cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Increasing cumulative exposure to volatile anesthetic agents is associated with poorer neurodevelopmental outcomes in children with hypoplastic left heart syndrome.

Abstract Objectives Despite improved survival in children with hypoplastic left heart syndrome (HLHS), significant concern persists regarding their neurodevelopmental (ND) outcomes. Previous studies have identified patient factors, such as prematurity and genetic syndromes, to be associated with worse ND outcomes. However, no consistent relationships have been identified among modifiable management factors, including cardiopulmonary bypass strategies, and ND outcomes after cardiac surgery in infancy. Studies in immature animals, including primates, have demonstrated neurodegeneration and apoptosis in the brain after certain levels and extended durations of anesthetic exposure. Retrospective human studies have also suggested relationships between adverse ND effects and anesthetic exposure. Methods Cumulative minimum alveolar concentration hours (MAC-hrs) of exposure to volatile anesthetic agents (VAA) (desflurane, halothane, isoflurane, and sevoflurane) were collected from an anesthetic database and medical record review for 96 patients with HLHS or variants. ND testing was performed between ages 4 and 5 years, including full-scale IQ, verbal IQ, performance IQ, and processing speed. Four generalized linear modes were hypothesized a priori and tested using a Gaussian (normal) distribution with an identity link. Results Cumulative VAA exposure ranged from 0 to 35.3 MAC-hrs (median 7.5 hours). Using specified covariates identified previously as significant predictors of ND outcomes, statistically significant relationships were identified between total MAC-hrs exposure and worse full-scale IQ and verbal IQ scores (P's Conclusions Increased cumulative MAC-hrs exposure to VAA is associated with worse ND outcomes in certain domains in children with HLHS and variants.
Disaggregating UCERF3 for Site-Specific Applications

We present methods to simplify the use of the Uniform California Earthquake Rupture Forecast 3 (UCERF3) in site-specific seismic hazard analyses. UCERF3 defines the “state-of-practice” for hazard a...
Study of Influencing Factors of Needle and Syringe Sharing among IDUs in Nanning City

[Objective]To understand the behavior of needle and syringe sharing among IDUs in Nanning City,and analyze the influencing factors.[Methods]Anonymous questionnaire survey was adopted to investigate HIV/AIDS prevention knowledge and behavior among 733 IDUs from local community and drug rehabilitation center.[Results]The rate of needle and syringe sharing among local IDUs was 53.3%.Fifty one out of 391IDUs who had been reported needle and syringe sharing shared needle and syringe in the last injection.Multivariate logistic regression analysis indicated that education,age for the first time injecting drug using,experience in drug rehabilitation center and sexual intercourse with commercial sex worker in the past year were the significant factors when the behavior of ever sharing needle and syringe was dependent.The multivariate logistic regression analysis on sexual behavior with commercial sex worker indicated that gender,age for the first time injecting drug using,sharing needle and syringe were the significant factors.When referring to needle and syringe sharing in the last injection of drug,the regression indicated that education and the experience in drug rehabilitation center were significant factors.[Conclusion]Education is the significant factor for both ever needle and syringe sharing behavior and needle and syringe sharing in the last injection of drug.Experience in drug rehabilitation center can change the behavior of needle and syringe sharing.Rich knowledge about HIV/AIDS may not be able to reduce the behavior of needle and syringe sharing.High risk behavior Intervention should be more emphasized as well as HIV/AIDS-related knowledge education.
Multiple time series fisher periodicity test for the detection of the distributed new shrew attacks

We focus on the detection of Low Rate Denial of Service Attacks (LR DoS) based on their spectral properties. Fisher g-statistics test for one time series was used to detect low frequency periodic bursts of Shrew and New Shrew attacks. The main contribution of this paper is the extension of Fisher g-statistic test to multiple time series. We developed an algorithm based on Fisher G-statistics test that identifies all attackers of the Distributed New Shrew attacks. Numerical examples of Fisher g-statistics test for one time series and of Fisher G-statistics test for multiple time series are provided. We have simulated the Shrew, New Shrew and Distributed New Shrew attacks with an NS-3 simulator.
What makes a good theory practical

This paper builds upon Zaltman’s call for greater imagination in theory and practice by exploring the role of imagination in building and applying good theories. It begins by juxtaposing everyday associations to the concept of imagination with scientists’ goal of developing theories that are objectively grounded in data. In research, imagination must focus on explaining why an effect may have occurred. Then, the practical value of such theorizing is explored. It is argued that good theories, though imagined, should to be viewed as real in that they offer a valuable viewpoint for solving practical problems. They expand the real world of the practitioner rather than existing in some ivory tower outside that world. A different sort of imagination, however, is required to move from an abstract theory to an intervention that can be implemented in the real world. Good theory can be highly practical but it requires separating research designed to build and test theory from research designed to evaluate the efficacy of theory-inspired interventions to real world problems.
Standard Setting Organisations and Standard Essential Patents: Voting and Markets

The analysis provides conditions under which standard setting organisations (SSOs) choose efficient technology standards. I introduce a two-stage game with both voting and market competition. In equilibrium, standards and market outcomes are efficient even with market power from scarce capacity and standard essential patents (SEPs). I show that a drastic innovation with SEPs generates greater social welfare than a less efficient standard without SEPs. A key finding is that voting power and market power have counterbalancing effects. The discussion helps explain empirical observation of differences in SSO voting rules, intellectual property (IP) rules, membership and alliances.
ACE Phenotyping as a Guide Toward Personalized Therapy With ACE Inhibitors.

BACKGROUND Angiotensin-converting enzyme (ACE) inhibitors (ACEI) are widely used in the management of cardiovascular diseases but with significant interindividual variability in the patient's response. OBJECTIVES To investigate whether interindividual variability in the response to ACE inhibitors is explained by the "ACE phenotype"-for example, variability in plasma ACE concentration, activity, and conformation and/or the degree of ACE inhibition in each individual. METHODS The ACE phenotype was determined in plasma of 14 patients with hypertension treated chronically for 4 weeks with 40 mg enalapril (E) or 20 mg E + 16 mg candesartan (EC) and in 20 patients with hypertension treated acutely with a single dose (20 mg) of E with or without pretreatment with hydrochlorothiazide. The ACE phenotyping included (1) plasma ACE concentration; (2) ACE activity (with 2 substrates: Hip-His-Leu and Z-Phe-His-Leu and calculation of their ratio); (3) detection of ACE inhibitors in patient's blood (indicator of patient compliance) and the degree of ACE inhibition (ie, adherence); and (4) ACE conformation. RESULTS Enalapril reduced systolic and diastolic blood pressure in most patients; however, 20% of patients were considered nonresponders. Chronic treatment results in 40% increase in serum ACE concentrations, with the exception of 1 patient. There was a trend toward better response to ACEI among patients who had a higher plasma ACE concentration. CONCLUSION Due to the fact that "20% of patients do not respond to ACEI by blood pressure drop," the initial blood ACE level could not be a predictor of blood pressure reduction in an individual patient. However, ACE phenotyping provides important information about conformational and kinetic changes in ACE of individual patients, and this could be a reason for resistance to ACE inhibitors in some nonresponders.
Breast cancer susceptibility alleles and ovarian cancer risk in two study populations

B81 Recent whole genome association studies have identified several novel risk alleles for breast cancer, including variants of the FGFR2, TNRC9, MAP3K1, and LSP1 genes. Given the role of hormones in the etiology of both breast and ovarian cancer and the shared association of these cancers with certain genetic variants, most notably mutations of the BRCA1 and BRCA2 genes, we examined the association between these novel breast cancer susceptibility alleles and ovarian cancer risk in two large study populations. Our analysis included 1,173 cases and 1,201 controls from a New England-based case-control study of ovarian cancer and 210 cases and 603 controls from the prospective Nurses’ Health Study. We genotyped six single nucleotide polymorphisms that were identified as breast cancer risk factors in two whole genome scans: rs1219648, rs2981582, rs3803662, rs889312, rs3817198, and rs13281615. We used logistic regression to estimate the relative risk (RR) of ovarian cancer for individuals heterozygous or homozygous for the minor allele at each locus, compared to individuals with the wild-type genotype. We also tested for heterogeneity in the results and pooled the estimates from the two study populations using a random effects model. There was no clear association between these six polymorphisms and ovarian cancer risk in either study population or in the pooled analysis. In analyses adjusted for the matching factors only, the pooled RRs for individuals heterozygous or homozygous for the minor allele were 1.12 (95% confidence interval [CI] 0.96-1.31) for rs1219648 (FGFR2), 1.13 (95% CI 0.97-1.32) for rs2981582 (FGFR2), 0.95 (95% CI 0.82-1.10) for rs3803662 (TNRC9), 1.01 (95% CI 0.87-1.17) for rs889312 (MAP3K1), 0.95 (95% CI 0.82-1.10) for rs3817198 (LSP1), and 1.02 (95% CI 0.87-1.19) for rs13281615 (chromosome 8q). Individuals heterozygous for the rs2981582 minor allele had a borderline significant increase in ovarian cancer risk in the pooled analysis (RR=1.17, 95% CI 0.99-1.38), but there was no evidence of a trend with increasing number of minor alleles (p-trend=0.52). There was also no clear evidence of an association between these polymorphisms and risk of the major histologic subtypes of ovarian cancer. These results do not provide strong support for an association between these six breast cancer susceptibility alleles and ovarian cancer risk.
Inhibition of serotonin transporters disrupts the enhancement of fear memory extinction by 3,4-methylenedioxymethamphetamine (MDMA).

3,4-Methylenedioxymethamphetamine (MDMA) persistently improves symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) when combined with psychotherapy. Studies in rodents suggest that these effects can be attributed to enhancement of fear memory extinction. Therefore, MDMA may improve the effects of exposure-based therapy for PTSD, particularly in treatment-resistant patients. However, given MDMA’s broad pharmacological profile, further investigation is warranted before moving to a complex clinical population. We aimed to inform clinical research by providing a translational model of MDMA’s effect, and elucidating monoaminergic mechanisms through which MDMA enhances fear extinction. We explored the importance of monoamine transporters targeted by MDMA to fear memory extinction, as measured by reductions in conditioned freezing and fear-potentiated startle (FPS) in mice. Mice were treated with selective inhibitors of individual monoamine transporters prior to combined MDMA treatment and fear extinction training. MDMA enhanced the lasting extinction of FPS. Acute and chronic treatment with a 5-HT transporter (5-HTT) inhibitor blocked MDMA’s effect on fear memory extinction. Acute inhibition of dopamine (DA) and norepinephrine (NE) transporters had no effect. 5-HT release alone did not enhance extinction. Blockade of MDMA’s effect by 5-HTT inhibition also downregulated 5-HT2A-mediated behavior, and 5-HT2A antagonism disrupted MDMA’s effect on extinction. We validate enhancement of fear memory extinction by MDMA in a translational behavioral model, and reveal the importance of 5-HTT and 5-HT2A receptors to this effect. These observations support future clinical research of MDMA as an adjunct to exposure therapy, and provide important pharmacological considerations for clinical use in a population frequently treated with 5-HTT inhibitors.
Woody material structural degradation through decomposition on the forest floor

Dead woody material (DWM) plays numerous important roles in forest ecosystems; however, through the process of decomposition, it undergoes structural and chemical changes that progressively alter its function in these roles. Much remains unknown about how DWM mechanical strength and structural integrity change through decomposition in natural forest settings. We assessed changes in wood strength (bending strength, compressive strength, and surface hardness) using standard wood stakes of known initial mass from three species. The stakes were placed in forested settings for two and four years before collection for laboratory analyses. All three strength metrics decreased as stakes lost mass due to decay; however, bending strength had the strongest relationship with mass loss, a result that was consistent for all species, as well as species-pooled data. Results for all strength-loss metrics indicate that stakes had experienced ca. 10% strength loss before any detectable mass loss had occurred. Further, our r...
Feminist Economics: Second Wave, Tidal Wave, or Barely a Ripple?

In this chapter, Cecilia Conrad discusses the influence of Second-Wave Feminism in the area of labor economics and on the discipline of economics itself. Conrad argues that Second-Wave feminists and the awareness they brought to gender-based pay differentials served as a catalyst for additional research on women’s participation in the labor force and increasing numbers of women becoming economists. Moreover, not only did more women become economists, but also the field developed feminist challenges to dominant economic paradigms. While proponents of the leading economic theories often attribute pay differentials to differences between men and women in their education levels, their experiences, and their overall productivity, proponents of feminist economic theory argue that these explanations are incomplete and that at least some of the pay gap between men and women is the result of sexism, patriarchy, and discrimination.
Initiation of antihypertensive therapy.

Hypertension is the most common modifiable risk factor for cardiovascular events and mortality in the world (1). The 2017 American College of Cardiology/American Heart Association hypertension guidelines published online on November 13, 2017 stated that a normal blood pressure is less than 120/80 mmHg (2). Elevated blood pressure is 120–129/<80 mmHg. Stage 1 hypertension is a systolic blood pressure of 130–139 mmHg or a diastolic blood pressure of 80–89 mmHg.
Incomplete Label Multi-Task Ordinal Regression for Spatial Event Scale Forecasting

Event scales are commonly used by practitioners to gauge subjective feelings on the magnitude and significance of social events. For example, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) utilizes a 10-level scale to distinguish the severity of flu outbreaks and governments typically categorize violent outbreaks based on their intensity as reflected in multiple aspects. Effective forecasting of future event scales can be used qualitatively to determine reasonable resource allocations and facilitate accurate proactive actions by practitioners. Existing spatial event forecasting methods typically focus on the occurrence of events rather than their ordinal event scales as this is very challenging in several respects, including 1) the ordinal nature of the event scale, 2) the spatial heterogeneity of event scaling in different geo-locations, 3) the incompleteness of scale label data for some spatial locations, and 4) the spatial correlation of event scale patterns. In order to address all these challenges concurrently, a MultI-Task Ordinal Regression (MITOR) framework is proposed to effectively forecast the scale of future events. Our model enforces similar feature sparsity patterns for different tasks while preserving the heterogeneity in their scale patterns. In addition, based on the first law of geography, we proposed to enforce spatially-closed tasks to share similar scale patterns with theoretical guarantees. Optimizing the proposed model amounts to a new non-convex and non-smooth problem with an isotonicity constraint, which is then solved by our new algorithm based on ADMM and dynamic programming. Extensive experiments on ten real-world datasets demonstrate the effectiveness and efficiency of the proposed model.
Bonnie L. Bassler: The Group Accomplishes More than the Individual

Dr. Bonnie Bassler, also known as the “bacteria whisperer,” has for nearly three decades pursued her curiosity about the social lives of Earth’s smallest living organisms. She has been discovering and translating bacterial languages for quorum sensing, which allows bacteria to interact and coordinate behavior, and she has demonstrated the profound importance of those interactions in nature. From being a young professor at Princeton University to teaching, writing grants, and being recruited to be a scientific advisor to President Obama, Dr. Bassler has dealt with the imposter voice nagging in her head, figuring “what’s the worst thing that could happen?” Through her curiosity-driven and original research, Dr. Bassler has helped establish quorum sensing as so very much more than a curiosity found in a bioluminescent bacterium. She has received countless awards for her fundamental contributions to microbiology and her paradigm-changing scientific research. She has raised several generations of scientists and continues her adventure together with her lab gang, doing everything she’s always wanted: making great discoveries.
Evaluation of the Great Vessels

R.R. Richardson, Atlas of Pediatric Cardiac CTA, DOI 10.1007/978-1-4614-0088-2_7, © Springer Science+Business Media New York 2013 Evaluation of the great vessels should include the following: (a) Out fl ow tracts. These may be switched, narrowed, absent, or aneurysmal. (b) Aorta (i) It may be discontinuous (interruption of the aortic arch), stenotic in patients with coarctation of the aorta or supravalvular aortic stenosis, or hypoplastic. (ii) Identify whether the arch is on the left or right, and determine the number and location of vessels arising from the arch. Vascular rings, such as a double arch or right arch with an aberrant left subclavian artery, may cause airway obstruction. (iii) Look for aortopulmonary collaterals. These typically are seen along the descending aorta but may arise from the arch or great vessels. (iv) Measure the size and caliber of the aorta at the aortic annulus, sinus of Valsalva, sinotubular junction, transverse arch, and descending aorta. Comparison with normative data (z-score) may be helpful. (c) Pulmonary arteries (i) They may be atretic, hypoplastic, or anomalous. Determine the origin and course of the pulmonary arteries. Some pulmonary arteries may arise from the aorta, a patent ductus arteriosus (PDA), or the other pulmonary artery. (In pulmonary sling, the left pulmonary artery arises from the right and courses around the trachea, often causing tracheal or bronchial stenosis.) (ii) Evaluate the size of the main pulmonary artery and the right and left proximal and distal pulmonary arteries. (iii) Look for other vessels connected to the pulmonary arteries, such as a PDA. Aortopulmonary collaterals may be connected to the pulmonary arteries and may supply the lung directly. (d) PDA (i) Typically, a PDA originates from the undersurface of the descending aorta or left brachiocephalic/subclavian artery but rarely may have other anomalous origins and may be bilateral, with one arising from the aorta and the other from the brachiocephalic artery. (ii) It may be large and tortuous, especially in patients with complex congenital heart disease. A diverticulum may be seen at the origin of the ductus (Kommerell’s diverticulum). Look for mass effect from the enlarged PDA on other adjacent structures (especially the trachea and bronchi). R. R. Richardson , MD (*) Department of Radiology , St. Joseph’s Hospital and Medical Center, Creighton University School of Medicine , West Thomas Rd 350 , 85013 Phoenix , AZ , USA e-mail: randy.richardson2@chw.edu, randy.richardson2@dignityhealth.org
Distinct regions of the intrinsically disordered protein MUT-16 mediate assembly of a small RNA amplification complex and promote phase separation of Mutator foci

In C. elegans, efficient RNA silencing requires small RNA amplification mediated by RNA-dependent RNA polymerases (RdRPs). RRF-1, an RdRP, and other Mutator complex proteins localize to Mutator foci, which are perinuclear germline foci that associate with nuclear pores and P granules to facilitate small RNA amplification. The Mutator complex protein MUT-16 is critical for Mutator foci assembly. By analyzing small deletions of MUT-16, we identify specific regions of the protein that recruit other Mutator complex components and demonstrate that it acts as a scaffolding protein. We further determine that the C-terminal region of MUT-16, a portion of which contains predicted intrinsic disorder, is necessary and sufficient to promote Mutator foci formation. Finally, we establish that MUT-16 foci have many properties consistent with a phase-separated condensate and propose that Mutator foci form through liquid-liquid phase separation of MUT-16. P granules, which contain additional RNA silencing proteins, have previously been shown to have liquid-like properties. Thus, RNA silencing in C. elegans germ cells may rely on multiple phase-separated compartments through which sorting, processing, and silencing of mRNAs occurs.
Punishing the Immoral Other: Penal Substitutionary Logic in the War on Drugs

This article contends that penal substitutionary atonement, and its necessary connection between sin, wrath, and punishment, influences the political discourse and practices around America’s wars on drugs. In this work, the author is guided by Ryan LaMothe’s proposals for pastoral political theology. She suggests that his initial question of “what’s going on” in the political realm could include surfacing theology’s influence upon political discourses and practices. The author begins by reviewing the history of assigning a spoiled moral identity to marginalized groups through America’s wars on drugs. She pays special attention to the current conflation of immigration and drug rhetoric targeting Hispanics. She then considers penal atonement theory and its connection to punitive justice. The author suggests three aspects of the worldview surrounding this theory that motivate a distinct lack of care for those who commit acts deemed immoral: (1) no mercy outside of punishment, (2) pain is essential to justice, and (3) the law is implacable to commonsense reasoning. The necessity of punishment, including the animus of God’s personal wrath against the sinner for affronting God’s holiness, smooths the way for “tough on crime” stances against those stigmatized as morally corrupt. The apparent commonsense connection between sin and punishment hampers responses to drug selling or using that could engage alternative forms of care and justice.
Protocol for a randomised trial evaluating the comparative effectiveness of strategies to promote shared decision making for hip and knee osteoarthritis (DECIDE-OA study).

Introduction There are several different interventions available to promote shared decision making (SDM); however, little is known about the comparative effectiveness of different approaches. Objective To examine the impact of patient-directed and physician-directed decision support strategies on the quality of treatment decisions for hip and knee osteoarthritis (OA). Trial design A 2×2 factorial randomised controlled trial. Setting One academic medical centre, one community hospital and one orthopaedic specialty hospital. Participants and interventions The enrolment targets were 8 surgeons and 1120 patients diagnosed with hip or knee OA. Patients were randomly assigned to receive one of two different decision aids (DAs) stratified by site. The DAs varied in length, content and the level of detail regarding treatment options. Both DAs were available by paper or online. Surgeons were randomly assigned to receive a report detailing patients’ goals and treatment preferences at the time of the visit or not. Eligible patients received their assigned DA before their visit and completed three surveys: before the visit (timepoint (T)1), 1-week postvisit (T2) and 6 months from either the visit date or surgery date for patients who underwent surgery (T3). Study staff and participating surgeons were not blinded, but the statistician conducting the analyses was blinded to the arms. Main outcome measure and analysis The primary study outcome was decision quality, the percentage of patients who were well informed and received their preferred treatment. Secondary outcomes included involvement in decision making, surgical rates, health outcomes, decision regret and satisfaction. A logistic regression model with the generalised estimating equations approach was used to compare rates of decision quality between the groups and account for the clustering of patients within providers. Ethics and dissemination Ethics approval was obtained through the institutional review board at the main site. The findings will be published in peer-reviewed journals. Trial registration number NCT02729831; Pre-results.
Does vitamin fortification affect light oxidation in fluid skim milk

Off-flavors in milk related to light oxidation form due to photoxidation of native riboflavin and tetrapyrroles, resulting in an array of lipid oxidation compounds. Recent work has established that fortification with water-dispersible vitamin A can result in off-flavors in fluid skim milk caused by vitamin A degradation products in the vitamin premix. The objective of this study was to determine the role of vitamin fortification on light oxidation of high temperature, short time pasteurized fluid skim milk. First, the aroma profiles and aroma-active volatile compounds in light-exposed vitamin premixes were determined by exposing the premixes to fluorescent (FL) or light-emitting diode (LED) light at 2,000 lx at 4°C for 0, 2, 4, 8, or 24 h. A trained panel (n = 6) documented aroma profiles of each vitamin premix at each time point. Headspace solid-phase microextraction followed by gas chromatography-olfactometry and gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS) were performed to characterize aroma-active compounds in light-exposed vitamin premixes. In the second experiment, commercial vitamin premixes (vitamin A and vitamin D in oil and water matrices) were used to fortify skim milk (vitamin A: 3,000 IU/946 mL; vitamin D: 600 IU/946 mL). Skim milk was pasteurized, homogenized, and packaged in 946-mL high-density polyethylene jugs. Milks were exposed to FL or LED light at 2,000 lx at 4°C for 4, 12, 24, or 48 h. Controls with and without vitamins and light shielding were included. Riboflavin and vitamin A and D degradation were quantified via ultra-high-performance liquid chromatography. A trained panel (n = 8) documented sensory profiles of milks at each time point. Lipid oxidation volatile compounds were quantified via solid-phase microextraction with GC-MS. Vitamin degradation volatile compounds were quantified via solvent-assisted sorptive stir bar extraction with GC-MS. Riboflavin, vitamin A, and vitamin D degradation were consistent with that reported in previous studies. We found no effect of vitamin fortification on development of typical light oxidation-related off-flavors (cardboard and mushroom) or lipid oxidation-related volatiles (hexanal and heptanal). A perfumey/floral flavor was documented in the oil-based vitamin A-fortified milk, suggesting that light exposure affected the off-flavors contributed by water- versus oil-based vitamin fortification. These results show no evidence that vitamin fortification at current levels provides any protection against light oxidation-related off-flavors in fluid milk.
Maternal and neonatal outcomes with mechanical cervical dilation plus misoprostol compared to misoprostol alone for cervical ripening; a systematic review of literature and metaanalysis

Objective Data The aim of the present systematic review was to investigate the efficacy and safety of cervical ripening for the combination of mechanical dilation and misoprostol administration compared with misoprostol alone by evaluating 2 primary outcomes: time to delivery and rate of cesarean delivery. Study The Medline, EMBASE, and Web-of-Science electronic databases (from conception to end-of-search date December 31, 2018) were searched systematically. Randomized controlled trials that included patients with a singleton viable fetus who underwent induction of labor that required cervical ripening with an unfavorable cervix (Bishop ≤7) were eligible for inclusion. Study Appraisal and Synthesis Methods Data were pooled with the use of the random effects and fixed effects model after the assessment for the presence of heterogeneity. Risk of bias for each included study was assessed based on the criteria outlined in the Cochrane Handbook for Systematic Reviews of Interventions. Results Eleven trials met the inclusion criteria and included a total of 922 and 947 subjects in the combination and misoprostol-only groups, respectively. There was no difference in the incidence of cesarean delivery between the 2 groups (relative risk, 0.95; 95% confidence interval, 0.80–1.13). The combination of mechanical dilation and misoprostol resulted in overall shorter time to delivery (mean difference, –3.65 hours; 95% confidence interval, 5.23 to –2.07), shorter time to vaginal delivery (mean difference, –4.53 hours; 95% confidence interval, –5.79 to –3.27), lower risk of neonatal intensive care unit admission (relative risk, 0.71; 95% confidence interval, 0.53–0.96), meconium-stained fluid (relative risk, 0.62; 95% confidence interval, 0.43–0.90), tachysystole with fetal heart trace changes (relative risk, 0.53; 95% confidence interval, 0.30–0.94), and terbutaline use (relative risk, 0.63; 95% confidence interval, 0.47–0.85) compared with the use of misoprostol alone. Risk of endometritis (relative risk, 1.07; 95% confidence interval, 0.43–2.61) and chorioamnionitis (relative risk, 1.58; 95% confidence interval, 0.88–2.84) was comparable between the 2 groups. Conclusion The combination of mechanical cervical dilation with misoprostol for cervical ripening is associated with a shorter time to delivery, a similar rate of cesarean delivery, and a lower incidence of neonatal intensive care unit admission compared with the use of misoprostol alone.
Volunteering and its association with participation and life satisfaction following traumatic brain injury.

Background: Volunteering has been found to improve life satisfaction and participation in the general population, but its impact has not been thoroughly studied among those with traumatic brain injury (TBI). It is important to investigate whether volunteering is helpful in addressing participation and life satisfaction to inform future treatment.Objective: To characterize those who volunteer after moderate-severe TBI and to investigate the association of volunteering with participation and life satisfaction after TBI.Methods: Using data from a single site contributing to the TBI Model Systems National Database, a retrospective analysis of 725 individuals with TBI was conducted. General Linear Models were used to compare outcomes of those who volunteer and those who do not after controlling for important covariates.Results: Volunteers were more likely to be employed/students, have better current functioning, be further post-injury, non-Hispanic white, and have more education. Significant relationships, after controlling for covariates, were found between volunteering and higher life satisfaction, more frequent community engagement, and greater social relations. No significant relationship between volunteering and productivity emerged.Conclusions: Given the positive relationship between volunteer status with life satisfaction and aspects of participation, future research should investigate the barriers/facilitators of volunteering to improve well-being and participation after TBI.
Reliability-based optimization and design limits of microchannel cooling systems

Abstract Uncertainties are often significant in the operating and design of thermal systems. Any minor variations in the design variables or operating conditions may lead to system failure. In this paper, a microchannel cooling system for a 1 cm x 1 cm electronic chip is studied and optimized under design uncertainties. Numerical simulations are carried out to study the conjugate heat transfer and flow behavior. Three significant design variables or operating conditions are considered: (1) flow rate, (2) channel width or the number of channels, (3) heat flux. The Polynomial Response Surface (PRS) results concerning the design variables are obtained. The objective is to reduce both the pumping power and the thermal resistance under hot-spot temperature and pressure constraints. The standard deviation for the design variables, which are assumed to be normal distributions, are taken as 5% of the mean values. The acceptable probability of failure is chosen as 0.13%, which is the usually accepted level in reliability studies. With varying weights on the two conflicting objectives, the Pareto frontiers are determined and compared with the deterministic cases. The differences further demonstrate the importance of uncertainty in the design variables. This study provides more reliable and realistic design solutions for microchannel cooling systems than if the uncertainties are neglected. This basic approach may be evaluated to the design and formulation of other thermal problems and processes.
Inter-hemispheric asymmetry patterns in the ADHD brain: a neuroimaging replication study

Attention-deficit/ hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) is the most common neurodevelopment disorder in children, and many genetic markers have been linked to the behavioral phenotypes of this highly heritable disease. The neuroimaging correlates are similarly complex, with multiple combinations of structural and functional alterations associated with the disease presentations of hyperactivity and inattentiveness. Thus far, neuroimaging studies have provided mixed results in ADHD patients, particularly with respect to the laterality of findings. It is possible that hemispheric asymmetry differences may help reconcile the variability of these findings. We recently reported that inter-hemispheric asymmetry differences were more sensitive descriptors for identifying differences between ADHD and typically developing (TD) brains (n=849) across volumetric, morphometric, and white matter neuroimaging metrics. Here, we examined the replicability of these findings across a new data set (n=202) of TD and ADHD subjects at the time of diagnosis (medication naive) and after a six week course of either stimulant drugs, nonstimulant medications, or combination therapy. Our findings replicated our earlier work across a number of volumetric and white matter measures confirming that asymmetry is more robust at detecting differences between TD and ADHD brains. However, the effects of medication failed to produce significant alterations across either lateralized or symmetry measures. We suggest that the delay in brain volume maturation observed in ADHD youths may be hemisphere dependent. Future work may investigate the extent to which these inter-hemispheric asymmetry differences are causal or compensatory in nature.
Rapid Utilization of Telehealth in a Comprehensive Cancer Center as a Response to COVID-19

Abstract Background The emergence of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic in March 2020 created unprecedented challenges in the provision of scheduled ambulatory cancer care. As a result, there has been a renewed focus on video consultations as a means to continue ambulatory care. Objective To characterize the increase in video visits at the University of California, San Francisco Comprehensive Cancer Center in response to COVID-19 and compare demographics/appointment data from January 1, 2020 and in the 3 weeks after transition to video visits. Methods Demographics and appointment data (dates, visit types, and departments) were abstracted from the Electronic Health Record reporting database. Video visits were performed using a HIPAA-compliant video conferencing platform with a pre-existing workflow. Results In 17 departments and divisions at the Cancer Center, 2,284 video visits were performed in the pre-COVID-19 period (average 208 ± 75 per week) and 3,015 performed in the 3-week post-COVID-19 period (average 1,005 ± 149 per week). The proportion of video visits increased from 7-18% to 54-68%, between the pre- and post-COVID-19 periods without any disparity based on race/ethnicity, primary language, or insurance Conclusions In a remarkably brief period of time, we rapidly scaled the utilization of telehealth in response to COVID-19 and maintained access to complex oncologic care at a time of social distancing.
An Experimental Demonstration of over 100 Gbit/s OAM Multiplexing Transmission at a Distance of 100 m on 40 GHz Band

This paper presents an experimental demonstration of orbital angular momentum (OAM) and polarization multiplexing in a filed environment. We put a milestone of over 100 Gbit/s wireless transmission at a distance of 100 m, and design OAM antennas based on a radio link design on 40 GHz band. Our OAM antennas have two uniform circular arrays with the same diameter using different linear polarizations, and the Butler matrices that are analog devices for generating and separating OAM modes. Then, we successfully achieved over 100 Gbit/s OAM multiplexing transmission at a distance of 100 m with 15 data streams using seven OAM modes (OAM mode 0, ±1, ±2, ±3) and dual linear polarizations on a 40 GHz frequency band with the bandwidth of 1.5 GHz.
A Method for Mass Flow and Displacement Estimation in a Pneumatic Actuation System Using Valve-Based Pressure Sensing

This article describes a method to estimate the displacement of a pneumatic actuator based solely on pressure sensing at the control valve, which can enable low cost and remote sensing and fault detection in pneumatic actuation applications, such as in manufacturing. Pressure sensors located at the outlet ports of a pneumatic five-port two-way directional control valve are used in a generalized system model to estimate mass flow to the actuator. The approach enables observation of piston and rod displacement in real time and enables detection of motion faults without the use of displacement or proximity sensors on the actuator, which is typically located remotely from the control apparatus. The method was validated experimentally on two commercially available five-way pilot-assisted solenoid spool valves; each on two different double-acting, single rod, pneumatic linear actuators; and under different load and movement obstacle conditions. In the aggregate, the method provided a real-time estimate of actuator displacement within 7.1% error (relative to full stroke), and also provided a real-time mass flow estimate within 6.3% error. These real-time estimates are well within the accuracies suited to real-time fault detection in binary positioning systems, such as those typically used in manufacturing.
Characterizing Disease Features and Other Medical Diagnoses in Patients With Pityriasis Rubra Pilaris.

This survey-based study examines the prevelence, disease features, and medical diagnoses in a large sample of patients with pityriasis rubra pilaris.
Low equivalent series resistance (ESR) silicon-based on-chip supercapacitors

In this paper, we report the fabrication and optimization of current collectors on the supercapacitors based on a black silicon substrate with highly-dense carbon nanotube layers grown by atmospheric pressure chemical vapor deposition (APCVD) method for low equivalent series resistance (ESR). The as-grown CNTs displayed an excellent capacitive behavior with the corresponding specific capacitance of 126.7 mF/cm2 in the organic electrolyte at the scan rate of 10 mV/s. In order to reduce the ESR, we presented a feasible fabrication method to form a top Au current collector on the CNTs layer by DC sputtering technology. After coated with the Au layer, the ESR of the coin-cell type supercapacitor is reduced by 31% from 0.19 Ω/cm2 to 0.13 Ω/cm2. These results show that the top Au current collector could improve the performances for on-chip supercapacitors. We also expect this method could bring a potential breakthrough in the mass production of on-chip supercapacitors.
MMGatorAuth: A Novel Multimodal Dataset for Authentication Interactions in Gesture and Voice

The future of smart environments is likely to involve both passive and active interactions on the part of users. Depending on what sensors are available in the space, users may make use of multimodal interaction modalities such as hand gestures or voice commands. There is a shortage of robust yet controlled multimodal interaction datasets for smart environment applications. One application domain of interest based on current state-of-the-art is authentication for sensitive or private tasks, such as banking and email. We present a novel, large multimodal dataset for authentication interactions in both gesture and voice, collected from 106 volunteers who each performed 10 examples of each of a set of hand gesture and spoken voice commands chosen from prior literature (10,600 gesture samples and 13,780 voice samples). We present the data collection method, raw data and common features extracted, and a case study illustrating how this dataset could be useful to researchers. Our goal is to provide a benchmark dataset for testing future multimodal authentication solutions, enabling comparison across approaches.
Evaluation of Nitrogen Oxide Emission Inventories and Trends for On-Road Gasoline and Diesel Vehicles

On-road vehicles continue to be a major source of nitrogen oxide (NOx) emissions in the United States and in other countries around the world. The goal of this study is to compare and evaluate emission inventories and long-term trends in vehicular NOx emissions. Taxable fuel sales data and in-use measurements of emission factors are combined to generate fuel-based NOx emission inventories for California and the US over the period 1990-2020. While gasoline and diesel fuel sales increased over the last three decades, total on-road NOx emissions declined by approximately 70% since 1990, with a steeper rate of decrease after 2004 when heavy-duty diesel NOx emission controls finally started to gain traction. In California, additional steps have been taken to accelerate the introduction of new heavy-duty engines equipped with selective catalytic reduction systems, resulting in a 48% decrease in diesel NOx emissions in California compared to a 32% decrease nationally since 2010. California EMFAC model predictions are in good agreement with fuel-based inventory results for gasoline engines and are higher than fuel-based estimates for diesel engines prior to the mid-2010s. Similar to the findings of recent observational and modeling studies, there are discrepancies between the fuel-based inventory and national MOVES model estimates. MOVES predicts a steeper decrease in NOx emissions and predicts higher NOx emissions from gasoline engines over the entire period from 1990 to 2020.
Association rule learning in neuropsychological data analysis for Alzheimer's disease.

Efficient methods of analysis readily available for clinicians continue to be limited within neuropsychological assessment at the raw data level. Here, a novel approach for generating predictive response patterns and analysing neuropsychological raw data is offered. In order to assess the usefulness of association rule learning as an analysis tool for neuropsychological raw data, Frequent Pattern Growth (FP-Growth) was used to mine patterns from the Consortium to Establish a Registry for Alzheimer's Disease Neuropsychological Battery (CERAD-NB) database. Complete assessment data for 84 post-mortem confirmed Alzheimer's disease (AD) cases and 294 age, race, and education matched controls were analysed across baseline and one-year follow-up using FP-Growth, for the purpose of assessing the clinical utility of a finer analysis at the raw data level and the feasibility of predicting response patterns for clinical/control groups. Output from FP-Growth, in terms of the number of frequent itemsets retained across both evaluation timepoints, was discernable between controls, mild, and moderate to severe Alzheimer's disease cases (p < .001, and η2 = .488). Patterns within raw data scores, both in terms of frequent itemsets and predictive association rules, appear to be differentiable across groups within neuropsychological analysis, which indicates that FP-Growth is applicable as a supplementary analysis tool for neuropsychological assessment by means of offering an additional level of data analysis, predictive item response capabilities, and aiding in clinical decision making.
Image-based patient-specific flow simulations are consistent with stroke in pediatric cerebrovascular disease.

Moyamoya disease (MMD) is characterized by narrowing of the distal internal carotid artery and the circle of Willis (CoW) and leads to recurring ischemic and hemorrhagic stroke. A retrospective review of data from 50 pediatric MMD patients revealed that among the 24 who had a unilateral stroke and were surgically treated, 11 (45.8%) had a subsequent, contralateral stroke. There is no reliable way to predict these events. After a pilot study in Acta−/− mice that have features of MMD, we hypothesized that local hemodynamics are predictive of contralateral strokes and sought to develop a patient-specific analysis framework to noninvasively assess this stroke risk. A pediatric MMD patient with an occlusion in the right middle cerebral artery and a right-sided stroke, who was surgically treated and then had a contralateral stroke, was selected for analysis. By using an unsteady Navier–Stokes solver within an isogeometric analysis framework, blood flow was simulated in the CoW model reconstructed from the patient’s postoperative imaging data, and the results were compared with those from an age- and sex-matched control subject. A wall shear rate (WSR) > 60,000 s−1 (about 12 × higher than the coagulation threshold of 5000 s−1 and 9 × higher than control) was measured in the terminal left supraclinoid artery; its location coincided with that of the subsequent postsurgical left-sided stroke. A parametric study of disease progression revealed a strong correlation between the degree of vascular morphology altered by MMD and local hemodynamic environment. The results suggest that an occlusion in the CoW could lead to excessive contralateral WSRs, resulting in thromboembolic ischemic events, and that WSR could be a predictor of future stroke.