Left atrial ball valve thrombus in restrictive cardiomyopathy and normal mitral valve: Loose cannon in heart

AbstractLeft atrial ball valve thrombus is an unusual condition, especially in patients with normal mitral valve. In the present case, we describe a 61-year-old female with restrictive cardiomyopathy who presented with a large left atrial ball valve thrombus, which subsequently embolized to right carotid artery and was treated with intravenous thrombolysis. This case provides useful insight into the genesis of such thrombi and highlights management dilemmas of a rare clinical problem

Recent advances in additive manufacturing for current challenges, materials and their applications

Additive Manufacturing (AM) technology in 3-D printing has grown into a great field in today’s technological world, especially in manufacturing sectors. Various AM technologies have been developed presently and their advancement has beenprocessed worldwide is presented. Their advancement included usability and compatibility of the different types of material. Moreover, the applications of 3-D printing via different AM technologies in biomedical applications, dental implants, pharmaceutical industries, chemical processing equipment, structural components, automotive industries, marine sectors, aerospace sectors, sports equipment and food processing industries have been presented. However, suggested applications viadifferent AM technologies have also been reported. Further, the challenges in development of the 3D structure via different AM technologies have also been discussed. The remedial/treatment like pre and post processing operations, tool path planning, and slicing orientation have also been suggested in printing of the sound 3D complex structure

Hypertrophic Cardiomyopathy and Pregnancy: A Retrospective Analysis From a Tertiary Care Hospital

Pregnancy in women with hypertrophic cardiomyopathy is not well described. In this retrospective study, we analyzed data on pregnant women with hypertrophic cardiomyopathy who were under follow-up care in the cardiology department of a tertiary care hospital. We reviewed data on all women registered in the hypertrophic cardiomyopathy cohort and those who attended the cardio-obstetric clinic and delivered between January 2010 and June 2019. From these 2 groups, we identified 7 pregnant women with hypertrophic cardiomyopathy who delivered during this period. These 7 women (mean [SD] age, 25 [3.3] years) had a total of 15 pregnancies (range per woman,1–4). This was a high-risk cohort, as 7 (46.7%) pregnancies were in the modified World Health Organization class III. The mean (SD) left ventricular wall thickness was 19.71 (2.56) mm in all pregnancies. Two of the 7 women with left ventricular outflow tract obstruction developed severe symptoms in the third trimester; these improved soon after delivery. Eight pregnancies without obstruction were well tolerated. Two pregnancies occurred after successful alcohol septal ablation. Both remained asymptomatic throughout pregnancy. All women tolerated labor well. Adverse maternal outcomes, including death, were not seen in any patient. All women who became symptomatic during pregnancy had relief of symptoms after delivery. Most women remained asymptomatic or had mild symptoms during pregnancy. Of the women with left ventricular outflow tract obstruction, 28.6% had severe symptoms that improved after delivery. Pregnancy was well tolerated after successful alcohol septal ablation

Increasing Access, Mobility, and Shelter Opportunities for Disadvantaged Populations: Affordable Housing in Transit-Oriented Developments [Research Brief]

USDOT Grant 65A0674, TO-041This study is located in the confluence of three critical public policy concerns in California: reduction of Greenhouse Gas (GHG) emission through sustainable development and reduction in Vehicle Miles Traveled (VMT); the lingering problems of income inequality, social equity, and environmental justice; and the growing crisis in housing affordability. In particular, this study is framed against the background of the current policy interest at the state and local level in increasing the stock of affordable housing in the station areas of the expanding mass transportation network in the Los Angeles area

The Cellular Stress Response Interactome and Extracellular Matrix Cross-Talk during Fibrosis: A Stressed Extra-Matrix Affair

Diverse internal and external pathologic stimuli can trigger cellular stress response pathways (CSRPs) that are usually counteracted by intrinsic homeostatic machinery, which responds to stress by initiating complex signaling mechanisms to eliminate either the stressor or the damaged cells. There is growing evidence that CSRPs can have context-dependent homeostatic or pathologic functions that may result in tissue fibrosis under persistence of stress. CSRPs can drive intercellular communications through exosomes (trafficking and secretory pathway determinants) secreted in response to stress-induced proteostasis rebalancing. The injured tissue environment upon sensing the stress turns on a precisely orchestrated network of immune responses by regulating cytokine-chemokine production, recruitment of immune cells, and modulating fibrogenic niche and extracellular matrix (ECM) cross-talk during fibrotic pathologies like cardiac fibrosis, liver fibrosis, laryngotracheal stenosis, systemic scleroderma, interstitial lung disease and inflammatory bowel disease. Immunostimulatory RNAs (like double stranded RNAs) generated through deregulated RNA processing pathways along with RNA binding proteins (RBPs) of RNA helicase (RNA sensors) family are emerging as important components of immune response pathways during sterile inflammation. The paradigm-shift in RNA metabolism associated interactome has begun to offer new therapeutic windows by unravelling the novel RBPs and splicing factors in context of developmental and fibrotic pathways. We would like to review emerging regulatory nodes and their interaction with CSRPs, and tissue remodeling with major focus on cardiac fibrosis, and inflammatory responses underlying upper airway fibrosis

Research priorities in Maternal, Newborn, & Child Health & Nutrition for India:An Indian Council of Medical Research-INCLEN Initiative

In India, research prioritization in Maternal, Newborn, and Child Health and Nutrition (MNCHN) themes has traditionally involved only a handful of experts mostly from major cities. The Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR)-INCLEN collaboration undertook a nationwide exercise engaging faculty from 256 institutions to identify top research priorities in the MNCHN themes for 2016-2025. The Child Health and Nutrition Research Initiative method of priority setting was adapted. The context of the exercise was defined by a National Steering Group (NSG) and guided by four Thematic Research Subcommittees. Research ideas were pooled from 498 experts located in different parts of India, iteratively consolidated into research options, scored by 893 experts against five pre-defined criteria (answerability, relevance, equity, investment and innovation) and weighed by a larger reference group. Ranked lists of priorities were generated for each of the four themes at national and three subnational (regional) levels [Empowered Action Group & North-Eastern States, Southern and Western States, & Northern States (including West Bengal)]. Research priorities differed between regions and from overall national priorities. Delivery domain of research which included implementation research constituted about 70 per cent of the top ten research options under all four themes. The results were endorsed in the NSG meeting. There was unanimity that the research priorities should be considered by different governmental and non-governmental agencies for investment with prioritization on implementation research and issues cutting across themes

Open X-Embodiment:Robotic learning datasets and RT-X models

Large, high-capacity models trained on diverse datasets have shown remarkable successes on efficiently tackling downstream applications. In domains from NLP to Computer Vision, this has led to a consolidation of pretrained models, with general pretrained backbones serving as a starting point for many applications. Can such a consolidation happen in robotics? Conventionally, robotic learning methods train a separate model for every application, every robot, and even every environment. Can we instead train "generalist" X-robot policy that can be adapted efficiently to new robots, tasks, and environments? In this paper, we provide datasets in standardized data formats and models to make it possible to explore this possibility in the context of robotic manipulation, alongside experimental results that provide an example of effective X-robot policies. We assemble a dataset from 22 different robots collected through a collaboration between 21 institutions, demonstrating 527 skills (160266 tasks). We show that a high-capacity model trained on this data, which we call RT-X, exhibits positive transfer and improves the capabilities of multiple robots by leveraging experience from other platforms. The project website is robotics-transformer-x.github.io