cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Conditional Macrophage Depletion Increases Inflammation and Does Not Inhibit the Development of Osteoarthritis in Obese Macrophage Fas‐Induced Apoptosis–Transgenic Mice

Objective. Macrophages are believed to play a critical role in the inflammation associated with the development of osteoarthritis (OA) in obesity. The objective of the study was to investigate whether short-term, systemic depletion of macrophages would mitigate OA following injury in obese mice. Methods. CSF-1R–GFP+ Macrophage Fas-Induced Apoptosis (MaFIA) transgenic mice that allow conditional depletion of macrophages were placed on a high-fat diet and underwent surgery to induce knee OA. A small molecule (AP20187) was administrated to deplete macrophages in MaFIA mice. The effect of macrophage depletion on acute joint inflammation, OA severity, and arthritic bone changes were evaluated using histology and microCT. Immunohistochemistry was used to identify various immune cells. Serum and synovial fluid cytokines were also measured. Results. Macrophage-depleted mice had significantly fewer M1 and M2 macrophages in the surgical operated-joints relative to controls and exhibited decreased osteophyte formation immediately following depletion. Surprisingly, macrophage depletion did not attenuate OA with obesity; instead, it induced systemic inflammation and led to a massive infiltration of CD3+ T cells and particularly neutrophils, but not B cells, into the injured joints. Macrophage-depleted mice also demonstrated markedly increased pro-inflammatory cytokines including granulocyte-colony stimulating factor (G-CSF), IL-1β, IL-6, IL-8, and TNF-α in both serum and joint synovial fluid, although animals showed trends for decreased serum insulin and leptin levels after depletion. Conclusion. Our findings indicate that macrophages are vital in modulating the homeostasis of immune cells in obesity and suggest that more targeted approaches of different macrophage subtypes may be necessary to mitigate inflammation and OA with obesity. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved.
Spatial Wavefunction Switched (SWS) FET SRAM Circuits and Simulation

This paper presents the design and simulation of static random access memory (SRAM) using two channel spatial wavefunction switched field-effect transistor (SWS-FET), also known as a twin-drain met...
Nonparametric estimation of medical cost quantiles in the presence of competing terminal events

Medical care costs are commonly used by health policy-makers and decision-maker for evaluating health care service and decision on treatment plans. This type of data is commonly recorded in surveil...
Sensitive, Non‐Destructive Detection and Analysis of Neoantigen‐Specific T Cell Populations from Tumors and Blood

Tumor neoantigens are fragments of mutated proteins that contain the mutation, and can be presented by major histocompatibility complex molecules on tumor cells, where they are surveyed by T cells. The rapid and sensitive identification of neoantigen‐specific T cell populations from tumor tissues or blood has proven challenging. A microchip platform for the non‐destructive identification of neoantigen‐specific CD8 T cells is described. The method utilizes a library of neoantigen/MHC tetramers linked to a magnetic nanoparticle via a DNA barcode. The neoantigen‐specificity of the T cells is determined by decoding the barcode through sequential fluorescent microscopy reads. The captured T cells may be further characterized for function, or via matching the neoantigen‐specificity with the T cell receptor gene. Tumor infiltrating lymphocytes and non‐expanded peripheral blood mononuclear cells collected from melanoma patients at various time points across an anti‐PD1 therapy regimen are shown to contain overlapping neoantigen‐specific T cell populations.
Physical Illness and Psychiatric Symptoms

There are few, if any, psychiatric symptoms that cannot be caused or aggravated by physical illnesses. The nonspecificity of altered mood, behavior, or perception requires that clinicians continually contend with the possibility that there may be an underlying nonpsychiatric disease process accounting entirely for or contributing to an apparent “functional” disorder. Despite this ubiquitous dilemma and numerous hoary tales of misdiagnosis, studies that might delineate the validity of this concern are few and not entirely satisfactory.
Food and Waterborne Illnesses

There are many different biological, chemical, or radiological agents that when added to food can result in many different types of illness. Some may be rapidly fatal; others require long-term exposure to result in illness. Some lead to short-term illness and others result in long-term complications. The universe of such agents and situations is enormous. This article summarizes some of the principal foodborne microbiological agents that clinicians and those involved with public health have to deal with. While the range of agents is broad and the list is long there are several basic mechanisms such as ingestion of preformed toxins or toxin production once a microbe is present in the intestine that facilitate sorting these agents into some logical framework. However, at the end of the day it is always key to think about ingested agents as a cause for illness, whether that illness be confined to the intestinal system or more systemic. In principle all foodborne illness is preventable and of the key messages to consumers and health care professionals is to know if you or your patient is at greater risk from foodborne illness. If one is dealing with an ‘at risk’ patient, it is important they be educated on what foods to avoid and what precautions to take to minimize the likelihood of acquiring a foodborne illness. While treating most foodborne illness is straightforward, prevention is clearly the path of choice.
Ad hoc synchronization considered harmful

Many synchronizations in existing multi-threaded programs are implemented in an ad hoc way. The first part of this paper does a comprehensive characteristic study of ad hoc synchronizations in concurrent programs. By studying 229 ad hoc synchronizations in 12 programs of various types (server, desktop and scientific), including Apache, MySQL, Mozilla, etc., we find several interesting and perhaps alarming characteristics: (1) Every studied application uses ad hoc synchronizations. Specifically, there are 6-83 ad hoc synchronizations in each program. (2) Ad hoc synchronizations are error-prone. Significant percentages (22-67%) of these ad hoc synchronizations introduced bugs or severe performance issues. (3) Ad hoc synchronization implementations are diverse and many of them cannot be easily recognized as synchronizations, i.e. have poor readability and maintainability.The second part of our work builds a tool called SyncFinder to automatically identify and annotate ad hoc synchronizations in concurrent programswritten in C/C++ to assist programmers in porting their code to better structured implementations, while also enabling other tools to recognize them as synchronizations. Our evaluation using 25 concurrent programs shows that, on average, SyncFinder can automatically identify 96% of ad hoc synchronizations with 6% false positives.We also build two use cases to leverage SyncFinder's auto-annotation. The first one uses annotation to detect 5 deadlocks (including 2 new ones) and 16 potential issues missed by previous analysis tools in Apache, MySQL and Mozilla. The second use case reduces Valgrind data race checker's false positive rates by 43-86%.
Membrane-Bound γ-Glutamyl Transpeptidase

γ-Glutamyl transpeptidase is a membrane-bound enzyme that catalyzes the transfer of the γ-glutamyl moiety of glutathione (and of other γ-glutamyl compounds) to amino acid (and peptide) acceptors as indicated in reaction (1): $$ glutathione + a\min o\,acid \to \gamma - glutamyl\,a\min o\,acid + cysteinyl\,glycine $$ (1) This reaction is the first step in a quantitatively significant pathway of glutathione metabolism, and it has been postulated that this or analogous reactions are involved in amino acid transport. Thus, γ-glutamyl transpeptidase mediates the translocation of the amino acid across the cell membrane by interacting with both extracellular amino acid and intracellular glutathione (or other compounds that contain the γ-glutamyl carrier); according to this idea, the amino acid enters the cell as a γ-glutamyl amino acid.
A process model for usability and maintainability design reviews

ABSTRACTMost of the previous research on design reviews focuses on management and technology innovations that improve the effectiveness of design reviews. To better evaluate the impact of those innovations, a structured view of the design review process is needed, but few previous works have provided such a view. This research studies the dynamics of usability and maintainability design review meetings that involve stakeholders in the post-occupancy phase of the building, including owners, occupants, and facility operators. The outcomes of the research include a process model, which describes the communication and interaction dynamics between the participants in those design reviews. The process model is developed and validated following grounded theory methodology through analyzing 20.5 h of the video recordings from 13 design review meetings, which are from real projects with diverse sizes and types. The process model defines the core of the design review process as three cycles of activities, which are...
Modeling the one-dimensional imager of neutrons (ODIN) for neutron response functions at the Sandia Z facility.

The one-dimensional imager of neutrons (ODIN) at the Sandia Z facility consists of a 10-cm block of tungsten with rolled edges, creating a slit imager with slit widths of either 250, 500, or 750 μm. Designed with a 1-m neutron imaging line of sight, we achieve about 4:1 magnification and 500-μm axial spatial resolution. The baseline inertial confinement fusion concept at Sandia is magnetized liner inertial fusion, which nominally creates a 1-cm line source of neutrons. ODIN was designed to determine the size, shape, and location of the neutron producing region, furthering the understanding of compression quality along the cylindrical axis of magnetized liner implosions. Challenges include discriminating neutrons from hard x-rays and gammas with adequate signal-to-noise in the 2 × 1012 deuterium-deuterium (DD) neutron yield range, as well as understanding the point spread function of the imager to various imaging detectors (namely, CR-39). Modeling efforts were conducted with MCNP6.1 to determine neutron response functions for varying configurations in a clean DD neutron environment (without x-rays or gammas). Configuration alterations that will be shown include rolled-edge slit orientation and slit width, affecting the resolution and response function. Finally, the experiment to determine CR-39 neutron sensitivity, with and without a high density polyethylene (n, p) converter, an edge spread function, and resolution will be discussed.The one-dimensional imager of neutrons (ODIN) at the Sandia Z facility consists of a 10-cm block of tungsten with rolled edges, creating a slit imager with slit widths of either 250, 500, or 750 μm. Designed with a 1-m neutron imaging line of sight, we achieve about 4:1 magnification and 500-μm axial spatial resolution. The baseline inertial confinement fusion concept at Sandia is magnetized liner inertial fusion, which nominally creates a 1-cm line source of neutrons. ODIN was designed to determine the size, shape, and location of the neutron producing region, furthering the understanding of compression quality along the cylindrical axis of magnetized liner implosions. Challenges include discriminating neutrons from hard x-rays and gammas with adequate signal-to-noise in the 2 × 1012 deuterium-deuterium (DD) neutron yield range, as well as understanding the point spread function of the imager to various imaging detectors (namely, CR-39). Modeling efforts were conducted with MCNP6.1 to determine neutron r...
The Economic Burden of Foodborne Illness in the United States

Economic burden of foodborne illness estimates is an important measure for setting policy priorities and assessing the efficacy of potential interventions. This chapter presents estimates for the health-related cost of foodborne illness in the United States. Updated models and data are used to examine illness costs across a number of dimensions. Specifically, two alternative economic models (similar to alternative approaches used by major regulatory agencies in the United States) are employed to assess total cost and cost per case estimates at the national, state, and pathogen levels.
Introgressive and horizontal acquisition of Wolbachia by Drosophila yakuba-clade hosts and horizontal transfer of incompatibility loci between distantly related Wolbachia

ABSTRACT Maternally transmitted Wolbachia infect about half of insect species, yet the predominant mode(s) of Wolbachia acquisition remains uncertain. Species-specific associations could be old, with Wolbachia and hosts co-diversifying (i.e., cladogenic acquisition), or relatively young and acquired by horizontal transfer or introgression. The three Drosophila yakuba-clade hosts ((D. santomea, D. yakuba), D. teissieri) diverged about three million years ago and currently hybridize on Bioko and Sao Tome, west African islands. Each species is polymorphic for nearly identical Wolbachia that cause weak cytoplasmic incompatibility (CI)–reduced egg hatch when uninfected females mate with infected males. D. yakuba-clade Wolbachia are closely related to wMel, globally polymorphic in D. melanogaster. We use draft Wolbachia and mitochondrial genomes to demonstrate that D. yakuba-clade Wolbachia and mitochondrial phylogenies tend to follow host nuclear phylogenies; however, roughly half of D. santomea individuals, sampled both inside and outside of the Sao Tome hybrid zone, have introgressed D. yakuba mitochondria. Both mitochondria and Wolbachia possess far more recent common ancestors than the bulk of the host nuclear genomes, precluding cladogenic Wolbachia acquisition. General concordance of Wolbachia and mitochondrial phylogenies suggests that horizontal transmission is rare, but varying relative rates of molecular divergence complicate time-based statistical tests. Loci that cause CI in wMel are disrupted in D. yakuba-clade Wolbachia; however, a second set of loci predicted to cause CI are located in the same WO prophage region. These alternative CI loci seem to have been acquired horizontally from distantly related Wolbachia, with transfer mediated by flanking Wolbachia-specific ISWpi1 transposons.
Book Review: Blackface Nation: Race, Reform, and Identity in American Popular Music, 1812-1925 by Brian Roberts

Brian Roberts. Blackface Nation: Race, Reform, and Identity in American Popular Music, 1812-1925 . University of Chicago Press, 2016. 384 pp. Brian Roberts begins Blackface Nation with this truly winning admission: “This project started a long time ago, so long ago that many of the people I have
Optimizing Accuracy of Proximal Femur Elastic Modulus Equations

Quantitative computed tomography-based finite element analysis (QCT/FEA) is a promising tool to predict femoral properties. One of the modeling parameters required as input for QCT/FEA is the elastic modulus, which varies with the location-dependent bone mineral density (ash density). The aim of this study was to develop optimized equations for the femoral elastic modulus. An inverse QCT/FEA method was employed, using an optimization process to minimize the error between the predicted femoral stiffness values and experimental values. We determined optimal coefficients of an elastic modulus equation that was a function of ash density only, and also optimal coefficients for several other equations that included along with ash density combinations of the variables sex and age. All of the optimized models were found to be more accurate than models from the literature. It was found that the addition of the variables sex and age to ash density made very minor improvements in stiffness predictions compared to the model with ash density alone. Even though the addition of age did not remarkably improve the statistical metrics, the effect of age was reflected in the elastic modulus equations as a decline of about 9% over a 60-year interval.
Intermolecular 2 + 2 Carbonyl-Olefin Photocycloadditions Enabled by Cu(I)-Norbornene MLCT.

Photocycloadditions are often typified by the oxetane-forming Paterno-Buchi reaction. However, the mechanistic constraints of carbonyl excitation and olefin interception have limited this attractive oxetane-forming pathway. Here we describe the use of a Cu(I) precatalyst that achieves selective olefin activation via coordination to the metal center. Significantly, this intermolecular 2 + 2 carbonyl-olefin photocycloaddition engages alkyl ketones, which are more challenging to accommodate via direct irradiation pathways. Mechanistic investigations support the in situ formation of a Cu-norbornene resting state that undergoes a MLCT leading to oxetane formation.
Design Optimization and Modeling of Charge Trap Transistors (CTTs) in 14 nm FinFET Technologies

The Charge Trap Transistor (CTT) technology is an emerging memory solution that turns as-fabricated high- ${k}$ /metal gate (HKMG) logic transistors into secure, embedded non-volatile memory (eNVM) elements with excellent data retention and operation capability at military grade temperatures. In other words, the CTTs offer a completely process-free and mask-free eNVM solution for advanced HKMG CMOS technology nodes. In this letter, bitcell design to enhance programming efficiency and modeling of the charge trapping behavior of CTTs in 14 nm FinFET technology is discussed.
Sagittal ankle position does not affect axial CT measurements of the syndesmosis in a cadaveric model

The purpose of this study was to evaluate the effect of ankle plantarflexion and the axial location of measurement on quantitative syndesmosis assessment. Twelve fresh–frozen cadaveric specimens were secured in three positions of ankle plantarflexion (0°, 15°, and 30°) using an ankle-spanning external fixator and underwent CT scans at each position. Syndesmotic measurements were obtained on axial images using three previously described methods (six measurements) at the level of the tibial plafond and 1 cm proximal to the plafond. Method 1 evaluated the distance between the most anterior and posterior aspects of the fibula and tibia. Method 2 measured medial–lateral diastasis of the anterior and posterior aspects of the fibula, and fibular anterior–posterior translation. Method 3 evaluated axial rotation of the fibula. All measurements were performed by two independent observers. Inter-rater reliability of each measurement was evaluated using intra-class coefficients. Repeated measures analysis of variance (RM-ANOVA) was performed to evaluate within-specimen differences in measurements obtained at varying ankle positions. The anterior incisura component of method 1 demonstrated poor-to-moderate inter-rater reliability across all ankle positions and at both measurement locations. Inter-rater reliability was highest for method 2, especially when measured 1 cm proximal to the plafond. Method 3 demonstrated moderate reliability 1 cm proximal to the plafond. After correcting for multiple comparisons, RM-ANOVA and pairwise analysis revealed that none of the measurements changed significantly with varying ankle position. The inter-rater reliability of the most common method of syndesmotic evaluation (method 1) was found to be lower than in previous studies. The most reliable syndesmotic evaluation can be made by measuring diastasis and anteroposterior translation 1 cm proximal to the plafond (method 2). Ankle position from 0° to 30° of plantarflexion did not change the measurements obtained. IV.
Evidence-based obviousness for use in patent prosecution and review.

A process for the non-arbitrary determination of obviousness based on examining actual patenting practices of large groups could improve outcomes.
Branched unwinding mechanism of the Pif1 family of DNA helicases.

Members of the Pif1 family of helicases function in multiple pathways that involve DNA synthesis: DNA replication across G-quadruplexes; break-induced replication; and processing of long flaps during Okazaki fragment maturation. Furthermore, Pif1 increases strand-displacement DNA synthesis by DNA polymerase δ and allows DNA replication across arrays of proteins tightly bound to DNA. This is a surprising feat since DNA rewinding or annealing activities limit the amount of single-stranded DNA product that Pif1 can generate, leading to an apparently poorly processive helicase. In this work, using single-molecule Forster resonance energy transfer approaches, we show that 2 members of the Pif1 family of helicases, Pif1 from Saccharomyces cerevisiae and Pfh1 from Schizosaccharomyces pombe, unwind double-stranded DNA by a branched mechanism with 2 modes of activity. In the dominant mode, only short stretches of DNA can be processively and repetitively opened, with reclosure of the DNA occurring by mechanisms other than strand-switching. In the other less frequent mode, longer stretches of DNA are unwound via a path that is separate from the one leading to repetitive unwinding. Analysis of the kinetic partitioning between the 2 different modes suggests that the branching point in the mechanism is established by conformational selection, controlled by the interaction of the helicase with the 3' nontranslocating strand. The data suggest that the dominant and repetitive mode of DNA opening of the helicase can be used to allow efficient DNA replication, with DNA synthesis on the nontranslocating strand rectifying the DNA unwinding activity.
Executive function after risk-reducing salpingo-oophorectomy in BRCA1 and BRCA2 mutation carriers: does current mood and early life adversity matter?

Objective Despite the fact that negative mood and executive dysfunction are common after risk-reducing salpingo-oophorectomy (RRSO), occurring in up to a third of women, little is known about risk factors predicting these negative outcomes. Adverse childhood experiences (ACE) predict poorer health in adulthood and may be a risk factor for negative outcomes after RRSO. Given the complex relationship between early life stress, affective disorders, and cognitive dysfunction, we hypothesized that ACE would be associated with poorer executive function and that mood symptoms would partially mediate this relationship. Methods Women who had undergone RRSO were included in the study (N = 552; age 30-73 y). We measured executive function (continuous performance task, letter n-back task, and Brown Attention Deficit Disorder Scale Score), exposure to early life stress (ACE questionnaire), and mood symptoms (Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale). Generalized estimating equations were used to evaluate the association between ACE and executive dysfunction and the role of mood symptoms as a mediator in this relationship. Results ACE was associated with greater severity of subjective executive dysfunction (adjusted mean difference [aMD] = 7.1, P = 0.0005) and worse performance on both cognitive tasks (continuous performance task: aMD = -0.1, P = 0.03; n-back: aMD = -0.17, P = 0.007). Mood symptoms partially mediated ACE associations with sustained attention (21.3% mediated; 95% CI: 9.3%-100%) and subjective report of executive dysfunction (62.8% mediated; 95% CI: 42.3%-100%). Conclusions The relationship between childhood adversity and executive dysfunction is partially mediated by mood symptoms. These data indicate that assessing history of childhood adversity and current anxiety and depression symptoms may play a role in treating women who report cognitive complaints after RRSO. : Video Summary:http://links.lww.com/MENO/A571.
Newborn Hearing Screens: Optimizing Outpatient Referral Scheduling

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVE: Early Hearing Detection and Intervention (EHDI) programs across the country recommend inpatient and outpatient hearing screens prior to 1 month of age. The goal of early hearing loss detection and subsequent intervention is to maximize childhood communication outcomes. Between May 2015 and April 2016, only 6% of infants referred to Texas Children’ Hospital for outpatient screens received them within the recommended timeframe ( < 1 month of age for the state of Texas). The goal of this quality improvement (QI) project was to improve the processes by …
Indefinite Kähler-Einstein Metrics on Compact Complex Surfaces

We completely classify those compact complex surfaces which admit indefinite Ricci-flat Kahler metrics. Slightly weaker results are also obtained for indefinite Kahler-Einstein metrics with non-zero scalar curvature.
The Optical Proper Motions of HH 7-11 and Cep E (HH 377)

A key ingredient in understanding the dynamics of stellar outflows is their proper motion. We have used optical images in the [SII] emission at 6717/31 A and the red Digitized Palomar Observatory Sky Survey (DSS) plates to determine the proper motion of HH 7-11 system and the optical knot of Cep E (HH 377). The DSS plate measurements span nearly 37 years for both HH 7-11 and HH 377 and have wide field of view, which allows an accurate determination of the proper motions despite their relatively low angular resolution. The optical images, with higher angular resolution, cover a shorter period of 7 and 4 years, respectively, and have been used to complement the DSS measurements. From the DSS plates we have found that HH 377 has a proper motion of 0.031 +/- 0.003 arcsec/yr with a PA = 206 arcdeg, i.e. moving away from IRAS 230111+63, that at a distance of 730 pc corresponds to a tangential velocity of 107 +/- 14 km/s. The values obtained from the optical images are consistent with these measurements. Similarly, the proper motions of HH 7-11 range from 0.015 +/- 0.009 (HH 9) to 0.044 +/- 0.007 (HH 11) arcsec/yr, and the flow is moving away from SVS 13 with a mean PA = 136 arcdeg. At a distance of 330 pc, these motions correspond to tangential velocities of 25 - 70 km/s, i.e. comparable to the original values obtained by Herbig & Jones (1983). The measurements from the optical CCD [SII] images are again consistent with these motions, although in detail there are some difference, particularly for HH 7 and HH 10.
Violent Childhood: Domestic Violence in Childhood

Children are a particularly vulnerable segment of the population. Intimate partner violence is not just an isolated issue that concerns adult partners (the parents). There are widespread ill effects that children with parents who are in an abusive relationship may experience. Furthermore, this early and unfortunate exposure to intimate partner violence may set the standard for what is acceptable domestic behavior, thus potentially creating the next generation of victims and perpetrators of abuse.
Elder care and paid work: gender differences in the relationship between unpaid elder care work and employment in Bulgaria:

Care of elderly family members affects the welfare of the elderly and caregivers and has macroeconomic implications. In Eastern Europe, aging populations combined with under-developed care policy i...
Electronic, Ionic, and Mixed Conduction in Polymeric Systems

Polymers that simultaneously transport electrons and ions are paramount to drive the technological advances necessary for next-generation electrochemical devices, including energy storage devices a...
Teaching goat clients to prevent pregnancy toxemia

Pregnancy toxemia is a frequent and important disease of prolific does in late gestation, resulting in high mortality of does and loss of valuable kids. Veterinarians can play an important role in preventing losses from pregnancy toxemia by training owners to recognize management factors predisposing to disease, and by teaching them to prioritize observations and develop management strategies to decrease the risk of pregnancy toxemia in the herd. Utilization of ultrasound pregnancy diagnosis, including staging and enumeration, accurate identification and recordkeeping, are the cornerstones of these strategies. Monitoring of body condition, adjusting timing and amount of lead-feeding according to risk, and adapting penning or identification strategies to appropriately feed and closely monitor the highest-risk animals, while providing a system for early detection and treatment of clinical disease, are key to minimizing the impact of pregnancy toxemia in the goat herd.
The Informativeness of Relative Performance Information and its Effect on Effort Allocation in a Multi-Task Environment

Prior research documents that providing relative performance information (RPI) motivates employees to increase effort; however, a potential downside of RPI is that it also motivates employees to distort their effort allocations between tasks that can be detrimental to overall firm performance. This study investigates via an experiment how the informativeness of RPI affects employees’ effort allocations and performance in a multi-task environment. We investigate the informativeness of two RPI design choices that are observed in practice: detail level and temporal aggregation. Regarding detail level, firms may provide each employee’s performance ranking on tasks, which is less informative than providing the actual performance score of each employee. Regarding temporal aggregation, firms may provide RPI that is re-set each period, which is less informative than RPI that is based on cumulative performance. We find RPI detail level and temporal aggregation interact to influence effort distortion. Specifically, we find that compared to re-set RPI, cumulative RPI leads to greater distortion of effort away from firm-preferred allocations and that this effect is magnified when RPI provides actual performance scores rather than performance rankings. Finally, high levels of effort distortion hurt overall performance, thereby demonstrating the potentially detrimental effect of effort distortion on performance. Results of our study enhance our understanding of how firms can use their control over the design of RPI to enhance its usefulness in directing employees’ effort in multi-task environments by highlighting the role that informativeness of information can have on employee behavior.
A Multi-Period Water Network Planning for Industrial Parks; Impact of Design Periods on Park's Flexibility.

The central goal of this study is to advance the state-of-the-art in the field of water network management for industrial ecologies. Considering the global water shortage and environmental regulations, the reduction of water consumption has become a necessity within the industrial sector. To find the optimal water management strategies in an eco-industrial park (EIP), a refined superstructure is proposed. An MINLP mathematical model is then developed, based on the superstructure, to synthesize water and wastewater streams within the network, including nearby companies. Surveying two case studies, each studied in two different scenarios, showed that the cost objective functions deteriorates with increase in number of design periods. Results also provide some evidence of a trade-off between water network flexibility and performance, and vice versa.
Trends in Health Care Use and Spending for Young Children With Neurologic Impairment.

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES Children with neurologic impairment (NI) are a growing subset of children who frequently use health care. We examined health care use and spending trends across services for children with NI during their first 5 years of life. METHODS This was a retrospective study of 13 947 children with NI in the multistate IBM Medicaid MarketScan Database (2009-2017). We established birth cohorts of children with NI and analyzed claims from birth to 5 years. NI, identified by using International Classification of Diseases, 9th Revision, diagnosis codes, was defined as ≥1 neurologic diagnosis that was associated with functional and/or intellectual impairment. We measured annual health care use and per-member-per-year spending by inpatient, emergency department (ED), and outpatient services. Population trends in use and spending were assessed with logistic and linear regression, respectively. RESULTS During their first versus fifth year, 66.8% vs 5.8% of children with NI used inpatient services, and 67.8% vs 44.4% used ED services. Annual use in both categories decreased over 0-5 years (inpatient odds ratio: 0.35, 95% confidence interval: 0.34 to 0.36; ED odds ratio: 0.78, 95% confidence interval: 0.77 to 0.79). The use of outpatient services (primary care, specialty care, home health) decreased gradually. Per-member-per-year spending on inpatient services remained the largest spending category: $83 352 (90.2% of annual spending) in the first year and $1944 (25.5%) in the fifth year. CONCLUSIONS For children with early-onset NI from 0-5 years, use and spending on inpatient services decreased dramatically; ED and outpatient service use decreased more gradually. These findings may help systems, clinicians, and families optimize care by anticipating and adjusting for shifting use of health care services.
Estimating the Effects of Obesity and Weight Change on Mortality Using a Dynamic Causal Model.

Background A well-known challenge in estimating the mortality risks of obesity is reverse causality attributable to illness-associated and smoking-associated weight loss. Given that the likelihood of chronic and acute illnesses rises with age, reverse causality is most threatening to estimates derived from elderly populations. Methods I analyzed data from 12,523 respondents over 50 years old from a nationally representative longitudinal dataset, the Health and Retirement Study (HRS). The effects of both baseline body weight and time-varying weight change on mortality are estimated, adjusting for demographic and socio-economic variables, as well as time-varying confounders including illness and smoking. Body weight is measured by body mass index (BMI). In survival models for mortality, illness and smoking were lagged to minimize bias from reverse causality in estimates of the effect of weight change. Furthermore, because illness both causes and is caused by changes in BMI, I used a marginal structural model (MSM) rather than standard adjustment to control confounding by this and other time-dependent factors. Results Overall, relative to normal weight, underweight and Class II/III at baseline are associated with hazard ratios that are 2.07 (95% confidence interval (CI): 1.28–3.37) and 1.82 (1.54–2.16) respectively, whereas overweight and Class I obesity do not significantly lower or raise the mortality risks. Furthermore, relative to stable weight change, all types of weight change lead to significantly increased risk of mortality. Specifically, large weight loss results in a mortality risk that is nearly 3.86 (3.26–4.58) times of staying in the stable weight range and small weight loss is about 1.81 (1.55–2.11 ) times riskier. In contrast, large weight gain and small weight gain are associated with hazard ratios that are 1.98 (1.67–2.35) and 1.20 (1.02–1.41) respectively. Conclusions Being underweight or severe obese at baseline is associated with excess mortality risk, and weight change tend to raise mortality risk. Both the confounding by illness and by smoking lead to overestimates of the effects of being underweight at baseline and of weight loss, but underestimates the effect of being obese at baseline.
87 – History and Philosophy of Surgical Research

This chapter analyzes methods by which several surgeons of the past have done important research and predicts that the use of similar strategies will allow the research of future surgeons to be no less important. During the nineteenth century, the introduction by surgeons of anesthesia, antiseptic surgery, and aseptic surgery were certainly as important as any innovations in nonsurgical fields. At the turn of the century, William Halsted in the United States, in addition to founding the modern surgical residency, was probably this country's first great surgical scientist. He devised new methods of intestinal anastomosis (the submucosal suture), treatment of fractures (the first use of plate and buried screw fixation), and the first successful treatments of breast cancer and inguinal hernia. Other important contributions were made in anesthesia (invention of local and nerve block anesthesia), biliary surgery, endocrine surgery (thyroid), transplantation (parathyroid), and vascular surgery (experimental and clinical treatment of aneurysms). These innovations were all based on extensive laboratory experimentation by Halsted before he applied them to the treatment of patients. Study of the careers of scientists encourages young surgeons to believe they could make similar contributions, if they adhere to certain rules, work hard, and have sufficient luck.
The rate of discount for public investments

This chapter presents a discussion on the rate of discount for public investments. Despite their differences of opinion, virtually all public sector economists agree that the present value of government projects depends crucially upon three factors: (1) the opportunity cost of public funds, (2) the degree to which the net benefits of government projects are reinvested or consumed, and (3) the social rate of time preference. The disagreement arises over the emphasis placed on each of these factors and their precise role in the present value formula. The chapter considers that the theoretical models of public expenditure and tax theory can tell us about the public rate of discount. It turns out that they do not settle the debate, by any stretch of the imagination. Therefore, the chapter presents a model developed by Bradford that is specifically designed to highlight the three abovementioned factors, and use it as a vehicle for comparing the conflicting views on the appropriate rate of discount. The chapter concludes with two empirical pieces: a survey of economists on the appropriate public rate of discount for global climate change, and an overview of discounting practices within the federal government.
Photosynthesis and Crop Production

Publisher Summary The relationship of photosynthetic capability and crop yield is not a simple one. Yield is an integration of the effects of numerous factors on many physiological processes and morphological components. Indeed, a direct cause–effect relationship between photosynthesis and yield has yet to be established. This chapter reviews the large volume of recent work on photosynthesis and evaluates these results in terms of the relationship of net carbon dioxide fixation and yield of various crops to assess the potential to improve crop yield by developing varieties with enhanced capacity to fix CO2. Net photosynthesis is defined operationally and is measured by analyzing the change in CO2, content in air surrounding the leaves or plants under investigation. To learn manipulating crop canopies to enhance their photosynthesis, or to be most efficient in breeding varieties with enhanced photosynthesis, it is must to know the reasons that limit photosynthesis in crops growing in the field. An abundance of information has been published on this topic within the past decades resulting in significant changes in the thinking of many physiologists and plant breeders who are concerned with crop yields. The chapter also discusses the concepts of breeding for photosynthetic efficiency, selecting for photosynthetic rates within crop species, breeding for plant type, and managing photosynthesis.
Clinical Implications of a Dimensional Approach: The Normal:Abnormal Spectrum of Early Irritability.

Objective The importance of dimensional approaches is widely recognized, but an empirical base for clinical application is lacking. This is particularly true for irritability, a dimensional phenotype that cuts across many areas of psychopathology and manifests early in life. We examine longitudinal, dimensional patterns of irritability and their clinical import in early childhood. Method Irritability was assessed longitudinally over an average of 16 months in a clinically enriched, diverse community sample of preschoolers (N = 497; mean = 4.2 years; SD = 0.8). Using the Temper Loss scale of the Multidimensional Assessment Profile of Disruptive Behavior (MAP-DB) as a developmentally sensitive indicator of early childhood irritability, we examined its convergent/divergent, clinical, and incremental predictive validity, and modeled its linear and nonlinear associations with clinical risk. Results The Temper Loss scale demonstrated convergent and divergent validity to child and maternal factors. In multivariate analyses, Temper Loss predicted mood (separation anxiety disorder [SAD], generalized anxiety disorder [GAD], and depression/dysthymia), disruptive (oppositional defiant disorder [ODD], attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder [ADHD], and conduct disorder [CD]) symptoms. Preschoolers with even mildly elevated Temper Loss scale scores showed substantially increased risk of symptoms and disorders. For ODD, GAD, SAD, and depression, increases in Temper Loss scale scores at the higher end of the dimension had a greater impact on symptoms relative to increases at the lower end. Temper Loss scale scores also showed incremental validity over DSM-IV disorders in predicting subsequent impairment. Finally, accounting for the substantial heterogeneity in longitudinal patterns of Temper Loss significantly improved prediction of mood and disruptive symptoms. Conclusion Dimensional, longitudinal characterization of irritability informs clinical prediction. A vital next step will be empirically generating parameters for the incorporation of dimensional information into clinical decision-making with reasonable certainty.
Application of the cluster approximation for the simultaneous restoration and segmentation of tomographic images

We describe a Bayesian restoration and segmentation algorithm based on a pixel-line Markov random field and using an efficient approximation based on locality of interactions. A medical tomography example is given.
SPACE SYSTEM SPECIFIC IMPULSE

Abstract : The system specific impulse (Iss) was determined to be the equivalent of specific impulse (Isp) of an idealized system having the same net effectiveness as the actual system but with zero mass of all structural equipment except the payload. THE Iss for chemical and nuclear propelled launch vehicles is compared on the basis of specific impulse, structural factors, equivalent velocities, and number of stages. With Iss, it is possible to separate the system net effectiveness of a multistage vehicle from the downgrading of payload-carrying capabilities introduced by the staging and to recognize that the system effectiveness for each stage is proportionate, or that it is a simple summation if the staging is non-proportionate.
Role conflicts & coping strategies in caregiving. A symbolic interactionist view

Institutional health care delivery is characterized by interdependency among caregivers and between caregivers and care receivers, which leads to role conflicts. This article examines role conflicts and coping strategies of health care aides who are faced with differing expectations of RNs and residents. Guided by a symbolic interactionist perspective, ethnographic data from 12 RNs, 15 health care aides, and 32 nursing home residents of Italian-Catholic and Anglo-Saxon descent in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, was gathered. Results showed that health care aides differed in how they handled role conflict and their elderly clients' concerns. Health care aides were more likely to reject conflicting role expectations from residents than from RNs.
Reply to Mohlenhoff et al.: Human behavioral ecology needs a rethink that niche-construction theory can provide.

In their response to my recent PNAS article (1), Mohlenhoff et al. (2) embrace a view of optimal foraging theory (OFT) and its umbrella discipline, human behavioral ecology (HBE) grounded in standard evolutionary theory (SET). According to this view, anthropogenic environmental enhancements are no different from other environmental perturbations that alter selective pressures and induce adaptive behavioral responses. This perspective may explain why, as Mohlenhoff et al. (2) note, researchers working within this framework invariably ignore niche-constructing behaviors in explanations of initial domestication. Following SET, the source of environmental change is of less import than the resultant adaptive behavioral responses. These responses are framed, moreover, within a general theory of human behavior that dismisses human agency as “one of an array of historical processes or proximal mechanisms” (3) that fail to rise to the level of ultimate causes of evolution. Identifying ultimate causes of evolutionary change, following this logic, is restricted to demonstrating how “natural selection … shapes the way people make decisions” (4).
From Generic to Branded: A Model of Spillover Dynamics in Paid Search Advertising

In paid search advertising on the Internet, marketers can bid for search engines to serve their text ads in response to keyword searches that are either generic or branded. A generic keyword does not contain branded words, e.g., "Hotels LA"; a branded keyword does, e.g., "Hilton Hotels LA." Managers operating search campaigns face the question how to allocate resources across these types of keywords. For example, the advertising cost associated with a sale is typically much higher when it is tied to a generic versus a branded search. However, if advertising spillover occurs from generic search to branded search, metrics for generic keywords should be adjusted. The purpose of this study is to investigate the nature and extent of potential spillover effects in paid search advertising. To do this, the authors model response to paid search advertising using the Nerlove-Arrow Goodwill Model. Exposure to brand-related information served after a search, e.g., seeing a paid search text ad or company website, is modeled as advertising which affects goodwill. The model incorporates the potential effect that goodwill has on search-related activity (e.g., impressions, clicks and sales) over time, thereby revealing whether spillover effects are present. Using a Bayesian estimation approach, the authors apply the model to an aggregate dataset containing daily information on impressions, clicks and reservations from a paid search campaign for a major lodging chain. (Such information is commonly available to advertisers and managers rely upon it to operate search campaigns.) The results show that generic search activity affects branded impressions, clicks and reservations through positive goodwill. Branded search activity, however, does not affect generic activity, indicating that the spillover is asymmetric.
Design of Local Heat Treatment for Crack Retardation in Aluminium Alloys

Abstract Residual stresses introduced by laser heating can be used to improve the damage tolerance behaviour of lightweight structures. In this study the efficiency of a novel design was analysed, namely the application of dashed line patterns. The samples were prepared out of sheets of AA2024 T3 alloy. Two lines applied symmetrically on M(T)200 specimens resulted in an increase in fatigue lifetime of about 20% in comparison to the untreated material. The corresponding improvement by using continuous lines in the same geometry and material was only 10%. The application of a second set of lines increased the total improvement to 20% in the case of continuous lines while no further improvement of the value of 20% in the case of dashed lines was achieved.
Unintended Acceleration: A Review of Human Factors Contributions:

The evidence is reviewed for a human factors explanation of the phenomenon of unintended acceleration, whereby at the start of a driving cycle an operator experiences full, unexpected acceleration ...