cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Heat Exposure and Impact on Occupational Settings

Environmental heat stress in the occupational setting requires aggressive heat illness prevention programs to reduce heat-related injuries (HRIs). In order for a heat prevention program to be successful, worksite managers, safety specialists, labor organizations, health care providers, and employees must work together to modify HRI risk factors. These individuals should strive to address not only the unique risk factors of the workers, such as age, medications, and previous history of HRIs, but also implement global safety precautions such as using environmental indices to adjust work/rest cycles, implementing heat acclimatization program, ensuring adequate supply of clean water for hydration, and implementing a formal safety plan for HRI prevention that is shared with all employees. With an aggressive heat illness prevention program, occupational injuries and deaths can be reduced or prevented.
Introduction to Finite Differences

This chapter serves as an introduction to the subject of finite difference methods for solving partial differential equations. Some of the goals of the chapter include introducing finite difference grids and notation for functions defined on grids, introducing a finite difference approximation of a partial differential equation with an explanation of why this might be a logical approximation, along with an introduction to the treatment of several different types of boundary conditions and forcing functions, and getting the reader involved in the implementation of the finite difference scheme (if the text is being used for a class, hopefully as early as the first day of class).
Non-Lipschitzian Neural Dynamics

A novel approach is presented which is motivated by an attempt to remove one of the most fundamental limitations of artificial neural networks: their rigid behavior as compared with even the simplest biological systems. It is demonstrated that non-Lipschitzian dynamics, based on the faliure of the Lipschitz conditions at repellers, displays a new qualitative effect, i.e., a multichoice response to periodic external excitations. This makes it possible to construct unpredictable systems, represented in the form of coupled activation and learning dynamical equations. It is shown that unpredictable systems can be controlled by sign strings which uniquely define the system behavior by specifying the direction of the motions at the critical points. Unpredictable systems driven by sign strings are extremely flexible and can serve as a powerful tool for complex pattern recognition.
Moral Cyber Weapons

This paper examines the morality of cyber weapons, offering conditions under which they are not only ethical under just war theory, but morally preferred over their kinetic counterparts. When these conditions are satisfied, states not only have the option of using cyber weapons, but could even acquire a moral duty to do so over other forms of warfare. In particular, we show that states are morally obliged to use cyber weapons instead of kinetic weapons when they can be deployed for a purpose already deemed just under the law of armed conflict and without any significant loss of capability. The reason behind this moral obligation is that cyber weapons can reduce both the risk to one’s own (putatively just) military and the harm to one’s adversary and non-combatants. The paper discusses this obligation, using examples to illustrate cases where it does or does not apply. It also addresses several objections that have been raised about the use of cyber weapons, showing that they fail to fully counter the obligation to use cyber weapons derived from their reduction of risk and harm properties.
Do male reproductive preferences really point to a need to refocus fertility policy

Independently collected data from a 1994 survey in Accra, Ghana, are used here to verify earlier findings from Demographic and Health Survey (DHS) data which indicate the existence of a closer tie between men's reproductive preferences and contraceptive use, than between the latter and women's preferences. Indeed, the findings corroborate the earlier studies and suggest that fertility transition in Africa may be accelerated if the family planning establishment would recognize the contribution of the ‘male role’, and bring men into the mainstream of their agenda.
Social workers first-time treatment assessment.

164Background: Supporting emotional, psychological, financial and spiritual well-being of patients has been shown to have a positive impact on quality of life and patient experience. Social workers in our outpatient cancer center are responsible for completing new patient assessments at the start of chemotherapy treatment to provide early access to psychosocial support services. Assessments are to be completed within three weeks of the patient’s first chemotherapy treatment. Connecting with patients early in the care experience allows social workers to proactively assist with education, support and link patients to vital resources. Methods: Completed assessments were tracked and from October through December 2017. The social workers leveraged the use of data analytics and a team based approach to increase the number of new patient assessments completed within the first 3 weeks of chemotherapy. Weekly 30-minute huddles were held using problem solving methods, including brain storming, cause and effect diag...
Caching Data Stores: High Performance at Low Cost

A caching data store, e.g., a traditional dbms, moves data between main memory and secondary storage as dictated by access patterns. Such a system provides good cost/performance by hosting hot data in expensive DRAM, while moving cold data to cheaper SSD storage. Data caching system success is demonstrated by the health of the traditional database systems market, and its growth with new vendors offering data caching systems. However, achieving both high performance and low cost using any database system, including data caching systems, has been a challenge. We describe how this problem has been attacked, including in our Deuteronomy project.
Report of the committee on chemistry of natural waters, 1936–37

The membership of this Committee is as follows: C. S. Howard, Chairman, U. S. Geological Survey, Washington, D.C. D. G. Thompson, U. S. Geological Survey, Washington, D.C. A. C. Lane, 22 Arlington Street, Cambridge, Massachusetts C. S. Scofield, Bureau of Plant Industry, U. S. Dept. Agri., Washington, D. C. I. A. Denison, U.S. Bureau of Standards, Washington, D.C. T. G. Thompson, University of Washington, Seattle, Washington W. P. Kelley, Citrus Experiment Station, Riverside, California In order to provide for close cooperation between the work of the different research-committees of the American Geophysical Union it was decided to have the chairmen of certain committees serve on other committees. The Chairman of the Committee on the Chemistry of Natural Waters is serving on the Committee of Underground waters and D. G. Thompson as Chairman of the Committee on Underground Waters is serving on the Committee on Chemistry of Natural Waters.
Ethos, Pathos and Legal Audience

Modern lawyers who familiarize themselves with the over 2,000 year-old rhetorical principles of pathos and ethos as they appear in the works of Aristotle, Cicero and Quintilian will be surprised by how valuable and timeless their insights are. In their works, all three men provide comprehensive, systematic and experience-based analyses of how Greco-Roman advocates used both the emotional content of their cases and their own personal credibility to persuade legal audiences. Modern practice manuals and treatises have increasingly taken into account the practical wisdom of all three men and show how their insights and advice apply to modern legal practice.
SINS Score and Stability: Evaluating the Need for Stabilization Within the Uncertain Category.

Objective The Spinal Instability Neoplastic Score (SINS) is widely used to assess mechanical instability in metastatic spine disease. We sought to identify a cutoff within the “potentially unstable” category, above which lesions were more likely than not to be stabilized. Methods We retrospectively reviewed all patients consulted for metastatic spine disease over a 1-year period. Patients were included if they were neurologically intact and had complete medical records, including preoperative imaging of every tumor-involved level. Examined variables included epidural spinal cord compression, SINS, revised Tokuhashi grade, age at consultation, and Karnofsky Performance Status. The primary endpoint was whether or not the lesions were stabilized. Results The study cohort comprised 51 patients (average age, 61 ± 2 years) with a total of 436 lesions; 50.5% were lytic, and 31.4% were blastic. The most common primaries were lung (n = 12), breast (n = 10) and prostate (n = 8). The median SINS across all lesions was 5. In both lesion- and patient-based analysis, a SINS ≥10 portended a >50% probability of undergoing stabilization; only 11% of all patients with a SINS ≤9 underwent instrumented fusion. Multivariable analysis demonstrated that SINS (odds ratio [OR], 2.44; P Conclusions For vertebrae affected by metastatic disease, the decision to stabilize remains dependent on both the radiographic lesion properties and the patient's clinical picture. However, our results suggest that lesions with a SINS of ≤9 might not require stabilization.
Untargeted Metabolomics and Cognitive Function in the Boston Puerto Rican Health Study (OR32-03-19)

We sought to determine the metabolic signature associated with poor vs good cognition in a cohort of Boston-area Puerto Ricans. We studied 638 participants the Boston Puerto Rican Health Study (BRPHS), a prospective Boston-area cohort study of Puerto Ricans, with comprehensive metabolite profiling (>700 metabolites) at baseline and a concurrent assessment of global cognitive function. Cognition was assessed at baseline using a comprehensive cognitive battery from which a global cognitive score was derived. Our analysis focused on 638 annotated metabolites that had reported values in ≥80% of the participants. We performed univariate linear regression analyses to identify metabolites significantly associated with global cognitive score.To examine whether these metabolites could then discriminate between the low from ( =1SD above the mean, N = 99) cognition groups, and to identify metabolites that could best discriminate between low and high cognition groups, we conducted partial least square discrimination analysis (PLS-DA). We used separation distance as the test statistic and plotted the scores of the first two partial least square components to inspect the separation of cases from controls. We also identified metabolites contributing most strongly to the separation (VIP > 1). 113 metabolites were significantly associated with cognitive function in univariate analyses. In PLS-DA analyses using these 113 metabolites. when plotting the first two PLS components, there was a clear separation between the low and high cognition groups and controls (Figure 1) (permutation test based on separation distance p-value 0.012) (Figure 1). 23 metabolites had a Variable Importance in Projection (VIP) scores > 1. The metabolites with the highest VIP scores and elevated in the low relative to the high cognition group included cystathionine (amino acid and downstream metabolite of homocysteine), quinate (xenobiotic/food component, component medication used to treat malaria) and p-cresol-glucuronide (amino acid). (Table 1). In this cross sectional study of Boston Area Puerto Ricans, we observed a separation between high and low cognitive function groups in the Boston Puerto Rican study based on metabolomic profiles. This work was supported by the National Institutes of Health.
The Distributional and Tax Planning Consequences of the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act

The TCJA was the most significant overhaul of the tax system in over three decades. It is commendable that this committee is evaluating how this law affects the American public. We are fortunate to have the projections of the Joint Committee on Taxation and various think tanks, but the sheer amount of data can be overwhelming. The goal of my testimony is to crystallize that data into five major takeaways. I pair each takeaway with a figure that captures the point visually. Who received tax cuts and how much? Will that change over time? How are we as Americans going to pay for the deficits created by the TCJA? How does the new law make taxes easier to avoid? What can history tell us about how tax laws change after major legislation?
A Systematic Review of Tissue Sampling Techniques for the Diagnosis of Adenomyosis.

Objective Evaluate the accuracy of tissue sampling techniques for the diagnosis of adenomyosis. Data sources Systematic Review via MEDLINE and the Cochrane Library searches. Methods of study selection Review performed utilizing the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses guidelines, utilizing MeSH terms and keywords including "Adenomyosis/diagnosis" or "Adenomyosis/pathology" or "Myometrium/pathology" and "Biopsy" or "Hysteroscopy" or "Laparoscopy." Articles initially screened by title and abstract to include relevant studies with reference lists cross-referenced to find additional studies. Articles related to the diagnosis of uterine malignancy or studies in which tissue sampling was obtained through excisional surgical procedures were excluded from the review. Tabulation, integration, and results Fourteen studies were identified describing tissue sampling techniques to diagnose adenomyosis, with a total of 1909 patients, from 12 different countries, involving 6 different continents. Tissue sampling techniques were categorized based on (1) biopsy approach as either intrauterine and extrauterine and (2) techniques that were validated or not validated with a confirmatory hysterectomy pathology. Overall, there was significant heterogeneity in the tissue sampling techniques including intrauterine sampling obtained through hysteroscopic biopsy or resection and extrauterine tissue sampling obtained with needle biopsy by a percutaneous, transvaginal, laparoscopic, or ex-vivo approach. Sensitivity of these techniques varied significantly based on technique, tissue sampling location and the number of biopsies obtained, and was as low as 22.2% for an ultrasound-guided transvaginal biopsy of suspicious uterine lesions (4 biopsies per patient) and was as high as 97.8% for a laparoscopic guided myometrial biopsy of suspicious uterine lesions (10 biopsies per patient). Specificity for the identified tissue sampling techniques was more homogeneous ranging from 78.5% to 100% for all methods identified. The positive predictive value and negative predictive value ranges were 75.9% to 100% and 46.4% to 80% respectively among all tissue sampling techniques identified with confirmatory hysterectomy pathology. Conclusion Because of the heterogeneity of the tissue sampling techniques, diverse patient populations, and significant conflicting recommendations, no conclusive recommendation on the optimal tissue sampling technique can be made. However, it would be reasonable to limit uterine tissue sampling for confirmatory diagnosis of adenomyosis in patients with a suspicion of adenomyosis based on both symptom profile and pelvic ultrasound, where a planned diagnostic laparoscopy for either infertility or pelvic pain has already been contemplated and scheduled, and where the confirmatory results may be of clinical benefit in discussing the prognosis of recurrent postoperative symptoms and guide any future treatment recommendations.
Pediatric Providers and Hiv Pre-exposure Prophylaxis

Background Pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) is the newest biomedical HIV prevention option. The daily tenofovir/emtricitabine (Truvada) combination pill reduces the risk of HIV infection by up to 92% compared to placebo (1). While PrEP use is increasingly common in adult LGBT populations, only a handful of studies have investigated introducing PrEP to adolescent providers and patients. Adolescents are the fastest growing age group of HIV positive patients and LGBT youth are at even higher risk. Nationally, 19% of new HIV infections occur in LGBT youth. HIV infections in LGBT youth …
Role of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons on the photo-catalyzed solubilization of simulated soil-bound atmospheric iron

Abstract The process of photo-oxidation of exhaust-based aromatics and the effect they have on the release of soluble iron from an otherwise insoluble soil is explored. Photo-oxidation of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAH) has been shown to result in heavily oxidized aromatics of a wide array of molecular mass, including humic like substances (HULIS), while soluble atmospheric iron plays an essential role in carbon, sulfur, and other biogeochemical cycles, affecting the Earth's energy balance and human health. In atmospheric aerosols, anthropogenic iron emissions are observed to be much more soluble than within collected dust samples. Global production of soluble iron may be due, in part, to processing of atmospheric particulate matter by PAH emitted as anthropogenic and biomass burning products. Here, the production of soluble iron is induced by illuminating an aqueous suspension of a soil within saturated PAH bulk water matrices. Significant increases in soluble iron from soil are observed with linear PAH, including naphthalene and anthracene. Overall, results of these reactions show little correlation with resulting acidity, although acidity increases are observed in specific cases. Comparisons of PAH reactions demonstrate patterns of soluble iron production related to the formation of oxidized functional groups on the organic reagents. The data presented in this study suggest that a major pathway to the release of soluble iron is due to the formation of oxidized groups from the photo-oxidation of PAH.
Chapter Ten – Emerging Applications

Publisher Summary VLSI process technology progressed so rapidly in the past couple of decades that processing power became relatively inexpensive, and this may have caused some of the classic types of virtual machines to temporarily fall out of favor. This chapter suggests that new problems and new organizations for information processing are likely to cause resurgence in interest in such virtual machines. Security concerns in modern computing systems of all kinds are making headlines almost every day. The potential of virtual machines in protecting systems, both large mainframes and small portable devices, cannot be ignored. The use of virtual machine technology in the migration of whole computing environments from one hardware platform to another is proving to be of great importance in enterprise computing, where applications often run continuously for large periods of time, and where such migration may be necessitated because of hardware failures, power considerations, load balancing, or system upgrades. Virtualization and virtual machine technology are poised for pervasive deployment in future computing systems of all types.
Global Citizenship and Business Education, Part 2: The Role of Business Schools

Over the last decade we have seen increased demands for full stakeholder models in global decision-making and greater emphasis by accrediting agencies that business schools show their commitment to societal ends. The COVID-19 pandemic has brought these issues to the fore. We trace early developments in how business schools dealt with these demands and analyze the data from the Aspen Institute’s survey of business schools’ commitment to global citizenship programs. We then review more recent efforts and report on several institutional and collaborative efforts to promote a global citizenship agenda among business schools and their curricula.
Implementation of Nurse-Driven Standardized Protocols to Reduce Behavioral Health Patients' Length of Stay Within the ED: A Quality Improvement Initiative.

Background Patients presenting to the ED, with behavioral health crises in the United States, are frequently held for hours to days awaiting evaluation, medical clearance, and transfer to a behavioral health facility or discharge from the ED. Extended boarding of behavioral health patients can create an unsafe and potentially dangerous environment, placing additional demands on EDs. Objective Identify and improve processes that delay treatment for mental health patients in the ED. Methods A nurse-driven protocol was created to reduce wait times and length of stay for the behavioral health patients in the ED setting. The protocol has nursing initiate orders to reduce the time for ordering labs to receiving lab results leading to more timely medical clearance of behavior health patients. Results Over a 2-month time frame there was decrease in mean minutes from arrival of the patient to laboratory/diagnostic orders being placed and labs results available (time Pre N = 27.16 minutes; time Post N = 23.47 minutes;(p = .171). While not significant, there was an overall decrease in mean minutes of diagnostic results which decreased medical clearance minutes from pre-to post-implementation (time Pre N = 253.46 minutes; time Post N = 114.74 minutes; p = .546). Discussion While not statistically significance behavioral health patients experienced decreased length of stay in the ED creating improved patient care. Implication for nursing The expansion of the nursing role through standardized protocols provides appropriate and timely care to behavioral health patients.
Mitra-clip in Transthyretin Amyloidosis Cardiomyopathy A Case Series

Introduction Non-invasive valvular interventions have dramatically changed the management of patients with multiple complex comorbidities. Patients with cardiac amyloidosis (CA) are often considered high-risk for surgical intervention. Trans-catheter aortic valve replacement (TAVR) is tolerated in this population, however, little is known about the safety and efficacy of per-cutaneous mitral valve interventions, such as the MitraClip procedure. We present three patients with CA and mitral regurgitation (MR) who have undergone this procedure. Cases A 75-year-old man with wild-type transthyretin cardiac amyloidosis (wtATTR), atrial fibrillation with prior ablations, a Watchman device in the left atrial appendage, resection of a malignant lung nodule presented with recurrent right pleural effusions. On exam, he had a loud MR murmur, which had been present for many years. Transthoracic echocardiogram (TTE) showed moderate MR. A transesophageal echocardiogram (TEE) revealed a partial flail of the posterior leaflet of the mitral valve resulting in moderate to severe eccentric anteriorly directed MR, amenable to the placement of a MitraClip. Two MitraClips were places, which led to marked improvement in his dyspnea and a decrease in the frequency of thoracenteses for recurrent pleural effusions. A 71-year-old man with wtATTR and a permanent pacemaker was seen in follow-up with marked dyspnea on exertion and fatigue, despite being euvolemic on exam; jugular venous pressure was not elevated but there was a Kussmaul's sign. First and second heart sounds normal and no MR murmur was heard, even in the left lateral position. TTE revealed moderate MR. His symptoms appeared disproportionate to the severity of his amyloid heart disease by exam as he had no evidence of right-sided congestion. It was suspected that the degree of MR was underestimated by TTE. TEE reveled mild diffuse thickening of the mitral valve leaflets with severe, functional MR that was directed centrally. The valve anatomy was suitable for MitraClip, and he underwent successful placement of 2 MitraClips. A 88-year-old man with MR and aortic insufficiency (AI) was seen with a new diagnosis of wtATTR. He had dyspnea on minimal exertion, marked fatigue, 3 pillow orthopnea and paroxysmal nocturnal dyspnea, he was euvolemic on examination, with a Kussmaul's sign, pansystolic and diastolic murmurs. TTE showed severe MR and moderate to severe AI, confirmed with TEE, which also showed the mitral valve was suitable for MitraClip. A single MitraClip was put in situ, with trace residual MR. He noted improvement in his energy and level of dyspnea following. Discussion It is important to consider other cardiac pathologies that co-exist in wtATTR, which can contribute to patients’ symptoms and are amenable to intervention. These cases demonstrate that MitraClip is feasible in MR in CA with careful patient selection.
A Machine Learning Approach to Heart Murmur Detection and Classification

This paper presents a heart murmur detection and classification approach via machine learning. We extracted heart sound and murmur features that are of diagnostic importance and developed additional 16 features that are not perceivable by human ears but are valuable to improve murmur classification accuracy. We examined and compared the classification performance of supervised machine learning with k-nearest neighbor (KNN) and support vector machine (SVM) algorithms. We put together a test repertoire having more than 450 heart sound and murmur episodes to evaluate the performance of murmur classification using cross-validation of 80-20 and 90-10 splits. As clearly demonstrated in our evaluation, the specific set of features chosen in our study resulted in accurate classification consistently exceeding 90% for both classifiers.
Reducing Social Welfare by Making Financial Markets More Complete: Implications for the 2008 Crisis

In the two decades leading up to the 2008 financial crisis, numerous significant changes in federal law greatly reduced transactions costs in financial markets and made possible new types of trading in new types of financial instruments. The driving policy assumption behind these and similar regulatory changes was that making financial markets more complete would increase social welfare by moving financial markets closer toward Arrow-Debreu. In this paper, we present a model that can explain why, contrary to this policy assumption, regulatory changes that made financial markets more complete in the years leading up to 2008 seemed to produce the opposite effect. Our model shows how when agents have heterogeneous expectations, making financial markets more complete can reduce social welfare by increasing aggregate risk; reducing aggregate returns; and skewing perceptions of wealth in ways that inefficiently distort aggregate consumption decisions, causing agents to over-consume in some periods so that they are forced to cut back consumption sub-optimally in subsequent periods. The intuition underlying our model is that when agents have heterogeneous expectations, making markets for financial instruments more complete amplifies the magnitude of the “winner’s curse” observed in many common-value auctions with the detrimental welfare effects we describe. This paper remains in draft form because of the untimely death of the first author. The second author is posting it to honor her memory and to share what is some of her last work. She will be missed.
Inconvenient Strangers: Transnational Subjects and the Politics of Citizenship: by Shui-Yin Sharon Yam, The Ohio State UP, 2019, 232 pp., $34.95 (paperback), ISBN: 978-0-8142-5551-3

Shui-Yin Sharon Yam begins Inconvenient Strangers: Transnational Subjects and the Politics of Citizenship with a personal narrative about her upbringing in colonial Hong Kong. She reflects on her p...
Long wavelength InAs/InAsSb superlattice barrier infrared detectors with p-type absorber quantum efficiency enhancement

We studied long and very long wavelength InAs/InAsSb superlattice barrier infrared detectors that contain p-type absorber layers in order to take advantage of the longer electron diffusion length for quantum efficiency (QE) enhancement. While they can achieve higher QE than devices that use only n-type absorbers, their dark current characteristics are affected by the presence of metallurgical and surface p–n junctions, and are best operated under lower biasing conditions where the tunneling dark currents are less pronounced. Rather than using a p-type absorber only, a barrier infrared detector structure with a combination of p- and n-type absorber sections can benefit from a shallower mesa etch that reduces fabrication demands and also decreases the p-type absorber exposed surface area. We compare four complementary barrier infrared detector structures that use an n-type absorber, a combination of p- and n-type absorbers, or a p-type absorber and briefly report results from a 13.3 μm cutoff focal plane array.
Theory is Not Enough! Experiential and Project-Based Approaches to Teaching International Social Work.

In the increasingly interconnected and interdependent world, social work education requires a more global approach to graduating better-prepared practitioners. Teaching international social work only based on classroom and second-hand experiences do not expose students to the realities, opportunities, and challenges of work in the field. While there are longer-term volunteering or internship-based field immersion programs, shorter-term collaborations mixing in-class and field learning in international social work education are practiced less. Experiential and project-based courses provide students with opportunities to learn from practitioners, while also providing the reciprocal benefit of time, human, and academic resources of their institution to their partner agencies. This model of education provides aspiring practitioners skills in and models of international collaboration, reducing the risks that learning takes place only at the expense of host communities. The key takeaways of this approach from the experience of students in the course Social Work Practice with Displaced Persons are discussed in this paper. The course provides structured instruction and exposes students to experts in the field of humanitarian response through collaborative projects, field visits, and seminars with practitioners. The analysis of the qualitative data from students’ course reflections shed light on several broad themes on the value of experiential project-based education and the impact of field immersion on the development of essential skills necessary for social workers entering the field of humanitarian response and practice with displaced persons. A case for mainstreaming project-based learning in international social work education to better prepare informed, effective, and efficient practitioners and leaders is presented.
Administration of COVID-19 convalescent plasma in a metropolitan health care system

Rationale:The outbreak of COVID-19 in March of 2020 led to the emergent search for treatment options. Passive immune therapy with COVID-19 convalescent plasma (CCP) therapy was utilized as an investigational therapy. We designed an open label study and received an investigational new drug (IND) number from the Food and Drug Administration for the study on April 11, 2020. Methods:Patients with severe COVID-19 were enrolled and identical ABO CCP was administered. CCP was collected from recovered COVID-19 patients by our hospital blood donor services in line with FDA guidelines. Patients could receive up to three doses of CCP and each dose came from a different donor to potentiate therapeutic response. Subjects were followed for 28 days after infusion of COVID-19 convalescent plasma (CCP) in hospital or with weekly phone calls if discharged home. Results:45 patients received CCP through the study period of April 24th through August 21st. The median age was 60 (range: 16-87), and two thirds were male (n=30) with Hispanic predominance (58%). Patients also received supplemental therapies such as remdesivir, tocilizumab, dexamethasone, and inhaled nitric oxide. Twenty-six recipients received 1 dose, 12 received 2 doses, and 7 received 3 doses of CCP all of which were collected internally by the hospital blood donor center. 22 recipients were O positive, 17 were A positive, and 6 were B positive. During their hospital course, 18 patients were on mechanical ventilation, 3 of which were on ECMO, 19 were on high-flow nasal cannula, and 8 were on low-flow nasal cannula as the highest level of oxygen therapy. At the 28 day follow up, 14 patients were deceased (31%), 4 (9%) were still hospitalized, and 27 (60%) were discharged home. Two patients had a suspected transfusion related reaction that resolved with supportive care including diphenhydramine and furosemide. Conclusion:We designed and implemented a pragmatic study to provide a treatment option for patients hospitalized with COVID-19. Sixty percent of our very sick study population survived to hospital discharge and there were only two transient infusion reactions. While larger studies with a control group are necessary to more clearly evaluate the benefit of CCP in COVID-19, our study lays the foundation for the rapid implementation of a Convalescent Plasma Program for possible future pandemics as a bridge to vaccine and therapeutic trials.
Validation of Sleep EEG-based Brain Age Index for Dementia-related Diseases (4427)

Objective: Using a dataset of 11,039 sleep studies, we aim to investigate the association between brain ages index (BAI) and dementia and validate sleep EEG-based brain age as a biomarker for dementia. We hypothesize that patients with dementia-related diseases have significantly higher BAI than patients without dementia. Background: Dementia is a common neurodegenerative disease in the elderly population. The progressive damage to the neurons causes gradual loss of memory, communication, reasoning, as well as psychiatric disorders. The deviations from the normal aging, known as Brain Age Index (BAI), have shown potential to serve as biomarkers for cognitive impairment. Design/Methods: Using our previously developed model, brain ages were computed based on a sleep EEG-based brain age algorithm. Studies were categorized into dementia, mild cognitive impairment (MCI), ambiguous, and non-dementia groups based on patients’ clinical diagnosis and MoCA/MMSE scores. Results: We found that the BAI of patients with dementia (4.11 ± 10.02 yrs) were significantly higher than those of patients with no dementia (0.516 ±10.40 yrs), with p-value of 0.002 for independent-samples t-test, and those of healthy patients (−0.67 ± 9.52 yrs), with p-value of 0.0002. The BAI of patients with MCI (2.29 ± 8.13 yrs) were also significantly higher than those of healthy patients. BAI and MoCA score were negatively correlated with correlation coefficient of −0.211 (p-value = 0.036) as expected. Binary classification of dementia vs. non-dementia patients with logistic regression using BAI features yielded AUROC of 0.85. Top BAI features for dementia were related to kurtosis of EEG signals in N3 and REM stages. Conclusions: Our results support the validity of sleep EEG-based Brain Age Index as a biomarker of dementia and open new possibilities for using BAI as an assessment tool. Further research is required to investigate how cognitive deficits in different types of dementia-related diseases contribute to higher brain age index. Disclosure: Dr. Ye has nothing to disclose. Dr. Sun has nothing to disclose. Dr. Paixao has nothing to disclose. Dr. Thomas has nothing to disclose. Dr. Lam has nothing to disclose. Dr. Westover has nothing to disclose.
meso-Antracenyl-BODIPY dyad as a new photocatalyst in ATRA reac-tions

We demonstrate that because of the efficient generation of triplet excited state under UV or visible-light irradiation, meso-antracenyl-BODIPY donor-acceptor dyad can catalyze ATRA reactions between bromomalonate and alkenes. This finding paves the way for the design and application of the new type of heavy atom-free organic chromophores for photocatalysis.
Deep-learning assisted Cross-Layer Routing in Multi-hop Wireless Network

Wireless ad hoc networks rely on exchanging information among the nodes to find a feasible route between source and destination. Routing protocols require periodically flooding the entire system with the updated state of the network. Routing protocols define the rules and semantics of how this information is spread throughout the network and can be classified into proactive and reactive protocols, both of which eventually sends out control packets to the network. However, with the increase of the scale of the network, the amount of packets exchanged uses resources that could be otherwise used for application messages. In this paper, we explore the use of machine learning techniques to restrict the flooding radius of control packets. We define the problem objective as a regression problem and use neural networks to model it. The model can be used in networks that share similar attributes, suggesting that transfer learning can be used to re-purpose the initial model. The results show that using machine learning reduces the amount of resources used to maintain the network state up to date, which could be subsequently used to improve the overall performance of the networked system. We anticipate machine learning to be the starting point for more sophisticated models of cross-layer routing mechanisms.
The advantages of vaginal approach to pelvic pathology

Abstract We report a series of 1,060 patients operated upon by vaginal section for 21 distinct pelvic lesions. In the correction of those primary lesions and associated vaginal and pelvic pathology, we did a total of 2,285 surgical procedures. Three patients died, a patient mortality of 0.28 per cent. We have endeavored to present fairly the superiority of the operation in general, its particular value under certain conditions, and its limitation and contraindications. A perusal of the literature will show that it has never lost its popularity in European clinics, but that it is being neglected in American clinics. We hope that our experience, as well as that of other reporters, will stimulate greater interest and use of the vaginal approach to pelvic pathology.
Documentation, Context, and Design

To extend the legacy of our existing properties we need to accommodate current and future needs. The chapter demonstrates how one must begin with documentation and continue with the careful consideration of contextual issues before imagining a range of appropriate changes, including new construction. Documentation begins with walking the perimeter of the property and the immediate area, noticing the character of the location. Whether the problem is an existing structure and landscape above ground, or an archaeological site below grade, the discussion requires a thorough historical investigation, and sensitivity to the intended users. Documentation is important because the preservationist is at once a provider of images and historical texts, an aesthetic critic, and a socially-minded contributor to group discussions, looking beyond the immediate tasks to engage the communities that will assume custody of the property.
Fuel and fuel system effects on low temperature operation of diesel vehicles

Fuel and fuel system effects on low-temperature operation of 1980 and 1981 GM diesels were determined for fuels both with and without flow improver additives. Without flow improvers, the 1981 vehicle, containing a bypass in-tank fuel filter and an electric fuel line heater, could be operated about 5/sup 0/C lower than the 1980 vehicle. With flow-improved fuels, the 1981 system could be operated at 10-15/sup 0/C lower than the 1980 vehicle. 34 refs.
Distributed near optimal flocking control for multiple Unmanned Aircraft Systems

In this paper, we study the distributed optimal flocking control problem of multiple Unmanned Aircraft Systems (Multi-UAS). Using the emerging Neuro Dynamic Programming (NDP) technique, a novel distributed near optimal flocking design is proposed for ensuring the multi-UAS to follow the three heuristic flocking rules (i.e. cohesion, separation and alignment) in an optimal manner. First, an innovative cost function is developed by incorporating system cohesion, separation and alignment performance together. Subsequently, a novel neural network (NN) is proposed to approximate the minimized cost function value by using Hamilton-Jacobi-Bellman (HJB) equation in an online and forward in time manner. Moreover, the near optimal flocking can be attained by minimizing estimated cost function. Using standard Lyapunov stability analysis, the uniformly ultimately boundedness (UUB) of the closed-loop multi-UAS is verified. Simulation results demonstrate the effectiveness of proposed scheme.
Mini-Sentinel's systematic reviews of validated methods for identifying health outcomes using administrative data: summary of findings and suggestions for future research.

Purpose The validity of findings from surveillance activities, which use administrative and claims data to link exposures to adverse events, depends in part on the validity of algorithms to identify health outcomes using these data. This review provides a high level overview of the findings of 19 systematic reviews of studies, which have examined the validity of algorithms to identify health outcomes using these data. The author categorized outcomes on the basis of the strength of evidence supporting valid algorithms to identify acute or incident events and suggested priorities for future validation studies. Methods The 19 reviews were evaluated, and key findings and suggestions for future research were summarized by a single reviewer. Outcomes with algorithms that consistently identified acute events or incident conditions with positive predictive values of greater than 70% across multiple studies and populations are described as low priority for future algorithm validation studies. Results Algorithms to identify cerebrovascular accidents, transient ischemic attacks, congestive heart failure, deep vein thrombosis, pulmonary embolism, angioedema, and total hip arthroplasty revision performed well across multiple studies and are considered low priority for future validation studies. Other outcomes were generally thought to require additional validation studies or algorithm refinement to be confident in algorithms. Few studies examined the validity of International Classification of Diseases, 10th Revision, codes. Conclusion Users of these reviews need to consider the generalizability of findings to their study populations. For some outcomes with poorly performing codes, it may always be necessary to validate cases. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Opening the world's skies for mankind

Abstract Admiral Stansfield Turner has recently written a book, “Secrecy and Democracy — the CIA in Transition”. In it he proposes a dramatic new plan for using our intelligence systems, such as satellites, to help preserve peace and to improve the standard of living of all mankind. This article consists of excerpts from the book which describe this concept.
Men's Grooming In the LDS Church: A Qualitative Study of Norm Violation

The role of personal grooming as an indicator of commitment to church hierarchy is examined in a study of one congregation of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Latter-day Saints Church policy urges men to be clean-shaven. In the present study, we interview all men in one ward who have worn beards or mustaches, in order to investigate questions of authority, identity, and conflict that occurred as a result of violating the grooming norm. Interviewees describe an identity conflict, with self-expression conflicting with the desire to demonstrate faithfulness to their church. In some cases, they reconcile the conflict by conforming to the norm; in others, they violate the norm out of a sense of asserting their own identity, but this comes at a cost of distance from their church identity.
Strontium in Fossil Bones and the Reconstruction of Food Chains

The strontium content of bone is a function of the strontium content of the ingested food. Under favorable conditions of fossilization it can be used for the determination of feeding habits of extinct terrestrial vertebrates. Homogeneous samples of fossil biotic communities are a prerequisite for significant results.
Image Analysis Morphometric Measurement for Tissue Water Status and Other Determinations

This image analysis setup, with a potential resolution of 2.357×10 −6 cm 2 , rapidly (about 20 s) resolved minute disk area changes within a range of 0.2463 to 0.2827 cm 2 , with a maximum deviation of 1.5×10 −4 cm 2 (approximately 0.057% of disk total area). Microcomputerized video image analysis is concluded to be a valuable tool for achieving previously impossible or difficult morphometric measurements in a wide range of experiments
A new sample-profile estimation signal in dynamic-mode atomic force microscopy

Abstract In this paper, a design scheme is proposed that separates the issues of sample-profile estimation and amplitude regulation in dynamic-mode atomic force microscopy. In current AFM, the control signal for amplitude regulation is also used as the estimate for the sample-profile. Therefore, the sample profile estimation signal is accurate as long as the sample-profile signal perceived by the cantilever is well within the bandwidth of the control transfer function. In the proposed design scheme, maintaining a constant amplitude while scanning at high bandwidth does not impose limitations on the reconstruction of the sample topography. In fact, we analytically prove that the sample-profile signal estimation problem can be solved independently of the control design scheme for amplitude regulation. Therefore, accurate sample-profile estimations can be obtained even at frequencies near and beyond the closed-loop control bandwidths. However, we show that the robustness of estimation does depend on the control design for regulation and in fact, the robustness of estimation is described by the closed-loop sensitivity transfer function. The independence of the profile-estimation problem from the control design is another salient distinguishing characteristic of this work. The estimation bandwidths by this new scheme are improved significantly over commonly used signals. Comparison with the existing methods of using the control signal as the image is provided. The experimental results corroborate the theoretical development.
A life-cycle model of repeat migration.

Abstract This paper develops a theoretical model which analyzes the impact of the spatial distribution of a family's stock of human capital on its migration decision. This stock of human capital is composed of location-specific and non-specific human capital. The distribution of location- specific capital is a function of the residential and employment history of the family, while non- specific capital is distributed evenly over space. An empirical specification of the model is derived and estimated with a data set consisting of a number of cases from the michigan panel Study of Income Dynamics.
Inclusion of Biomarkers for Detecting Perturbations in the Heart and Lung and Lipid/Carbohydrate Metabolism in National Toxicology Program Studies

Environmental factors and exposures may contribute to many serious diseases afflicting humans. Biomarkers are useful to understand disease processes and identify early events leading to disease. The National Toxicology Program (NTP) convened a workshop in September 2006 to help identify biomarkers that could be used in toxicology studies with rodents to predict disease outcome and detect early events in disease processes. Expert scientists reviewed biomarkers for disease/injury related to the heart, lung, and/or changes in lipid/carbohydrate metabolism and made recommendations for those that could be incorporated into NTP studies on a routine or selective basis. Although numerous biomarkers were discussed, only a few were considered amenable for routine use. This article summarizes recommendations for the most promising biomarkers and presents the NTP perspective on those that will be included in the bioassay program on a routine or special study basis. Breakout group reports and additional information on the workshop, including participants, presentations, and background materials, are posted on the NTP Web site http://ntp.niehs.nih.gov/go/20940.