We show that the fractional integral operator $I_{\alpha }$, $0<\alpha <n$, and the fractional maximal operator $M_{\alpha }$, $0\le \alpha <n$, are bounded on weak Choquet spaces with respect to Hausdorff content. We also investigate these operators on Choquet–Morrey spaces. The results for the fractional maximal operator $M_\alpha $ are extensions of the work of Tang [‘Choquet integrals, weighted Hausdorff content and maximal operators’, Georgian Math. J. 18(3) (2011), 587–596] and earlier work of Adams and Orobitg and Verdera. The results for the fractional integral operator $I_{\alpha }$ are essentially new.

Background: Oncology patients are at high risk for bloodstream infection (BSI) due to immunosuppression and frequent use of central venous catheters. Surveillance in this population is largely relegated to inpatient settings and limited data are available describing community burden. We evaluated rates of BSI, clinic or emergency department (ED) visits, and hospitalizations in a large cohort of oncology outpatients with peripherally inserted central catheters (PICCs). Methods: In this prospective, observational study, we followed a convenience sample of adults (age>18) with PICCs at a large academic outpatient oncology clinic for 35 months between July 2015 and November 2018. We assessed demographics, malignancy type, PICC insertion and removal dates, history of prior PICC, and line duration. Outcomes included BSI events (defined as >1 positive blood cultures or >2 positive blood cultures if coagulase-negative Staphylococcus), ED visits (without hospitalization), and unplanned hospitalizations (excluding scheduled chemotherapy hospitalizations). We used χ2 analyses to compare the frequency of categorical outcomes, and we used unpaired t tests to assess differences in means of continuous variable in hematologic versus solid-tumor malignancy patients. We used generalized linear mixed-effects models to assess differences in BSI (clustered by patient) separately for gram-positive and gram-negative BSI outcomes. Results: Among 478 patients with 658 unique PICC lines and 64,190 line days, 271 patients (413 lines) had hematologic malignancy and 207 patients (232 lines) had solid-tumor malignancy. Cohort characteristics and outcomes stratified by malignancy type are shown in Table 1. Compared to those with hematologic malignancy, solid-tumor patients were older, had 47% fewer clinic visits, and had 32% lower frequency of prior PICC lines. Overall, there were 75 BSI events (12%; 1.2 per 1,000 catheter days). We detected no significant difference in BSI rates when comparing solid-tumor versus hematologic malignancies (P = 0.20); BSIs with gram-positive pathogen were 69% higher in patients with solid tumors. Gram-negative BSIs were 41% higher in patients with hematologic malignancy. Solid-tumor malignancy was associated with 4.5-fold higher odds of developing BSI with gram-positive pathogen (OR, 4.48; 95% CI, 1.60–12.60; P = .005) compared to those with hematologic malignancy, after adjusting for age, sex, history of prior PICC, and line duration. Differences in gram-negative BSI were not significant on multivariate analysis. Conclusions: The burden of all-cause BSIs in cancer clinic adults with PICC lines was 12% or 1.2 per 1,000 catheter days, as high as nationally reported inpatient BSI rates. Higher risk of gram-positive BSIs in solid-tumor patients suggests the need for targeted infection prevention activities in this population, such as improvements in central-line monitoring, outpatient care, and maintenance of lines and/or dressings, as well as chlorhexidine bathing to reduce skin bioburden.

Disclosures: None

The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has influenced current infection control practices in the healthcare setting. We surveyed 74 hospitals in Japan regarding changes in their infection control practices or policies between 2020 and the present. We found that the current hospital infection control practices for COVID-19 are adequate.

Block decomposition of $L^{p}$ spaces with weighted Hausdorff content is established for $0<p\leqslant 1$ and the Fefferman–Stein type inequalities are shown for fractional integral operators and some variants of maximal operators.

The Fefferman–Stein type inequalities for strongmaximal operators and directional maximal operators are verified with an additional composition of the Hardy–Littlewood maximal operator in the plane.

6,13-bis(triisopropylsilylethynyl) pentacene (TIPS pentacene) was deposited on SiO2/Si substrates with Au stripes using electrostatic spray deposition (ESD). We observed that crystalline domains on the substrates were preferentially oriented. To elucidate this phenomenon, the correlation between the orientation direction and stripe direction was investigated by angle-dependent polarized Raman spectroscopy. Since the acene planes in TIPS pentacene take an edge-on orientation on the substrates, C-C ring stretch modes can be used to probe the in-plane orientation. We found that the long molecular axis of acene planes is inclined at about 50° or 110° from the stripe direction. This result suggests that the molecular orientation of the crystalline domains can be controlled by the stripes.

Let $\Omega $ be the set of unit vectors and $w$ be a radial weight on the plane. We consider the weighted directional maximal operator defined by

$$\begin{eqnarray*}{M}_{\Omega , w} f(x): = \sup _{x\in R\in \mathcal{B} _{\Omega }}\frac{1}{w(R)} \int \nolimits \nolimits_{R} \vert f(y)\vert w(y)\hspace{0.167em} dy,\end{eqnarray*}$$

${ \mathcal{B} }_{\Omega } $

$\Omega $

$w(R)$

$\int \nolimits \nolimits_{R} w$

$$\begin{eqnarray*}\Vert {M}_{\Omega , w} f\mathop{\Vert }\nolimits_{{L}^{2} (w)} \leq C\log N\Vert f\mathop{\Vert }\nolimits_{{L}^{2} (w)} ,\end{eqnarray*}$$

$w(x)= \vert x\hspace{-1.2pt}\mathop{\vert }\nolimits ^{a} $

$a\gt 0$

$\Omega $

$N$

This paper demonstrates that electrostatic spray deposition (ESD) method is a promising solution process to fabricate highly-crystalline organic films (6,13-bis(triisopropylsilylethynyl) pentacene; TIPS pentacene) for the use in bottom-contact organic field-effect transistors (OFETs). We obtained large crystalline domains (i.e., molecularly-oriented domains) by using an o-DCB:acetone mixed solvent (1:1), and observed good transistor behavior in an OFET having the channel length of 20 μm.

For performance assessments of geological disposal of high-level radioactive waste, activation energies for the diffusion of strontium ions and the basal spacings of compacted sodium montmorillonite in the water-saturated state were determined.

Basal spacings determined by XRD indicated changes in the interlamellar space from a three-water layer hydrate state to a two-water layer hydrate state as the dry density of the montmorillonite increased from 1.0 to 1.8 Mg m-3. Activation energies from 17.3 to 30.8 kJ mol-1 for the apparent diffusion coefficients of strontium ions were obtained. The lower activation energies than for diffusion of strontium ions in free water were determined for montmorillonite specimens of lower dry density (1.2 Mg m-3 and below), while the higher activation energies were at higher dry densities (1.4 Mg m-3 and above).

These findings cannot be explained by changes in only the geometric parameters, which the pore water diffusion model is based upon. Possible explanations for the dry density dependence of the activation energy are the changes of the temperature dependence of the distribution coefficients and/or of the diffusion process with increasing dry density