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Weighting data appropriately in stock assessment models is necessary to diagnose model mis-specification, estimate uncertainty, and when combining data sets. Age- and length-composition data are often fitted using a multinomial distribution and then reweighted iteratively, and the Dirichlet-multinomial ("DM") likelihood provides a model-based alternative that estimates an additional parameter and thereby "self-weights" data. However, the DM likelihood requires specifying an input sample size (n input), which is often unavailable and results are sensitive to n input. We therefore introduce the multivariate-Tweedie (MVTW) as alternative with three benefits: (1) it can identify both overdispersion (downweighting) or underdispersion (upweighting) relative to the n input; (2) proportional changes in ninput are exactly offset by parameters; and (3) it arises naturally when expanding data arising from a hierarchical sampling design. We use an age-structured simulation to show that the MVTW (1) can be more precise than the DM in estimating data weights, and (2) can appropriately upweight data when needed. We then use a real-world state-space assessment to show that the MVTW can easily be adapted to other software. We recommend that stock assessments explore the sensitivity to specifying DM, MVTW, and logistic-normal likelihoods, particularly when the DM estimates an effective sample size approaching ninput. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Malebranche claims that God always, or nearly always, acts by general volitions. However, two possible interpretations of this claim have led to competing understandings of Malebranche's occasionalism. The General Content interpretation (GC) holds that God forms as few volitions as possible, and that aside from a limited number of particular volitions, God's normal mode of action consists simply in willing the general laws themselves. The Particular Content interpretation (PC) affirms that God forms a distinct volition for each event or state of affairs, but that those volitions count as general when they are issued "in accordance with" some general law. This essay examines five lines of evidence that purport to reveal Malebranche's commitment to PC and explains why they all fail. As a result, GC emerges unscathed as a consistent and viable interpretation, and, at the same time, much of the case for PC is undermined. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A challenge in building useful artificial intelligence (AI) systems is that people need to understand how they work in order to achieve appropriate trust and reliance. This has become a topic of considerable interest, manifested as a surge of research on Explainable AI (XAI). Much of the research assumes a model in which the AI automatically generates an explanation and presents it to the user, whose understanding of the explanation leads to better performance. Psychological research on explanatory reasoning shows that this is a limited model. The design of XAI systems must be fully informed by a model of cognition and a model of pedagogy, based on empirical evidence of what happens when people try to explain complex systems to other people and what happens as people try to reason out how a complex system works. In this article we discuss how and why C. S. Peirce's notion of abduction is a best model for XAI. Peirce's notion of abduction as an exploratory activity can be regarded as supported by virtue of its concordance with models of expert reasoning that have been developed by modern applied cognitive psychologists. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The foundation of W. Matthews Grant's project in Free Will and God's Universal Causality is his Non-Occasionalist version of Divine Universal Causality (NODUC), which affirms the traditional concurrentist idea that God and secondary causes cooperate non-superfluously in such a way that they both produce the entire effect. Grant defends NODUC's concurrentist account by responding to 'The Metaphysical Objection', which alleges that concurrentism places an inconsistent set of demands upon secondary causes. I argue that Grant's responses to that objection are unconvincing, and thus, he fails to demonstrate that NODUC is a stable foundation for the rest of his project. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

That 1 Peter uses participles where imperatives are expected is clear. Why it does so is not. Scholarly discussion has focused on whether the participles are independent or dependent. Early grammarians argued that these participles were dependent but struggled to explain why the participles appeared far from their head verb. Modern grammarians have argued that they are independent, yet they have given insufficient attention to why the participle is used instead of the imperative. This article suggests a path forward, which vindicates the earlier interpretation by providing a discourse explanation for the "imperatival participles." Stated simply, the participle is operating according to its normal function by structuring the discourse. That the participles in 1 Peter are far from their head verb shows the complex structuring of the letter, with the main imperatives moving the discourse along and the participles expressing ways that those head verbs may be accomplished. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The productivity of many fish populations is influenced by the environment, but developing environment-linked stock assessments remain challenging and current management of most commercial species assumes that stock productivity is time-invariant. In the Northeast United States, previous studies suggest that the recruitment of Southern New England-Mid Atlantic yellowtail flounder is closely related to the strength of the Cold Pool, a seasonally formed cold water mass on the continental shelf. Here, we developed three new indices that enhance the characterization of Cold Pool interannual variations using bottom temperature from a regional hindcast ocean model and a global ocean data assimilated hindcast. We associated these new indices to yellowtail flounder recruitment in a state–space, age-structured stock assessment framework using the Woods Hole Assessment Model. We demonstrate that incorporating Cold Pool effects on yellowtail flounder recruitment reduces the retrospective patterns and may improve the predictive skill of recruitment and, to a lesser extent, spawning stock biomass. We also show that the performance of the assessment models that incorporated ocean model-based indices is improved compared to the model using only the observation-based index. Instead of relying on limited subsurface observations, using validated ocean model products as environmental covariates in stock assessments may both improve predictions and facilitate operationalization. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: This study investigated selected inflammatory responses to acute and chronic exercise in individuals with inflammatory bowel disease (IBD). Methods: A systematic review and meta-analysis was conducted on all relevant exercise-based intervention publications with IBD participants. The study included articles that utilised a broad range of acute and chronic exercise interventions, with inflammatory biomarkers measured and symptoms documented, both pre- and post-exercise for those with IBD. The search was limited to studies published in English, the use of human participants, and primary studies, with no restrictions on date of publication or participant's age. Articles were retrieved through the electronic databases: PubMed, SPORTDiscus, and Scopus. This study adhered to Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analysis (PRISMA) guidelines. Results: Six inflammatory markers were included in the meta-analysis which consisted of five studies. Exercise interventions resulted in no significant difference in IL-6 (SMD = -0.09; 95% CI = -0.49, 0.30; P = 0.64), TNF-α (SMD = 0.08; 95% CI = -0.31, 0.48; P = 0.68), CRP (SMD = -0.04; 95% CI = -0.58, 0.50; P = 0.89), IL-17 (SMD = 0.15; 95% CI = -0.45, 0.76; P = 0.62), leukocytes (SMD = 0.40; 95% CI = -0.53, 1.33; P = 0.40) or lymphocytes (SMD = 0.32; 95% CI = -0.33, 0.97; P = 0.33), thus, indicating exercise may have no effect on inflammatory markers in IBD. Bowel symptoms improved following regular moderate exercise that incorporated stress management. Conclusion: Heterogeneity among the identified literature may have led to exercise interventions being ineffective in reducing inflammation. Although the limited number of eligible studies may reduce the reliability of results, it emphasises the need for additional research in this domain. Importantly, no adverse symptomatic responses to exercise indicate that exercise is safe for IBD patients. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study uses data from US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) databases to quantify approval of high-risk cardiovascular devices for use in pediatric populations and assess the clinical evidence supporting the approvals. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Natural language processing (NLP), which aims to convert human language into expressions that can be analyzed by computers, is one of the most rapidly developing and widely used technologies in the field of artificial intelligence. Natural language processing algorithms convert unstructured free text data into structured data that can be extracted and analyzed at scale. In medicine, this unlocking of the rich, expressive data within clinical free text in electronic medical records will help untap the full potential of big data for research and clinical purposes. Recent major NLP algorithmic advances have significantly improved the performance of these algorithms, leading to a surge in academic and industry interest in developing tools to automate information extraction and phenotyping from clinical texts. Thus, these technologies are poised to transform medical research and alter clinical practices in the future. Radiation oncology stands to benefit from NLP algorithms if they are appropriately developed and deployed, as they may enable advances such as automated inclusion of radiation therapy details into cancer registries, discovery of novel insights about cancer care, and improved patient data curation and presentation at the point of care. However, challenges remain before the full value of NLP is realized, such as the plethora of jargon specific to radiation oncology, nonstandard nomenclature, a lack of publicly available labeled data for model development, and interoperability limitations between radiation oncology data silos. Successful development and implementation of high quality and high value NLP models for radiation oncology will require close collaboration between computer scientists and the radiation oncology community. Here, we present a primer on artificial intelligence algorithms in general and NLP algorithms in particular; provide guidance on how to assess the performance of such algorithms; review prior research on NLP algorithms for oncology; and describe future avenues for NLP in radiation oncology research and clinics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: The histopathological diagnosis of MF is challenging, and there is significant overlap with benign inflammatory processes. Clinical features may be relevant in the assessment of skin biopsies. Methods: We provided photomicrographs to board‐certified dermatopathologists and one hematopathologist with and without accompanying clinical photographs and assessed accuracy and confidence in diagnosing MF. Results: We found that access to clinical photographs improved diagnostic accuracy in both MF and non‐MF (distractors); the degree of improvement was significantly higher in the non‐MF/distractor category. Across all categories, diagnostic confidence level was higher when clinical images were available. Conclusion: These findings suggest that clinical images are useful in making an accurate diagnosis of MF, and may be particularly helpful in ruling it out when an inflammatory disorder is clinically suspected. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Beverton–Holt and Ricker stock‐recruit functions were derived in terms of two pre‐recruit mortality parameters. Mace, & Doonan, (1988, A generalized bioeconomic simulation model for fish population dynamics) reparameterized the stock‐recruit function in terms of steepness, which combines pre‐recruit mortality with post‐recruit biological parameters defining unfished spawning biomass per recruit. Their parameterization explicitly assumes a stable age distribution at unexploited conditions, but also implicitly assumes that unexploited spawning biomass per recruit is time invariant. Temporal variation could occur in either pre‐recruit mortality rates or post‐recruit biological parameters, but different dynamics are produced. The former results in variation in both the stock‐recruit curve and the population equilibria, whereas variation in the latter only changes the points of equilibria on the curve. Thus, variation in either pre‐ or post‐recruit parameters will result in variation in steepness, maximum sustainable yield and associated management reference points. Empirical measures of components of post‐recruit productivity (maturity and mass at age, e.g.) are available for many managed fish stocks and often exhibit temporal variability. Yet use of the steepness parameterization requires an analyst to specify one set of post‐recruit biological parameters to define unexploited spawning biomass per recruit for the full time series. This misspecification leads to misperception of biological reference points and has implications for meta‐analyses of steepness, and interpretation of the dynamic B0 concept. Returning to the original parameterization allows the isolation of any temporal or inter‐population variation in pre‐ and post‐recruit productivity and reduces the potential for mechanistic bias in stock‐recruit parameters. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

* Context.--The coronavirus disease 2019 pandemic, caused by the novel coronavirus severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2, has resulted in worldwide disruption to the delivery of patient care. The Seattle, Washington metropolitan area was one of the first in the United States affected by the pandemic. As a result, the anatomic pathology services at the University of Washington experienced significant changes in operational volumes early in the pandemic. Objective.--To assess the impact of coronavirus disease 2019 and both state and institutional policies implemented to mitigate viral transmission (including institutional policies on nonurgent procedures) on anatomic pathology volumes. Design.--Accessioned specimens from January to June 2020 were evaluated as coronavirus disease 2019 and institutional policies changed. The data were considered in these contexts: subspecialty, billable Current Procedural Terminology codes, and intraoperative consultation. Comparable data were retrieved from 2019 as a historical control. Results.--There was a significant reduction in overall accessioned volume (up to 79%) from prepandemic levels during bans on nonurgent procedures when compared with 2020 pre-coronavirus disease 2019 volumes and historical controls. The gastrointestinal and dermatopathology services were most impacted, and breast and combined head and neck/pulmonary services were least impacted. Current Procedural Terminology code 88305, for smaller/biopsy specimens, had a 63% reduction during nonurgent procedure bans. After all bans on procedures were lifted, the overall volume plateaued at 89% of prepandemic levels. Conclusions.--A significant decrease in specimen volume was most strongly associated with bans on nonurgent procedures. Although all departmental areas had a decrease in volume, the extent of change varied across subspecialty and specimen types. Even with removal of all bans, service volume did not reach prepandemic levels. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Some of the 900 or so residents of the illegal village have refurbished buildings already present, but many more have built a wide variety of domestic structures, some of them floating on Christiania's lake. In his latest book Paul Dobraszczyk explores examples of what he calls building without authority, building in a new and often startling fashion, typically contravening established architectural conventions, even if not always skirting laws and zoning codes. Grow Heathrow started as a protest camp in 2010, its residents resisting the construction of a new runway at London's Heathrow Airport. [Extracted from the article]

Background: Postoperative complications increase hospital length of stay and patient mortality. Optimal perioperative fluid management should decrease patient complications. This study examined associations between fluid volume and noncardiac surgery patient outcomes within a large multicentre US surgical cohort.Methods: Adults undergoing noncardiac procedures from January 1, 2012 to December 31, 2017, with a postoperative length of stay ≥24 h, were extracted from a large US electronic health record database. Patients were segmented into quintiles based on recorded perioperative fluid volumes with Quintile 3 (Q3) serving as the reference. The primary outcome was defined as a composite of any complications during the surgical admission and a postoperative length of stay ≥7 days. Secondary outcomes included in-hospital mortality, respiratory complications, and acute kidney injury.Results: A total of 35 736 patients met the study criteria. There was a U-shaped pattern with highest (Q5) and lowest (Q1) quintiles of fluid volumes having increased odds of complications and a postoperative length of stay ≥7 days (Q5: odds ratio [OR] 1.51 [95% confidence interval {CI}: 1.30-1.74], P<0.001; Q1: OR 1.20 [95% CI: 1.04-1.38], P=0.011) compared with Q3. Patients in Q5 had greater odds of more severe acute kidney injury compared with Q3 (OR 1.52 [95% CI: 1.22-1.90]; P<0.001) and respiratory complications (OR 1.44 [95% CI: 1.17-1.77]; P<0.001).Conclusions: Both very high and very low perioperative fluid volumes were associated with an increase in complications after noncardiac surgery. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We report a case of bilateral vertical shear (pilon variant) medial malleolar fractures in a high school football player that occurred 1 year apart. The player was able to return to his sport after surgical fixation. Treatment of ankle fractures sustained in the athletic setting is dictated by the fracture location and morphology with vertical shear injuries of the medial malleolus commonly requiring surgical plate stabilization. Appropriate knowledge of risk factors and optimal management of these injuries is imperative, given that delayed union or nonunion may result in debilitating consequences for young athletes with extensive time away from sports participation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Lyman Tower Sargent has been the preeminent scholar of utopianism in our time and has undertaken a diverse network of approaches to the study of what he has called "social dreaming." He has written monographs, articles, and essays and has been a relentless compiler of information on utopianism heretofore largely overlooked by his peers. One of the main directions of his work has been bibliographical, as he has compiled guides to the vast corpus of utopianism that he has uncovered. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: Identification of pain as the fifth vital sign has resulted in over-prescription and overuse of opioids in the US, with addiction reaching epidemic proportions. In Europe, and more recently in the US, a shift has occurred with the global adoption of multimodal analgesia (MMA), which seeks to minimize perioperative opioid use. Improved functional outcomes and reduced healthcare utilization costs have been demonstrated with MMA, but wide scale use of opioids in pain management protocols continues. As a next step in the pain management evolution, opioid-free analgesia (OFA) MMA strategies have emerged as feasible in many surgical settings.Methods: Articles were limited to clinical studies and meta-analyses focusing on comparisons between opioid-intensive and opioid-free/opioid-sparing strategies published in English.Results: In this review, elimination or substantial reduction in opioid use with OFA strategies for perioperative acute pain are discussed, with an emphasis on improved pain control and patient satisfaction. Improved functional outcomes and patient recovery, as well as reduced healthcare utilization costs, are also discussed, along with challenges facing the implementation of such strategies.Conclusions: Effective MMA strategies have paved the way for OFA approaches to postoperative pain management, with goals to reduce opioid prescriptions, improve patient recovery, and reduce overall healthcare resource utilization and costs. However, institution-wide deployment and adoption of OFA is still in early stages and will require personalization and better management of patient expectations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Climate can impact fish population dynamics through changes in productivity and shifts in distribution, and both responses have been observed for many fish species. However, few studies have incorporated climate into population dynamics or stock assessment models. This study aimed to uncover how past variations in population vital rates and fishing pressure account for observed abundance variation in summer flounder (Paralichthys dentatus). The influences of the Gulf Stream Index, an index of climate variability in the Northwest Atlantic, on abundance were explored through natural mortality and stock–recruitment relationships in age-structured hierarchical Bayesian models. Posterior predictive loss and deviance information criterion indicated that out of tested models, the best estimates of summer flounder abundances resulted from the climate-dependent natural mortality model that included log-quadratic responses to the Gulf Stream Index. This climate-linked population model demonstrates the role of climate responses in observed abundance patterns and emphasizes the complexities of environmental effects on populations beyond simple correlations. This approach highlights the importance of modeling the combined effect of fishing and climate simultaneously to understand population dynamics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The efficiency of survey gear is an important measure that can be used to estimate the absolute scale of populations in assessment models. We develop a general hierarchical model for estimating the efficiency of a New Bedford-style sea scallop (Placopecten magellanicus) survey dredge from paired dredge and Habcam camera system tows. Habcam data for each tow consist of multiple images that give information on within-tow variability of scallop density. The model accounts for these multiple observations as well as the possibility of differences between the true densities in dredge and Habcam pairs due to the pairs not covering exactly the same ground. We fit several models with alternative assumptions to observations on Atlantic sea scallops and compare the relative performance using Akaike's information criterion. The best performing model estimated higher dredge efficiency on fine substrates than on coarse ones (approximately 0.40 and 0.27, respectively). Our results inform the scale of annual abundance estimates from dredge surveys and reduce uncertainty in the sea scallop stock assessments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper represents the conclusion of a project that had two main goals: (1) to investigate to what extent planetary nebulae (PNe) are chemically homogeneous; and (2) to provide physical constraints on the central star properties of each PN. We accomplished the first goal by using HST /STIS spectra to measure the abundances of seven elements in numerous spatial regions within each of six PN (IC 2165, IC 3568, NGC 2440, NGC 5315, NGC 5882, and NGC 7662). The second goal was achieved by computing a photoionization model of each nebula, using our observed emission line strengths as constraints. The major finding of our study is that the nebular abundances of He, C, N, O, Ne, S, and Ar are consistent with a chemically homogeneous picture for each PN. Additionally, we found through experimenting with three different density profiles (constant, Gaussian, and Gaussian with a power law) that the determination of the central star's temperature and luminosity is only slightly sensitive to the profile choice. Lastly, post-AGB evolutionary model predictions of temperature and luminosity available in the literature were plotted along with the values inferred from the photoionization model analysis to yield initial and final mass estimates of each central star. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Temporal variation in demographic rates has been observed in various fish populations and environmental influences are likely to be a key factor. Here we show how it can be important to combine state-space models for environmental covariates and demographic rates when evaluating effects of the former on the latter. In an application to Georges Bank Atlantic cod (Gadus morhua), we show how estimates of the environmental covariate can be aliased with unknown temporal variation in growth rates and that stronger and opposite effects of the environment can incorrectly be found when the autocorrelation in the growth rate is not separately modeled. The perception of effects on maturity also depends on whether an appropriate distribution is considered for the maturity observations. Bottom temperature did not improve prediction of maturity parameters, but temporal variation driven by other sources did. Both bottom temperature and temporal variation improved performance of growth models. Finally, we found growth and maturity estimation to be important contributors to uncertainty of spawning biomass and biological reference points when incorporated into a state-space assessment model. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The high-resolution mid-infrared spectrometer (HIRMES) under development for Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy is an instrument operating in the 25-122 μm spectral range with a spectral resolution R = Δλ/λ ~ 100,000 and has two absorber-coupled transition edge sensor bolometric detector focal planes. We have developed novel NbTiN low-stress absorber coatings which have the required optical impedance across the HIRMES operating band. The low intrinsic stress of these coatings allow for a peak-to-valley corrugation amplitude < 5 μm of the 450 nm thick, 1.4 mm × 1.7 mm detector pixels. Furthermore, these coatings have a superconducting transition temperature ~ 10 K, which allows them to simultaneously serve as an absorber in the desired signal band and a rejection filter at long wavelengths. This attribute makes them especially attractive for ultrasensitive absorber-coupled bolometric detector applications, because it helps in controlling the optical loading from out-of-band radiation. We also discuss a novel method for integrating a wedged-reflective absorber termination to the detector array. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: The Apollo Onyx Delivery Microcatheter (Ev3, Irvine, CA) is a detachable-tip microcatheter that was developed to reduce the risk of microcatheter entrapment during ethylene-vinyl alcohol copolymer (Onyx) embolizations. We report our experience with the microcatheter in a variety of neurointerventional procedures. Methods: We retrospectively reviewed all Onyx embolizations performed in the head, neck, and spine using the Apollo Onyx Delivery Microcatheter from its introduction at our institution in July 2014 to August 2016. Information regarding patient diagnoses, procedural details, as well as clinical outcomes were obtained from the electronic medical record, procedure reports, and relevant angiographic imaging. Results: A total of 58 arterial pedicle Onyx embolizations were performed in 37 patients. There were no cases of microcatheter entrapment, early/inadvertent tip detachment, or vessel injury upon removal of the device. There were two instances (3.5%) of leakage of Onyx from the microcatheter detachment site during embolization, which did not result in adverse sequelae. Clinical outcomes were excellent, with nearly all embolizations achieving the intended goal. In multivariate analysis, length of Onyx reflux along the microcatheter tip and utilization of a higher viscosity agent, Onyx 34, were significantly associated with tip detachment. Conclusion: The use of the Apollo Microcatheter is both safe and effective during neurointerventional embolizations using Onyx. Leakage of liquid embolic agent from the detachment site is an infrequent technical complication that may be encountered with the device. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

State-space models explicitly separate uncertainty associated with unobserved, time-varying parameters from that which arises from sampling the population. The statistical aspects of formal state-space models are appealing and these models are becoming more widely used for assessments. However, treating natural mortality as known and constant across ages continues to be common practice. We developed a state-space, age-structured assessment model that allowed different assumptions for natural mortality and the degree of temporal stochasticity in abundance. We fit a suite of models where natural mortality was either age-invariant or an allometric function of mass and interannual transitions of abundance were deterministic or stochastic to observations on Gulf of Maine - Georges Bank Acadian redfish ( Sebastes fasciatus). We found that allowing stochasticity in the interannual transition in abundance was important and estimating age-invariant natural mortality was sufficient. A simulation study showed low bias in annual biomass estimation when the estimation and simulation model matched and the Akaike imformation criterion accurately measured relative model performance, but it was important to allow simulated data sets to include the stochasticity in interannual transitions of abundance-at-age. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Introduction: Three studies evaluated safety, tolerability, pharmacokinetics, and pharmacodynamics of CK-2127107 (CK-107), a next-generation fast skeletal muscle troponin activator (FSTA), in healthy participants. We tested the hypothesis that CK-107 would amplify the force-frequency response of muscle in humans.Methods: To assess the force-frequency response, participants received single doses of CK-107 and placebo in a randomized, double-blind, 4-period, crossover study. The force-frequency response of foot dorsiflexion following stimulation of the deep fibular nerve to activate the tibialis anterior muscle was assessed.Results: CK-107 significantly increased tibialis anterior muscle response with increasing dose and plasma concentration in a frequency-dependent manner; the largest increase in peak force was ∼60% at 10 Hz.Discussion: CK-107 appears more potent and produced larger increases in force than tirasemtiv-a first-generation FSTA-in a similar pharmacodynamic study, thereby supporting its development for improvement of muscle function of patients. Muscle Nerve 57: 729-734, 2018. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Marine animals have been the bio-inspirational source for some novel concepts for locomotion, sensing, and the intelligent control of undersea vehicles. There has been little (if any) research in the area of bio-inspired energy utilization strategies applied to undersea vehicles. For example, there are reasons why some fish swim at a specific cruise speed; why some fish move by burst acceleration to higher speeds followed by coasting; and why some negatively buoyant fish alternately glide downwards, and then swim upward. The goal of this study is to develop the theory and models of the climb and glide form of autonomous undersea vehicle transit in a form that can permit assessment of future practical technology insertions (such as drag reduction and wing design). In addition, existing theory was expanded to address vehicles with significant wet weight and the effect of hotel load (equivalent to the basal metabolic rate of animals). Several observations from this preliminary analysis for climb/glide operation of practical vehicles were made. Over a practical and useful range of hotel loads and net vehicle lift-to-drag ratios, energy savings benefits relative to level flight transit from 10% to excess of 40% can be expected. This translates directly into a 10–40% increase in range if a climb/glide strategy is employed instead of level flight transit under the right operating conditions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The justification for incorporating environmental effects into fisheries stock assessment models has been investigated and debated for a long time. Recently, a state-space age-structured assessment model which includes the stochastic change in the environmental covariate over time and its effect on recruitment was developed for Southern New England-Mid Atlantic yellowtail flounder ( Limanda ferruginea). In this paper, we first investigated the correlations of environmental covariates with Southern New England-Mid Atlantic yellowtail flounder recruitment deviations. The covariate that was most strongly correlated with the recruitment deviations was then incorporated into the state-space model and alternative effects on the stock-recruit relationship were estimated and compared. For the model that performed best as measured by Akaike information criterion, we also compared the estimates and predictions of various population attributes and biological reference points with those from an otherwise identical model without the environmental covariate in the stock-recruit function. We found that the estimates of population parameters are similar for the two models but the predictions differed substantially. To evaluate which model provided more reliable predictions, we quantitatively compared the prediction skill of the two models by generating two series of retrospective predictions. Comparison of the retrospective prediction pattern suggested that from an average point of view, the environmentally explicit model can provide more accurate near-term recruitment predictions especially the one year ahead recruitment prediction. However, the accuracy of the near-term recruitment prediction from the environmentally explicit model was largely determined by the accuracy of the corresponding environment prediction the model provides. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The piezoresistivity of thin films of indium tin oxide prepared by pulsed laser deposition has been measured as a function of processing parameters. The thickness of the films ranged from 200 to 1200 nm. Resistivity and strain sensitivity measurements as a function of laser deposition parameters are reported. Gauge factors, defined as the ratio of the fractional resistance change to the applied strain, were observed to vary from approximately 0.2 for deposition in vacuum to as large as -14.7 for deposition with a residual atmosphere of 50 mTorr of oxygen. The response of gauges to strains up to the measurement limit of approximately 220 μ&Vegr; was both linear and free of hysteresis. This fabrication strategy makes possible the direct deposition of sub-mm strain gauges onto surfaces and components, including those of micro electromechanical systems. © 2002 American Institute of Physics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

[Display omitted] • Multiplex staining offers a robust insight into the tumour microenvironment. • Automation of staining reduces inter-experimental variation and labour costs. • Meticulous optimisation is required for multiplex immunofluorescence staining. • Standard fluorescence microscope slide scanners can be used for image acquisition. Exploring the tumour microenvironment provides insight into the unique interaction between the host and tumour. Ultimately, its study improves understanding of how an individual mounts and achieves an anti-tumour immune response. In the context of colorectal cancer, immune biomarkers within the tumour microenvironment outperform traditional histopathological staging in predicting disease recurrence. Multiplex immunofluorescence enables simultaneous assessment of multiple markers to provide a highly accurate classification of immune cells and their spatial characterisation relative to tumour tissue. Further, automated slide staining provides staining consistency and reduces labour costs. Image acquisition using a non-spectral scanner allows more researchers to utilise multiplexed immunofluorescence for translational research. Herein we describe the optimisation process of conducting automated staining using a five-colour, tyramide signal amplification-based multiplex immunofluorescence panel. Using antibodies against CD3, CD8, CD103 and cytokeratin, the panel characterises T cell populations within human colorectal adenocarcinoma tissue. We provide an overview of primary antibody titration and the development of tyramide signal amplification immunofluorescence monoplex assays. We detail the processes of antibody stripping and the role of exogenous horseradish peroxidase inhibition to facilitate multiplexing. An account of determining the staining sequence and fluorophore assignment is provided. We describe image acquisition using a standard fluorescence microscope slide scanner and the management of spectral crosstalk using this system. Finally, we briefly document the digital image analysis required to characterise cells and determine their spatial distribution within the colorectal tumour microenvironment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Multiple neurodegenerative diseases are characterized by single-protein dysfunction and aggregation. Treatment strategies for these diseases have often targeted downstream pathways to ameliorate consequences of protein dysfunction; however, targeting the source of that dysfunction, the affected protein itself, seems most judicious to achieve a highly effective therapeutic outcome. Antisense oligonucleotides (ASOs) are small sequences of DNA able to target RNA transcripts, resulting in reduced or modified protein expression. ASOs are ideal candidates for the treatment of neurodegenerative diseases, given numerous advancements made to their chemical modifications and delivery methods. Successes achieved in both animal models and human clinical trials have proven ASOs both safe and effective. With proper considerations in mind regarding the human applicability of ASOs, we anticipate ongoing in vivo research and clinical trial development of ASOs for the treatment of neurodegenerative diseases. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The presence of retrospective patterns in stock assessments is problematic for determining stock and harvest status because current estimates of stock size or fishing mortality are consistently lower or higher than those when the assessment model is updated with new data. A statistical measure of evidence for retrospective patterns is needed, but a requisite method to estimate variance of retrospective patterns is lacking. We evaluated the statistical behavior of a parametric bootstrap-based variance estimator for retrospective patterns that arise due to a change in natural mortality using a simulation experiment patterned after an assessment of yellowtail flounder on Georges Bank. We also evaluated effects of retrospective patterns on accuracy of stock assessment results and adjustments to terminal stock attributes intended to correct for retrospective patterns. We focused our analyses on Mohn's ρ , but the bootstrap approach could be used with any measure of retrospective pattern. We found that coverage for confidence intervals of Mohn's ρ were adequate, particularly for commonly specified percentage levels near 95%. We also found increased statistical efficiency of terminal year stock attributes that are adjusted for estimated retrospective patterns when the model structures used to simulate observations and estimate the parameters were inconsistent. Furthermore, this increase in efficiency was generally greater than the decrease in efficiency of adjusted stock attributes when models for simulated data and parameter estimation were consistent. However, the utility of adjustments for estimating stock and harvest status depended on our expectation for future productivity of the stock and using confidence interval coverage of Mohn's ρ to determine whether to adjust terminal stock attributes provided no greater benefit than simply always adjusting. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Fishery-independent surveys provide valuable information about trends in population abundance for management of commercially important fish stocks. A critical component of the relationship of the catches of the survey to the size of a fish stock is the catch efficiency of the survey gear. Using a general hierarchical model we estimated the relative efficiency of a chain sweep to the rockhopper sweep used by the Northeast Fisheries Science Center bottom trawl survey from paired-gear experimental tows carried out between 2015 and 2017 using a twin-trawl vessel. For 10 commercially important species, we fitted and compared a set of models with alternative assumptions about variation of relative efficiency between paired gear tows, size and diel effects on the relative efficiency, and extra-binomial variation of observations within paired gear tows. These analyses provided evidence of changes in relative efficiency with size for all species and diel effects were important for all but one species. We then used the bottom trawl survey data from surveys between 2009 and 2019 with the relative catch efficiency estimates from the best performing models to estimate annual and seasonal chain sweep-based swept area biomass for 17 managed stocks. We estimated uncertainty in all results using bootstrap procedures for each data component. We also assessed the effect of calibration on uncertainty and correlation of the annual biomass estimates. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The 1st POQI Consensus Conference occurred in Durham, NC, on March 4-5, 2016, and was supported by the American Society of Enhanced Recovery (ASER) and Evidence-Based Perioperative Medicine (EBPOM). The conference focused on enhanced recovery for colorectal surgery and discussed four topics--perioperative analgesia, perioperative fluid management, preventing nosocomial infection, and measurement and quality in enhanced recovery pathways. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The National Research Council has identified in situ exploration of Venus as an important mission for the coming decade of NASA's exploration of our solar system (Squyers, 2013 [1] ). Heavy cloud cover makes the use of solar photovoltaics extremely problematic for power generation for Venus surface missions. In this paper, we propose a class of planetary exploration missions (for use on Venus and elsewhere) in solar-deprived situations where photovoltaics cannot be used, batteries do not provide sufficient specific energy and mission duration, and nuclear systems may be too costly or complex to justify or simply unavailable. Metal-fueled, combustion-based powerplants have been demonstrated for application in the terrestrial undersea environment. Modified or extended versions of the undersea-based systems may be appropriate for these sunless missions. We describe systems carrying lithium fuel and sulfur-hexafluoride oxidizer that have the potential for many days of operation in the sunless craters of the moon. On Venus a system level specific energy of 240 to 370 W e -hr/kg should be possible if the oxidizer is brought from earth. By using either lithium or a magnesium-based alloy fuel, it may be possible to operate a similar system with CO 2 derived directly from the Venus atmosphere, thus providing an estimated system specific energy of 1100 W e+PV -hr/kg (the subscript refers to both electrical and mechanical power), thereby providing mission durations that enable useful scientific investigation. The results of an analysis performed by the NASA Glenn COMPASS team describe a mission operating at 2.3 kW e+PV for 5 days (120 h), with less than 260 kg power/energy system mass total. This lander would be of a size and cost suitable for a New Frontiers class of mission. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Posits that Jesus' dismissal of learning as valueless in `Paradise Regained' has a precedent in the writings of John Everard. Everard's sermon `The Star in the East, Leading unto the true Messiah'; Everard's transformation of Jesus' verbal dispute with the doctors into a dramatic and allegoric temptation.

Stress fractures and other bony stress injuries occur along a spectrum of severity which can impact treatment and prognosis. When treating these injuries, it should be borne in mind that no two stress fractures behave exactly alike. Given that they are not a consistent injury, standardized treatment protocols can be challenging to develop. Treatment should be individualized to the patient or athlete, the causative activity, the anatomical site, and the severity of the injury. A holistic approach to the treatment of the most difficult stress fractures should be taken by orthopedists and sports medicine specialists. This approach is necessary to obtain optimal outcomes, minimize loss of fitness and time away from sports participation, and decrease the risk of recurrence. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Giant vertebral and vertebrobasilar aneurysms have proven to be extremely challenging vascular entities to treat despite many advances in microsurgical and endovascular techniques. In recent years, there has been more attention paid to combined approaches, including combinations of endovascular and surgical procedures in hopes of decreasing the associated morbidity and mortality of these lesions. Clinical Presentation: We present a case of a giant fusiform vertebral artery aneurysm that was initially treated with flow-diverting stents. After the failure of flow diversion to occlude the aneurysm, the lesion was definitively treated with an occipital artery to the posterior inferior cerebellar artery (PICA) bypass and coil embolization of residual aneurysm. Conclusion: After bypass and parent vessel deconstruction, angiography confirmed the aneurysm has remained occluded and the PICA patent. This case highlights the use of an extracranial-to-intracranial bypass to salvage a complex residual aneurysm after failed flow diversion. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The state-space model framework provides a natural, probabilistic approach to stock assessment by modeling the stochastic nature of population survival and recruitment separately from sampling uncertainty inherent in observations on the population. We propose a state-space assessment model that is expanded to simultaneously treat environmental covariates as stochastic processes and estimate their effects on recruitment. We apply the model to southern New England yellowtail flounder ( Limanda ferruginea) using data from the most recent benchmark assessment to evaluate evidence for effects of the mid-Atlantic cold pool and spawning stock biomass on recruitment. Based on Akaike's information criterion, both the cold pool and spawning stock biomass were important predictors of recruitment and led to annual variation in estimated biomass reference points and associated yield. We also demonstrate the effect of the stochasticity of the mid-Atlantic cold pool on short-term forecasts of the stock size, biomass reference point, and stock status. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Fluid resuscitation is a cornerstone of intensive care treatment, yet there is a lack of agreement on how various types of fluids should be used in critically ill patients with different disease states. Therefore, our goal was to investigate the practice patterns of fluid utilization for resuscitation of adult patients in intensive care units (ICUs) within the USA. Methods: We conducted a cross-sectional online survey of 502 physicians practicing in medical and surgical ICUs. Survey questions were designed to assess clinical decision-making processes for 3 types of patients who need volume expansion: (1) not bleeding and not septic, (2) bleeding but not septic, (3) requiring resuscitation for sepsis. First-choice fluid used in fluid boluses for these 3 patient types was requested from the respondents. Descriptive statistics were performed using a Kruskal-Wallis test to evaluate differences among the physician groups. Follow-up tests, including t tests, were conducted to evaluate differences between ICU types, hospital settings, and bolus volume. Results: Fluid resuscitation varied with respect to preferences for the factors to determine volume status and preferences for fluid types. The 3 most frequently preferred volume indicators were blood pressure, urine output, and central venous pressure. Regardless of the patient type, the most preferred fluid type was crystalloid, followed by 5% albumin and then 6% hydroxyethyl starches (HES) 450/0.70 and 6% HES 600/0.75. Surprisingly, up to 10% of physicians still chose HES as the first choice of fluid for resuscitation in sepsis. The clinical specialty and the practice setting of the treating physicians also influenced fluid choices. Conclusions: Practice patterns of fluid resuscitation varied in the USA, depending on patient characteristics, clinical specialties, and practice settings of the treating physicians. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Penalties are widely used for a range of parameters while fitting fish stock assessment models. Penalizing annual recruitments for deviating from an underlying mean recruitment is probably the most common. Assuming that recruits are log-normally distributed for the purposes of this penalty is theoretically justifiable. In practice, however, bias may be induced because this distributional assumption includes a term equal to the summation of the log observed data, which in the case of recruitment equals the summation of the log recruitment parameters that are not data. Using simulation, the potential for bias caused by assuming that recruits were log-normally distributed was explored, and results were contrasted with the assumption that log-recruitment was normally distributed, an alternative that avoids the potentially troublesome summation term. Spawning stock biomass ( SSB ) and recruitment were negatively biased, while fishing mortality ( F ) was positively biased under the assumption of log-normally distributed recruitments, and the bias worsened closer to the terminal year. The bias also worsened when the true underlying F was low relative to natural mortality, and with domed fishery selectivity. Bias in SSB , recruitment, and F was nonexistent or relatively small under the assumption that log-recruitment was normally distributed. Distributional assumptions for penalties used in assessment models should be reviewed to reduce the potential for biased estimation. These results also provide further support for simulation testing to evaluate statistical behavior of assessment models. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An essay is presented on Byzantine philanthropic institutions or charities such as leprosaria, orphanages and hospitals. It examines whether enlightenment thinkers like John Locke were correct in their criticism of Christian philanthropy as limited only to Christians, whether Christian charity aimed at spreading the Kingdom of God, and whether Byzntine charities were successful.

The effect of surface treatment on the properties of fine aluminum powders was investigated using both chemical and rheological characterization techniques. Four different particle size distributions (PSD) were surface treated with methyltriethoxysilane and subsequently evaluated through classic density measurements and by using an FT4 powder rheometer (Freeman Technologies, UK). The chemical surface properties were analyzed using diffuse reflectance infrared spectroscopy (DRIFTs) and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) which confirmed retention of the silane and production of a siloxane-like layer on all PSD samples. The results of the bulk measurements, both direct and empirical, showed enhanced flowability and easier fluidization, indicating reduction of intrinsic cohesion for all samples. Fluidization testing showed decrease in total energy of the uniformly fluidized bed by ~ 80–90% in all cases. Shear stress values as a function of applied normal stress were collected to produce Mohr diagrams which generated extrapolated cohesion and unconfined yield strength values using the Mohr–Coulomb criteria. Cohesion and unconfined yield strength were reduced in all surface treated powders which indicated easier flowability and an increase in the flow function at 6 kPa. The compressibility of the treated powders at 8 kPa was decreased by > 60% in all cases, indicating significant reduction in entrained air and improvement in packing density. Classical density measurements showed small improvements in the Hausner Ratio and little to no improvement in the Carr index, whereas directly measured properties using powder rheology showed substantial changes in the flow and fluidization properties. Overall, fluidization behavior and flowability properties were enhanced in all PSDs and showed the increased potential for the use of fine aluminum powders after surface treatment in delivery applications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The extreme electro-optical contrast between crystalline and amorphous states in phase-change materials is routinely exploited in optical data storage and future applications include universal memories, flexible displays, reconfigurable optical circuits, and logic devices. Optical contrast is believed to arise owing to a change in crystallinity. Here we show that the connection between optical properties and structure can be broken. Using a combination of single-shot femtosecond electron diffraction and optical spectroscopy, we simultaneously follow the lattice dynamics and dielectric function in the phase-change material Ge2Sb2Te5 during an irreversible state transformation. The dielectric function changes by 30% within 100 fs owing to a rapid depletion of electrons from resonantly bonded states. This occurs without perturbing the crystallinity of the lattice, which heats with a 2-ps time constant. The optical changes are an order of magnitude larger than those achievable with silicon and present new routes to manipulate light on an ultrafast timescale without structural changes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article offers information on a study on the efficacy of lidocaine patch for acute pain management. It mentions that the patch is not effective for acute and postoperative pain management but shows minimal side effects and systemic absorption. It mentions that lidocaine patch produces anesthesia to the area and cause the underneath skin to have normal sensation.