or hospitalizations. Although these findings are important, there has been less focus on understanding the decision to discontinue dialysis outside of the acute hospitalized setting. In such cases, patients and their loved ones would benefit from shared decision making, which is recommended to help patients understand their prognosis and make complex treatment decisions (5). Reasons for discontinuing dialysis after acute medical illness in the inpatient setting likely differ from those outside such scenarios; understanding the factors associated with this decision in the outpatient setting could help guide the counseling of these patients, particularly as recommendations for the use of time-limited trials of dialysis in patients with multiple comorbidities increase (6,7). The objective of this study was to determine factors associated with dialysis discontinuation in the absence of known acute medical complications, with particular focus on differences in discontinuation according to treatment modality ( e.g ., peritoneal dialysis [PD] versus hemodialysis [HD]). Additionally, we assessed whether factors that were associated with the decision to stop dialysis differed between patients who chose to discontinue dialysis earlier (within 2 years of dialysis initiation) versus later in the course of chronic maintenance dialysis. We performed a retrospective observational study using data from the United States Renal Data System (USRDS) and included adults (age ≥18 years) who started dialysis between January 1, 2005 and December 31, 2015. We excluded …
Effects of prescribed grazing by goats on non‐native invasive shrubs and native plant species in a mixed‐hardwood forest

Invasion of non‐native shrubs comprises a serious economic and ecological problem in North American forests. Prescribed grazing by goats may offer an effective alternative to traditional methods of control, but has received little study in forest settings. In a 5‐year field experiment, we varied the stocking of goats and number of grazing periods to determine effects of prescribed grazing on both invasive shrubs and native plant species. Specifically, we examined how varied stocking levels and grazing periods affect: (1) the cover and height of invasive shrub and native woody species (2) the cover and diversity of herbaceous species, and (3) the density of native tree seedlings. Data were analyzed with linear mixed‐effects models. We found that prescribed grazing by goats significantly reduced the cover and height of invasive shrubs, regardless of goat stocking or duration. Generally, the greatest reductions in invasive shrub cover occurred in treatments with two grazing periods, regardless of goat stocking. While we observed mostly neutral or positive effects on the herbaceous layer, all grazing treatments reduced the cover and height of native understory woody species. While changes were not significant, we observed a general decline in the aggregate height of native tree species regeneration. Our results suggest that prescribed grazing by goats provides an effective and environmentally friendly treatment for heavy invasions of non‐native shrubs such as Rosa multiflora, but grazing needs to be followed by focused mechanical or chemical treatments to maintain control while allowing the regeneration of native tree species.
A Reference Open-Source Controller for Fixed and Floating Offshore Wind Turbines

Abstract. This paper describes the development of a new reference controller framework for fixed and floating offshore wind turbines that greatly facilitates controller tuning and represents standard industry practices. The reference wind turbine controllers that are most commonly cited in the literature have been developed to work with specific reference wind turbines. Although these controllers have provided standard control functionalities, they are often not easy to modify for use on other turbines, so it has been challenging for researchers to run representative, fully dynamic simulations of other wind turbine designs. The Reference Open-Source Controller (ROSCO) has been developed to provide a modular reference wind turbine controller that represents industry standards and performs comparably to or better than existing reference controllers. The formulation of the ROSCO controller logic and tuning processes is presented in this paper. Control capabilities such as tip-speed ratio tracking generator torque control, minimum pitch saturation, wind speed estimation, and a smoothing algorithm at near-rated operation are included to provide a controller that is comparable to industry standards. A floating offshore wind turbine feedback module is also included to facilitate growing research in the floating offshore arena. All the standard controller implementations and control modules are automatically tuned such that a non-controls engineer or automated optimization routine can easily improve the controller performance. This article provides the framework and theoretical basis for the ROSCO controller modules and generic tuning processes. Simulations of the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) 5-MW reference wind turbine and International Energy Agency 15-MW reference turbine on the University of Maine semisubmersible platform are analyzed to demonstrate the controller's performance in both fixed and floating configurations, respectively. The simulation results demonstrate ROSCO's peak shaving routine to reduce maximum rotor thrusts by nearly 14 % compared to the NREL 5-MW reference wind turbine controller on the land-based turbine and to reduce maximum platform pitch angles by slightly more than 35 % when using the platform feedback routine instead of a more traditional low-bandwidth controller.
An investigation of libration heating and the thermal state of Enceladus's ice shell

Abstract Tidal dissipation is thought to be responsible for the observed high heat loss on Enceladus. Forced librations can enhance tidal dissipation in the ice shell, but how such librations affect the thermal state of Enceladus has not been investigated. Here we investigate the heating effect of forced librations using the model of Van Hoolst et al. (2013) , which includes the elasticity of the ice shell. We find that libration heating in the ice shell is insufficient to match the inferred conductive heat loss of Enceladus. This suggests that either Enceladus is not in a thermal steady state, or additional heating mechanisms beneath the ice shell are contributing the bulk of the power. In the presence of such an additional heat source, Enceladus resides in a stable thermal equilibrium, resisting small perturbations to the shell thickness. Our results do not support the occurrence of a runaway melting process proposed by Luan and Goldreich (2017) . In our study, the strong dependence of conductive loss on shell thickness stabilizes the thermal state of Enceladus's ice shell. Our study implies that thermal runaway (if it occurred) or episodic heating on Enceladus is unlikely to originate from librations of the ice shell.