cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Outcomes of conversion of laparoscopic colorectal surgery to open surgery.

Objectives: There is limited data regarding the outcomes of patients who undergo conversion to open surgery during a laparoscopic operation in colorectal resection. We sought to identify the outcomes of such patients. Methods: The NIS (National Inpatient Sample) database was used to identify patients who had conversion from laparoscopic to open colorectal surgery during the 2009 to 2012 period. Multivariate regression analysis was performed to identify risk-adjusted outcomes of conversion to open surgery. Results: We sampled 776 007 patients who underwent colorectal resection. 337 732 (43.5%) of the patients had laparoscopic resection. Of these, 48 265 procedures (14.3%) were converted to open surgery. The mortality of converted patients was increased, when compared with successfully completed laparoscopic operations, but was still lower than that of open procedures (0.6% vs. 1.4% vs. 3.9%, respectively; adjusted odds ratio [AOR], 1.61 and 0.58, respectively; P .01). The most common laparoscopic colorectal procedure was right colectomy (41.2%). The lowest rate of conversion is seen with right colectomy while proctectomy had the highest rate of conversion (31.2% vs. 12.9%, AOR, 2.81, P .01). Postsurgical complications including intra-abdominal abscess (AOR, 2.64), prolonged ileus (AOR, 1.50), and wound infection (AOR, 2.38) were higher in procedures requiring conversion (P .01). Conclusions: Conversion of laparoscopic to open colorectal resection occurs in 14.3% of cases. Compared with patients who had laparoscopic operations, patients who had conversion to open surgery had a higher mortality, higher overall morbidity, longer length of hospitalization, and increased hospital charges. The lowest conversion rate was in right colectomy and the highest was in proctectomy procedures. Wound infection in converted procedures is higher than in laparoscopic and open procedures.
Inducing Franchisees to Relinquish Control: An Attribution Analysis

The author identifies an effective method to induce franchisees to relinquish control in decision making. Attribution theory principles are introduced to describe the process by which franchisees m...
Efficacy of Lateral Ventricular Injection of Epinephrine, Cyproheptadine, or Adenosine Triphosphate on Feed Intake in Thiamin-Deficient Turkeys,

Abstract In previous work, thiamin deficiency (TD) resulted in decreased brain levels of adenosine triphosphate (ATP) and epinephrine, but serotonin (5-HT) was increased in the turkey. The goal of the present study was to determine whether the introduction of calculated levels of epinephrine, ATP, or cyproheptadine into the lateral ventricle could affect feed intake of TD birds. Adenosine triphosphate, epinephrine, and cyproheptadine (5-HT antagonist) were injected into the lateral ventricle of TD and control birds. These injections did not alter feed intake in the control birds. Cyproheptadine and ATP decreased feed intake in the 1st h in the TD birds as compared with sham-injected TD birds (P
Did Crime Rates Rise After Colorado Legalized Marijuana

Using monthly crime reports from Denver’s Police Department between January 2010 and December 2014, the authors endeavor to show if there was a break in the trend line of seven different crimes (homicide, rape, aggravated assault, burglary, robbery, larceny, and motor vehicle theft) following Colorado’s legalization of marijuana in late 2012. After adjusting for seasonal components (some crimes tend to be higher in summer months), the trend lines reveal no break for crimes against persons. But, three of the four trend lines for crimes against property do reveal a significant decrease after legalization.
The Road to War, 1907–14

The international situation was now beginning to be weakened by the machinery which had been designed to strengthen it. Despite the disclaimers that were written into the various treaties and understandings, the uncertainties which followed from a Liberal government in London, and the duplicities practised by Italy, the international system had lost valuable flexibility. The solution of every crisis had become, it is true, more urgent, but it had also become more difficult. The consequence was that the Conceit of Europe, already battered by long-term developments and by the behaviour of Germany, began to fail. It was dangerous enough for doubts to be raised about the health of the European balance, but efforts to achieve security had the effect of returning European quarrels to an insecure Europe, and this at a time when both Germany and Austria were approaching moments of acute internal crisis. With hindsight it is clear that the situation gave little ground for hope that catastrophe could be avoided. Restraint and restraint alone could now save the Concert from destruction: neither of the central powers was for much longer capable of restraint.
291 REDUCED EXPRESSION OF P85α RESCUES 3T3-L1 ADIPOCYTES FROM THE INSULIN RESISTANCE INDUCED VIA SERINE PHOSPHORYLATION OF INSULIN RECEPTOR SUBSTRATE - 1 (IRS-1).

Serine (ser) phosphorylation of IRS-1 may be involved in a feedback inhibition of insulin signaling and, under certain circumstances, in the pathogenesis of insulin resistance (IR). On the other hand, variations in expression of p85α subunit of phosphatidylinositol (PI) 3-kinase could also modulate the strength of insulin signaling by altering the competition between the p85α monomer and the p85α-p110 heterodimer for the IRS-1 binding sites. In this study we examined the relationship between ser-phosphorylation of IRS-1 and expression of p85α in the development of IR in cultured 3T3 L1 adipocytes. IR was induced by the transfection of the constitutively active myristilated Akt (myr-Akt). Myr-Akt caused activation and phosphorylation of mTOR and p70S6 kinase. The latter promoted ser-phosphorylation of IRS-1 with a subsequent decline in its association with p85α and p110 as well as a decline in PI 3-kinase activity and insulin-stimulated 2-deoxyglucose (2-DOG) uptake-hence IR. A concomitant transfection of p85α siRNA reduced p85α expression by 70% and rescued insulin-stimulated 2DOG uptake from the inhibition induced by myr-Akt by diminishing the competition between p85α monomer and p85α-p110 heterodimer. In conclusion, IR induced by the Akt-mTOR-p70S6 kinase via ser-phosphorylation of IRS-1 can be ameliorated by a reduction in expression of p85α. Thus, interactions between ser-phosphorylation of IRS-1 and expression of p85α are important in the development of and the defense against IR.
Determination of halogenated hydrocarbons in drink water by capillary column GC with headspace

Objective:To establish a method for determination of halogenated hydrocarbons in drink water by infirm polarity capillary column GC with headspace.Methods:To choose the best determination condition,to decide eligible temperature and flow rate of carrier gas,and study the resolution.Results:The standard curve coefficient correlation was in the range of 0.9985~0.9998.The relative standard deviation was in the range of 1.02%~4.77%.The recovery was in the range of 76%~94%.Conclusion:The method can be used to simultaneous measure 7 halogenated hydrocarbons in water quickly and precisely.
On constructing rational spanning tree edge densities

Let ź ( G ) and ź G ( e ) denote the number of spanning trees of a graph G and the number of spanning trees of G containing edge e of G , respectively. Ferrara, Gould, and Suffel asked if, for every rational 0 < p / q < 1 there existed a graph G with edge e ź E ( G ) such that ź G ( e ) / ź ( G ) = p / q . In this note we provide constructions that show this is indeed the case. Moreover, we show this is true even if we restrict G to claw-free graphs, bipartite graphs, or planar graphs. Let dep ( G ) = max e ź G ź G ( e ) / ź ( G ) . Ferrara et al. also asked if, for every rational 0 < p / q < 1 there existed a graph G with dep ( G ) = p / q . For the claw-free construction, we are also able to answer this question in the affirmative.
Finance and Governance: Critical Challenges for the Next WHO Director-General

The author reflects on international finance and governance in relation to the 70th anniversary of the World Health Organization (WHO) and the election of the WHO's next director-general. The Global Financial Crisis of 2008-2009 is addressed, along with the financial vulnerability of the WHO and the impact of voluntary donations on the WHO's budget. The author's claim that the WHO was unable to effectively perform the functions needed to deal with Ebola outbreaks in 2014 is examined.
Ordered mesoporous carbons codoped with nitrogen and iron as effective catalysts for oxygen reduction reaction.

Doping with foreign atoms is an effective approach to significantly enhance the catalytic performance of carbon materials for oxygen reduction reaction (ORR). In this paper, a colloidal silica template method was employed to synthesize nitrogen and iron codoped ordered mesoporous carbon for ORR electrocatalysis. The carbon materials were thoroughly characterized by transmission electron microscopy, Raman spectroscopy, X-ray diffraction, and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy measurements. The porosity was quantified by nitrogen adsorption/desorption measurements that showed the formation of ordered mesoporous structures with a BET specific surface area up to 953.8 m2 g−1 and the mesopores mostly centered at ca. 25 nm, close to the size of the colloidal silica. The resulting mesoporous carbon exhibited apparent ORR activity in alkaline media, which was highly comparable to that of commercial Pt/C (20 wt%), with the onset potential at +0.99 V vs. RHE. This was ascribed largely to nitrogen dopants, with additional contributions from the trace amounts of iron dopants, and the reactions appeared to be facilitated by the formation of a mesoporous structure. Moreover, the mesoporous carbon showed better stability, resistance against fuel crossover, and selective activity than Pt/C. This work demonstrates a new paradigm for the preparation of heteroatom-doped carbon materials that are promising alternatives to Pt-based catalysts for fuel cells.
Newton polygons and the Prouhet–Tarry–Escott problem

Abstract We show how Newton polygons can be used to obtain new information on the 2-adic valuations of a certain constant associated with the Prouhet–Tarry–Escott (PTE) problem. Two explicit examples are given involving the cases n = 8 and n = 9 in the PTE problem.
Interaction of Perception and Action in Discrete and Continuous Rapid Aiming Tasks.

ABSTRACTPreviously, we have shown that discrete and continuous rapid aiming tasks are governed by distinct visuomotor control mechanisms by assessing the combined visual illusion effects on the perceived and effective index of difficulty (ID). All participants were perceptually biased by the combined visual illusion before they performed the rapid aiming tasks. In the current study, the authors manipulated the order of performing perceptual and motor tasks to examine whether perceptual or motor experience with the illusory visual target would influence the subsequent perceived and effective ID in discrete and continuous tapping tasks. The results supported our hypothesis showing that perceptual experience with the illusory visual target in the discrete condition reduced the effective ID in the subsequent discrete tapping task, and motor experience with the illusory visual target in the continuous condition reduced the illusion effects on the perceived ID in the subsequent perceptual judgment task. The stu...
Presidential rhetoric, agency turnover, and the importance of salience to bureaucratic leadership ☆

Abstract What explains the quit rates of federal agencies? Can presidential rhetoric affect quit rates of federal agencies, particularly those that implement salient policies? Although much research examines other ways presidents may affect the federal bureaucracy, absent is a systematic examination of presidential leadership of agency quit rates, despite the importance of personnel turnover to effective bureaucratic implementation. I argue that presidential rhetoric on the size of government can affect agency turnover. This impact is only likely for agencies that implement salient policies, because salience encourages bureaucratic responsiveness to elected officials. The findings reveal that presidents who speak more favorably about government reduce aggregate turnover in the Environmental Protection Agency and Department of Education from 1980 through 2005. I conclude with some observations about what these findings mean for presidential control of the bureaucracy.
A New Species of Cottontail Rabbit (Lagomorpha: Leporidae: Sylvilagus ) from Suriname, With Comments on the Taxonomy of Allied Taxa from northern South America

Of the 19 currently recognized species of Sylvilagus Gray, 1867, 15 inhabit North America, and only 5 are recognized in South America: S. brasiliensis Linnaeus, 1758 (throughout most of the continent); S. varynaensis Durant and Guevara, 2001, restricted to the southern lowlands of Venezuela (states of Barinas, Portuguesa, and Guarico); S. andinus (Thomas, 1897) from the Andean paramos of Ecuador and potentially in a sporadic manner to the Colombian and Venezuelan paramos; and S. tapetillus Thomas, 1913, from the coastal plain in the region of Rio de Janeiro. In addition to these, putative subspecies of S. floridanus, primarily a North American taxon, nominally are recognized from the grassland plains areas of northwestern South America east of the Andes. While S. varynaensis and S. tapetillus are monotypic, S. brasiliensis contains at least 37 named taxa in synonymy, distributed in various habitats; S. andinus requires further study. As a result of the recent description of a neotype for S. brasiliensis, it is now possible to assess species limits and begin the process of illuminating formerly obscured biological diversity in South American cottontails. Here, I describe a new species of Sylvilagus from the lowlands of western Suriname, and excise S. sanctaemartaeHershkovitz, 1950 from synonymy with S. brasiliensis.Version of Record, first published online May 17, 2017, with fixed content and layout in compliance with Art. 8.1.3.2 ICZN.
Care Bundles in Emergency Medicine. By Timothy Williamson, Bilal Salman, Rachael Boddy, and Matthew Cooke; foreword by Peter Cameron. London: Radcliffe Publishing Ltd., 2014; 144 pp; $21.90 (paperback).

The ability to make sound clinical decisions in a high stress and often chaotic atmosphere lies at the heart of emergency medicine. This can be a daunting task when one considers the sheer volume of pathology covered under the umbrella of emergency medicine. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved.
Cinematic Walls: Pedro Costa’s Mural Imagination

This essay offers a reading of Pedro Costa’s first feature-length film, O sangue (1989). It explores the representation of different sorts of walls, their semantic inferences and functions, arguing that Costa's "mural imagination" speaks to the limits—or perceived limitlessness—of contemporary filmmaking. I show that in O sangue , walls emerge as tools for defining realism and its relation to cinema. Beyond this, they work as rhetorical strategies to interrogate the threshold between fact and fiction and between socio-political realities and artistic filmmaking. For Costa, walls emphasize the authenticity of fictional worlds and highlight the ways in which audiences relate to the realities and communities represented on screen.
A Robotics Experience for All the Students in an Elementary School

Robotics can be a meaningful and motivating application of computer science that helps make abstract concepts concrete and visible, but most elementary school robotics thus far has focused on design and after school extra-curricular activities with small groups of select students rather than in-school, school-wide robotics for all the students within a school. This paper describes our experience designing, implementing, and trying to evaluate a robotics curriculum and program for all the students within an elementary school; the primary focus of this paper is scale. We describe challenges and opportunities we experienced as part of this project and reflect on the degree to which they are unique to our relatively small, isolated rural town and the timing of our project. We present data points suggesting that robotics can be effectively and economically implemented in the elementary school curriculum.
Staged Endovascular Intervention of Bilateral Pulmonary Artery Stenosis.

A 29-year-old woman with a history of clinically diagnosed sarcoidosis presented with acute onset dyspnea and chest pain. Chest computed tomography showed bilateral pulmonary artery (PA) stenosis, with complete occlusion of the left PA (LPA) ([Figure 1][1]) and 50% stenosis of the right PA (RPA) ([
Analysis of a new best-practice advisory on time to initiation of antibiotics in surgical intensive care unit patients with septic shock.

BackgroundEarly administration of antibiotics in septic shock is associated with decreased mortality. Promptly identifying sepsis and eliciting a response are necessary to reduce time to antibiotic...
Health and educational implications of prematurity in the United States: National Survey of Children's Health 2011/2012 data.

ABSTRACTBackground and purpose:Preterm birth is a significant public health issue, with children born prematurely experiencing educational and health difficulties throughout childhood. The aim of the descriptive secondary data analysis was to compare health implications and educational experiences i
Life at the Leading Edge: The Beach Plant Syndrome

Publisher Summary This chapter discusses the morphological traits of beach plants, especially those at the leading edge of vegetation. It focuses on three of the four North American coastlines: (1) Atlantic, (2) Gulf of Mexico, and (3) Pacific Coasts. The studies described in the chapter include zonation data to distinguish the species at the leading edge of vegetation from those characteristic of the rest of the beach and from those that typify more stabilized dunes behind the foredune. Taxonomic diversity from coast to coast is resolved into a small pool of growth-form syndromes. Each syndrome is selected through evolutionary time as being adaptative to the beach habitat, and the value of a given trait can be estimated by computing the percentage of the flora that share it. The basic cause-and-effect nature of those adaptations is revealed only by laboratory experimentation and field manipulation.
Rilke contra Wagner. Rilke’s early concept of Music and the Convergence of the Arts around 1900

This article examines Rainer Maria Rilke’s fundamental distinction between the essence of music and poetry, concentrating on his earliest encounters with music around 1900 and their impact on his poetics. It places Rilke’s concept of music into the cultural con­text of the romantic experience and reception of music and the other arts in Germany at the turn of the century. Rilke’s early understanding is ultimately negative, deviating from the popularly held belief in fin de siecle Europe that all the arts are not just compatible but also in essence identical. For Rilke there can be neither a Wagnerian Gesamtkunswerk nor a greater underlying principle around which the arts could be united, despite his enthusias­tic integration of the visual arts into his poetics.
T cell-mediated clearance of JHMV from the central nervous system.

Infection with the JHM strain of mouse hepatitis virus (JHMV) results in acute encephalomyelitis accompanied by primary demyelination in the central nervous system (CNS; 1) . Animals that survive show evidence of persistent viral infection in the CNS that is associated with ongoing demyelination (2). Infection of immunocompromised animals suggests that the immune response is important not only in survival, but also as a determinant of whether the infection is cleared or progresses to become persistent. We initially demonstrated that the addition of anti-viral antibody to in vitro cultures of cells persistently infected with JHMV stopped the release of infectious virus (3,4). These in vitro data suggested that anti-viral antibody might play an important role in the ability of JHMV to establish a persistent infection in the CNS. Subsequent work has demonstrated that the passive transfer of monoclonal antibodies specific for all three structural proteins prevents death due to acute infection (5,6,7,8). Two very surprising findings were made. First, none of the transferred antibodies inhibited the replication of the virus in the CNS.
Rhythm and feet in Belhare morphology

In Belhare (Sino-Tibetan, Nepal), consonant prothesis at morpheme boundaries and deletion of stem ‘augments’ is found if either metrical or morphological parsing would violate the bimoraic trochee pattern that underlies the stress system of the language. This finding corroborates Dresher & Lahiri’s (1991) “Principle of Metrical Coherence” and provides new evidence for the cross-linguistic applicability of Crowhurst’s (1994) “Tautomorphemic Foot” constraint. The data also support a view of the Prosodic Hierarchy as weakly layered, allowing consonants to be directly dominated by the foot or word node if they are prothetic and do not therefore need feature licensing within the syllable canon.
The Mentor’s Wrap-Up

Mentoring students, interns, and residents in surgery is an enriching, enlightening, and satisfying avocation, made possible to only a few of us fortunate enough to be permitted to work with today’s bright and dedicated surgeons of the future. I am certain that I may take the liberty of speaking for all of us mentors, and for you as well, the mentors of tomorrow, who will be the standard torchbearers of learning, teaching, research, and practicing the flower of medicine—surgery.
Chronic inflammation and risk of lung cancer in older adults in the health, aging and body composition cohort study.

Abstract Objectives We examined the association between three inflammatory markers (Interleukin (IL)-6, C-reactive protein (CRP), tumor necrosis factor (TNF)-α) and incident lung cancer using baseline, updated, and averaged inflammatory measures in older adults. Methods We fitted multivariable Cox models to assess whether circulating levels of inflammation markers were associated with incident lung cancers in the Health Aging, Body and Composition (HealthABC) prospective cohort of 3075 older adults aged 70–79 years at baseline. IL-6 and CRP were measured biennially, whereas TNF-α was measured at baseline. Results Baseline levels of IL-6 were significantly associated with incident lung cancer risk in a model that adjusted for age, gender, race, and site (Model 1) (Hazard RatioT3 vs. T1: 3.34, 95% Confidence Interval: 1.91, 5.85) and in a model adjusted for health factors linked to chronic inflammation (Model 2) (HR T3 vs. T1: 2.57, 95% CI: 1.41, 4.65). The associations observed in time-updated IL-6 (HR T3 vs. T1: 2.47, 95% CI: 1.43, 4.28), cumulatively averaged IL-6 (HR T3 vs. T1: 2.47, 95% CI: 1.43, 4.35), and baseline CRP levels (HR T3 vs. T1: 1.85, 95% CI: 1.11, 3.08) with incident lung cancer in Model 1 were not statistically significant in Model 2. Conclusions Baseline CRP and IL-6 levels were associated with increased risk of lung cancer in Model 1 and both models, respectively. Chronic IL-6 inflammation, as quantified by repeated measures was associated with incident lung cancer in Model 1, but not Model 2. Further research is needed to understand the role of CRP and IL-6 in lung carcinogenesis.
Reconstructing LaTeX Source Files from Generated PDFs - a Neural Network Approach

Deep neural networks (DNN) have been successfully used to solve classification problems for many years. DNN has found variety of applications in recent years beyond classification, including generative tasks. In this paper, we present a neural network architecture suited for generating LaTeX source code which reconstructs a given PDF file. Although a challenging problem to solve, the network performs reasonably well, achieving approximately 70% accuracy rate on validation data.
Low-eccentricity migration of ultra-short-period planets in multiplanet systems

Recent studies suggest that ultra-short period planets (USPs), Earth-sized planets with sub-day periods, constitute a statistically distinct sub-sample of {\it Kepler} planets: USPs have smaller radii ($1-1.4R_\oplus$) and larger mutual inclinations with neighboring planets than nominal {\it Kepler} planets, and their period distribution is steeper than longer-period planets. We study a "low-eccentricity" migration scenario for the formation of USPs, in which a low-mass planet with initial period of a few days maintains a small but finite eccentricity due to secular forcings from exterior companion planets, and experiences orbital decay due to tidal dissipation. USP formation in this scenario requires that the initial multi-planet system have modest eccentricities ($\gtrsim 0.1$) or angular momentum deficit. During the orbital decay of the inner-most planet, the system can encounter several apsidal and nodal precession resonances that significantly enhance eccentricity excitation and increase the mutual inclination between the inner planets. We develop an approximate method based on eccentricity and inclination eigenmodes to efficiently evolve a large number of multi-planet systems over Gyr timescales in the presence of rapid (as short as $\sim 100$~years) secular planet-planet interactions and other short-range forces. Through a population synthesis calculation, we demonstrate that the "low-$e$ migration" mechanism can naturally produce USPs from the large population of {\it Kepler} multis under a variety of conditions, with little fine tuning of parameters. This mechanism favors smaller inner planets with more massive and eccentric companion planets, and the resulting USPs have properties that are consistent with observations.
Care of the Mesothelioma Patient Undergoing Extended Pleurectomy and Decortication

Caring for patients undergoing lung-sparing surgery for malignant pleural mesothelioma is clinically challenging. It takes an experienced, highly skilled, and dedicated multidisciplinary team of thoracic surgery experts to care for these patients and their families. There are inherent challenges associated with the preoperative and postoperative care of patients undergoing lung-sparing surgery, beyond those commonly experienced in the general thoracic surgery patient population. Meticulous attention to every detail of their care and anticipating the common problems encountered postoperatively will support a patient’s successful recovery and ensure that they are safely discharged home from the hospital. This chapter will focus on the key elements the surgical team needs to focus on before, during, and after lung-sparing surgery for malignant pleural mesothelioma.
Gromov‐Hausdorff Limits of Kähler Manifolds with Bisectional Curvature Lower Bound

Given a sequence of complete Kahler manifolds Min with bisectional curvature lower bound and noncollapsed volume, we prove that the pointed Gromov-Hausdorff limit is homeomorphic to a normal complex analytic space. The complex analytic structure is the natural “limit” of the complex structure of Mi.© 2017 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.
Cybersecurity challenges in vehicular communications

Abstract As modern vehicles are capable to connect to an external infrastructure and Vehicle-to-Everything (V2X) communication technologies mature, the necessity to secure communications becomes apparent. There is a very real risk that today's vehicles are subjected to cyber-attacks that target vehicular communications. This paper proposes a three-layer framework (sensing, communication and control) through which automotive security threats can be better understood. The sensing layer is made up of vehicle dynamics and environmental sensors, which are vulnerable to eavesdropping, jamming, and spoofing attacks. The communication layer is comprised of both in-vehicle and V2X communications and is susceptible to eavesdropping, spoofing, man-in-the-middle, and sybil attacks. At the top of the hierarchy is the control layer, which enables autonomous vehicular functionality, including the automation of a vehicle's speed, braking, and steering. Attacks targeting the sensing and communication layers can propagate upward and affect the functionality and can compromise the security of the control layer. This paper provides the state-of-the-art review on attacks and threats relevant to the communication layer and presents countermeasures.
Keyless Covert Communication via Channel State Information

We consider the problem of covert communication over a state-dependent channel when the channel state is available either non-causally, causally, or strictly causally, either at the transmitter alone or at both transmitter and receiver. Covert communication with respect to an adversary, called "warden," is one in which, despite communication over the channel, the warden's observation remains indistinguishable from an output induced by innocent channel-input symbols. Covert communication involves fooling an adversary in part by a proliferation of codebooks; for reliable decoding at the legitimate receiver, the codebook uncertainty is typically removed via a shared secret key that is unavailable to the warden. In contrast to previous work, we do not assume the availability of a shared key at the transmitter and legitimate receiver. Instead, shared randomness is extracted from the channel state in a manner that keeps it secret from the warden, despite the influence of the channel state on the warden's output. When channel state is available at the transmitter and receiver, we derive the covert capacity region. When channel state is only available at the transmitter, we derive inner and outer bounds on the covert capacity. We provide examples for which the covert capacity is positive with knowledge of channel state information but is zero without it.
Invited Review: Methane sources, quantification, and mitigation in grazing beef systems

ABSTRACT Purpose The purpose of the review was to examine enteric methane emissions, quantification methods, and mitigation strategies in grazing beef systems. Sources Peer-reviewed literature and conference abstracts were the main sources of information for this review. Synthesis Methane emissions (CH4) can be reduced by improving forage quality by including more cool-season forages and legumes and rotationally grazing animals. Including forages with beneficial secondary compounds such as condensed tannins and saponins also has CH4-mitigation potential. Providing nutritional supplements that improve the nutritional status of the animal and the efficiency of feed energy use has the potential to reduce CH4 emissions from grazing cattle. Genetic selection has shown some viability in reducing herd emissions, but heritability estimates are low for CH4 yield. More research is needed to understand the potential. Soil methanotrophy may partially offset CH4 emissions when animals are stocked moderately but soil CH4 uptake rates are relatively low in most grazing ecosystems. A new metric to quantify the global warming potential of CH4, GWP*, may allow future models to more appropriately consider the behavior and effects of CH4 in the atmosphere. Conclusions and Applications Methane mitigation strategies in grazing environments are limited, but producer decisions that improve the nutritional status of animals, the quality of the forage base, and supplementation of known CH4-mitigation compounds can reduce CH4 production. Now that less expensive, easier to use quantification tools exist, researchers need to conduct more long-term monitoring experiments and focus on reducing CH4 production of grazing animals where potential for reduction is largest.
Amblyopia Outcomes Through Clinical Trials and Practice Measurement: Room for Improvement: The LXXVII Edward Jackson Memorial Lecture

Purpose To describe amblyopia prevalence and outcomes using results from randomized studies and a clinical registry. Design Review of published studies, analysis of data in Intelligent Research in Sight (IRIS) Registry from 2013 to 2019, personal perspective. Methods Literature review, analysis of IRIS Registry data and IRIS-50, a visual acuity quality measure. Results Clinical trials have reduced the treatment burden of amblyopia by reducing hours of patching and frequency of atropine eye drops with clinical success of about 83%. There is no appreciable age effect if treatment is started before 5 years of age, outcomes are stable to at least 15 years of age, and treatment can be somewhat effective until 12 years of age. The IRIS Registry identified 1,760,066 individuals with amblyopia for a prevalence of 2.47%. Refractive error alone accounted for 68.9% of childhood cases. Mean amblyopic eye visual acuity improved 1.8 lines for children 3-6 years of age and 0.8 lines for 7-12 years, but mean residual amblyopia was more than 2 lines. Among 18,841 children aged 3-7 years eligible for IRIS-50, 77.3% were successful. The odds ratios for success were significantly lower for African-American (0.67; 95% confidence interval [CI] = 0.58 to 0.78) and Hispanic or Latino (0.84; 95% CI = 0.75 to 0.94) children compared with white children. Conclusions Clinical trials provided evidence of a beneficial effect from several treatments, with substantially reduced doses than previously recommended. Registry data from clinical practice found residual visual acuity impairment among all ages and races, especially among minorities.
3D magnetic resonance fingerprinting with quadratic RF phase.

Purpose To implement 3D magnetic resonance fingerprinting (MRF) with quadratic RF phase (qRF-MRF) for simultaneous quantification of T1 , T2 , ΔB0 , and T 2 ∗ . Methods 3D MRF data with effective undersampling factor of 3 in the slice direction were acquired with quadratic RF phase patterns for T1 , T2 , and T 2 ∗ sensitivity. Quadratic RF phase encodes the off-resonance by modulating the on-resonance frequency linearly in time. Transition to 3D brings practical limitations for reconstruction and dictionary matching because of increased data and dictionary sizes. Randomized singular value decomposition (rSVD)-based compression in time and reduction in dictionary size with a quadratic interpolation method are combined to be able to process prohibitively large data sets in feasible reconstruction and matching times. Results Accuracy of 3D qRF-MRF maps in various resolutions and orientations are compared to 3D fast imaging with steady-state precession (FISP) for T1 and T2 contrast and to 2D qRF-MRF for T 2 ∗ contrast and ΔB0 . The precision of 3D qRF-MRF was 1.5-2 times higher than routine clinical scans. 3D qRF-MRF ΔB0 maps were further processed to highlight the susceptibility contrast. Conclusion Natively co-registered 3D whole brain T1 , T2 , T 2 ∗ , ΔB0 , and QSM maps can be acquired in as short as 5 min with 3D qRF-MRF.
Cold: The Record of an Antarctic Sledge Journey: by Laurence McKinley Gould. NewYork: Brewer, Warren & Putnam, 1931. 274 pp.

Contrary to the journal’s usual policy of reviewing only newly published books, the book review editor recently rediscovered this classic 1931 book and found it a perfect candidate for new readers ...
Experimental calibration and compensation for the continuous effect of time, number of layers and volume of material on shape deformation in small-scale additive manufacturing of concrete

Abstract Additive manufacturing (AM) of cementitious material is a multidisciplinary effort that depends on multiple aspects such as printing system, toolpath design and material properties. Although each of these aspects are important individually, their combined effect must also be considered. For instance, the rheological and physical properties of fresh cementitious material affect the printing system, and in turn the toolpath design. More importantly, the properties of printed material and its deformation behavior affect the dimensional and geometric precision which requires modification of the toolpath to compensate for such a deformation. The deformation of fine aggregate concrete is a time related issue that is directly related to the scale of printed specimens. In larger parts the time to print each layer is bigger and the material will have more time to harden and keep its shape, whereas in smaller parts it does not have enough time to harden and will deform under the weight of subsequent layers. As a result, shape accuracy of the printed specimen will be compromised. Previous experimental research determined the effect of the number of layers and beads on deformation and the time interval after which printed concrete stops deforming. This study investigates the effect of the number of layers and beads on layer width and layer height deformation as a function of extrusion rate and time before that time interval. The result is a model relating all the relevant variables that can be used to compensate for deformation in toolpath design of small scale printed concrete specimens.
Description of breed ancestry and genetic health traits in arctic sled dog breeds.

Background This study describes the presence and frequency of health traits among three populations of dogs traditionally used for sledding and explores their ancestry and breed composition as provided by the commercially available Embark dog DNA test. The three populations include the purebred Siberian Husky and the admixed populations of Alaskan sled dogs and Polar Huskies. While the Siberian Husky represents a well-established breed with extensive historical and health data, the Alaskan sled dog is less studied but has been the subject of nutritional, physiological, and genetic studies related to ancestry and performance. In contrast, the Polar Husky is a relatively obscure and rare group of dogs used for arctic exploration with very little-known information. The three populations were compared using Embark results, providing new insight into the health traits circulating within the populations and the potential ancestral linkage of the health traits between the sledding populations. Embark results are based upon 228,588 single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) spanning the canine genome, characterized using a custom-designed Illumina beadchip array. Results Specifically, breed composition was summarized for the two admixed populations with most of the dogs being predominantly categorized as Alaskan husky- type dog or "Supermutt". Mitochondrial and Y chromosome haplogroups and haplotypes were found with Alaskan sled dogs carrying most of the haplogroups and types found in Siberian and Polar Huskies. Genomic principal component analysis reflected population structure corresponding to breed and substructure within the Alaskan sled dogs related to sprint or distance competition. Genetic markers associated with Alanine Aminotransferase activity, Alaskan Husky Encephalopathy, dilated cardiomyopathy, Collie eye anomaly, degenerative myelopathy, ichthyosis, and factor VII deficiency were identified in the populations of sledding breeds. Conclusion These results provide a preliminary description of genetic characteristics found in sledding breeds, improving the understanding and care of working sled dogs.
Revascularization vs. Medical Therapy in Stable Ischemic Heart Disease

The keynote COURAGE and BARI-2D trials changed the way the interventional community selects patients for revascularization. What we now consider appropriate, especially for percutaneous coronary intervention, has narrowed significantly in scope compared to previous practice a decade ago. Medical therapy has been shown to be both safe and effective as a primary treatment modality for patients with stable ischemic heart disease on the whole. However, it appears that patients with a heavy ischemic burden may benefit from revascularization, although investigation of this is ongoing. Evidence preliminarily supports this practice with coronary artery bypass grafting, and possibly in specific populations undergoing multivessel intervention with functional assessment of lesion severity during PCI.
Getting Away with Murder: The Application of Marriage Laws in Jewish Yemen

Rabbinic designations of females as a kind of movable property under the management of fathers and husbands has mostly benefited males at the expense of females. But in spite of excessive care in covering as many circumstances as possible direct violations of rabbinic mandates have been fairly common in Yemen. Using a selection of narratives, this paper identifies specific halakhic mandates that have been disobeyed, ignored, circumvented or just defied by some of Yemen's Jews from the mid-19th century to the mid-20th century.
Critical relationship between TCR signaling potential and TCR affinity during thymocyte selection.

Whether a developing thymocyte becomes positively or negatively selected is thought to be determined by the affinity/avidity of its TCR for MHC/peptide ligands expressed in the thymus. Presumably, differences in affinity translate into differences in the potency of the ensuing TCR-mediated signals, and these differences in signal strength determine the outcome of thymocyte selection. However, there is little direct evidence establishing a relationship between TCR-ligand affinity and signal strength during positive and negative selection. The TCR complex contains multiple signaling motifs, known as immunoreceptor tyrosine-based activation motifs (ITAMs) that are required for T cell activation. To examine the effects of TCR signal strength on selection, the signaling potential of the TCR was modified by substituting transgenic TCR ζ-chains containing either three, one, or zero ITAMs for endogenous (3-ITAM) ζ-chain. These ζ-chain variants were then bred into different αβTCR transgenic backgrounds. We report that reductions in TCR signaling potential have distinct effects on the selection of thymocytes expressing different TCRs, and that the requirement for ζ-chain ITAMs critically depends upon the specificity and apparently, affinity, of the TCR for its selecting ligand(s).
The Pesticide Syndrome—Diagnosis and Suggested Prophylaxis

The word “pesticide” is a fabricated term of recent invention. Like the vast array of chemical poisons which it appropriately designates, it is both synthetic and modern. Pesticides emerged rather slowly and in a crude form out of the nineteenth century. Then with surprising suddenness they evolved into compounds having spectacular toxicity. They proliferated enormously. They spread over the entire globe. They are characteristic of our time and have confronted us with another environmental crisis of this decade, outstanding in terms of massiveness, extensiveness and rate of change.
Impact of hydroclimatic fluctuations on the soil water balance

[1] We analyze the propagation of daily fluctuations in rainfall and potential evapotranspiration to soil moisture dynamics, using a stochastic model that accounts for these two different forms of hydroclimatic variability. The pulsing, intermittent behavior of daily precipitation is described by a compound Poisson process that models the unpredictability of both frequency and amount of rainfall events, while fluctuations in potential evapotranspiration that act continuously in time are assumed to be Gaussian. The resulting model for the soil water balance is thus a stochastic differential equation, forced by a state-dependent compound Poisson noise and a multiplicative Gaussian noise. Steady state probability distribution functions (pdfs) of soil moisture are obtained analytically along with the equations for the expected water balance and its variability. The multiplicative effect of temporal fluctuations in potential evapotranspiration on soil moisture reduces the soil water losses caused by evapotranspiration compared to the case when they are not present. Most importantly, the analysis also shows that because of their different forms and state dependence the impact of rainfall variability on soil moisture dynamics is much more significant than that of potential evapotranspiration, the fluctuations of which do not affect appreciably the soil moisture statistical properties.
Thermal Barrier Coatings for Low Emission, High Efficiency Diesel Engine Applications

Thermal efficiencies of 54% have been demonstrated by single cylinder engine testing of advanced diesel engine concepts developed under Department of Energy funding. In order for these concept engines to be commercially viable, cost effective and durable systems for insulating the piston, head, ports and exhaust manifolds will be required. The application and development of new materials such as thick thermal barrier coating systems will be key to insulating these components. Development of test methods to rapidly evaluate the durability of coating systems without expensive engine testing is a major objective of current work. In addition, a novel, low cost method for producing thermal barrier coated pistons without final machining of the coating has been developed.
Differential distribution of the synapsins in the rat olfactory bulb

The distribution of the different forms of synapsin in the rat olfactory bulb was investigated by biochemical and immunocytochemical methods. Western blots of tissue derived from microdissection of the surface and core regions of the olfactory bulb were performed using antibodies to synapsin I and synapsin II. The relative levels of the synapsins in the core region of the olfactory bulb were similar to the cerebral cortex. In contrast, the surface region of the olfactory bulb had significantly higher levels of synapsin IIa and significantly lower levels of synapsin I, relative to the cortex. Immunocytochemical localization of synapsin I and synapsin II revealed that synapsin I immunoreactivity was the most dense in the external plexiform layer and in the glomeruli; immunoreactivity was also present in the granule cell layer and the periglomerular regions. Synapsin II immunoreactivity was the most dense in the glomeruli. The external plexiform layer, internal plexiform layer, and granule cell layer exhibited much lower immunoreactivity. To determine the source of synapsin II immunoreactivity in the glomeruli, the olfactory epithelium was damaged to decrease the primary afferent input to the bulb. Three to four days later, olfactory bulb sections were double labeled with anti-olfactory marker protein (OMP) antibodies and anti-synapsin II antibodies. Following denervation, both OMP and synapsin II immunoreactivities were diminished, and continued to colocalize in regions retaining immunoreactivity. Individual puncta were immunoreactive for both OMP and synapsin II. Occasional puncta contained only synapsin II immunoreactivity. These results indicate that the distribution of the synapsins in the olfactory bulb differs from most other brain regions.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)
Radiation scattering methods of particle size determination

When a beam of radiation is interrupted by the presence of a particle, the interaction yields particle size information. Many ‘stream-scanning’ (section 20.2) and light-scattering (section 3.8) devices are based on this principle. Theoretical solutions are possible for particular systems but it is commercial practice to calibrate instruments using standard powders. In the photosedimentation technique (section 9.4) the interaction of a beam of radiation with a sedimenting suspension is used for particle size distribution determination.