cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Changing tendencies in cause of death of residents in Wucheng district of Jinghua city in different periods

ObjectiveTo analyze the changing tendencies in cause of death of residents in Wucheng district of Jinghua city in two different periods(the period from 1986 to 1988 and 2004-2005 year).Method A retrospective investigation was adopted based on "The Scheme for the Third National Sample of Cause of Death".Results Resident's mortality dropped by 2.06‰.Life span for males and females rises by 4.38 years and 5.64 years old,respectively.The first five causes of death are malignant tumor(originally the second),respiratory disease(originally the first),cerebrovascular diseases(originally the fourth),heart disease(originally the fifth) and damaging poisoning(original the third) successively.Mortality caused by infectious disease and parasitic disease has dropped by 59.88% while death caused by chronic non-infectious disease rises to 83.0% from 63.4%.Conclusion Resident's overall health level has been improved obviously.Mortality due to the first five causes of death rises rapidly,while that caused by parasitic disease and infectious disease drops to some extent.The death proportion of chronic non-infectious disease rises.
Removing Practice of Caving Face in Gas-logged and Inflammable Thick Seam

In the gas-logged and inflammable thick seam,safe and quick removing is important step to ensure the safety in caving face at the end of mining.The 40106 full mechanized caving face of large Buddhist temple mine use combined support with bolting wire mesh in earlier stage of removing channel.During the removing,through comprehensive fire prevention measures of constructing gas drainage holes and pouring gel pores etc.,the CO concentration in goaf was stabilized between(20 ~ 40)×10-6,which ensured all equipment in full mechanized caving face smoothly removing within 10 days.It is valuable experience for removing work in gas-logged and inflammable thick seam.
Unilateral Phrenic Nerve Block after Supraclavicular Brachial Plexus Block

The incidence of phrenic nerve block following brachial plexus block, performed above clavicle, have varied widely. However, respiratory difficulty due to unilateral phrenic nerve block is rare complication of brachial plexus blocks, We experienced a case of symptomatic unilateral phrenic nerve block after supraclavicular approsch in thirty-four-year old woman. For brachial plexus block, 30 ml of 1.5% lidocaine and 0.2 mg of epinephrine were injected. Twenty five minutes after injection, she complained of respiratory difficulty. At recovery room, she complained sharp chest pain at apex of heart and epigastrium. We diagnosed her case as right phrenic nerve block because her right diaphragm was normal contour but was markedly displaced upward in portable chest X-ray. Respiratory difficulty was recovered 5 hours after injection and her chest pain was recovered 9 hours after injection.(Korean J Anesthesiol 1995; 2% 750~754)
Providing information about advance directives to patients in ambulatory care and their families.

PURPOSE/OBJECTIVES To devise a teaching pamphlet on advance directives. DATA SOURCES Published articles, professional publications, books. DATA SYNTHESIS Content was designed to educate, increase awareness of the topic, and encourage dialogue among caregivers, patients, and families prior to the onset of a health crisis. The tool is written at a fifth-grade reading level. CONCLUSIONS The booklet can achieve its goals. Dissemination strategies still are under discussion. IMPLICATIONS FOR NURSING PRACTICE Helping patients and their families explore end-of-life decisions is vital to providing comprehensive care for patients with cancer. Tools such as this can facilitate that process.
Social Justice and Language Acquisition for English Language Learners

Language development is critical to social justice, especially for the adolescent. Many issues can affect language skills. Language acquisition is key to communication skills and is complex, especially when viewed from the multicultural perspective related to second language learners. There is a difference between conversational language and academic language that must be considered when teaching adolescent English language learners (ELLs) that can influence the teacher’s perception of an adolescent’s language acquisition. Success in social language should not be mistaken for proficiency in the type and depth of English used in the classroom. Many language adolescent minority students possess conversational language, but experience academic failure because they lack cognitive academic language proficiency. Advocates for social justice education look to address the educational inequities facing ELLs since not all reading difficulties are disability related and sociocultural factors can be easily overlooked. These factors can lead to a higher rate of special education placement, especially for low-income minority students. Recognizing how second language learners function in academic contexts can greatly influence pedagogy. Classroom teachers can implement various pedagogies with positive results for their students related to language acquisition and application. One focus of these strategies is through the informal assessment of expressive language and application of classroom strategies and techniques to address noted student needs. This chapter will focus on social justice needs of adolescents by considering the theory of ELL language acquisition as well as approaches, techniques, and strategies. These will address issues related to the needs of the ELL adolescent students’ emerging language skills related to receptive and expressive language using reading instruction as the focus.
Compressive piezoresistive behavior of carbon nanotube sheets embedded in woven glass fiber reinforced composites

Abstract Due to the difficulties associated with performing compression tests and the complex nature of compression failure, the number of studies that have examined the piezoresistive response of carbon nanotube (CNT) sensing networks in composites under compression loading has been limited. This paper introduces a novel technique for embedding aligned sheets of two millimeter long, interconnected CNTs into the interlaminar region of laminated composite structures to assess the potential of the CNT sheets to function as strain sensing materials for composite structures subjected to axial compression loading. Quasi-static and cyclic compression mechanical loading tests were accompanied by real time electrical resistance change data acquisition and the results suggested that the CNT sheet sensing material composed of six CNT sheets layers exhibited improved sensitivity, stability and repeatability which are vital properties for any successful health monitoring technique. The coupons with six CNT sheets layers embedded exhibited piezoresistivity that showed some linearity in tension and was nonlinear in compression. This piezoresistive response was characterized as anti-symmetric around zero strain all the way until fracture.
Quantum phase transitions in the Heisenberg J 1 − J 2 triangular antiferromagnet in a magnetic field

We present the zero-temperature phase diagram of a Heisenberg antiferromagnet on a frustrated triangular lattice with nearest-neighbor $({J}_{1})$ and next-nearest-neighbor $({J}_{2})$ interactions, in a magnetic field. We show that the classical model has an accidental degeneracy for all ${J}_{2}/{J}_{1}$ and all fields, but the degeneracy is lifted by quantum fluctuations. We show that at large spin $S$, for ${J}_{2}/{J}_{1}l1/8$, quantum fluctuations select the same sequence of three sublattice co-planar states in a field as for ${J}_{2}=0$, and for $1/8l{J}_{2}/{J}_{1}l1$, they select the canted stripe state for all nonzero fields. The transition between the two states is first order in all fields, with the hysteresis width set by quantum fluctuations. We study the model with arbitrary $S$, including $S=1/2$, near the saturation field by exploring the fact that near saturation the density of bosons is small for all $S$. We show that for $Sg1$, the transition remains first order, with a finite hysteresis width, but for $S=1/2$ and, possibly, $S=1$, there appears a new intermediate phase without a quasiclassical long-range order.
Treatment of Blood Dyscrasias

Although blood is a liquid, its functions are varied and important, and it should be thought of as one of the vital organs. Its functions have been described as follows: 1. Respiration: Blood brings oxygen from the lungs to cells and removes carbon dioxide. Without blood there is cellular asphyxia. 2. Nutrition: Blood brings nutriment from the digestive organs to all cells of the body; without blood there is cellular starvation. 3. Excretion: Blood carries the products of cellular activity (uric acid, urea, creatinine, etc.) from the cells to the kidneys. Without blood, cells are poisoned by their own waste products. 4. Communication: Blood carries hormones from organs producing them to other organs using them, thus assisting in the hormonal regulation on the activity of the body; changes in the hormonal composition of blood stimulate or depress respiration, heart rate, blood pressure and so forth. Without blood the various organs of the body are isolated. 5. Defense: Blood brings white blood cells, antibodies and other defense materials to infected and injured parts of the body. Without blood the body is without defense. 6. Temperature regulation: The circulating blood, as described on page 126, equalizes the temperature of the body, and maintains the equilibrium by conserving the body heat or accelerating its loss through skin radiation. Without blood there is no temperature regulation.
Gene Environment Interactions and Vascular Lesions

Despite the extensive research in the field of tumor angiogenesis, the complex interaction of genes with environmental factors is not yet understood in terms of development and aggressiveness of vascular lesions in different human tumor types. Environmental risk factors such as tobacco smoke, alcohol, xenobiotics, arsenic, and air pollutants are the exposures studied most frequently for interactions with genetic polymorphisms in cancer. To date, results from the literature show no direct studies of angiogenic gene environment interactions. However, it is important to study angiogenic gene environment interactions because of the influence that vascular lesions have on the invasiveness of cancer. In this chapter, we review the literature to determine the possible role of angiogenic gene environment interactions in vascular lesion formation. We have focused our efforts using mainly estrogenic compounds as the model to describe the role of gene environment interactions in the pathogenesis of vascular lesions.
Endogenous Heat‐Shock Protein Induction with or Without Radiofrequency Ablation or Cryoablation in Patients with Stage IV Melanoma

Lessons learned Percutaneous thermal ablation combined with in situ granulocyte-macrophage colony-stimulating factor cytokine therapy was technically feasible and well tolerated.No significant clinical or immunologic responses were seen. Background Melanoma tumor-derived heat-shock proteins (HSPs) and HSP-peptide complexes can elicit protective antitumor responses. The granulocyte-macrophage colony-stimulating factor (GM-CSF) chemokine can also promote uptake and processing by professional antigen presenting cells (APCs). On this basis, we designed a pilot study of percutaneous thermal ablation as a means to induce heat-shock protein vaccination plus GM-CSF to determine safety and preliminary antitumor activity of this combination. Materials and methods This study was designed to assess overall safety of percutaneous ablation combined with GM-CSF for unresectable, metastatic melanoma including uveal and mucosal types. All patients received heat-shock therapy (42°C for 30 minutes), then received one of three treatments: (a) intralesional GM-CSF (500 mcg standard dose); (b) radiofrequency ablation (RFA) + GM-CSF; or (c) cryoablation plus GM-CSF. The primary endpoint of the study was the induction of endogenous HSP70 and melanoma-specific cytotoxic T lymphocytes (CTL). Results Nine patients (three per study arm) were enrolled. No dose-limiting toxicity was observed as specified per protocol. All patients developed progressive disease and went on to receive alternative therapy. Median overall survival (OS) was 8.2 months (95% confidence interval [CI] 2-17.2). The study was not powered to detect a difference in clinical outcome among treatment groups. Conclusion Percutaneous thermal ablation plus GM-CSF was well tolerated, technically feasible, and demonstrated an acceptable adverse event profile comparable to conventional RFA and cryoablation. While HSP70 was induced following therapy, the degree of HSP70 elevation was not associated with clinical outcome or induced CTL responses. While percutaneous thermal ablation plus GM-CSF combinations including checkpoint inhibitors could be considered in future studies, the use of GM-CSF remains experimental and for use in the context of clinical trials.
Healthy Living After Cancer Treatment: Considerations for Clinical and Community Practice:

As the number of US cancer survivors now reaches almost 16 million, understanding how to care for survivors after cancer treatment has demanded national attention. Increasingly, compelling benefits of lifestyle behaviors for cancer prevention and control have been demonstrated. In particular, physical activity is recommended as a central component of healthy living after cancer treatment. However, survivors struggle to achieve recommended physical activity and other behaviors for reasons that are still not well understood. Further, as greater than 60% of cancer survivors are older than 65 years, there is a unique opportunity to increase engagement of older adults in health programs and clinical trials. This article considers evidence from two reviews: a review on epidemiology studies of lifestyle and cancer and a review on different behavioral intervention strategies to achieve positive behavioral changes in cancer survivors. Both reviews offer important evidence on the role of lifestyle in life after cancer treatment. However, more investigation is needed on the practice of lifestyle medicine for cancer survivors, including ways to extend the reach of health promotion beyond cancer clinics, to primary care and community settings.
Intracranial Hemorrhage in Patients with a Left Ventricular Assist Device.

Background There is a dearth of literature regarding management and outcomes of patients with a left ventricular assist device (LVAD) for advanced heart failure who develop intracranial hemorrhage (ICH). We conducted a case series from 2 centers highlighting patient outcomes and prognostic factors to help clinicians better understand and care for these high-risk patients. Methods A case series from 2 large-volume institutions (defined as large by the Nationwide Inpatient Sample hospital size, i.e., >500 beds both with Departments of Neurosurgery and Advanced Heart Failure–Cardiology) was conducted to clarify the prognosis of patients with an LVAD and ICH. We included patients who were being treated with an LVAD who developed ICH. Patient-specific demographics and data regarding heart failure and intracranial hemorrhage characteristics were collected and analyzed to determine which factors contributed to overall survival. Results We analyzed 59 unique ICHs in patients being treated with an LVAD for heart failure. Initial Glasgow Coma Scale score, presence of midline shift, and ICH size were factors found to be predictive of mortality. One institution had a sicker patient population including patients with ICH with lower Glasgow Coma Scale score, presence of midline shift, and greater hemorrhage size, which led to overall higher mortality compared with the second institution. Conclusions Patients being treated with an LVAD who develop ICH have poor outcomes. Predictive factors for same-admission mortality are lower initial Glasgow Coma Scale score, presence of midline shift, and greater ICH volume.
Complications Associated with Underweight Primary Immunodeficiency Patients: Prevalence and Associations Within the USIDNET Registry

The point prevalence of underweight status and obesity in primary immunodeficiency disease (PID) is unknown, despite the described associations between PID and weight loss and failure to thrive. The goal of this study is to estimate the prevalence of underweight status and obesity in PID patients and to investigate the associations between abnormal body weight and complications of PID. Using the US Immunodeficiency Network (USIDNET), we performed a retrospective analysis of 653 pediatric (age 2 to 20 years) and 514 adult (age > 20) patient records with information on patient body mass index (BMI). Prevalence of underweight and obese status in PID patients was compared to data from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES). After separating BMI data by year of entry to the database, we demonstrated that both adult and pediatric patients with PID had significantly higher prevalence of underweight patients in multiple years of analysis. Further examination of underweight patients by PID diagnosis revealed that underweight status in adults with CVID was associated with granulomatous disease as well as earlier age of CVID diagnosis. In the pediatric CVID cohort, underweight status was significantly associated with lymphopenia. Examination of obesity in pediatric and adult PID patients compared to NHANES database revealed only a single year when obesity in PID patients was significantly less prevalent. In other 2-year time intervals from 2005 to 2014, the prevalence of obesity was unchanged in children and adults. These results quantify the prevalence of underweight status in PID in a North American population and demonstrate that whether as a result of weight loss or poor weight gain, underweight status is more prevalent in the PID population than in the general US population. The prevalence of obesity in PID patients was similar to that seen in the general population. This highlights the need for continued education on the association of low weight and PID. NCT01953016
Regulating Privacy in Public/Private Space: The Case of Nursing Home Monitoring Laws

The emergence of consumer-purchased monitoring devices in shared, intimate spaces presents new challenges to privacy and its protection. Web-enabled video cameras, which allow family members to monitor one another in the name of care, are among the most prevalent technologies in this vein. These cameras have recently gained traction for remote monitoring of vulnerable relatives in nursing homes, where they are intended to detect and deter abuse and neglect in residents’ rooms. But in so doing, they can create new privacy vulnerabilities — for residents (many of whom have dementia and lack capacity for consent), frontline care workers, roommates in shared rooms, and others. State policymakers are grappling with these issues as they craft laws governing electronic monitoring in these complex public/private spaces, in which they must balance among competing — and sometimes irreconcilable — privacy and security interests. This paper presents a comparative analysis of six state regimes that regulate the use of monitoring systems in nursing home resident rooms. We find that states attempt to protect privacy through a variety of interlocking privacy constraints: social, technical, and institutional safeguards that restrict how monitoring devices can be introduced and operated. Further, we map key relationships within which stakeholders hold specific privacy interests vis-a-vis one another, and describe how legal regimes do (and do not) address such interests. We consider implications for how privacy is conceptualized and regulated in multi-relational social contexts, in which the privacy and security interests of certain stakeholders necessarily impact the privacy experiences of others.
Therapeutic neovascularization promoted by injectable hydrogels

Abstract The aim of therapeutic neovascularization is to repair ischemic tissues via formation of new blood vessels by delivery of angiogenic growth factors, stem cells or expansion of pre-existing cells. For efficient neovascularization, controlled release of growth factors is particularly necessary since bolus injection of molecules generally lead to a poor outcome due to inadequate retention within the injured site. In this regard, injectable hydrogels, made of natural, synthetic or hybrid biomaterials, have become a promising solution for efficient delivery of angiogenic factors or stem and progenitor cells for in situ tissue repair, regeneration and neovascularization. This review article will broadly discuss the state-of-the-art in the development of injectable hydrogels from natural and synthetic precursors, and their applications in ischemic tissue repair and wound healing. We will cover a wide range of in vitro and in vivo studies in testing the functionalities of the engineered injectable hydrogels in promoting tissue repair and neovascularization. We will also discuss some of the injectable hydrogels that exhibit self-healing properties by promoting neovascularization without the presence of angiogenic factors.
The Modern Chain Gang: How Convict Leasing Can Help Repair the California Prison System

Inmates who work while incarcerated are less likely to succumb to the common negative effects of prison life both during their incarceration and after their release. Both the federal government and California, which have inmate labor programs already in place, realize the benefits and importance of inmate labor to the government, the individual inmate, prisons systems, and society. Labor as a means to reform served as the backbone of early private prison labor programs. These programs were vastly successful until opposition from organized labor caused their dissolution. This article proposes a regulated and humane return to the convict leasing system. Because the private sector cannot currently utilize the benefits of inmate labor, using laws, regulations, and doctrine from both private prisons and labor, I propose a cooperation program between private industry and the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation (CDCR). This program will see private companies permanently house, secure, and care for inmates who produce goods or services for the companies on-site, or transport inmates between the prisons and the production facilities and secure and care for inmates who are in their custody while paying the state a fee for each inmate assigned a position with the company. This system will help defray the per inmate cost to the California prison system by requiring private industry to internalize inmate expenses while in their care and will also secure a recurring revenue stream for the CDCR while adhering to current political, cultural, societal, and legal standards that will insulate inmates from the problems of early convict leasing systems and current private prisons.
Pompe Disease: Literature Review and Case Series

Pompe disease is a rare multi-systemic metabolic myopathy caused by autosomal recessive mutations in the acidic alpha glucosidase (GAA) gene. Significant progress had been made in the diagnosis and management of patients with Pompe disease. Here, we describe our experience with 12 patients with various forms of Pompe disease including 4 potentially pathogenic, novel GAA variants. We also review the recent the recent advances in the pathogenesis, diagnosis, and treatment of individuals with Pompe disease.
Conscience and Emergency Contraception

This article examines the influence of religious beliefs on the law of emergency contraception. That influence is evident in two areas of the law. The first is conscience clause legislation, which allows health care providers to refuse participation in abortion, sterilization, contraception, or other medical procedures for religious and moral reasons. The second is the substantive content of health law and policy. The article first describes recent claims of conscience by pharmacists who refuse to dispense emergency contraception. It then reviews state and federal attempts to regulate the availability of emergency contraception. It also discusses the implications of the debates about contraception for the Religion Clauses of the First Amendment, concluding that legislative over-reliance on conscience clauses may violate the Establishment Clause.
Vector Spaces, Matrices, and Linear Equations

This chapter discusses the concepts of vector spaces, scalar multiplication, and isomorphism between two vector spaces. There are many fields other than the real numbers. Two familiar examples are provided by the set of all rational numbers or the set of all complex numbers. Fields that are subsets of the complex numbers are called number fields. Let F be a field, and suppose that V is a set of elements such that for each a in F and each v in V , there is a product av defined. The operation that yields this product is called scalar multiplication. The chapter discusses the concepts of subspace, spanning set, basis, and transition matrix in vector spaces other than R n . If W is a subset of the vector space V over F , then W may also be a vector space over F . The terminology used in R n generalizes to arbitrary vector spaces, and such a subset is called a subspace of V .
Extreme Contact Scaling with Advanced Metallization of Cobalt

Extending tungsten contact for the most advanced nodes (≤ 7 nm) is challenging due to the growing impact of contact resistance on the overall resistance of a device and to the increasing difficulty of gapfill in features with < 20 nm critical dimensions. The paper presents a gapfill material using metalorganic chemical vapor deposition (MO-CVD) cobalt for contact plug. Highlights of new gapfill material include proven seamless, voidless gapfill and contact resistance reduction. CVD Cobalt anneal parameters are discussed that can be optimized in combination with the deposition process to achieve desired gapfill. A proprietary electron-beam imaging technology was used to qualify the cobalt fill for void-free performance. Various process flows are discussed that lead to the best-known fill and resistance reduction values.
Topic modelling for medical prescription fraud and abuse detection

Medical prescription fraud and abuse have been a pressing issue in the USA, resulting in large financial losses and adverse effects on human health. The size and complexity of the healthcare systems as well as the cost of medical audits make use of statistical methods necessary to generate investigative leads in prescription audits. We analyse prescriber–drug associations by utilizing the real world Medicare part D prescription data from New Hampshire. In particular, we propose the use of topic models to group drugs with respect to the billing patterns and exhibit the potential aberrant behaviours while using medical specialities as a covariate. The prescription patterns of the providers are retrieved with an emphasis on opioids and aggregated into distance‐based measures which are visualized by concentration functions. This output can enable healthcare auditors to identify leads for audits of providers prescribing medically unnecessary drugs.
Extrinsic Convergent Validity Evidence to Prevent Jingle and Jangle Fallacies.

In psychology, there have been vast creative efforts in proposing new constructs and developing measures to assess them. Less effort has been spent in investigating construct overlap to prevent bif...
Influence of virtual environment complexity on motor learning in typically developing children and children with cerebral palsy

Motion-controlled video games in virtual environments (VEs) are physical therapy interventions for motor skill learning in children with neuromotor conditions, such as cerebral palsy. Many VEs feature complex audiovisuals designed to motivate and engage children in repetitive use; however, the value of these enhancements remains unclear. The purpose of this study was to examine the effect of a simple versus a complex VE on motor learning of a novel balance task in typically developing (TD) children and children with cerebral palsy (CP). In addition, we explored the relationship between children’s motivation, engagement and their motor learning outcomes in each VE. Twenty-seven TD children and 6 children with hemiplegic or diplegic CP participated. Participants were randomized to practice the same novel postural control task in either a simple or a complex flat-screen display VE. Motor learning was measured by an error metric per trial. Following 40 acquisition trials, children completed motivation (Intrinsic Motivation Inventory) and engagement (User Engagement Scale) measures. They returned 2–7 days later for retention and transfer tests. Children with CP had significantly greater performance errors as compared to TD children at all sessions; however, there was no difference in performance between simple and complex VE conditions at any session, nor were there any differences in engagement or motivation between conditions or groups. Lower self-reported motivation was associated with greater performance error at retention and transfer in all participants. Study results provide no evidence for an effect of VE audiovisual complexity on children’s motor learning or affective state.
4CPS-017 Efficacy and safety of tolvaptan in the treatment of polycystic kidney disease

Background and importance Tolvaptan is the first authorised drug for the treatment of autosomal dominant polycystic kidney disease (PQRAD). Aim and objectives To analyse the efficacy and safety of tolvaptan in the treatment of PQRAD compared with the results of the TEMPO study. Material and methods This was a descriptive, observational and retrospective study of patients treated with tolvaptan (August 2017–April 2019). Variables studied were: age, sex, arterial hypertension, total renal volume (VRT), creatinine, serum potassium and sodium, transaminases and glomerular filtration rate (GFR). Adverse reactions were recorded. For collection of data, the electronic medical history was used. Statistical analysis was performed with the Stata14 programme. Results We included 23 patients (8 women, 5 men), median age 46 years (31–63) years. All had VRT >1000 mL (median 1920 mL (1230–3154)). At the beginning of treatment, GFR was 49.7 mL/min/1.73 m2 (25.6–102.31): 3 patients had stage 1 chronic kidney disease, 2 patients had stage 2, 10 patients stage 3A, 6 patients stage 3B and 2 patients stage 4. All patients suffered progressive deterioration of renal function during treatment: 5.25 mL/min/1.73m2 (−3.61–18.29) and 8.28 mL/min/1.73 m2 (−1.87–15.59) at 3 and 6 months, respectively, and 8.49 mL/min/1.73 m2 (4.21–14.06) at the end of the treatment year. Tolvaptan was suspended in three patients due to impaired renal function (GFR Conclusion and relevance Our results, compared with the TEMPO study, showed a higher rate of renal function deterioration, measured as a decrease in GFR rate after 1 year of treatment (8.49 vs 2.7 mL/min/1.73 m2), probably in relation to the worst baseline condition of the patients included in our study. Therefore, it is essential to identify the population susceptible to receiving this drug, prioritising those patients with GFR >45 mL/min/1.73 m2 and with a high risk of rapid progression. References and/or acknowledgements TEMPO clinical trial. No conflict of interest.
Automatic Detection of Contracting Muscle Regions via the Deformation Field of Transverse Ultrasound Images: A Feasibility Study

Accurate identification of contracting muscles can help us to understand the muscle function in both physiological and pathological conditions. Conventional electromyography (EMG) have limited access to deep muscles, crosstalk, or instability in the recordings. Accordingly, a novel framework was developed to detect contracting muscle regions based on the deformation field of transverse ultrasound images. We first estimated the muscle movements in a stepwise calculation, to derive the deformation field. We then calculated the divergence of the deformation field to locate the expanding or shrinking regions during muscle contractions. Two preliminary experiments were performed to evaluate the feasibility of the developed algorithm. Using concurrent intramuscular EMG recordings, Experiment I verified that the divergence map can capture the activity of superficial and deep muscles, when muscles were activated voluntarily or through electrical stimulation. Experiment II verified that the divergence map can only capture contracting muscles but not muscle shortening during passive movements. The results demonstrated that the divergence can individually capture the activity of muscles at different depths, and was not sensitive to muscle shortening during passive movements. The proposed framework can automatically detect the regions of contracting muscle, and could potentially serve as a tool to assess the functions of a group of muscles concurrently.
Which Factors Correlate with Marginal Ulcer After Surgery for Obesity

Marginal ulcer is one of the most common complications after Roux-en-Y gastric bypass and is defined as an ulceration of any depth at or near the gastrojejunal anastomosis. Different risk factors have been advocated to be the causative agent. The weighted discharges from the Nationwide Inpatient Sample from 2003 to 2011 were used to assess for risk factors to develop marginal ulcer such as Helicobacter pylori infection, chronic nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory use, chronic aspirin use, alcohol dependence, smoking, hypertension, and diabetes mellitus type II. Chronic nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drug use was the most significant risk factor for marginal ulcer, followed by Helicobacter pylori infection, obstructive sleep apnea, female sex, smoking, and alcohol dependence in decreasing order. Diabetes mellitus and hypertension were found to slightly increase the risk for marginal ulcer. The use of aspirin was found to be a minor risk factor during univariate analysis but a protective factor during multivariate analysis. Multiple well-documented single factors are related to the genesis of a marginal ulcer, although it is likely that a combination of risk factors is responsible for this problem. These risk factors should be identified and removed or controlled.
The elusive quest for social diversity: Public housing, diversity, and politics in France

Abstract This paper shows that social housing supply affects population diversity and that electoral incentives matter for the provision of social rental units at the local level. Using a nationwide policy reform imposing on French municipalities to increase their stocks of social dwellings, I find that there is a positive causal relationship between policy implementation, affordable housing supply and social diversity in the Greater Paris region. The impact of the policy is heterogeneous across municipality characteristics. Richer and more politically right-wing oriented municipalities build fewer new social housing units. I provide evidence that electoral incentives can explain part of the impact heterogeneity found. Conservative mayor re-election is threatened by the arrival of new public housing residents with different political preferences as well as by dissatisfaction with housing policy implementation among incumbent conservative voters. The findings imply that local government incentives might affect the implementation of affordable housing policies. This paper contributes to the limited body of evidence on the political economy of social housing provision.
The current status of the diversity pipeline in surgical training.

Abstract Objective Recent initiatives have emphasized the importance of diversity, equity, and inclusion in academic surgery. Racial/ethnic disparities remain prevalent throughout surgical training, and the “diversity pipeline” in resident recruitment and retention remains poorly defined. Methods Data was retrospectively collected using two separate datasets. The Association of American Medical Colleges database was used to obtain demographic data on US medical school graduates. The US Graduate Medical Education annual report was used to obtain demographic data on surgical residents. Wilcoxon signed-rank test was used to compare racial/ethnic distribution within surgical residency programs with graduating medical students. Linear regression analysis was performed to analyze population trends over time. Results The study population included 184,690 surgical residents from 2011 to 2020. Nine resident cohorts were created according to surgical specialty – general surgery, neurosurgery, ophthalmology, orthopedic surgery, otolaryngology, plastic surgery, cardiothoracic surgery, urology, and vascular surgery. Among surgical programs, White residents were overrepresented in 8 of 9 specialties compared to the concurrent graduating medical student class for all years (p Conclusions These data suggest that racial/ethnic disparities are inherent to the process of recruitment and retention of surgical residents. Efforts to improve the “diversity pipeline” should focus on mentorship and development of minority medical students and creating an equitable learning environment.
The Rise of National Security Secrets

Professor Aziz Rana urges a broad and populist reconsideration of the idea that the administration and military are best positioned to make decisions about national security issues. This Article calls for a rethinking of national security secrecy as well. The centralization of security decision-making power in the early Cold War era fostered a culture of government secrecy, with Congress and the judiciary enabling the rise of national security secrecy out of fear that they were ill-equipped to make security-related decisions, and public fear of internal and international security threats trumping concerns about legitimacy or democratic accountability. This culture of secrecy has reinforced and legitimated governmental secrecy in current times. The ongoing harms include a longterm distortion to the rule of law, prevention of redress for individual litigants harmed by the national security state, a detriment to perceptions of governmental legitimacy, and a severe reduction in transparency and accountability. Other democratic nations facing severe security threats have found a more just and humane balance between the legitimate need for secrecy and the democratic demand for information concerning actions taken in the name of our national security, which demonstrates that the current U.S. information-sharing paradigm is not necessarily the default. Such evidence provides a strong basis for reconsidering the current security structures in the United States and re-engaging the public in gaining greater access to information that the government relies upon in making security policy. Professor Rana’s call for a re-thinking of the security roles of government actors and of the public provides an important starting point for discourse around remediating imbalances in information and decision-making power to better balance and strengthen our democracy.
Patient, physician, and procedural factors influencing the use of defibrillation testing during initial implantable cardioverter defibrillator insertion: findings from the NCDR®.

Background Advances in implantable cardioverter defibrillator (ICD) technology have resulted in more effective defibrillation, and the need for defibrillation threshold (DFT) testing has been questioned. Methods A total of 64,227 initial ICD implant procedures performed at 1,261 facilities (April to December 2010) in the NCDR Registry™ were selected to identify patterns of practice related to DFT testing. Patient, physician, and procedural characteristics were compared. Independent association of DFT testing with in-hospital adverse events or mortality was also examined. Results DFT testing was performed in 71% of patients. Patients who did not undergo testing were older; more often had heart failure, lower left ventricular ejection fraction, atrial arrhythmias, and a primary prevention indication; and were more likely to receive a cardiac resynchronization therapy device. In addition, patients who did not undergo testing were less likely to be implanted in a metropolitan area and more often implanted at a teaching hospital, in New England, in the Mid-Atlantic, or in the Pacific U.S . In-hospital adverse events occurred in 2.56% of patients who underwent DFT testing compared to 3.58% who did not (P < 0.001). Death or any complication remained more likely to occur in patients who did not undergo testing (odds ratio and 95% confidence interval: 1.46 [1.33, 1.61], P < 0.001), after adjusting for baseline and procedural differences. Conclusions DFT testing is not performed in many (29%) patients in clinical practice. Patients who did not undergo testing were more likely to have adverse events and to be older with more comorbidities, which could explain why DFT testing was avoided. Prospective randomized data are needed to determine the impact of DFT testing on outcome.
Control of switched electrical networks using averaging on Lie groups

We apply the theory of averaging and motion control on Lie groups to the problem of controlling energy transfers between dynamic storage elements in switched electrical networks. The switched networks of interest have bilinear state-space models in which the control u, representing the position of the switch, takes value in the set. >
The Seminar for Freshmen as a Platform for Raising Student Awareness of Austrian (and German) Studies

Small German programs need to reach out to first-year students in order to expand the pool of potential majors and minors and to increase program visibility on campus. This article demonstrates how an interdisciplinary Seminar for Freshmen on Vienna and Berlin can be used to introduce students to the study of the German-speaking world by comparing the two capital cities with regard to culture, history, lifestyle, and politics. In contrast to the norm in many programs, Austria is given equal status in this exercise.
Evidence of enhanced kindling and hippocampal neuronal injury in immature rats with neuronal migration disorders.

Summary: Purpose: Neuronal migration disorders (NMD) are often found in patients with epilepsy. However, the mechanisms linking these two pathologies are not yet fully understood. In this study, we evaluated whether NMD increased kindling seizure susceptibility and seizure-induced acute neuronal damage in the immature brain. Methods: Experimental NMD were produced by exposing pregnant rats (gestation day 15) to methylazoxymethanol acetate (MAM, 25 mg/kg, ip). Seizures were induced in rat pups (postnatal day 15) transplacentally exposed to MAM and controls by hippocampal kindling. Afterdischarge (AD) threshold and duration, seizure stage, and number of stimulations required to reach each seizure stage were recorded. Acute seizure-induced damage was histologically assessed in Nissl-stained and silver-impregnated hippocampal tissue 24 h after kindling. Results: Rat pups with NMD had a significantly lower AD threshold than controls (91 ± 18 vs. 163 ± 23 μA; p < 0.05). Furthermore, rats with NMD required fewer stimulations to reach seizure stage 3.5 and 4 than did controls. Additionally, rats with NMD had longer AD the second day of stimulation (2,094 ± 416 s vs. 1,755 ± 353 s; p < 0.05). Histologic examination revealed that in rats with NMD, acute seizure-induced neuronal hippocampal damage occurred bilaterally in CA3 hippocampal neurons. Conclusions: The lowered AD threshold and more rapid kindling to stages 3.5 and 4 indicate that in the presence of severe NMD, hippocampal kindling is facilitated. Furthermore, this study suggests that in the immature brain, seizure-induced hippocampal neuronal damage occurs if there is an underlying pre-existing pathology.
Submicrosecond real-time fluorescence sampling: application to protein folding.

Abstract Time-resolved fluorescence detection has become a central tool in the study of protein folding. This article briefly reviews modern fluorescence techniques and then focuses on recent improvements made possible by array photomultipliers, computer-controlled data gating, and long-memory multi-channel digitizers. It is now possible to detect fluorescence wavelength profiles and/or fluorescence decay transients very cost effectively with sub-microsecond kinetic time resolution out to long times. Folding kinetics can be analyzed by singular value decomposition (SVD) or χ-analysis. The latter provides an objective method for detecting nonexponential kinetics in two-state systems.
Limbus impact on off-angle iris degradation

The accuracy of iris recognition depends on the quality of data capture and is negatively affected by several factors such as angle, occlusion, and dilation. Off-angle iris recognition is a new research focus in biometrics that tries to address several issues including corneal refraction, complex 3D iris texture, and blur. In this paper, we present an additional significant challenge that degrades the performance of the off-angle iris recognition systems, called the “limbus effect”. The limbus is the region at the border of the cornea where the cornea joins the sclera. The limbus is a semitransparent tissue that occludes a side portion of the iris plane. The amount of occluded iris texture on the side nearest the camera increases as the image acquisition angle increases. Without considering the role of the limbus effect, it is difficult to design an accurate off-angle iris recognition system. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first work that investigates the limbus effect in detail from a biometrics perspective. Based on results from real images and simulated experiments with real iris texture, the limbus effect increases the hamming distance score between frontal and off-angle iris images ranging from 0.05 to 0.2 depending upon the limbus height.
Proactive routing under conversion cascading constraint in optical burst switching networks

The negative impact of cascaded wavelength conversions has been largely ignored in optical burst switching performance evaluations. When optical bursts are transmitted all optically from source to destination, each wavelength conversion performed along the lightpath causes some signal-to-noise deterioration. If the distortion of the signal quality becomes significant enough, the receiver would not be able to recover the original data. In this paper we examine the performance degradation when an upper bound on the number of wavelength conversions that a signal can go through is enforced. We refer to this constraint as conversion cascading constraint. We propose a novel proactive routing scheme that considers the instantaneous link congestion at the moment when bursts arrive. It has three major advantages: 1) utilize the same offset times for the same node pairs while providing dynamic routing without using any fiber delay lines; 2) decrease burst loss probability to a great extent; 3) mitigate unfairness among bursts with different hop counts, which is even worse under conversion cascading constraint if without any special treatment.
Experimental arthritis in rats induces biomarkers of periodontitis which are ameliorated by gene therapy with tissue inhibitor of matrix metalloproteinases.

Background: Periodontal disease (PD) and rheumatoid arthritis (RA) share many common pathophysiologic features, but a clinical relationship between the two conditions remains controversial, in part because of the confounding effects of anti-inflammatory drug therapy universally used in the latter disease. To further explore this issue, inflammatory arthritis was induced in rats to determine the effect on gingival biomarkers of inflammation and tissue destruction and to investigate the effect of a therapeutic intervention devoid of conventional anti-inflammatory properties. Methods: Adjuvant arthritis (AA) was induced in Lewis male rats by injecting mycobacterium cell wall in complete Freund's adjuvant using standard techniques. One group of animals was treated by induction of systemic tissue inhibitor of matrix metalloproteinases (TIMP-4). At 3 weeks, arthritis severity was recorded and both paw and gingival tissues were collected for matrix metalloproteinase activity (MMP) and cytokine analysis. In addit...