cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Shear, Strain, and Richardson Number Variations in the Thermocline. Part I: Statistical Description

Abstract Quasi-continuous depth–time observations of shear (5.5-m, 6-min resolution) and strain, (∂η/∂z, (2-m, 2.1- min resolution) obtained from the R/P FLIP are applied to a study of Richardson number (Ri) statistics. Data were collected off the coast of central California in the 1990 Surface Waves Processes Experiment. Observations are presented in Eulerian and in isopycnal-following frames. In both frames, shear variance is found to scale as N2 in the thermocline, in agreement with previous findings of Gargett et al. The probability density function for squared shear magnitude is very nearly exponential. Strain variance is approximately uniform with depth. The magnitude of the fluctuations is sufficient to influence the Ri field significantly at finescale. To model the Richardson number, the detailed interrelationship between shear and strain must be specified. Two contrasting hypotheses are considered: One (H I) holds that fluctuations in the cross-isopycnal shear are independent of isopycnal separat...
The Helix-Turn-Helix Motif and the Cro Repressor

Bacteriophage λ codes for two repressor proteins. They are the products of the cI gene which makes the λ Repressor and the product of Cro gene which makes the Cro Repressor. These proteins are part of a molecular switch between the two developmental pathways that are open to the phage when it infects an E. coli cell. Both of these repressor proteins function by binding at the left and right operator regions, OL and OR. These operator regions each have three operator sequences that are imperfect inverted repeats or palindromes and they are operationally defined as 17 base pairs in length. These two proteins bind to all six of the operator sequences, however, they bind with different relative affinity. Cro Repressor binds most tightly to OR3, and in doing so shuts off transcription from the promoter that is responsible for maintenance levels of the λ Repressor. On the other hand, the λ Repressor binds co-operatively to OR1 and OR2, and in binding to these operators it shuts off transcription from promoter PR.
Directed Assembly of Vesicle-Templated Polymer Nanocapsules under Near-Physiological Conditions

This work addresses the challenge of creating hollow polymer capsules with wall thickness in the single-nanometer range under mild conditions. We present a simple and scalable method for the synthesis of hollow polymer nanocapsules in the bilayers of spontaneously assembled surfactant vesicles. Polymerization is initiated thermally with the help of a peroxide initiator and an amine activator codissolved with monomers and cross-linkers in the hydrophobic interior of the surfactant bilayer. To avoid premature polymerization, the initiator and the activator were added separately to the mixtures of cetyltrimethylammonium tosylate (CTAT) and sodium dodecylbenzenesulfonate (SDBS) containing monomers and cross-linkers. Upon hydration and mixing of the aqueous solutions, equilibrium monomer-loaded vesicles formed spontaneously after a brief incubation. The removal of oxygen and further incubation at slightly elevated temperatures (35–40 °C) for 1 to 2 h has led to the formation of hollow polymer nanocapsules. Str...
Effect of olive oil and squalene on cholesterol mobilization in the rat.

SummaryMuch higher values for serum cholesterol were observed in 2 series of female rats fed 1% cholesterol with diets containing 10% olive oil than in the series fed like diets made up with a number of other vegetable fats. Olive oil-fed males did not have high serum cholesterols, but did have high liver lipids and cholesterol. An attempt to duplicate the effect of olive oil by adding equivalent amounts of commercial squalene to diets containing 10% cottonseed oil and 10% coconut oil is reported. The squalene-fed females on diets with added cholesterol had higher serum cholesterols than did those fed cholesterol only. Values were not nearly so high as in the rats fed olive oil. Both males and females fed squalene with cholesterol and coconut oil had significantly higher liver lipids and cholesterol than did littermates fed only coconut oil and cholesterol in the same amounts. Little or no effect attributable to squalene was observed in castrates. The possible effect of squalene as a stimulant of secretio...
The Effect of Malignant Cells on Sputum Specimen Adequacy for Bacterial Culture

Squamous epithelial cells from the mouth are considered markers of oropharyngeal contamination in sputum specimens submitted for routine bacterial culture. Squamous cells in sputum specimens also can originate in the respiratory tract of patients with squamous-cell carcinomas, however. To determine the effect that malignant squamous cells from the respiratory tract might have on the grading of sputum specimens for bacterial culture, we compared the culture results from 34 patients with carcinomas (positive sputum cytological examination result) with those from 34 patients without carcinomas (negative sputum cytological examination result). We found no appreciable difference in the percentage of good/fair sputum specimens (adequate for bacterial culture) between patients with and without respiratory tract carcinomas.
Section 7. Going Down: Subduction, Subduction Erosion and Crustal Foundering

Return of oceanic crust to the mantle through subduction was explicitly part of plate tectonic theory (Isacks et al. , 1968; Le Pichon, 1968), but it took longer for the idea that sediment, and therefore indirectly continental crust, could also be subducted into the mantle. Here again, Dick
Using the diffusion of innovations theory to assess socio-technical factors in planning the implementation of an electronic health record alert across multiple primary care clinics.

Background: Adverse drug events (ADEs) are a leading cause of death in the United States. Patients with stage 3 and 4 chronic kidney disease (CKD) are at particular risk because many medications are cleared by the kidneys. Alerts in the electronic health record (EHR) about drug appropriateness and dosing at the time of prescription have been shown to reduce ADEs for patients with stage 3 and 4 CKD in inpatient settings, but more research is needed about the implementation and effectiveness of such alerts in outpatient settings. Objective: To explore factors that might inform the implementation of an electronic drug–disease alert for patients with CKD in primary care clinics, using Rogers’ diffusion of innovations theory as an analytic framework. Methods : Interviews were conducted with key informants in four diverse clinics using various EHR systems. Interviews were audio recorded and transcribed. results Although all clinics had a current method for calculating glomerular filtration rate (GFR), clinics were heterogeneous with regard to current electronic decision support practices, quality improvement resources, and organizational culture and structure. Conclusion: Understanding variation in organizational culture and infrastructure across primary care clinics is important in planning implementation of an intervention to reduce ADEs among patients with CKD.
Dependence of sediment-filled valley response on input amplitude and valley properties

Abstract For three sediment-filled valleys, average site responses were experimentally determined and found to apply, to within ±0.25 log units, to earthquakes at any azimuth and to S waves and coda waves; for one of these valleys, ground accelerations were measured over the range 10 −5 to 0.2 g , and no significant differences in site responses were apparent. In two valleys with sediment-basement impedance contrasts of 5:1 and 6:1, average site amplification is as much as a factor of five in certain frequency bands. In another valley, with a sediment-basement impedance contrast of 3:1, sediment amplification is about a factor of two. The duration of motion on the valley sediments, in narrow frequency bands, is equal to that on the bordering rock, implying that the observed amplification is not due to a high-Q resonance of the sediments.
Layout Optimization for Quantum Circuits with Linear Nearest Neighbor Architectures

This paper is concerned with the physical design of quantum logic circuits. More precisely, it addresses the problem of minimizing the number of required qubit reorderings (achieved by inserting explicit SWAP gates) when mapping a quantum circuit into a linear nearest neighbor quantum archi-tecture. First, an interaction graph that captures the interaction distances among various qubits in the quantum circuit is constructed. The interaction graph is utilized to partition the quantum circuit into a set of subcircuits such that the number of required qubit reoderings within each subcircuit is provably no more than a given threshold. Next, a Minimum Linear Arrangement problem for each subcircuit is formulated and solved to achieve the minimum number of internal qubit reorderings and determine the subcircuit input and output qubit orderings. Finally, a bubble sort algorithm is repeatedly employed to minimize the number of qubit reorderings that are required between the consecutive subcircuits. Experiments done on various quantum Fourier transform circuits as well as various reversible logic circuits demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed approach.
Variance-component-based nested logit specifications: Improved formulation, and practical microsimulation of random disturbance terms

Abstract The initial motivation leading to the results in this paper was a problem most choice modeling researchers may have not considered: how to simulate random disturbance terms from nested logit (NL) models. We develop an approach using results from Cardell (1997), who proved the existence of a probability distribution ( C ( λ ) ) that could be used to formulate NL models based on statistically independent variance components. These components can be interpreted as unobserved preference heterogeneity for the choice ‘dimensions’ used to define NL tree structures. Simulation aside, we consider this formulation to have other practical advantages for empirical work, but it does not appear to have penetrated the literature (possibly due to notational obstacles). We use notation from Daly (2001) to implement an equivalent representation, which also establishes mathematical equivalence between Cardell (1997) and other important results in the NL literature.
A Neo-Medievalization? The Impact of the Digital Revolution on Political and Self-Representation

Despite claims to the contrary, political scientists do not live in an ivory tower. They were among the first to acknowledge the impact of the digital revolution in general, and of the social network sites (SNS) in particular, upon the entire political process – from communication, agenda setting, and grass-roots organizations, to campaigning, elections, and even revolutions ( the Arab Spring being the most famous example.) The very theme of this year’s APSA’s annual conference is but a late confirmation of this awareness. Yet a lot of disagreements among scholars persist when it comes to how to interpret or even to quantify this impact. While some are excited about the new perspectives that appear to be opened – digital equality, direct democracy, etc. -, some consider that the effects of the digital revolution on politics-as-usual are overestimated.
The architecture design and evaluation process: A decision support framework for conducting and evaluating architecture studies

As the scope and complexity of programs and missions increase, so does the need to conduct architecture trade studies, such as Analyses of Alternatives, in a systematic, structured way to ensure they are successful at informing the acquisition decisions they were chartered to support. These studies should be comprehensive in scope, cover the solution space of alternatives, follow repeatable processes, and provide decision-makers with insight into the essential tradeoffs between competing objectives. In this paper, a decision support process framework is presented that establishes a traceable structured process for making defensible acquisition decisions and recommendations. While many aspects of any specific study require tailoring and negotiation, we emphasize the need to start with an established framework or a set of guiding principles to provide a solid foundation for the study. Often, these studies are confined to technical solutions, but we emphasize here the need to capture the programmatic elements, such as cost, schedule, risk, and especially the transition from the current architecture to new proposed architectural concepts. The Architecture Design and Evaluation (AD&E) process used at The Aerospace Corporation is presented here. This process consists of six phases: 1) Problem Definition, 2) Implementation & Operational Context, 3) Alternatives Exploration and Downselect, 4) System Concept Definition, 5) Analysis & Evaluation, and 6) Integration and Tradespace Depiction. A key to this process is the active engagement of specialty subject matter experts to contribute to the overall shaping of the study and formulation of the results. In other words this process forms an effective organizing principle for bringing experts in, so that they can not only efficiently ‘plug-in’ to the study where they are needed but also ensure that their input is utilized in all the correct places. Everybody sees the overall roadmap of how the study is planned and executed. This framework brings together a wide variety of tools and technical disciplines to address the multifaceted concerns and issues that impact architecture decisions. This paper will discuss the AD&E process and some of the other capabilities that are part of the broader framework.
Managing complex contracting in theory and practice

CONTRACTING FOR COMPLEX PRODUCTS The great promise of markets is the win-win gains that buyers and sellers realize from exchanging money for products. Buyers and sellers enter market exchanges seeking to make themselves better off. Buyers are looking for a product that will provide them with more value than the price they will pay for it. Sellers only exchange their products for prices that are worthwhile to them. Neither the buyer nor the seller is looking to do favors for the other, yet a successful exchange leaves each better off as each party provides a resource in exchange for something else of higher value. In an ideal world, all exchanges would result in such win-win outcomes. In the real world, win-wins do not always occur because sometimes the buyer or seller holds an advantage that it can and does exploit at the other’s expense. Perhaps the seller knows that its product is defective, but can deceive the unsuspecting buyer into buying it anyway. Maybe the buyer convinces the seller to deliver the product, but delays or withholds payment. Markets can fail for many reasons, more than we need summarize here (Brown, Potoski, and Van Slyke, 2006; Mankiw, 2012; Weimer and Vining, 2005; Girth, Hefetz, Johnston, and Warner 2012; David, 1985). The examples of “losing” outcomes above are instances where one or both parties know more about their side of the transaction than does the other (e.g. the seller knows the product is defective, but the buyer does not), showing how markets can fail when buyers and sellers do not have enough information about the exchange. The problems associated with insufficient information are compounded when it is difficult for one or both parties to exit an exchange and enter into a new one. If the buyer cannot find an alternative seller for the product he needs or the seller cannot easily sell her product to a different buyer, the risk of being taken advantage of in the exchange increases (Bel and Fageda, 2011; Malatesta and Smith, 2011a). A win-win exchange is easier to achieve when both the buyer and potential sellers know a lot about the product and when entering and exiting the transaction is easy. We call these exchanges “simple.”
Use of Cumulants to Estimate Coefficients in Chow-Kulandaiswamy's GHS Model

The coefficients in the General Hydrologic System (GHS) model of Chow and Kulandaiswamy (1971) are estimated using the method of cumulants. Based on this method a rational criterion is developed to determine the number of terms to be retained in the GHS Model. The least squares method used by Chow and Kulandaiswamy (1971) and the method of cumulants proposed here are compared and are found to yield comparable values of the model coefficients on an example watershed.
Are historical fire regimes compatible with future climate? Implications for forest restoration

The restoration of historical fire regimes is often a primary objective in the conservation of fire-adapted forests. However, individual species' responses to future climate change may uncouple historical vegetation–disturbance relationships, producing potentially negative ecological consequences to fire restoration. We used a landscape simulation model to assess how forest pattern will respond to future climate regimes and whether the restoration of historical fire regimes will benefit forest conservation under future climate regimes. Our study landscape was the 335,000-ha Kaibab Plateau at the North Rim of the Grand Canyon spanning a broad elevation-vegetation gradient of pinyon-juniper, ponderosa pine, mixed conifer, and spruce-fir forests along with a range of associated fire regimes. We employed a novel multimodel landscape simulation approach using the Climate-Forest Vegetation Simulator to estimate individual tree species climate responses and LANDIS-II to simulate spatial patterns of fire disturbance, forest growth, regeneration, succession, and dispersal. Model simulations included three climate scenarios (no change, moderate change, and high change) and two fire scenarios (fire exclusion and fire restoration). The climate change scenarios produced declines in mean forest aboveground biomass (AGB) and a compositional turnover equal to one or two vegetation zones, approximating the vegetation displacement that occurred in this location during the Holocene. Fire restoration resulted in earlier, but roughly equivalent, AGB declines and compositional change. Uphill species migration in some elevation zones produced tree species–fire regime mismatches that promoted state changes and increased nonforest area. Regardless of fire management approach, our simulations project that the Kaibab Plateau will eventually be dominated by pinyon–juniper, oak, and ponderosa pine forest types, with a complete loss of mesic conifer species. Our results indicate that fire managers will have to be flexible with the application of historical fire regimes to avoid regeneration failures and abrupt declines in biomass.
Pre-processing of video streams for extracting queryable representation of its contents

Automating video stream processing for inferring situations of interest has been an ongoing challenge. This problem is currently exacerbated by the volume of surveillance/monitoring videos generated. Currently, manual or context-based customized techniques are used for this purpose. On the other hand, non-procedural query specification and processing (e.g., the Structured Query Language or SQL) has been well-established, effective, scalable, and used widely. Furthermore, stream processing has extended this approach to sensor data.
Christian Encounters with Chinese Culture: Essays on Anglican and Episcopal History in China by Philip L. Wickeri (review)

Wickeri, Philip L., Christian Encounters with Chinese Culture: Essays on Anglican and Episcopal History in China . Hong Kong: Hong Kong University Press, 2015. Review by E. Bruce Reynolds.
Prophylaxis of migraine headaches with riboflavin: A systematic review.

Summary What is known and objective Migraine headache is a relatively common, debilitating condition that costs our healthcare system over 78 billion dollars per year. Riboflavin has been advocated as a safe, effective prophylactic therapy for the prevention of migraines. The purpose of this study was to provide a systematic review of the current role of riboflavin in the prophylaxis of migraine headache. Methods A MEDLINE literature search inclusive of the dates 1966-2016 was performed using the search terms: riboflavin and migraine disorders. Excerpta Medica was searched from 1980 to 2016 using the search terms: riboflavin and migraine. Additionally, Web of Science was searched using the terms riboflavin and migraine inclusive of 1945-2016. Bibliographies of all relevant papers were reviewed for additional citations. We utilized the PRISMA guidelines to select English language, human, clinical trials of riboflavin as a single entity or in combination, review articles, and supporting pharmacokinetic and pharmacogenomic data assessing the efficacy and mechanism of riboflavin therapy in the prophylactic treatment of migraine headache. Results and discussion A total of 11 clinical trials reveal a mixed effect of riboflavin in the prophylaxis of migraine headache. Five clinical trials show a consistent positive therapeutic effect in adults; four clinical trials show a mixed effect in paediatric and adolescent patients, and two clinical trials of combination therapy have not shown benefit. Adverse reactions with riboflavin have generally been mild. What is new and conclusion Riboflavin is well tolerated, inexpensive and has demonstrated efficacy in the reduction of adult patient's migraine headache frequency. Additional data are needed, however, to resolve questions involving pharmacokinetic issues and pharmacogenomic implications of therapy.
Carcinogenicity of Disinfection Byproducts in Laboratory Animals

Disinfection of drinking water sources by chlorination is an effective means of reducing water-borne enteric diseases. However, epidemiological studies have found associations between prolonged exposures to chlorinated surface water and increased risk of bladder cancer and rectal cancer, and long-term studies in rats and mice have provided supporting evidence of the carcinogenic potential of several disinfection by-products (DBPs). Although hundreds of DBPs have been identified in drinking water supplies, relatively few have been evaluated for their carcinogenic potential in laboratory animals. For the DBPs that have been studied in laboratory animals, tumor induction has been observed in multiple organs, including the kidney, large intestine, liver, lung, mammary gland, oral cavity, peritoneal mesothelium, stomach, and thyroid gland. The precise mechanisms of tumor induction by DBPs are not known; however, identified biological effects induced by these chemicals may be involved including: DNA alterations (strand breaks and mutations), oxidative stress, binding to proteins or other tissue macromolecules, alteration in expression of genes that regulate cell cycling, and endocrine disruption. The finding of carcinogenic effects associated with exposure to DBPs points to the need to develop and utilize disinfection methods that will sanitize drinking water sources and minimize human exposures to these agents.
Nitrite as NO donor in cells and tissues

Publisher Summary Several studies have shown that NOS enzyme-independent NO formation occurs in biological systems. In many disease states, such as ischemia or shock, where acidosis and marked hypoxia occur, this pathway becomes the major source of NO and the magnitude of NO generation can be much greater than that which would be formed by normal tissue concentrations of NOS. The substrate source of this NO formation is nitrite, rather than the NOS substrate and a number of pathways of nitrite reduction to NO are proposed, which include nitrite disproportionation, nitrite reduction by myoglobin, reduction by anoxic mitochondria, by xanthine oxidoreductase, by hemoglobin. Thus, these pathways may “substitute” NO production from NOS in pathophysiological conditions, when NOS function is impaired and conditions might be favorable for nitrite reduction. From first glance, nitrite should display cytoprotective effect, since knockout of endothelial NOS leaves the hearts of mice more sensitive to ischemic damage. Protection should be similar to that observed with NO• donors. In models of infarction, nitrite has been reported to protect against ischemia—reperfusion damage in a way similar to NO donors. However, there is contradiction in literature. Studies in isolated rat hearts suggest that nitrite-derived cellular NO (or its derivatives) may be contributing to damage and, therefore, the effects of NO, derived from nitrite in myocardial injury are uncertain.
Cascading controls: The effects of managers’ incentives on subordinate effort to help or harm

Abstract Whether managers achieve their incentivized goals is a function of their subordinates' effort toward those goals. In this study we use an experiment to examine the effect of the managers' incentives on the effort choices of the subordinates. We consider two factors theory suggests will interact to affect subordinate behavior: 1) the framing of the manager's incentive as either a bonus or a penalty and 2) the subordinate's relationship with the manager. We use the participants' sacrifice of personal compensation as our proxy for effort, and predict and find that subordinates who perceive a high (low) quality relationship expend greater (less) effort to help when their manager faces a penalty relative to a bonus. In a typical hierarchy, these results reveal that a single incentive placed on a given manager can also affect the potentially numerous subordinate employees not directly subjected to the incentive. We show that this cross-hierarchy cascading effect is either a greater benefit or greater cost to the organization, depending upon the subordinate's perception of the relationship with the manager. Additionally, we find that a penalty incentive frame motivates low relationship quality subordinates to not only withhold effort to help the manager, but to exert costly effort to harm the manager. Our results advance literature investigating the interactive effects of controls and incentive contract framing by documenting a setting in which penalties negatively affect effort.
Sexually Transmitted Infection Review for the Acute Care Pharmacist

Purpose:Review selected sexually transmitted infections (STIs) and treatment recommendations for pharmacists and providers practicing in the acute care setting.Summary:In 2015, the Centers for Dise...
Psychodynamics of Impulsive Behavior

In discussing treatment of patients with impulsive disorders, we can take one of two positions: (1) that we know too little and are thus helpless to treat many of them successfully (based on recidivist and outcome studies); or (2) that we know more than we realize and our failures lie in the complexities of applying what we know. The actual situation most often lies somewhere between the poles of these two views, but for purposes of discussion I want to examine, support, and perhaps overemphasize how much we know and how much our theoretical knowledge is gradually increasing. I shall also attempt to provide a theoretical framework for treatment of impulse-ridden patients in a variety of settings and ask why it is so difficult to apply what we know effectively to clinical situations.
Effect of Time to Titration to Maximum Dose of Statins on Cardiovascular Outcomes

Background Recent trials have shown that high-dose HMG-CoA reductase inhibitor (statin) therapy reduces cardiovascular events in high-risk subjects within weeks of initiating therapy. We investigated the effect of time to titration to maximum dose of statin therapy on cardiovascular events.
Differentiating between active and passive discontinuers of two leisure activities.

In contrast to the substantial body of published leisure research which has investigated differences between users of leisure services, very little published research has focused on differences amo...
A continuum theory for phase mixing and grain-damage relevant to tectonic plate boundary evolution

Abstract The unique occurrence of plate tectonics on Earth is rooted in the intricate physics of weakening and shear-localization in the cold ductile lithosphere. The pervasiveness of mylonites at lithospheric shear zones is a key piece of evidence that localization is correlated with reduction in mineral grain-size. The positive feedback leading to such localization, however, is often thought to be paradoxical because grain-size reduction by deformation-induced damage, and grain-size sensitive weakening do not necessarily co-exist in monomineralic materials. However, most lithospheric mylonites are polymineralic and the interaction between mineral phases, such as olivine and pyroxene, especially through Zener pinning, impedes normal grain growth while possibly enhancing grain-reduction via damage, even down to grain-sizes in which grain-size sensitive weakening is active. The efficacy of pinning, however, relies on the mineral phases being mixed and dispersed at the grain scale. Indeed, recent models and experiments imply that enhanced mixing between phases leads to greater grain-size reduction and weakening, whereas unmixed regions remain large-grained and strong. This duality of mixed states leads to a hysteresis effect, wherein slowly deforming states with large grains coexist with mylonitic-like states with rapid deformation, akin to the tectonic state of the Earth, with stiff plates coexisting with rapidly deforming plate boundaries. However, the different deformation states necessarily correspond to heterogeneity in mineral phase volume fractions, where the strong states correspond to monomineralic units of large-grained tectonites, while weaker mylonitic states occur in well-mixed polymineralic units. To model grain mixing between different phases at the continuum scale, we develop a new theory treating grain-scale processes as diffusion between phases, but driven by imposed stresses acting on the interface between phases. Simple one-dimensional (1-D) applications of the theory, and concomitant scaling laws show that diffusive grain mixing enhances grain-reduction by amplifying the influence of Zener pinning. The coupling between inter-phase diffusion and grain-damage promotes a positive mixing-localization feedback, which leads to narrow, weak, well-mixed polymineralic zones at the boundary between monomineralic units, as expected for bands of mylonites and ultramylonites. Flanking these narrow mixed zones are poorly mixed regions that have weaker pinning and grain-reduction, leading to large grains typical of tectonites and protomylonites. Thus, the continuum model for grain mixing and damage also predicts that weak, mylonitized plate boundaries can coexist with strong plate interiors for the same lithospheric temperature and driving stresses.
Immediate Reconstruction of Complex Spinal Wounds Is Associated with Increased Hardware Retention and Fewer Wound-related Complications: A Systematic Review and Meta-analysis

Background Patients undergoing surgeries involving extensive posterior spine instrumentation and fusion often have multiple risk factors for wound healing complications. We performed a systematic review and meta-analysis of the available evidence on immediate (proactive/prophylactic) and delayed (reactive) spinal wound reconstruction. We hypothesized that immediate soft-tissue reconstruction of extensive spinal wounds would be associated with fewer postoperative surgicalsite complications than delayed reconstruction. Methods In accordance with Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses guidelines, a PubMed database search was performed to identify English-language, human-subject literature published between 2003 and 2018. Data were summarized, and the pooled prevalence of various wound complications was calculated, weighted by study size, using the generic inverse variance method. A subgroup analysis of all studies with a comparison group (Oxford Centre for Evidence-based Medicine level 3 or better) was performed, and Forest plots were created. Results The database search yielded 16 articles including 828 patients; 428 (51.7%) received an immediate spinal wound reconstruction and 400 (48.3%) had a delayed reconstruction. Spinal neoplasm was the most common index diagnosis. Paraspinous muscle flap reconstruction was performed in the majority of cases. Pooled analysis of all studies revealed immediate reconstruction to be associated with decreased rates of overall wound complications (28.5% versus 18.8%), hardware loss (10.7% versus 1.8%), and wound infections (10.7% versus 7.6%) compared with delayed reconstruction. Conclusions Immediate soft-tissue reconstruction of high-risk spinal wounds is associated with fewer wound healing complications and increased hardware retention.
Pyoderma gangrenosum following initiation of immune checkpoint inhibitor therapy

Pyoderma gangrenosum (PG) is an ulcerating neutrophilic dermatosis that is often associated with the underlying systemic disease. For example, PG is often a common presenting symptom in patients with hematologic malignancies, most commonly myelodysplastic syndrome (MDS). Here, we present the case of a patient who developed PG and a lichenoid drug eruption after the initiation of ipilimumab and nivolumab immune checkpoint inhibitor (ICPI) therapy. Lichenoid drug eruptions are well known to be associated with ICPI therapy, particularly nivolumab. However, only one case of PG has been reported in association with ipilimumab and no cases have ever been reported with nivolumab. Awareness that PG can be associated with ICPI therapy in patients with MDS can allow physicians to be better prepared to help in early recognition and early treatment to prevent the spread of disease.
A Reconfigurable Hardware Prototype for Pre-compliance Testing of Phasor Measurement Units

Pre-compliance tests are intended to be used to assess Phasor Measurement Unit(PMU)s' performance during their design and implementation before sending them for certification or using them for grid dynamic measurements. Methodologies for pre-compliance testing of PMUs based on the dynamic requirements of the IEEE C37.118.1-2014 standard are discussed and reported in recent literature. However, these tests are mostly performed through software simulations and there are limited test-hardwares available. To address this issue, a simple reconfigurable hardware prototype is proposed in this paper. The implementation is carried out using National Instruments' Compact RIO family of reconfigurable hardware and it provides a fast, time-synchronous and efficient way to perform all the compliance tests on the PMU under investigation.
A Review of Line Loss Analysis of the Low-Voltage Distribution System

The line loss analysis of low-voltage distribution systems is the most important way to promote the scientificity and rationality of low-voltage power system construction, transformation and operation. In this paper, the traditional theoretical calculation method and artificial intelligence-based algorithm for the low-voltage distribution system line loss analysis are introduced, and the further research of line loss analysis of the low-voltage distribution system is prospected.
Clinical characteristics and treatment-associated survival of head and neck Ewing sarcoma.

OBJECTIVES Ewing sarcoma of the head and neck (ESHN) is a rare malignancy for which limited data exists. Herein we examine anatomic distribution of ESHN, demographic characteristics, and multi-modal therapy as potential determinants in the overall survival (OS) of patients with ESHN. METHODS A retrospective study of the National Cancer Database (NCDB) from 2004-2016 was performed. A multivariate Cox regression and univariate Kaplan-Meier survival analyses were conducted. RESULTS We identified 284 patients with ESHN eligible for demographic analysis and 223 for survival analysis. Approximately half (50.3%) of patients with ESHN were under the age of 18. Pediatric patients (<18) were less likely to present with distant metastases (≤8.0% vs. 9.5-19.0%, P = .006) and more likely to present with osseous disease (90.2% vs. 75.2%, P = .001) than adults. Adult age (HR: 2.727, 95% CI, 1.381-5.384, P = .004) and distant metastatic disease at the time of presentation (HR: 8.161, 95% CI, 2.922-22.790, P < .001) were independently associated with worse OS. The addition of local therapy (either surgery, radiotherapy, or both) to chemotherapy was not associated with improved survival when compared to treatment with chemotherapy alone. CONCLUSION Predictors of OS in patients with ESHN included age < 18 years and non-metastatic disease at the time of diagnosis. Tumor site of origin (osseous vs. extraosseous primary) or the addition of local therapy to chemotherapy had no impact on OS. Our analysis suggests that chemotherapy serves as the primary modality in treating ESHN, while further study of this rare malignancy is required to discern the utility of combined systemic and local therapy. Laryngoscope, 130:2385-2392, 2020.
“I Need a Hero:” Representation and Reinvention of the Criminal Hero in Mass Media

The allure of criminals, heroes, and everything in between is nothing new. Consider the mythos of the western gunslinger, the romanticized view of pirates, or the rise of the Robin Hood-esque folk hero. The criminal hero is a seductive figure, and, in truth, audiences get a rather scopophilic pleasure in watching people behave badly. This introduction offers an analysis of the varied and vexing definitions of hero, criminal, and criminal heroes, it explores the historical context for society’s cyclical fascination with the criminal hero beginning with the Robin Hood figure, it traces the evolving image of the criminal hero, and it provides an in-depth analysis of two films in the Ocean’s Eleven oeuvre (Lewis Milstones’s 1960s production Ocean’s 11 and the 2001 interpretation starring George Clooney and Brad Pitt) in order to highlight the necessity of the criminal hero.
Bicarbonate, blood pressure, and executive function in pediatric CKD-is there a link?

In adult chronic kidney disease (CKD), metabolic acidosis is associated with diminished cognition, notably executive function (EF). Data from the Chronic Kidney Disease in Children (CKiD) study demonstrate a risk for impairment of EF, a finding associated with heightened blood pressure variability (BPV). We sought to determine whether low serum bicarbonate is also associated with performance on tests of EF in pediatric CKD and to investigate potential interaction with BPV. CKiD participants with serum bicarbonate, blood pressure, and selected cognitive measurements available were evaluated. An EF summary score was derived from scores on the Delis-Kaplan Executive Function System, Conners’ Continuous Performance Test, and Digit Span Backwards subtest from the Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children-IV-Integrated. Parents completed the Behavioral Rating Inventory of Executive Function (BRIEF) to yield a Global Executive Composite (GEC) score. Linear mixed models with bicarbonate and hypertension as predictors and linear regression with bicarbonate and BPV were used to predict EF level. Data were available for 865 children. Twenty-two percent had low bicarbonate (CO2 ≤ 20 mmol/L) at baseline. On multivariate analysis, there was no relationship between bicarbonate, hypertension, and EF. There was no significant CO2×hypertension interaction found. A significant interaction (p = 0.01) between high CO2 (≥ 26 mmol/L) and BPV was detected in the model with GEC as the EF outcome, indicating that while higher BPV was associated with worse EF in the low and normal CO2 groups, higher BPV was associated with better EF in the high CO2 group. Our analyses revealed an interaction between one measure of BPV and low bicarbonate on neurocognition in pediatric CKD, suggesting a potential role for control of both bicarbonate and blood pressure in preserving cognition in early CKD. Further research is needed to confirm and further define this association.
Building a patient-specific model using transfer learning for four-dimensional cone beam computed tomography augmentation

Background We previously developed a deep learning model to augment the quality of four-dimensional (4D) cone-beam computed tomography (CBCT). However, the model was trained using group data, and thus was not optimized for individual patients. Consequently, the augmented images could not depict small anatomical structures, such as lung vessels. Methods In the present study, the transfer learning method was used to further improve the performance of the deep learning model for individual patients. Specifically, a U-Net-based model was first trained to augment 4D-CBCT using group data. Next, transfer learning was used to fine tune the model based on a specific patient's available data to improve its performance for that individual patient. Two types of transfer learning were studied: layer-freezing and whole-network fine-tuning. The performance of the transfer learning model was evaluated by comparing the augmented CBCT images with the ground truth images both qualitatively and quantitatively using a structure similarity index matrix (SSIM) and peak signal-to-noise ratio (PSNR). The results were also compared to those obtained using only the U-Net method. Results Qualitatively, the patient-specific model recovered more detailed information of the lung area than the group-based U-Net model. Quantitatively, the SSIM improved from 0.924 to 0.958, and the PSNR improved from 33.77 to 38.42 for the whole volumetric images for the group-based U-Net and patient-specific models, respectively. The layer-freezing method was found to be more efficient than the whole-network fine-tuning method, and had a training time as short as 10 minutes. The effect of augmentation by transfer learning increased as the number of projections used for CBCT reconstruction decreased. Conclusions Overall, the patient-specific model optimized by transfer learning was efficient and effective at improving image qualities of augmented undersampled three-dimensional (3D)- and 4D-CBCT images, and could be extremely valuable for applications in image-guided radiation therapy.
Who Should Select New Employees, Headquarters or the Unit Manager? Consequences of Centralizing Hiring at a Retail Chain

We examine how changing the allocation of hiring decision rights in a multiunit organization affects employee-firm match quality, contingent on a unit's circumstances. Our research site, a US retai...
Deep learning-based virtual staining of label-free ultraviolet (UV) microscopy images for hematological analysis

Deep ultraviolet microscopy (UV) enables high-resolution, label-free imaging of biological samples and yields diagnostically relevant quantitative molecular and structural information. We recently demonstrated that deep UV microscopy can serve as a simple, fast, and low-cost alternative to modern hematology analyzers that assess variations in the morphological, molecular, and cytogenetic properties of blood cells to monitor and diagnose blood disorders. We also introduced a pseudocolorization scheme that uses multi-spectral UV images (acquired at three different wavelengths) to generate images whose colors accurately recapitulate those produced by conventional Giemsa staining, and can thus be used for visual hematological analysis. Here, we present a deeplearning framework to virtually stain single-channel UV images acquired at 260 nm, providing a factor of three improvement in imaging speed without sacrificing accuracy. We train a generative adversarial network (GAN) using image pairs consisting of single-channel UV images of blood smears and their corresponding pseudocolorized images to generate realistic, virtually stained images. The virtual stained images are post-processed to improve contrast and yield consistent background colors. We quantify the performance of our framework in terms of the structural similarity index (SSIM) for each color channel. Our virtual staining scheme is the first step towards a completely automated hematological analysis pipeline that includes segmentation and classification of different blood cell types to compute metrics of diagnostic value. Our method eliminates the need to acquire images at different wavelengths and could potentially lead to the development of a faster and more compact label-free, point-of-care hematology analyzer.
Void fraction in vertical intermediate and inlet headers of microchannel heat exchangers: Experiments and models

Abstract The void fraction in headers of microchannel heat exchangers (MCHEs) affects the refrigerant charge, distribution, pressure drop, and heat transfer coefficient of MCHEs. However, due to the complex geometries of headers, experimental measurements of void fraction in headers with refrigerant are still missing in the open literature. A model that predicts local void fraction between microchannel tubes in headers is also widely needed when predicting the refrigerant charge and the performance of MCHEs. This paper first presents experimentally measured void fraction between microchannel tubes in a intermediate (five inlets and five outlets) and inlet headers (ten or five outlets) with R134a by calibrated capacitive sensors. For the intermediate header, the ranges of inlet mass flow rate and quality are 3.2 g s−1 to 5.2 g s−1 and 0.2 to 0.8, respectively. The inlet mass flow rates vary from 3.2 g s−1 to 7.2 g s−1 and qualities range from 0.1 to 0.82 for the inlet headers. As the inlet quality increases, the average void fraction in headers becomes larger. Other local parameters in the headers, such as mass flux, quality, superficial velocity together with the visualization results are also obtained. Void fraction shows a strong relation to the local quality in headers and the refrigerant distribution in microchannel tubes. A drift-flux void fraction model based on the local variables is proposed in this paper. The local void fraction predicted by the model agrees well with the experimentally measured values, with most of the predictions falling into ± 15% deviations. The proposed model has better accuracy when predicting void fraction in headers comparing to some widely used correlations.
Retroperitoneal Fat Necrosis in Response to an Episode of Acute Pancreatitis

Acute pancreatitis can result in fat necrosis, typically occurring in the peripancreatic region within weeks to months, and it generally appears as a low attenuation collection, with minimal heterogeneity. There are no specific imaging features that can diagnose retroperitoneal fat necrosis which may imitate other entities including certain malignancies, which may lead to invasive studies for diagnosis. Herein, we present a case of extensive retroperitoneal fat necrosis beyond the peripancreatic region that developed 10 days after an episode of acute pancreatitis.
Assuaging COVID-19 Peritraumatic Distress Among Mental Health Clinicians: The Potential of Self-Care

Undoubtedly, the 2019 novel coronavirus, also known as COVID-19, has put mental health clinicians under stress. Despite the promise of self-care in assuaging stress, very few, if any, studies have investigated the impact of self-care on stress among mental health professionals. This exploratory study examined COVID-19 related distress, self-care, and the predictive relationship between the two. Primary data were collected from a sample of mental health social work clinicians in one southeastern state (N = 1568). Results indicate that participants were experiencing mild peritraumatic distress associated with COVID-19. Participants who were married, identified as heterosexual or straight, financially stable, and in good physical/mental health were experiencing less distress than other mental health clinicians in the sample. Analyses revealed that higher self-care practices predict significantly less distress. Overall, data suggest that self-care can be integral to assuaging distress among mental health clinicians. This study offers insight into how to support mental health practitioners during COVID-19.