cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
EVALUATION RESEARCH as Academic Scholarship

Abstract In nursing, the ability of educators to progress successfully toward promotion and tenure may be hampered by heavy teaching or practice workloads and an inability to complete the research mission of the institution. In a 1990 report, Boyer noted that the scholarship of teaching, integration, and application can be embraced in the same manner as the scholarship of discovery and research. One source of data that is often neglected as integral to scholarship is evaluation data that results from teaching, service, and practice. Such data can be reframed and thought of as a compelling avenue for scholarly activity. This article connects the evaluation process with the four types of scholarship outlined in the Boyer model and illustrates how the formal evaluation of a nursing curriculum can be linked to a rigorous scholarship assessment framework.
The Economic Benefits of New York City's Public School Reforms, 2002-2013

This study examines some of the economic consequences associated with the public school reforms introduced in New York City (NYC) by Mayor Michael Bloomberg, including their impact on housing values. The reforms focused primarily on increasing the autonomy and accountability of a school’s principal and teachers, and expanding school choice and charter schools. We found that those reforms have been followed by substantial improvements in a number of key measures of student performance, including Math and English test scores, high school graduation rates, and college enrollment rates. From 2006 to 2009, for example, the four-year graduation rate of NYC high school students increased from 49.1 percent to 60.4 percent, improvements driven mainly by the progress of African-American and Hispanic students. We estimate that from 2008 to 2012, 41,000 more NYC public high school students earned diplomas than would have occurred assuming the graduation rates for NYC students in 2006; and the net present value of the additional income that these additional high school graduates should earn over their lifetimes is $8.9 billion. Similarly, from 2008 to 2012, 30,900 more NYC public high school students enrolled in institutions of higher learning than would have occurred assuming the college enrollment rates of NYC students in 2006; and the net present value of the additional income that these additional NYC college attendees should earn over their lifetimes is $6.4 billion. Our analysis further found that rising high school graduation rates increase housing demand in the neighborhoods where those graduation rates rose, which in turn has led to increased residential property values. We estimate that increasing NYC graduation rates by 1 percentage point in a zip code leads to an increase in residential property prices of 0.54 percent in that zip code. On this basis, we estimate that NYC’s rising graduation rates added as much as $37.1 billion to NYC residential housing prices or values. Finally, the number of NYC charter schools climbed from 14 in 2001 to 183 in 2013, an average increase of 0.96 charter schools per zip code. We found that adding one new NYC charter school in a zip code increased residential property prices there by an estimated 3.69 percent. On this basis, the expansion of charter schools in NYC may have added as much as $22.45 billion to NYC residential property prices or values.
Discretion Operationalized Through Law: Proprio Motu Decision-Making at the International Criminal Court

The proprio motu power is a radical innovation of the Rome Statute. In light of the Court’s sprawling jurisdiction, the proprio motu power enables the Prosecutor to take independent action, without the prior sanction or trigger of any political actor, with respect to an expansive range of situations around the globe. Yet, a critical aspect of this formidable power remains ambiguous: whether the Prosecutor is required to initiate proprio motu investigations into every situation that satisfies the statutory criteria, or whether instead the Prosecutor has discretionary authority to select from among such admissible situations. On the one hand, the Statute does not expressly grant the Prosecutor such discretion. On the other, many aspects of the Court’s structure and status in the international criminal justice system argue compellingly that some discretion must exist. This Article will argue that the Prosecutor deploys the necessary discretion through the factors she is legally required to consider by the Statute, asserting a discretion that is both cabined and operationalized by law. The Statute requires that a situation be sufficiently grave to be admissible before the Court, but it does not further define the concept of gravity. In making proprio motu decisions to date, the Prosecutor has capitalized on this conceptual indeterminacy, asserting the authority to decide how gravity should be interpreted in different contexts and adopting interpretations that are inconsistent with and even contradictory to other OTP analyses. Such interpretive autonomy, when coupled with the flexibility of the concept itself, strongly resembles discretion. While such a manifestation of discretion is ostensibly a step back from a wholly unguided Prosecutor, it has unique and significant implications. In independently generating legal interpretations that are relatively unreviewable by the Court, the Prosecutor feeds and directs the substantive development of the concept of gravity itself. This power is perhaps even more significant than would be a pure assertion of discretion, as it potentially enables the Prosecutor to independently engage in lawmaking.
The specific activity and half-life of 237Np

Abstract The specific activity of 237Np, as determined by absolute α-counting known amounts of 237Np, was found to be 1562 ± 7 disintegrations per min per μg which corresponds to a half-life of 2·14 ± 0·01 × 106 years. The aliquots of 237Np for counting were taken from a standard solution prepared from neptunium metal and checked by coulometric titration.
Will Health Care Reform Survive Debt Ceiling Legislation

Contrary to media headlines closely monitoring the lower- and mid-level federal courts as they opine on the individual insurance mandate, the United States Judiciary Branch may have little impact on the future of President Barack Obama's 2010 Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act. As fascinating as the legal ramifications may be, the ways in which the Commerce Clause or the Necessary and Proper Clause impact the constitutionality of healthcare reform's most notorious provision of late could have little meaning if the government fails to pay a few utility bills and the congressional lights go dark.
Selective Action of Gentian Violet on Enzymes

In previous publications we 1 have shown the existence of a selective action of gentian violet and crystal violet on bacteriophages. The results obtained also present evidence that there is a correlation between the selective action of the dyes on bacteria and on their respective phages. Because several investigators have suggested the enzyme-like nature of the bacteriophage and because the two biologic substances present many similar properties a study of the effect of dye on enzymes seemed to be a logical investigation to follow the aforementioned work on the action of dye on bacteriophages. The chief objective in the experimental work reported in this study was to see whether a similarity exists between the action of dye on bacterial enzymes and its action on the corresponding bacteria, as was found with the bacteriophages. The following observations were also noted: the effect of various reactions of mediums on enzyme activity and the quantity and speed of liquefaction of gelatin by the different
Orbital Pursuit-Evasion Hybrid Spacecraft Controllers

Motivated by the increasing potential for military activities in space to be contested by an adversary, the pursuit-evasion (PE) game in an orbital environment is considered. Past research has focused on finding a computationally efficient solution to the differential game. Here, hybrid controllers are considered in order to balance other mission needs inherent to the spacecraft. A sensitivity-based means of traversing the solution space is shown, as well as a means of identifying proximity to barrier trajectories. An example hybrid controller is then described, in which a pursuer or evader spacecraft performs a primary mission while maintaining the game value function above or below specified values. A numerical simulation with both the pursuer and evader implementing forms of this controller is shown. The hybrid controller uses various data stemming from the differential game solution, beyond the computed optimal controls themselves, as inputs to the control decision.
The revised Geneva score predicted pulmonary embolism in patients with shortness of breath or chest pain.

Source Citation Le Gal G, Righini M, Roy PM, et al. Prediction of pulmonary embolism in the emergency department: the revised Geneva score. Ann Intern Med. 2006;144:165-71. 16461960
Displaced Insufficiency Femoral Neck Stress Fracture in the Setting of Ochronosis: A Case Report.

Alkaptonuria is a hereditary disorder of homogentisic acid metabolism. It is usually inherited in an autosomal recessive manner, although there have been reports of autosomal dominant inheritance1. In alkaptonuria, a defect in the gene that encodes homogentisic acid oxidase leads to an accumulation of homogentisic acid in the body1-4. This leads to the polymerization of homogentisic acid, which is exhibited as blue-black discoloration of various connective tissues, including hyaline cartilage. The prevalence of alkaptonuria is between one in 250,000 and one in one million people. A prevalence as high as one in 19,000 has been found in people of Slovenian and Dominican descent1,4-6. The disease is typically asymptomatic until the third or fourth decade of life. Clinically, it manifests as dark pigmented urine, abnormal pigmentation of the eyes and the ears, spondylosis, and degenerative arthritis throughout the body1-4. The orthopaedic manifestation of this disease is termed “ochronosis.” Ochronosis is a noninflammatory degenerative arthritis that results from the accumulation of homogentisic acid deposits in the joints. The knees, hips, shoulders, and spine are the most commonly affected areas1-4. Histopathologically, brown-black pigmentation occurs in the extracellular matrix of hyaline cartilage. In osteoarthritis, the hyaline cartilage appears as concentric layers of fibrillation; in ochronosis, the hyaline cartilage becomes fragmented with deep clefts that propagate toward the subchondral bone6. There is no known direct association between ochronosis and femoral neck stress fractures. To our knowledge, there has been only indirect mention of a femoral neck stress fracture in a single case report in the anesthesiology literature7. We present a case of an insufficiency femoral neck stress fracture in a patient with previously undiagnosed asymptomatic ochronosis. The patient was informed that …
Architectural Mapping and Optimization

Once a behavioral simulator has been developed, the next step in the development of the design methodology is in its application to architecture mapping. One key contribution of this work is to define a mechanism by which hierarchy can be exploited successfully. The example in Figure 4.1 will be used to illustrate this.
Systematic review of evidence on the effectiveness of safe child faeces disposal interventions.

Objectives To review and synthesize the available evidence on the effectiveness of interventions targeting unsafe child feces disposal in reducing this behavior and improving child health in low- and middle-income countries. Methods PubMed and EMBASE were systematically searched. Studies meeting the inclusion criteria were reviewed and key information on study methodologies and outcomes were extracted. Results A total of 1048 articles were screened, and 8 studies representing 5 countries were included for the review. Three were randomized controlled trials and 5 were prospective cohort studies. There was wide variability across studies in the definition of “safe disposal” of child feces. Six studies reported the change in child feces disposal practices associated with safe child feces disposal interventions. However, only one study found a significant improvement in this behavior. Two of the six studies that evaluated the health impact of delivered interventions found significant reductions in childhood diarrhea associated with safe feces disposal practices and one study reported a positive effect on child growth and ascariasis. Only one study was identified that delivered a single intervention solely focused on safe child feces disposal. Unfortunately, this study did not investigate the impact of this intervention on child health. Conclusions There are major methodological limitations in studies that assessed the impact of safe child feces disposal interventions. The health impact of these interventions is inconclusive because the quality of the current evidence is poor. Randomized controlled trials are urgently needed to assess the impact of safe feces disposal interventions on child health. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved.
HO1 and Wnt expression is independently regulated in female mice brains following permanent ischemic brain injury.

Abstract A gender difference in stroke is observed throughout epidemiologic studies, pathophysiology, treatment and outcomes. We investigated the neuroprotective role of hemeoxygenase (HO) enzyme, which catabolizes free heme to bilirubin, carbon monoxide and biliverdin in the female brain after permanent ischemia. We have previously reported in male mice that genetic deletion of HO1 exacerbates the brain damage after permanent ischemia, and the mechanism of neuroprotection is dependent on the HO1/Wnt pathway; however, the role of HO1/Wnt mediated neuroprotection in the female brain is yet to be investigated. We subjected ovary intact female mice, HO1 −/− intact, HO1 inhibitor tin mesoporphyrin (SnMP) treated intact and/or ovariectomized female mice to permanent ischemia (pMCAO), and the animals were sacrificed after 7 days. The SnMP treatment for 7 days significantly reduced the HO1 enzyme activity as compared to that of vehicle treated group. Infarct volume analysis showed significantly lower infarct in intact, HO1 −/− intact, and SnMP treated group as compared to the OVX group, suggesting the role of estrogen in neuroprotection. However, there were no differences in infarct volume observed between the intact, HO1 −/− and SnMP treated group, suggesting a sexually dimorphic role of HO1 neuroprotection. Western blot analysis on intact and SnMP-treated groups subjected to pMCAO suggested no significant differences in Wnt expression. Together, these results suggest that HO1 neuroprotection is sexually dimorphic and Wnt expression is independently regulated in the female brain following permanent ischemia.
Nrf2-mediated pentose phosphate pathway activity promotes macrophage inflammasome activation and bacterial killing in microbial sepsis (INM6P.330)

Classical activation of the innate immune cells such as macrophages and dendritic cells causes dramatic metabolic changes towards increased glucose uptake, glycolysis and pentose phosphate pathway (PPP) activity. However, the role and mechanism of this metabolic reprogramming in the regulation of macrophage function and its disease relevance is poorly understood. Here we report a critical role of PPP activity in inflammasome activation. Pharmacological inhibition of PPP resulted in a defective inflammasome activation. Macrophages with a mutation in G6pd , the gene encoding a rate-limiting PPP enzyme glucose-6-phosphate dehydrogenase, showed decreased inflammasome activation. Mechanistically, PPP activity was required for the prevention of excessive reactive oxygen species generation and safeguarding an intact extracellular Ca2+ influx, a critical step for inflammasome activation. Nuclear factor E2-related factor-2 (Nrf2) regulates the expression of several key enzymes involved in PPP. Furthermore, Nrf2-/- macrophages showed defective caspase-1 activation after E. coli infection, which caused decreased phagosome acidification and bacterial killing. Nrf2-/- mice and mice with PPP inhibition exhibited an increased bacterial burden in E. coli -induced and cecal ligation and puncture-induced microbial sepsis. In sum, these findings identify a novel function of PPP in inflammasome activation and suggest PPP as a therapeutic target in the treatment of microbial sepsis.
Decoupling Resource-Coupled Gene Expression in Living Cells

Synthetic biology aspires to develop frameworks that enable the construction of complex and reliable gene networks with predictable functionalities. A key limitation is that increasing network complexity increases the demand for cellular resources, potentially causing resource-associated interference among noninteracting circuits. Although recent studies have shown the effects of resource competition on circuit behaviors, mechanisms that decouple such interference remain unclear. Here, we constructed three systems in Escherichia coli, each consisting of two independent circuit modules where the complexity of one module (Circuit 2) was systematically increased while the other (Circuit 1) remained identical. By varying the expression level of Circuit 1 and measuring its effect on the expression level of Circuit 2, we demonstrated computationally and experimentally that indirect coupling between these seemingly unconnected genetic circuits can occur in three different regulatory topologies. More importantly,...
Disaster Recovery in Coastal Mississippi, USA: Lessons Drawing from Hurricanes Camille and Katrina

Hurricane Katrina is often thought of as an extreme event that struck New Orleans, Louisiana (USA). Less attention has been placed on the effects of this devastating storm on coastal Mississippi (USA) where more than 70,000 homes were damaged or destroyed by a storm surge that exceeded 30 feet in height at its peak. The State of Mississippi has a long hurricane history, including Hurricane Camille, which made landfall a few miles from where Katrina collided with a number of small and mid-sized communities 36 years later. This chapter will describe the lessons from both of these events, including how they can inform future climate change adaptation efforts in small coastal communities across the United States and elsewhere that may not possess the capacity to effectively deal with disasters, including those created or exacerbated by a changing climate. Hurricanes Camille and Katrina serve to highlight three important themes: (1) large-scale disasters in the U.S. trigger considerable amounts of post-disaster assistance and attention; (2) the manner in which risk is communicated and tied to new policies and reconstruction standards can play a significant role in shaping recovery outcomes, including the adoption of hazard mitigation measures, the stagnation of housing reconstruction and more intensive commercial development; and (3) the creation of state-led recovery organisations can play a key role in coordinating disaster aid across a diffuse network of resource providers.
Real-time monitoring of circulating tumor cell (CTC) release after nanodrug or tumor radiotherapy using in vivo flow cytometry.

Noninvasive biological readouts of tumor metastatic risk and therapeutic efficacy are needed as healthcare costs rise. CTCs are the source of metastasis in distant organs that are responsible for the majority of cancer-related deaths. Here we demonstrate the acute and long-term effect of vascular disrupting therapies (high-dose radiotherapy and tumor necrosis factor-alpha (TNF)) on CTCs released from the primary tumor with a non-invasive real-time in vivo flow cytometry system. Using our innovative flow cytometry platform, we show here that radiation and nanodrug treatment can lead to short term release of CTC from the primary tumor. There was no increase in metastasis frequency or extent between control and TNF-treated mice; however, a significant reduction in lung metastasis was noted in the radiotherapy alone group. Mice treated with both TNF and radiotherapy had a slightly elevated metastatic profile between that of radiation alone and control (untreated) tumors. Possible mechanisms based on therapy specific vessel disruption and cell death are discussed. Overall, CTCs correlated with tumor progression and suggest CTC enumeration described herein may be useful in clinical management of solid tumor malignancies.
The effects of a university research reactor’s outreach program on students’ attitudes and knowledge about nuclear radiation

Background Many students carry negative beliefs about nuclear radiation and have concerns regarding the safety of nuclear power. However, most of these students have not had any personal or educati...
The Diagnosis of Diabetes: How to Determine Which Patients to Treat

The diagnosis of diabetes depends on identifying a compatible clinical picture with confirmation by demonstrable abnormalities in blood glucose levels. In florid diabetes, classical symptoms of diabetes and high glucose in blood and urine make the diagnosis easy. For asymptomatic diabetes; if confirmed fasting blood glucose measures over 125 mg per 100 ml, the diagnosis is accepted. When the fasting blood glucose measures under 125 mg per 100 ml, I recommend an oral glucose tolerance test and apply suitable criteria for interpretation. The United States Public Health Service criteria represent a reasonable, moderate approach when one modifies the interpretation by cognizance of environmental factors in the patient and by identifying interfering influences as drugs, physical inactivity, fever or starvation. Indeed, one should postpone a glucose tolerance test until these interfering factors abate. Management of the patient with an abnormal glucose tolerance test includes sharing the prognostic dilemma with the patient regarding the likelihood of deterioration in glucose tolerance to florid diabetes. In this situation the term, abnormal glucose tolerance test, is preferred over chemical diabetes. The physician and the patient must develop some degree of comfort with a clinical state that often remains nebulous. Though the writings of authorities occasionally sound dogmatic, rigid, and conflicting, they reflect a viewpoint which opines that no clear answers are available; that the clinician and his patient must accept this posture; and that together they must develop the best therapeutic program for the individual in question.
Organizational efficiency and quality in Texas nursing facilities.

Profit-seeking nursing facilities have been found to be overwhelmingly more cost efficient than nonprofit facilities. However, the question remains as to whether these organizational-efficiency differences are the result of operating structural differences (i.e., agency relationship costs) or differences in the quality of care rendered. Using traditional cost- and profit-function regression analyses which include a new index measure for quality, we conclude that quality influences costs and profits marginally, efficiency differences reflect agency costs and differences in organizational goals, and the belief that increases in quality require increases in cost does not hold when facility capacity is significantly underutilized.
Glycoprotein Composition of Colonic Mucosa: Specific Alterations in Ulcerative Colitis

A micromethod has been developed to permit determination of human colonic mucin glycoprotein heterogeneity in biopsy specimens of colonic mucosa. Sialic acid, galactose, and galactosamine residues of oligosaccharide side chains from colonic glycoproteins were radiolabeled by combined metaperiodate and galactose oxidase treatment followed by sodium borotritide reduction. Mucin glycoproteins were separated from nonmucin components by mini-Sepharose 4B column chromatography. Subsequent chro=matography of labeled mucin of normal controls (n = 15) on diethylaminoethyl-cell ulose demonstrated at least six labeled mucin species. Labeled mucin species I–VI were found to cochromatograph with corresponding unlabeled mucin species prepared from large surgical specimens. An identical mucin profile was observed in normal biopsy specimens from rectum (n = 5), sigmoid (n = 10), transverse (n = 5), and ascending colon (n = 4). However, mucin profiles from sigmoid mucosa of patients with ulcerative colitis (n = 14) demonstrated a selective decrease in mucin species IV, which was also present in specimens from uninvolved proximal colon (n = 7). This finding persisted in patients who had a subsequent biopsy at times of clinical and histologic remission (n = 8). In addition, colonic mucin from samples of ulcerative colitis patients in remission had a relative decrease in mucin fraction III and an increase in fraction V when compared to patients with active disease. Normal mucin profiles were found in a variety of colonic disease controls including Crohn's (n = 9), ischemic (n = 4), infectious (n = 8), and radiation (n = 3) colitis. These observations indicate the presence of a relatively uniform mucin profile throughout the normal colon and substantiate the association of specific alterations in colonic mucin with ulcerative colitis.
Radio as a Medium

Due to its mobility and low cost, radio is the most widely used electronic medium of communication on the globe. Although public monopoly broadcasting dominated until the 1980s, US-based commercial broadcasting was a global force beginning in the 1930s. Radio played a key role in promoting national political and cultural integration under both models. By the late 1980s, most of the world's radio systems faced liberalization of some kind, although the Arab world held out until the 2010s. A global community radio movement emerged in the 1980s and expanded in the 2000s, nurtured by democratization struggles.
Nuclear analysis at NBS and NIST

For more than 50 years, nuclear methods have been applied to chemical analysis at the National Institute of Standards and Technology. Radiochemical, instrumental, and prompt-gamma activation analysis are used, as well as neutron depth profiling and other techniques. The history of this group in methods development and the certification of Standard Reference Materials, among other applications, is reviewed.
Toward a New Understanding of Maternal Self-Care During Family Crisis: Initiating a Shared Legacy of Strength and Hope

This narrative explores the author’s experience of suddenly ecoming a caregiver for a spouse while also caring for minor children. The author uses reflection and research to describe what she learned about self-care, how she integrated her needs with the needs of her children, and why prevailing concepts of self-care as an individual construct can undermine its effective conceptualization and practice. The importance of self-care for caregivers is well documented, as is the failure of most caregivers to successfully achieve it. This failure carries particular poignancy for mothers of minor children. Studies document the academic, social, and emotional challenges that children experience when families face the upheaval associated with serious health problems. The children’s need to navigate new ways of being within their families requires the support of their mother, which can be difficult if she becomes too overburdened by her caregiving role. Avoiding this cycle requires better education for families in caregiving situations and the adoption of a new understanding of self-care for mothers. This article combines the experiences of one family with research about caregivers, the effect of paternal brain injury on children, and typical recovery phases. It shares insights about the importance of modelling effective self-care as a healthy maternal legacy.
The use of psychological methodologies in cardiovascular disease interventions promoting a Mediterranean style diet: A systematic review

Abstract Aims To evaluate theory-based psychological approaches that have been effective in promoting behavior change in interventions promoting a Mediterranean style diet (MD) for the reduction of cardiovascular disease (CVD) risk. Data synthesis A systematic review of primary research articles using PRISMA recommendations was conducted. References were retrieved using keyword searches from MEDLINE via PUBMED and included studies targeted participants at high risk for CVD. Two hundred and ninety one studies were reviewed; however, only six met the inclusionary criteria. Three articles describe the same intervention; therefore, only four were included. Included studies incorporated social cognitive theory, social learning theory, goal-system theory, social ecological theory, selfdetermination theory, and the transtheoretical model of behavior change. Overall, studies were nutrition interventions in clinical settings with participants at high risk for or with CVD. Conclusions Results from use of the social cognitive theory and self-determination theory in increasing MD adherence for the reduction of CVD risk and events are encouraging. However, we encourage future long-term interventions focusing on dietary behavior change to provide not only an in-depth description of the psychological methodologies used but also how these methodologies were implemented in order ascertain the most effective theory for promoting dietary behavior change towards patterns of a MD.
To Learn or Not to Learn: Analyzing the Role of Learning for Navigation in Virtual Environments.

In this paper we compare learning-based methods and classical methods for navigation in virtual environments. We construct classical navigation agents and demonstrate that they outperform state-of-the-art learning-based agents on two standard benchmarks: MINOS and Stanford Large-Scale 3D Indoor Spaces. We perform detailed analysis to study the strengths and weaknesses of learned agents and classical agents, as well as how characteristics of the virtual environment impact navigation performance. Our results show that learned agents have inferior collision avoidance and memory management, but are superior in handling ambiguity and noise. These results can inform future design of navigation agents.
Sustainability, human rights, and environmental justice: Critical connections for contemporary social work

Social work has a long-standing tradition of emphasizing the interaction of people and their environment, although this systems perspective has focused almost exclusively on the importance of social relationships. There is an emerging emphasis within the profession regarding the need to pay more attention to the critical role of the physical environment. The last fifty years has seen a growing global ecological movement, and the profession is joining the call to action for sustainability. Social work must extend this mission to include environmental justice, the human right to live in a clean, safe, and healthy environment. The world’s most poor, vulnerable, and oppressed people often live in the most degraded environments and have no control over resources. The important connections between social work, sustainability, human rights, and environmental justice in our contemporary world need to be more clearly articulated in the scholarly literature. An understanding of these separate but closely linked concepts is necessary for the profession to effectively pursue the goal of making the world a more just, humane, and sustainable home for all life.
Child Sexual Abuse Prevention Education: A Qualitative Study of Teachers’ Experiences Implementing the Second Step Child Protection Unit

This study explored teachers’ reactions to implementing a Pre-K-Grade 5 school-based child sexual abuse prevention education program. Fifty-seven classroom teachers and two school counselors attend...
Re: Sugar-Sweetened Beverage Intake in a Rural Family Medicine Clinic.

To the Editor: Drs. Pinon, Khandalavala, and Geske recently addressed sugar sweetened beverage (SSB) intake in a rural medicine clinic and showed that their rural population on average only drinks 7 kcals more than the national average per day.[1][1] The authors' methods may not have fully captured
Does Femoral Component Cementation Affect Costs or Clinical Outcomes After Hip Arthroplasty in Medicare Patients

Abstract Background Bundled payment initiatives were introduced to reduce costs and improve quality of care. Cemented vs cementless femoral fixation is a modifiable variable that may influence the cost and quality of care. New bundled payment data from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services allowed us to study the influence of femoral fixation strategy on (1) 90-day costs; (2) readmission rates; (3) reoperation rates; (4) length of stay (LOS); and (5) discharge disposition for Medicare patients undergoing total hip arthroplasty. Methods We retrospectively studied 1671 primary total hip arthroplasty Medicare cases, comparing 359 patients who received cemented femoral fixation to 1312 patients who received cementless fixation. Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services cost data as well as clinical data were reviewed. Demographic differences were present between the 2 cohorts. Statistical analyses were performed, including multiple regression models to adjust for baseline differences. Results Controlling for cohort differences, cemented patients were significantly more likely to be discharged home compared to cementless patients. Cemented patients also demonstrated trends toward lower costs, lower readmission rates, and shorter LOS compared to cementless patients. All reoperations within the early postoperative period occurred in patients managed with cementless femoral fixation. Conclusion Among Medicare patients, cemented femoral fixation outperformed cementless fixation with respect to discharge disposition and also trended toward superiority with regards to LOS, readmission, cost of care, and reoperation. Cemented femoral fixation remains relevant and useful despite the rising popularity of cementless fixation.
Type 2 inflammation modulates ACE2 and TMPRSS2 in airway epithelial cells.

Background Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) has dramatically changed our world, country, communities, and families. There is controversy regarding risk factors for severe COVID-19 disease. It has been suggested that asthma and allergy are not highly represented as comorbid conditions associated with COVID-19. Objective Our aim was to extend our work in IL-13 biology to determine whether airway epithelial cell expression of 2 key mediators critical for SARS-CoV-2 infection, namely, angiotensin-converting enzyme 2 (ACE2) and transmembrane protease, serine 2 (TMPRSS2), are modulated by IL-13. Methods We determined effects of IL-13 treatment on ACE2 and TMPRSS2 expression ex vivo in primary airway epithelial cells from participants with and without type 2 asthma obtained by bronchoscopy. We also examined expression of ACE2 and TMPRSS2 in 2 data sets containing gene expression data from nasal and airway epithelial cells from children and adults with asthma and allergic rhinitis. Results IL-13 significantly reduced ACE2 and increased TMPRSS2 expression ex vivo in airway epithelial cells. In 2 independent data sets, ACE2 expression was significantly reduced and TMPRSS2 expression was significantly increased in the nasal and airway epithelial cells in type 2 asthma and allergic rhinitis. ACE2 expression was significantly negatively associated with type 2 cytokines, whereas TMPRSS2 expression was significantly positively associated with type 2 cytokines. Conclusion IL-13 modulates ACE2 and TMPRSS2 expression in airway epithelial cells in asthma and atopy. This deserves further study with regard to any effects that asthma and atopy may render in the setting of COVID-19 infection.
Double gloving of disposable nitrile gloves exposed to diethylene glycol mono-n-butyl ether.

Double gloving of disposable gloves is now commonplace in healthcare settings when extra protection is needed against aqueous solutions and especially for antineoplastic drugs in isotonic aqueous m...
Understanding Personality through Patterns of Daily Socializing: Applying Recurrence Quantification Analysis to Naturalistically Observed Intensive Longitudinal Social Interaction Data:

Ambulatory assessment methods provide a rich approach for studying daily behaviour. Too often, however, these data are analysed in terms of averages, neglecting patterning of this behaviour over ti...
Convex Optimization Algorithm of Impulse-Peak Gain Based on LMIs and GEVP

Gain of input-output is an important robust performance of dynamical systems. Impulse-peak gain can be described as the peak (maximum amplitude of system output) under unit impulse input. This paper focuses on the computation of impulse-peak gain based on Lyapunov stability theory and LMI (linear matrix inequality). A necessary and sufficient convex condition is proposed by solving GEVP (generalized eigenvalue problem). Numerical examples show efficiency of the proposed algorithm.
Freed from insurance: Health care sharing ministries and the moralization of health care.

Abstract Since the Affordable Care Act (ACA) was passed in 2010, health care freedom has become a kind of mega-narrative trumpeted by Republicans leaders who decry government overreach. I turn to faith-based, non-profit organizations called “health care sharing ministries”(HCSMs) to consider the work that this mega-narrative does in everyday health care lives. While HCSMs are not insurance, HCSMs share in the payment of medical bills and are written into the ACA as one religious exemption to the individual mandate. Based on ethnographic interviewing done with 31 people in Maryland, Ohio, Virginia, and Pennsylvania between 2015 and 2020, I examine the ways that Americans who belong to HCSMs take up freedom as a guiding frame to reflect on and moralize their health care. I argue that articulations of freedom in HCSMs involve freedom from the constraints of bureaucratic care and governmental control and are tethered to a single, overarching moral discourse that presents freedom as the freedom of choice. I suggest, therefore, that being a part of an HCSM is about getting health care—including getting it cheap—but it is also about how the health care makes people feel as moral persons in the current political climate of U.S. life.
Following the Money? How Donor Information Affects Public Opinion about Initiatives:

Citizens are typically uninformed about politics and know little about issues at stake in direct democracy elections. Government efforts to inform electorates include requiring donors to initiative...
Relationships Between Enriching Early-Life Experiences and Cognitive Function Later in Life Are Mediated by Educational Attainment

The study of how engagement in enriching cognitive, physical, and social activities in childhood impacts cognitive function decades later will advance our understanding of how modifiable lifestyle activities promote cognition across the lifespan. Eighty-eight healthy older adults (aged 60–80 years) returned a retrospective questionnaire regarding their participation in seven lifestyle activities (musical instrument playing, language learning, sports participation, art/dance lessons, scouting, volunteering, family vacations) before age 13 years. After controlling for current age, educational attainment, socioeconomic status of the mother, and current engagement in lifestyle activities, a greater number of activities were significantly associated with better vocabulary abilities, episodic memory, and fluid intelligence. The relationships with vocabulary and fluid intelligence were mediated by educational attainment. We postulate that engagement in a higher number of enriching early-life activities is a reflection of both one’s sociocontextual environment and engagement with that environment. This engagement leads to attributes relevant for educational aspirations/attainment, ultimately contributing to factors that have a lifespan impact on cognitive function.
The Great Divorce: The FED’s Move to a Floor System and the Implications for Bank Portfolios

The Federal Reserve switched from using a corridor operating system to using a floor operating system in late 2008. By design, a floor system eliminates the opportunity cost to a bank of holding reserves, allowing a central bank to use its balance sheet as an independent tool of monetary policy. Making the demand for bank reserves perfectly elastic is therefore a feature, not a bug, of a floor system. Some observers worry, however, that this feature may adversely affect asset allocation in bank portfolios such that banks underinvest in loans. If this is the case, broader money and credit creation may be less under the Fed's floor system than they would have been otherwise. This paper investigates this possibility by taking a close look at bank portfolios and assessing whether any changes since 2008 can be contributed to the Fed's floor system. The paper does find significant changes in bank portfolio allocations over the past decade and is able to trace much of the shift to the Fed's floor system.
Indebted Societies: Credit and Welfare in Rich Democracies

In many rich democracies, access to financial markets is now a prerequisite for fully participating in labor and housing markets and pursuing educational opportunities. Indebted Societies introduces a new social policy theory of everyday borrowing to examine how the rise of credit as a private alternative to the welfare state creates a new kind of social and economic citizenship. Andreas Wiedemann provides a rich study of income volatility and rising household indebtedness across OECD countries. Weaker social policies and a flexible knowledge economy have increased costs for housing, education, and raising a family - forcing many people into debt. By highlighting how credit markets interact with welfare states, the book helps explain why similar groups of people are more indebted in some countries than others. Moreover, it addresses the fundamental question of whether individuals, states, or markets should be responsible for addressing socio-economic risks and providing social opportunities.
Robots, Ethics, and Pandemics: How Might a Global Problem Change the Technology’s Adoption?

Using the COVID-19 pandemic to frame the discussion, this paper explores the potential ethical impacts of a greater reliance on robots during a public health emergency. Through an examination of various uses of different kinds of robots across the prevention, response, and recovery phases of the pandemic, this paper considers ethical pitfalls as well as the possible benefits of expanded deployment and use of robots to facilitate human management of public health emergencies. Alongside consideration of pandemic-related uses of robots, this paper also explores ethical concerns related to their use in public health practice and health care beyond the context of a public health emergency.
Local meteoric water lines describe extratropical precipitation

Stable water isotopes δ¹⁸O and δ²H are used to investigate precipitation trends and storm dynamics to advance knowledge of precipitation patterns in a warming world. Herein, δ¹⁸O and δ²H were used to determine the relationship between extratropical cyclonic precipitation and local meteoric water lines (LMWLs) in the eastern Ohio Valley and the eastern United States. Precipitation volume weighted and unweighted central Ohio LMWLs, created with samples collected during 2012–2018, showed that temperature had the greatest effect on precipitation isotopic composition. HYSPLIT back trajectory modelling showed that precipitation was primarily derived from a mid‐continental moisture source. Remnants of major hurricanes were collected as extratropical precipitation during the 2012–2018 sampling period in central Ohio. Extratropical precipitation samples were not significantly different from the samples that created the central Ohio LMWL. Six additional LMWLs were derived from United States Geological Survey (USGS) Atmospheric Integrated Research Monitoring Network (AIRMoN) samples collected in Pennsylvania, Delaware, Tennessee, Vermont, New Hampshire, and Oxford, Ohio. Meteoric water lines describing published samples from Superstorm Sandy, plotted with these AIRMoN LMWLs, showed isotopic composition of Superstorm Sandy precipitation was commonly more depleted than the average isotopic composition at the mid‐latitude locations. Meteoric water lines describing the Superstorm Sandy precipitation were not significantly different in slope from LMWLs generated within 300 km of the USGS AIRMoN site. This finding, which was observed across the eastern Ohio Valley and eastern United States, demonstrated a consistent precipitation δ²H–δ¹⁸O relationship for extratropical cyclonic and non‐cyclonic events. This work also facilitates the analysis of storm development based on the relationship between extratropical event signature and the LMWL. Analysis of extratropical precipitation in relation to LMWLs along storm tracks allows for stronger development of precipitation models and understanding of which climatic and atmospheric factors determine the isotopic composition of precipitation.
Impact of Choosing Wisely Recommendations on Sentinel Lymph Node Biopsy and Postoperative Radiation Rates in Women Over Age 70 Years with Hormone-Positive Breast Cancer.

In 2016, the Society of Surgical Oncology released a Choosing Wisely guideline recommending sentinel lymph node biopsy (SLNB) omission in females ≥70 years of age with early-stage, hormone-positive, clinically node-negative invasive breast cancer. This study investigated the impact of this guideline on SLNB and radiotherapy rates, in addition to assessing temporal trends of nodal biopsy and factors associated with recurrence. The study involved a retrospective review of women who met the guideline criteria and underwent partial mastectomy at a single institution between 2009 and 2018. Using the same inclusion criteria, the National Cancer Database was queried to obtain a separate dataset. Statistical analyses included univariate comparisons, and multivariate logistic regression modeling to predict radiotherapy delivery. In our institutional series, 487 patients were included, 274 (56.3%) of whom received radiotherapy. There were 414 patients (85.0%) who underwent SLNB, with a nodal positivity rate of 11%. SLNB correlated with higher rates of radiotherapy (63.5% vs. 15.1%, p < 0.001). Age <80 years was an independent predictor of radiotherapy receipt (odds ratio 3.0, 95% confidence interval 0.22–0.52). SLNB performance decreased after 2016 (88.4% vs. 78.4%, p = 0.003). Median follow-up was 4.8 years, with 19 (3.9%) documented recurrences. SLNB performance was not associated with recurrence (2.9% vs. 5.5%, p = 0.279), whereas radiotherapy resulted in reduced recurrence (1.1% vs. 6.1%, p = 0.002). One (0.2%) disease-related mortality was observed. Recurrence rates and disease-related mortality remain low in this demographic regardless of treatment rendered. Omission of SLNB and radiotherapy should remain a consideration, and efforts in both patient and physician education should continue.