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To inform clinical trial design and real-world precision pediatric oncology practice, we classified diagnoses, assessed the landscape of mutations, and identified genomic variants matching trials in a large unselected institutional cohort of solid tumors patients sequenced at Dana-Farber / Boston Children's Cancer and Blood Disorders Center. Tumors were sequenced with OncoPanel, a targeted next-generation DNA sequencing panel. Diagnoses were classified according to the International Classification of Diseases for Oncology (ICD-O-3.2). Over 6.5 years, 888 pediatric cancer patients with 95 distinct diagnoses had successful tumor sequencing. Overall, 33% (n = 289/888) of patients had at least 1 variant matching a precision oncology trial protocol, and 14% (41/289) were treated with molecularly targeted therapy. This study highlights opportunities to use genomic data from hospital-based sequencing performed either for research or clinical care to inform ongoing and future precision oncology clinical trials. Furthermore, the study results emphasize the importance of data sharing to define the genomic landscape and targeted treatment opportunities for the large group of rare pediatric cancers we encounter in clinical practice. Mutation profiling of pediatric cancers can help determine treatment options, however, large-scale datasets are rare. Here, the authors describe an institutional application of targeted sequencing to pediatric solid tumours, and identify potential therapeutic implications for identified mutations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Social needs inhibit receipt of timely medical care. Social needs screening is a vital part of comprehensive cancer care, and patient navigators are well-positioned to screen for and address social needs. This mixed methods project describes social needs screening implementation in a prospective pragmatic patient navigation intervention trial for minoritized women newly diagnosed with breast cancer. Methods: Translating Research Into Practice (TRIP) was conducted at five cancer care sites in Boston, MA from 2018 to 2022. The patient navigation intervention protocol included completion of a social needs screening survey covering 9 domains (e.g., food, transportation) within 90 days of intake. We estimated the proportion of patients who received a social needs screening within 90 days of navigation intake. A multivariable log binomial regression model estimated the adjusted rate ratios (aRR) and 95% confidence intervals (CI) of patient socio-demographic characteristics and screening delivery. Key informant interviews with navigators (n = 8) and patients (n = 21) assessed screening acceptability and factors that facilitate and impede implementation. Using a convergent, parallel mixed methods approach, findings from each data source were integrated to interpret study results. Results: Patients' (n = 588) mean age was 59 (SD = 13); 45% were non-Hispanic Black and 27% were Hispanic. Sixty-nine percent of patients in the navigators' caseloads received social needs screening. Patients of non-Hispanic Black race/ethnicity (aRR = 1.25; 95% CI = 1.06–1.48) and those with Medicare insurance (aRR = 1.13; 95% CI = 1.04–1.23) were more likely to be screened. Screening was universally acceptable to navigators and generally acceptable to patients. Systems-based supports for improving implementation were identified. Conclusions: Social needs screening was acceptable, yet with modest implementation. Continued systems-based efforts to integrate social needs screening in medical care are needed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: In carpal tunnel syndrome (CTS), conservative management did not show satisfactory results, and some patients required revision surgery due to persistent or recurrent symptoms. Ultrasound (USG)-guided median nerve (MN) hydrodissection with a 5% dextrose injection is an advanced approach for treating symptoms of CTS. We prospectively investigated the patients to demonstrate the safety and effectiveness of this approach. Aims and Objectives: This study aims to evaluate the effect of USG-guided nerve hydrodissection using single injection of 5% dextrose on pain, MN conduction parameters, and functional status in patients with CTS of mild–to-moderate grade. The study also predicts about the safety of the procedure. Materials and Methods: A study was performed in the pain clinic of the tertiary care teaching institute of India for one year. The study included 15 patients diagnosed with mild-to-moderate CTS. The diagnosis was done on the basis of history, physical examination, and a nerve conduction velocity (NCV) study. Patients were given analgesics and NSAIDS and enrolled in the procedure. Parameters used for statistical analysis were Visual Analog Scale (VAS) scores, NCV study data (sensory conduction velocity [SNCV] and distal motor latency [DML]), and Boston carpal tunnel questionnaire (BCTQ) scores. Pre-injection parameters were compared with parameters 3 months after the injection to show the usefulness of this procedure. Results: A statistically significant reduction in VAS score was found in 74% of the cases (P<0.05). The nerve conduction study parameters have shown significantly higher SNCV and lower DML latency in 60% of cases (P=0.001 and P=0.001, respectively). Improved BCTQ scores were found in 80% of cases (for the symptom severity scale, P=0.001 and for the functional status scale, P<0.01). No complications such as allergic reactions, sensory loss, or paresis were recorded post-injection. However, transient injection site pain was present in all patients which did not last for more than 24 h. Conclusion: MN hydrodissection using a single injection of 5% dextrose under USG is a safe and effective approach offering pain relief, better MN conduction, and improved functional status in patients with CTS of mild-to-moderate grade. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Contemporary ethnographic fieldwork in the study of religion has made a relational turn. Research in this field is often explicitly conceived as a relationship between scholars and those they seek to understand. Knowledge is inter-subjective, the field agrees, and the only reasonable way to move forward is in open acknowledgement of this through attentiveness to the relational character of research. This paper aims to augment this relational turn by considering and addressing the risks it entails. Drawing on research experience among Catholics in Boston, it identifies normalization as a potential liability entailed in the relational understanding of research. Opportunities for enriched understanding may not emerge if researchers prioritize smooth relations with those they get to know. The paper explores the possibility that clinical psychoanalytic techniques of listening, while likely to make research relationships "weird," may be an asset in the search for understanding in the ethnographic study of religion. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An algorithm for determining the intersections between fractures is presented in this paper. The algorithm is implemented in GEOFRAC, a stochastic fracture pattern-modeling program. Previously, GEOFRAC allowed one to subdivide a fracture network into isolated subnetworks to assess connectivity. A new GEOFRAC feature can be used to analyze length and orientation distributions of the fracture intersections. Connectivity parameters such as the number of intersections per unit volume, , and the intersection length per unit volume can be calculated. Intersections and connectivity are important because they govern the fluid flow and stability behavior of rock masses. The program is used to model fracture intersections in the Boston area. The simulations show that for fractures in the Boston area, the mean fracture intersection length ranges from 0.5 to 0.7 m. The results also show that the relative frequency of long intersections (>2.0 m) increases with increasing modeling volume size. In contrast to these effects of volume, it appears that intersection orientation is not affected by the volume being considered. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Despite some progress, municipal solid waste (MSW) still poses pressure on cities and remains one of the major challenges in environmental management. There is no single solution to the problem since the drivers behind MSW systems may vary significantly from city to city. In this context, the development of a common strategy to attain a sustainable management has been increasingly difficult. This paper presents an issue-driven analytical framework to evaluate the past, present and future MSW management strategy for the cities of Yokohama and Boston considering four driver categories while evaluating if the relevance of these drivers has changed over time. These categories represent: (i) legal drivers (e.g. laws and regulations); (ii) technology development and institutional drivers (e.g. available technologies); (iii) regional and international drivers (e.g. solid waste flow as recyclable resources); and (iv) socio-economic drivers (e.g. population trends and public awareness). The analysis indicated that solid waste management capacity for both cases was under stress due to different reasons. In the case of Boston, the moratorium for disposal facilities played an important role while increasing population was a key driver for the city of Yokohama. The future management scenario suggests that various waste-to-energy alternatives and strong solid waste reduction policies will play a key role for Boston. In Yokohama, a shift on waste composition and generation triggered by a demographic change may open the path for new technologies while also considering the international demand of solid waste as a recyclable resource. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper describes the development and implementation of the Boston Medical Center (BMC) Advanced Clinical Capacity for Engagement, Safety, and Services Project. In October 2002, the BMC Division of Psychiatry became the first such entity to open a Safe Haven shelter for people who are chronically homeless, struggling with severe mental illness, and actively substance abusing. The low-demand Safe Haven model targets the most difficult to reach population and serves as a “portal of entry” to the mental health and addiction service systems. In this paper, the process by which this blended funded, multi-level collaboration, consisting of a medical center, state, city, local, and community-based consumer organizations, was created and is maintained, as well as the clinical model of care is described. Lessons learned from creating the Safe Haven Shelter and the development and implementation of the consumer-informed evaluation are discussed as well as implications for future work with this population. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Community–university partnerships that purport to promote the public good are often fraught with institutional and cultural challenges that can contribute to the injustices they seek to address. This paper describes how one partnership has been navigating these tensions through a critical approach to power. The Co-Education/Co-Research (CORE) partnership has been built over the last decade between Tufts University and Dudley Street Neighborhood Initiative, a community organizing and planning group in Boston. We have been co-producing knowledge and action to further community control over development, and we have found that institutional shifts, such as co-governance and the equitable sharing of funding, are leading to longer term impacts for the community partner and breaking down the boundaries between university and community. However, using a relational view of power, we have also found that some of our everyday practices can subtly maintain and reinforce inequities, such as valuing academic knowledge over that of community residents and practitioners. Addressing these cultural and ideological challenges requires critical and reflexive practice. It is messy relational work that requires a lot of communication and trust and, most of all, time and long-term commitment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Boston Change Process Study Group (BCPSG) has consistently and incisively explicated child development literature in its relationship to a theory of change in adult psychotherapy and psychoanalysis. This paper assesses some central aspects of their work. We highlight several themes that we believe are relevant to the issues that the BCPSG has raised. As a main point we note the manner in which the BCPSG bifurcates theoretical models. We maintain that this type of bifurcation is not justified by the data they cite. After summarizing their assumptions, we examine some of the empirical evidence that they mention and contend that this evidence can be interpreted in several different ways. We try to show that the infant research they cite supports a contemporary Freudian position as well the position advocated by the BCPSG. We offer a model that we believe reflects greater continuity in theoretical and clinical concepts. In this paper we also offer a critique of a clinical case the BCPSG has stated illustrates their theoretical-clinical principles. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose - The Emerging Leaders Program (ELF) at the College of Management at U Mass, Boston is an executive leadership development program for mid-career professionals (average age 35) in the Greater Boston Area. The program was founded because of the belief that the future leadership of our urban areas cannot be left to chance. The founders believed that if we are to have inclusive and collaborative leaders in the future, we must find those potential leaders now and provide them with leadership training and development. This paper investigates this subject. Design/methodology/approach - The model is one that could be replicated in any major urban area. Participants are nominated by their organizations, who select them based on their leadership potential. There are usually 40-45 participants per year for the ten-month program: one week in January and one day a month through September. The program is built around three areas: meeting and learning from current leaders, skill development, teamwork and collaboration. Findings - The paper finds that extensive evaluations are done with frequent surveys to participants. The Leadership Practices Inventory is administered at the beginning and end of the program. ELF participants include 46 percent persons of colour and over half are women: the program meets its goals of being inclusive. Originality/value - The surveys indicate that a hands-on approach to leadership (rather than a more structured classroom approach) is quite effective for young professionals and that they cite development, enhanced networking across sectors, and an increased appreciation for diversity as most positive benefits. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents one of the first quantitative assessments of the effect living wage laws have had on firms covered by their mandate. Applying difference-in-difference estimation methods to survey data from Boston, Massachusetts, I find little evidence of reduced employment or hours worked, following living wage implementation. Instead, there is strong evidence that firms actually shifted from part-time towards full-time staffing as a result of Boston's living wage law. Estimates also reveal a substantial degree of wage compression within firms who raised wages. Finding no evidence of reduced employment or hours, this paper uses qualitative survey data to examine other ways in which firms may have adjusted to higher wages. I find some evidence that covered firms have taken lower profits as a way to adjust to the Boston law. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

According to a recent national survey, about ten percent of American adults, estimated 26 million, are likely to have food allergies (Gupta, et al. 2019). Food allergies have many psychosocial outcomes for adults, including social isolation, anxiety, and loneliness. Framing restaurants as a site of social engagement, this article seeks to describe the restaurant landscape for adults with food allergies in Boston. Using online user reviews from TripAdvisor and AllergyEats to identify locations of restaurants with mostly positive allergy-related reviews, this paper uses GIS to assess the geographic accessibility of allergy-friendly restaurants for locations across Boston. Reported allergy-friendly restaurants tend to in areas with many other restaurants, so allergy-friendly restaurants are as geographically accessible as other restaurants from many parts of the city. In areas with fewer restaurants, a single allergy-friendly restaurant may have a large impact on overall accessibility to allergy-friendly spaces. Limitations of the data suggest that further research is needed to understand the actual social and dining landscapes of food allergic adults. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Women nonlawyers were some of the first actors to provide organized legal aid to America's poor. Yet, today, unauthorized practice of law statutes bar nonlawyers from providing legal help, citing concerns about malpractice and public harm. This Article uses a historical case study to challenge conceptions that nonlawyers cannot provide effective legal services to the people. The study focuses on the development of legal aid in Boston via two organizations, the nonlawyer-led Women's Educational and Industrial Union and the lawyer-centric Boston Legal Aid Society. Although organized legal aid in Boston began with the nonlawyers at the Union, they were eventually overtaken by the lawyer-centric Legal Aid Society. This paper examines this transition in legal aid practitioners, emphasizing how nonlawyers provided effective legal help. In doing so, it challenges the modern-day conception that access to justice requires access to an attorney and serves as a powerful counter to claims that nonlawyer practitioners endanger the public. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The dramatic decline in the AFDC-TANF caseload in the 1990s has refocused attention on the process of exit from and entry into welfare. This paper focuses on the role of nonfinancial factors in exit and entry in the post-1996 TANF program. The nonfinancial factors are work and other requirements, sanctions, and diversion. Using data from a study of welfare and nonwelfare families in Boston, Chicago, and San Antonio in the period 1999-2001, both descriptive evidence and evidence from an econometric model suggest that these factors played a large role in exit and entry over the period. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Boston, like many other major cities, experienced a sudden increase in youth homicides during the late 1980s and early 1990s. Research evidence suggests that the recent epidemic of urban youth violence was intensely concentrated among criminally active young black males residing in disadvantaged urban neighborhoods rather than all young black males residing in disadvantaged black neighborhoods. Other researchers, however, suggest that there was a diffusion of guns and gun violence from youth involved in street crack markets to youth outside the drug trade who armed themselves primarily for self-protection against the armed criminally active youth. In this paper, criminal history data are analyzed to determine whether the criminal profile of Boston arrested youth gun offenders changed over time and micro-level data on youth gun assault incidents in Boston are examined to unravel whether there were noteworthy changes in the nature of these violent events over time. The results of these analyses suggest that the youth violence epidemic in Boston was highly concentrated among serious youth gun offenders rather than a diffusion of guns away from the street drug trade, gangs, and criminally active youth. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Land-use initiatives represent a potentially effective tool for coping with the kinds of mobility pattern that North American cities faced in the 1990s and still face in the present century. As fine-grained data about land use and travel activity become available, they provide the opportunity to improve our understanding of the linkage between land use and transport. This paper examines in detail the neighbourhood characteristics that could affect mode choice on the work and non-work tour. Neighbourhood characteristics include land use, network and accessibility-related characteristics which are quantified through the use of geographical information systems (GIS). Ultimately, such measures could be used in conjunction with detailed surveys of travel behaviour to specify, calibrate and use models of modal choice and residential choice that are more sensitive to the fine-grained spatial structure of neighbourhoods and transport corridors in metropolitan areas. Micro-level data for the Boston metro area, together with a 1991 activity survey of approximately 10 000 residents, provide a rich empirical basis for experimenting with relevant neighbourhood measures and for simulating the effects on travel behaviour. We find that spatial characteristics do affect mode choice, both for the relatively (spatially) restricted non-work tour and the work tour. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper describes the theoretical foundations, empirical findings, and practical and philosophical implications of the Boston Area Diary Study (BADS), a study of the caring behavior of 44 participants over one calendar year. In particular, the paper presents an identification theory of care and discusses how it shaped the conceptualization, collection, and analysis of the data in a year-long diary study of daily voluntary assistance. The findings from the BADS (1) theoretically confirm the identification theory of care; (2) methodologically capture how individuals perceive and carry out caring behavior as a unity; and (3rpar; empirically document the existence of a moral citizenship in America that is substantially more vigorous than is implied by the usual indicators of civic and political citizenship. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Since the 1960s, the growth of high technology industries in Boston's Route 128 region has attracted the attention of academics, planners and politicians. What was especially remarkable about the region was the capability of its economic base to recover from major structural crises. Owing to this ability, the region is often looked at as being an American example of an industrial district. In contrast to Silicon Valley, however, Boston does not readily fit into the definition of an industrial district because of the dominance of large, vertically-integrated producers and the proprietary nature of high technology production. In the late 1980s, Boston was hit by an additional structural crisis when the minicomputer industry lost its competitive basis and defence expenditures were drastically reduced. As a result, almost 50000 high technology manufacturing jobs were cut between 1987 and 1997. This paper aims to identify the forces behind the region's economic recovery in the mid-1990s and relate these findings to the discussion of the importance of collective learning processes in industrial production and the development of localized competencies. In the literature, it is argued that firm-specific competencies and learning processes can lead to a regional competitive advantage if they are based on localized capabilities (e.g. specialized resources, skills, conventions and institutions). The author will demonstrate in an explorative way that the economic recovery of the Boston region is related to a number of specific forces that differ greatly between the subsectors of the high technology economy. I will also provide tentative evidence of how the willingness to co-operate and engage in interactive learning processes has encouraged economic recovery. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Hosting sports “mega-events” like the Olympics is a common scenario among urban growth coalitions worldwide. They are promoted as temporary “catalysts” for local economic growth linked to exceptional decisions in land provision and public spending. But this model of growth politics is increasingly contested: recent Olympic bids have failed in a number of cities as urban social movements organize against them while growth coalitions are unable or unwilling to defend their projects. Two cities exemplify this changing political economic landscape: Boston (USA) and Hamburg (Germany). Both cities launched bids for the 2024 Summer Olympics, and both cities subsequently cancelled their bids. Drawing on a comparative study of bidding politics in Boston and Hamburg, the paper asks why growth policy failed, analyzing the conflict between opposition movements and long-established growth coalitions. These episodes are symptoms of a growth coalition fragility that weakens their effectiveness in urban politics. Urban growth coalitions must contend with changing growth priorities and leadership; by triggering fragility, protest movements are able to gain new influence on the urban policy agenda. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Urban restructuring policies have uprooted residents and dismantled communities. Previous studies focus on housing redevelopment that minimizes the fraction of housing units left for poor residents and on interviewing residents only once the redevelopment has been announced. By contrast, this paper examines how residents over time experienced the HOPE VI redevelopment of the Orchard Park public housing project in Boston, which sought to preserve a low-income community. Using official records and a unique set of interviews with residents before and after redevelopment, we find marked declines in crime and increased residential satisfaction, which are attributed to changes in tenant composition. The redevelopment process reduced the total number of public housing units yet maintained the vast majority of housing for poor families while creating a new social mix. The findings suggest that to more fully capture the impacts of restructuring, existing theory must be expanded to consider who is displaced and how poverty is deconcentrated. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

• Solidarity Economy (SE) as a transformational political response to poverty. • SE practitioners express concerns about in-movement exclusionary and marginalising dynamics. • The commoning of space and resources expands solidarity economies capacity for collective action. This paper stages an encounter between Relational Poverty Theory (RPT) and the solidarity economy movement. RPT understands poverty as the dynamic product of economic exploitation, political exclusion and cultural marginalization. The solidarity economy movement can be seen as a transformative political response to these dynamics aiming to replace exploitation with cooperation, exclusion with participation and marginalisation with practices of inclusion. Globally, more than sixty solidarity economy movements are coordinating efforts, developing associative relations between cooperative economic institutions, social justice movements, and one another. While these developments are encouraging, many practitioners are concerned about the movement's future. Solidarity economy practitioners we encountered in our US-based research were concerned with the movement's vulnerability to co- optation and exploitation or (un)witting perpetuation of the very dynamics of exclusion and marginalisation it seeks to transcend. We take this as evidence of the enduring power of poverty-dynamics and testament to the incisive, critical insights of RPT. However, what remains unanswered is how the solidarity economy might succeed in its own terms? We deploy Gibson-Graham's theorization of postcapitalist politics to answer this question, charting the movement's possibilities, specifically how it works by creating and sharing spaces and monetary and non-monetary resources in pursuit of its objectives. Two organizations we encountered in our research—Stone Soup, a cooperative incubator in Worcester, Massachusetts and CERO, a commercial composting cooperative in Boston, — illustrate what Gibson-Graham name "a politics of commoning." Both of these organisations work by sharing spatial, financial, and political resources in ways that are cooperative, participatory and inclusionary. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Electroencephalography (EEG) is a measurement tool to measure the electrical activity of brain observed due to chemical variation in brain. The EEG analysis has important role in feature extraction and classification methods for detecting and predicting various brain diseases. Epilepsy is a major disease characterized by seizures and observed due to sudden abnormal electrical discharges in the brain. Mostly the research is carried out to classify the normal EEG signal from epileptic EEG signal. The objective of the paper is to identify pre-seizure state and seizure state of EEG signal using time and frequency features. Classifying these states of EEG signal using fuzzy classifier helps in predicting seizures. The methodology uses hypothetical testing to refine feature selection and pattern adapted wavelet transform to improve classification. The appropriate feature selection reduces computational complexity of the classifier. The artifacts are removed from the EEG signal using Independent Component Analysis (ICA). The CHB-MIT EEG scalp dataset from Children's Hospital, Boston is used for experimentation. The result shows classification accuracy of 96.48 %, True Positive Rate 96.52% and False Positive Rate 0.352 for seizure detection and 96.02% accuracy for Pre-seizure state detection with 13–110 s earlier than the onset seizures. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Historically, lenders have been accused of "redlining" minority neighborhoods as well as refusing to lend to minority applicants. Considerable bank regulation is designed to prevent both actions. However, the strong correlation between race and neighborhood makes it difficult to distinguish the impact of geographic discrimination from the effects of racial discrimination. Previous studies have failed to untangle these two influences, in part, because of severe omitted variable bias. The data set in this paper allows the distinct effects of race and geography to be identified, and it shows that the evidence for redlining is weak. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Discusses how newspaper reading developed the political interest of women in the antebellum era in the Boston, Massachusetts area. Focus on letters and journals of Mary Pierce, Hannah Lowell Jackson Cabot and other women; Participation in political events.

Presents further information related to the student papers of Martin Luther King, Jr. Application to graduate school; Excerpt from King's dissertation on the conceptions of God held by Paul Tillich and Henry Nelson Wieman; Papers that he wrote at Boston University.

Focuses on the annual meeting of the Materials Research Society in Boston, Massachusetts. Presentation of invited papers in the technical symposia; Offer of short courses on topics related to advanced research techniques; Display of processing equipments. INSET: Invited papers.

Information about several papers discussed at the American Association for the Advancement of Science's (AAAS) 142nd national meeting titled "Science and Our Expectations: Bicentennial and Beyond," which was held in Boston, Massachusetts, in February 1976 is presented. On the occasion, nuclear scientist David J. Rose said that nuclear fusion and solar power was not an economically feasible method of producing large amounts of electricity, and he stressed the need for conserving energy. INSET: Seff-Desbucting E. Coil Developed at Alabama.

People experiencing homelessness are more likely to utilize emergency departments than their non-homeless counterparts. However, obtaining a bed in a homeless shelter for patients can be complex. To better understand the challenges of finding a safe discharge plan for homeless patients in the emergency department, our team conducted interviews with emergency department social workers and homeless shelter case managers in the Boston area. We identified and mapped the stages in the processes performed by both parties, identifying challenges with successful placement into a shelter. Furthermore, we assembled a data dictionary of key factors considered when assessing a patient's fit for a homeless shelter. By identifying bottlenecks and areas of opportunity, this study serves as a first step in enabling homeless individuals to receive the post-discharge assistance they require. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We show the invalidity of finitary counterparts for three classification theorems: The preservation of being a Bernoulli shift through factors, Sinai's factor theorem, and the weak Pinsker property. We construct a finitary factor of an i.i.d. process which is not finitarily isomorphic to an i.i.d. process, showing that being finitarily Bernoulli is not preserved through finitary factors. This refutes a conjecture of M. Smorodinsky [ Finitary isomorphism of m-dependent processes , Amer. Math. Soc., Birkhauser, Providence, RI, 1992, pp. 373–376], which was first suggested by D. Rudolph [ A characterization of those processes finitarily isomorphic to a Bernoulli shift , Birkhäuser, Boston, Mass., 1981, pp. 1–64]. We further show that any ergodic system is isomorphic to a process none of whose finitary factors are i.i.d. processes, and in particular, there is no general finitary Sinai's factor theorem for ergodic processes. Another consequence of this result is the invalidity of a finitary weak Pinsker property, answering a question of G. Pete and T. Austin [Math. Inst. Hautes Études Sci. 128 (2018), 1–119]. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Endovascular treatment of lower-extremity peripheral disease (PAD) is associated with higher complication rates and suboptimal outcomes in women. Atherectomy has shown favourable outcomes in calcified lesions, minimising the incidence of stent placement caused by recoil or flow-limiting dissection. To date, there are no published mid-term outcomes evaluating the performance of atherectomy differentiated by sex. This study aims to evaluate sex-specific outcomes and prognostic factors affecting the results of atherectomy-assisted endovascular treatment in severe PAD. Methods: A retrospective analysis was conducted at a single centre in Germany, initiated by physicians and not sponsored by industry, on patients presenting with Rutherford categories ranging from III to V and featuring de novo occlusive or stenotic lesions of the superficial femoral (SFA) and/or popliteal arteries. The intervention involved rotational atherectomy-assisted angioplasty utilising the Jetstream (Boston, US®) device. The point of interest of this study was postinterventional clinical improvement as well as mid-term outcomes, including primary patency, over a targeted 2-year follow-up period. Statistical analysis utilised Cox regression (survival analysis) to calculate hazard ratios according to sex category. Comparative survival analysis was performed using the log-rank test and visually represented through Kaplan–Meier curves. Risk factors associated with absence of clinical improvement were examined across both sex groups utilising the chi-square or Fisher exact test, as appropriate. Results: A total of 98 patients (103 limbs) were initially included, with >75% having moderate-to-severe lesion calcification (>50%). A total of 84 patients (97 limbs, 62 male and 35 female) proceeded to a 2-year follow-up (mean 16.4 months for males and 16.1 for females) after a successful index procedure. Age distribution, Rutherford class, diabetes, chronic kidney disease (CKD), target vessel, lesion type, and length were balanced among both groups. Similar primary patency rates, of 89% among female and 91% among male limbs, were observed (p = 0.471). Female patients exhibited a lower rate of clinical improvement based on the Rutherford scale in comparison to males (80.6% vs. 94.5%, p = 0.048). CDK was the only significant prognostic factor across pooled data (odds ratio for CKD: 15.15, p < 0.001). Conclusions: Rotational atherectomy showed comparably high rates of mid-term primary patency, with low rates of bailout stent placement. These findings highlight the beneficial use of atherectomy in female patients who are per se at risk for higher rates of complications during and after endovascular interventions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]