TLR3 Deficiency Leads to a Dysregulation in the Global Gene-Expression Profile in Murine Oviduct Epithelial Cells Infected with Chlamydia muridarum

OBJECTIVE Describe the implementation and effects of Mobile Acute Care for Elders (MACE) consultation at a Veterans Affairs Medical Center (VAMC). DESIGN Retrospective cohort analysis. INTERVENTION Veterans aged 65 or older who were admitted to the medicine service between October 1, 2012, and September 30, 2014, were screened for geriatric syndromes via review of medical records within 48 hours of admission. If the screen was positive, the MACE team offered the admitting team a same-day consultation involving comprehensive geriatric assessment and ongoing collaboration with the admitting team and supportive services to implement patient-centric recommendations for geriatric syndromes. RESULTS Veterans seen by MACE (n = 421) were compared with those with positive screens but without consultation (n = 372). The two groups did not significantly differ in age, comorbidity, sex, or race. All outcomes (30-day readmission, 30-day mortality, readmission costs) were in the expected direction for patients receiving MACE but did not reach statistical significance. Patients receiving MACE had lower odds of 30-day readmission (11.9% vs 14.8%; odds ratio [OR] = 0.82; 95% confidence interval [CI] = 0.54-1.25; p = .360) and 30-day mortality (5.5% vs 8.6%; OR = 0.64; CI = 0.36-1.12; p = .115), and they had lower 30-day readmission costs (MACE $15,502; CI =$12,242-$19,631; comparison =$18,335; CI = $14,641-$22,962; p = .316) than those who did not receive MACE after adjusting for age and Charlson Comorbidity Index. CONCLUSION Our MACE consultation model for older veterans with geriatric syndromes leverages the limited supply of clinicians with expertise in geriatrics. Although not statistically significant in this study of 793 subjects, MACE patients had lower odds of 30-day readmission and mortality, and lower readmission costs. J Am Geriatr Soc 67:818–824, 2019

Towards a Classification of Two-Character Rational Conformal Field Theories

We provide a simple and general construction of infinite families of consistent, modular-covariant pairs of characters satisfying the basic requirements to describe two-character RCFT. These correspond to solutions of generic second-order modular linear differential equations. To find these solutions, we first construct "quasi-characters" from the Kaneko-Zagier equation and subsequent works by Kaneko and collaborators, together with coset dual generalisations that we provide in this paper. We relate our construction to the Hecke images recently discussed by Harvey and Wu.Comment: 64 pages, typos corrected, proofs now provided for two claims that were previously conjectures, final version to appear in JHE

Magnetically Arrested Disk: An Energetically Efficient Accretion Flow

We consider an accretion flow model originally proposed by Bisnovatyi-Kogan & Ruzmaikin (1974), which has been confirmed in recent 3D MHD simulations. In the model, the accreting gas drags in a strong poloidal magnetic field to the center such that the accumulated field disrupts the axisymmetric accretion flow at a relatively large radius. Inside the disruption radius, the gas accretes as discrete blobs or streams with a velocity much less than the free-fall velocity. Almost the entire rest mass energy of the gas is released as heat, radiation and mechanical/magnetic energy. Even for a non-rotating black hole, the efficiency of converting mass to energy is of order 50% or higher. The model is thus a practical analog of an idealized engine proposed by Geroch and Bekenstein.Comment: 4 pages, 2 figure, new refs added, in print in PAS