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Among the last organizations you'd expect to get tangled up in a "ransomware" attack would be a nonprofit such as the Stickley Museum at Craftsman Farms in Parsippany-Troy Hills, N.J. "We were attacked through our IT consultant", said Vonda Givens, executive director of the Stickley Museum at Craftsman Farms. Fortunately, the information didn't include any personally identifiable information or financial information of the museum's patrons, so they weren't left vulnerable. While some established criminal groups expanded their operations, some malware developers created ransomware-as-a-service applications as a way to ease the way for more criminals to get involved in such attacks without the need for technical knowledge. [Extracted from the article]

IMPORTANCE: Reductions in sugar-sweetened beverage (SSB) intake can improve health, but are difficult for individuals to achieve on their own. OBJECTIVES: To evaluate whether a workplace SSB sales ban was associated with SSB intake and cardiometabolic health among employees and whether a brief motivational intervention provides added benefits to the sales ban. DESIGN, SETTING, AND PARTICIPANTS: This before-after study and additional randomized trial conducted from July 28, 2015, to October 16, 2016, at a Northern California university and hospital assessed SSB intake, anthropometrics, and cardiometabolic biomarkers among 214 full-time English-speaking employees who were frequent SSB consumers (≥360 mL [≥12 fl oz] per day) before and 10 months after implementation of an SSB sales ban in a large workplace, with half the employees randomized to receive a brief motivational intervention targeting SSB reduction. INTERVENTIONS: The employer stopped selling SSBs in all workplace venues, and half the sample was randomized to receive a brief motivational intervention and the other half was a control group that did not receive the intervention. This intervention was modeled on standard brief motivational interventions for alcohol used in the workplace that promote health knowledge and goal setting. MAIN OUTCOMES AND MEASURES: Outcomes included changes in SSB intake, Homeostatic Model Assessment of Insulin Resistance (HOMA-IR), and measures of abdominal adiposity. The primary associations tested were the correlation between changes in SSB intake and changes in HOMA-IR. RESULTS: Among the 214 study participants, 124 (57.9%) were women, with a mean (SD) age of 41.2 (11.0) years and a baseline mean (SD) body mass index of 29.4 (6.5). They reported a mean daily intake of 1050 mL (35 fl oz) of SSBs at baseline and 540 mL (18 fl oz) at follow-up—a 510-mL (17–fl oz) (48.6%) decrease (P < .001). Reductions in SSB intake correlated with improvements in HOMA-IR (r = 0.16; P = .03). Those not randomized to receive the brief intervention reduced their SSB intake by a mean (SD) of 246.0 (84.0) mL (8.2 [2.8] fl oz), while those also receiving the brief intervention reduced SSB intake by 762.0 (84.0) mL (25.4 [2.8] fl oz). From baseline to follow-up, there were significant reductions in mean (SE) waist circumference (2.1 [2.8] cm; P < .001). CONCLUSIONS AND RELEVANCE: This study’s findings suggest that the workplace sales ban was associated with a reduction in SSB intake and a significant reduction in waist circumference among employees within 10 months. The randomized clinical trial portion of this study found that targeting those at high risk with a brief motivational intervention led to additional improvements. Workplace sales bans may offer a promising new private-sector strategy for reducing the health harms of SSB intake. TRIAL REGISTRATION: ClinicalTrials.gov identifier: NCT02585336

Crypto millionaires have been spreading their wealth to nonprofits as more charities accept donations in digital currencies such as Bitcoin and Ether. Both the SEC and the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) have been making more of an effort to regulate the cryptocurrency market. "Converting it immediately to dollars makes it easier for accounting and tax reporting purposes, but can potentially result in lost revenue if the cryptocurrency value appreciates over time", said Lamb. Ripple's XRP token more than tripled in value, but a Securities and Exchange BY RICHARD H. LEVEY Commission (SEC) investigation into Ripple cut into the gains at the end of 2020. [Extracted from the article]

In patients undergoing hepatic radioembolization for metastatic colorectal adenocarcinoma, increased lung shunt fraction is predictive of significantly decreased survival but demonstrates only a weak correlation with serum carcinoembryonic antigen levels and tumor-to-liver volume ratio and no correlation to the presence or absence of extrahepatic metastatic disease.

A personal narrative is presented which explores the author's experience of seeing a violent situations in North Dakota of shooting water cannons into a crowd of activists as water protectors by police.

We present a case report of an individual who sustained a locked proximal radioulnar joint fracture-translocation after a mechanical fall. After a failed attempt at closed reduction, intraoperative exploration revealed that the dislocated and fractured radial head was incarcerated along the medial aspect of the coronoid. After open reduction and internal fixation, the patient went on to uneventful healing and return of adequate function. To our knowledge, this is the first case report documenting an incarcerated fracture-translocation along the radiocapitellar and proximal radioulnar joints that required operative treatment.

The management of foregut duplication cysts is controversial, especially in asymptomatic patients. The safety and accuracy of endoscopic ultrasound (EUS) and EUS‐fine‐needle aspiration EUS‐FNA) in confirming the nature of cysts by using electron microscopy (EM) has not been reported. In this study, the authors describe the utility of demonstrating detached ciliary tufts (DCTs) in the diagnosis of foregut duplication cysts with EUS‐FNA.Consecutive patients with suspected mediastinal masses or mediastinal cysts on imaging studies were evaluated prospectively by EUS and EUS‐FNA. Cyst fluid was examined by routine cytologic techniques. In two patients, EM was performed to confirm the nature of DCTs.Ten consecutive patients were evaluated with EUS and EUS‐FNA. Seventy percent of the cysts were characterized by computed tomography (CT) scans as solid masses. The mean greatest cyst dimension measured 34 mm × 48 mm by EUS. Microscopic examination of the cyst content revealed mucinous material, cellular debris, and DCTs. The latter were seen in routine cytologic preparations and by EM. Patients were followed up to a median of 321 days. Due to EUS‐FNA confirmatory diagnoses of foregut duplication cysts, none of the patients except 1 underwent surgical resection after developing pneumonia 6 months later. Histologic sections of the resected specimen confirmed the presence of (foregut cyst, bronchogenic type). All other patients were asymptomatic. Cysts size and nature did not change on repeated imaging studies.EUS was superior compared with CT scanning in characterizing foregut duplication cysts. EUS‐FNA is safe and accurate in the diagnosis of foregut duplication cysts. The demonstration of DCTs in cyst fluid and the absence of malignant cells confirmed the benign nature of these lesions, allowing conservative and expectant management for these patients. Cancer (Cancer Cytopathol) 2004. © 2004 American Cancer Society.

The application of digital technologies to chest radiography holds the promise of routine application of image processing techniques to effect image enhancement. Because of their inherent spatial resolution, however, digital chest images impose severe constraints on data storage devices. Compression of these images will relax such constraints and facilitate image transmission on a digital network. We evaluated an algorithm for enhancing digital chest images that has allowed significant data compression while improving the diagnostic quality of the image. This algorithm is based on the photographic technique of unsharp masking. Image quality was measured with respect to the task of tumor detection and compression ratios as high as 2:1 were achieved. This compression can be supplemented by irreversible methods.

• The effects of steroids and immunosuppression on 6-cm long bilateral femoral arterial Dacron bypass grafts were studied in 30 adult mongrel dogs. The dogs were serially placed into one of the following three groups: control, steroid, and immunosuppression. The control and steroid groups each had a 70% graft patency rate, whereas the immunosuppression group had a 100% eight-week graft patency rate. The results in the steroid group were not statistically different from the control group, whereas the results in the immunosuppression group were statistically different from the control. The decrease in internal diameter was secondary to a localized accumulation of tissue at the anastomotic site, which histologically appeared to be a hyperplastic intima morphologically different in each group. There is a substantial decrease in intimal hyperplasia at anastomotic sites and a higher graft patency rate in dogs treated with low-dose azathioprine as compared with control or steroid-treated animals. The mechanism seems to be a slower and more orderly intimalization rather than suppression of any specific intimal cellular elements.(Arch Surg 114:273-276, 1979)

The ex vivo effect of oral administration of ticlopidine on rat neutrophil chemotaxis was evaluated. Rats received either 3 oral doses (100 mg/kg body weight) of the drug, within a period of 48 h, via a gastric tube, or the drug was administered in drinking water for 14 days at a dosage of 75 mg/kg/day. Absorption of the drug was manifested by significant inhibition of adenosine diphosphate- (ADP-)induced platelet aggregation. No impairment of neutrophil chemotaxis toward zymosan-activated serum was observed in the ticlopidine-treated animals. These results indicate that concentrations of ticlopidine that significantly inhibit platelet function in rats are without effect on neutrophil chemotaxis toward zymosan-activated serum.

ABSTRACTWe determined in vitro activities of gatifloxacin and seven other drugs against 100 isolates of Stenotrophomonas maltophiliausing the agar gradient diffusion (Etest) method. Percentages of susceptible isolates were as follows: trimethoprim-sulfamethoxazole, 90%; gatifloxacin, 71%; levofloxacin, 57%; ticarcillin-clavulanic acid, 54%; ceftazidime, 49%; ciprofloxacin, 29%; cefepime, 21%; and piperacillin-tazobactam, 20%. Time-kill studies of three isolates indicated that gatifloxacin was bactericidal at times as early as 3 h of incubation when tested at concentrations equivalent to twice the MIC (two isolates) and 4 times the MIC (one isolate).

• A series of seven patients undergoing elective repair of abdominal aortic aneurysms using sutureless intraluminal aortic prostheses for infrarenal tube grafts was reviewed. Follow-up was five to seven months. There was no morbidity related to the graft and one late mortality. In the uncomplicated cases, the average total operative time was two hours 14 minutes with no bank blood transfusions. The overall average operative time was two hours 41 minutes with an average operative transfusion of 0.28 units and total transfusions of 1.70 units of bank blood per case. Based on this experience and the observation that operative time and blood loss are major determinants of mortality with emergency abdominal aortic aneurysm repairs, we believe that use of sutureless intraluminal prostheses in suitable cases of leaking or ruptured abdominal aortic aneurysms has the potential to markedly improve survival.(Arch Surg 1985;120:791-793)

We report a case of an intussuscepted bladder nipple following construction of an ileal ureter. The ileal ureter has become a valuable option in reconstructing the urinary system. This complication bears consideration during construction of an ileal ureter and stresses the need for close observation of these patients.

The article presents a case study on the capability of an Enterprise Risk Management (ERM) program to provide a better operational decision making in an organization in the U.S. It states that the program utilize current resources instead of new ones and have discovered disruptions in internal policies and procedures and oversight of key activities. The results made the board deepened their understanding of an institutions operations and business plans.

Presents suggested costumes for United States computer professionals attending Halloween parties. Attire of a college new-hire; Props needed to portray a firm's electronic business strategy; Costume depicting software release.

Deals with business casual policies of firms. Proliferation of vendor logos; Loss of independence; Benefits of using plain shirts and plain pants.

Opinion. Discusses the implications of the year 2000 date conversion (Y2K) problem for people all over the world. Description of the problem; Scope of chip-based devices that will be affected by the Y2K; Time needed for addressing the problem.