cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Assessment of trunk muscle density using CT and its association with degenerative disc and facet joint disease of the lumbar spine

The purpose of this study was (1) to evaluate the association of trunk muscle density assessed by computed tomography (CT) with age, gender, and BMI and (2) to evaluate the association between trunk muscle CT density and degenerative disc and facet joint disease of the lumbar spine. The study was IRB approved and HIPAA compliant. The study group comprised 100 subjects (mean age 44.4 ± 22.2 years, 51 % male) who underwent CT of the abdomen and pelvis without intravenous contrast. Exclusion criteria included prior abdominal or spine surgery, active malignancy and scoliosis. CTs were reviewed and the attenuation of the rectus abdominis, transverse abdominis, internal and external obliques, psoas, multifidus, longissimus and gluteus maximus were measured bilaterally at consistent levels. Degenerative disc and bilateral facet joint disease were scored using established methods. Univariate analyses were performed using linear regression. Multivariate linear regression was performed to adjust for age, gender and BMI. CT density of each trunk muscle correlated inversely with age (p < 0.001) and BMI (p < 0.001). CT density of each trunk muscle correlated inversely with degenerative disc and facet joint disease in the univariate analyses (p < 0.001); however, only the gluteus maximus and the transverse abdominis remained significant predictors of degenerative disc and facet joint disease respectively in the multivariate analysis. Fatty infiltration of trunk musculature increases with age and BMI. Fatty infiltration of the gluteus maximus and transverse abdominis are associated with degenerative disc and facet joint disease, independent of age, gender and BMI.
Surgical Management and Oncologic Outcomes of Recurrent Venous Tumor Thrombus after Prior Nephrectomy for Renal Cell Carcinoma.

Abstract Background While the management of a venous tumor thrombus in renal cell carcinoma is well described, there is a paucity of evidence to guide care in patients who recur within the vena cava. Objective To report our experience with patients presenting with recurrent venous tumor thrombi after prior radical nephrectomy. Design, setting, and participants A retrospective review of 16 patients from 1970 to 2013 with a history of renal cell carcinoma treated surgically for a recurrent tumor thrombus unrelated to a new renal tumor. Intervention Recurrent tumor thrombectomy. Outcome measurements and statistical analysis Intraoperative outcomes, recurrence-free survival, and cancer-specific survival following resection. Results and limitations Of the 16 patients, three patients were diagnosed with synchronous widely metastatic disease, did not undergo recurrent tumor thrombectomy, and died within 6 mo. Among the remaining 13 repeat surgical patients, the median age was 67 (range: 48–76) yr with a median time from prior nephrectomy to diagnosis of 6 (range: 3–58) mo. Nine patients had known tumor thrombus at nephrectomy, all of whom were thought to have complete tumor thrombectomy at initial surgery. During exploration for recurrent thrombus, surgical resection was completed in 11, with a median blood loss of 2500 (range: 200–7000) ml, and a median transfusion requirement of four (range: 0–18) units. At a median follow-up of 12 mo all patients had recurred and died of disease. The median time to recurrence and death was 4 mo and 12 mo following repeat exploration, respectively. Conclusions Recurrent tumor thrombectomy is a technically feasible yet challenging operation. Survival is poor in this population with metastatic progression appreciated in all patients in our series. Patient summary In this report we evaluated outcomes for patients presenting with vena cava tumor thrombus after prior nephrectomy for renal cell carcinoma. We found that surgical excision is complex yet feasible and that survival following resection was poor.
A Procedural Approach to Teaching Residents To Conduct Intensive Care Unit Family Conferences

Abstract Rationale: Family conferences are an essential component of high-quality ICU care and an important skill for physicians. For residents, intensive care unit (ICU) rotations represent an opportunity to learn to conduct family conferences, and residents are already familiar with an approach for learning ICU procedures with steps of increasing responsibility organized as a module. Objectives: To determine the acceptability and feasibility of a procedure-training module for teaching family conferences. Methods: We conducted a feasibility pilot study of a family conference training module with residents during a one-month ICU rotation over a three-month period. The module had five components: (1) two-minute instructional video; (2) faculty observation of two family conferences; (3) standardized observation and formative evaluation; (4) online resident procedure log; and (5) family conference note template to document the conference in the medical record. We evaluated acceptability with an anonymous sur...
Audiology patient fall statistics and risk factors compared to non-audiology patients

AbstractObjective: To compare fall statistics (e.g. incidence, prevalence), fall risks, and characteristics of patients who seek hearing healthcare from an audiologist to individuals who have not sought such services. Design: Case-control study. Study sample: Two groups of community-dwelling older adult patients: 25 audiology patients aged 60 years or older (M age: 69.2 years, SD: 4.5, range: 61–77) and a control group (gender- and age-matched ±2 years) of 25 non-audiology patients (M age: 69.6, SD: 4.7, range: 60–77). Results: Annual incidence of falls (most recent 12 months) was higher in audiology patients (68.0%) than non-audiology patients (28.0%; p = .005). Audiology patients reported a higher incidence of multiple recent falls (p =.025) and more chronic health conditions (p = .028) than non-audiology patients. Conclusions: Significantly more audiology patients fall on an annual basis than non-audiology patients, suggesting that falls are a pervasive issue in general hearing clinics. Further action ...
Online power estimation of graphics processing units

Accurate power estimation at runtime is essential for the efficient functioning of a power management system. While years of research have yielded accurate power models for the online prediction of instantaneous power for CPUs, such power models for graphics processing units (GPUs) are lacking. GPUs rely on low-resolution power meters that only nominally support basic power management. To address this, we propose an instantaneous power model, and in turn, a power estimator, that uses performance counters in a novel way so as to deliver accurate power estimation at runtime. Our power estimator runs on two real NVIDIA GPUs to show that accurate runtime estimation is possible without the need for the high-fidelity details that are assumed on simulation-based power models. To construct our power model, we first use correlation analysis to identify a concise set of performance counters that work well despite GPU device limitations. Next, we explore several statistical regression techniques and identify the best one. Then, to improve the prediction accuracy, we propose a novel application-dependent modeling technique, where the model is constructed online at runtime, based on the readings from a low-resolution, built-in GPU power meter. Our quantitative results show that a multi-linear model, which produces a mean absolute error of 6%, works the best in practice. An application-specific quadratic model reduces the error to nearly 1%. We show that this model can be constructed with low overhead and high accuracy at runtime. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first work attempting to model the instantaneous power of a real GPU system, earlier related work focused on average power.
Puncture initial data for black-hole binaries with high spins and high boosts

We solve the Hamiltonian and momentum constraints of general relativity for two black holes with nearly extremal spins and relativistic boosts in the puncture formalism. We use a non-conformally-flat ansatz with an attenuated superposition of two Lorentz-boosted, conformally Kerr or conformally Schwarzschild 3-metrics and their corresponding extrinsic curvatures. We compare evolutions of these data with the standard Bowen-York conformally flat ansatz (technically limited to intrinsic spins $\ensuremath{\chi}=S/{M}_{\mathrm{ADM}}^{2}=0.928$ and boosts $P/{M}_{\mathrm{ADM}}=0.897$), finding, typically, an order of magnitude smaller burst of spurious radiation and agreement with inspiral and merger. As a first case study, we evolve two equal-mass black holes from rest with an initial separation of $d=12M$ and spins ${\ensuremath{\chi}}_{i}={S}_{i}/{m}_{i}^{2}=0.99$, compute the waveforms produced by the collision, the energy and angular momentum radiated, and the recoil of the final remnant black hole. We find that the black-hole trajectories curve at close separations, leading to the radiation of angular momentum. We also study orbiting nonspinning and moderate-spin black-hole binaries and compare these with standard Bowen-York data. We find a substantial reduction in the nonphysical initial burst of radiation which leads to cleaner waveforms. Finally, we study the case of orbiting binary black-hole systems with spin magnitude ${\ensuremath{\chi}}_{i}=0.95$ in an aligned configuration and compare waveform and final remnant results with those of the SXS Collaboration [A. H. Mroue et al., Phys. Rev. Lett. 111, 241104 (2013).], finding excellent agreement. This represents the first moving puncture evolution of orbiting and spinning black holes exceeding the Bowen-York limit. Finally, we study different choices of the initial lapse and lapse evolution equation in the moving puncture approach to improve the accuracy and efficiency of the simulations.
Time-resolved optical tomography system for skin cancer detection

S cancer is the most common form of cancer in the U.S. One in five Americans will develop skin cancer in the course of a lifetime. Currently, excisional biopsy followed by histo-pathologic examination of the biopsied tissue is the “gold standard” for detecting neoplastic changes and skin carcinomas. Typically dermatologists do multiple biopsies to detect a single case of melanoma. In some patients with multiple recurrent skin tumors, the need for numerous biopsies in the same area is problematic, both cosmetically and diagnostically, as the cancer can be hidden under scar tissue. One major weakness of biopsy is that it is expensive and takes time for the results to become available, thereby increasing patient anxiety. Moreover, the biopsy must be done exactly within the margins of the tumor, and it does not delineate the tumor borders. The objective of this research is developing a time-resolved optical tomography (TROT) system based on fully software-controlled, desktop-size ultrashort pulsed lasers for in-vivo imaging of skin cancer and tumor. The significance of this novel real-time and non-invasive diagnostic technique is that it can provide a complete 3-D view of the scanned area by which one can detect small tumors and their margins at early stages normally not detected by other techniques. It can differentiate between melanocytic and non-melanocytic pigmented lesions, and will improve diagnostic accuracy. The information gathered is not restricted to a few physical samples, as it is in biopsies.
Paradoxical Emergence: Administration of Subanesthetic Ketamine during Isoflurane Anesthesia Induces Burst Suppression but Accelerates Recovery.

BACKGROUND Promoting arousal by manipulating certain brain regions and/or neurotransmitters has been a recent research focus, with the goal of trying to improve recovery from general anesthesia. The current study tested the hypothesis that a single subanesthetic dose of ketamine during isoflurane anesthesia would increase cholinergic tone in the prefrontal cortex and accelerate recovery. METHODS Adult male rats were implanted with electroencephalography electrodes (frontal, parietal, and occipital cortex) and a microdialysis guide cannula targeted for the prefrontal cortex. After establishing general anesthesia with isoflurane, animals were randomly assigned to receive a saline control or ketamine injection. When isoflurane was discontinued nearly 90 min after drug or saline administration, recovery from anesthesia was measured by experimenters and blinded observers. During the entire experiment, electrophysiologic signals were recorded and acetylcholine was quantified by high-performance liquid chromatography with electrochemical detection. RESULTS A single dose of subanesthetic ketamine caused an initial 125% increase in burst suppression ratio (last isoflurane sample: 37.48 ± 24.11% vs. isoflurane after ketamine injection: 84.36 ± 8.95%; P < 0.0001), but also a significant 44% reduction in emergence time (saline: 877 ± 335 s vs. ketamine: 494 ± 108 s; P = 0.0005; n = 10 per treatment). Furthermore, ketamine caused a significant 317% increase in cortical acetylcholine release (mean after ketamine injection: 0.18 ± 0.16 pmol vs. ketamine recovery: 0.75 ± 0.41 pmol; P = 0.0002) after isoflurane anesthesia was discontinued. CONCLUSIONS Administration of subanesthetic doses of ketamine during isoflurane anesthesia increases anesthetic depth but-paradoxically-accelerates the recovery of consciousness, possibly through cholinergic mechanisms.
Kate Parker and Courtney Weiss Smith, eds., Eighteenth-Century Poetry and the Rise of the Novel Reconsidered and Eric Parisot, Graveyard Poetry: Religion, Aesthetics and the Mid-Eighteenth-Century Poetic Condition

Review by Tobias Menely (University of California-Davis) of Kate Parker and Courtney Weiss Smith, eds., Eighteenth-Century Poetry and the Rise of the Novel Reconsidered . Lewisburg, PA: Bucknell University Press, 2014. Pp. 255. Hb. $80/Pb. $39.99. ISBN 9781611487022 and Eric Parisot, Graveyard Poetry: Religion, Aesthetics and the Mid-Eighteenth-Century Poetic Condition . Farnham and Burlington VT: Ashgate, 2013. Pp. 184. $149.95. ISBN 9781409434733.
Privacy Issues and Solutions for Consumer Wearables

Consumer wearables have emerged as disrupting devices that benefit citizens in areas such as mobile health, fitness, security, and entertainment. The mass adoption of these devices not only generates high revenues but also exposes important privacy issues. The authors identify some of the major privacy issues associated with consumer wearables and explore possible solutions to address privacy concerns.
Habermas’s Theory of Communicative Action and the Colonization of the Lifeworld

The chapter introduces Jurgen Habermas’s concepts that can be made operative when we analyze the themes of Death Cafe “death talk” in Chapter 4. The concepts are primarily derived from Habermas’s classic two-volume work, The Theory of Communicative Action as well as from his other publications. The chapter discusses Habermas’s contention that democracy need not be embodied by macro-level institutional mechanisms that promote elections, a process that is dependent on bureaucratic mechanisms that operate only during election cycles. He contends that attributes of democracy can be unearthed in a potentially free communication that can exist in the lifeworld, a world of everyday activities, and its corresponding communication content to facilitate these activities.
Voltage linear transformation circuit design

Many engineering projects require automated control of analog voltages over a specified range. We have developed a computer interface comprising custom hardware and MATLAB code to provide real-time control of a Thorlabs adaptive optics (AO) kit. The hardware interface includes an op amp cascade to linearly shift and scale a voltage range. With easy modifications, any linear transformation can be accommodated. In AO applications, the design is suitable to drive a range of different types of deformable and fast steering mirrors (FSM’s). Our original motivation and application was to control an Optics in Motion (OIM) FSM which requires the customer to devise a unique interface to supply voltages to the mirror controller to set the mirror’s angular deflection. The FSM is in an optical servo loop with a wave front sensor (WFS), which controls the dynamic behavior of the mirror’s deflection. The code acquires wavefront data from the WFS and fits a plane, which is subsequently converted into its corresponding angular deflection. The FSM provides ±3° optical angular deflection for a ±10 V voltage swing. Voltages are applied to the mirror via a National Instruments digital-to-analog converter (DAC) followed by an op amp cascade circuit. This system has been integrated into our Thorlabs AO testbed which currently runs at 11 Hz, but with planned software upgrades, the system update rate is expected to improve to 500 Hz. To show that the FSM subsystem is ready for this speed, we conducted two different PID tuning runs at different step commands. Once 500 Hz is achieved, we plan to make the code and method for our interface solution freely available to the community.
The Post-GWAS Era: From Association to Function

During the past 12 years, genome-wide association studies (GWASs) have uncovered thousands of genetic variants that influence risk for complex human traits and diseases. Yet functional studies aimed at delineating the causal genetic variants and biological mechanisms underlying the observed statistical associations with disease risk have lagged. In this review, we highlight key advances in the field of functional genomics that may facilitate the derivation of biological meaning post-GWAS. We highlight the evidence suggesting that causal variants underlying disease risk often function through regulatory effects on the expression of target genes and that these expression effects might be modest and cell-type specific. We moreover discuss specific studies as proof-of-principle examples for current statistical, bioinformatic, and empirical bench-based approaches to downstream elucidation of GWAS-identified disease risk loci.
Defensive Behavior and Damage Cost Methods

Suppose you wake up one morning and stumble into the kitchen to make coffee. You flip on the TV. While filling the coffee pot with tap water, you learn that your water supply is contaminated with Giardia lamblia. The newscaster reports that consuming contaminated water can lead to giardiasis, a common diarrheal illness that typically lasts a few days but can drag on for weeks. Infected persons may have to miss work or school or, in rare cases, may require hospitalization. Local authorities recommend boiling tap water before consuming it or finding alternate sources like bottled water. What do you do?
Unified support for heterogeneous security policies in distributed systems

Modern distributed systems tend to be conglomerates of heterogeneous subsystems, which have been designed separately, by different people, with little, if any, knowledge of each other - and which may be governed by different security policies. A single software agent operating within such a system may find itself interacting with, or even belonging to, several subsystems, and thus be subject to several disparate policies. If every such policy is expressed by means of a different formalism and enforced with a different mechanism, the situation can get easily out of hand. To deal with this problem we propose in this paper a security mechanism that can support efficiently, and in a unified manner, a wide range of security models and policies, including: conventional discretionary models that use capabilities or access-control lists, mandatory lattice-based access control models, and the more sophisticated models and policies required for commercial applications. Moreover, under the proposed mechanism, a single agent may be involved in several different modes of interactions that are subject to disparate security policies.
Retrospective analysis of complications following central venous port insertions: A single institution experience.

e18767Background: Central venous access devices, specifically implantable ports, play an essential role in the care of oncology patients. Despite their routine use in cancer patients complications ...
Entropies for hydrogen solution and hydride formation/decomposition in Pd alloys

Abstract For most fcc Pd alloys the relative standard partial entropy for hydrogen absorption, Δ S H ∘ , becomes more negative as the atom fraction of solute metal increases. Δ S H ∘ is the entropy change as the H concentration → 0 after removal of tne partial configurational entropy term assuming that all of the octahedral interstices can be occupied, as for pure Pd. This decrease in Δ S H ∘ is generally attributed to failure of this assumption due to the blocking of interstices adjacent to the solute metal atoms. On the other hand, the entropy changes for the dilute ⇄ hydride phase transitions for Pd alloys are generally unaffected by any selective occupation of interstices. The reason for this will be explored. By contrast with the effect of hysteresis on the enthalpy changes for the dilute⇄ phase transition reactions as measured from van't Hoff plots of the plateau pressures, the corresponding entropy changes are shown to be unaffected by hysteresis.
On the deterioration of learning-based malware detectors for Android

Classification using machine learning has been a major class of defense solutions against malware. Yet in the presence of a large and growing number of learning-based malware detection techniques for Android, malicious apps keep breaking out, with an increasing momentum, in various Android app markets. In this context, we ask the question "what is it that makes new and emerging malware slip through such a great collection of detection techniques?". Intuitively, performance deterioration of malware detectors could be a main cause---trained on older samples, they are increasingly unable to capture new malware. To understand the question, this work sets off to investigate the deterioration problem in four state-of-the-art Android malware detectors. We confirmed our hypothesis that these existing solutions do deteriorate largely and rapidly over time. We also propose a new classification approach that is built on the results of a longitudinal characterization study of Android apps with a focus on their dynamic behaviors. We evaluated this new approach against the four existing detectors and demonstrated significant advantages of our new solution. The main lesson learned is that studying app evolution provides a promising avenue for long-span malware detection.
Quantification and confirmation of four aflatoxins using a LC-MS/MS QTRAP system in multiple reaction monitoring, enhanced product ion scan, and MS3 modes.

A simple, rapid, and efficient liquid chromatography tandem mass spectrometry (LC–MS/MS) method, operated in electrospray ionization and quadrupole linear ion trap modes, has been developed for the...
El año en que nací, el teatro de las memorias y sus fantasmas

In the play El ano en que naci by the Argentine Lola Arias, eleven performers born during the Chilean dictatorship (1973-1990) reconstruct events from that specific historical period and work through the personal impact of those events before the audience’s eyes. Nonetheless, as Marvin Carlson reminds us in The Haunted Stage: The Theater as Memory Machine there is a spectral character in the representation which not only helps audiences connect with the performance but can also alter its message. Supported by Carlson’s theory, in this essay I examine the many types of ghosts that inhabit El ano en que naci, to show the ways in which this “haunted stage,” opens this performance beyond the personal and the national. My analysis begins by examining how the spectra appear in the different staging choices of the director, since her style evokes her other productions, specifically Mi vida despues. Second, I analyze how these spectral elements are perceived in the eleven performers and in the personal objects – and their symbolism – with which they tell their private memories about the events of the dictatorship. Ghosts surround both the actors and the props that are manipulated on the stage. How do these mark the characters and in what ways do they divide or unite them? Finally, I examine how this performance is used as a tool to question the relationship between personal memories –with their multiple manifestations and interpretations that are built by reconstructing and obtaining second-hand information– and collective memory, since the play is about a major past event known at some level by all: both Chileans who lived through the dictatorship and subsequent generations who suffered the consequences a posteriori. I argue that the performance’s ghosting highlights a tension with the personal and the collective, as well as between the national and the global in order to solidify and question the Chilean story and highlight its universality.
Our State of the Union: Results From the 2017–2018 CCPTP Membership Survey:

In honor of the 50th anniversary of The Counseling Psychologist, we present a snapshot of the current state of counseling psychology training in the context of the health service psychology model a...
Child malnutrition, consumption growth, maternal care and price shocks: new evidence from Northern Ghana

Childhood malnutrition remains a significant global health concern. In order to implement effective policies to address the issue, it is crucial to first understand the mechanisms underlying malnut...
Association of Statin Use With All-Cause and Cardiovascular Mortality in US Veterans 75 Years and Older

Importance Data are limited regarding statin therapy for primary prevention of atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease (ASCVD) in adults 75 years and older. Objective To evaluate the role of statin use for mortality and primary prevention of ASCVD in veterans 75 years and older. Design, Setting, and Participants Retrospective cohort study that used Veterans Health Administration (VHA) data on adults 75 years and older, free of ASCVD, and with a clinical visit in 2002-2012. Follow-up continued through December 31, 2016. All data were linked to Medicare and Medicaid claims and pharmaceutical data. A new-user design was used, excluding those with any prior statin use. Cox proportional hazards models were fit to evaluate the association of statin use with outcomes. Analyses were conducted using propensity score overlap weighting to balance baseline characteristics. Exposures Any new statin prescription. Main Outcomes and Measures The primary outcomes were all-cause and cardiovascular mortality. Secondary outcomes included a composite of ASCVD events (myocardial infarction, ischemic stroke, and revascularization with coronary artery bypass graft surgery or percutaneous coronary intervention). Results Of 326 981 eligible veterans (mean [SD] age, 81.1 [4.1] years; 97% men; 91% white), 57 178 (17.5%) newly initiated statins during the study period. During a mean follow-up of 6.8 (SD, 3.9) years, a total 206 902 deaths occurred including 53 296 cardiovascular deaths, with 78.7 and 98.2 total deaths/1000 person-years among statin users and nonusers, respectively (weighted incidence rate difference [IRD]/1000 person-years, –19.5 [95% CI, –20.4 to –18.5]). There were 22.6 and 25.7 cardiovascular deaths per 1000 person-years among statin users and nonusers, respectively (weighted IRD/1000 person-years, –3.1 [95 CI, –3.6 to –2.6]). For the composite ASCVD outcome there were 123 379 events, with 66.3 and 70.4 events/1000 person-years among statin users and nonusers, respectively (weighted IRD/1000 person-years, –4.1 [95% CI, –5.1 to –3.0]). After propensity score overlap weighting was applied, the hazard ratio was 0.75 (95% CI, 0.74-0.76) for all-cause mortality, 0.80 (95% CI, 0.78-0.81) for cardiovascular mortality, and 0.92 (95% CI, 0.91-0.94) for a composite of ASCVD events when comparing statin users with nonusers. Conclusions and Relevance Among US veterans 75 years and older and free of ASCVD at baseline, new statin use was significantly associated with a lower risk of all-cause and cardiovascular mortality. Further research, including from randomized clinical trials, is needed to more definitively determine the role of statin therapy in older adults for primary prevention of ASCVD.
Patient-Reported Barriers Are Associated With Receipt of Hepatocellular Carcinoma Surveillance in a Multicenter Cohort of Patients With Cirrhosis

Background More than 20% of patients with cirrhosis do not receive semi-annual hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) surveillance as recommended. Few studies have evaluated the effects of patient-level factors on surveillance receipt. Methods We administered a telephone survey to a large cohort of patients with cirrhosis from 3 health systems (a tertiary care referral center, a safety-net health system, and Veterans Affairs) to characterize patient knowledge, attitudes, and perceived barriers of HCC surveillance. Multinomial logistic regression was performed to identify factors associated with HCC surveillance receipt (semi-annual and annual vs none) during the 12-month period preceding survey administration. Results Of 2871 patients approached, 1020 (35.5%) completed the survey. Patients had high levels of concern about developing HCC and high levels of knowledge about HCC. However, patients had knowledge deficits, including believing surveillance was unnecessary when physical examination and laboratory results were normal. Nearly half of patients reported barriers to surveillance, including costs (28.9%), difficulty scheduling (24.1%), and transportation (17.8%). In the year before the survey, 745 patients (73.1%) received 1 or more surveillance examination; 281 received on-schedule, semi-annual surveillance and 464 received annual surveillance. Semi-annual HCC surveillance (vs none) was significantly associated with receipt of hepatology subspecialty care (odds ratio, 30.1; 95% CI, 17.5–51.8) and inversely associated with patient-reported barriers (odds ratio, 0.62; 95% CI, 0.41–0.94). Patterns of associations comparing annual vs no surveillance were similar although the magnitude of effects were reduced. Conclusions Patient-reported barriers such as knowledge deficits, costs, difficulty scheduling, and transportation are significantly associated with less frequent receipt of HCC surveillance, indicating a need for patient-centered interventions, such as patient navigation.
SP0050 CASE 2 PRESENTER: SITTING AROUND ON A NEW JOINT

The end-stage treatment for hip and knee osteoartritis is arthroplasty. The main aims of this treatment are to improve pain and joint functioning. It is thereby conceivable that patients should become more physically active after surgery. Although the literature on the outcomes of total hip and knee arthroplasty (THA and TKA) is vast, relatively little is known about physical activity levels of OA patients undergoing surgery. This presentations summarizes the state-of-the-art literature on the physical (in)activity level of patients with an indication for TKA or THA and its determinants, and the changes of physical (in)activity levels after surgery. These results are presented taking into account the activity levels of the general population. The presentation will end with an informal quiz on physcial (in)activity in THA and TKA patients. References: [1] Meessen JM, et al. Rheumatol Int. 2017 Feb;37(2):219-227. [2] Mills K, et al. Physiotherapy. 2019 MAR;105(1):35-45. [3] Hammett T, et al. Arthrititis Care Res. 2018 Jun;70(6):892-901. [4] Lee J, et al. Artitis Care Res. 2015;67(3):366-373. Disclosure of Interests: None declared
Studying the impact of streetlights on street crime rate using geo-statistics

Lack of adequate streetlights likely affect public safety, particularly in neighborhoods with higher crime rates. Several researchers have studied the influence of streetlights on crime. However, those studies compare the crime rate during the day and not night or explore crime patterns in socially disorganized communities. This study focuses on detecting the pattern of nighttime street crime near a broken or due-for-repair streetlights. Historical crime data and data on city streetlight service requests studied in this project. Analytical approaches for this projects include the least squares linear regression model applied to determine the relationship between streetlight and crime data and Ripley’s K function is used to detect crime clusters near broken streetlights. The Moran’s I index is used to measuring the spatial correlation between broken streetlights and crime rates. Optimized hotspot analysis is used to predict crime locations. This study found that broken streetlights cause increasing trends of crime near them The Moran’s I index’s large positive value underscored the statistically-significant clustering of street crimes around broken streetlights
Paleoclimate of the Little Ice Age to the Present in the Kankakee Valley of Illinois and Indiana, USA Based on 18O/16O Isotope Ratios of Freshwater Shells

The cooling associated with the Little Ice Age (LIA) had differential severity across the globe. Within the American Midwest, the local impacts of this cooling have not been established. Our purpos...
Household Preparedness and Perceptions of Workforce Preparedness During Pandemics: A Health Care Employee Survey at the US Department of Veterans Affairs.

OBJECTIVE To examine the effects of household preparedness on perceptions of workplace preparedness during a pandemic among all employees at the US Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) medical facilities. METHODS The VA Preparedness Survey (October-December 2018, Los Angeles, CA) used a stratified simple random, web-based survey. Multivariate statistical analyses examined the effect of household preparedness on perceptions of workforce preparedness during a pandemic: institutional readiness; desire for additional training; and understanding their role and its importance. RESULTS VA employees totaling 4026 participated. For a pandemic, 55% were confident in their VA medical facility's ability to respond, 63% would like additional training, 49% understood their role during a response, and 68% reported their role as important. Only 23% reported being "well prepared" at home during major disasters. After controlling for study-relevant factors, household preparedness was positively associated with perceptions of workforce preparedness during a pandemic. CONCLUSIONS Efforts to increase household preparedness for health care employees could bolster workforce preparedness during pandemics. Organizations should consider robust policies and strategies, such as flexible work arrangements, in order to mitigate factors that may serve as barriers to household preparedness.
‘Many Chinas?’ provincial internationalization and Chinese foreign direct investment in Africa

Chinese provincial firms are a major and growing source of foreign direct investment (FDI) in Africa, yet there has thus far been little systematic analysis of their motives and behaviour. Based on...
Waive the IP Rights and Save Lives (preprint)

In October of 2020, when India and South Africa proposed a waiver from certain provisions of the TRIPS agreement, it was meant to increase local manufacturing capacity in these countries although the waiver, in enabling vaccination of populations across the globe, would be critical to normalize global trade. The waiver was proposed as a tool to kick-start prevention, containment and treatment of COVID-19. While there is an imminent need to meet a growing supply-demand gap for all medical products, COVID-19 related products are urgently required in poorer nations to contain the pandemic. The paper hopes to capture the benefits of the waiver and compares it with the existing flexibilities, being compulsory licensing.
Reduction of Nonuniform Beamfilling Effects by Multiple Constraints: A Simulation Study

AbstractA spaceborne precipitation radar samples the vertical structure of precipitating hydrometeors from the top down. The viewing geometry and operating frequency result in certain limitations and opportunities. Among the limitations is attenuation of the radar signal that can cause the measured radar reflectivity factor to be substantially less than the desired quantity, the true radar reflectivity factor. Another error source is the spatial variability in precipitation rates that occurs at scales smaller than the sensor field of view (FOV), giving rise to the nonuniform beamfilling (NUBF) effect. The opportunities arise when the radar return from the surface can be used to obtain constraints on the path-integrated attenuation (PIA) for use in hybrid attenuation correction algorithms. The surface return can also provide some information on the degree of NUBF at off-nadir viewing angles. In this paper ground-based radar data are used to simulate spaceborne radar data at nadir and off-nadir viewing angl...
The Nature of Capital Adequacy Constraints Under the Basel Accord 1

The 1988 Basel Accord defined what constituted bank capital, and put in place minimum capital adequacy ratios for each type of capital as well as for total bank capital. Regulators as well as market participants, however, have come to rely on Tier 1 capital or equity capital as the main constraint for controlling bank behavior. In this paper, we show that despite the various constraints placed on the bank’s optimization program by the Basel Accord, only one constraint binds. That is, only the minimum total capital ratio--which includes equity and debt--of no less than eight percent, is the constraint that matters for analyzing bank behavior. Thus, the overemphasis on equity capital by regulators and market participants is likely to raise the cost of lending for banks, which would affect bank profitability, credit extension, and the overall economic activity.
Cholesterol vehicle in experimental atherosclerosis: X. Influence of specific saturated fatty acids

Abstract The possible role of specific saturated fatty acids in the development of atherosclerosis in rabbits has been assessed. Special fats were prepared by randomizing corn oil with pure trilaurin (L), trimyristin (M), tripalmitin (P), and tristearin (S), yielding oils of similar iodine value (102 ± 2) but differing in the predominating saturated fatty acids. Rabbits were fed for 8 weeks on diets consisting of chow augmented with 2% cholesterol and 6% of fats L, M, P, and S. Other groups of rabbits were fed diets in which corn oil (CO) or randomized corn oil (R) were used as the cholesterol vehicle. In a series of four experiments with a cholesterol-containing diet, the four different saturated fats were more atherogenic than either native or randomized corn oil. The palmitic acid-rich fat (P) was somewhat more atherogenic than were the other special fats. This observation was also true when the atherogenicity of the various fats was expressed as a function of the degree of hypercholesteremia they induced. The aortic cholesterol ester was elevated in all six groups of rabbits (27–40% vs. 5% in normal rabbits) and could not be correlated with severity of atheromata; however, the average total cholesterol content of the thoracic aorta did correspond to the degree of atherosclerosis. Average serum cholesterol levels were lower in the special fat groups than they were in the rabbits fed corn oil. Possibly the presence in these diets of relatively large amounts of unsaturated fatty acids masks the specific hypercholesteremic effects of saturated fatty acids.
Dot immunobinding assay for detection of human immunodeficiency virus-associated antigens.

The detection of human immunodeficiency virus (HIV)-associated antigens was simplified by the application of dot immunobinding on a nitrocellulose matrix. Antigens were detected by applying the polyethylene glycol-precipitated supernatants of experimentally infected cultures directly onto nitrocellulose strips and sequentially incubating the strips with an anti-HIV antiserum and an alkaline phosphatase-conjugated, species-specific antiserum. The immune reaction was developed by adding the precipitable substrate indoyl phosphate. The dot immunobinding assay was nearly as sensitive as the reverse transcriptase assay in detecting HIV antigens in experimentally infected peripheral blood mononuclear cells, as well as in a T-cell line. The technique was also useful in the in vitro evaluation of antiviral agents. The dot immunobinding assay is a simple and sensitive technique that is useful in the detection of HIV antigens in studies of viral pathogenesis. Images
Fluid Flow-Induced Nonlinear Vibration of Suspended Cables

The nonlinear interaction of the first two in-plane modes of a suspended cable with a moving fluid along the plane of the cable is studied. The governing equations of motion for two-mode interaction are derived on the basis of a general continuum model. The interaction causes the modal differential equations of the cable to be non-self-adjoint. As the flow speed increases above a certain critical value, the cable experiences oscillatory motion similar to the flutter of aeroelastic structures. A co-ordinate transformation in terms of the transverse and stretching motions of the cable is introduced to reduce the two nonlinearly coupled differential equations into a linear ordinary differential equation governing the stretching motion, and a strongly nonlinear differential equation for the transverse motion. For small values of the gravity-to-stiffness ratio the dynamics of the cable is examined using a two-time-scale approach. Numerical integration of the modal equations shows that the cable experiences stretching oscillations only when the flow speed exceeds a certain level. Above this level both stretching and transverse motions take place. The influences of system parameters such as gravity-to-stiffness ratio and density ratio on the response characteristics are also reported.
The Effect of Clock Resolution on Keystroke Dynamics

Keystroke dynamics--the analysis of individuals' distinctive typing rhythms--has been proposed as a biometric to discriminate legitimate users from impostors (whether insiders or external attackers). Anomaly detectors have reportedly performed well at this discrimination task, but there is room for improvement. Detector performance might be constrained by the widespread use of comparatively low-resolution clocks (typically 10---15 milliseconds). This paper investigates the effect of clock resolution on detector performance. Using a high-resolution clock, we collected keystroke timestamps from 51 subjects typing 400 passwords each. We derived the timestamps that would have been generated by lower-resolution clocks. Using these data, we evaluated three types of detectors from the keystroke-dynamics literature, finding that detector performance is slightly worse at typical clock resolutions than at higher ones (e.g., a 4.2% increase in equal-error rate). None of the detectors achieved a practically useful level of performance, but we suggest opportunities for progress through additional, controlled experimentation.
Gateway placement for latency and energy efficient data aggregation [wireless sensor networks]

We propose the use of multiple gateways to significantly reduce latency and energy consumption in multi-hop wireless sensor networks during data aggregation. We have derived efficient integer linear programming formulations as well as a novel negative selection statistically-tuned heuristics. The heuristics are based on newly developed relaxation based lower bounds that are also used to quantify the effectiveness of the proposed heuristics. Our simulation study indicates that the use of gateways can often reduce latency and energy consumption by several times.
Atomic structure and electrochemical potential of Li 1+x V 3 O 8

The atomic configurations and total energies of both monoclinic phases of Li[sub 1+x]V[sub 3]O[sub 8], a candidate electrode material in rechargeable Li batteries, are calculated as a function of [ital x] within local-density-functional theory, using the plane-wave pseudopotential method. The predicted structures at the most standard compositions, 1+x=1.2 and 1+x=4, agree closely with x-ray-diffraction measurements of atomic structure. As Li is inserted into the low-Li compound, Li(2) is half filled and then S[sub t](3) is half filled, where the Li sites are labeled as in de Picciotto [ital et al.] This is followed by the onset of a two-phase region. Calculations of the electrochemical potential as a function of lithiation are in excellent overall agreement with experiment. thinsp [copyright] [ital 1999] [ital The American Physical Society]
INDOOR AIR POLLUTION AND PULMONARY FUNCTION GROWTH IN PREADOLESCENT CHILDREN

Results are reported from a study of the association between exposure to sidestream cigarette smoke or gas-stove emissions and pulmonary-function level and growth rate of 7,834 children seen at 2-5 annual visits between the ages of 6-10 years. Children whose mothers smoked one pack of cigarettes per day had levels of forced expiratory volume in one second (FEV1) at age eight that were 0.81% lower than children of nonsmoking mothers (p<0.0001), and FEV1 growth rates approximately 0.17% per year lower (p=0.05). For a child of age eight with an FEV1 of 1.62 liters, this corresponds to a deficit in rate of change of FEV1 of approximately 3 ml/annum and a deficit of 13 ml at age eight. Children whose mothers smoked one pack per day had levels of forced vital capacity (FVC) at age eight that were 0.33% higher than children of nonsmokers (p=0.12); however, their growth rates of FVC were 0.17% per year lower (p=0.04). Because few mothers changed their smoking habits during the course of the study, it was not possible to determine whether the difference in rate of growth was due to current exposure or to an effect of prenatal and early childhood exposure on the coursemore » of development.« less
A higher-order hypersingular boundary element method for the modeling of vortex sheet dynamics

Abstract A new model is proposed to compute the time evolution of interfaces between inviscid fluids represented by vortex sheets (VS), under the controlling effects of gravity, density difference, and interfacial tension. In this model, a higher-order boundary element method (BEM) is used to compute flow velocities on the VSs, based on Biot-Savart integral equations, and an explicit Taylor expansion scheme is used for time updating. An accurate numerical method is proposed to calculate hypersingular integrals occurring in the BEM. Applications are presented for the steady flow around a circular cylinder, for the propagation of a nonlinear surface wave over constant depth, and for a periodic Kelvin- Helmholtz instability. The effects of model parameters on the accuracy of the solution are discussed.
Statistical properties of an equation describing fluid interfaces

The Kuramoto-Sivashinsky equation which describes fluid interfaces in several physical contexts is known to have chaotic solutions, displaying both space and time disorder. We have investigated numerically several statistical properties of this model. the fluctuations of a local quantity are shown to have a highly non Gaussian distribution; boundary effects and small scale intermittency phenomena are examined. The moments of the fluctuations of the space Fourier transform, which are related to the space correlation functions, are also investigated. The high order moments of large wavenumber fluctuations grow faster than the moments of a Gaussian variable; while the low wavenumber fluctuations are found to be almost Gaussian. Some finite size effects are also share most of the above mentioned property. A similar behaviour is observed in the case of the Lorenz [23] equations. Eventually we introduce correlation functions testing the time symmetry of the fluctuations and compute some of these functions. We use our numerical results to discuss energy transfer process On monte que les fluctuations d'une quantite locale ont une distribution fortement non gaussienne; on examine l'influence des conditions aux limites et les phenomenes d'intermittence. On etudie aussi les moments des fluctuations de la transformee de Fourier spatiale relies aux fonctions de correlation. Discussion des effets de taille finie. A l'aide des resultats numeriques, on discute le processus de transfert d'energie