cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Results of Transphyseal Anterior Cruciate Ligament Reconstruction Using Patellar Tendon Autograft in Tanner Stage 3 or 4 Adolescents With Clearly Open Growth Plates

Background: Drilling across the physes for intra-articular anterior cruciate ligament reconstruction is considered risky for skeletally immature patients.Hypothesis: Skeletally immature patients with clearly open growth plates can safely undergo intra-articular anterior cruciate ligament reconstruction with patellar tendon autograft without suffering growth plate disturbance.Study Design: Retrospective review of prospectively collected data.Methods: Surgery involved drilling tunnels through the tibial and femoral physes, the bone plugs were placed proximal to the physes, and button fixation was placed on the cortex. Of 272 skeletally immature patients, 16 had clearly open growth plates. Tanner stage of physical development was evaluated. Follow-up evaluation included objective and subjective data.Results: At the time of surgery, 7 patients were Tanner stage 3 and 9 were Tanner stage 4. Clinical follow-up (mean, 3.4 years after surgery) showed that the mean growth after surgery was 11.7 ± 4.2 cm for boys a...
Effects of Brine and CO2 Chilling Systems on Hot-Processed Vacuum-Packaged Pork

Quality, packaging and sensory attributes were evaluated for hot-processed boneless loin segments (blade-end and sirloin-end) and Boston shoulders that were brine, CO2 or conventionally chilled. The only pH or temperature differences (P < 0.05) among processing treatments occurred at 3 hr postmortem. Boneless loin segments and Boston shoulders that were hot processed and CO2-chilled had higher (P < 0.05) purge values than their conventionally processed counterparts. No significant differences were found among treatments for sensory traits or shear values. Overall, boneless loins and Boston shoulders from hot-processed carcasses that were brine or CO2-chilled were similar in dimensional measurements and sensory traits.
An incremental LS-SVM learning algorithm ILS-SVM

Least Square Support Vector Machines (in short LS-SVM) reduces the complexity of standard SVM to O(n2). Both SVM and LS-SVM are not suitable for the large scale regression problem. This paper proposes a modifies LS-SVM based on increment datasets, all samples' knowledge is accumulated and some samples is discarded effectively in the incremental learning process. The numerical experiments on benchmark datasets show that the proposed algorithm is considerably faster than the standard SVM and the classical incremental algorithm.
Rules for Peptide Presentation by MHC Class II Molecules

Molecules of the major histocompatibility complex (MHC) were first discovered for their importance in the Rejection of tissue grafts between unrelated individuals. If these individuals differ at one or more loci within the MHC, the grafts are Rapidly Rejected. The Rejection process involves Recognition of foreign MHC molecules by T lymphocytes and the Rapid destruction by these cells of the grafted tissue cells. The MHC is a highly polymorphic complex of genes, making tissue grafting between unrelated individuals virtually impossible. Thus, it stimulated a great deal of work when organ transplantation became technically feasible.
Lovastatin decreases mortality and improves liver functions in fulminant hepatic failure from 90% partial hepatectomy in rats

Background/Aims: Liver insufficiency occurs when the liver cannot perform critical functions such as ammonia metabolism, gluconeogenesis, or production of coagulation factors. The hypothesis of this study was that decreased function of existing hepatocytes may contribute to hepatic failme, and that the function of these cells might be increased pharmacologically. Lovastatin is a 3-hydroxy-3-methylglutaryl CoA reductase inhibitor that inhibits cholesterol biosynthesis and affects the activity of some signal transduction pathways and liver transcription factors. Changes in hepatic transcription factors during liver regeneration might result in decreased liver functions, and lovastatin might prevent these changes. Methods: Rats received 90% partial hepatectomy (90% PH), and either lovastatin or vehicle alone daily. Survival and liver functions were assessed.
Developing Temperature-Induced Fatigue Model of Asphalt Concrete for Better Prediction of Alligator Cracking

AbstractCurrently, the fatigue performance of asphalt concrete (AC) is predicted according to repeated traffic-induced tensile strain at the bottom of AC layer. Cyclic thermal strain caused by day-night temperature fluctuation is not considered because of the fact that there is no closed-form solution or model available for calculating thermal fatigue damage. This study, for the first time, develops a closed-form equation for calculating the temperature-induced fatigue damage of AC. To generate data, beam fatigue testing was conducted on three Superpave mixtures in the laboratory. The mechanical beam fatigue test data were correlated with the actual cyclic temperature loading test data. The developed model was then calibrated for field condition. Finally, the model was used to evaluate fatigue damages of randomly chosen 34 long-term pavement performance (LTPP) test sections from 19 states in the United States. Fatigue damage determined by the traditional pavement design software (which considers traffic-i...
Electroweak baryogenesis in a scalar-assisted vectorlike fermion model

We extend the standard model to a scalar-assisted vectorlike fermion model to realize electroweak baryogenesis. The extended Cabibbo-Kobayashi-Maskawa matrix, due to the mixing among the vectorlike quark and the standard model quarks, provides additional sources of the $CP$ violation. Together with the enhancement from a large vectorlike quark mass, a large enough baryon-to-photon ratio could be obtained. The strongly first-order phase transition could be realized via the potential barrier which separates the broken minimum and the symmetric minimum in the scalar potential. We investigate in detail the one loop temperature-dependent effective potential and perform a random parameter scan to study the allowed parameter region that satisfies the strongly first order phase transition criteria ${v}_{c}\ensuremath{\ge}{T}_{c}$. Several distinct patterns of phase transition are classified and discussed. Among these patterns, a large trilinear mass term between the Higgs boson and the scalar is preferred, for it controls the width of the potential barrier. Our results indicate large quartic scalar couplings and a moderate mixing angle between the Higgs boson and the new scalar. This parameter region could be further explored at the Run 2 LHC.
Historical Perspectives from Former Presidents of USIALE

This chapter provides a glimpse of the numerous challenges faced by some former presidents of USIALE. Presidents also describe during their tenure benchmark events, policy changes, and administrative directions related to the emerging paradigm of Landscape Ecology.
Regulation during the American Founding: Achieving Liberalism and Republicanism

AbstractPrevious scholarship on the political thought of the American founding has concluded that the founders amalgamated liberalism and republicanism but has not yet identified the precise contours of this combination. The first section of this article lays out the debate between liberalism and republicanism. The second section reveals that the founders, far from promoting laissez-faire, supported and enacted a wide array of regulations at the local, state, and national levels. The third and fourth sections discuss the justification for regulation and demonstrate that the founders’ approach to liberalism harmonized the exercise of individual rights and the common good, foundations that have been considered exclusively liberal and republican, respectively. The article concludes by suggesting that regulation provokes questions for the liberal/republican categories, since neither approach adequately explains the founders’ rationale in favor of both liberalism and regulation.
Analysis of Inner and Outer Retinal Thickness in Patients Using Hydroxychloroquine Prior to Development of Retinopathy

Importance Retinopathy is a known risk of long-term use of hydroxychloroquine sulfate. However, whether the inner as well as outer retina are involved before retinopathy develops and whether changes in the retina might signal impending toxic effects during screening remain unknown. Objective To determine the degree of inner and outer retinal involvement in short- and long-term use of hydroxychloroquine before the development of retinopathy. Design, Setting, and Participants This retrospective medical record review of spectral-domain optical coherence tomography (SD-OCT) findings was performed at an academic medical center. Thirty-two patients without retinopathy and with high-quality SD-OCT images were studied. Twenty-seven patients were age matched (49-65 years old) for comparison of retinal layers among patients who used the drug less than 5 years (n = 12) or longer than 15 years (n = 15) at the initial visit. Populations were also defined (without age limitation) for comparison of change during 25 to 52 months of follow-up among patients with initial use of less than 5 years (n = 7) or longer than 15 years (n = 8). Data were collected from 2010 to 2015. Main Outcomes and Measures Measurements of inner and outer retinal thickness in SD-OCT images using commercial software and a Stanford pixel-by-pixel segmentation software that also provided topographic maps of thickness dimensions and change. Results Thirty-two patients (5 men and 27 women) were included in the analysis. Measurements of inner retinal thickness between short- and long-term hydroxychloroquine users (n = 27) in different retinal regions, and during a median 39 months of follow-up (n = 15), showed no statistically significant differences or change. Similarly, no significant differences or changes were identified in outer retinal thickness except for the final visit of 1 patient who developed focal parafoveal thinning, a toxic effect of hydroxychloroquine use. Cirrus ganglion cell analysis measurements were inaccurate in the presence of outer retinal damage. Conclusions and Relevance The inner retina appears not to be involved in hydroxychloroquine-induced retinopathy to any clinically relevant degree within the limitations of our sample size. No clinically apparent warning of outer retinal damage was seen in the SD-OCT images of long-term hydroxychloroquine users until the actual appearance of focal retinopathy. Early detection of hydroxychloroquine-induced retinopathy is known to prevent visual acuity loss and serious progression after the therapy is stopped, and these data suggest that screening should seek distinct new areas of retinopathy (shown by topographic thickness maps) rather than long-term progressive thinning.
Life Satisfaction and Student Performance.

Although it seems intuitively obvious that the happy student will be a more productive student, empirical tests of that assumption are curiously sparse. We tested a model that included satisfaction...
Acclimatization of Thermoregulation in the Desert Cottontail, Sylvilagus audubonii

Seasonal physiological responses to ambient temperature were determined in Sylvilagus audubonii at Tucson, Arizona. From winter to summer the thermoneutral zone of desert cottontails (700 grams) shifted upwards, basal metabolism decreased by 18 per cent, and standard metabolism decreased above thermoneutrality and increased below. Water loss during summer was higher than in winter below 30° C, began to increase at a higher ambient temperature, and rose less steeply. The per cent of metabolic heat production dissipated by evaporative heat loss did not change seasonally, and equalled 100 at an ambient temperature of 41.4° C. Body temperature was 38.3° C at ambient temperatures below 30° C, and did not differ seasonally. Hyperthermia began within thermoneutrality at a slightly higher ambient temperature during summer resulting in lower hyperthermic body temperatures. Body temperature equalled ambient at 41.9° C during summer and a predicted 42.9° C during winter. The dry heat transfer coefficient was higher during summer below 30° C but there was no apparent seasonal difference at higher ambient temperatures. Sylvilagus audubonii survives in the desert by taking advantage of every possibility to minimize the heat load and water expenditure. A relatively high evaporative cooling capacity and high lethal body temperature of 44.8° C provides a safety factor for desert cottontails if avoidance is not possible.
Application of different starches in ham sausage

This paper studied quality characteristic of three kinds of ham sausage,into which glutinous rice starch,corn starch,potato starch was added respectively,and compared differences among the three productions in the fields of tenderness,water retention,sensory,texture characteristics.The results showed that: under the same condition,the production with glutinous rice starch was better than others on tenderness and water retention;comprehensive analysis of the senses and texture characteristics to assess the hardness,gumminess,chewiness and resilience,and indicated that ham sausage added glutinous rice was better.
The physical modeling legacy of Frei Otto

Physical modeling as a developmental iterative process was one of the primary legacies of Frei Otto in his quest for a formfinding design tool. Exploring first hand knowledge of his sketching, and ...
How to search the IFI comprehensive database online... tips and techniques

La base de donnees IFI des brevets americains deposes en chimie depuis 1950 est interrogeable par un logiciel documentaire complexe, qui permet des recherches dans de nombreux champs. La methodologie de recherche est presentee dans cet article et illustree par de nombreux exemples
Blood smear examination

Despite recent advances in the automation of clinical hematology laboratories, a careful microscopic examination of an appropriately prepared and stained blood smear continues to maintain its status as the most informative and useful diagnostic procedure, and offers a simple, reliable means of verifying results generated by automated analyzers. A systematic approach to a comprehensive evaluation of blood cells and related findings is described.
Targeting of an Activated T-cell Subset Using a Bispecific Antibody-Toxin Conjugate Directed Against CD4 and CD26

We have developed a bispecific antibody that recognizes the CD4 and CD26 antigens simultaneously and that was examined for its ability to target CD4+CD26+T cells. These latter cells constitute the activated component of the CD4+ CD29highCD45RO+ memory T-cell subset that provides help for B-cell Ig synthesis and help for responses against recall antigens. The purified bispecific antibody exhibited an estimated dissociation constant (kd) of 2.4 x 10(-9) mol/L, on comparison with 1.1 x 10(-9) mol/L for anti-CD26, and 1.6 x 10(-10) mol/L for anti-CD4. Surface plasmon resonance was used to show the bifunctional capacity of the antibody. On binding 125I-bispecific antibody to phytohemagglutinin (PHA)-activated T cells, 54.4% of the bound antibody was internalized. This was the result of bispecific binding, because monovalent fragments of anti-CD4 and anti-CD26 were not able to modulate antigen or induce internalization using both a fluorescent assay and an 125I-internalization assay. The ability of the bispecific antibody to be internalized was used to deliver a toxin, blocked ricin, specifically to cells that are CD4+CD26+. The inability of monovalent fragments to be internalized formed the basis for our hypothesis that monovalent binding by the bispecific immunotoxin would not result in internalization. Against resting E+ T cells, the bispecific immunotoxin developed a minimal effect. On preactivating the same cells, using phorbol myristate acetate (PMA)/ionomycin on concanavalin A (ConA) or especially PHA, levels of CD26 were upregulated and the immunotoxin effectively inhibited the ability to provide help for B-cell Ig synthesis while leaving intact the CD4-CD26+ and CD4+CD26- populations; an effect observed both functionally and by phenotype. The bispecific antibody proved to be most effective at inhibiting a heterologous mixed leukocyte reaction. We propose that this reagent may form the basis for the rational design of toxins designed to modulate activated T cells from, or directed against, tissue grafts.
A multi-terawatt femtosecond Cr:LiSAF laser

In the past two years Cr:LiSAF has become an attractive alternative gain medium for the high intensity amplification of femtosecond optical pulses.1-6 Cr:LiSAF uniquely combines the advantages of Ti:sapphire and Nd:glass, materials commonly used as gain media in laser systems based on chirped pulse amplification7. Cr:LiSAF has a broad spectral emission bandwidth similar to that of Ti:sapphire allowing the amplification of femtosecond optical pulses. In addition Cr:LiSAF has a relatively long upperstate lifetime of 67 μs permitting efficient flashlamp-pumping8 leading to compact laboratory sized low-cost amplifiers using a mature technology developed in many years for Nd:glass based amplifier systems.
Local Government as a Choice of Agency Form

Lawyers concerned with local government insist ubiquitously that their field is not administrative law. State administrative law, similarly, defines its subject to exclude local governments. Nevertheless, state agencies and local jurisdictions are functionally similar. Both are organized to afford state governments, which have broad scope and general jurisdiction, the benefits of specialization. This similarity is under-recognized. Recovering the deep similarities between local governments and state agencies is not only true to state constitutional design but can advance more productive and sensible approaches to various problems in local government and state administrative law. I support this final claim with a brief sketch of four exemplary problems: judicial review of claims that government has acted ultra vires, the extraterritorial reach of local government, the use of political information by agencies, and the design of specialized or hybrid institutions of state government.
The Next Generation of Distributed Multimedia Systems

Distributed multimedia systems have been designed and implemented for several computer platforms, operating and window systems. All of them are conceived according to the paradigms of their specific environment. The Unix and the X window system with it’s client(Xlib)-server approach is the most frequently used system for multimedia prototypes in the research community.
On the effectiveness of statistical hypothesis testing in infrared-based face recognition in heterogeneous environments

In this work, our objective is to study the impact of statistical hypothesis tests for the purpose of improving heterogeneous face recognition (FR). A series of tests are conducted to find the most suitable type of statistical analysis test (parametric vs. non-parametric). To conduct the experiments, we used a multi-spectral face database (visible and Near-IR) collected under challenging conditions, i.e. at night time and at four different standoff distances, namely 30, 60, 90 and 120 meters. Next, the selected statistical analysis test is used to find the statistical significance of; (i) image restoration, (ii) fusion of scores. First, Gabor Wavelets, Histogram of gradients (HOG) and Local binary patterns (LBP) feature descriptors are empirically selected. Then the statistical analysis reveals which descriptors result in higher recognition performance. Finally, statistical hypothesis tests are performed to explore the impact of data stratification (grouping of gallery and probe sets) in terms of ethnicity, gender. A set of face identification studies are performed. Experimental results suggest that our proposed image restoration approach, fusion schemes and the usage of stratification result in a significantly better performance results than the baseline, e.g. the rank-one score is improved from 50% to 71% when using image restoration, to 73% when using fusion of scores and to 75% (i.e. in the case of testing FR accuracy only on the female Asian class) when employing database stratification.
Effect of Bleeding Risk on Type of Stent Used in Patients Presenting With Acute Coronary Syndrome

Patients at high bleeding risk (HBR) are at increased risk of bleeding following percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) with drug-eluting stents (DES) due to the need for longer dual antiplatelet duration. We sought to evaluate the likelihood of receiving DES during PCI in HBR populations and to characterize DES utilization trends over time. Consecutive patients who underwent PCI from April 2003 to September 2015 were identified. HBR is defined as patients fulfilling 1 or more of the HBR criteria: age ≥75 years, anticoagulation use at discharge, history of stroke, cancer in previous 3 years, glucocorticoid use, hemoglobin (Hgb) 3 , or creatinine clearance (CCr)
Modeling and Design Optimization of Capacitor Current Ramp Compensated Constant On-Time $V^{2}$ Control

Constant on-time $V^{2}$ control for point-of-load buck converters has instability issues in the cases that the output capacitors' RC time constants are small. This paper intensively studies the proposed solution using capacitor current ramp compensation, which is a superior solution featuring fast response and universality. A frequency-domain small-signal model based on describing function method is proposed in this paper. The time-domain large-signal response to the load step change is analyzed. The analysis illustrates the unique transient response behaviors of the capacitor current ramp compensated $V^{2}$ control. The design optimization methodology based on frequency-domain and time-domain analysis is presented. The proposed model and the design guidelines are verified by the experimental results.
Evaluation of the Abandoned Shipwreck Act of 1987: Impact and Challenges for Preserving Underwater Cultural Heritage

In the demand of regulatory policy to control salvage of shipwrecks and protect the nation's underwater cultural heritage, the Abandoned Shipwreck Act of 1987 allowed the exception of the admiralty law to give states authority and management of abandoned shipwrecks for the purposes of preservation and recreation. Due to the lack of its regulatory power and vague standards, the Act has been harshly criticized for being ineffectual in resolving conflicts between commercial salvors, and states or protecting illicit salvage. This research will examine the purpose and impact of the policy under the framework of the National Historic Preservation Act, which restrained options in the policymaking. While acknowledging its limitations, this research finds that the Act enabled the inclusion of historic shipwrecks in the nation's preservation system, allowed funding, and promoted its use for public benefits. Studying the Act in the policy context of the U.S. historic preservation can promote the rightful und...
Protecting the brain and spinal cord in aortic arch surgery

Protection of the central nervous system—either the brain or the spinal cord—during aortic surgery has been the subject of intense research over the past several decades. While it took some 30 years to prove that some of the techniques first practiced in animals are valuable, surgeons can now take courage from 50 years of research that has resulted in superb outcomes, particularly when compared with historical results. Complex total arch operations and descending aortic operations can now be performed with less than a 2% rate of stroke, spinal cord injury, or death. Thoracoabdominal aortic operations and endovascular procedures have also become considerably safer with excellent results reported. The following review will discuss some of the historical outcomes, innovations, iterations, current techniques, and outcomes.
Insurgency, Political Violence and State Repressive Policies: Cuba and Spain a Comparative Perspective

This paper examines the relationships among political violence, the growth and development of an insurgency, and the state's decision to use repressive policies. We present two different cases of 20th century: Cuba between 1933 and 1959, and the Basque Separatist Movement in Spain from 1939 to the present. While the insurgency in Cuba resulted in the overthrow of the Batista government, in the Basque country of Spain the continuing conflict has produced a stalemate. Using the Power Legitimacy Transition (PLT) framework, the main argument examined in this paper is that political violence and its outcomes were related to (a) the level of intolerance of the state and some social groups towards the demands of other social groups, (b) the existence of large social, economic and political inequality, and (c) the stage of development of democratic institutions.
Towards an Adaptive Economic Society of Peers.

This paper presents our on-going research into selforganizing and self-healing networks of resource brokers, for use in complex Peer-to-Peer (P2P) resource sharing and Grid computing application environments. It discusses our objectives for an efficient, robust, and decentrally controlled infrastructure, and describes our efforts to understand the co-dependencies between protocols, topologies, and continuously changing environmental conditions. Motivated by dynamic social and economic systems, our research project is nicknamed AESOP, for Adaptive Economic Society Of Peers. We discuss our specific investigations into adaptive topologies for flooding-based distributed search protocols, Genetic Algorithm explorations seeking good topological structures, and current work to develop an agent-based simulation to investigate the effects of peer transience on P2P join and topology maintenance
Prenatal anticipatory guidance.

This article outlines the purpose and content of the prenatal visit. In question-answer formai, die article addresses die most frequency asked cries’dons by die mother and the most relevant issues raised by die pediatrician. It is thus hoped that a flavor of both the process and goals of the prenatal visit will be conveyed.
Multimodal recognition of interrupted speech: Benefit from text and visual speech cues

Presenting degraded speech with visual cues facilitates speech recognition. This benefit is observed for visual speech cues that are perceptually correlated with the auditory signal, as well as for text cues that delay integration until a later cognitive-linguistic processing stage. However, it is not clear how the benefit compares between these two types of degraded multimodal presentations. The current study examined how listeners integrate visually interrupted text or visual speech cues with acoustically interrupted speech. In Experiment 1, text was periodically interrupted by white space at visual interruption rates that were associated with the auditory interruption rate of speech. In Experiment 2, videos were visually interrupted by grey frames. The synchrony of audio-visual interruption was also manipulated by presenting visual cues in-phase or 180o out-of-phase with speech interruptions. For both experiments, speech was low-pass filtered at 2000 Hz. Preliminary results indicate that listeners obtain a benefit from both visual speech and text cues. In addition, performance is affected by the interruption rate of speech, with minimal performance obtained around an interruption rate of 2 Hz. Supplementing speech with incomplete visual cues can improve sentence intelligibility and compensate for degraded speech in adverse listening conditions. [Work supported, in part, by NIH/NIDCD.] Presenting degraded speech with visual cues facilitates speech recognition. This benefit is observed for visual speech cues that are perceptually correlated with the auditory signal, as well as for text cues that delay integration until a later cognitive-linguistic processing stage. However, it is not clear how the benefit compares between these two types of degraded multimodal presentations. The current study examined how listeners integrate visually interrupted text or visual speech cues with acoustically interrupted speech. In Experiment 1, text was periodically interrupted by white space at visual interruption rates that were associated with the auditory interruption rate of speech. In Experiment 2, videos were visually interrupted by grey frames. The synchrony of audio-visual interruption was also manipulated by presenting visual cues in-phase or 180o out-of-phase with speech interruptions. For both experiments, speech was low-pass filtered at 2000 Hz. Preliminary results indicate that listeners obta...
Finding the fat: The relative impact of budget fluctuations on African-American schools

Abstract On average, per pupil expenditures were much lower in schools attended by African-American children than in schools attended by whites during the period of de jure segregation. Little is known, however, about what motivated school boards to maintain this inequality or why they funded African-American schools at all. Using newly collected data on schools in early twentieth-century Georgia and exploiting a funding shock resulting from the rules regarding appropriations from the State School Fund, this paper examines how school boards divvied up the proceeds of exogenous shifts in school budgets by race. In response to a one dollar per pupil budget cut, instructional expenditures in white schools fell by $1.21 per pupil, while they remained almost unchanged in African-American schools. Thus, whites, rather than African Americans, bore the brunt of budget cuts, indicating that there was little fat to trim from the budgets of African-American schools.
"You Never Know What You're Getting": Opioid Users' Perceptions of Fentanyl in Southwest Pennsylvania.

AbstractBackground: Urban areas in the United States have experienced a dramatic surge in fentanyl overdose deaths since 2014, a trend affecting both larger and smaller metropolitan areas. Encompas...
Contemporary x-ray wavelength metrology and traceability.

Abstract We report recent advances in absolute x-ray wavelength metrology in the context of producing modern standard reference data. Primary x-ray wavelength standards are produced today using diffraction spectrometers using crystal optics arranged to be operated in dispersive and non-dispersive geometries, giving natural-line-width limited profiles with high resolution and accuracy. With current developments, measurement results can be made traceable to the Systeme internationale definition of the meter by using diffraction crystals that have absolute lattice-spacing provenance through x-ray-optical interferometry. Recent advances in goniometry, innovation of electronic x-ray area detectors, and new in situ alignment and measurement methods now permit robust measurement and quantification of previously-elusive systematic uncertainties. This capability supports infrastructures like the NIST Standard Reference Data programs and the International Initiative on X-ray Fundamental Parameters and their contributions to science and industry. Such data projects are further served by employing complementary wavelength- and energy-dispersive spectroscopic techniques. This combination can provide, among other things, new tabulations of less-intense x-ray lines that need to be identified in x-ray fluorescence investigation of uncharacterized analytes. After delineating the traceability chain for primary x-ray wavelength standards, and NIST efforts to produce standard reference data and materials in particular, this paper posits the new opportunities for x-ray reference data tabulation that modern methods now afford.
Management of pressure ulcers

Pressure ulcers are a common problem, with about 1.5 to 3 million individuals in the United Stated affected. Treatment may be costly, requiring lengthy periods of hospitalization. Central to the development of pressure ulcers is the loss of the ability of bedridden patients to move spontaneously. When this ability is impaired by neurologic injury or debility, damage caused by unrelieved pressure against tissue trapped between the support surface and a bony prominence becomes evident. Current recommendations for prevention advise providing optimal skin care to those at risk of tissue breakdown. Once a pressure ulcer is diagnosed, an initial assessment, including staging the ulcer and a comprehensive assessment, is required. A treatment plan can then be devised. Planning should include management of tissue loads, ulcer care, and nutritional support. The dogma that all pressure ulcers are caused by poor care should be recognized as incorrect. Even the most exemplary care may not prevent the development of, or heal existing, pressure ulcers in high-risk patients.
Efficacy of Multimodal Analgesic Injections in Operatively Treated Ankle Fractures: A Randomized Controlled Trial.

BACKGROUND Pain management following surgical treatment of an ankle fracture is an under-studied area of clinical practice. The present study evaluated the efficacy of a multimodal surgical-site injection as an adjunct to postoperative pain management in patients with an operatively treated, closed, rotational ankle fracture. METHODS Patients indicated for operative fixation of a rotational ankle fracture were randomized to receive multimodal surgical-site injection (ropivacaine 200 mg, epinephrine 0.6 mg, and morphine 5 mg) or no injection (control). Visual analog scale (VAS) pain and opioid consumption data were collected every 4 hours until discharge from the hospital. Length of stay and discharge destination were recorded. Patients were sent automated text messages to report VAS pain and opioid usage during the first 2 weeks after discharge. RESULTS One hundred patients (49 injection and 51 control) were enrolled. Demographic data were similar between the 2 groups. Mean VAS scores over the first 24 and 48 hours postoperatively were slightly lower in the injection group (42 ± 3 and 41 ± 3, respectively) compared with the control group (52 ± 3 and 50 ± 3, respectively; p = 0.01 and p < 0.01, respectively). The median opioid usage, in terms of morphine equivalent dose, was similar over the first 24 hours between the injection group (25.5; range, 0 to 74.7) and the control group (28.3; range, 2.5 to 91.0; p = 0.35). The median opioid usage from recovery room admission to discharge was also similar between the injection group (29.0; range, 0 to 85.3) and the control group (32.7; range, 4.3 to 215.0; p = 0.35). There were no differences in outpatient VAS scores or opioid consumption during the first 2 weeks postoperatively as assessed with use of automated text messaging. Median length of stay was 22.3 hours (range, 1.7 to 182.3 hours) for the injection group and 22.5 hours (range, 2.2 to 123.3 hours) for the control group (p = 0.71). The response rate for the post-discharge automated text messages was 85.1%. Complication rates were similar. CONCLUSIONS The use of multimodal surgical-site injections in operatively treated rotational ankle fractures is associated with a reduction in immediate in-hospital pain scores that is statistically significant but below the minimal clinically important difference. LEVEL OF EVIDENCE Therapeutic Level I. See Instructions for Authors for a complete description of levels of evidence.
Design of experimental dielectric loaded wideband gyro-twt

A wideband gyro-TWT experiment is being built which is predicted by a self-consistent nonlinear simula- tion code to generate a power of 80 kW from 9 to 11 GHz with 15 % efficiency and a saturated gain of 30 dB for an electron beam with an axial velocity spread of 2.0 % and a velocity ratio of 0.6. A single anode magnetron in- jection gun has been constructed to produce the required high quality electron beam. A broadband coupler has also been designed with a conversion efficiency of 98 - 99 % over 8.5 - 11.5 GHz as predicted by the HP HFSS code.
Imagination and Science in Romanticism; Henry Smeathman, the Flycatcher: Natural History, Slavery, and Empire in the Late Eighteenth Century

These two recent studies, by Richard C. Sha and Deirdre Coleman, take up the relation between science and literature and both demonstrate, in different ways, the importance and challenges of transd...
A mathematics fair in the lower grades

Teaching is the third career of William Freeman, a graduate of Yale (history) and Massachusetts Institute of Technology (civil engineering). Immediately on retirement from a career as a statistician with an insurance company, he began to teach Latin and mathematics, and is now head of the mathematics department of the Tower School in Marblehead, Massachusetts. Diana Kroll was teaching at the Tower School at the time the article was written. She is now teaching mathematics at the Ypsilanti High School in Ypsilanti, Michigan.
Paediatric domestic accidents during COVID-19 pandemic in Hong Kong

Abstract Background With school closures and social isolation imposed by the COVID-19 pandemic, both children and parents in Hong Kong have been forced to stay at home for extended periods of time Besides the disease itself growing globally, this pandemic has inflicted many other healthcare problems This study aims to look at the impact of COVID-19 pandemic on paediatric surgical accidents Methods A retrospective review of all patients under 18?years of age admitted to a tertiary paediatric surgical unit with accidents was done between January to May 2020 (COVID-19 social isolation period) Comparison was made with cases between January to May 2018 and 2019 Inclusion diagnosis include foreign body ingestion(FBI), scald injury, animal bite, and fall Demographic data including age and gender, details of injury and treatment, and length of hospitalization were recorded Statistical analysis was performed by Fisher Exact test and statistical significance was defined as P?≤?0 05 Results A total of 35 patients were admitted during the period 1-5/2020 compared to 28 patients in 1-5/2019 and 16 patients in 1-5/2018 Median age at presentation is 3?years Diagnosis include FBI, animal bite, scald injury and fall Thirteen required surgical intervention including OGD (20%), wound debridement (13%), wound suturing (67%) Mean length of hospital stay was 2 89?days The proportion of domestic accidents in 2020 increased compared with the same period in 2018 and 2019 (P-values = 0 0001, 0 0259) Non-food foreign body ingestions at home during COVID19 increased significantly (P-values = 0 0018, 0 0223) Surgical intervention required for domestic accidents in 2020 also increased (P-values = 0 1223, 0 107) Conclusion The social isolation imposed by the COVID-19 pandemic has caused an increase in paediatric domestic accidents requiring admission to our surgical ward Governments and healthcare authorities should proactively implement appropriate intervention programs and better plan resources to prevent these domestic accidents during lockdown
The New Generation of Researchers and Educators

Marilyn Lewis (ML): Dr. Krentzman, thank you so much for taking the time to talk with me. Usually when I interview someone for the Special Topics section for the Journal of Social Work Practice in ...
The Difference a Day Makes: Timely Disclosure and Trading Efficiency in the Muni Market

Abstract The Real-Time Transaction Reporting System (RTRS) reduced the delay in reporting municipal bond trades from one-day to 15 min. We find a significant reduction in secondary market trading costs after the introduction of the RTRS. Our estimates imply that retail investors benefited primarily from reduced dealer intermediation costs, while large trades benefited from reductions in bargaining costs. Bonds experienced increases in trading volume across the liquidity spectrum. We find higher dealer capital commitment, longer intermediation chains, and fewer pre-arranged trades, all suggesting increased market-making incentives for dealers. These results are largely consistent with predictions from search-based models.
Meaning maps capture the density of local semantic features in scenes: A reply to Pedziwiatr, Kümmerer, Wallis, Bethge & Teufel (2021).

Abstract Pedziwiatr, Kummerer, Wallis, Bethge, & Teufel (2021) contend that Meaning Maps do not represent the spatial distribution of semantic features in scenes. We argue that Pesziwiatr et al. provide neither logical nor empirical support for that claim, and we conclude that Meaning Maps do what they were designed to do: represent the spatial distribution of meaning in scenes.
Trends and geographic variation in women's representation as principal investigators (PI) in phase 3 gynecologic oncology clinical trials

Objectives: To investigate the representation of women as principal investigators (PI) in phase 3, gynecologic oncology clinical trials. Methods: ClinicalTrials.gov was queried for all phase 3 clinical trials with start dates between January 1, 2010 and December 31, 2020 using the search terms: ‘ovarian cancer,’ ‘endometrial cancer,’ and ‘cervical cancer.’ Trial characteristics including registration year, location, current status, results, disease site, intervention studied, primary outcome, and funding source were abstracted from the website. Gender of the PI was assessed by name and image on internet search. If this information was unavailable, the trial coordinator was queried. Trials were considered to have women's representation if women were the sole PI or among multiple co-PIs. Chi-square tests were used to compare proportions across groups; p Results: All 200 clinical trials identified were included in this analysis. Of all trials, 49% were conducted in ovarian cancer patients, 32% in cervical cancer and 20% in endometrial cancer. At the time of data collection, nearly 61% of trials were recruiting, 25% were active but not yet recruiting and 14% were completed. The majority (61%) of trials were sponsored by an academic institution, 25% by industry, and 13% by oncologic cooperative groups. Trials were registered in the United States (US) and Canada (26%), Europe (18%), Asia (31%), or multi-nationally (21%). Women were represented as a PI in 76 (38%) trials. Women were significantly more likely to be a PI of a clinical trial registered in the US/Canada compared to Asia (50% vs. 25%, p=0.01.) The proportion of women PIs was not significantly different for trials registered Europe (40%), or multi-nationally (39%), compared to those registered in the US/Canada or in Asia. Overall, women's representation as a PI increased over time (by year of registration, R2=0.61, p=0.01) (Figure 1). This increase was most pronounced in multi-national trials. The proportion of women PIs rose significantly from 19% among multinational trials registered from 2010-2015 to 52% among multinational trials registered from 2016-2020 (p=0.03.) There was no statistically significant change comparing proportion of women PIs from 2010-15 to 2016-20 in US/Canada (50% in both periods), Europe (29% vs. 48%, p=0.26), or Asia (22% vs. 29%, p=0.50.) Women were more likely to be represented in trials that are currently active/recruiting than in trials that have completed (41% vs. 21%, p=0.04). Disease site, funding source, interventions studied, and outcome measures were not associated with the representation of women as PIs in clinical trials. Download : Download high-res image (44KB) Download : Download full-size image Conclusions: Women's representation as PIs in clinical trials is increasing, most notably in multi-national trials. Reasons for observed regional variation are beyond the scope of this investigation but may be elucidated by further study.
Wearable Coil for Knee Flexion MRI

Musculoskeletal MRI can characterize articular and patellar cartilage and help detect degradation related to osteoarthritis. While clinical knee MRI is performed under static conditions, research has shown that weight bearing and kinetic imaging provides new information on ligament and meniscus stress and post-load cartilage recovery dynamics [1] – [3] . Such experiments are difficult to perform or are compromised by clinical knee coils whose mechanical rigidity is intended to restrict, rather than enable, flexion motion. The legacy of rigid coils can be traced to the desire to maximize sensitivity, mechanical robustness, and coil decoupling, which has been accomplished using rigid copper loops (characterized by high conductivity) packaged in rigid protective shells. Several groups have developed groundbreaking wearable coils that accommodate flexion (see for example [4] , [5] ). While extremely promising, many flexible coils utilize non-standard, expensive, or proprietary conductors. It is also challenging to decouple coils in the flexible regime due to their fluid geometric relationship.
A software tool for disposal of obsolete vessels

This paper describes a prototype software tool for the dismantling of obsolete vessels (DOVE). It is a Web-based tool, developed using the .NET architecture with MS SQL Server as the database. It can be used by the Maritime Administration (MARAD), Navy, or a ship-scrapping company to estimate ship-dismantling costs, to view inventory of surplus vessels, to view construction details of a vessel, and to determine the amount of petroleum products on board. The DOVE database also lists US-based ship-dismantling sites, towing companies, vessel builders, and metal-cutting and decontamination technologies.
How Anion Chaotrope Changes the Local Structure of Water: Insights from Photoelectron Spectroscopy and Theoretical Modeling of SCN(-) Water Clusters.

The behavior of charged solute molecules in aqueous solutions is often classified using the concept of kosmotropes (“structure makers”) and chaotropes (“structure breakers”). There is a growing consensus that the key to kosmotropic/chaotropic behaviors lies in the local solvent region, but the exact microscopic basis for such differentiation is not well-understood. This issue is examined in this work by analyzing size selective solvation of a well-known chaotrope, a negatively charged SCN– molecule. Combining experimental photoelectron spectroscopy measurements with theoretical modeling, we examine evolution of solvation structure up to eight waters. We observe that SCN– indeed fits the description of weakly hydrated ion, and its solvation is heavily driven by stabilization of water–water interaction network. However, the impact on water structure is more subtle than that associated with “structure breaker”. In particular, we observe that the solvation structure of SCN– preserves the “packing” structure o...
Do we really need Gaussian filters for feature point detection

This paper studies the issue of which filters should be used for feature point detection. Classical feature point detection methods, e.g., SIFT, are based on the scale-space theory in which Gaussian filters are proven to be optimal under the scale-space axiom. However, the recent method SURF demonstrates empirically that a box filter can also achieve good performance even though it violates the scale-space axiom. This leads to the question: Is Gaussian filters necessary for feature point detection? Based on the analysis using filter bank and detection theory, we show that theoretically it is possible for a box filter to perform better than the Gaussian filter. Additionally, we show that a new filter, pyramid filter, performs better than both box and Gaussian filters in some situations.