cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Freakonomics as a Discourse of Perversion

In this essay, I interpret the wildly successful book series Freakonomics as a discourse of perversion. Drawing upon Lacanian psychoanalytic theory and Žižekian cultural criticism, I first explore how the books function as neoclassical economic theory in practice, then I explain how the series enjoins us to adopt reading strategies that turn us into perverts. Perversion, rather than a moral judgment, is best considered a structural inversion of the position of enjoyment, schematized as a ◊$. Freakonomics seeks to explain all human behavior as the result of a “hidden force” that organizes social reality—this force is, in every case, an ontological market structure that we all unconsciously obey. The result is that we end up identifying with the mechanisms of the capitalist free market rather than our own idiosyncratic, idiotic desires, and see our desires retroactively narrated as the result of these market mechanisms. If perversion is, following Lacan, about propping up the law, I argue that Freakonomics not only props up, but instantiates, the big Other of the market by disavowing a noneconomic space and registering all of social reality under a single market structure. Freakonomics gives readers, as Lacan puts it, the “ pere-version ” of events.
Preparing Hydra viridis with Nerve Cells and No Interstitial Cells, or with Neither of These Cell Types

To prepare specimens of Hydra viridis that either contain the normal number of nerve cells and no interstitial cells, or lack nerve cells as well as i cells and their derivative cells.
Euclidean Domains and Euclid’s Algorithm

In 300 B.C. Euclid gave a remarkably simple procedure for finding the greatest common divisor of two integers. Since that time “Euclid’s Algorithm” has evolved to become one of the most useful tools in mathematics. In this chapter we will give a fairly complete treatment of Euclid’s algorithm.
A hypertension emergency department intervention aimed at decreasing disparities: Design of a randomized clinical trial

Effective interventions to identify and treat uncontrolled hypertension (HTN), particularly in underrepresented populations that use the emergency department (ED) for primary care, are critically needed. Uncontrolled HTN contributes significantly to cardiovascular morbidity and mortality and is more frequently encountered among patients presenting to the ED as compared to the primary care setting. EDs serve as the point of entry into the health care system for high-risk patient populations, including minority and low-income patients. Previous studies have demonstrated that the prevalence of uncontrolled/undiagnosed HTN in patients presenting to the ED is alarmingly high. Thus ED engagement and early risk assessment/stratification is a feasible innovation to help close health disparity gaps in HTN. A Hypertension Emergency Department Intervention Aimed at Decreasing Disparities (AHEAD2) trial, funded by the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (NHLBI) is a three-arm single site randomized clinical pilot trial of adults presenting to the ED with Stage 2 hypertension (blood pressure [BP]>160/100) comparing (1) an ED-initiated Screening, Brief Intervention, and Referral for Treatment (SBIRT) focused on HTN, (2) the same ED-initiated SBIRT coupled with a Post-Acute Care Hypertension Transition Consultation by ED Clinical Pharmacists, and (3) usual care. The primary outcome is mean BP differences between study arms. Secondary outcomes are proportion of participants with BP control (BP<140/90mmHg), and improvements in HTN knowledge and medication adherence scores between study arms. The objective of this report is to describe the development of the AHEAD2 trial, including the methods, research infrastructure, and other features of the randomized clinical trial design.
How to Navigate External Factors: Legal, Ethical, and Political Issues

Abstract Disaster preparedness and response requires a sound understanding of preparedness, response, and recovery needs and approaches. At the same time, these critical activities and approaches are heavily influenced by factors that are impacted by many contextual factors that determine both the scope and nature of preparedness and response. Several of these factors are explored. These factors are both particular to and overlapping with both emergency management (EM) and behavioral health (BH) professions. As a result, both professions must be aware of and be prepared to, understand and accommodate to these factors as integration is pursued. The evolution of today’s disaster legislation, intent, and status is described. Comparable information regarding disaster and emergency health and BH is provided. Additional factors explored include legislative and policy definitions of what types of events activate what programs and approaches, legal and ethical issues to be considered such as confidentiality, licensure, and others.
Earn as You Learn: Connections Between Doing Qualitative Work and Living Daily Life

As a professed symbolic interactionist and qualitative researcher I often find it difficult to maintain a relatively impermeable boundary between my occupational life and my everyday experience. This feature of being a qualitative sociologist occasionally presents something of a problem while, at other times, offering distinct advantages. The problematic consequences are most apparent when conflict, fear, and other painful (but instructive) elements of the field have direct impact on my life outside the confines of the research setting in which I am currently working. The primary advantage of this merger of life and work has been brought home to me most clearly when I have been drawn into issues and worlds that excite me because they encompass my immediate personal interests and strike me as of significance in building a disciplined understanding of the basic processes of social life (Prus 1996, 141-172). In short, doing fieldwork has allowed me to call "work" involvement in the kinds of activities and interests with which I would likely be engaged were it not the way I pursued my profession. The liabilities involved in having troublesome features of the field experience slip over into my "private" life first struck me a number of years ago when I was involved in a study of narcotics enforcement. Since this was the late 1960s and most of the people with whom I associated rarely said "NO" to drugs, I was not entirely unaccustomed to using illegal substances for recreational purposes. My days were spent hanging out with narcs and drug lawyers or observing cases in the major narcotics court in Chicago. While I was rather circumspect about revealing certain aspects of my private life to those I was studying, the daily encounters with key work
Myosin II-interacting guanine nucleotide exchange factor promotes bleb retraction via stimulating cortex reassembly at the bleb membrane.

RhoA activation at the bleb membrane plays a pivotal role in promoting cortex reassembly during bleb retraction. However, it is largely unclear how RhoA is activated at the bleb membrane. Our findi...
Distribution and relative predation risk of nekton reveal complex edge effects within temperate seagrass habitat

Abstract Edge effects may be important drivers of community dynamics across marine habitat mosaics. Past research has consistently suggested that within temperate and sub-tropical seagrass habitats, organisms inhabiting meadow edges experience lower survivorship, presumably correlated with increased predation. However, these survivorship trends have not consistently translated to differences in faunal densities between edge and interior regions of seagrass meadows. We evaluated the evidence of edge effects on predation upon two dominant mesopredators within temperate eelgrass (Zostera marina) communities of the U.S. East Coast: blue crabs (Callinectes sapidus) and pinfish (Lagodon rhomboides). We considered three lines of data to arbitrate the null hypothesis that edge has no impact on distribution or predation on blue crabs or pinfish: (1) relative density as measured by catch-per-unit-effort (CPUE) of blue crabs and pinfish within edge ( 3 m from unstructured sandflat boundaries) regions of eelgrass meadows; (2) distribution of acoustically tagged red drum (Sciaenops ocellatus), a recognized predator of both blue crabs and pinfish, within eelgrass meadows (at 1-m bin resolution); and (3) relative mortality of tethered blue crabs and pinfish within edge versus interior regions of eelgrass meadows. Additionally, we manipulated seagrass shoot density to evaluate potential interactions between local habitat complexity and edge effects. We found no statistically detectable difference in catch rates of blue crabs or pinfish in edge versus interior habitats, and red drum detection frequencies were statistically indistinguishable moving from the seagrass-sandflat boundary toward the meadow interior. Despite these findings, we did record statistically and ecologically significant edge effects on predation rates of tethered blue crabs and pinfish. Counter to previous work, we found that blue crabs survived >2.5× longer, and pinfish survived >2× longer, along the meadow edge relative to interior. Furthermore, the strength of these predation-related edge effects was most notable for blue crabs within plots with higher shoot density, while the opposite pattern was true for pinfish. These findings are, in part, consistent with the dichotomy apparent in the seagrass literature with respect to edge effects on faunal density and survivorship. Additionally, our work provides new detail on how habitat edges may affect the population ecology of larger bodied, more mobile mesopredator species that have not received as much attention in previous studies (i.e., higher survivorship possible along edges).
Correlation between Regional Cerebral Saturation and Invasive Cardiac Index Monitoring after Heart Transplantation Surgery.

The present study assessed the correlations between cerebral regional saturation detected by near infrared spectroscopy (NIRS) and cardiac index (CI) measured by pulmonary artery catheter. This was a retrospective cohort study conducted in the cardiac intensive care unit in a tertiary care children's hospital. Patients younger than 18 years of age who underwent heart transplantation and had a pulmonary artery catheter on admission to the pediatric cardiac intensive care unit between January, 2010, and August, 2013, were included. There were no interventions. A total of 10 patients were included with median age of 14 years (range, 7–17). Indications for transplantation were dilated cardiomyopathy (n = 9) and restrictive cardiomyopathy (n = 1). Mixed venous oxygen saturation (SvO2), cerebral regional tissue saturation (rSO2), and CI were recorded hourly for 8 to 92 hours post-transplantation. Spearman's rank correlation coefficient was used to assess correlations between SvO2 and cerebral rSO2 and between CI and cerebral rSO2. A total of 410 data points were collected. Median, 25th and 75th percentiles of cerebral rSO2, CI, and SvO2 were 65% (54–69), 2.9 L/min/m2 (2.2–4.0), and 75% (69–79), respectively. The correlation coefficient between cerebral rSO2 and CI was 0.104 (p = 0.034) and that for cerebral rSO2 and SvO2 was 0.11 (p = 0.029). The correlations between cerebral rSO2 and CI and between cerebral rSO2 and SvO2 were weak. Cerebral rSO2 as detected by NIRS may not be an accurate indicator of CI in critically ill patients.
Using MRI derived patient-specific flow models and flow imaging for flow diverting stent rehearsal

Background Flow diverting stents have recently been approved for use in treating vascular geometries not amenable to standard coiling or clipping. By using multiple stents, one inside another, the amount of blood passing through the stent walls can be controlled. Often, these stents must be deployed in aneurysms with tortuous vessels and complex geometries. The ability to rehearse stent deployment as well as to determine the number of stents required beforehand would be of great benefit to clinicians. In addition, the ability to non-invasively track the effects of these stents once deployed in vivo would be helpful in assessing whether the stent was having the intended effect. In our work, we show the utility of patient-specific flow models derived from CE-MRA to rehearse transcatheter stent placement and to assess the resulting flow conditions.
Assessment of Neurologic Function

Despite multiple advances in neuroimaging, monitoring of intracranial hemodynamics, and electrodiagnosis, serial neurological examinations remains the primary method to detect clinical changes in the child with potential or ongoing neurologic impairment. Neurologic dysfunction must be discriminated from sedation, residual anesthesia, neuromuscular blockade and psychological adjustment to the pediatric intensive care unit (PICU) environment. Toxins, infections, metabolic diseases and hypoxia tend to cause generalized cerebral dysfunction with relative sparing of the brainstem structures. Tumors, trauma and focal ischemia tend to cause localized lesions that can manifest as neurologic dysfunction involving the cerebral hemispheres, brainstem or both.
The Role of Transplantation in Favorable-Risk Acute Myeloid Leukemia

Favorable-risk acute myeloid leukemia (AML) is a subgroup of AML that has been shown to have clinically unique behavior and improved response to therapy based on distinct molecular biology. Traditional post-remission therapies, including intensive consolidation chemotherapy as well as autologous or allogeneic transplantation, have been associated with improved clinical outcomes in this subpopulation. Still, the term favorable-risk incorrectly implies a high likelihood of long-term survival. In fact, most studies show that among patients in first complete remission (CR1) whose disease is characterized by favorable-risk features, long-term survival is achieved in only 40-60%. Notwithstanding that nearly half such patients may sustain relapse, there has been little enthusiasm for autologous or allogeneic stem cell transplantation as post-remission treatment for patients with otherwise favorable disease features on the basis of an excessively high rate of treatment-related morbidity and mortality. Given the remarkable advances in supportive care and immunoprophylaxis with stem cell transplantation over the last several decades and a shift toward risk-adapted therapy, standard post-remission strategies for favorable-risk AML in CR1 are being re-evaluated.
Impact of controlled and uncontrolled charging of electrical vehicles on a residential distribution grid

With the increasing penetration of the plug-in electric vehicle (PEV) market, the number of vehicles charging on the electric grid is also going to increase. This will in turn have a drastic impact on the electric grid stability and demand, especially for uncontrolled charging scenarios. Uncontrolled charging will lead to increased residential peak demand, and time-of-use utility rate schemes are likely to cause a significant increase in the amount of ramping in the demand. It is expected that the majority of charging will occur at home during nighttime hours, and controlling at home charging will be vital to mitigating the impact of PEVs on the grid. This paper evaluates the impacts on feeder demand and grid voltage instability due to PEV uncontrolled versus controlled charging
Aerodynamic and Structural Evaluation of an SMA Slat-Cove Filler Using Computational and Experimental Tools at Model Scale

Transport class aircraft produce a significant amount of airframe noise during approach and landing due to exposed geometric discontinuities that are hidden during cruise. The leading-edge slat is a primary contributor to this noise. In previous work, use of a slat-cove filler (SCF) has proven to reduce airframe noise by filling the cove aft of the slat, eliminating the circulation region within the cove. The goal of this work is to extend and improve upon past experimental and computational efforts on the evaluation of a scaled high-lift wing with a super elastic shape memory alloy (SMA) SCF. Recent turbulence measurements of the Texas A&M University 3ft-by-4ft wind tunnel allow for more accurate representation of the flow through the test section in computational fluid dynamics (CFD) analysis. The finite volume models used in CFD analysis are coupled to structural finite element models using a framework compatible with an SMA constitutive model and significant deformation, enabling fluid-structure interaction (FSI) analysis of the SCF. Both fully-deployed and retraction/deployment cases are considered. The displacement of the SCF on the experimental model is measured at various stages of retraction/deployment using a laser displacement sensor and digital image correlation system. Due to a lack of structural stiffness in the 3D-printed plastic slat during retraction and SCF stowage, a rigid steel slat is incorporated into the physical model and preliminary wind tunnel tests are conducted at multiple angles of attack in both retracted and deployed configurations.
Cellular Identification and Quantification of Senescence-Associated β-Galactosidase Activity In Vivo

Senescence-associated β-galactosidase (hereafter SA-β-gal) staining has now been employed for more than 20 years to identify the presence of senescent cells (Dimri et al., Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A 92:9363-9367, 1995). These cells, characterized by a permanent cell-cycle arrest (Hayflick and Moorhead, Exp Cell Res 25:585-621, 1961) and the production of a distinct secretory phenotype of cytokines, chemokines, and proteases (Coppe et al., PLoS Biol 6:2853-2868, 2008), have received much attention in recent years for their impacts on diverse biological processes. Here we describe a method to identify and quantify the specific cells that become senescent in vivo using transmission electron microscopy after SA-β-gal staining that can be used in countless scenarios.
Community Service-Learning for Spanish Heritage Learners: Making connections and building identities

This book proposes community service-learning as a critical pedagogy that connects learners and communities to address key challenges in heritage language education. The book’s purpose is two-fold: to fill a crucial gap in empirical research on community service-learning in the heritage language context, as well as to provide language educators and practitioners essential guidelines for designing community service-learning courses, with particular attention paid to the characteristics and needs of Spanish heritage language learners. This book presents compelling evidence demonstrating the central role community service-learning plays in developing heritage language learners’ identities, connections to the heritage language community, language attitudes, and social, cultural, and sociolinguistic awareness. Importantly, this book also addresses the often-overlooked perspectives of community partners and liaisons. As the first original research monograph on community service-learning for Spanish heritage language learners, this pioneering book will undoubtedly aid students, instructors and administrators across all levels of language education.
Switch Drugs Vis-à-Vis Rx and OTC: Policy, Marketing, and Research Considerations:

The over-the-counter drug market is expected to nearly double in sales from 1990 to 2000, attributed primarily to a growing product class: prescription drugs that are “switched” to over-the-counter...
Measured maternal prepregnancy anthropometry and newborn DNA methylation.

AIM We examined maternal prepregnancy anthropometry and cord blood DNA methylation. METHODS Associations between maternal measures (i.e., weight, height, waist circumference, hip circumference, skinfolds, leptin) and methylation β-values at each CpG (measured by the Infinium MethylationEPIC BeadChip) were estimated among 391 singletons. RESULTS Total of 18% of mothers were obese (body mass index ≥ 30) and 27% centrally obese (waist-to-hip ratio ≥ 0.85). One Bonferroni significant CpG with respect to obesity (cg02975187) and two with central obesity (cg12053563, cg12549355) were identified (p < 6 × 10-8). A suggestive association (p < 10-6) was observed at SFRS8 with increasing body mass index. SFRS8 was previously identified with propensity for weight gain in adults. CONCLUSION While associations identified with multiple measures related to maternal adiposity suggest different pathways, methylation differences were small in magnitude.
Comparison of Manikin Versus Porcine Trachea Models When Teaching Emergent Cricothyroidotomy Among Emergency Medicine Residents

Objectives Emergent cricothyroidotomy (EC) is a rarely used yet lifesaving procedure that is important for an emergency physician to master throughout his or her training. We evaluated the difference in utilization of a manikin or porcine model among emergency medicine (EM) residents when teaching EC. We also evaluated the difference in the models using two different commonly utilized and taught techniques: "scalpel-finger-bougie" (SFB) technique and the Melker technique (MT). Methods This was a prospective crossover design. Instructions about the procedure were provided; study participants were randomly assigned to one of two groups and performed cricothyrotomy on both manikin and porcine simulators using both the Melker and the SFB techniques. Each group was started with the technique on the second simulator opposite what they started with on the first simulator. After the procedures, study participants completed a questionnaire that used the same format for both groups. All survey questions required a 7-point Likert scale response. Confidence, difficulty, reality of the anatomy, and landmarks were compared. Results Fifteen EM residents participated in the study. Compared to the porcine-first group, the manikin-first group rated the anatomy more realistic (question 5) after their first attempt (6.29 vs. 5.87) than their second attempt (using the porcine model; 4.29 vs. 5.62; main effect for attempts [first vs. second] p = 0.027; interaction p = 0.074). Interestingly, the porcine model-first group rated the landmarks (question 6) significantly easier to find in both attempts (6.87 vs. 5.86 on the first attempt and 6.50 vs. 5.57 on the second attempt; p = 0.012). Twelve participants (80%) chose SFB as their preferred technique to use in real-life scenario. Conclusion The Manikin model tends to be more realistic in cricothyrotomy simulation than the porcine model. The influence of fresh pig skin overlying the porcine model may require further research. Landmark identification during the procedure was easier on both models when participants start with the porcine model. Participants prefer the SFB over MT if faced with a real-life scenario.
Breast lesion classification based on dynamic contrast-enhanced magnetic resonance images sequences with long short-term memory networks.

We present a breast lesion classification methodology, based on four-dimensional (4-D) dynamic contrast-enhanced magnetic resonance images (DCE-MRI), using recurrent neural networks in combination with a pretrained convolutional neural network (CNN). The method enables to capture not only the two-dimensional image features but also the temporal enhancement patterns presented in DCE-MRI. We train a long short-term memory (LSTM) network on temporal sequences of feature vectors extracted from the dynamic MRI sequences. To capture the local changes in lesion enhancement, the feature vectors are obtained from various levels of a pretrained CNN. We compare the LSTM method’s performance to that of a CNN fine-tuned on “RGB” MRIs, formed by precontrast, first, and second postcontrast MRIs. LSTM significantly outperformed the fine-tuned CNN, resulting in AUCLSTM = 0.88 and AUCfine-tuned = 0.84, p = 0.00085, in the task of distinguishing benign and malignant lesions. Our method captures clinically useful information carried by the full 4-D dynamic MRI sequence and outperforms the standard fine-tuning method.
Nature of the First Electron Transfer in Electrochemical Ammonia Activation in a Nonaqueous Medium

Decreasing costs of renewable sources of electricity will increase the viability of electrochemical processes in chemical manufacturing. To this end, improved understanding of electrochemical N–H b...
Perils and pitfalls of probiotic quasi-experimental studies for primary prevention of Clostridioides difficile infection: A review of the evidence

Background Primary prevention of Clostridioides (Clostridium) difficile infections (CDI) is an important but challenging infection control goal for hospitals and health care facilities. Enhanced infection control protocols have reduced CDI rates, but the problem persists and administration of probiotics to patients at risk could be very useful if shown to be safe and effective. Randomized controlled trials are largely impractical for primary prevention CDI trials due to large required study sizes and quasi-experimental studies are becoming more frequent as a method to assess this problem. Objective Our goal is to review the published quasi-experimental studies adding probiotics to their infection control protocols to reduce CDI and determine the strengths and limitations for this type of study design. Methods The literature was searched using PubMed, Google Scholar, Medline and Cochrane Databases and gastrointestinal meeting abstracts from January 2000 to January 2020 for quasi-experimental intervention studies testing various probiotics for the primary prevention of CDI. Results We found 28 studies with 7 different types of probiotics (10 studies implementing a hospital-wide intervention, 6 studies targeting 1-3 wards, and 12 studies on either sustainability, cost-effectiveness or subgroup analysis). Some probiotics demonstrated a significant reduction in CDI rates; all four of the probiotic types given only on specific wards and 3 of the 4 probiotics given facility-wide. However, this type of study design was influenced by numerous factors which must be carefully accounted for in the analysis. Conclusions Some probiotics may be an effective addition to infection control protocols to prevent C. difficile infections, but careful study design considerations are needed.
Transcriptional Profiling of CD8+ CMV-Specific T Cell Functional Subsets Obtained Using a Modified Method for Isolating High-Quality RNA From Fixed and Permeabilized Cells

Previous studies suggest that the presence of antigen-specific polyfunctional T cells is correlated with improved pathogen clearance, disease control, and clinical outcomes; however, the molecular mechanisms responsible for the generation, function, and survival of polyfunctional T cells remain unknown. The study of polyfunctional T cells has been, in part, limited by the need for intracellular cytokine staining (ICS), necessitating fixation and cell membrane permeabilization that leads to unacceptable degradation of RNA. Adopting elements from prior research efforts, we developed and optimized a modified protocol for the isolation of high-quality RNA (i.e., RIN > 7) from primary human T cells following aldehyde-fixation, detergent-based permeabilization, intracellular cytokines staining, and sorting. Additionally, this method also demonstrated utility preserving RNA when staining for transcription factors. This modified protocol utilizes an optimized combination of an RNase inhibitor and high-salt buffer that is cost-effective while maintaining the ability to identify and resolve cell populations for sorting. Overall, this protocol resulted in minimal loss of RNA integrity, quality, and quantity during cytoplasmic staining of cytokines and subsequent flourescence-activated cell sorting. Using this technique, we obtained the transcriptional profiles of functional subsets (i.e., non-functional, monofunctional, bifunctional, polyfunctional) of CMV-specific CD8+T cells. Our analyses demonstrated that these functional subsets are molecularly distinct, and that polyfunctional T cells are uniquely enriched for transcripts involved in viral response, inflammation, cell survival, proliferation, and metabolism when compared to monofunctional cells. Polyfunctional T cells demonstrate reduced activation-induced cell death and increased proliferation after antigen re-challenge. Further in silico analysis of transcriptional data suggested a critical role for STAT5 transcriptional activity in polyfunctional cell activation. Pharmacologic inhibition of STAT5 was associated with a significant reduction in polyfunctional cell cytokine expression and proliferation, demonstrating the requirement of STAT5 activity not only for proliferation and cell survival, but also cytokine expression. Finally, we confirmed this association between CMV-specific CD8+ polyfunctionality with STAT5 signaling also exists in immunosuppressed transplant recipients using single cell transcriptomics, indicating that results from this study may translate to this vulnerable patient population. Collectively, these results shed light on the mechanisms governing polyfunctional T cell function and survival and may ultimately inform multiple areas of immunology, including but not limited to the development of new vaccines, CAR-T cell therapies, and adoptive T cell transfer.
Worsening racial disparities in patients undergoing anatomic and reverse total shoulder arthroplasty in the United States

Background The most comprehensive health care policy changes aimed at reducing racial disparities were implemented in 2011 and continue today. It is unknown if these initiatives have led to a decrease in racial differences among patients undergoing total shoulder arthroplasty. The purpose of this study is to examine racial differences in procedural rates, complications, and mortality in patients undergoing total shoulder arthroplasty. Methods National rates of utilization of primary anatomic (TSA) and reverse total shoulder arthroplasty (RTSA) were analyzed from 2012 to 2017. Population-adjusted and gender-adjusted procedural rates were trended over time and standardized based on insurance status. Multivariable logistic regression was used to determine racial differences in complications and mortality. Results In 2012, the incidence of TSA and RTSA among white patients was 18.7/100,000 compared to 5.1/100,000 among black patients (difference: 13.6/100,000) and increased to 36.9/100,000 in white patients and 10.8/100,000 in black patients in 2017 (difference: 26.1/100,000). This equated to an increase in the race disparity by 12.5/100,000 over the study period. Blacks underwent lower rates of TSA and RTSA than whites regardless of insurance status. Black patients had a longer length of hospital stay and a higher rate of discharge to facility. Black patients had increased odds of complications, including acute myocardial infarction (odds ratio [OR] 1.43), pulmonary embolism (OR 1.97), acute renal failure (OR 1.40), sepsis (OR 1.68), and surgical site infection (OR 2.19). Black patients had increased odds of mortality compared with white patients (OR 2.88). Conclusion Racial disparities in patients undergoing TSA and RTSA are worsening over time. Black patients undergo TSA and RTSA at lower rates than white patients regardless of insurance status and have increased odds of complications and mortality. Improved initiatives are needed to reduce these racial disparities and further research is warranted to understand their root causes.
A Hybrid Model for Predicting the End-Point Phosphorus Content of Electric Arc Furnace

A hybrid model based on the combination of k-means method, BP neural network and decision tree algorithm is proposed for predicting the end-point phosphorus content of electric arc furnace. The industrial data from electric arc furnace is filtered firstly by the box-plot method, and the processed data of end-point phosphorus content is classified into three clusters by k-means analysis method. Then, three BP neural networks with different parameters for each cluster are established to deal with the data overlapping problem and increase the model accuracy. In order to obtain the optimum prediction result, a new method combined with the posterior knowledge of dephosphorization ratio and the decision tree algorithm is employed. With this method, the results predicted, respectively, by the three different BP neural networks are merged according to the merging rule set established by decision tree algorithm and the identified result is taken as the final end-point phosphorus content. In comparison with the traditional BP neural network and deep layer neural network, the hybrid model increases the prediction accuracy of end-point P content to 97.8% with ±0.006% error range, and meanwhile for the error ranges of ±0.005% and ±0.004%, the prediction accuracy is 94.2% and 83.0%, respectively.
Cannabinoids in Oral Fluid: Limiting Potential Sources of Cannabidiol Conversion to Δ9- and Δ8-Tetrahydrocannabinol

In late 2019 the National Laboratory Certification Program (NLCP) published an article reporting on the potential analytical conversion of 7-carboxy-cannabidiol (CBD-COOH) to 11-nor-9-carboxy-Δ9-tetrahydrocannabinol-9-carboxylic acid (THC-COOH) in urine samples. (1) The same conversion is possible in oral fluid with the parent analyte cannabidiol (CBD) converting to Δ9-tetrahydrocannabinol (Δ9-THC) and Δ8-tetrahydrocannabinol (Δ8-THC) under strong acidic conditions. With the recent rise in states legalizing the use of THC and the availability of products containing only CBD, unless the analytical in vitro conversions are controlled, the detection of Δ9-THC or Δ8-THC in oral fluid may not clarify whether the donor was using a CBD product, licit or illicit THC product. Authentic oral fluid samples submitted for cannabinoid analysis were subjected to multiple sample preparation procedures and extraction methods to determine the conditions that allow CBD to convert to THC. CBD single analyte controls prepared from a certified THC-free source were added to the batch to monitor the rate of conversion. Samples were prepared using a base hydrolysis, solid phase extraction, derivatization, and analysis by liquid chromatography with tandem mass spectrometry (LC-MS-MS). The base hydrolysis and derivatization were tested independently and did not contribute to the conversion rate. Adjusting the pH of the sample preparation and extraction from pH 2.0 to pH 5.0 changed the conversion rate from 5% to 1%. A pH of 6.0 was not strong enough to extract the cannabinoids efficiently. Removing the acid component of the preparation and extraction procedure eliminated the conversion to THC; however, this did reduce the analyte recovery depending on which extraction column was used. Processing time also contributed to the conversion rate. With smaller trial runs, conversion was not always seen but with larger validation batches low level conversion of 1-2% was observed. A fully validated LC-MS-MS method utilizing solid-phase extraction was developed for CBD, Δ9-THC, Δ8-THC, and cannabinol (CBN). The method specifically targets those analytes found in oral fluid after CBD administration and those that are seen during in vitro CBD conversion. CBD administration was performed using a certified THC-free CBD control.
Disinfection and conditions associated with thermo-assisted drying and decontamination inconsistently produce negative PRRSV rRT-PCR results on metal surfaces.

Abstract Because contaminated livestock trailers are a significant risk for transmitting viruses between herds, various methods of washing, disinfecting, and thermo-assisted drying and decontamination (TADD) have been evaluated for their effectiveness in inactivating porcine reproductive and respiratory syndrome virus (PRRSV) on contaminated surfaces. Information on when to expect negative qRT-PCR results after adequate trailer sanitation is lacking. The objective of this study was to evaluate whether there are conditions associated with washing-disinfectant-TADD procedures that will consistently produce a negative qRT-PCR result for the purpose of monitoring compliance with trailer sanitation and decontamination protocols for PRRSV on metal surfaces. 144 diamond plate aluminum coupons were spiked with PRRSV or phosphate-buffered saline (PBS) and treated with a designated disinfectant protocol. Disinfectants evaluated included multiple accelerated® hydrogen peroxide (AHP) disinfectants and a quaternary ammonium and glutaraldehyde combination disinfectant. Disinfectant was applied for 5 or 60 minutes of contact time at either 20 °C or −10 °C in a matrix of feces or PBS. All coupons were heated until the surface temperature of the coupon reached 71 °C and then held for 10 minutes to simulate TADD under field conditions. Post-treatment swabs for all treatment groups, except negative control groups, were positive by PRRSV qRT-PCR. Under the conditions evaluated in this study, consistently negative qRT-PCR results after treatments were not found. Therefore, for the purpose of monitoring compliance with trailer sanitation and decontamination protocols for PRRSV, alternatives to qRT-PCR should be explored.
A Rapid Induction Overexpression System for the Fission Yeast Schizosaccharomyces pombe

The fission yeast Schizosaccharomyces pombe is an excellent genetically tractable model organism used in the study of conserved eukaryotic cellular biology. One genetic tool in the assessment of gene function is the in vivo overexpression of proteins. Existing overexpression tools have limitations of induction kinetics, dynamic range, and/or system-wide changes due to the induction conditions or inducer. Here, I describe the methodology for the use of a plasmid-based long non-coding RNA (lncRNA)-regulated overexpression system that is induced by the addition of thiamine. This system, termed the pTIN-system (thiamine inducible), utilizes the fast repression kinetics of the thiamine-regulated nmt1 + promoter integrated with the lncRNA regulated tgp1 + promoter. The advantages of the pTIN-system are rapid induction kinetics of gene expression, broad dynamic range, and tunable expression.
Physics of Crystal-to-Glass Transformations

Publisher Summary This chapter focuses on the relationship between melting and solid-state amorphization. It discusses that amorphization is a disorder-driven melting process, occurring below the glass transition temperature, and that a unified approach to heating- and disorder-induced melting is found in the generalized version of the Lindemann melting hypothesis. This hypothesis assumes that the melting of a defective crystal occurs when the sum of the static and thermal mean-square displacements reaches a critical fraction of the interatomic spacing, which was shown to be equivalent to a generalized T o -concept resulting from a disorder-induced softening of the shear modulus. Comparisons with available experimental data and with the predictions of microscopic defect-mediated melting models were made to establish the validity of the generalized Lindemann melting criterion. The chapter explores that the disorder-induced melting concept provides a new thermodynamic approach to understand other materials problems, including brittle fracture and stress-corrosion cracking. Stress-corrosion cracking is viewed as premelting of high-energy grain boundaries, because of the combined effects of applied stresses and the segregation of insoluble impurities in lowering the melting temperature of grain boundaries to the ambient temperature. Stress-induced melting may also occur in the vicinity of moving crack tips. However, as revealed by atomistic simulations, the local melting is a transient phenomenon at elevated temperatures and, hence it is observable only at temperatures below the glass transition temperature where the liquid phase persists indefinitely as a glass.
The emerging measure of effectiveness for human resource management

This paper describes and explores an emerging integrated measure of effectiveness for human resource management functions. The emerging measure basically incorporates both the mission support and employee support goals as two criteria of effectiveness. The paper next analyzes the measures of effectiveness that an agency uses for its performance appraisal function. A questionnaire was sent to 298 members of the professional staff of a large state agency in the mid‐west. The objectives were to assess the need and feasibility for the application of this emerging measure of effectiveness. The study found that even though performance appraisal was widely practiced as a mission support function, there was strong support for the use of this integrated measure of effectiveness. The paper concludes with offering a design for a management development workshop session which focuses on developing a complementary relationship among different personnel functions.
Image Analysis of PET Data with the aid of CT and MR Images

A new technique that takes into account variations in subject position, orientation, pixel size and slice thickness has been developed for the registration of brain images from different modalities. This method uses surface-fitting algorithms which minimize the mismatch between models of the external surface as constructed from each scan. An advantage relative to techniques that have been previously reported is the absence of the requirement for identification of either internal or external landmarks. Models of the external surface of the head are derived from transmission scans in positron emission tomography (PET) and from images obtained by using X-ray computed tomography (CT) and magnetic resonance (MR). The surface models are constructed from multiple external contours determined on various transverse slices. The fitting procedure yields a set of transformation parameters that represent the translation, rotation and linear scaling factors between two sets of images. Results from preliminary studies indicate that registration accuracy of 2–3 mm can be achieved between PET and CT or MR images.
SOAlive Service Catalog: A Simplified Approach to Describing, Discovering and Composing Situational Enterprise Services

SOAlive aims at providing a community-centric, hosted environment and, in particular, at simplifying the description and discovery of situational enterprise services via a service catalog. We argue that a service community has an impact not only on users and services, but also on the environment itself. Specifically, our position is that a service catalog adds value to users, and is itself enriched, by its incorporation into a community-centric service hosting environment. In addition, analyses of web services directories suggest that a catalog service for enterprise services can be better provided by using a simpler content model that better fits REST, taking advantage of collaborative practices to annotate catalog entries with informal semantic descriptions via tagging, providing a mechanism for embedding invocations of discovered services, and allowing syntactic descriptions to be refined via usage monitoring. The SOAlive service catalog defines a flexible content model, a discovery function that navigates the cloud of tag annotations associated with services in a Web 2.0 fashion, and a service description refinement function that allows the actual use of a service to refine the service description stored in the catalog.
Comparing performance bounds for chi-square monitors with parameter uncertainty

This paper compares methods for evaluating the performance of chi-square monitors while conservatively accounting for parameter uncertainty. Chi-square monitors, like the signal deformation monitors used in global positioning system augmentation, detect failures that threaten safety-critical navigation. A chi-square monitor creates a quadratic test statistic from a random vector (nominally zero mean and Gaussian distributed). Gaussian model parameters, which may be poorly characterized for a real system, strongly influence chi-square monitor performance. Through a combination of theory and simulation, it is established that tight yet conservative modeling of parameter uncertainty is possible with a generalized chi-square bound for false-alarm risk and with an ellipsoid bound for missed-detection risk.
Detection of Tumor-Specific Antigens in an Equine Sarcoid Cell Line

Indirect immunofluorescence and lymphocyte cytotoxicity experiments demonstrated the presence of a tumor-specific antigen(s) on the surface of cells from an equine sarcoid cell line (Mc1). Autologous serum (taken from the horse from which the Mc1 cells were derived) and sera from three other sarcoid-bearing horses revealed a similar membrane immunofluorescence when reacted with Mc1 cells, indicating the existence of cross-reacting antibodies. Results of serum colony inhibition experiments indicate that these antibodies are not cytotoxic. Incubation of Mc1 cells with autologous lymphocytes resulted in a toxicity to Mc1 cells, thereby demonstrating a cell-mediated immune reaction to autologous tumor cells.
Is My Software "Good Enough" to Release? - A Probabilistic Assessment

We present the basics of a probabilistic methodology to assess the overall quality of software preparatory to its release through the evaluation of process and product evidence, the " 'good enough' to release" (GETR) methodology, in this paper. GETR methodology has three main elements: a model whose elements represent activities and artifacts identified in the literature as being effective assessors of software quality, a process for populating certain parts of the model, and methods for analyzing the importance of contributions made by individual evidence to the determination of overall system quality. First, the methodology's components are briefly introduced. A demonstration of how the methodology can be applied is then given through two case studies reviewing release assessments for in-house developed analytical tools. The robustness of the model is also illustrated by the results of the case studies
Stator current-based sliding mode observer for sensorless vector contorl of doubly-fed induction geneartors

This paper proposes a novel rotor position estimation algorithm for the vector control of the doubly-fed induction generators (DFIGs) in wind power applications. The proposed algorithm uses a sliding mode observer (SMO) to estimate the rotor position information from the stator currents. The estimated rotor position is then used for the position sensorless vector control of the DFIG. The proposed SMO-based rotor position estimation algorithm is not sensitive to the variations of machine parameters and, therefore, is robust to the machine parameter uncertainty. The effectiveness of the proposed sensorless vector control scheme is confirmed by simulation results for a 2-MW DFIG-based wind energy conversion system (WECS) in MATLAB/Simulink and experimental results for a 7.5-kW DFIG-based WECS simulator. The proposed sensorless control scheme will improve the robustness and reliability of the DFIG-based WECSs.
Surface Energy, Wetting and Adhesion

Abstract Surface energies of solids can be estimated using contact angles of liquids of known surface tension and susceptibilities for polar or acid-base interactions. Interfacial tensions and work of adhesion can be calculated using these estimated energies. There are three circumstances in which performance or bond strengths are related directly to surface energies: when separation occurs interfacially, when interfaces are not completely wetted, and when third phases are present at the interface.