cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
The Changes of Chinese Modern Poster Design Style

Objective To study the changes of Chinese modern poster design.Methods Chinese modern poster design is divided into five stages to analyze its changes of style,in order to explore the change factors of Chinese modern poster design.Conclusion It studied the design style under different time background in China,as well as a variety of design styles and the relationship between the background and the prevailing culture,which has significance for promoting the development of China poster design.
Valuing Green in Consumer Consumption Experiences

The green concept is quite pervasive in society today. There is a growing quantity of research concerning all things green, and there is an established measure of research concerning consumers’ values. However, there is a lack of empirical evidence of what consumers value in the green concept. Using one-on-one in-depth interviews and the grounded theory methodology in qualitative research, the author seeks to interview and report what consumers’ value in green in relation to their consumption experiences. The end result is the emergence of a substantive, mid-level theoretical framework.
The ABCs of ACOs

The Affordable Care Act hastened the emergence of a new healthcare delivery and payment model called Accountable Care Organizations (ACOs). ACOs are groups of healthcare providers linked through a common governance structure that are responsible for serving “aligned” patients who seek most of their primary care from those providers. ACOs also include a shared savings opportunity – if providers can manage costs associated with aligned patients underneath a pre-determined benchmark, while meeting quality performance expectations, they can access savings. Based upon provisions in the Affordable Care Act, CMS initiated two Medicare ACO programs in 2012, discussed in detail in this chapter: the Medicare Shared Savings Program (MSSP) and the Pioneer ACO Program. While novel programs, the ACO concept draws upon a lengthy political and health policy history, also reviewed herein.
Enhanced random lasing from Au-ZnO nanowire Schottky diode by using distributed Bragg reflector

An electrically pumped Au-ZnO nanowire based Schottky junction on top of a 10-period SiU2/SiNx distributed Bragg reflector (DBR) has been fabricated for the first time. In comparison with a structure having no DBR, this laser demonstrates low threshold ultraviolet emission and enhanced output power.
Embryonic responses to structurally related inhibitors. II. The effect of substituents.

Substituted benzotriazoles (Bt) have been shown to bring about interesting inhibitory effects on Rana pipiens embryos of 2-cell to tail-bud stages (Liedke, Engelman, & Graff, 1954, 1955, 1957 a , 1957 b ). These benzotriazoles did not have selective cytotoxic effects on sensitive embryonic structures as similarly substituted benzimidazoles (Bz) and quinoxalines (Q) invariably did. The latter compounds, Bz and Q, were most active against younger stages, especially those in cleavage. On the other hand, it was found that the susceptibility to the benzotriazoles increased with age of embryo; more differentiated stages were affected most. The type of response was determined by the parent structure, but certain substituents, the nitro group in particular, appeared to enhance the magnitude of the effect. The activating effect of the nitro group was in turn modified to varying degree by an accompanying methoxy, hydroxy, or amino group.
Going in Many Right Directions, All at Once:

When asked whether the field is going in the right direction, my answer is “yes, mostly.” Policymakers’ respect and the public’s interest put us in the spotlight for our intrinsic strengths—but the...
Acute and chronic pulmonary embolism: the role of the pulmonary embolism response team.

PURPOSE OF REVIEW Acute pulmonary embolism is a life-threatening condition that can lead to both acute and long-term morbidity and mortality. Patients with acute pulmonary embolism are at risk for significant complications including the development of chronic pulmonary embolism and chronic thromboembolic pulmonary hypertension. This review will describe the rationale for and structure of pulmonary embolism response teams, with a focus on the recognition and treatment of patients with persistent morbidity following pulmonary embolism. RECENT FINDINGS For patients with intermediate and high-risk pulmonary embolism, a myriad of treatment options exist, ranging from anticoagulation alone to surgical embolectomy and hemodynamic support with extracorporeal membrane oxygenation. Optimizing treatment for these patients requires rapid assessment and multidisciplinary cooperation. Over the last five years, the pulmonary embolism response team has emerged as a mechanism to facilitate this care. SUMMARY Pulmonary embolism response teams can streamline and expedite care for patients with intermediate and high-risk pulmonary embolism. However, the care for patients with acute pulmonary embolism does not end at hospital discharge. It is essential to ensure adequate follow-up and identify patients with persistent symptoms and impaired quality of life, particularly those who may have symptomatic chronic pulmonary embolism or chronic thromboembolic pulmonary hypertension.
Should Rich Nations Help the Poor

In an age when richer nations are building walls around their borders to guard against what populist politicians are interpreting as threatening incursions by poorer nations; when developing countr...
A Graphical Model for Topical Impact over Time

After being published, a document, whether it is a research paper or an online post, can make an impact when readers cite, share, or endorse it. A document may not make its greatest impact right after its publication, and some documents' impact can last a long period of time. This study develops a graphical model to capture the temporal dynamics in the impact of latent topics from a corpus of documents. Specifically, we modeled citation counts using Poisson distributions with Gamma priors. We conducted experiments on papers published in (i) D-Lib Magazine and (ii) The Library Quarterly from 2007 to 2017. Comparing with ToT, we found that our model produced more robust results on topical trends over time. The results also showed that prevalence and impact of the same topic are not correlated. Enabling better understanding and modeling of topical impact over time, this model can be used for the design of digital libraries and social media platforms, as well as evaluation of scientific contributions and policies.
Sleep disordered breathing and hypertension: does self-reported sleepiness modify the association?

EPIDEMIOLOGICAL STUDIES INDICATE THAT PEOPLE WITH SIGNIFICANT LEVELS OF SLEEP DISORDERED BREATHING (SDB) ARE AT INCREASED RISK FOR developing hypertension and may have increased risk for other cardiovascular events.1–3 In contrast to patients referred for clinical evaluation of SDB, however, only a small proportion of participants in these epidemiologic studies who had an elevated apnea-hypopnea index (AHI) complained of significant sleepiness.4 Among Sleep Heart Health Study (SHHS) participants with moderate to severe SDB (AHI ≥ 15), only 46% reported an elevated score on the Epworth Sleepiness Scale (ESS) or frequent feelings of sleepiness or feeling unrested.5 Several epidemiologic studies have shown a relation between self-reported sleepiness and cardiovascular disease, though these studies have not used polysomnography to measure SDB. In the Cardiovascular Health Study, daytime sleepiness was the only sleep disturbance symptom associated with incident myocardial infarction, heart failure, overall cardiovascular morbidity and mortality, and all-cause mortality.6 The risk of stroke was independently associated with taking frequent daytime naps in the first National Health and Nutrition Survey.7 In the Caerphilly cohort, a population-based study of older men, daytime sleepiness was found to be associated with increased ischemic heart disease events.8 A prospective study of 157 healthy older adults found significant relationships between an elevated Epworth Sleepiness Scale score (ESS ≥ 10) and blood pressure, as well as incident diagnosed hypertension.9 Studies in clinical patient samples in which polysomnography was performed also point to a relation between self-reported sleepiness and cardiovascular disease. Higher ESS was related to lower stroke volume index and cardiac index in middle-aged obstructive sleep apnea patients after controlling for polysomnographic measures of sleep apnea severity.10 A review of randomized trials evaluating the effect of continuous positive airway pressure (CPAP) on blood pressure in persons with SDB found that studies with less sleepy participants show a smaller decrease in blood pressure on CPAP therapy.11–13 These findings suggest that the symptom of excessive self-reported sleepiness may identify a subset of individuals with SDB at greatest risk of cardiovascular sequelae, including hypertension. If so, this would have important implications for the clinical management of the large proportion of individuals with polysomnographic evidence of SDB who report no significant daytime sleepiness. We use cross-sectional data from the Sleep Heart Health Study (SHHS) to explore whether self-reported sleepiness modifies the relationship between SDB and prevalent hypertension.
The duration of sociosexual behaviors in male meadow voles Microtus pennsylvanicus varies before, during, and after copulation

The behaviors that surround copulation are characterized as sociosexual behaviors. These behaviors displayed by males that are directed at females may include allogrooming, wrestling, chasing, approach, and time spent together. The data supported the hypothesis that the duration of sociosexual behaviors differs during the pre-copulatory, peri-copulatory, and post-copulatory phases of the mating bout in meadow voles. Voles spent more time approaching conspecifics during the pre- and peri-copulatory phases than during the post-copulatory phase. Voles spent more time allogrooming, wrestling, and chasing during the pre-copulatory phase than during the peri- and post-copulatory phases. Voles spent similar amounts of time together during the pre-, peri-, and post-copulatory phases. The data suggest that sociosexual behaviors displayed by males may be involved in set- ting the pace and temporal components of the mating bout. During the pre-copulatory phase particular behaviors by male voles may attract females, during the peri-copulatory phase some of these behaviors may stimulate or motivate the female to mate, and during the post-copulatory phase certain behaviors may prepare the male to mate again (Current Zoology 57 (1): 43-49, 2011).
The Kirchhoff and Related Approximations

The Kirchhoff approximation (KA) is one of the two classical approaches in the theory of wave scattering. It represents the short-wavelength limit, which is similar to the semi-classical approximation. It is impossible to encompass in one standard-size paper all the aspects of the KA. Such questions as the criterion for the validity of the KA, shadowing and multiple reflections, statistical aspects, practical applications and comparisons with experiments are not even mentioned here. Instead this paper provides a review of some foundations of this approximation as well as some other approaches that appear naturally as its generalizations.
Implications of renal failure in multiple myeloma

Renal failure represents one of the major complications of multiple myeloma. Azotemia provides a clue to the diagnosis, poses a major management problem when severe, and has been considered an ominous prognostic factor. This presentation summarizes the frequency, pathogenesis and prognostic implications of renal failure in a large number of previously untreated patients with advanced myeloma who received a standard program of chemotherapy. Results indicated that hypercalcemia and/or moderate Bence Jones proteinuria from advanced disease explained the azotemia in most of our patients. Because renal failure was often reversible, the disease stage and the sensitivity of the myeloma to chemotherapy were more important prognostic factors than the presence or degree of azotemia.
Protein Identification by Mass Spectrometry: Proteomics

Identification, characterization, and quantitation of changes of proteins induced by various types of external and/or internal stimuli are the major objectives of proteomics. Because proteins consist of 20 amino acids, their sequencing is more complicated than nucleic acids, which are a combination of four nucleotides. Proteins and peptides cannot be amplified and/or hybridized in vitro as nucleic acids. Moreover, proteins may have multiple posttranslationally modified sites and multiple types of modifications, such as phosphorylation, nitration, acetylation, and methylation, just to mention a few. These facts have a decisive impact on analytical methods used for protein sequencing and characterization. Before the development of soft ionization (the formation of ions without breaking any chemical bonds) techniques, proteins and peptides were sequenced using the Edman degradation method, based on the sequential removal of N-terminal amino acids (Edman 1970). This method, although still used (Mari et al. 2010), has many limitations such as an inability to sequence peptides that have the N-terminus blocked (Chen et al. 2008). Fragmentation of relatively short peptides (usually 6–30 amino acids in length) in gas phase in mass spectrometers exponentially increased the confidence with which we are able to determine peptide sequence and reveal other structural features, including posttranslational modifications (Biemann 1988; Strachunskii et al. 1992; Appella et al. 2000; Meng et al. 2005; Paizs and Suhai 2005). A number of specific proteolytic enzymes are available to fragment larger proteins into shorter peptides more suitable for high-quality analysis in tandem mass spectrometry (MS/MS) (see Fig. 28.3). The most commonly used enzyme, trypsin, specifically cleaves the peptide bond C-terminal to arginine and lysine residues with any amino acid excluding proline (Thiede et al. 2005). The Arg/Lys–Pro peptide bond is cleaved at a very low rate; however, if such a peptide is well ionized, it still can be detected and sequenced by mass spectrometry (Pottiez et al. 2010)
A novel strategy to improve the sensitivity of aerosol phosphor thermometry using co-doped phosphors

Abstract A novel strategy is presented to improve the temperature sensitivity and potentially extend the temperature range of aerosol phosphor thermometry (APT) by co-doping host materials with two rare-earth ions. The ratio of the emission bands from each ion are measured and calibrated versus temperature to utilize the high sensitivity of thermographic phosphor absolute signal levels. The potential of the technique is illustrated using trivalent cerium (Ce3+) and praseodymium (Pr3+) co-doped into yttrium aluminum garnet (Ce,Pr:YAG). The measured fractional sensitivity of this phosphor from 300–450 K was 0.004–0.006 K−1, a factor of 1.5–2 better than previously observed for Eu:BAM. Additionally, the single-shot precision (1σ) was between 9 and 25 K over the range of temperatures measured, illustrating the utility of this co-doping strategy. The level of temperature sensitivity and single-shot precision observed here should be achievable over different temperature ranges by doping Ce3+ and Pr3+ into different hosts. This new strategy should provide a pathway to ultimately extend the high-temperature single-shot measurement limit for APT to temperatures greater than 1000 K and push forward the state-of-the-art for planar temperature diagnostics in combustion applications.
Bridging Strategies and their Association with Post Heart Transplant Outcomes

Objective Heart transplant (HT) remains the definitive therapy for patients with end stage heart failure (HF). The rate of heart transplantation is limited by the availability of suitable donors, and thus waiting time varies. Bridging strategies have been implemented to stabilize hemodynamics and alleviate debilitating symptoms of HF in patients awaiting HT. In this study we performed a comparative analysis of bridging strategies and their association with post HT outcomes. Methods This was an analysis of 20,919 adult HT recipients captured in the United Network for Organ Sharing (UNOS) heart transplant registry that were bridged to transplant utilizing a bridging strategy inclusive of a left ventricular assist device (VAD), Intra-aortic balloon pump (IABP), or intravenous inotropic agents. Outcomes of interest included graft failure and patient survival. Chi square analysis was used to detect baseline differences between the three groups. Competing risk analysis was used to assess the outcomes of interest. Results In each group HT recipients were predominately Caucasian, and male with a median ischemic time of 3.2 hours (Table 1). Median patient survival was significantly highest in the Inotrope group, and lowest in the IABP group (1648 vs 828 days p= Conclusions Among bridging strategies inclusive of LVAD, IABP and intravenous intropic therapy, long term median survival was observed to be longest in those bridged with intravenous inotropes. No difference in the outcome of acute graft failure was observed. Further analysis is needed to understand the survival differences observed in this study.
Hydraulically Fractured Natural-Gas Well MicrobialCommunities Contain Genomic Halogenation and Dehalogenation Potential

Organohalides are routinely detected in fluid produced from hydraulically fractured oil and natural-gas wells, yet the origin and fate of these compounds remain largely unknown. Because few organoh...
Dialectics and Hegelian Negation in Slavoj Žižek’s Enjoy Your Symptom: Fighting the Fantasies of Trauma, Identity, Authority, and Phallophany

In Enjoy your Symptom (2007), Slavoj Žižek’s notion of “trauma” is critical to understanding the scope and meaning of the “symptom.” This “symptom,” conceptually, is construed through the manner in which identity, authority, and phallophany come to bear psychologically on the meaning of being. Because of this, the definition of “symptom,” when viewed in a Heideggerian way, becomes an ontical representation of that which is oriented primordially. The symptom, as we experience it, is more than just at the level of its ontics, but, instead, has a primordially to it, which is only revealed (or unconcealed, as Heidegger would argue) through the presence of trauma.
Deterministic Actors

Actors have become widespread in programming languages and programming frameworks focused on parallel and distributed computing. While actors provide a more disciplined model for concurrency than threads, their interactions, if not constrained, admit nondeterminism. As a consequence, actor programs may exhibit unintended behaviors and are less amenable to rigorous testing. We show that nondeterminism can be handled in a number of ways, surveying dataflow dialects, process networks, synchronous-reactive models, and discrete-event models. These existing approaches, however, tend to require centralized control, pose challenges to modular system design, or introduce a single point of failure. We describe “reactors,” a new coordination model that combines ideas from several of the aforementioned approaches to enable determinism while preserving much of the style of actors. Reactors promote modularity and allow for distributed execution. By using a logical model of time that can be associated with physical time, reactors also admit control over timing.
Awareness, Reporting, and Branding: Exploring Influences on Brazilian Journalists’ Social Media Use across Platforms

This study examines the individual and organizational level factors shaping Brazilian journalists’ use of social media. Results from a survey of 774 reporters show that individual factors influence...
Infectious Diseases of the Hypothalamic-Pituitary Axis

The hypothalamus is susceptible to a myriad of infections as well as noninfectious inflammatory lesions. Meningeal infections involving the base of the skull are particularly prone to affect the hypothalamus and the hypophysis many times with irreversible hormonal deficits. Syphilis remains a global pathogen. Fortunately, syphilis involving the hypothalamus is now rare, thanks to access to antibiotics and the fact that the Treponema remains sensitive to penicillin. Lyme disease also affects the hypothalamus in some cases. Viral infections of the hypothalamus are very interesting. Hantavirus is an emerging pathogen that is prone to affect the hypothalamus and hypophysis. Von Economo’s encephalitis is a historical disease that helped prove that the hypothalamus is a critical regulator of sleep. The pathogen in von Economo’s encephalitis evaded identification. Hopefully, the opportunity to identify the virus again due to a new epidemic will not materialize. The hypothalamus was affected due to various infections in patients with HIV-AIDS. Viral proteins can also interfere with hypothalamic function. Antiretroviral therapy changed the trajectory of the AIDS epidemic making AIDS cases far less common these days. However, HIV can remain in the brain because of the low penetrance of antiretrovirals. The Discussion is separated into two chapters, the first concentrating on infectious diseases of the hypothalamic-pituitary axis and the second on the noninfectious inflammatory lesions of the hypothalamic-pituitary axis.
A measure development study of sugar-sweetened beverage-related knowledge, self-efficacy, and intention among urban, low-income adults

Sugar-sweetened beverage (SSB) consumption is an important behavior that can influence individuals’ risk for diabetes, obesity, and other chronic diseases. Nonetheless, there is a lack of valid measures to assess SSB-related constructs. Reliable and valid measures can help evaluate the efficacy of interventions designed to curb SSB consumption. Our aim was to develop a valid and reliable instrument to measure constructs related to SSB consumption in English and Spanish. A cross-sectional survey was conducted among a convenience sample of 150 adult residents of public housing developments in Boston, Massachusetts between July of 2016 and January of 2017. All households from two public housing developments were approached by study staff to solicit participation via door-to-door knocking and posted flyers. We developed questions to measure three SSB-related constructs informed by the Social Cognitive Theory: SSB knowledge, and self-efficacy and intention to act on SSB consumption. The questions were pilot tested in the population, and then administered in-person by bilingual study staff in either English or Spanish. Interviews were conducted most often in the participant’s home and less frequently within a community space. Item normality was assessed with descriptive statistics. Difficulty of knowledge items was assessed with percent correct. Construct validity of self-efficacy items was assessed using confirmatory factor analysis (CFA). A model was considered a good fit if confirmatory factor index (CFI) > 0.95, root mean square error of approximation (RMSEA) < 0.05, and standardized root mean square residual (RMSR) < 0.05. Pearson correlations with consumption scores assessed criterion validity, and intraclass correlation coefficients (ICC) assessed test-retest reliability. Of the eight knowledge items tested, only four items resulted in correct answers less than half of the time. CFA resulted in a 5-item scale with excellent fit indices (CFI = .99; RMSEA = .025: SRMR = .02) and Cronbach’s (0.79), test-retest (ICC = 0.68), and significant correlation with intention and SSB consumption. Of the four intention items, one was significantly correlated with SSB consumption. This study provides evidence for the validity of key constructs related to SSB consumption for use in adults, which could provide important theory-based markers for program evaluations of SSB-related interventions.
Predicting adult neuroscience intensive care unit admission from emergency department triage using a retrospective, tabular-free text machine learning approach

Early admission to the neurosciences intensive care unit (NSICU) is associated with improved patient outcomes. Natural language processing offers new possibilities for mining free text in electronic health record data. We sought to develop a machine learning model using both tabular and free text data to identify patients requiring NSICU admission shortly after arrival to the emergency department (ED). We conducted a single-center, retrospective cohort study of adult patients at the Mount Sinai Hospital, an academic medical center in New York City. All patients presenting to our institutional ED between January 2014 and December 2018 were included. Structured (tabular) demographic, clinical, bed movement record data, and free text data from triage notes were extracted from our institutional data warehouse. A machine learning model was trained to predict likelihood of NSICU admission at 30 min from arrival to the ED. We identified 412,858 patients presenting to the ED over the study period, of whom 1900 (0.5%) were admitted to the NSICU. The daily median number of ED presentations was 231 (IQR 200–256) and the median time from ED presentation to the decision for NSICU admission was 169 min (IQR 80–324). A model trained only with text data had an area under the receiver-operating curve (AUC) of 0.90 (95% confidence interval (CI) 0.87–0.91). A structured data-only model had an AUC of 0.92 (95% CI 0.91–0.94). A combined model trained on structured and text data had an AUC of 0.93 (95% CI 0.92–0.95). At a false positive rate of 1:100 (99% specificity), the combined model was 58% sensitive for identifying NSICU admission. A machine learning model using structured and free text data can predict NSICU admission soon after ED arrival. This may potentially improve ED and NSICU resource allocation. Further studies should validate our findings.
Design and Implementation of a Miniaturized High Bandwidth Duplexer

A miniaturized high bandwidth duplexer is designed and implemented in this paper. It is based on the principle of Transversal Signal-interaction Concepts, three line coupler and DGS methods. The simulation results show that good frequency selectivity and harmonic suppression can be realized for the high bandwidth filter. By testing the duplexers implemented in this paper, the test results show that these duplexers have high selective filtering effect and high performance consistency.
Fecal Incontinence in Inflammatory Bowel Disease.

Background Fecal incontinence (FI) is frequently reported in inflammatory bowel disease (IBD). Methods We retrospectively reviewed data from the Study of a Prospective Adult Research Cohort with IBD registry. Results Three hundred forty-seven patients had Crohn disease and 145 had ulcerative colitis. 14.2% of patients reported FI. FI was associated with active disease. FI was not associated with disease location, phenotype, or perianal involvement. Greater than 50 years of age or 15 years of disease increased the odds of FI and remission decreased the odds of FI. Conclusions Further research into the mechanism of FI in IBD is needed.
A versatile approach for the synthesis of degradable polymers via controlled ring-opening metathesis copolymerization

Norbornene derivatives (NBEs) are common monomers for living ring-opening metathesis polymerization and yield polymers with low dispersities and diverse functionalities. However, the all-carbon backbone of poly-NBEs is non-degradable. Here we report a method to synthesize degradable polymers by copolymerizing 2,3-dihydrofuran with NBEs. 2,3-Dihydrofuran rapidly reacts with Grubbs catalyst to form a thermodynamically stable Ru Fischer carbene-the only detectable active Ru species during copolymerization-and the addition of NBEs becomes rate determining. This reactivity attenuates the NBE homoaddition and allows uniform incorporation of acid-degradable enol ether linkages throughout the copolymers, which enables complete polymer degradation while maintaining the favourable characteristics of living ring-opening metathesis polymerization. Copolymerization of 2,3-dihydrofuran with NBEs gives low dispersity polymers with tunable solubility, glass transition temperature and mechanical properties. These polymers can be fully degraded into small molecule or oligomeric species under mildly acidic conditions. This method can be readily adapted to traditional ring-opening metathesis polymerization of widely used NBEs to synthesize easily degradable polymers with tunable properties for various applications and for environmental sustainability.
Ferroelectric Tungsten Bronze Crystals for Guided-Wave Optical Applications

The state of the art in the Czochralski growth of various optical-quality ferroelectric tungsten bronze single crystals is reviewed with respect to crystal structure, phase transitions and canonic makeup. Based on our growth of over 25 single crystal bronzes, we have classified these bronzes into four categories having distinctly different ferroelectric and electro-optic characteristics. Currently, tungsten bronze Sr0.6Ba0.4Nb2O6 (SBN:60) and Ba6-x Srx (Nb,Ti)10O30 (BSTN) single crystals with high electro-optic figures-of-metrit have been optimized in guided-wave optical structures, in which the performance is superior to that of LiNbOj and LiTaOj. We review the role of tungsten bronze materials for telecommunications, sensing and signal processing using these guided-wave structures.
Optimal inflammatory bowel disease management during the global coronavirus disease 2019 pandemic.

PURPOSE OF REVIEW: This review aims to summarize the current evidence regarding the risks and implications of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) in patients with inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) and discuss optimal management of IBD during this pandemic. RECENT FINDINGS: Patients with IBD are not at increased risk of COVID-19 but several risk factors for severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2 infection) have been identified, such as active IBD, obesity, and corticosteroid use. COVID-19 outcomes are similar among patients with IBD and the overall population. Although biologics have not been shown to increase the risk of severe COVID-19 complications, several risk factors have been associated with negative COVID-19 outcomes in patients with IBD, including older age, obesity, the presence of comorbidities, active disease, and corticosteroid use. IBD therapy should, therefore, be continued with the aim of attaining or maintaining remission, except for corticosteroids, which should be held or reduced to the minimal effective dose. Although it has been recommended that immunosuppressive therapy be held during a case of COVID-19, the half-lives of these drugs and data on the timing of restarting therapy limit the strength of these recommendations. We recommend COVID-19 vaccination for IBD patients whenever available, as benefits to the individual and to society outweigh the risks. SUMMARY: As our understanding of SARS-CoV-2 and COVID-19 continues to evolve, we are learning more about its impact in patients with IBD and how to better manage patients in this setting. Managing IBD during this pandemic has also highlighted the importance of restructuring services in order to adapt to current and potential future outbreaks. The COVID-19 pandemic has transformed IBD care through the expansion of telemedicine and development of novel approaches to remote monitoring.
Using stylistic features to predict the composition date of an American contra dance

In American contra dance, dance composers create dances that conform to the musical structure of a standard fiddle tune from a discrete set of dance figures. While anecdotal evidence suggests tradi...
Fiscal decentralization, intergovernmental transfer reform and conflict in Colombian municipalities

Abstract In this paper, we examine how conflict in Colombia responded differentially to a fiscal decentralization reform in 2001 for the regions with different presence of armed militia groups, namely the Revolutionary Armed Force of Colombia (FARC), the National Liberation Army (ELN), and the United Self-Defense Group of Colombia (AUC). We also examine the differential impact on municipalities with and without oil reserves. We are using municipal-level data on general characteristics of municipalities, fiscal variables, and variables related to conflict. While there is a rich literature on the economic drivers and impacts of conflicts, the literature that examines the relationship between fiscal decentralization and conflicts is relatively small. We are contributing to the literature by examining this relationship at the local (municipal) level, which has not been explored widely or conclusively in other studies. We are also addressing spatial dependence among municipalities. This is important because it is likely that conflict and other economic variables lead to spillovers that impact municipalities in close proximity. We employ spatial econometric techniques, particularly Spatial Durbin Model (SDM), to account for spatial dependence in the data. Our results show a decrease in conflict in response to the intergovernmental transfer reform, but the exact response vary by conflict region. Oil reserves in some municipalities seem to have played a role in the conflict outcomes as well.
Deformation and Fracture of Ceramic Materials

Publisher Summary When a load is applied to a material, deformation occurs because of a slight change in the atomic spacing. The load is defined as stress (σ), and it is typically measured in units of pounds per square inch (psi) or megapascals (Mpa). The deformation is defined as strain (ɛ): measured in inches (or centimeters) of deformation per inches (or centimeters) of the initial length or in percent. The mechanism of plastic deformation involves movement of dislocations. A dislocation is a defect in the way planes of atoms are stacked in a crystal structure. There are two types of dislocation: edge dislocation and screw dislocation. Under an applied load, these types of dislocations can form and multiply leading eventually to the fracture of the ceramic material. Ceramics are known as very brittle materials. The phenomenon of plastic deformation due to the dislocation activity is limited to very high temperatures especially for polycrystalline ceramics. At room temperatures, the random orientation of the grains severely inhibits dislocation motion (which terminates at the grain boundaries). The two mechanisms for plastic deformation are slip and twinning.
Corporate patents, R&D success, and tax avoidance

It is well known that research and development (R&D) tax policies are written to encourage firm innovation, a crucial driver of business growth. However, evidence on the effectiveness of tax benefits for innovation is largely anecdotal and empirical examination of the influence of innovation on firm-level taxation is still underexplored. In this study we use an archival research design to assess the implications of corporate innovation on tax avoidance. Based on a large sample of patent data from 1987 to 2010, we find that, on average, both a firm’s innovation productivity (using patent counts) and innovation quality (using patent citations) are positively associated with its tax avoidance level. Nevertheless, we find that the success of R&D investment, in terms of patent output per R&D dollar, is not associated with tax avoidance. Our study is informative for the debate about tax credit reform, such as establishing a ‘patent box’ regime for the purpose of spurring both the conduct of research and commercialization of R&D program.
Interpenetrating Organic/Inorganic Networks of Resorcinol-Formaldehyde/Metal Oxide Aerogels

Interpenetrating native and polymer-crosslinked resorcinol-formaldehyde (RF) and metal oxide (MOx) networks have been synthesized in one pot through the catalytic effect of gelling solutions of hydrated metal ions on the gelation of RF. Pyrolysis under argon (Ar) induces carbothermal processes that, depending on the chemical identity of MOx, yield either metals in the element form or the corresponding carbides. RF–MOx networks in the xerogel and polymer-crosslinked aerogel (X-aerogel) forms undergo those processes at temperatures up to 400°C lower than in the native aerogel form. In addition to the significance of the RF–MOx interpenetrating networks in the design of new materials (mesoporous and macroporous monolithic metals and carbides), the effect of the compactness of the nanostructure on the activation of the carbothermal processes has important implications for process design engineering.
White Christmas? An Application of NOAA’s 1981–2010 Daily Normals

AbstractAre we going to have a white Christmas? That is a question that scientists at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) receive each autumn from members of the media and general public. NOAA personnel typically respond by way of a press release and map depicting the climatological probability of observing snow on the ground on 25 December at stations across the contiguous United States. This map has become one of the most popular applications of NOAA’s 1981–2010 U.S. Climate Normals.The purpose of this paper is to expand upon the annual press release in two ways. First, the methodology for empirically calculating the probabilities of snow on the ground is documented. Second, additional maps describing the median snow depth on 25 December as well as the probability and amount of snowfall are presented. The results are consistent with a climatologist’s intuitive expectations. In the Sierras, Cascades, the leeward side of the Great Lakes, and northern New England, snow cover is a nea...
Aging and Pretraining in Industrial Inspection

Learning-to-learn skills were hypothesized as reasons for poorer learning performance by older workers. To test this on a complex, simulated industrial inspection task, 84 subjects in three age groups were trained for the task. Half received restraining on organization of memory material and on size discrimination using tasks not directly related to the inspection task. Inspection speed decreased with age while errors increased. Pretraining reduced size discrimination errors and decision errors, having a larger effect than the age decrement and a consistent effect across age groups. There was no interaction between pretraining and the type (active or passive) of task training scheme used to train for the inspection task. It is concluded that intervention by pretraining and by the use of active training can improve the employability of older workers by removing the perceived barrier of their trainability.
Citiviz: A Visual User Interface to the CITIDEL System

The Digital Library (DL) field is one of the most promising areas of application for information visualization technology. In this paper, we propose a visual user interface tool kit for digital libraries, to deliver an overview of document sets, with support for interactive direct manipulation. Our system, Citiviz, employs a dynamic hyperbolic tree to display hierarchical relationships among documents, based on where their topics fit into the ACM classification system. Also, Citiviz provides an interactive, animated 2-dimensional scatter plot. With it, users may gain insight by changing various parameters, or may directly jump to a particular document based on its label or location. According to a preliminary evaluation, our system shows advantages in performance and user preference relative to traditional text based DL web interfaces.
Single-ballot risk-limiting audits using convex optimization

We take an information-theoretic approach to sequential election auditing. By comparing how far an empirical distribution of audited votes diverges from any distribution in which the reported outcome is incorrect, we gain a high degree of confidence in the outcome when our procedure confirms the reported results.
Building Secure Networked Systems with Code Attestation

Attestation is a promising approach for building secure systems. The recent development of a Trusted Platform Module (TPM) by the Trusted Computing Group (TCG) that is starting to be deployed in common laptop and desktop platforms is fueling research in attestation mechanisms. In this talk, we will present approaches on how to build secure systems with advanced TPM architectures. In particular, we have designed an approach for fine-grained attestation that enables the design of efficient secure distributed systems, and other network protocols.We demonstrate this approach by designing a secure routing protocol.
Factors associated with recurrent stroke and recanalization in patients presenting with isolated symptomatic carotid occlusion

Background and purpose Patients with symptomatic internal carotid artery (ICA) occlusion constitute a small proportion of stroke/transient ischaemic attack patients who are at increased risk of early stroke recurrence and poor outcome. The optimal medical treatment for patients with symptomatic ICA occlusion who are ineligible for thrombolysis or thrombectomy is unknown. Methods Consecutive patients presenting at a single center with newly diagnosed symptomatic ICA occlusion (not involving the circle of Willis) were retrospectively reviewed. Those treated with intravenous thrombolysis or intra-arterial thrombolysis/thrombectomy were excluded. Patients were divided into two groups based on whether they experienced recurrent in-hospital stroke. Results The selected study population (n = 33) represented a small (20.4%) proportion of all newly symptomatic carotid occlusions, who nevertheless had an elevated risk of recurrent stroke during admission (24.2%). Of the variables examined (age, gender, admission National Institutes of Health Stroke Scale score, vascular risk factors, atrial fibrillation, prior stroke/transient ischaemic attack and anticoagulation within 48 h of presentation), only anticoagulation was significantly associated with a lower risk of in-hospital recurrent stroke. Anticoagulated patients showed a decreased incidence of stroke recurrence within the first week (6.7% vs. 38.9%, P = 0.032) and fewer strokes or deaths at 1 month (13.3% vs. 47.1%, P = 0.040). Hemorrhagic transformation was not observed in any patient. On follow-up imaging, ICA recanalization was significantly more frequent in anticoagulated patients (46.2% vs. 9.1%, P = 0.047). Conclusion Patients with newly diagnosed symptomatic ICA occlusion (not involving the circle of Willis) represent a small but high risk subgroup of patients with carotid occlusion. Early anticoagulation was associated with fewer recurrent strokes and increased ICA recanalization. Larger scale prospective studies may be justified.
Hepatic secretion and turnover of serum phosphatidylcholine-cholesterol acyltransferase in male and female rats.

Abstract The activity of serum phosphatidylcholine-cholesterol acyltransferase (LCAT), output of the enzyme by the perfused rat liver, and the effect of pretreatment with colchicine on LCAT were studied in male and female rats. It was observed that: 1. 1. Serum LCAT activity in the female exceeded that of the male in fasted animals, whereas in fed animals, LCAT activity was higher in the male than the female. With both sexes, however, serum LCAT activity in fed animals was greater than that in fasted animals. Data are presented which suggest that the observed sex differences were due to concentration and/or composition of the substrate rather than to differences in the serum concentration of the enzyme. 2. 2. The release of LCAT by perfused livers from fasted female rats exceeded that of the male animals. The output of LCAT was inhibited by pretreatment (male) with colchicine, which suggests that hepatic secretion of LCAT is dependent on vesicular transport. 3. 3. The decay of serum LCAT activity in vivo following injection of colchicine was more rapid in fasted female rats than in male animals. These observations lead us to postulate that the turnover rate of LCAT is higher in female rats than in male animals.
Assignments and structural information via relayed coherence transfer spectroscopy

Investigations of molecular structures by nuclear magnetic resonance have, for the most part, relied on interpreting spectral parameters such as chemical shifts and spin couplings. A more direct approach can be based on the determination of extended coupling networks. When the coupling networks include nuclei which are in no way coupled to one another but do share a common coupling partner then new information is gained which can aid in both structural determination and in the assignment of resonances (1, 2). An example of this approach is the correlation of the chemical shifts of carbon13 nuclei with not only the directly coupled neighbor protons but to those remote protons coupled to the neighbor protons. Adjacent carbon sites in a molecule can be identified since their coupling networks overlap. The experiment might be thought of as an extension of two-dimensional chemical shift correlation spectroscopy (3, 4) which uses a heteronuclear spy to report on those protons which are directly coupled to the heteronucleus (5, 6). In the experiment presented below the heteronuclear spy reports not only on the directly coupled protons but those protons coupled to the directly coupled protons. The procedure will be referred to as relayed coherence transfer as it is based on relaying the spectral information about the remote nuclei through a neighbor to the heteronucleus. The basic idea which allows the observation of the remote protons via the heteronucleus is the merging of two, or more, distinct coherence transfer processes. In the example presented here the first coherence transfer process is between protons, which is then followed by a heteronuclear transfer. A two-coherence transfer experiment is most easily illustrated by considering the case of an AMX spin system with the heteronuclear coupling JAX vanishing and with JMx being much larger than JAM as is typically the case for proton-proton and proton-carbon13 couplings. The pulse sequence used to do the coherence transfers is shown in Fig. 1. The first two proton pulses, separated by a time t,, transfer coherence from A to M spins, among other pathways, as occurs in a homonuclear correlation experiment (7, 8). Once the magnetization has been passed from the remote A spin to the neighbor M spin it can then be relayed to the heteronucleus. The heteronuclear transfer occurs with the proton and carbon-13 pulses at the end of the time t, + fu. The time r, + tH is chosen so that the multiplets which are out of phase with
Recent science and engineering results with the laser guidestar adaptive optic system at Lick Observatory

The Lick Observatory laser guide star adaptive optics system has undergone continual improvement and testing as it is being integrated as a facility science instrument on the Shane 3 meter telescope. Both Natural Guide Star (NGS) and Laser Guide Star (LGS) modes are now used in science observing programs. We report on system performance results as derived from data taken on both science and engineering nights and also describe the newly developed on-line techniques for seeing and system performance characterization. We also describe the future enhancements to the Lick system that will enable additional science goals such as long-exposure spectroscopy.
Maps related to calmness

Abstract We show that strongly approximately right invertible maps between compacta preserve calmness, hence strongly approximately invertible maps defined on calm compacta preserve shape. We show that certain convergent sequences of maps generate convergence of the maps' images in the hyperspace topologized by calmly regular convergence.