Postoperative Complications Associated with External Skeletal Fixators in Dogs

OBJECTIVES:  To quantify and evaluate risks of complications attributable to external skeletal fixator (ESF) usage in dogs. METHODS:  A retrospective review of medical records following ESF placement. RESULTS:  Case records of 97 dogs were reviewed; fixator-associated complications occurred in 79/97 dogs. Region of ESF placement was significantly associated with complication development (p = 0.005), not complication type (p = 0.086). Complications developed most frequently in the tarsus (9/10), manus (8/9) and humerus (8/9). Superficial pin-tract infection and implant failure occurred in 38/97 and 17/97 dogs, respectively. Superficial pin-tract infection occurred frequently in the femur, humerus, radius and ulna and the pes, with implant failure frequent in the tarsus and deep pin-tract infection in the manus and tibia. Transarticular frames were significantly more likely to develop a complication (p = 0.028). Age was significantly associated with complication development (p = 0.029). No associations between breed, sex, weight, fracture type (open or closed), ESF classification and the incidence or type of complications were identified. No associations between, breed, age, sex, weight, fracture type (open or closed), ESF classification and the time to complication development were identified. CLINICAL SIGNIFICANCE:  Fixator-associated complications are common in dogs, with the majority of complications related to implant infection. Region and placement of transarticular frames should be carefully considered when selecting stabilization method

Evaluating stratiform cloud base charge remotely

Stratiform clouds acquire charge at their upper and lower horizontal boundaries due to vertical current flow in the global electric circuit. Cloud charge is expected to influence microphysical processes, but understanding is restricted by the infrequent in-situ measurements available. For stratiform cloud bases below 1 km in altitude, the cloud base charge modifies the surface electric field beneath, allowing a new method of remote determination. Combining continuous cloud height data during 2015-2016 from a laser ceilometer with electric field mill data, cloud base charge is derived using a horizontal charged disk model. The median daily cloud base charge density found was -0.86 nCm-2 from 43 days’ data. This is consistent with a uniformly charged region ~ 40 m thick at the cloud base, now confirming that negative cloud base charge is a common feature of terrestrial layer clouds. This technique can also be applied to planetary atmospheres and volcanic plumes

Ensemble Sales Forecasting Study in Semiconductor Industry

Sales forecasting plays a prominent role in business planning and business strategy. The value and importance of advance information is a cornerstone of planning activity, and a well-set forecast goal can guide sale-force more efficiently. In this paper CPU sales forecasting of Intel Corporation, a multinational semiconductor industry, was considered. Past sale, future booking, exchange rates, Gross domestic product (GDP) forecasting, seasonality and other indicators were innovatively incorporated into the quantitative modeling. Benefit from the recent advances in computation power and software development, millions of models built upon multiple regressions, time series analysis, random forest and boosting tree were executed in parallel. The models with smaller validation errors were selected to form the ensemble model. To better capture the distinct characteristics, forecasting models were implemented at lead time and lines of business level. The moving windows validation process automatically selected the models which closely represent current market condition. The weekly cadence forecasting schema allowed the model to response effectively to market fluctuation. Generic variable importance analysis was also developed to increase the model interpretability. Rather than assuming fixed distribution, this non-parametric permutation variable importance analysis provided a general framework across methods to evaluate the variable importance. This variable importance framework can further extend to classification problem by modifying the mean absolute percentage error(MAPE) into misclassify error. Please find the demo code at : https://github.com/qx0731/ensemble_forecast_methodsComment: 14 pages, Industrial Conference on Data Mining 2017 (ICDM 2017

Electron paramagnetic resonance and optical absorption study of acceptors in CdSiP2 crystals

Cadmium silicon diphosphide (CdSiP2) is a nonlinear material often used in optical parametric oscillators (OPOs) to produce tunable laser output in the mid-infrared. Absorption bands associated with donors and acceptors may overlap the pump wave- length and adversely affect the performance of these OPOs. In the present investigation, electron paramagnetic resonance (EPR) is used to identify two unintentionally present acceptors in large CdSiP2 crystals. These are an intrinsic silicon-on-phosphorus anti- site and a copper impurity substituting for cadmium. When exposed to 633 nm laser light at temperatures near or below 80 K, they convert to their neutral paramagnetic charge states (Si0P and Cu0Cd) and can be monitored with EPR. The corresponding donor serving as the electron trap is the silicon-on-cadmium antisite (Si2+ before illumina- above 90 K quickly destroys the EPR signals from both acceptors and the associated donor. Broad optical absorption bands peaking near 0.8 and 1.4 μm are also pro- duced at low temperature by the 633 nm light. These absorption bands are associated with the Si0P and Cu0Cd acceptors. © 2018 Author(s). All article content, except where otherwise noted, is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). https://doi.org/10.1063/1.504180

MgB2 superconducting thin films with a transition temperature of 39 Kelvin

We report the growth of high-quality c-axis-oriented epitaxial MgB2 thin films by using a pulsed laser deposition technique. The thin films grown on (1`1 0 2) Al2O3 substrates show a Tc of 39 K. The critical current density in zero field is ~ 6 x 10^6 A/cm2 at 5 K and ~ 3 x 10^5 A/cm^2 at 35 K, suggesting that this compound has great potential for electronic device applications, such as microwave devices and superconducting quantum interference devices. For the films deposited on Al2O3, X-ray diffraction patterns indicate a highly c-axis-oriented crystal structure perpendicular to the substrate surface.Comment: 3 pages and 3 figure

Identifying Sources of Children’s Consumption of Junk Food in Boston After-School Programs, April–May 2011

Introduction: Little is known about how the nutrition environment in after-school settings may affect children’s dietary intake. We measured the nutritional quality of after-school snacks provided by programs participating in the National School Lunch Program or the Child and Adult Care Food Program and compared them with snacks brought from home or purchased elsewhere (nonprogram snacks). We quantified the effect of nonprogram snacks on the dietary intake of children who also received program-provided snacks during after-school time. Our study objective was to determine how different sources of snacks affect children’s snack consumption in after-school settings. Methods: We recorded snacks served to and brought in by 298 children in 18 after-school programs in Boston, Massachusetts, on 5 program days in April and May 2011. We measured children’s snack consumption on 2 program days using a validated observation protocol. We then calculated within-child change-in-change models to estimate the effect of nonprogram snacks on children’s dietary intake after school. Results: Nonprogram snacks contained more sugary beverages and candy than program-provided snacks. Having a nonprogram snack was associated with significantly higher consumption of total calories (+114.7 kcal, P < .001), sugar-sweetened beverages (+0.5 oz, P = .01), desserts (+0.3 servings, P < .001), and foods with added sugars (+0.5 servings; P < .001) during the snack period. Conclusion: On days when children brought their own after-school snack, they consumed more salty and sugary foods and nearly twice as many calories than on days when they consumed only program-provided snacks. Policy strategies limiting nonprogram snacks or setting nutritional standards for them in after-school settings should be explored further as a way to promote child health