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Drawing on an extensive archive of media texts collected between 2014 and 2019, we trace shifting representations of the National Football League in discourse on painkiller use among its players. We argue that in contrast to earlier eras, an image of the league as an exploitative and corrupt institution has come to the fore. Clustered around the announcement of a series of player lawsuits, these discourses are tempered by the persistence of narratives of personal responsibility and the elision of racial logics that predetermine athletes’ subjection to pain and injury. Situating our analysis in the context of the drug wars and the profit motive of the National Football League, we argue that these discourses both reflect and contribute to the workings of racial capitalism across the professional football and pharmaceutical industries.

Purpose Extracorporeal ultrafiltration is an attractive alternative to diuretics for removing excess plasma water in critically ill patients suffering from fluid overload. In continuous renal replacement therapy (CRRT), ultrafiltration occurs in isolated form (SCUF) or supplemented by replacement fluid infusion (CVVH) and the net fluid removal rate is controlled by peristaltic pumps. In this work, a pump-free solution for regulating the ultrafiltration rate in CRRT applications is presented. Methods The system consists of a motorized clamp on the ultrafiltration line, whose intermittent opening is modulated with a closed-loop control system based on monitoring of ultrafiltrate collected and any replacement fluid infused. The system was tested on two platforms for SCUF and CVVH, with “low-flux” and “high-flux” hemofilter, with various ultrafiltration setpoints and patient net weight loss targets. Results In all configurations the set ultrafiltration rate was achieved with a maximum error of 5% and the values recorded were kept within ± 100 ml/h with respect to the setpoint, as recommended by international standard IEC 60601-2-16. The net fluid removal trend was highly correlated with that expected (95%2 Conclusion The developed clamp system represents a valid alternative to state-of-the-art solutions with peristaltic pumps in terms of performance, with potential usability advantages. The compliance with safety requirements given by international standard IEC 60601-2-16 is a prerequisite for clinical use.

In the last several years, activity to develop water-based barrier coatings (WBBCs) that meet challenging packaging performance requirements has increased dramatically. Cellulose-based packaging solutions can provide a more sustainable packaging option for replacing single-use plastic-based options like extrusion-based and laminated materials. An advantage of WBBCs is the opportunity to reduce the coating thickness applied, as long as the barrier requirements can be met. A challenge that must be overcome is the ability to maintain a defect and pin-hole-free coating layer after coating and drying to retain the barrier performance. Many formulation and coating parameters can affect the barrier coating layer quality; however, methods for detecting more subtle differences in these types of studies are not widely available. Work was carried out to develop a quantitative technique for detecting and measuring the quantity and size of defects in the barrier coating layer. A test method has been developed using a combination of dyed oil and image analysis to be able to characterize the imperfections in the coating surface. The use of dyed oil serves two purposes. First, it better simulates the types of materials, in this case, oils and grease, for which the barrier coating is expected to hold out. Second, it also provides contrast between the coating and failure points for testing. An image analysis technique is employed to characterize the number and size of the imperfections. For the former, it reduces the testing time required if a quality control or laboratory technician counts the dots. For the latter, it assists with judgment on the source of the root cause of the imperfection, such as base sheet defects, coating dispersion issues, or perhaps micro-blisters in the coating, as some examples. To show the benefit of this technique, several pilot coating studies were designed to see if the new technique could be utilized to detect differences in WBBC performance. Both process and chemical variables were evaluated. With refinement, it is believed this technique can be utilized in development work, as well as for a potential quality control technique for manufacturing of coated paper and paperboard products

The Xiongnu established the first nomadic imperial power, controlling the Eastern Eurasian steppe from ca. 200 BCE to 100 CE. Recent archaeogenetic studies identified extreme levels of genetic diversity across the empire, corroborating historical records of the Xiongnu Empire being multiethnic. However, it has remained unknown how this diversity was structured at the local community level or by sociopolitical status. To address this, we investigated aristocratic and local elite cemeteries at the western frontier of the empire. Analyzing genome-wide data from 18 individuals, we show that genetic diversity within these communities was comparable to the empire as a whole, and that high diversity was also observed within extended families. Genetic heterogeneity was highest among the lowest-status individuals, implying diverse origins, while higher-status individuals harbored less genetic diversity, suggesting that elite status and power was concentrated within specific subsets of the broader Xiongnu population. Members of the Xiongnu Empire were genetically diverse, but elite status was concentrated within specific genetic subsets. Introduction Results - Generation of genome-wide data from Xiongnu aristocratic elites, local elites, and subordinates - Modeling Xiongnu ancestry - High genetic diversity within Xiongnu communities and across the empire - Genetic diversity and archaeological signifiers of social status - Genetic dynamics of the Xiongnu elite Discussion Materials and methods

As agents interact and influence one another in a social network, the opinions they hold about some common topic can change over time. These changes may enable us to infer mechanisms of the network that control how interactions lead to opinion change. Inferring such mechanisms from opinion data could enable analysis of social influence in data-sparse scenarios. However, limited work has focused on this problem, despite its clear value. To address this gap, we create opinion data using agent-based simulation and experimental design. By viewing opinion changes as an information-generating process, opinion dynamics can be studied using entropy. This work explores the relationships between aggregated entropy and five simulation design factors. Three entropy measures are calculated on continuous-valued opinions and are analyzed using a main effects model and cluster analysis. Overall, the choices of influence model and error distribution are most important to the entropy measures, activation regime is important to some measures, and population size is unimportant. Also, design variation can be detected using time-series cluster analysis. These findings may support work in inferring properties about real-world social influence networks using opinion data collected from their members.

The paper describes the case of a 1-year-old Caucasian boy with a 1-month history of fever and splenomegaly. Laboratory findings showed pancytopenia, hypertriglyceridemia and hyperferritinemia. Secondary haemophagocytic lymphohistiocytosis was suspected on the basis of clinical and laboratory features. Bone marrow aspirate revealed active haemophagocytosis without intra- or extracellular parasites. High levels of antibody title for leishmaniasis confirmed the final diagnosis of haemophagocytic syndrome secondary to visceral leishmaniasis. Amphotericin B treatment was started and showed good clinical response and improvement of laboratory parameters.

Questo contributo si propone di indagare i nodi costitutivi della “politica europea” che il Pci emiliano-romagnolo elaborò tra il 1975 e il 1991. La ricerca muove dall’exploit elettorale registrato dal partito alle elezioni amministrative di quell’anno (1975) e termina, inglobando gli anni durante i quali il partito adottò strategie e parole d’ordine che ambivano a ridefinirne la collocazione nazionale e internazionale (compromesso storico, eurocomunismo, solidarietà nazionale, alternativa democratica, terza via), in corrispondenza dello scioglimento del Pci (1991). Si tratta inoltre di un arco temporale durante il quale presero corpo alcune tra le più significative iniziative politico-economiche (dalla creazione del Sistema monetario europeo ai negoziati per il trattato di Maastricht) di cui la Comunità economica europea (Cee) si rese protagonista negli anni della stagflazione globale e dell’emergere del paradigma neoliberale. L’oggetto della ricerca consiste nell’analisi e nell’interpretazione di alcuni dei temi più significativi dell’agenda europea del Pci emiliano-romagnolo, e cioè: a) la definizione delle priorità economiche del partito regionale nel quadro dei rapporti con la Cee; b) la nascita e l’evoluzione di una componente amministrativa comunista dotata di una specifica expertise nel campo dei rapporti tra il territorio (la Regione) e l’orizzonte comunitario (Bruxelles). Il contributo si articola intorno all’ipotesi secondo la quale – chiusa la fase di intransigente opposizione del Pci nazionale nei confronti del processo di integrazione europea – il progressivo sviluppo di relazioni politico-istituzionali tra il Pci dell’Emilia-Romagna e la Cee abbia rappresentato, nell’ordine, un canale attraverso cui la cultura amministrativa comunista in Emilia-Romagna si dotò di una expertise di tipo nuovo e potenzialmente in conflitto con le forme più tradizionali di gestione burocratica di organi statuali, quale per l’appunto l’ente regionale; uno strumento di riorientamento delle direttrici economico-produttive della regione nel contesto delle “grandi trasformazioni” vissute in quegli anni dal sistema economico internazionale; un’arena politica che, da un lato, il Pci tentò di sfruttare per legittimare e rinvigorire le peculiarità del meso-governo territoriale comunista, e che, dall’altro lato, costituì un veicolo di introiezione di codici politico-culturali estranei alla tradizione comunista e più sensibili alle logiche privatistico-liberalizzatrici che attraversarono gli anni della cosiddetta seconda globalizzazione.

Diverse forms of opposition are already existent virtually everywhere around us but the nature and significance of oppositeness is well understood only in specific contexts within the fields of philosophy, linguistics, psychology, logic and physics. The interplay between entities and opposite entities is apparently fundamental for maintaining universal balance. However, it seems that there is a gap regarding oppositional thinking in engineering, mathematics and computer science. Although many opposition-based techniques exist in these fields, the oppositional properties they employ are not usually directly studied. A better understanding of opposition could potentially establish new search, reasoning, optimization and learning schemes with a wide range of applications. For instance, improving convergence rate for hyperdimensional problems could be improved through the use of oppositional strategies.

Iterative combinatorial auctions are known to resolve bidder preference elicitation problems. However, winner determination is a known key bottleneck that has prevented widespread adoption of such auctions, and adding a time-bound to winner determination further complicates the mechanism. As a result, heuristic-based methods have enjoyed an increase in applicability. We add to the growing body of work in heuristic-based winner determination by proposing an ant colony metaheuristic–based anytime algorithm that produces optimal or near-optimal winner determination results within specified time. Our proposed algorithm resolves the speed versus accuracy problem and displays superior performance compared with 20 past state-of-the-art heuristics and two exact algorithms, for 94 open test auction instances that display a wide variety in bid-bundle composition. Furthermore, we contribute to the literature in two predominant ways: first, we represent the winner determination problem as one of finding the maximum weighted path on a directed cyclic graph; second, we improve upon existing ant colony heuristic–based exploration methods by implementing randomized pheromone updating and randomized graph pruning. Finally, to aid auction designers, we implement the anytime property of the algorithm, which allows auctioneers to stop the algorithm and return a valid solution to the winner determination problem even if it is interrupted before computation ends.

This article describes a case of severe hyperleukocytosis in a preterm infant with fetal inflammatory response syndrome (FIRS) associated with funisitis of umbilical cord and intrauterine inflammation. FIRS is a cause of leukocytosis in newborn, as well as leukemoid reaction in 21 trisomy, congenital leukemia, sepsis, and steroid prophylaxis. Inflammatory response syndrome is associated with high mortality, developmental impairment and complications of prematurity like intraventricular hemorrhage, chronic lung disease, periventricular leukomalacia, and sepsis.

Thirty-six states and four territories in the United States have legalized cannabis for medical and/or recreational use. Marijuana, however, continues to be classified as a schedule I substance under the Federal Controlled Substance Act and remains illegal under US federal law. The incongruity between state and federal legislation creates various challenges for stakeholders: patients, medical trainees, providers, and health care institutions. This communication provides an overview of the major policies impacting Cannabis sativa use within the United States, various state and federal regulations, and highlights potential implications for health care institutions moving forward. Existing literature, regulations, and policies on medical marijuana (MMJ) use in health care settings were searched, reviewed, analyzed, and distilled. As a consequence of legislative inconsistencies, there is insufficient clarity and resultant challenges regarding MMJ usage, prescription, possession, education, and research-related policies for health care stakeholders across the United States. Coupled with limited scientific evidence on the clinical efficacy of MMJ, the needs of the patient and the quality of health care delivery may be affected as hospitals balance the competing risks of being legislatively compliant while protecting the rights of patients and health care employees. There is a recognized need to better define acceptable MMJ policies and regulations in health care settings that are evidence-based, legally compliant, and adequately address the needs of both patients and providers. Given the complexity of the legal and policy landscape, there are potential opportunities for improvement, including in medical education and training, research, and usage oversight of MMJ for stakeholders in the United States.

Maintaining road pavement is a challenging task, due to the vast size of the roads network and the limited maintenance budget available to road agencies. Therefore, most agencies aim at selecting t...

The initial movement of herders and livestock into the eastern steppe is of great interest, as this region has long been home to pastoralist groups. Due to a paucity of faunal remains, however, it has been difficult to discern the timing of the adoption of domesticated ruminants and horses into the region, though recent research on ancient dairying has started to shed new light on this history. Here we present proteomic evidence for shifts in dairy consumption in the Altai Mountains, drawing on evidence from sites dating from the Early Bronze to the Late Iron Age. We compare these finds with evidence for the rise of social complexity in western Mongolia, as reflected in material remains signaling population growth, the establishment of structured cemeteries, and the erection of large monuments. Our results suggest that the subsistence basis for the development of complex societies began at the dawn of the Bronze Age, with the adoption of ruminant livestock. Investments in pastoralism intensified over time, enabling a food production system that sustained growing populations. While pronounced social changes and monumental constructions occurred in tandem with the first evidence for horse dairying, ~1350 cal BCE, these shifts were fueled by a long-term economic dependence on ruminant livestock. Therefore, the spread into the Mongolian Altai of herds, and then horses, resulted in immediate dietary changes, with subsequent social and demographic transformations occurring later. Introduction Materials and methods - Sampling - Archaeological sites sampled - Protein extraction - LC-MS/MS analysis - Data analysis Results - Identified proteins - EBA dairy results (Afanasievo and Khemceg [Chemurchek] cultures) - MBA dairy results (Sagsai culture) - Late Iron Age dairy results (Xiongnu culture) Discussion and conclusion - Transitioning to pastoral lifeways - Early horse dairying and population growth

While pastoral cultures from Mongolia and the dry steppes of eastern Eurasia have had an outsized impact on Eurasian history, the region’s geomorphology, reliance on organic materials, and a nomadic culture that lacks long-lasting architecture on the landscape have conspired to limit our knowledge of important anthropological processes in the deep past. Frozen archaeological sites, including permafrost and finds from glaciers and ice patches, serve as a key exception to this rule, providing detailed snapshots into the ancient lifeways of Mongolia’s mountain zones. However, these sites pose unique challenges for archaeological conservation, and rapid climate warming, paired with other issues like looting, threatens to degrade them faster than they can be identified, studied, or preserved. Here we summarize the known frozen heritage of Mongolia and highlight a recent to-date unpublished case study on salvaging and studying frozen archaeological sites.

The expansion of the Umayyad and Abbasid Caliphates (seventh to ninth centuries AD) brought diverse regions from the Indus Valley to the Eurasian Steppe under hegemonic control. An overlooked aspect of this political process is the subsequent translocation of species across ecological zones. This article explores species introduction in the early Islamic world, presenting the first archaeological evidence for domestic water buffalo in the Caucasus—identified using zooarchaeological and ZooMS methods on material from the historical site of Bardhaʿa in Azerbaijan. We contextualise these finds with historical accounts to demonstrate the exploitation of medieval marginal zones and the effects of centralised social reorganisation upon species dispersal. Introduction Archaeological traces of water buffalo in Western Asia Water buffalo in early Islamic historical sources Water buffalo in the historical landscape of Bardhaʿa Zooarchaeological evidence for water buffalo at Bardhaʿa Buffalo, landscapes and people Conclusions

In light of the recent legalization of cannabis in Canada, and the prevalence of edibles as a preferred mode of consumption for young adults, there is a need for evidence-based youth-targeted publi...

Background COVID-19 has resulted in significant morbidity and mortality worldwide. Lateral flow assays can detect anti-Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus-2 (SARS-CoV-2) antibodies to monitor transmission. However, standardized evaluation of their accuracy and tools to aid in interpreting results are needed. Methods We evaluated 20 IgG and IgM assays selected from available tests in April 2020. We evaluated the assays’ performance using 56 pre-pandemic negative and 56 SARS-CoV-2-positive plasma samples, collected 10–40 days after symptom onset, confirmed by a molecular test and analyzed by an ultra-sensitive immunoassay. Finally, we developed a user-friendly web app to extrapolate the positive predictive values based on their accuracy and local prevalence. Results Combined IgG + IgM sensitivities ranged from 33.9 to 94.6%, while combined specificities ranged from 92.6 to 100%. The highest sensitivities were detected in Lumiquick for IgG (98.2%), BioHit for both IgM (96.4%), and combined IgG + IgM sensitivity (94.6%). Furthermore, 11 LFAs and 8 LFAs showed perfect specificity for IgG and IgM, respectively, with 15 LFAs showing perfect combined IgG + IgM specificity. Lumiquick had the lowest estimated limit-of-detection (LOD) (0.1 μg/mL), followed by a similar LOD of 1.5 μg/mL for CareHealth, Cellex, KHB, and Vivachek. Conclusion We provide a public resource of the accuracy of select lateral flow assays with potential for home testing. The cost-effectiveness, scalable manufacturing process, and suitability for self-testing makes LFAs an attractive option for monitoring disease prevalence and assessing vaccine responsiveness. Our web tool provides an easy-to-use interface to demonstrate the impact of prevalence and test accuracy on the positive predictive values.

Co-infection of COVID-19 and other respiratory pathogens, including influenza virus family, has been of importance since the beginning of the recent pandemic. As the upcoming flu season arrives in countries with ongoing COVID-19 epidemic, the need for preventive policy actions becomes more critical. We present a joint compartmental SEIRS-SIRS model for the co-circulation of SARS-CoV-2 and influenza and discuss the characteristics of the model, such as the basic reproduction number (R0) and cases of death and recovery. We implemented the model using 2020 to early 2021 data derived from global healthcare organizations and studied the impact of interventions and policy actions such as vaccination, quarantine, and public education. The VENSIM simulation of the model resulted in R0 = 7.5, which is higher than what was reported for the COVID-19 pandemic. Vaccination against COVID-19 dramatically slowed its spread and the co-infection of both diseases significantly, while other types of interventions had a limited impact on the co-dynamics of the diseases given our assumptions. These findings can help provide guidance as to which preventive policies would be most effective at the time of concurrent epidemics, and contributes to the literature as a novel model to simulate and analyze the co-circulation of respiratory pathogens in a compartmental setting that can further be used to study the co-infection of COVID-19 or similar respiratory infections with other diseases.

Dans les derniere decennies, l’organisation speciale du secteur spatial s’est transformee, a l’image de changements dans les priorites politiques puis de nouvelles possibilites commerciales. Cependant les commentaires courants sous-evaluent la variete et la repartition des voies par lesquelles les changements s’operent. Nous proposons un cadre empirique qui cartographie cette distribution en considerant : les evolutions des objectifs de l’activite spatiale, les categories dont relevent les organisations issues de differents secteurs, l’organisation des missions et projets et de la gouvernance du secteur. Nous nous appuyons sur les etudes des ecosystemes d’affaires et d’innovation et recourons au concept d’ecosysteme pouur cartographier des changements significatifs dans le secteur selon plusieurs axes. Notre approche invite a reconsiderer les clivages politiques habituels. En effet l’emploi dynamique du concept d’innovation met en evidence l’influence d’une orientation vers l’exploration ou l’exploitation, la cooperation ou la competition, la durabilite ou la rarefaction des ressources environnementales que ce soit de maniere intentionnelle ou non.

Reversible lesions involved in the splenium of corpus callosum (RESLES) are a rare clinic-radiological condition, whose pathogenesis could be related to infectious events (such as in mild encephalopathy with reversible splenial lesion—MERS), epilepsy or metabolic/electrolyte disorders. MERS is characterized by an acute mild encephalopathy associated with lesions in the splenium of corpus callosum on brain magnetic resonance imaging. Viral infections are commonly associated with this condition and type A influenza is the most common cause. The prognosis is generally favorable with spontaneous resolution of clinical and radiological abnormalities. We report a case report of type B influenza MERS in an 8-year-old unvaccinated girl with complete clinical and radiological recovery.

Author Summary Understanding and measuring the ways in which human brain connectivity changes to accommodate a broad range of cognitive and behavioral goals is an important undertaking. We put forth a mesoscopic framework that captures such changes by tracking the topology and integration of information within and between functional networks (FNs) of the brain. Canonically, when FNs are characterized, they are separated from the rest of the brain network. The two metrics proposed in this work, trapping efficiency and exit entropy, quantify the topological and information integration characteristics of FNs while they are still embedded in the overall brain network. Trapping efficiency measures the module's ability to preserve an incoming signal from escaping its local topology, relative to its total exiting weights. Exit entropy measures the module's communication preferences with other modules/networks using information theory. When these two metrics are plotted in a 2D graph as a function of different brain states (i.e., cognitive/behavioral tasks), the resulting morphospace characterizes the extent of network reconfiguration between tasks (functional reconfiguration), and the change when moving from rest to an externally engaged "task-positive" state (functional preconfiguration), to collectively define network configural breadth. We also show that these metrics are sensitive to subject, task, and functional network identities. Overall, this method is a promising approach to quantify how human brains adapt to a range of tasks, and potentially to help improve precision clinical neuroscience., The quantification of human brain functional (re)configurations across varying cognitive demands remains an unresolved topic. We propose that such functional configurations may be categorized into three different types: (a) network configural breadth, (b) task-to task transitional reconfiguration, and (c) within-task reconfiguration. Such functional reconfigurations are rather subtle at the whole-brain level. Hence, we propose a mesoscopic framework focused on functional networks (FNs) or communities to quantify functional (re)configurations. To do so, we introduce a 2D network morphospace that relies on two novel mesoscopic metrics, trapping efficiency (TE) and exit entropy (EE), which capture topology and integration of information within and between a reference set of FNs. We use this framework to quantify the network configural breadth across different tasks. We show that the metrics defining this morphospace can differentiate FNs, cognitive tasks, and subjects. We also show that network configural breadth significantly predicts behavioral measures, such as episodic memory, verbal episodic memory, fluid intelligence, and general intelligence. In essence, we put forth a framework to explore the cognitive space in a comprehensive manner, for each individual separately, and at different levels of granularity. This tool that can also quantify the FN reconfigurations that result from the brain switching between mental states.

Functional coatings are applied to paper and paperboard substrates to provide resistance, or a barrier, against media such as oil and grease (OGR), water, water vapor as measured by moisture vapor transmission rate (MVTR), and oxygen, for applications such as food packaging, food service, and other non-food packaging. Typical functional barrier coatings can be created by applying a solid coating or extruded film, a solvent based-coating, or a water-based coating to the paper substrate using various means of coating applicators. This paper focuses on water-based barrier coatings (WBBC) for OGR, water, MVTR, and oxygen barriers. The main goal was to create coated systems that can achieve more than one barrier property using multilayer curtain coating (MLCC). Curtain coating has emerged as the premier low-impact application method for coated paper and paperboard. This paper provides examples using MLCC to create coating structures that provide multiple barrier properties in a single coating step. Barrier polymer systems studied include styrene butadiene, styrene acrylate, vinyl acrylic, and natural materials, as well as proprietary additives where required to give desired performance. The paper also shows how the specific coating layers can be optimized to produce the desired property profile, without concern for blocking, as the addition of a non-blocking top layer can be applied in the MLCC structure as well. Experiments on base sheet types also shows the importance of applying the multilayer structure on a pre-coated surface in order to improve coating thickness consistency and potentially allow for the reduction of more expensive layer components.

With the goal of understanding if the information contained in node metadata can help in the task of link weight prediction, we investigate herein whether incorporating it as a similarity feature (referred to as metadata similarity) between end nodes of a link improves the prediction accuracy of common supervised machine learning methods. In contrast with previous works, instead of normalizing the link weights, we treat them as count variables representing the number of interactions between end nodes, as this is a natural representation for many datasets in the literature. In this preliminary study, we find no significant evidence that metadata similarity improved the prediction accuracy of the four empirical datasets studied. To further explore the role of node metadata in weight prediction, we synthesized weights to analyze the extreme case where the weights depend solely on the metadata of the end nodes, while encoding different relationships between them using logical operators in the generation process. Under these conditions, the random forest method performed significantly better than other methods in 99.07% of cases, though the prediction accuracy was significantly degraded for the methods analyzed in comparison to the experiments with the original weights.

Eastern Equine Encephalitis (EEE) is an arbovirus that, while it has been known to exist since the 1930’s, recently had a spike in cases. This increased prevalence is particularly concerning due to the severity of the disease with 1 in 3 symptomatic patients dying. The cause of this peak is currently unknown but could be due to changes in climate, the virus itself, or host behavior. In this paper we propose a novel multi-season deterministic model of EEE spread and its stochastic counterpart. Models were parameterized using a dataset from the Florida Department of Health with sixteen years of sentinel chicken seroconversion rates. The different roles of the enzootic and bridge mosquito vectors were explored. As expected, enzootic mosquitoes like Culiseta melanura were more important for EEE persistence, while bridge vectors were implicated in the disease burden in humans. These models were used to explore hypothetical viral mutations and host behavior changes, including increased infectivity, vertical transmission, and host feeding preferences. Results showed that changes in the enzootic vector transmission increased cases among birds more drastically than equivalent changes in the bridge vector. Additionally, a 5% difference in the bridge vector’s bird feeding preference can increase cumulative dead-end host infections more than 20-fold. Taken together, this suggests changes in many parts of the transmission cycle can augment cases in birds, but the bridge vectors feeding preference acts as a valve limiting the enzootic circulation from its impact on dead-end hosts, such as humans. Our what-if scenario analysis reveals and measures possible threats regarding EEE and relevant environmental changes and hypothetically suggests how to prevent potential damage to public health and the equine economy.

OBJECTIVE To systematically compare the effect of direct oral anticoagulants and low molecular weight heparin for thromboprophylaxis on the benefits and harms to patients undergoing non-cardiac surgery. DESIGN Systematic review and network meta-analysis of randomised controlled trials. DATA SOURCES Medline, Embase, and the Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials (CENTRAL), up to August 2021. REVIEW METHODS Randomised controlled trials in adults undergoing non-cardiac surgery were selected, comparing low molecular weight heparin (prophylactic (low) or higher dose) with direct oral anticoagulants or with no active treatment. Main outcomes were symptomatic venous thromboembolism, symptomatic pulmonary embolism, and major bleeding. Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) guidelines were used for network meta-analyses. Abstracts and full texts were screened independently in duplicate. Data were abstracted on study participants, interventions, and outcomes, and risk of bias was assessed independently in duplicate. Frequentist network meta-analysis with multivariate random effects models provided odds ratios with 95% confidence intervals, and GRADE (grading of recommendations, assessment, development, and evaluation) assessments indicated the certainty of the evidence. RESULTS 68 randomised controlled trials were included (51 orthopaedic, 10 general, four gynaecological, two thoracic, and one urological surgery), involving 45 445 patients. Low dose (odds ratio 0.33, 95% confidence interval 0.16 to 0.67) and high dose (0.19, 0.07 to 0.54) low molecular weight heparin, and direct oral anticoagulants (0.17, 0.07 to 0.41) reduced symptomatic venous thromboembolism compared with no active treatment, with absolute risk differences of 1-100 per 1000 patients, depending on baseline risks (certainty of evidence, moderate to high). None of the active agents reduced symptomatic pulmonary embolism (certainty of evidence, low to moderate). Direct oral anticoagulants and low molecular weight heparin were associated with a 2-3-fold increase in the odds of major bleeding compared with no active treatment (certainty of evidence, moderate to high), with absolute risk differences as high as 50 per 1000 in patients at high risk. Compared with low dose low molecular weight heparin, high dose low molecular weight heparin did not reduce symptomatic venous thromboembolism (0.57, 0.26 to 1.27) but increased major bleeding (1.87, 1.06 to 3.31); direct oral anticoagulants reduced symptomatic venous thromboembolism (0.53, 0.32 to 0.89) and did not increase major bleeding (1.23, 0.89 to 1.69). CONCLUSIONS Direct oral anticoagulants and low molecular weight heparin reduced venous thromboembolism compared with no active treatment but probably increased major bleeding to a similar extent. Direct oral anticoagulants probably prevent symptomatic venous thromboembolism to a greater extent than prophylactic low molecular weight heparin.

The COVID-19 pandemic has had far-reaching impacts in all segments of life worldwide. While a variety of surveys have assessed the impacts of the pandemic in other fields, few studies have focused on understanding the short- and long-term impacts of the pandemic for archaeology. To assess these trends, we asked survey respondents (n = 570) if they experienced job loss and to rate the percentage of change in their economic situation, workload, teaching or research activities, and personal responsibilities. Results show alarming trends, with nearly half of those who experienced job loss being under the age of 35 and women and early career archaeologists suffering major economic losses. Impacts to workload, teaching activities, and research activities were also felt across these groups. Substantial increases in personal responsibilities (childcare, eldercare, caring for sick family members) were also identified, especially for women with children under 18 years of age. While structural inequalities have already been identified across different sectors of archaeology, the results of this survey suggest the most vulnerable populations are those most heavily affected. We recommend a variety of strategies for employers, professional organizations, funding agencies, and publishers to consider in mitigating the consequences of COVID-19, especially for women and early career scholars. 1. Introduction 2. Materials and Methods 2.1. Research Design 2.2. Sample 3. Results 3.1. Demographics 3.2. Economic Impacts 3.3. Workload Impacts 3.4. Research Impacts 3.5. Teaching Impacts 3.6. Personal Responsibilities Impacts 3.7. International Impacts 4. Discussion 5. Conclusions

BACKGROUND In this case study, multiple participants in a large urban school district used the Whole School, Whole Community, Whole Child (WSCC) model to guide development of a district wellness policy. The model's health education component is highlighted, focusing on concerns for special needs students and ones speaking English as a New Language (ENL). METHODS Organizational structure was developed around the WSCC model and district wellness policy implementation through coordination, collaboration, and communication (3Cs) of programs, policies, and processes/practices (3Ps). RESULTS The WSCC approach guided the creation of a district wellness policy that influenced programming for students with special needs and required Youth Risk Behavior Survey (YRBS) data collection. Using YRBS and School Health Index (SHI) data in planning sexual health education illustrated improvements over time. Formation of the School Health and Wellness Collaborative under WSCC improved family engagement in sexual health education programs and practices. Relationships were established with community partners to impact student's sexual risk behaviors. Finally, the district co‐created and implemented an evidenced‐based sexual health curriculum, modifying it for special education and ENL students. CONCLUSIONS The WSCC approach is system changing. It takes time to develop the relationships vital to improve the 3Cs and 3Ps. Success is enhanced with a district wellness coordinator, the right people at the table, valid health data, and administrative and board support.

The paper describes a case of Pelvic Inflammatory Disease (PID) in a fourteen-year-old girl who presented with salpingitis, low abdominal pain, fever, high inflammation indexes and infection by Chlamydia trachomatis and Gardnerella. As guidelines suggest, she was treated with doxycycline, metronidazole and ceftriaxone and her clinical conditions rapidly improved. PID can develop also in teenagers, especially if sexually active, and it must be differentiated from other causes of acute abdomen. The diagnosis can be based on the presence of pain and on at least one criterion between clinical objectivity (fever, vaginal secretions) and laboratory data (vaginal swab, blood exams, vaginal secretion microscopic analysis). Instrumental exams can support the diagnosis but sometimes only laparoscopy and biopsy can reveal a condition of PID. Adequate antibiotic treatment should be performed to avoid complications over future reproductive life.

BACKGROUND: Guideline recommendations may be affected by flaws in the process, inappropriate panel member selection or conduct, conflicts of interest and other factors. To our knowledge, no validated tool exists to evaluate guideline development from the perspective of those directly involved in the process. Our objective was to develop and validate a universal tool, the PANELVIEW instrument, to assess guideline processes, methods and outcomes from the perspective of the participating guideline panellists and group members. METHODS: We performed a systematic literature search and surveys of guideline groups (identified through contacting international organizations and convenience sampling of working panels) to inform item generation. Subsequent groups of guideline methodologists and panellists reviewed items for face validity and missing items. We used surveys, interviews and expert review for item reduction and phrasing. For reliability assessment and feedback, we tested the PANELVIEW tool in 8 international guideline groups. RESULTS: We surveyed 62 members from 13 guideline panels, contacted 19 organizations and reviewed 20 source documents to generate items. Fifty-three additional key informants provided feedback about phrasing of the items and response options. We reduced the number of items from 95 to 34 across domains that included administration, training, conflict of interest, group dynamics, chairing, evidence synthesis, formulating recommendations and publication. The tool takes about 10 minutes to complete and showed acceptable measurement properties. INTERPRETATION: The PANELVIEW instrument fills a gap by enabling guideline organizations to involve clinicians, patients and other participants in evaluating their guideline processes. The tool can inform quality improvement of existing or new guideline programs, focusing on insight into and transparency of the guideline development process, methods and outcomes.

Rectal prolapse is an overall rare occurrence in children in the first 4 years of age. It typically tends to relapse. In the majority of cases it is not possible to highlight a single cause that determines prolapse, even if it is more frequent in children who suffer from constipation. In about 1 in 10 cases there is an underlying predisposing anatomical-neurological condition (in particular neurological: myelomenigocele, spina bifida occulta). A predisposing cause that must always be considered and excluded is cystic fibrosis, even in the age of newborn screening. Rectal prolapse management is conservative in most cases. Behavioural measures (correct toilet training, good hydration, diet rich in fibres) and the use of the macrogol laxative are fundamental. The prolapse that does not resolve spontaneously must be reduced manually by instructing the family on the technique to be used. In 90% of cases the natural history of rectal prolapse is favourable, with complete resolution within the first 4 years of age. After this age, it occurs more rarely. Surgery is rarely indicated. The current techniques that have a large consensus are sclerotherapy and laparoscopic rectopexy. The paper reports the management of recurrent rectal prolapse in a 3-year-old boy.

The identifiability framework (𝕀f) has been shown to improve differential identifiability (reliability across-sessions and -sites, and differentiability across-subjects) of functional connectomes for a variety of fMRI tasks. But having a robust single session/subject functional connectome is just the starting point to subsequently assess network properties for characterizing properties of integration, segregation, and communicability, among others. Naturally, one wonders whether uncovering identifiability at the connectome level also uncovers identifiability on the derived network properties. This also raises the question of where to apply the 𝕀f framework: on the connectivity data or directly on each network measurement? Our work answers these questions by exploring the differential identifiability profiles of network measures when 𝕀f is applied (a) on the functional connectomes, and (b) directly on derived network measurements. Results show that improving across-session reliability of functional connectomes (FCs) also improves reliability of derived network measures. We also find that, for specific network properties, application of 𝕀f directly on network properties is more effective. Finally, we discover that applying the framework, either way, increases task sensitivity of network properties. At a time when the neuroscientific community is focused on subject-level inferences, this framework is able to uncover FC fingerprints, which propagate to derived network properties., Author Summary Functional connectome (FC) fingerprinting recently became a topic of great interest in network neuroscience. We recently proposed a framework to improve brain fingerprint (i.e., identifiability) of FCs, which improves not only test-retest reliability but also the correlation of FCs with fluid intelligence. However, does this improvement in FC fingerprints propagate to the derived network measures? In this work we found that improving the fingerprint (differential identifiability) of the functional connectome also improves the “fingerprint” of its network properties. Furthermore, when using the identifiability framework on the network properties directly, certain network properties like search information and communicability add to the FC fingerprint. Finally, we show that enhancement of the fingerprint in the network measures, in a wide range of cognitive tasks, using the identifiability framework also improves task sensitivity in these measures. We show that regardless of whether you are using functional connectomes or the network properties derived from them, using the 𝕀f framework on the functional connectomes would be a beneficial first step.

L'articolo prenderà in esame l'esperienza dell'Italia all'interno dell'Organizzazione per la cooperazione economica europea (Oece) negli anni della prima legislatura repubblicana.A partire da una riflessione sulle motivazioni tanto economiche quanto politico-diplomatiche che si posero alla base dell'adesione italiana all'Oece, questo contributo analizzerà le misure di liberalizzazione commerciale perseguite dal paese all'interno degli organi decisionali dell'organizzazione. Si darà risalto alla dimensione europea delle iniziative che l'Italia elaborò nell'ambito della progressiva riduzione di dazi, tariffe e contingentamenti alle importazioni di beni provenienti dai mercati internazionali. Si passeranno in rassegna le principali iniziative presentate in sede Oece dalla delegazione italiana e verranno presi in considerazione i provvedimenti promossi a livello europeo da parte dei maggiori partner della Penisola: i piani Stikker e Pella (1950); la nascita dell'Unione europea dei pagamenti (Uep, 1950); il pacchetto di liberalizzazioni introdotto da La Malfa (1951); la reintroduzione delle restrizioni quantitative da parte di Regno Unito e Francia (1951-1952).Questo contributo intende perciò sondare la natura, i presupposti e gli esiti della "filosofia liberalizzatrice" sviluppata dalle classi dirigenti dello stato italiano nel più ampio contesto del processo di integrazione economica del Vecchio continente e della genesi di quello che sarebbe poi divenuto il mercato comune europeo.

We introduce a process model of microsocial network dynamics that incorporates an assembly perspective of entrepreneurial action in early-stage projects. The model comprises four conceptual elements: (1) an initial entrepreneurial projection or goal, which motivates and guides network-based action, and evolves as it is the venture unfolds; (2) knowledge articulation to make the entrepreneurial projection relevant to stakeholders; (3) combinatorial action, which entails joining people and resources in new combinations and that may reshape the project; and (4) network expansion by which stakeholder relationships develop and generate distributed momentum. This approach integrates and extends foundational theoretical perspectives in entrepreneurship––bricolage, effectuation, and opportunity creation, drawing on recent developments in social network process theory to inform the model.

A principled approach to understand networks is to formulate generative models and infer their parameters from given network data. Due to the scarcity of data in the form of multiple networks that have evolved from the same process, generative models are typically formulated to learn parameters from a single network observation, hence ignoring the natural variability of the “true” process. In this paper, we highlight the importance of variability in evaluating generative models and present two ways of quantifying the variability for a finite set of networks. The first evaluation scheme compares the statistical properties of networks in a dissimilarity space, while the other relies on data-driven entropy measures to compute variability in network populations. Using these measures, we evaluate the ability of four generative models to synthesize networks that capture the variability of the “true” process. Our empirical analysis suggests that generative models fitted for a single network observation fail to capture the variability in the network population. Our work highlights the need for rethinking the way we evaluate the goodness-of-fit of new and existing network models and devising models that are capable of matching the variability of network populations when available.