Simple Nudges for Better Password Creation

Recent security breaches have highlighted the consequences of reusing passwords across online accounts. Recent guidance on password policies by the UK government recommend an emphasis on password length over an extended character set for generating secure but memorable passwords without cognitive overload. This paper explores the role of three nudges in creating website-specific passwords: financial incentive (present vs absent), length instruction (long password vs no instruction) and stimulus (picture present vs not present). Mechanical Turk workers were asked to create a password in one of these conditions and the resulting passwords were evaluated based on character length, resistance to automated guessing attacks, and time taken to create the password. We found that users created longer passwords when asked to do so or when given a financial incentive and these longer passwords were harder to guess than passwords created with no instruction. Using a picture nudge to support password creation did not lead to passwords that were either longer or more resistant to attacks but did lead to account-specific passwords

Troponin Is Unrelated to Outcomes in Heart Failure Patients Discharged From the Emergency Department

Background: Prior data has demonstrated increased mortality in hospitalized patients with acute heart failure (AHF) and troponin elevation. No data has specifically examined the prognostic significance of troponin elevation in patients with AHF discharged after emergency department (ED) management. Objective: Evaluate the relationship between troponin elevation and outcomes in patients with AHF who are treated and released from the ED. Methods: This was a secondary analysis of the Get with the Guidelines to Reduce Disparities in AHF Patients Discharged from the ED (GUIDED-HF) trial, a randomized, controlled trial of ED patients with AHF who were discharged. Patients with elevated conventional troponin not due to acute coronary syndrome (ACS) were included. Our primary outcome was a composite endpoint: time to 30-day cardiovascular death and/or heart failure-related events. Results: Of the 491 subjects included in the GUIDED-HF trial, 418 had troponin measured during the ED evaluation and 66 (16%) had troponin values above the 99th percentile. Median age was 63 years (interquartile range, 54-70), 62% (n = 261) were male, 63% (n = 265) were Black, and 16% (n = 67) experienced our primary outcome. There were no differences in our primary outcome between those with and without troponin elevation (12/66, 18.1% vs 55/352, 15.6%; P = 0.60). This effect was maintained regardless of assignment to usual care or the intervention arm. In multivariable regression analysis, there was no association between our primary outcome and elevated troponin (hazard ratio, 1.00; 95% confidence interval, 0.49-2.01, P = 0.994). Conclusion: If confirmed in a larger cohort, these findings may facilitate safe ED discharge for a group of patients with AHF without ACS when an elevated troponin is the primary reason for admission

AAPT Diagnostic Criteria for Chronic Cancer Pain Conditions

Chronic cancer pain is a serious complication of malignancy or its treatment. Currently, no comprehensive, universally accepted cancer pain classification system exists. Clarity in classification of common cancer pain syndromes would improve clinical assessment and management. Moreover, an evidence-based taxonomy would enhance cancer pain research efforts by providing consistent diagnostic criteria, ensuring comparability across clinical trials. As part of a collaborative effort between the Analgesic, Anesthetic, and Addiction Clinical Trial Translations Innovations Opportunities and Networks (ACTTION) and the American Pain Society (APS), the ACTTION-APS Pain Taxonomy (AAPT) initiative worked to develop the characteristics of an optimal diagnostic system.59, 65 Following the establishment of these characteristics, a working group consisting of clinicians and clinical and basic scientists with expertise in cancer and cancer-related pain was convened to generate core diagnostic criteria for an illustrative sample of 3 chronic pain syndromes associated with cancer (i.e., bone pain and pancreatic cancer pain as models of pain related to a tumor) or its treatment (i.e., chemotherapy-induced peripheral neuropathy). A systematic review and synthesis was conducted to provide evidence for the dimensions that comprise this cancer pain taxonomy. Future efforts will subject these diagnostic categories and criteria to systematic empirical evaluation of their feasibility, reliability and validity and extension to other cancer-related pain syndromes

Functional analysis of liverworts in dual symbiosis with Glomeromycota and Mucoromycotina fungi under a simulated Palaeozoic CO2 decline.

Most land plants form mutualistic associations with arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi of the Glomeromycota, but recent studies have found that ancient plant lineages form mutualisms with Mucoromycotina fungi. Simultaneous associations with both fungal lineages have now been found in some plants, necessitating studies to understand the functional and evolutionary significance of these tripartite associations for the first time. We investigate the physiology and cytology of dual fungal symbioses in the early-diverging liverworts Allisonia and Neohodgsonia at modern and Palaeozoic-like elevated atmospheric CO2 concentrations under which they are thought to have evolved. We found enhanced carbon cost to liverworts with simultaneous Mucoromycotina and Glomeromycota associations, greater nutrient gain compared with those symbiotic with only one fungal group in previous experiments and contrasting responses to atmospheric CO2 among liverwort-fungal symbioses. In liverwort-Mucoromycotina symbioses, there is increased P-for-C and N-for-C exchange efficiency at 440 p.p.m. compared with 1500 p.p.m. CO2. In liverwort-Glomeromycota symbioses, P-for-C exchange is lower at ambient CO2 compared with elevated CO2. No characteristic cytologies of dual symbiosis were identified. We provide evidence of a distinct physiological niche for plant symbioses with Mucoromycotina fungi, giving novel insight into why dual symbioses with Mucoromycotina and Glomeromycota fungi persist to the present day.The ISME Journal advance online publication, 27 November 2015; doi:10.1038/ismej.2015.204

Use of a Coagulation Analyzer In Managing Disseminated Intravascular Coagulation After Midtrimester Pregnancy Termination. A case report

A case of disseminated intravascular coagulation occurred with midtrimester dilation and evacuation. The case was treated successfully but required substantial volumes of blood products. The use of a coagulation analyzer facilitated the diagnosis and treatment

Critics and advisors: Heuristic knowledge and manufacturability

In recent years, much of the progress in Computer-Aided Manufacturing has emphasized the use of simulation, finite-element analysis, and other science-based techniques to plan and evaluate manufacturing processes. These approaches are all based on the idea that we can build sufficiently faithful models of complex manufacturing processes such as machining, welding, and casting. Although there has been considerable progress in this area, it continues to suffer from difficulties: the first of these is that the kind of highly accurate models that this approach requires may take many person months to construct, and the second is the large amount of computing resources needed to run these simulations. Two design advisors, Near Net-Shape Advisor and Design for Machinability Advisor, are being developed to explore the role of heuristic, knowledge-based systems for manufacturing processes, both as an alternative to more analytical techniques, and also in support of these techniques. Currently the advisors are both in the prototype stage. All indications lead to the conclusion that the advisors will be successful and lay the groundwork for additional systems such as these in the future

Evaluation of Exposure-Effects Relationships of Metals in the Benthic Macroinvertebrate Community in the Upper Clark Fork River, Montana

Previously published studies conducted on the Upper Clark Fork River (UCFR) suggest adverse effects due to metals-enriched sediments found in the depositional areas that comprise approximately 4% of the riverbed. While these studies measure exposure concentrations from depositional areas, effects measurements (e.g., benthic invertebrate abundance and diversity measures and tissue residues) have been predominantly obtained from coarse substrate riffle areas. Comparing exposure data from one habitat to effects data from another is problematic. An integrated approach was conducted to assess effects data by sampling benthic macroinvertebrates for community composition measurements, tissue residues, and sediment contaminant concentrations. Thirteen co-located sampling sites along the UCFR were sampled in both depositional and riffle habitats in 1996. Metals concentrations in bulk sediments and benthic invertebrate tissues decreased with distance from metals sources in the headwaters, but sediment porewater concentrations did not. Although there were some significant relationships between bulk sediment metals concentrations and tissue metals residues, BMI community metrics did not appear to vary along this gradient, or with exposure concentrations. This is consistent with an evaluation of sediment toxicity tests performed using sediments from Warm Springs Ponds, as well as the UCFR, which do not suggest that metals are of potential concern to benthic macroinvertebrates