MEMS 411: Smart Shirt Electronics Housing

Millions of Americans suffer from sleep apnea, a chronic condition that can impact the quality of sleep and livelihood of those impacted by it. The sleep tests that are performed to see if a patient has sleep apnea are very invasive to those that undergo them, but the WUSTL Smart Shirt removes the need for such tests. This biometric shirt contains electrodes that measure blood pressure, heart rates, and EKG diagnostics that create reports to determine if the patient has sleep apnea, removing the need for the invasive sleep tests for a diagnosis. We were tasked with making the electronics and battery housing in the WUSTL Smart Shirt have a smaller profile and be more comfortable for the wearer of the shirt. Additionally, we were tasked with replacing the electronic connections on the shirt to make the connection between the shirt and the electronics more reliable

Stoichiometric and catalytic Si-N bond formation using the p-block base Al(NMe2)3.

The aluminium amide Al(NMe2)3 acts as a stoichiometric or catalytic reagent in dehydrogenic Si-N bond formation using amines and silanes. Although of limited substrate scope, this represents the first p-block metal catalytic system for N-H/Si-H dehydrocoupling. The observed catalytic rate law for the formation of aminosilane products in a model study of one of the catalytic reactions suggests a mechanism involving the silane component in the deprotonation of the amine (possibly in the form of a hypervalent silicon hydride).We thank The EU (ERC Advanced Investigator Grant for D.S.W., studentship for L.K.A.) and The EU (Marie Curie Intra European Fellowship for R.G.-R).This is the author accepted manuscript. The final published version is available from the Royal Society of Chemistry at http://pubs.rsc.org/en/Content/ArticleLanding/2015/DT/c5dt00662g#!divAbstract

Multiple deprotonation of primary aromatic diamines by LiAlH4.

Reaction of LiAlH4 with 1,2-phenylenediamine (1H4) in THF results in formation of the metallocyclic amido-/imido complex [{Al(1H2)}2{Al(1H)2}2][Li(THF)2]4 (3), while in the presence of various Lewis base ligands 1,8-diaminonaphthalene (2H4) gives the amido-('ate') complexes [Al(2H2)2](-)[Li(LL')](+) [L = THF, L' = PMDETA (N,N,N',N',N''-pentamethyldiethylenetriamine) (4); L = L' = TMEDA (N,N,N',N'-tetramethylethylenediamine) (5)]. The latter complexes provide evidence of intermediates in the proposed reaction pathway for formation of the cyclic framework of the tetraanion [{Al(1H2)}2{Al(1H)2}2](4-) of 3.We thank the EU (ERC Advanced Investigator Grant for D.S.W.), the EU (R.J.L. and L.K.A.). We also thank Dr. J. E. Davies for collecting X-ray data on 3, 4 and 5.This is the author accepted manuscript. The final version is available via RSC at http://pubs.rsc.org/en/Content/ArticleLanding/2015/DT/c4dt03802a#!divAbstract

Influenza epidemiology, vaccine coverage and vaccine effectiveness in sentinel Australian hospitals in 2013: the Influenza Complications Alert Network

The National Influenza Program aims to reduce serious morbidity and mortality from influenza by providing public funding for vaccination to at-risk groups. The Influenza Complications Alert Network (FluCAN) is a sentinel hospital-based surveillance program that operates at 14 sites in all states and territories in Australia. This report summarises the epidemiology of hospitalisations with confirmed influenza, estimates vaccine coverage and influenza vaccine protection against hospitalisation with influenza during the 2013 influenza season. In this observational study, cases were defined as patients admitted to one of the sentinel hospitals, with influenza confirmed by nucleic acid testing. Controls were patients who had acute respiratory illnesses who were test-negative for influenza. Vaccine effectiveness was estimated as 1 minus the odds ratio of vaccination in case patients compared with control patients, after adjusting for known confounders. During the period 5 April to 31 October 2012, 631 patients were admitted with confirmed influenza at the 14 FluCAN sentinel hospitals. Of these, 31% were more than 65 years of age, 9.5% were Indigenous Australians, 4.3% were pregnant and 77% had chronic co-morbidities. Influenza B was detected in 30% of patients. Vaccination coverage was estimated at 81% in patients more than 65 years of age but only 49% in patients aged less than 65 years with chronic comorbidities. Vaccination effectiveness against hospitalisation with influenza was estimated at 50% (95% confidence interval: 33%, 63%, P<0.001). We detected a significant number of hospital admissions with confirmed influenza in a national observational study. Vaccine coverage was incomplete in at-risk groups, particularly non-elderly patients with medical comorbidities. Our results suggest that the seasonal influenza vaccine was moderately protective against hospitalisation with influenza in the 2013 season. This work i

Encoded loop-lanthanide-binding tags for long-range distance measurements in proteins by NMR and EPR spectroscopy

We recently engineered encodable lanthanide binding tags (LBTs) into proteins and demonstrated their applicability in Nuclear Magnetic Resonance (NMR) spectroscopy, X-ray crystallography and luminescence studies. Here, we engineered two-loop-LBTs into the model protein interleukin-1β (IL1β) and measured [superscript 1]H, [superscript 15]N-pseudocontact shifts (PCSs) by NMR spectroscopy. We determined the Δχ-tensors associated with each Tm[superscript 3+]-loaded loop-LBT and show that the experimental PCSs yield structural information at the interface between the two metal ion centers at atomic resolution. Such information is very valuable for the determination of the sites of interfaces in protein–protein-complexes. Combining the experimental PCSs of the two-loop-LBT construct IL1β-S2R2 and the respective single-loop-LBT constructs IL1β-S2, IL1β-R2 we additionally determined the distance between the metal ion centers. Further, we explore the use of two-loop LBTs loaded with Gd[superscript 3+] as a novel tool for distance determination by Electron Paramagnetic Resonance spectroscopy and show the NMR-derived distances to be remarkably consistent with distances derived from Pulsed Electron–Electron Dipolar Resonance.German Science Foundation (collaborative research centers 807 and 902)National Science Foundation (U.S.) (Grant MCB 0744415

Quantum Common Causes and Quantum Causal Models

Reichenbach’s principle asserts that if two observed variables are found to be correlated, then there should be a causal explanation of these correlations. Furthermore, if the explanation is in terms of a common cause, then the conditional probability distribution over the variables given the complete common cause should factorize. The principle is generalized by the formalism of causal models, in which the causal relationships among variables constrain the form of their joint probability distribution. In the quantum case, however, the observed correlations in Bell experiments cannot be explained in the manner Reichenbach’s principle would seem to demand. Motivated by this, we introduce a quantum counterpart to the principle. We demonstrate that under the assumption that quantum dynamics is fundamentally unitary, if a quantum channel with input A and outputs B and C is compatible with A being a complete common cause of B and C, then it must factorize in a particular way. Finally, we show how to generalize our quantum version of Reichenbach’s principle to a formalism for quantum causal models and provide examples of how the formalism works