Air-gap insulated exhaust manifolds are mainly stressed by thermo-mechanical loads (TMF). To calculate the components with regard to their durability, a material model was created using a nonlinear kinematic model of strain hardening based on Low-Cycle-Fatique-(LCF)-tests and multi-level creep tests. On this basis, an energy-based model for life estimation was developed. The simulation of the LCF tests showed a good correlation. The model was validated on the hot gas test rig using a bended pipe. Furthermore, a model was developed to calculate welds. LCF tests with welded specimens were carried out and based on these tests, the material model of the basic material was modified for the welded areas.

Acetic acid and furfural are the two prevalent inhibitors coexisting with glucose and xylose in lignocellulosic hydrolysate. The transcriptional regulations of S. cerevisiae in response to acetic acid (Aa), furfural (Fur), and the mixture of acetic acid and furfural (Aa_Fur) while fermenting with glucose and xylose were revealed. The pathways classified as carbohydrate metabolism were significantly enriched in response to Aa, while the pathways belonged to xenobiotics biodegradation and metabolism were significantly enriched in response to Fur. In addition to these pathways, some new pathways were activated in response to Aa_Fur, i.e., cofactors and vitamins metabolism, and lipid metabolism. Overexpression of Haa1p or Tye7p improved xylose consumption rate by nearly 50%, while the ethanol yield enhanced by nearly 8%. Further co-overexpression of Haa1p and Tye7 resulted in 59% increase in xylose consumption rate and 12% increase in ethanol yield, revealing the beneficial effects of Haa1p and Tye7p on improving the tolerance of yeast to mixed fermentation inhibitors.

Nanotechnology plays a promising role in biomedical applications, particularly tissue engineering. Recently, the application of magnetic scaffolds and pulsed electromagnetic field (PEMF) exposure has been considered in bone tissue regeneration. In this study, 3rd generation dendrimer-modified superparamagnetic iron oxide nanoparticles (G3-SPIONs) are synthesized comprehensively characterized. Magnetic polycaprolactone (PCL) nanofibers are prepared by incorporating G3-SPIONs within the electrospinning process ,and physicochemical characteristics ,as well as cytocompatibility and cell attachment are assessed. Eventually, the osteogenic differentiation ability of adipocyte-derived mesenchymal stem cells (ADMSCs) cultured on the magnetic scaffold with and without PEMF exposure was investigated by measurement of alkaline phosphatase (ALP) activity and calcium content. The expression of specific bone markers was studied using the Real-time PCR method. According to the results, G3-SPIONs with mean size and zeta potential of 17.95 ± 3.57 nm and 22.7 mV, respectively, show a high saturation magnetization (57.75 emu/g). Adding G3-SPIONs to PCL significantly decrease nanofibers size to 495±144 nm and improves cell attachment and growth. The ADMSCs cultured on the G3-SPION-PCL scaffold in the presence of osteogenic media (OM) and exposure to PEMF expressed the highest Osteocalcin and Runx2 and showed higher calcium content as well as ALP activity. It can be concluded that the synthesized G3-SPION incorporated PCL nanofibers serve as a promising magnetic scaffold for bone regeneration. Also, utilizing the magnetic scaffold in the presence of OM and PEMF provides a synergistic effect toward osteogenic differentiation of ADMSCs. Key Words: Superparamagnetic iron oxide nanoparticles, Dendrimer, Polycaprolactone, Pulsed electromagnetic field, Bone tissue engineering

Convex functions have played a major role in the field of Mathematical inequalities. In this paper, we introduce a new concept related to convexity, which proves better estimates when the function is somehow more convex than another.\\ In particular, we define what we called $g-$convexity as a generalization of $\log-$convexity. Then we prove that $g-$convex functions have better estimates in certain known inequalities like the Hermite-Hadard inequality, super additivity of convex functions, the Majorization inequality and some means inequalities.\\ Strongly related to this, we define the index of convexity as a measure of “how much the function is convex”.\\ Applications including Hilbert space operators, matrices and entropies will be presented in the end.

Pyruvate dehydrogenase complex (PDHC) deficiency is a mitochondrial disorder. We report two cases of PDHC deficiency with clinical symptoms and brain imaging findings reminiscent of FOXG1 syndrome, suggesting a phenotypic overlap of these disorders.

A 92-year-old small-framed man developed torsade de pointes during pacemaker-generator exchange. His family physician prescribed bepridil 200 mg/day. High bepridil concentration of 1409 ng/mL was revealed. Electrophysiologists at pacemaker clinic should pay attention to arrhythmia management including bepridil concentration when the family physician prescribes bepridil to a pacemaker patient.

The heat tolerance of photosystem II (PSII) may promote carbon assimilation at higher temperatures and may help explain plant responses to climate change. PSII heat tolerance could lead to 1) increases in the high temperature compensation point (Tmax); 2) increases in the thermal breadth of photosynthesis (i.e. the photosynthetic Ω parameter) to promote a thermal generalist strategy of carbon assimilation; 3) increases in the optimum rate of carbon assimilation Popt and promote faster carbon assimilation; and/or 4) increases in the optimum temperature for photosynthesis (Topt). To address these hypotheses, we tested if the Tcrit, T50 and T95 metrics of PSII heat tolerance were correlated with each carbon assimilation parameter for 21 species. Hypothesis 1 was not supported, but we observed that T50 may estimate the upper thermal limit for Tmax at the species-level, and that community mean Tcrit may be useful for approximating Tmax. The T50 and T95 heat tolerance metrics were positively correlated with Ω in support of hypothesis 2. We found no support for hypotheses 3 or 4. Our study shows that high PSII heat tolerance is unlikely to improve carbon assimilation at higher temperatures, but may characterize thermal generalists with slow resource acquisition strategies.

The Shenandoah Watershed Study (established in 1979) and the Virginia Trout Stream Sensitivity Study (established in 1987) serve to increase understanding of hydrological and biogeochemical changes in western Virginia mountain streams that occur in response to acidic deposition and other ecosystem stressors. The SWAS-VTSSS program has evolved over its 40+ year history to consist of a temporally robust and spatially stratified monitoring framework. Currently stream water is sampled bi-hourly during high-flow events at 3 sites and weekly at 4 sites within Shenandoah National Park (SHEN), and quarterly at 72 sites and on an approximately decadal frequency at ~ 450 sites within the wider western Virginia Appalachian region. Stream water is evaluated for pH, acid neutralizing capacity (ANC), base cations (calcium, magnesium, sodium and potassium ion), acid anions (sulfate, nitrate and chloride), silica and ammonium, with a subset of samples evaluated for monomeric aluminum and dissolved organic carbon. Hourly stream discharge (4 sites) and in-situ measurements of conductivity, water and air temperature (3 sites) are also measured within SHEN. Here we provide an overview and timeline of the SWAS-VTSSS stream water monitoring program, summarize the field and laboratory methods, describe the water chemistry and hydrologic data sets, and document major watershed disturbances that have occurred during the program history. Website links and instructions are provided to access the stream chemistry and time-series monitoring data in open-access federal databases. The purpose of this publication is to promote awareness of these unique, long-term data sets for wider use in catchment studies. The water chemistry and hydrologic data can be used to investigate a wide range of biogeochemical research questions and provide key inputs for models of these headwater stream ecosystems. SWAS-VTSSS is an ongoing program and quality assured data sets are uploaded to the databases annually.

Cardiac tumors are a rare disease in clinical practice. Two patients with primary cardiac malignancies were admitted to our hospital from May 2020 to July 2020. The first patient‘s heart tumor is non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma, which originated in the right atrium and invaded part of the right atrium and superior vena cava. The tumor was completely removed and the right atrium and superior vena cava were reconstructed after surgery. The prognosis of the patients after chemotherapy is fair. The second patient’s tumor also originated in the right atrium, which was an epithelioid hemangioendothelioma, it was highly malignant and had a wide range of tumor invasion. The right atrium, left atrium, right ventricle, aortic root, and superior and inferior vena cava were all involved and could not be completely surgically removed, so the patient’s prognosis is poor.

The well-accepted role of the Heart Team in assessing patients suffering from aortic stenosis is becoming the standard approach in most centers. A tailored approach to individual patients may lead to significant changes in outcomes even though SAVR will continue to play a major rollin the treatment of patients presenting more co-morbidities and anatomical challenges.

Takayasu arteritis is a chronic vasculitis that affects large vessels and causes focal or diffuse thickening of the vessel walls with consequent stenosis, occlusion, or thrombosis. Here, we describe a young lady with Takayasu, which had Internal common carotid artery stenosis and subclavian artery occlusion with focusing on the value of transthoracic echocardiography (2D) in the diagnosis of these complications of Takayasu.

Different samples (i.e. stool, blood, urine, sputum, wound swabs, nasal swabs etc.) from 127 patients with suspected gram-negative infections based on on-site performed Gram-stain from four public hospitals between March and September 2015 in Lagos, Nigeria were analysed. Klebsiella (K.) pneumonia was identified in 43 (34%) patients. Resistance rates of these 43 strains according to the CLSI breakpoints were as followed: cotrimoxazole (90.7%), cefuroxime (74.4%), ofloxacin (55.8%), ceftazidime (46.5%), and cefixime (35%). Three isolates (7%) were resistant to imipenem. All isolates were susceptible to amoxicillin/clavulanic acid and nitrofurantoin. The prevalence of ESBL-producing and carbapenem resistant strains (CRKP) was 69.8% and 7.0%, respectively. Of the ESBL producing isolates, two K. pneumoniae isolates obtained from urine harbored both blaCTX-M-1 and blaSHV and a third isolate from urine harbored only blaCTX-M-1. Emerging of CRKP strains is an early warning signal for the prudent use of carbapenem antibiotics in concern to their efficacies.

Background and Purpose: Diabetic nephropathy is one of the most common complications that is related to high morbidity and mortality in type 2 diabetic patients. We investigated ability of a novel dual modulator, PTUPB that concurrently acts as a soluble epoxide hydrolase inhibitor and as a cyclooxygenase-2 inhibitor against diabetic nephropathy. Experimental Approach: Sixteen-week-old type 2 diabetic and proteinuric obese ZSF1 rats were orally treated with vehicle, PTUPB, or enalapril for 8 weeks. Key Results: PTUPB alleviated diabetic nephropathy in obese ZSF1 rats by reducing albuminuria by 50%, renal tubular cast formation by 60-70%, renal fibrosis by 40-50%, glomerular injury by 55% and preserved glomerular nephrin expression. Enalapril demonstrated comparable effects and alleviated diabetic nephropathy in obese ZSF1 rats by reducing all kidney injury parameters by 30 to 50%. Diabetic renal injury in obese ZSF1 rats was accompanied by renal inflammation with 6-7-fold higher urinary MCP-1 level and renal infiltration of CD-68 positive cells. PTUPB and enalapril reduced renal inflammation but PTUPB demonstrated superior anti-inflammatory actions than enalapril. Obese ZSF1 rats were also hypertensive, hyperlipidemic, and exhibited liver injury. Interestingly, PTUPB but not enalapril decreased hyperlipidemia and liver injury in Obese ZSF1 rats. Conclusion and Implication: Overall, we demonstrate that a dual modulator PTUPB does not treat hyperglycemia, but can effectively alleviate hypertension, diabetic nephropathy, hyperlipidemia, and liver injury in type 2 diabetic rats. Therefore, we suggest that PTUPB has promising potential to be developed as a novel therapy for type 2 diabetic nephropathy and other complications.

Background/aim: This study aims to evaluate presenting symptoms, clinical and laboratory findings, and treatment modalities of adult patients presenting with mushroom poisoning treated in the intensive care unit (ICU) with special consideration of extracorporeal liver support systems. Materials and methods: Records of patients with mushroom poisoning treated in the ICU between January 2007 and December 2014 were analyzed retrospectively. Results: Sixteen adult patients were treated in the ICU for mushroom poisoning during the designated study period. Presentation to the hospital was most common during October of each year. Average time from ingestion of mushrooms to first symptoms was 17.81 hours, and to ICU admission was 2.38 days. The most common symptoms were nausea, vomiting and diarrhea. The most common laboratory finding was elevation of liver transaminases. In cases with elevated liver transaminases, penicillin G, silibinin and N-acetyl cysteine were used. Extracorporeal support systems were used in 9 cases. Two cases underwent emergency liver transplantation. Conclusion: Liver transplantation is the most definitive and effective treatment in indicated cases of mushroom poisoning. Extracorporeal support systems should be considered in the early period both as a treatment modality on their own or to save time until the definitive treatment is possible. The question of which extracorporeal detoxification technique to use is difficult to answer and controlled clinical trials which compare their efficacy are needed.

Rationale, Aims and Objectives Hospitals are complex organizations with a high potential for medical errors that can be influenced by safety culture, a central aspect in research and practice to increase patient safety. Safety climate as a measurable element of safety culture, illustrates the perception of safety-relevant aspects of health care staff at a certain time. The Safety Climate Survey (SCS) is applied internationally to measure safety climate. However, psychometrics for the German SCS have yet not been evaluated. Aim of this study is to explore the factor structure, reliability, and potential usefulness of the German SCS in Austrian acute care. Methods Cross-sectional online-surveys of physicians, therapists and nurses/midwives from eight hospitals from one hospital operator were implemented. An exploratory factor analysis (EFA) was carried out, both, for the total sample and also split by two select professions (physicians, nurses/midwives). After deriving a factor structure for both professions, internal consistency and scale means were calculated for the subscales. Finally, mean subscale differences between physicians and nurses/midwives were tested. Results In summary, 933 respondents out of 5,160 eligible staff participated, reaching a response rate of 18.1%. A six-factor solution explaining 59.1% of total variance was identified in the total sample. Comparison by profession illustrated that the factor structures and item loading patterns differ between physicians (n=124) and nurses/midwives (n=713). To achieve an overarching solution, five items were excluded from consecutive subscale measures due to cross-loadings and contradictory factor loadings. Subscales demonstrated good to low internal consistency (α=0.794 to 0.535). Significant mean differences between subscales of professions were found relating to three factors. Conclusions The German SCS measures safety climate multi- rather than unidimensional, demonstrated limitations in factor structures and item loadings but overall satisfactory reliability of the subscales. When assessing safety climate, a multi-dimensional and profession-related approach must be explicitly considered.

Objectives: To assess droplet splatter around the surgical field and surgeon during simulated Coblation tonsil surgery to better inform on mitigation strategies and evaluate choice of personal protective equipment. Design: Observational study Setting: Operation theatre suite at a tertiary hospital Participants: Life size head model was used to simulate tonsil surgery using fluorescein-soaked strawberries to mimic tonsils Main outcome measures: The Coblation wand was activated over the strawberries for 5 minutes. This was repeated 5 times with 2 surgeons (total of 10 data sets). The presence of droplet around the surgical field and anatomical subsites on the surgeon was assessed in binary fashion: present or not present. The results were collated as frequency of droplet detection and illustrated as a heatmap; 0 = white, 1-2 = yellow, 3-4 = orange and 5 = red. Results: Fluorescein droplets were detected in all four quadrants of the surgical field. The frequency of splatter was greatest in the upper (nearest to surgeon) and lower quadrants. There were detectable splatter droplets on the surgeon; most frequently occurring on the hands followed by the forearm. Droplets were also detected on the visor, neck, and chest albeit less frequently. However, none were detected on the upper arms. Conclusion: Droplet splatter can be detected in the immediate surgical field as well as on the surgeon. Although wearing a face visor does not prevent splatter on the surgical mask or around the eyes, it should be considered when undertaking tonsil surgery as well as a properly fitted goggle.

Understanding the demographic context for population divergence and speciation in the sea often requires distinguishing the contributions of mutation, isolation, and gene flow on temporal or geographical scales where those diverse processes may not achieve equilibrium conditions. Coalescent isolation-with-migration (IM) models can meet this need for non-equilibrium modelling of genetic variation, but the quality of IM model parameter estimation depends on the breadth of genome sampling. Here, we describe three improvements in IM parameter estimates based on hundreds of loci from RNA-seq assemblies relative to previously published results based on few loci in two sea star study systems that differ in the tempo of population divergence. (1) Precision of all model parameter value estimates (with narrow posterior distributions) was vastly better in both study systems and resolved uncertainty around one key parameter in each. (2) Maximum likelihood estimates of some model parameters were broadly similar to previously published estimates, but with greater precision we obtained more realistic values for some parameters that were consistent with expectations based on the biogeography of the organisms. (3) We found non-zero but demographically trivial gene flow in one study system where we previously estimated gene flow to be zero, and modest symmetrical gene flow (2Nm<1) in a second study system where we previously estimated gene flow to be massive (2Nm~10) and asymmetrical. Improved understanding through judicious application of genome-wide sampling in replication studies as shown here may improve the information needed for biodiversity management and conservation.

Most of the real life problems embroil uncertainties, imprecision and vagueness. Fuzzy multisets and Pythagorean fuzzy sets, initially suggested by Yager, are significant mathematical models to handle such real world problems. By combining these two notions, a new kind of hybrid mathematical model is exists: Pythagorean fuzzy multisets. In this study, Pythagorean fuzzy multisets approach is applied to a multi-robot system to achieve better results using less effort and less time.

As a microbial host for cellulosic biofuel production, Saccharomyces cerevisiae needs to be engineered to express a heterologous xylose pathway. However, it has been challenging to optimize the engineered strain for efficient and rapid fermentation of xylose. Deletion of PHO13 (pho13) has been reported to be a crucial genetic perturbation for improving xylose fermentation. A confirmed mechanism of the pho13-positive effect on xylose fermentation is that the deletion of PHO13 transcriptionally activates the genes in the non-oxidative pentose phosphate pathway (PPP). In the present study, we reported that a pho13-positive effect was not observed from a couple of engineered strains, among the many others we have examined. To extend our knowledge of pho13-mediated metabolic regulation, we performed genome sequencing of pho13-negative strains. We identified a loss-of-function mutation in GCR2 responsible for the pho13-negative phenotype. Gcr2 is a transcriptional activator of the lower glycolytic pathway. Thus, the deletion of GCR2 (gcr2) led to deactivation of lower glycolysis as confirmed by RNA-seq. Also, gcr2 resulted in the up-regulation of PPP genes, which explains the improved xylose fermentation of gcr2 mutants. As pho13 and gcr2 cause similar transcriptional changes with PPP genes, there was no synergistic effect between pho13 and gcr2 for improving xylose fermentation. The present study identified GCR2 as a new knockout target to improve xylose fermentation and cellulosic biofuel production.

Several hundred U mL-1 of Nattokinase (NK), a fibrinolytic enzyme, can be produced by culturing recombinant Bacillus subtilis in Luria-Bertani broth in a shaking flask. For use as a nutraceutical, large-scale preparation and a simple purification process is required. The present study utilized a fed-batch process with a pH-stat and low-glycerol-level-maintain feeding strategy to cultivate a B. subtilis strain carrying a pHT01 plasmid with an NK-encoding gene (B. subtilis/pHT01-aprN1). Finally, a NK activity of 7778 ±17.28 U mL-1 was obtained, which represented a 26-fold increase of NK activity by high cell density cultivation compared to the flask culture. Furthermore, fermentation supernatant was successively purified by ammonium sulfate precipitation and nickel column affinity chromatography with a total NK recovery rate of 65.2%.

The development of generic biopharmaceuticals is increasing the pressures for enhanced bioprocess productivity and yields. Autophagy (“self-eating”) is a cellular process that allows cells to mitigate stresses such as nutrient deprivation. Reputed autophagy inhibitors have also been shown to increase autophagic flux under certain conditions, and enhance recombinant protein productivity in Chinese Hamster Ovary (CHO) cultures. Since peptides are commonly added to bioprocess culture media in hydrolysates, we evaluated the impact on productivity of an autophagy-inducing peptide (AIP), derived from the cellular autophagy protein Beclin 1. This was analyzed in CHO cell batch and fed-batch serum-free cultures producing a human IgG1. Interestingly, the addition of 1 to 4 µM AIP enhanced productivity in a concentration-dependent manner. Cell-specific productivity increased up to 1.8-fold in batch cultures, while in fed-batch cultures a maximum 2-fold increase in volumetric productivity was observed. An initial drop in cell viability also occurred before cultures recovered normal growth. Overall, these findings strongly support the value of investigating the effects of autophagy pathway modulation, and in particular, the use of this AIP medium additive to increase CHO cell biotherapeutic protein production and yields.

A series of recent flood events in Canada affecting areas around lakes and reservoirs have highlighted the need to explicitly represent such features in large scale flood models. Water level fluctuations in lakes are traditionally modelled using detailed hydrological models designed – as far as possible – to represent the actual physical processes that take place. This approach, while appropriate for local-scale studies in data-rich areas, is not applicable for large-scale flood modelling where data availability for model calibration and validation is often severely limited. This paper explores two methodologies, one statistical and one physically based, designed to approximately predict the increase in the water level of lakes in Quebec (Canada) using only limited morphological information about the lakes and the estimated discharge entering the water body during a flood event. Of the two methods, the statistical approach proved to be the most applicable to a large-scale modelling framework as it exhibited lower errors whilst being considerably easier to implement in a semi-automated modelling chain.

Isolated pulmonary valve infective endocarditis (PVIE) is very rare, with a frequency of 1.6-2.7% of all endocarditis cases. We report the case of a patient who underwent successful pulmonary valve replacement (PVR) with a bio-prosthetic valve to treat isolated PVIE.

Massive empyema can mimic tension pneumothorax clinically and can be distinguished only radiographically. This distinction is crucial since needle decompression for tension pneumothorax can cause iatrogenic pneumothorax in those with massive empyema.