cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
A Note on the Multidimensional Scaling of Conditional Proximity Data

One of the more popular procedures of collecting similarities data for multidimensional scaling is that of "n-dimensional" rank order [8]. In this procedure each of the n stimuli, in turn, serves as an anchor or reference item. For each such item the subject is asked to rank (strictly) the remaining n-1 stimuli in terms of their comparative similarity to the reference stimulus. As Coombs [2] points out, such data represent conditional proximities in which only conjoint pairs (those which have a stimulus in common, namely, the anchor item) are compared directly by the subject. For example, we could say that the dissimilarly of the stimulus pair AB less than that of the pair AC (since both pairs have anchor stimulus A in common) but no (disjoint) comparisons of the type AB versus CD are obtained directly by this method. In the typical application of nonmetric multidimensional scaling, however, the input data consist of a rank order over all pairs of stimuli. Implicit in this ranking are comparisons involving disjoint as well as conjoint pairs, i.e., the rank order is assumed to be complete rather than partial. Coombs [2] describes a procedure called "triangularization" which converts conditional proximity data to a complete order on pairs. Modifications of this procedure have been programmed for the computer [1, 4]. The motivation for using a procedure like n-dimensional rank order versus a method which would lead to a comparison of all pairs of pairs of stimuli should be made clear. Suppose for example, that a respondent were to judge the relative similarity between all distinct pairs of pairs by providing responses to the following type of question: Which is more similar,
Determination of Ultra Violet Stabilizers Residues in Sports Beverages Using Solid Phase Extraction in Combination with Gas Chromatography-Tandem Mass Spectrometry

A gas chromatography-tandem mass spectrometric( GC-MS /MS) method was established for the simultaneous determination of 9 ultra violet( UV) stabilizer residues in sports beverages. The reversed-phase HLB solid phase extraction cartridges were used for the extraction,enrichment and clean-up of the analytes in the beverages. The samples were separated on a Rtx-5 column,and subsequently determined by triple quadruple mass spectrometry working in the multiple reaction monitor mode. The quantification was achieved by external standard method. There were good linear correlations between the peak areas and concentration of the 9 UV stabilizers,and the correlation coefficients were above 0. 997. The limits of detection( LOD) of the studied UV stabilizers were in the range of 0. 03-2. 0 μg / kg,and the limits of quantification( LOQ) were in the range of 0. 08-5. 0 μg / kg. The mean recoveries were from 66. 7% to 107. 3%,at spiked levels of 0. 005,0. 05 and 0. 2 mg / kg,and the relative standard deviations( RSD) were between 3. 2% and 13. 8%. The method was successfully applied to the analysis of multiple UV stabilizer residues in sports beverages.
Methodology for the experimental measurement of vapor–liquid equilibrium distillation curves using a modified ASTM D86 setup

Abstract A method has been developed to determine experimental equilibrium distillation curves using a modified ASTM D86 distillation apparatus.The method determines accurate equilibrium initial boiling points and accounts for the dynamic holdup inherent in distillation curves measured in accordance with the ASTM D86 standard.In this work, the ASTM D86 distillation setup has been modified to simultaneously measure liquid and vapor temperature using two resistance temperature detectors (RTDs) and a data acquisition system has been employed to record temperature data at one-second time intervals for the duration of each distillation.Additionally, the time for each volume recovery point is recorded.The method presented here uses the time-resolved liquid temperature data to identify the true initial boiling point (IBP) of four fuel mixtures of known composition; the IBPs are within 2 °C of the calculated equilibrium values.The time-resolved volume recovery information and the identified initial boiling point time are used to construct a volume evaporated versus time curve.The measured temperatures determined at the corresponding volume evaporated increments provide an experimental equilibrium distillation curve (EEDC). The EEDCs for the four fuel mixtures of known composition match the calculated equilibrium curves within a few degrees Celsius; a maximum mean absolute error of 2.2 ± 1.4 °C was observed.The dynamic holdup (volume difference between volume evaporated and volume recovered) associated with a distillation is found to correlate with the initial boiling point of the fuel being distilled and the temperature of the condenser bath used in the experiment.The method was also applied to measure EEDCs for a gasoline fuel and a diesel fuel, where the compositions were unknown, to investigate the differences between the EEDCs and the ASTM D86 distillation curves.The results highlight the large errors incurred when using ASTM D86 results to approximate equilibrium distillation curves.
THE DESIGN OF A HIGH PERFORMANCE EARTH IMAGERY AND RASTER DATA MANAGEMENT AND PROCESSING PLATFORM

Abstract. This paper summarizes the general requirements and specific characteristics of both geospatial raster database management system and raster data processing platform from a domain-specific perspective as well as from a computing point of view. It also discusses the need of tight integration between the database system and the processing system. These requirements resulted in Oracle Spatial GeoRaster, a global scale and high performance earth imagery and raster data management and processing platform. The rationale, design, implementation, and benefits of Oracle Spatial GeoRaster are described. Basically, as a database management system, GeoRaster defines an integrated raster data model, supports image compression, data manipulation, general and spatial indices, content and context based queries and updates, versioning, concurrency, security, replication, standby, backup and recovery, multitenancy, and ETL. It provides high scalability using computer and storage clustering. As a raster data processing platform, GeoRaster provides basic operations, image processing, raster analytics, and data distribution featuring high performance computing (HPC). Specifically, HPC features include locality computing, concurrent processing, parallel processing, and in-memory computing. In addition, the APIs and the plug-in architecture are discussed.
Immunologic Studies of Platelet Protein

Antigens were demonstrated in platelets which were not detectable in plasma. One of these antigens was detected in serum and was presumed to be released during the process of coagulation. Plasminogen and fibrinogen were detected in platelets, and the fibrinogen appears to be part of the intracellular structure. Thrombin was found to act not only on fibrinogen but also on at least one other unidentified platelet protein.
Are Press Depictions of Affordable Care Act Beneficiaries Favorable to Policy Durability

Abstract. Background: If successfully implemented and enduring, the Affordable Care Act (ACA) stands to expand health insurance access in absolute terms, reduce inter-group disparities in that access, and reduce exposure to the financial vulnerabilities illness entails. Its durability—meaning both avoidance of outright retrenchment and fidelity to its policy aims—is thus of scholarly interest. Past literature suggests that social constructions of a policy's beneficiaries may impact durability. Questions: This paper first describes media portrayals of ACA beneficiaries with an eye toward answering three descriptive questions: (1) Do portrayals depict beneficiaries as economically heterogeneous? (2) Do portrayals focus attention on groups that have acquired new political relevance due to the ACA, such as young adults? (3) What themes that have served as messages about beneficiary “deservingness” in past social policy are most frequent in ACA beneficiary portrayals? The paper then assesses how the portrayal ...
Comparing standard recommendations with site-specific measurements for sizing residential alternative energy applications

Alternative energy supplies, specifically photovoltaics, are reaching the point where they are truly cost-competitive options with respect to the local supply. However, they remain capital intensive on the front-end of the installation. The major up-front costs are for the panels, the electronics and controls, and the energy storage elements. Standard assumption sets exist for determination of the required panel area and energy storage capability, and these determinations drive the specifications for the electronics and controls. Given the (relatively) large initial costs of photovoltaic projects, it is necessary for the assumption sets, which ultimately drive the cost, to be as accurate as possible. In this paper, measurements of both available solar energy and actual energy consumption for selected residences in the United States are presented and used to demonstrate more accurate procedures for specifying photovoltaic equipment including appropriate battery energy storage devices.
Optical Characteristics of an Holography Electron Microscope

The growth in popularity of the technique of electron holography is primarily a result of the availability of a new generation of electron microscopes that operate with field emission electron sources of various types. While many important results were obtained by early workers in the field224,311 utilizing standard thermionic emitters or pointed filaments to obtain a measure of increased brightness and coherence, the field emission source provided a large jump in capability for making interferograms with high contrast fringes, necessary for useful reconstructions of amplitude and phase components of an image. A significant number of TEM or STEM instruments, operating at 200–300 kV with either cold field emitters or field-assisted thermal emitters (Schottky emitters), are now extant. All of these instruments have the potential, with the installation of a simple biprism device, to make functional holograms that can provide information about a sample that is not available with any other technique.
A broad sense measure of health and its properties in the HRS

Measuring health is a crucial component of much social research. Two approaches are typical. Health may be measured via either narrowly targeted questions about aspects of disability or chronic conditions. Alternatively, individuals may be asked to self-report their health in some global sense. Both approaches have potential drawbacks. We consider a broad sense measure of health constructed by items from five different batteries related to physical and mental wellbeing. We demonstrate that this measure predicts time until death better than self-reported health, especially for females. Although this measure has promise, we argue that future surveys on health would benefit from the inclusion of additional items focusing on issues salient to younger individuals or other non-disabled respondents.
Effect of intervention strategies on the risk of infection from Listeria monocytogenes due to consumption of fresh baby spinach leaves: A quantitative approach

The purpose of this study was to conduct a quantitative microbial risk assessment (QMRA) for Listeria monocytogenes infection from consumption of fresh baby spinach leaves, and provide recommendations on intervention strategies including water washing, use of sanitizers (peracetic acid (PAA), chlorine dioxide (ClO2) and chlorine), irradiation, and irradiation-Modified Atmosphere Packaging (MAP) combinations, based on different scenarios. The food chain of fresh baby spinach from processing facility up to consumption was simulated employing @Risk software. The QMRA models predict that the mean annual number of L. monocytogenes infection cases per year for the U.S. population due to consumption of spinach leaves ranged from 115 to 536 cases – meaning that the incidence of L. monocytogenes infection ranged from 1.2 to 5.5 cases per hundred thousand people. Findings strongly encourage the application of irradiation combined with MAP since this intervention strategy reduced the mean risk of listeriosis per random serving by 65.6%. The results of this study suggest that intervention methods could reduce the concentration of L. monocytogenes on spinach leaves under the detectable limit (0.04 CFU g-1) at the processing facility, though this pathogen could reach unacceptable levels at the time of consumption.
WITHDRAWAL: Implantable Cardioverter Defibrillators for primary prevention in patients with Nonischemic Cardiomyopathy: a systematic review and meta-analysis.

Abstract The article by Akel T., Lafferty J. entitled "IMPLANTABLE CARDIOVERTER DEFIBRILLATORS FOR PRIMARY PREVENTION IN PATIENTS WITH NONISCHEMIC CARDIOMYOPATHY: A SYSTEMATIC REVIEW AND META-ANALYSIS" was published ahead of print in the journal Minerva Cardioangiologica on February 8, 2017. The author of the article regrets that this is an accidental duplicate of the same article previously published in the Journal of Cardiovascular Therapeutics, 2017 Jan 27. doi: 10.1111/1755-5922.12253.
Functions in Digital and Discrete Space

In this chapter, we introduce the concepts of digital functions and their basic properties. We start with digital “continuous” functions by Rosenfeld, then on to gradually varied functions proposed by Chen. We also present the necessary and sufficient condition of existence for gradually varied interpolations. For practical uses of these concepts, algorithm design is also a central topic in this chapter. We have designed different algorithms for gradually varied extension. Digital continuous functions and gradually varied functions are similar, but have some differences. Digital continuous functions are mainly defined on digital spaces and gradually varied functions are defined on any discrete space. At the end of the chapter, we discuss the mathematical foundations for gradually varied functions through constructive analysis.
Challenges and opportunities of a landscape governance approach to the REDD+ programme: a conservation outlook

Implementing the Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and forest Degradation (REDD+) programme has the potential to significantly reduce greenhouse gases whilst also helping to maintain biodiversity. However, a proposed landscape governance approach to the REDD+ programme, encompassing all land-use activities, could alter these desirable outcomes. Under the proposed approach, governments and private entities could encourage types of land use that have the potential to threaten biodiversity and disrupt ecosystems. Yet a landscape governance approach could also stimulate governments to develop land-use management policies to facilitate adaptation to climate change. I organized focus group discussions with members of conservation groups, REDD+ scholars, and members of the REDD+ agroforestry research community at the Association of American Geographers 2016 Annual Meeting, to identify potential conservation challenges and opportunities associated with carbon-farming in grasslands and plantations under the proposed landscape governance approach to REDD+. I evaluate and synthesize this information, making recommendations for strategies to maximize the conservation opportunities and minimize the challenges. Understanding the challenges and opportunities will enable policy makers and other stakeholders to improve the presentation of their arguments in their efforts to shape the course of the REDD+ programme in the post-Paris Agreement era.
Risk assessment of a formamidine pesticide, Amitraz, focusing on thyroid hormone receptors (TRs) in rainbow trout, Oncorhynchus mykiss

Amitraz, a formamidine pesticide, and their metabolites have the potential to disrupt endocrine homeostasis in a variety of organisms, nevertheless there is a lack of information concerning such effects and underlying mechanisms in any fish species.To evaluate the potential impacts of Trasil (EC; active constituent 200 g amitraz/L), a commercial product of amitraz, on thyroid hormone (TH) homeostasis of rainbow trout (Oncorhynchus mykiss); mRNA levels of thyroid hormone receptors (TRs), TRα and TRβ, were determined by RT-PCR soon after sub-lethal administration in a static bio-assay system. The sub-lethal exposure of 0.84 mg/L amitraz resulted in upregulation of both TRαand TRβgenes for muscle and liver, respectively in a tissue-manner, though the differences were found statistically insignificant (P>0.05). The present results emerged an endocrine interaction between amitraz based formulation and TH homeostasis, but still needs further detail studies to a better understanding of TH mechanism in teleosts in response to environmental compounds.
RAVEN: Web-based smart home exploration system through interactive pattern discovery

Being a homeowner is undoubtedly a significant milestone in a person's life. In that pursuit, a prospective buyer spends an enormous amount of time for evaluating potential homes that are available in the market. A study shows that 90% of home buyers rely on the Internet as the primary resource for home related information. However, existing online home search tools i.e. search engines, listing sites, and forums require the user to formulate appropriate search queries to discover the most desired home, which is a complicated task-specifically for the first time home buyers. Another challenge for the home buyers is to filter the search results consisting of hundreds of homes that are generally returned against a search query. With such a process, the perspective home buyer becomes a victim of the well-known “information overload” issue. In this paper, we introduce a new home discovery tool called RAVEN. It uses interactive feedback over a collection of home feature-sets to learn a buyer's interestingness profile. Then it recommends a small list of homes that match with the buyer's interest, thus resolving the “information Overload” problem and eventually decreasing the interval between home search initiation and purchase. Please visit https://youtu.be/e2w3nqM6mnw for a demo video of the system. RAVEN is live at http://bit.ly/2fiZnTo.
Brincidofovir as Salvage Therapy for Adenovirus Disease in Intestinal Transplant Recipients.

Background Adenoviruses are double-stranded DNA viruses that typically cause mild self-limiting respiratory, ocular, and gastrointestinal infections. In immunocompromised patients, especially transplant recipients, the infection can be severe, with dissemination and multiorgan failure. In intestinal transplant recipients, the incidence is as high as 57%. To our knowledge, no standardized guidelines or U.S. Food and Drug Administration-approved medications exist for the treatment of adenovirus disease. Aims We describe two isolated intestinal transplant recipients who developed adenovirus disease (viremia with viral enteritis) that was managed with a new experimental drug, brincidofovir (an oral lipid conjugate prodrug of cidofovir), as salvage therapy. Results The first patient was a 44-year-old woman who developed adenoviral enteritis 1 month after transplantation, which resolved with ribavirin therapy. Two weeks later, the infection recurred, and brincidofovir was initiated. While receiving this therapy for 3 months, she developed severe acute rejection, which was managed with rabbit antithymocyte globulin followed by infliximab. Eventually, complete resolution of the rejection and adenoviral enteritis was achieved. At 12 months posttransplantation, the patient was healthy and tolerating enteral feeding. The second patient was a 28-year-old man who had undergone isolated intestinal transplantation 6 years before he presented with generalized weakness and an increased ostomy output; he was diagnosed with adenoviral enteritis. Maintenance immunosuppression was reduced, and brincidofovir was started. The infection resolved with a month of therapy. Six months after the infection, he was healthy and tolerating enteral feeding. Conclusion This is the first publication, to our knowledge, to describe two cases in which brincidofovir was used to successfully treat adenovirus infection in intestinal transplant recipients. Thus, these cases demonstrate that brincidofovir appears to be a safe and effective option in the management of adenoviral enteritis in these patients.
Family expressiveness relates to happy emotion matching among 9-month-old infants.

Abstract Perceiving and understanding the emotions of those around us is an imperative skill to develop early in life. An infant’s family environment provides most of their emotional exemplars in early development. However, the relation between the early development of emotion perception and family expressiveness remains understudied. To investigate this potential link to early emotion perception development, we examined 38 infants at 9 months of age. We assessed infants’ ability to match emotions across facial and vocal modalities using an intermodal matching paradigm for angry–neutral, happy–neutral, and sad–neutral pairings. We also attained family expressiveness information via parent report. Our results indicate a significant positive relation between emotion matching and family expressiveness specific to the happy–neutral condition. However, we found no evidence for emotion matching for the infants as a group in any of the three conditions. These results suggest that family expressiveness does relate to emotion matching for the earliest developing emotional category among 9-month-old infants and that emotion matching with multiple emotions at this age is a challenging task.
Isotopes and Ice Cores

Isotopes produced by the interaction of galactic cosmic rays (GCRs) with atmospheric gases are incorporated in ice, sediments and plants. Beryllium-10 (10Be) has a half life (t1/2) of 1.5 Myr. Its short atmospheric residence time means that changes in 10Be production can be traced at high resolution in stratified ice, but extracting the solar signal is complicated by climatic, geomagnetic and other factors and is performed confidently only for data from ~100–1,000 yr BP, where the Maunder and other sunspot minima are clearly represented. Nevertheless progress in geomagnetic, palaeoclimatic and glaciological reconstruction should eventually unlock the solar data inherent in 10Be sequences that already span the last 800 kyr. There is also the promise of identifying solar energetic particle (SEP) events from nitrate-rich layers in ice cores.
Civilian Populations in War, Targeting of

The article is divided into two main sections. The first section reviews changing technological and strategic considerations affecting civilians in war. These include air power, strategic bombardment, nuclear deterrence, ethnopolitical conflicts, and terrorism. The second section summarizes the scholarly literature on the moral principle of civilian immunity in war.
Individualism, Solidarity, and U.S. Health Care

When the tension between solidarity and individualism hardens into entrenched oppositional politics, attempts to widen health care coverage are stymied.
Delayed Parity Generation in MDS Storage Codes

We propose a delayed parity generation technique for maximum distance separable (MDS) storage codes, for two possible applications: the first is to improve the write-speed during data intake where only a subset of the parities are initially produced and stored into the system, and the rest can be produced from the stored data during a later time of lower system load; the second is to provide better adaptivity, where a lower number of parities can be chosen initially in a storage system, and more parities can be produced when the existing ones are not sufficient to guarantee the needed reliability or performance. In both applications, it is important to reduce the data access as much as possible during the delayed parity generation procedure. For this purpose, we first identify the fundamental limit for delayed parity generation through a connection to the well-known multicast network coding problem, then provide an explicit and low-complexity code transformation that is applicable on any MDS codes to obtain optimal codes. The problem we consider is closely related to the regenerating code problem, however the proposed codes are much simpler and have a much smaller subpacketization factor than regenerating codes, and thus our result in fact shows that blindly adopting regenerating codes in these two settings is unnecessary and wasteful.
Shelf Cross-Shore Flows under Storm-Driven Conditions: Role of Stratification, Shoreline Orientation, and Bathymetry

AbstractNumerical simulations are used to study the response of Long Bay, South Carolina, a typical coastal embayment with curved coastline located on the South Atlantic Bight, to realistic, climat...
A photoelectron study of annealing induced changes to workfunction and majority carrier type in pulsed laser deposited few layer WS2 films

Annealing few layer pulsed laser deposited WS2 films in sulfur increased the S/W ratio from 1.3 to 2.2, improved the mobility from 0.5 to 28 cm2 V−1 s−1, and switched the conductivity from n to p-type. The annealing induced n to p-type switch was confirmed by ultraviolet photoelectron spectroscopy which revealed a workfunction increase from 3.36 to 4.52 eV, a corresponding change in the Fermi level separation from the valence band edge, and a shift of the tungsten X-ray photoelectron spectrum to lower binding energy by ~ 1 eV. Current-voltage measurements indicated that charge injection from ohmic contacts was independent of the interfacial energy barrier, and was governed instead by tunneling from gap states associated with intrinsic point defects and surface contamination. The increased mobility with annealing is ascribed to improved stoichiometry and reduced incoherent scattering from point defects. The p-type conductivity is possibly due to excess sulfur in the form of interstitial ions.
Laser Therapy for Incision Healing in 9 Dogs

Laser therapy is becoming common place in veterinary medicine with little evidence proving efficacy or dosages. This study evaluated surgical wound healing in canines. Twelve Dachshunds underwent thoraco-lumbar hemilaminectomies for intervertebral disc disease (IVDD). Digital photographs were taken of their incisions within 24 h of surgery and 1, 3, 5, 7, and 21 days postoperatively. The first three dogs were used to create a standardized scar scale to score the other dogs' incision healing. The remaining 9 dogs were randomly assigned to either receive 8 J/cm2 laser therapy once a day for 7 days or the non-laser treated control group. Incision healing was scored based on the scar scale from 0 to 5, with zero being a fresh incision and five being completely healed with scar contraction and hair growth. All scar scores significantly improved with increasing time from surgery (<0.001). Good agreement was achieved for inter-rater reliability (p = 0.9). Laser therapy increased the scar scale score, showed improved cosmetic healing, by day seven and continued to be significantly increased on day 21 compared to control dogs (p < 0.001). Daily application of laser therapy at 8J/cm2 hastened wound healing in Dachshunds that received thoracolumbar hemilaminectomies for IVDD. It also improved the cosmetic appearance.
Prehospital Telemedicine and EMS Integration

Prehospital medicine is rapidly evolving in both scope and purpose with telemedicine providing novel opportunities to offer support and oversight to emergency medical service providers while bringing advanced care to the site of illness or injury. In this chapter, the history, development, and sustainability of prehospital telemedicine programs are discussed while highlighting past, current, and possible future applications. The challenges associated with expanding prehospital telemedicine and the need to address them with innovative funding models, stakeholder buy-in, and a thorough understanding of varying local prehospital systems and their interplay with existing regulatory frameworks are also discussed. This chapter will provide a framework for understanding the complex and evolving nature of prehospital telemedicine in a practical context. Growth in this field is rapid, so this chapter looks to encourage further expansion of programs by highlighting current successful programs. This includes mobile telestroke with the development of mobile stroke units, community paramedicine, emergency department avoidance, and specialty interfacility transport.
K-means Principal Geodesic Analysis on Riemannian Manifolds

Principal geodesic analysis (PGA) has been proposed for data dimensionality reduction on manifolds. However, a single PGA model is limited to data with a single modality. In this paper, we are the first to propose a generalized K-means-PGA model on manifolds. This model can analyze multi-mode nonlinear data, which applies to more manifolds (Sphere, Kendall’s shape and Grassmannian). To show the applicability of our model, we apply our model to spherical, Kendall’s shape and Grassmannian manifolds. Our K-means-PGA model offers correct geometry geodesic recovery than K-means-PCA model. We also show shape variations from different clusters of human corpus callosum and mandible data. To demonstrate the efficiency of our model, we perform face recognition using ORL dataset. Our model has a higher accuracy (99.5%) than K-means-PCA model (95%) in Euclidean space.
P272 Management of fingertip injuries in the paediatric emergency department clinic- more than local anaesthesia

Trauma and injuries represent a significant portion of presentations to the Paediatric Emergency Department, with a major subset comprising hand and fingertip injuries. These require input from specialist hand surgeons. In co-ordinating this care pathway, the aim is to provide effective and definitive treatment in a manner that is straightforward for parents and least stressful for the injured child. Frequently, these injuries are suitable for repair under local anaesthesia. In the presence of a well-stocked treatment room, repair of simple fingertip injuries can be facilitated, avoiding the need for full hospital admission and prolonged fasting for repair under general anaesthesia. Our study evaluated all fingertip and nailbed injuries presenting to our Emergency Department in an 8 month period from January to August 2018. Out of 964 presentations for Plastic Surgery review, 226 concerned hand or finger injuries. Of these, 140 represented fingertip or nailbed injuries. Almost 40% of these underwent repair in the Emergency Department under local anaesthesia with or without nitrous oxide sedation. 25% required repair in the operating theatre under general anaesthesia and 35% were managed conservatively. August was the busiest month for such injuries. Children undergoing nitrous sedation with local anaesthesia for these injuries ranged from 15months to 14 years, with a median of 4 years. In general, younger babies and more anxious or upset children were less suitable for sedation and local anaesthesia. All cases were followed up routinely in the Plastic Surgery clinic. Side effects of nitrous sedation were uncommon. There were almost no complications following these procedures. This audit provides a snapshot of the usefulness of nitrous sedation in combination with local anaesthesia as a safe and reproducible method of managing simple fingertip injuries in the paediatric setting. It highlights issues around provision for these services in the Emergency Department- staffing, equipment and training to name but some- but will surely assist in future resource planning.
Image synthesis and superresolution in medical imaging

Abstract Image synthesis and superresolution have a long history of research and use in medical imaging. Recently, with the emergence of powerful machine learning methods, both processes have risen to new levels of capability. This chapter presents some historical and technical background in each of these areas and describes some of the new approaches. Magnetic resonance imaging is the primary modality considered.
The effect of antibiotic use on immune-checkpoint inhibitor efficacy in patients with advanced urothelial carcinoma.

e17116Background: There is emerging evidence that antibiotic (Abx) use may be associated with poor response to immune-checkpoint inhibitors (ICIs) in patients (pts) with some solid tumors. However,...
Role of Synchronization in Magnetless Nonreciprocal Devices Based on Commutated Transmission Lines

Commutated transmission lines have been recently explored as an interesting way to break Lorentz reciprocity, avoiding any resonant structure, and enabling broad bandwidths with giant isolation combined with lenient requirements on the modulation frequency. The scheme relies on precise synchronization among different switches connected through transmission lines, offering in principle infinite bandwidth. Here, we investigate the effects of realistic switching parameters and synchronization on the device performance, providing interesting physical insights on the operation of these devices. Our research shows that the nonreciprocal response of these systems experiences a linear regression of insertion loss and isolation with respect to the timing error among switches. Remarkably, impedance matching and nonreciprocal phase shifts are immune from synchronization issues, and reasonable levels of synchronization errors still guarantee low insertion loss and good isolation. Our study also provides practical guidelines to envision nonreciprocal devices based on commutated modulation of conductivity, opening interesting opportunities for several fields of technology, including wireless communications, quantum technologies, and photonic circuits.
The impact of C4d testing on tissue adequacy in lung transplant surveillance.

Abstract Background Surveillance transbronchial biopsies are routinely used to assess lung allograft rejection. While the criteria for diagnosing acute cellular rejection have been well-established, the morphological findings associated with antibody mediated rejection are variable. To increase the sensitivity for antibody mediated rejection, a portion of a biopsy can be used for C4d immunofluorescence testing, along with histologic findings and donor specific antibodies. When the number of alveolar pieces in a biopsy is small, the relative utility of sending one piece for C4d testing is unclear. Methods Pathology reports of 1400 surveillance transbronchial lung biopsies from 2008 to 2017 were reviewed to obtain the number of pieces of alveolar parenchyma in each case. Based on a standard definition of adequacy as five pieces of well-expanded alveolar parenchyma, reports with five fragments were grouped as “adequate”, four pieces as a “marginal” sample, and three or less were considered an “inadequate” sample. Results Of the 1400 biopsies, 653 specimens had 5 or more pieces of alveolar parenchyma.747 specimens were submitted with less than 5 pieces and 290 of those were considered marginal. In all marginal cases, a piece was withheld for C4d immunofluorescence testing. Conclusions About 21% of specimens would have the recommended 5 pieces of alveolar parenchyma if not for the withholding of pieces for C4d IF testing. Over the span of 10 years, 290 such cases were recorded at our institution. Given this nontrivial impact, it is unclear if C4d immunofluorescence testing should be performed on surveillance transbronchial biopsies when the number of pieces in the specimen is marginal.
Pelvic Rectal Stercoral Perforation Resulting in Diffuse Pneumatosis

An 83-year-old woman with oral corticosteroid use for chronic autoimmune conditions presented with abdominal pain and constipation for the previous seven days. CT of the abdomen and pelvis revealed a large fecaloma with diffuse pneumatosis involving the retroperitoneum, subcutaneous tissue, and mediastinum. An emergent exploratory laparotomy revealed perforation of the rectum below the peritoneal reflection into the retroperitoneum. An end-colostomy with Hartmann's operation was then performed intra-operatively. Despite operative treatment complicated by prolonged intubation, the patient succumbed to multiorgan failure and expired.
Inhibitors of metalloprotease, γ-sectretase, protein kinase C and Rho kinase inhibit wild-type adenoviral replication

Adenoviruses cause upper respiratory infections, conjunctivitis, keratitis, and gastrointestinal illness. These can be fatal in immunocompromised individuals. Adenoviruses have also been engineered into viral vectors to deliver therapeutic genes or induce immunity as vaccine carriers. The success of ocular gene therapy is driven partly by the immunologic and biochemical influences of the intraocular environment. We have shown that versican and hyaluronan modulate adenoviral vector transgene expression through CD44 signaling. Herein we explored the role of these pathways on virus replication and viral protein expression of wild type adenovirus. We report that the addition of vitreous humor (which contains both versican and hyaluronan) increases viral hexon protein levels. Vitreous humor also increased wild type adenovirus DNA replication in vitro. Metalloproteinase and γ-secretase inhibitors, which inhibit CD44 proteolytic activation, blocked adenoviral replication in vitro. Similarly, protein kinase C and RhoA kinase inhibitors, both proteins associated with CD44 mediated pathways, also inhibited wild type adenoviral replication in vitro. Application of metalloproteinase and γ-secretase inhibitors to human conjunctival explants sharply decreased adenoviral vector gene expression. Our results demonstrate that pharmacologic delivery of these inhibitors is easily achievable. The inhibition of these enzymes should be explored as potential therapies of wild type adenoviral infections.
Current Trends (and Missing Links) in Educational Technology Research and Practice

It has historically been difficult to find reliable, up-to-date information about educational technology trends, such as what researchers are studying and what tools practitioners are using, thereby making it difficult for researchers and practitioners to synergize their efforts in meaningful, socially-responsive ways. In this editorial, I analyze titles and abstracts of 7708 research articles from prominent journals over the past 5 years to identify common topics—such as “online,” “mobile,” and “learning analytics.” I also extract links from 51,496 K-12 school and 1317 university websites in the U.S. to identify common tools that they are linking to—such as Facebook, Twitter, Google Docs, and YouTube. I propose that these sorts of metrics provide a baseline understanding for other researchers and practitioners to draw upon when situating their work and that they can also give us insights into areas that merit greater attention for addressing real-world problems.
Nomads in the Middle East

A history of pastoral nomads in the Islamic Middle East from the rise of Islam, through the middle periods when Mongols and Turks ruled most of the region, to the decline of nomadism in the twentieth century. Offering a vivid insight into the impact of nomads on the politics, culture, and ideology of the region, Beatrice Forbes Manz examines and challenges existing perceptions of these nomads, including the popular cyclical model of nomad-settled interaction developed by Ibn Khaldun. Looking at both the Arab Bedouin and the nomads from the Eurasian steppe, Manz demonstrates the significance of Bedouin and Turco-Mongolian contributions to cultural production and political ideology in the Middle East, and shows the central role played by pastoral nomads in war, trade, and state-building throughout history. Nomads provided horses and soldiers for war, the livestock and guidance which made long-distance trade possible, and animal products to provision the region's growing cities.
Does the stabilization of the calcaneocuboid joint with Steinmann pin in Evans osteotomy affect its incidence of arthritis

Abstract Purpose This study aims to determine the effect of retaining a Steinmann pin in the calcaneocuboid joint on its rates of arthritis following Evans calcaneal osteotomy lengthening procedure. The study hypothesized that leaving the pin across the calcaneocuboid joint post-operatively would lead to higher rates of arthritis. Methods This is a retrospective review of patients under 18 years of age who underwent Evans osteotomy at our hospital from January 2015 to May 2020. The Patients were stratified into 2 groups: Group 1 (pin was left post-operatively across the joint and removed on follow-up) and Group 2 (pin was removed during surgery). Demographic data were recorded, including age, sex, and body mass index. Calcaneocuboid arthritis was determined by radiographic imaging at least one-year follow-up. Time to pin removal, size of the pin and graft, and subluxation were analyzed as possible risk factors for arthritis. Odds ratios (OR) and corresponding 95% confidence intervals (CI) were estimated. Results 39 patients were included in the study: 24 patients had the pin removed post-operatively, and 15 had the pin removed intra-operatively. There were no significant differences between the 2 groups regarding body mass index, age, sex, or laterality. Calcaneocuboid arthritis rates were significantly higher in the Group 1 than Group 2 (12(50%) vs. 2(13.3%), respectively; p = 0.02). On multivariate regression, both age (OR, 1.305 [95%CI: 1.009−1.696]; p = 0.044) and leaving the pin in the joint postoperatively (OR, 7.661 [95%CI: 1.208−48.570]; p = 0.031) were found as risk factors for arthritis at follow-up. The mean time to pin removal, the size of the pin, and the size of the graft were not found to be significant predictors of arthritis (p > 0.05). Conclusions This study shows that leaving the Steinmann pin in the calcaneocuboid joint in children post-operatively is associated with an increased risk of developing early radiographic signs of calcaneocuboid joint arthritis.
Microwave Hall mobilities of holes in germanium

INTRODUCTION A. Hall and Faraday Effects B. Previous Work on Microwave Hall Effect Measurement C. Band Structure of p-type Germanium (13) D. Mobility of Holes E. Purpose of Investigation EXPERIMENTAL PROCEDURE A. Microwave Measurement 1. Principle of microwave measurement 2. Microwave cavity system 3. Cryostat system and temperature control 4. Sample preparation 5. Microwave measurement procedures B. d.c. Measurement EXPERIMENTAL RESULTS A. Field Dependence Measurement B. Temperature Dependence Measurement DISCUSSION A. Charge Carrier Inertia B. Mixed Scattering by Lattice Vibrations and Ionized Impurities C. Hole Contribution to the Dielectric Constant D. Conclusions E. Future Work LITERATURE CITED ACKNOWLEDGMENTS APPENDIX
Different natural rubber latex sensitisation and allergy in patients with spina bifida, urogenital disorders and oesophageal atresia compared with a normal paediatric population and atopic children

Bifida Meeting abstracts - A single PDF containing all abstracts in this supplement is available here .
Disability and Academe: Views from Both Sides of the Teacher’s Desk

Personal history of going through higher education as a blind person and a thirty year career of teaching, counseling, supervising and administrating is used to illustrate changes and constants in the ways academe deals with a disability.
Laboratory Maintenance of Neisseria gonorrhoeae

Neisseria gonorrhoeae is a human pathogen of mucosal surfaces, thus laboratory manipulations must include appropriate safety measures. The growth requirements and behavior of the gonococcus are significantly different from many bacteria, necessitating modifications of common laboratory techniques. A fastidious organism, N. gonorrhoeae requires enriched media in a CO2 atmosphere at 35 degrees to 37 degrees C for growth. In addition, N. gonorrhoeae expresses potent autolysins whose activity increases following glucose depletion during stationary phase, leading to cell death. Long believed to be an obligate aerobe, the gonococcus is capable of anaerobic growth when provided with a suitable electron acceptor. This unit provides information for both aerobic and anaerobic growth, basic long-term and daily maintenance of gonococcal cultures, as well as safety considerations for laboratory studies.
Jansen's Metaphyseal Dysostosis

A case of Jansen9s metaphyseal dysostosis, a rare disorder of endochondral ossification, is described. This is the first case in which the severe radiographic manifestations of this disease were detected at birth. Linear growth is significantly retarded at 2 years of age. Nevertheless, because full ossification with trabeculae is anticipated, early recognition and appropriate management during the phase of active growth should minimize deformities.
Multi-stream Fusion for Speaker Classification

Accurate detection of speaker traits has clear benefits in improving speech interfaces, finding useful information in multi-media archives, and in medical applications. Humans infer a variety of traits, robustly and effortlessly, from available sources of information, which may include vision and gestures in addition to voice. This paper examines techniques for integrating information from multiple sources, which may be broadly categorized into those in feature space, model space, score space and kernel space. Integration in feature space and model space has been extensively studied in the context of audio-visual literature, and here we focus on score space and kernel space. There are large number of potential schemes for integration in kernel space, and here we examine a particular instance which can integrate both acoustic and lexical information for affect recognition. The example is taken from a widely-deployed real-world application. We compare the kernel-based classifier with other competing techniques and demonstrate how it can provide a general and flexible framework for detecting speaker characteristics.
Apoptosis-resistant NS/0 E1B-19K myelomas exhibit increased viability and chimeric antibody productivity under cell cycle modulating conditions

Lymphoid cells expressing sufficient levels of Bcl-2 or E1B-19K are known to resist to induction of apoptosis in glutamine-free or nutrient-limited batch cultures. However, despite the increased viability and prolonged stationary phase achieved in batch culture, product yields are not necessarily improved. Here we have found that expression of E1B-19K in NS/0 myeloma cells cultivated in the presence of certain cell cycle modulators could result in a significant increase in MAb productivity as compared to untransfected control cells. The use of E1B-19K significantly enhanced cell survival in the presence of osmolytes (sorbitol, NaCl), DNA synthesis inhibitors (hydroxyurea, excess thymidine), and the cell culture additive OptiMAb™. E1B-19K myelomas cultivated in the presence of NaCl or OptiMAb™ accumulated in the G1 phase, while those arrested with excess thymidine were blocked in all phases. Interestingly, control NS/0 cells treated with these agents were found to die in a cell-cycle specific manner. Thus, while all G1 and most S phase cells quickly underwent apoptosis, G2/M cells remained alive and maintained MAb secretion for more than 10 days if supplied with adequate nutrients. For both control and E1B-19K cells, incubation with sorbitol or hydroxyurea was detrimental for MAb secretion, while addition of NaCl, excess thymidine and OptiMAb™ resulted in an increased specific MAb productivity as compared to the batch culture. However, this increase resulted in an improvement of final MAb yields only in the case of OptiMAb™. The extension of viability conferred by E1B-19K allowed to further improve the final MAb yield obtained using OptiMAb™ with a 3.3-fold increase for E1B-19K cells as compared to 1.8-fold for control NS/0 cells.