cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Preoperative statin is associated with decreased operative mortality in high risk coronary artery bypass patients

Statins are widely prescribed to patients with atherosclerosis. A retrospective database analysis was used to examine the role of preoperative statin use in hospital mortality, for patients undergoing isolated coronary artery bypass grafting (CABG.) The study population comprised 2377 patients who had isolated CABG at Allegheny General Hospital between 2000 and 2004. Mean age of the patients was 65 ± 11 years (range 27 to 92 years). 1594 (67%) were male, 5% had previous open heart procedures, and 4% had emergency surgery. 1004 patients (42%) were being treated with a statin at the time of admission. Univariate, bivariate (Chi2, Fisher's Exact and Student's t-tests) and multivariate (stepwise linear regression) analyses were used to evaluate the association of statin use with mortality following CABG. Annual prevalence of preoperative statin use was similar over the study period and averaged 40%. Preoperative clinical risk assessment demonstrated a 2% risk of mortality in both the statin and non-statin groups. Operative mortality was 2.4% for all patients, 1.7% for statin users and 2.8% for non-statin users (p < 0.07). Using multivariate analysis, lack of statin use was found to be an independent predictor of mortality in high-risk patients (n = 245, 12.9% vs. 5.6%, p < 0.05). Between 2000 and 2004 less than 50% of patients at this institution were receiving statins before admission for isolated CABG. A retrospective analysis of this cohort provides evidence that preoperative statin use is associated with lower operative mortality in high-risk patients.
The Drosophila nuclear receptors DHR3 and βFTZ-F1 control overlapping developmental responses in late embryos

Studies of the onset of metamorphosis have identified an ecdysone-triggered transcriptional cascade that consists of the sequential expression of the transcription-factor-encoding genes DHR3, βFTZ-F1, E74A and E75A. Although the regulatory interactions between these genes have been well characterized by genetic and molecular studies over the past 20 years, their developmental functions have remained more poorly understood. In addition, a transcriptional sequence similar to that observed in prepupae is repeated before each developmental transition in the life cycle, including mid-embryogenesis and the larval molts. Whether the regulatory interactions between DHR3, βFTZ-F1, E74A and E75A at these earlier stages are similar to those defined at the onset of metamorphosis, however, is unknown. In this study, we turn to embryonic development to address these two issues. We show that mid-embryonic expression of DHR3 and βFTZ-F1 is part of a 20-hydroxyecdysone (20E)-triggered transcriptional cascade similar to that seen in mid-prepupae, directing maximal expression of E74A and E75A during late embryogenesis. In addition, DHR3 and βFTZ-F1 exert overlapping developmental functions at the end of embryogenesis. Both genes are required for tracheal air filling, whereas DHR3 is required for ventral nerve cord condensation and βFTZ-F1 is required for proper maturation of the cuticular denticles. Rescue experiments support these observations, indicating that DHR3 has essential functions independent from those of βFTZ-F1. DHR3 and βFTZ-F1 also contribute to overlapping transcriptional responses during embryogenesis. Taken together, these studies define the lethal phenotypes of DHR3 and βFTZ-F1 mutants, and provide evidence for functional bifurcation in the 20E-responsive transcriptional cascade.
Cross-Recognition of N-Formylmethionine Peptides Is a General Characteristic of H2-M3-Restricted CD8+ T Cells

H2-M3-restricted CD8+ T cells can exhibit cross-reactivity to different bacterially derived N-formylmethionine peptides. The extent of this promiscuity is unclear. We deleted the nonredundant fMIVTLF epitope and found that Listeria monocytogenes still primed fMIVTLF-specific T cells. Thus, cross-reactivity appears to be a more general characteristic of H2-M3-restricted T cells.
Dacryocystitis Secondary to Intranasal Cocaine Abuse: A Case Report and Literature Review

AbstractPurpose: To report a case of dacryocystitis secondary to intranasal cocaine abuse and to review the literature on the effects of cocaine on sinus, nasal and lacrimal structures.Methods: Case report and literature review.Results: A 33-year-old male presented with unilateral epiphora and discharge, and clinical examination was consistent with dacryocystitis. He had a 2-year history of intranasal cocaine use. Computed tomography revealed extensive bilateral intranasal and sinus destruction, consistent with cocaine abuse. He was treated with antibiotics followed by dacryocystorhinostomy with silicone intubation. He had 2 recurrences of dacryocystitis and underwent one additional lacrimal surgery.Conclusions: Cocaine abuse and its accompanying intranasal and sinus destruction should be considered when determining the etiology of nasolacrimal obstruction and dacryocystitis. A medical and social history with specific questions about drug abuse may be useful. Computed tomography is helpful in delineating ...
A simple model for diffusion-induced dislocations during the lithiation of crystalline materials

Assuming that the lithiation reaction occurs randomly in individual small particles in the vicinity of the reaction front, a simple model of diffusion-induced dislocations was developed. The diffusion-induced dislocations are controlled by the misfit strain created by the diffusion of solute atoms or the phase transformation in the vicinity of the reaction front. The dislocation density is proportional to the total surface area of the “lithiated particle” and inversely proportional to the particle volume. The diffusion-induced dislocations relieve the diffusion-induced stresses.
Optimal frequency for measuring health care resource utilization in Parkinson's disease using participant recall: the FS-TOO resource utilization substudy.

Abstract Objective: The aim of this substudy was to determine the agreement between 2 approaches for measuring health care resource utilization (eg, number of hospital visits, number of primary care physician visits) in trial participants with Parkinson's disease (PD). Methods: A substudy of the 1-year multicenter futility trial of GPI-1485 and coenzyme Q 10 (FS-TOO) was performed to assess health care resource utilization agreement by measuring participant utilization recall after 12 months versus measuring participant utilization recall at regular 3-month intervals. Trial participants were selected from patients in the National Institutes of Health—sponsored FS-TOO multicenter study. Persons aged ≥30 years with confirmed PD diagnosis within the previous 5 years were eligible for inclusion in the substudy. Participants were also required to have at least 2 of 3 cardinal manifestations of PD (tremor, rigidity, and bradykinesia). Participants were excluded from the study if they had presence of atypical Parkinson's syndromes due to drugs, metabolic identified neurogenetic disorders, encephalitis, or other degenerative diseases. Agreement was determined using Lin's concordance and Cohen's kappa statistics. Results: Between March and July of 2004, a total of 424 potential subjects were identified and evaluated for trial eligibility. Of these, 213 subjects (139 men, 74 women; mean [SD] age, 61.5 [10.3] years) met entry criteria and were included in the study. Trial participants were randomized equally to 1 of 3 groups. The 3 groups had similar baseline characteristics in terms of demographic data (age, race, sex, employment status, and annual income), total Unified Parkinson Disease Rating Scale (UPDRS) score, and UPDRS subscores. In this substudy, 141 participants had a true baseline visit, indicating a clinical baseline date, and 182 participants completed the Baseline Resource Utilization Form within 3 months of the true baseline visit. The comparison of concordance between the summed information over 3-month recalls and the 12-month recall from baseline was derived from these 182 participants. The level of agreement between the 2 approaches was high, ranging from 64.4% to 95.1%. Where disagreement was identified, the more frequent measurement approach (every 3 months) led to higher estimates, ranging from 20.4% to 77.4%. Conclusion: The results of this trial indicate internal consistency with the self-reported measures of health care resource utilization, suggesting that these simple measures might provide reliable information about units of health care resource utilization in the context of clinical trials for PD.
Shrinking the International Labor Code: An Unintended Consequence of the 1998 Ilo Declaration on Fundamental Principles and Rights at Work?

The World Commission on the Social Dimensions of Globalization presented its final report in 2004. In addressing the central issue of what future, if any, international labor standards have in an era of competitive globalization, the Commission focuses heavily on the 1998 Declaration on Fundamental Principles and Rights at Work. The authors characterize that Declaration as part of an effort to replace the broader labor rights agenda with a narrow focus on a much more limited corpus of four core labor standards and to move towards an approach that is fundamentally promotional, rather than grounded in firm legal obligations and involving targeted institutional responses to violations of labor rights. They consider three ways in which recent developments undermine the traditional approach: (i) the move from a uniform definition of standards to an ad hoc system; (ii), the privileging of a core set of largely procedural and essentially civil and political labor rights, to the exclusion of vital social rights; and (iii) the use of determinedly soft promotional techniques of implementation. The authors conclude that the World Commission approach reinforces these trends and argue that urgent remedial steps will need to be taken if the ILO is to continue to defend labor rights in the years ahead.
The Legal Foundation of Cost-Benefit Analysis

This paper proposes to provide a fully realized legal foundation for cost-benefit analysis (CBA). I refer to an approach based on such a foundation as benefit-cost analysis (BCA), a subcategory of mainstream CBA. This approach rests on legal rights and also amends the failure of CBA to include moral sentiments, which arose in the attempt to avoid interpersonal comparisons. This app[roach largely vitiates the extreme positions that have come to dominate thinking about CBA. In this paper I show the logical connection between CBA, the law and moral sentiments. I place CBA within the context in which it is most useful: that of providing information, not the decision. In Part One, I explicate the history of CBA and its underlying economic theory. I first show how deficiencies in CBA arose from its history and define a “mainstream” version of the dominant Kaldor-Hicks (KH) approach to CBA. I then develop the concept of a fully realized CBA under the rubric of BCA. That is, as a matter of convenience, I treat BCA as a better-defined subcategory of CBA. The purpose here is to show that the legal foundation for BCA tends to ameliorate or eliminate the criticisms of CBA. In Part Two, I consider empirical analyses of CBA and the extent to which BCA is becoming the preferred choice.
Listening in and out: Listening to customers and employees to strengthen an integrated market-oriented system

Abstract While volumes of research have been dedicated to listening to customers as part of a market-oriented strategy, very little attention has been given to the mechanisms that disseminate the information internally to the employees who need it to meet and exceed customer requirements. A multidisciplinary exploratory study was initiated to investigate how an organization's listening environment facilitates both organizational and employee outcomes. Building on theory from marketing, management, and communications, the impact employee beliefs about the organization's listening environment was shown to relate to both the external market orientation and the individual's performance and commitment to the organization. Focusing on a small number of representative variable in lexicon theoretical linkages, a structural equation model was tested utilizing managerial data across a wide range of management levels of a major retail organization, as a preliminary foray into a potential multiple disciplinary research program.
Crossing borders and queering identities in French-language European road cinema

The controversies surrounding the adoption of the pacte civil de solidarite and similar European debates in the late 1990s coincide with a revival of the road movie format in the cinema of France and its neighbours. The border-crossing inclinations of road movies generate an often polyglot battery of films that tackle questions of identity, kinship and citizenship from a transnational perspective. This article focuses on three French-language, queer-themed, border-crossing road movies: Plein sud/Going South (Sebastien Lifshitz, dir., 2009a), Origine controlee/Made in France (Ahmed Bouchaala and Zakia Tahri, dir., 2001) and Comme des voleurs (a l’est)/Stealth (Lionel Baier, dir., 2006). These films, and the recent vogue in French and European road movies in general, correspond to a period marked by identity debates and the decreasing relevance of the traditional fabric of citizenship. Beyond the evident questioning of the patriarchal system and the staging of quests of individual agency and self-discovery,...
Residual toxicity of five citrus pesticides to a carbaryl-resistant and a wild strain of the California red scale parasite Aphytis melinus DeBach (Hymenoptera: Aphelinidae)

Leaf-residue and plastic cup bioassays were done with a carbaryl-resistant (R) and two susceptible (S) (Base and La Couague) colonies of Aphytis melinus DeBach. Tolerances to carbaryl, methidathion, chlorpyrifos, dimethoate, and formetanate were compared among the two 5 colonies and the laboratory-selected R strain. Two-leaf bioassays done during 1989 indicated that the R strain survived Significantly better than the Base colony on both carbaryl- and chlorpyrifos-treated leaves. The R strain survived better than both 5 colonies on all pesticides tested with a single concentration in the cup bioassay. Results of bioassays done during 1990 connfirmed that the R strain survived better than the La Couague colony on carbaryl, methidathion, dimethoate, and formetanate leaf residues. In the 1990 leaf residue tests, chlorpyrifos residues were more toxic to the R strain. Practical aspects of releasing the R strain in California citrus orchards are discussed.
Design for Body Welding Fixture in the Mode of Low Cost Manufacture

From the use of standard parts, batch machining process optimization process and reduce unnecessary procedures, using self-made parts to replace the high cost of purchasing equivalent replacement method angle, discussed reduce car body welding fixture manufacturing cost several ways. Low cost of ownership characteristic body tooling and put into use, to improve the competitiveness of products, reduce the cost and plays an important role in.
Vibrio cholerae O1 serotype inaba in environment outside laboratory testing and epidemiological analysis in Lianyungang City

Objective: Understanding of Vibrio cholerae in the area of Lianyungang to determine changes in the environment,and environmental water and food contamination and the relationship between pop,to discuss cases,identify outbreaks,to determine the source of infection for the development of control strategies and measures to provide a scientific basis.Methods:Random collection of water bodies outside the environment to collect samples of aquatic products market and restaurant,a total of 120 Vibrio cholerae using conventional detection methods Isolation and culture and PCR methods to analyze test results.Results:Not detected in environmental waters of Vibrio cholerae,the local aquatic products were not detected in Vibrio cholerae in aquatic products imported detection of a Vibrio cholerae Inaba,a non-producing strains.Conclusion:Lianyungang region of Vibrio cholerae has not yet formed a natural breeding and aquatic products are of imported foci.
Interleaved Continuum-Rigid Manipulation: An Approach to Increase the Capability of Minimally Invasive Surgical Systems

Continuum manipulator compliance enables operation in delicate environments while challenging the actuation and control approaches. In the case of a catheter ablation of atrial fibrillation, the compliance of the continuum backbone lends an inherent safety to the device. This inherent safety frustrates attempts at precise, accurate, and fast control, limiting the continuum devices to simple and static positioning tasks. This paper develops interleaved continuum-rigid manipulation, by which the hysteretic nonlinearities encountered in tendon-actuated continuum manipulators are compensated by the discrete rigid joints located between the continuum sections. The rigid joints introduce an actuation redundancy, which an interleaved controller may use to avoid the continuum nonlinearities and dynamic excitations, or to prefer particular configurations that may improve task accuracy, permit greater end-effector forces, or avoid environment obstacles. Two experimental systems explore the potential of these joints to: 1) increase the manipulator's dexterous workspace, and 2) correct for actuation nonlinearities and enhance manipulator performance. These experiments also expose important design and control observations that were not apparent in the general robotic and continuum literature.
Performance evaluation of flyback converter

Steady-state (DC) analysis of the flyback PWM DC-to-DC converter is performed for continuous conduction mode (CCM). The equations for the device stresses and the component values are derived. The circuit is designed and simulated with the aid of P-SPICE. The effect of transformer leakage inductance and the MOSFET output capacitance on switching losses is investigated. The ringing in the output voltage waveform of the power MOSFET switch is observed. The resonant behavior is analyzed and presented in this work
AN ENDONUCLEASE-SENSITIVE REGION IN SIMIAN VIRUS 40 CHROMATIN

Abstract Simian virus 40 chromatin obtained from nuclei of infected monkey kidney cells (BSC) is cleaved in a nonrandom manner by endonucleases. A short region (about 300 base pairs in length) extending from the origin of viral DNA replication toward the late portion of the viral genome is preferentially cleaved by deoxyribonuclease I and by an endonuclease endogenous to BSC cells. Staphylococcal nuclease cleaves at sites scattered around the genome. Viral mutants containing duplicated DNA segments including the origin of viral DNA replication and contiguous regions have been used to define cis genetic elements responsible for the endonuclease-sensitive structure adjacent to the replicative origin. More than one cis genetic element must be postulated to account for the results.
Implementing low power digital circuits using flash devices

Floating gate (flash) transistors are used exclusively for memory applications today. These applications include SD cards of various form factors, USB flash drives and SSDs. This paper presents the first approach to use flash transistors to implement binary-valued digital circuits. Since the threshold voltage of flash devices can be modified at a fine granularity during programming, several advantages are obtained by our approach. For one, speed binning at the factory can be controlled with precision. Secondly, an IC can be re-programmed in the field, to negate effects such as aging, which has been a significant problem in recent times, particularly for mission-critical applications. We present the circuit topology that we use in our flash-based digital circuit approach, and, through circuit simulations, show that our approach yields significantly improved delay (0.84×), power (0.35×), energy (0.30×) and area (0.54×) characteristics compared to a traditional CMOS standard cell based approach, when averaged over 20 randomly generated designs. Note that we used the same operating voltage (1V) for both design styles. Our proposed circuit design style is not an FPGA, because it uses hardwired interconnect. Rather, our design approach is a method to design ASIC or custom/semi-custom digital circuits.
Association Between Patient-Centered Medical Home Capabilities and Outcomes for Medicare Beneficiaries Seeking Care from Federally Qualified Health Centers

Background Patient-centered medical home (PCMH) models of primary care have the potential to expand access, improve population health, and lower costs. Federally qualified health centers (FQHCs) were early adopters of PCMH models.
Investigating the Electron–Phonon Coupling of Molecular Beam Epitaxy-Grown Hg 1−x Cd x Se Semiconductor Alloys

Using spectroscopic ellipsometry, the temperature-dependence of the dielectric functions of a series of Hg1−xCdxSe thin films deposited on both ZnTe/Si(112) and GaSb(112) substrates were investigated. Initially, for each sample, room-temperature ellipsometric spectra were obtained from 35 meV to 6 eV using two different ellipsometers. Subsequently, ellipsometry spectra were obtained from 10 K to 300 K by incorporating a cryostat to the ellipsometer. Using a standard inversion technique, the spectroscopic ellipsometric data were modeled in order to obtain the temperature-dependent dielectric functions of each of the Hg1−xCdxSe thin films. The results indicate that the E1 critical point blue-shifts as a function of Cd-alloy concentration. The temperature-dependence of E1 was fitted to a Bose–Einstein occupation distribution function, which consequently allowed us to determine the electron–phonon coupling of Hg1−xCdxSe alloys. From the fitting results, we obtain a value of 17 ± 2 meV for the strength of the electron–phonon coupling for Hg1−xCdxSe alloy system, which compares nominally with the binary systems, such as CdSe and CdTe, which have values around 38 meV and 16 meV, respectively. This implies that the addition of Hg into the CdSe binary system does not significantly alter its electron–phonon coupling strength. Raman spectroscopy measurements performed on all the samples show the HgSe-like transverse optic (TO) and longitudinal optic (LO) phonons (∼ 130 cm−1 and ∼ 160 cm−1, respectively) for all the samples. While there is a slight red-shift of the HgSe-like TO peak as a function of the Cd-concentration, HgSe-like LO peak does not significantly change with the alloy concentration.
Geophagic earths consumed by women in western Kenya contain dangerous levels of lead, arsenic, and iron.

Objectives Geophagy is commonly reported by pregnant women and children, yet its causes and consequences remain poorly understood. Therefore, we sought to determine if geophagy could contribute micronutrients and/or be a source of heavy metal exposure by examining the elemental composition of earths consumed in Kakamega, Kenya. Methods Ten samples of earths commonly consumed during pregnancy were collected by study enumerators and analyzed using inductively coupled plasma-atomic emission spectroscopy. Samples were either collected at markets or from walls of participants' homes, based on where participants reported most commonly sourcing their consumed earths. Results Based on estimated intakes (40 g/day), all samples had lead levels that exceeded the provisional maximum tolerable daily intake, and one sample exceeded the threshold for arsenic. Further, estimated intakes of iron for all samples were at least 8.9 times higher than the established threshold. Elemental concentrations were also compared by the site of sample collection (market vs. household wall); market samples had significantly higher iron concentrations and lower calcium concentrations than wall samples. Conclusions Geophagic earths in Kakamega may be harmful because of dangerously high levels of lead, arsenic, and iron. The prevalence of geophagy among vulnerable populations underscores the importance of understanding its causes and consequences for accurate public health messaging.
Inpatient burden of pediatric dermatology in the United States

BACKGROUND/OBJECTIVES It is known that inpatient care accounts for a significant portion of health care expenditures, but the national burden of inpatient pediatric dermatology is poorly characterized. We sought to assess risk factors, conditions, and financial costs associated with pediatric hospitalizations for skin disease. METHODS We performed a cross-sectional study of pediatric dermatology hospitalizations using the 2012 Kids' Inpatient Database, which samples 80% of non-birth-related pediatric admissions from 44 states to generate national estimates. The demographic characteristics of children admitted for dermatologic and nondermatologic conditions were compared, and the financial costs of these admissions were analyzed. RESULTS In 2012, there were 74 229 (95% confidence interval (CI) = 68 620-79 978) pediatric dermatology hospitalizations, accounting for 4.2% of all pediatric admissions and $379.8 million (95% CI = $341.3-418.4 million) in health care costs. Bacterial infections (n = 59 115, 95% CI = 54 669-63 561), viral diseases (n = 3812, 95% CI = 3457-4167), and noncancerous skin growths (n = 2931, 95% CI = 2318-3545) were the most common conditions requiring hospitalization. The highest mean cost per hospitalization was for admissions for cutaneous lymphomas ($58 294, 95% CI = $31 694-84 893), congenital skin abnormalities ($24 186, 95% CI = $16 645-31 728), and ulcers ($17 064, 95% CI = $14 683-19 446). Pediatric dermatology hospitalizations were most strongly associated with living in a low-income community (odds ratio (OR) = 1.22, 95% CI = 1.16-1.29) and the South (OR = 1.32, 95% CI = 1.19-1.46) and being uninsured (OR = 1.35, 95% CI = 1.26-1.45) or having Medicaid insurance (OR = 1.17, 95% CI = 1.13-1.22). CONCLUSION Skin disease is a common cause of hospitalizations in children, and there are disparities in these admissions that could reflect inadequate access to outpatient pediatric dermatologists.
Rules, Utilities, and Strategies in Dialogical Games

In an earlier paper, I have defined certain dialogical games consisting mostly of questions and answers.1 They are games in what is intended to be the sense employed in the mathematical theory of games. From this vantage point, the definitions so far offered are incomplete, however, in several respects, especially in that the payoffs are left partly undetermined. It is my purpose in this paper to show how the payoffs can be determined somewhat more fully and indicate what theoretical considerations the determination of the payoffs depends on.
Risk Factors for Adverse Cardiac Events After Lumbar Spine Fusion

ABSTRACT Background To determine the incidence and risk factors for adverse cardiac events after lumbar spine fusion. Methods A total of 50 495 patients were identified through the American College of Surgeons National Surgical Quality Improvement Program (ACS-NSQIP) database who underwent lumbar spine fusion between 2005 and 2015. The 30-day postoperative data were analyzed to assess for the incidence of adverse cardiac events including cardiac arrest or myocardial infarction. Of those who experienced an event, patient- and surgery-specific parameters were evaluated to assess for risk factors. Results A total of 240 cardiac events occurred in the studied cohort (4.76 events/1000 patients). Factors that were associated with an increased cardiac risk were age (odds ratio [OR] = 1.039, 95% confidence interval [CI] = 1.03, 1.05, P P = .001), insulin-dependent diabetes (OR = 1.83, 95% CI = 1.29, 2.6, P = .001), American Society of Anesthesiologists (ASA) score >3 (OR = 1.92, 95% CI = 1.00, 3.65, P = .048), absolute hematocrit different from 45 (OR = 1.07, 95% CI = 1.04, 1.10, P P = .04). The impact of sustaining a cardiac event in the setting of single-level lumbar fusion is catastrophic as the 30-day postoperative mortality rate for those sustaining an event was 24.6% (59/240 patients), compared to 0.2% (87/50 255) for those not sustaining an event ( P < .001). Conclusions Cardiac events after lumbar fusion are a rare but devastating series of complications. Several risk factors were identified, including insulin-dependent diabetes mellitus, smoking, advanced age, male sex, ASA score of >3, and anemia/polycythemia. Considering the severity of these consequences, appropriate risk stratification is imperative, and optimization of modifiable risk factors may mitigate this risk.
Semianalytical Technique for Six-Degree-of-Freedom Space Object Propagation

The cannonball assumption of three-degree-of-freedom (3DOF) space object state prediction can lead to large inaccuracies if the sphericity assumption is violated, while numerical propagation of bot...
Therapeutic alternatives for chronic urticaria: an evidence-based review, part 1.

Objective To evaluate the use of alternative therapies for chronic urticaria refractory to first-line treatments in an evidence-based manner. Data Sources MEDLINE searches were performed cross-referencing urticaria with the names of multiple therapies. Articles were then reviewed for additional citations. Articles published after 1950 were considered. Study Selection All articles, including case reports, were reviewed for soundness and relevance. Results Experience has been reported for a wide variety of alternative therapies in the treatment of chronic idiopathic and physical urticarias. Evidence for most agents is limited to anecdotal reports. The second-line therapies reviewed are also categorized based on criteria of safety, efficacy, convenience, and cost, in relation to the first-line antihistamines. Conclusions Alternative agents should be considered in patients with chronic urticaria who are both severely affected and unresponsive to antihistamines. Although monitoring for toxicity is important in management with many alternative agents, safety is favorable compared with corticosteroids.
Why do multinational firms hold so much cash? Further evidence on the precautionary motive

Abstract This study investigates effects of firm structure and risk exposure on cash holdings of multinational firms. We show that multinational firms that hold high levels of cash are stand-alone firms that operate businesses in one segment, but not diversified firms that operate businesses in multiple segments; the high levels of cash in multinational stand-alone firms are associated with their risk exposure to market uncertainty, policy uncertainty, and economic uncertainty. These risk exposures also have significant impact on future cash holdings, as well as current and future R&D expenditures. Our findings suggest that the precautionary motive still plays a key role in explaining the high cash holdings of multinational firms. In addition, we provide evidence that the tax motive is not sufficient to explain the high level of cash holdings in multinational stand-alone firms.
Three-dimensional modeling and hydrodynamic scaling of National Ignition Facility implosions

The goal of an inertially confined, igniting plasma on the National Ignition Facility (NIF) [M. L. Spaeth, Fusion Sci. Technol. 69, 25 (2016)] remains elusive. However, there is a growing understanding of the factors that appear to be limiting current implosion performance. And with this understanding, the question naturally arises: What conditions will ultimately be required to achieve ignition, either by continuing to improve the quality of current implosions, or by hydrodynamically scaling those implosions to larger driver energies on some future facility? Given the complexity of NIF implosions, answering this question must rely heavily on sophisticated numerical simulations. In particular, those simulations must respect the three-dimensionality of real NIF implosions and also resolve the wide range of scales for the many perturbation sources that degrade them. This prospectus article reviews the current state of detailed modeling of NIF implosions, the scaling to ignition from recent experiments that that modeling implies, and areas for future improvements in modeling technique that could increase understanding and further enhance predictive capabilities. Given the uncertainties inherent in any extrapolation, particularly for a process as nonlinear as ignition, there will be no definitive answer on the requirements for ignition until it is actually demonstrated experimentally. However, with continuing improvements in modeling technique and a growing experience base from NIF, the requirements for ignition are becoming clearer.
Enhanced Agricultural Sustainability Through Biological Nitrogen Fixation

The Earth’s population, increasing exponentially, is expected to reach 10 billion, nearly double its present status, by 2035 (Bockman et al., 1990). Of this projected population, 90% is expected to reside in tropical and subtropical regions of the developing countries in Asia, Africa, and Latin America (Waggoner, 1994). Plant sources currently provide 80% of the caloric and dietary protein needs for tropical countries, and this is not expected to change in the near future. In 1910 human beings used about 10% of the total carbon fixed through photosynthesis (Golley et al., 1992). Currently humans use 40% of that carbon, and it is estimated that by 2030 humans will require 80%. Individual protein and caloric consumption of the Earth’s current 5.7 million people averages 70 g•protein•d-1’ and 2,400 calories•d-1’, respectively (Waggoner, 1994). The range of protein consumption varies from 38 to 125 g protein•d-1, while the range of caloric intake varies from 1,800 to 3,500•d-1, with the low range values associated with developing countries (Bongaarts, 1994). The anticipated doubling of Earth’s population will exacerbate the current inequalities in nutritional intake. Clearly, to maintain the current level of protein and caloric intake over the next 40 years will necessitate unprecedented increases in crop production. This enhanced production will need to be achieved despite a significant deterioration of much prime agricultural land and will require the utilization of large areas now considered marginal.
Selective Thermal Stimulation Delays the Progression of Vasoconstriction During Body Cooling.

The objective of this study was to test the feasibility of Selective Thermal Stimulation (STS) as a method to upregulate glabrous skin blood flow. STS is accomplished by mild surface heating along the spinal cord. 4 healthy subjects were tested in this study. Each participated in a control experiment and an intervention experiment (STS). Both experiments included establishing a maximum level of vasodilation, considered unique to a subject on a test day, and then cooling to a maximum level of vasoconstriction. Perfusion was measured by a laser Doppler flow probe on the index fingertip. The percent of perfusion in the range of minimum to maximum was the primary outcome variable. The data was fit to a linear mixed effects model to determine if STS had a significant influence on perfusion during whole body cooling. STS had a statistically significant effect on perfusion and increased glabrous skin blood flow by 16.3% (P<.001, CI [13.1%, 19.5%]) as skin temperature was decreased. This study supports the theory that STS improves the heat exchanger efficiency of palmar and plantar surfaces by increasing the blood flow.
Development and Assessment of a Basic Acupuncture Curriculum for Pediatricians

Objective: Acupuncture has been shown to improve pain and other health outcomes in children and is well tolerated. However, use of acupuncture by pediatric medical providers is rare, in part due to the cost and time associated with formal training. Medical acupuncture certification requires 300 hours of training, costing approximately $11,000 (not including travel costs). Additionally, the training requires 3 weeks of on-site learning, requiring physicians to be away from their homes and medical practices. We aimed to develop an abbreviated basic acupuncture curriculum and assess its impact and acceptability with academic pediatricians. Methods: Thirty-eight pediatricians completed a 10-hour basic acupuncture course, learning 2 acupuncture protocols: Battlefield Acupuncture and Four Gates. Battlefield …
Moments of Connection for the Disconnected: People with Negative Relations with Others Experience Less, but Benefit More from, Positive Everyday Interaction:

Analysis of over 2,000 moments of social interaction collected through smartphone-based experience sampling showed that, over a week-long period, people who have experienced negative relations with...
Tracking minimal residual disease with urine tumor DNA in muscle-invasive bladder cancer after neoadjuvant chemotherapy.

e16514Background: Standard-of-care for muscle-invasive bladder cancer (MIBC) consists of neoadjuvant chemotherapy (NAC) followed by radical cystectomy. The inability to noninvasively assess minimal...
Interplay between hevin, SPARC, and MDGAs: Modulators of neurexin-neuroligin transsynaptic bridges

Summary Hevin is secreted by astrocytes and its synaptogenic effects are antagonized by the related protein, SPARC. Hevin stabilizes neurexin-neuroligin transsynaptic bridges in vivo. A third protein, membrane-tethered MDGA, blocks these bridges. Here, we reveal the molecular underpinnings of a regulatory network formed by this trio of proteins. The hevin FS-EC structure differs from SPARC, in that the EC domain appears rearranged around a conserved core. The FS domain is structurally conserved and it houses nanomolar affinity binding sites for neurexin and neuroligin. SPARC also binds neurexin and neuroligin, competing with hevin, so its antagonist action is rooted in its shortened N-terminal region. Strikingly, the hevin FS domain competes with MDGA for an overlapping binding site on neuroligin, while the hevin EC domain binds the extracellular matrix protein collagen (like SPARC), so that this trio of proteins can regulate neurexin-neuroligin transsynaptic bridges and also extracellular matrix interactions, impacting synapse formation and ultimately neural circuits.
“They Wanted to Talk to a ‘Real Doctor’”: Predictors, Perpetrators, and Experiences of Racial and Ethnic Discrimination Among Healthcare Workers

Racial and ethnic diversity of healthcare workers have benefits on team functioning and patient care. However, a significant barrier to retaining diverse providers is discrimination. To assess the predictors, perpetrators, and narratives of racial discrimination among healthcare workers. Survey study. Healthcare workers employed at academic hospitals. We assessed prevalence and perpetrators of racial and ethnic discrimination using the General Ethnic Discrimination Scale. We included an open-ended question asking respondents to recount experiences of discrimination and analyzed responses using grounded theory. Of the 997 participants, 12.2% were females from backgrounds underrepresented in medicine (URM), 4.0% URM males, 10.1% Asian females, 4.7% Asian males, 49.1% non-Hispanic White females, and 19.8% non-Hispanic White males. Among healthcare workers of color, 85.2% reported discrimination. Over half of URM females (51.4%), URM males (52.6%), and Asian females (62.5%) reported discrimination by patients. About 20–25% of URM females, URM males, and Asian females reported discrimination by teachers, supervisors, co-workers, and institutions. In adjusted binary logistic models, URM females had 10.14 odds (95% confidence interval [95%CI]: 5.13, 20.02, p<.001), URM males 6.23 odds (95%CI: 2.59, 14.98, p<.001), Asian females 7.90 odds (95%CI: 4.07, 15.33, p<.001), and Asian males 2.96 odds (95% CI: 1.47, 5.97, p=.002) of reporting discrimination compared with non-Hispanic White males. Needing more support was associated with 2.51 odds (95%CI: 1.54, 4.08, p<.001) of reporting discrimination. Our qualitative findings identified that the murder of George Floyd intensified URM healthcare workers’ experiences of discrimination through increased fear of violence and requests for unpaid diversity work. Asian healthcare workers reported that pandemic-related anti-Asian violence shaped their experiences of discrimination through increased fear of violence and care refusal from patients. Our findings provide insights into experienced discrimination among healthcare workers and opportunities for hospitals to create programs that improve inclusivity.
Polymer Design for Nonviral Gene Delivery

Gene therapy continues to hold promise in treating a variety of inherited and acquired diseases. The great majority of gene therapy trials rely on viral vectors for gene transduction because of their high efficiency. Viruses remain the vectors of choice in achieving high efficiency of gene transfer in vivo. Viral vectors, however, pose safety concerns unlikely to abate in the near future [1, 2, 3]. Issues of immunogenicity and toxicity remain a challenge. Limitations of cell mitosis for retrovirus, contamination of adenovirus, and packaging constraints of adeno-associated virus (AAV) also lessen their appeal. Non-viral vectors, although achieving only transient and lower gene expression level, may be able to compete on potential advantages of ease of synthesis, low immune response, and unrestricted plasmid size [4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9]. They have the potential to be administered repeatedly with minimal host immune response. They can also satisfy many of the pharmaceutical issues better than the viral vectors, such as scale-up, storage stability, and quality control. However, non-viral gene delivery is still too inefficient to be therapeutic for many applications. Development of safe and effective non-viral gene carriers is still critical to the ultimate success of gene therapy.
Complete intrinsic coincident polarimetry using stacked organic photovoltaics

Measuring the 2 dimensional Stokes vector, to determine the polarization state of light, finds application in multiple areas, including the characterization of aerosol size distributions, target identification, quality control by evaluating the distribution of stress birefringence, resolving data channels in telecommunications, and for evaluating biological tissues in medical imaging. Conventional methods, such as channeled and division of focal plane polarimeters, usually limit spatial resolution, while others, like division of aperture or division of amplitude polarimeters, have higher complexity and less compactness. To help solve these issues, we have developed a system that uses semitransparent organic photovoltaics (OPVs) as photodetectors. The active area of the devices consist of biaxially oriented polymer films, which enables the device to preferentially absorb certain polarized states of incident light, depending on the orientation of the polymer chains. Taking advantage of the cells’ transparency and ease of processing, compared to inorganic materials, enables multiple devices to be “stacked” along the optical axis. Presently, experiments have been conducted to detect linear polarization states of light. We use three stacked OPVs, where each device can measure one of the first three Stokes parameters simultaneously, thereby ensuring high spatial and temporal resolution with inherent spatial registration. In this paper, the fabrication of the OPVs and the design and calibration technique is documented, along with experimental data, supporting the hypothesis.
Two New Views of the Galactic Center

The inner few hundred parsecs of the Galactic Center contains ∼10% of the molecular ISM in the Galaxy. The conditions in this gas are significantly different from those in molecular clouds elsewhere in the Galaxy. Typical temperatures, densities, and internal velocity dispersions are higher (Giiesten 1989). There is also evidence for a large amount of molecular gas which is not bound to distinct clouds (Stark et al. 1989). High velocity bulk gas motions and velocity discontinuities open up the possibility of a role for powerful large-scale shocks in ISM excitation. The very different nature of the dense ISM in the inner Galaxy make it useful as a laboratory for physical effects in the interstellar medium and a proving ground for ideas about the interaction of gas and stars in the nuclei of other galaxies.
DRAM technology trend

During the last few years new DRAM products have been introduced at a rate of -4 years/generation instead of 3. This trend will continue. Chip design efficiency (defined as the ratio between cell and total chip area) must be increased to >60-65% for 1 Gb and beyond. Self-alignment schemes are essential for 64 Mbit and beyond but after the first generation of 1 Gb additional technology breakthroughs are needed for a cell area of less than 8F/sup 2/ where F is design size. Conventional nitride storage dielectric, in conjunction with capacitor area enhancement techniques like HSG (hemispheric grain) and corrugated cylindrical poly electrodes, is applicable for 256 Mbit and possibly first generation 1 Gb. Barium strontium titanate will be used for 1 Gb products and beyond.
Mathematical Methods of Electromagnetic Theory

Preliminaries Electrostatics Currents and Ohm's Law Magnetostatics Electromagnetic fields changing in time Transmission lines. Method of the Laplace transformation Electromagnetodynamics of moving bodies and the principle of relativity Electromagnetic wave propagation The scattering problem References
Biologically inspired bayes learning and its dependence on the distribution of the receptive fields

In this work we explore the dependence of the Bayesian Integrate And Shift (BIAS) learning algorithm on various parameters associated with designing the retina-like distribution of the receptive fields. The parameters that we consider are: the rate of increase of the sizes of the receptive fields, the overlap among the receptive fields, the size of the central receptive field, and the number of directions along which the centers of the receptive fields are placed. We show that the learning algorithm is very robust to changes in parameter values and that the recognition rates are higher when using a retina-like distribution of receptive fields compared to uniform distributions.