Huge Seebeck coefficients in non-aqueous electrolytes

The Seeebeck coefficients of the non-aqueous electrolytes tetrabutylammonium nitrate, tetraoctylphosphonium bromide and tetradodecylammonium nitrate in 1-octanol, 1-dodecanol and ethylene-glycol are measured in a temperature range from T=30 to T=45 C. The Seebeck coefficient is generally of the order of a few hundreds of microvolts per Kelvin for aqueous solution of inorganic ions. Here we report huge values of 7 mV/K at 0.1M concentration for tetrabutylammonium nitrate in 1-dodecanol. These striking results open the question of unexpectedly large kosmotrope or "structure making" effects of tetraalkylammonium ions on the structure of alcohols.Comment: Submitted to J. Chem. Phy

Variations in vascular access flows in haemodialysis can depend on needle orientation

Introduction: While using the Transonic Qc[TM] machine to assess access flow in arteriovenous fistulae (AVF), we observed that when compared to antegrade arterial needle insertion, retrograde arterial needle insertion could regularly produce lower access flow measurements. This study sought to explore this phenomenon. Method: 23 patients entered and 20 finished the study. Patient selection criteria included: functioning AVF and an adequate AVF length for either retrograde or antegrade arterial needle insertion. After ensuring stable and similar blood pressures, 3 flow measurements were taken during the first 2 hours on the same dialysis day of 3 consecutive weeks using antegrade needle insertion then were repeated on 3 further consecutive weeks using retrograde insertion. Results: Overall, access flows measured with retrograde insertion were significantly lower by a mean difference of 107.15 ml/min (57-484 ml/min) than the flows measured with antegrade needle placement. In 5/20, 3 recorded minimal difference and 2 had a higher access flows during retrograde insertion. No recirculation was observed during either antegrade or retrograde needle insertion. The paired t-test showed that there was significant difference between the antegrade versus retrograde mean measurements (p = 0.005). Conclusion: Although the sample size is small and the number of measurements limited, we conclude that access flows may be greater with an antegrade arterial orientation compared to flows recorded with a retrograde orientation. The phenomenon behind this conclusion is yet to be investigated. We suggest that when using the Transonic Qc[TM] access measurement device the arterial needle should always be in the same direction for each measurement for each individual patient.<br /

Impacts on employment, finances, and lifestyle for working age people facing an expected premature death: A systematic review

Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2017. Objective: The working ages (25-65 years) are a period when most people have significant work, financial, and family responsibilities. A small proportion of working age people will face an expected premature death from cancer or other life-limiting illness. Understanding the impact an expected premature death has on this population is important for informing support. The current study set out to summarize research describing the effects that facing an expected premature death has on employment, financial, and lifestyle of working age people and their families.Method: A systematic review using narrative synthesis approach. Four electronic databases were searched in July 2016 for peer-reviewed, English language studies focusing on the financial, employment, and lifestyle concerns of working age adults living with an advanced life-limiting illness and/or their carers and/or children.Results: Fifteen quantitative and 12 qualitative studies were included. Two-thirds (n = 18) were focused on cancer. All studies identified adverse effects on workforce participation, finances, and lifestyle. Many patients were forced to work less or give up work/retire early because of symptoms and reduced functioning. In addition to treatment costs, patients and families were also faced with child care, travel, and home/car modification costs. Being younger was associated with greater employment and financial burden, whereas having children was associated with lower functional well-being. Changes in family roles were identified as challenging regardless of diagnosis, whereas maintaining normalcy and creating stability was seen as a priority by parents with advanced cancer. This review is limited by the smaller number of studies focussing on the needs of working age people with nonmalignant disease.Significance of results: Working age people facing an expected premature death and their families have significant unmet financial, employment, and lifestyle needs. Comparing and contrasting their severity, timing, and priority for people with nonmalignant conditions is required to better understand their unique needs

The Dutch version of the Child Posttraumatic Cognitions Inventory:validation in a clinical sample and a school sample

With the inclusion of trauma-related cognitions in the DSM-5 criteria for posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), the assessment of these cognitions has become essential. Therefore, valid tools for the assessment of these cognitions are warranted

Mutagenic and antimutagenic properties of some lichen species grown in the Eastern Anatolia Region of Turkey

All the methanol extracts did not show mutagenic activity in Ames/Salmonella and Z. mays MI test systems. Furthermore, some extracts showed significant antimutagenic activity against 9-AA in Ames test system. Inhibition rates for 9-AA mutagenicity ranged from 25.51 % (P. furfuracea – 0.05 μg/plate) to 66.14 % (C. islandica – 0.05 μg/plate). In addition, all of the extracts showed significant antimutagenic activity against sodium azide (NaN₃) mutagenicity on MI values of Z. mays.Целью работы было изучить мутагенный и антимутагенный потенциал метанольных экстрактов Cetraria islandica (L.) Ach. (Parmeliaceae), Pseudevernia furfuracea (L.) Zopf (Parmeliaceae) и Xanthoparmelia somloënsis (Gyeln.) Hale (Parmeliaceae) – лишайников из восточной части Турции. Ни один из экстрактов не показал мутагенной активности в тестах Эймса и Z. mays MI. Более того, некоторые экстракты проявляли заметную антимутагенную активность против 9-амино-акридина в тесте Эймса. Уровень ингибирования варьировал от 25,51 % (P. furfuracea) до 66,14 % (C. islandica). Кроме того, все экстракты проявляли значительную антимутагенную активность против азида натрия в Z. mays MI тесте. Все экстракты могут считаться генотоксично безопасными в исследованных концентрациях

A combined convolutional and recurrent neural network for enhanced glaucoma detection.

Glaucoma, a leading cause of blindness, is a multifaceted disease with several patho-physiological features manifesting in single fundus images (e.g., optic nerve cupping) as well as fundus videos (e.g., vascular pulsatility index). Current convolutional neural networks (CNNs) developed to detect glaucoma are all based on spatial features embedded in an image. We developed a combined CNN and recurrent neural network (RNN) that not only extracts the spatial features in a fundus image but also the temporal features embedded in a fundus video (i.e., sequential images). A total of 1810 fundus images and 295 fundus videos were used to train a CNN and a combined CNN and Long Short-Term Memory RNN. The combined CNN/RNN model reached an average F-measure of 96.2% in separating glaucoma from healthy eyes. In contrast, the base CNN model reached an average F-measure of only 79.2%. This proof-of-concept study demonstrates that extracting spatial and temporal features from fundus videos using a combined CNN and RNN, can markedly enhance the accuracy of glaucoma detection

Autonomous assessment of spontaneous retinal venous pulsations in fundus videos using a deep learning framework

The presence or absence of spontaneous retinal venous pulsations (SVP) provides clinically significant insight into the hemodynamic status of the optic nerve head. Reduced SVP amplitudes have been linked to increased intracranial pressure and glaucoma progression. Currently, monitoring for the presence or absence of SVPs is performed subjectively and is highly dependent on trained clinicians. In this study, we developed a novel end-to-end deep model, called U3D-Net, to objectively classify SVPs as present or absent based on retinal fundus videos. The U3D-Net architecture consists of two distinct modules: an optic disc localizer and a classifier. First, a fast attention recurrent residual U-Net model is applied as the optic disc localizer. Then, the localized optic discs are passed on to a deep convolutional network for SVP classification. We trained and tested various time-series classifiers including 3D Inception, 3D Dense-ResNet, 3D ResNet, Long-term Recurrent Convolutional Network, and ConvLSTM. The optic disc localizer achieved a dice score of 95% for locating the optic disc in 30 milliseconds. Amongst the different tested models, the 3D Inception model achieved an accuracy, sensitivity, and F1-Score of 84 ± 5%, 90 ± 8%, and 81 ± 6% respectively, outperforming the other tested models in classifying SVPs. To the best of our knowledge, this research is the first study that utilizes a deep neural network for an autonomous and objective classification of SVPs using retinal fundus videos

Low-Grade Versus Medium-Grade Nuclear Sclerotic Cataract Density Produces Identical Surgical and Visual Outcomes: A Prospective Single-Surgeon Study

Purpose To determine whether the incidence of major complications and postoperative corrected distance visual acuity are comparable for surgery on low-grade versus medium-grade nuclear sclerotic cataracts. Design This was a prospective, consecutive, single-surgeon, no-exclusion study of 1025 cataract cases with one-month follow-up. Methods Patients were divided into two cohorts according to the nuclear sclerosis grade at presentation, as classified using the Lens Opacities Classification System (LOCS) III. Cohort A, representing low-grade nuclear sclerotic cataracts (grades 1-2), consisted of 739 eyes, while Cohort B, representing medium-grade nuclear sclerotic cataracts (grades 3-6), consisted of 286 eyes. Results There was no significant difference in major intraoperative or postoperative complications (p>0.999) between Cohorts A and B. The mean logMar preoperative corrected distance visual acuity (CDVA) in Cohort A was 0.245 as compared with 0.346 in Cohort B (p<0.001). There was no significant difference between cohorts for postoperative CDVA at one day (-0.168 versus -0.118; p=0.070), one week (-0.180 versus -0.147; p=0.405), or one month (-0.185 versus -0.161; p=0.569). Conclusions There was no significant difference in the incidence of operative complications or postoperative CDVA between the cohorts. These findings suggest that, in experienced hands, surgery for medium-grade nuclear sclerotic cataracts is equally effective and safe as compared with that for low-grade nuclear sclerotic cataracts

An economic model of advance care planning in Australia: A cost-effective way to respect patient choice

© 2017 The Author(s). Background: Advance care planning (ACP) is a process of planning for future health and personal care. A person's values and preferences are made known so that they can guide decision making at a future time when that person cannot make or communicate his or her decisions. This is particularly relevant for people with dementia because their ability to make decisions progressively deteriorates over time. This study aims to evaluate the cost-effectiveness of delivering a nationwide ACP program within the Australian primary care setting. Methods: A decision analytic model was developed to identify the costs and outcomes of an ACP program for people aged 65+ years who were at risk of developing dementia. Inputs for the model was sourced and estimated from the literature. The reliability of the results was thoroughly tested in sensitivity analyses. Results: The results showed that, compared to usual care, a nationwide ACP program for people aged 65+ years who were at risk of dementia would be cost-effective. However, the results only hold if ACP completion is higher than 50% and adherence to ACP wishes is above 75%. Conclusions: A nationwide ACP program in the primary care setting is a cost-effective or cost-saving intervention compared to usual care in a population at-risk of developing dementia. Cost savings are generated from providing treatment and care that is consistent with patient preferences, resulting in fewer hospitalisations and less-intensive care at end-of-life