Telesis 2020

Front Matter: This edition of Telesis, the University of Oklahoma Gibbs College of Architecture student journal, explores the theme of "Metamedia."Editorial: The Telesis Team introduces Telesis: Metamedia.Conversation: Emily Hays and Evan Sack discuss the history of Telesis and its revitalization in 2018 with Telesis: Design Against.Renegade: Luca Guido re-imagines two famous, outlandish Bruce Goff designs as Cold War hideouts for necessary military operations.Impermanent: Elaheh Houshmanidpanah and Ben DeCuyper discuss the agency the general public has in affecting their built surroundings through place attachment.Nuclear: Caroline Simon investigates the results of the United States' fallout shelter program.Literature: Marilyn Anthony compares, and shares the mutual inspiration between, literature and architecture.Black: Ryan Godfrey questions why designers, especially architects, wear black.Headspace: Humans of Gould documents the daily activities and habits of students within The University of Oklahoma's College of Architecture.Sketching: Students translate, through sketching, various pieces of music spanning time and genre.Cycle: Anthony Andrade discusses the inevitability of self-driving cars and their potential effects on urbanism.Pervious: Ben DeCuyper discusses potential flood mitigation techniques for cities and buildings.Action: Conor McMichael discusses how improving our built environments can reduce social isolation.N

Molecular simulations and visualization: introduction and overview

Here we provide an introduction and overview of current progress in the field of molecular simulation and visualization, touching on the following topics: (1) virtual and augmented reality for immersive molecular simulations; (2) advanced visualization and visual analytic techniques; (3) new developments in high performance computing; and (4) applications and model building

Global burden of 288 causes of death and life expectancy decomposition in 204 countries and territories and 811 subnational locations, 1990–2021: a systematic analysis for the Global Burden of Disease Study 2021

BACKGROUND Regular, detailed reporting on population health by underlying cause of death is fundamental for public health decision making. Cause-specific estimates of mortality and the subsequent effects on life expectancy worldwide are valuable metrics to gauge progress in reducing mortality rates. These estimates are particularly important following large-scale mortality spikes, such as the COVID-19 pandemic. When systematically analysed, mortality rates and life expectancy allow comparisons of the consequences of causes of death globally and over time, providing a nuanced understanding of the effect of these causes on global populations. METHODS The Global Burden of Diseases, Injuries, and Risk Factors Study (GBD) 2021 cause-of-death analysis estimated mortality and years of life lost (YLLs) from 288 causes of death by age-sex-location-year in 204 countries and territories and 811 subnational locations for each year from 1990 until 2021. The analysis used 56 604 data sources, including data from vital registration and verbal autopsy as well as surveys, censuses, surveillance systems, and cancer registries, among others. As with previous GBD rounds, cause-specific death rates for most causes were estimated using the Cause of Death Ensemble model-a modelling tool developed for GBD to assess the out-of-sample predictive validity of different statistical models and covariate permutations and combine those results to produce cause-specific mortality estimates-with alternative strategies adapted to model causes with insufficient data, substantial changes in reporting over the study period, or unusual epidemiology. YLLs were computed as the product of the number of deaths for each cause-age-sex-location-year and the standard life expectancy at each age. As part of the modelling process, uncertainty intervals (UIs) were generated using the 2·5th and 97·5th percentiles from a 1000-draw distribution for each metric. We decomposed life expectancy by cause of death, location, and year to show cause-specific effects on life expectancy from 1990 to 2021. We also used the coefficient of variation and the fraction of population affected by 90% of deaths to highlight concentrations of mortality. Findings are reported in counts and age-standardised rates. Methodological improvements for cause-of-death estimates in GBD 2021 include the expansion of under-5-years age group to include four new age groups, enhanced methods to account for stochastic variation of sparse data, and the inclusion of COVID-19 and other pandemic-related mortality-which includes excess mortality associated with the pandemic, excluding COVID-19, lower respiratory infections, measles, malaria, and pertussis. For this analysis, 199 new country-years of vital registration cause-of-death data, 5 country-years of surveillance data, 21 country-years of verbal autopsy data, and 94 country-years of other data types were added to those used in previous GBD rounds. FINDINGS The leading causes of age-standardised deaths globally were the same in 2019 as they were in 1990; in descending order, these were, ischaemic heart disease, stroke, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, and lower respiratory infections. In 2021, however, COVID-19 replaced stroke as the second-leading age-standardised cause of death, with 94·0 deaths (95% UI 89·2-100·0) per 100 000 population. The COVID-19 pandemic shifted the rankings of the leading five causes, lowering stroke to the third-leading and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease to the fourth-leading position. In 2021, the highest age-standardised death rates from COVID-19 occurred in sub-Saharan Africa (271·0 deaths [250·1-290·7] per 100 000 population) and Latin America and the Caribbean (195·4 deaths [182·1-211·4] per 100 000 population). The lowest age-standardised death rates from COVID-19 were in the high-income super-region (48·1 deaths [47·4-48·8] per 100 000 population) and southeast Asia, east Asia, and Oceania (23·2 deaths [16·3-37·2] per 100 000 population). Globally, life expectancy steadily improved between 1990 and 2019 for 18 of the 22 investigated causes. Decomposition of global and regional life expectancy showed the positive effect that reductions in deaths from enteric infections, lower respiratory infections, stroke, and neonatal deaths, among others have contributed to improved survival over the study period. However, a net reduction of 1·6 years occurred in global life expectancy between 2019 and 2021, primarily due to increased death rates from COVID-19 and other pandemic-related mortality. Life expectancy was highly variable between super-regions over the study period, with southeast Asia, east Asia, and Oceania gaining 8·3 years (6·7-9·9) overall, while having the smallest reduction in life expectancy due to COVID-19 (0·4 years). The largest reduction in life expectancy due to COVID-19 occurred in Latin America and the Caribbean (3·6 years). Additionally, 53 of the 288 causes of death were highly concentrated in locations with less than 50% of the global population as of 2021, and these causes of death became progressively more concentrated since 1990, when only 44 causes showed this pattern. The concentration phenomenon is discussed heuristically with respect to enteric and lower respiratory infections, malaria, HIV/AIDS, neonatal disorders, tuberculosis, and measles. INTERPRETATION Long-standing gains in life expectancy and reductions in many of the leading causes of death have been disrupted by the COVID-19 pandemic, the adverse effects of which were spread unevenly among populations. Despite the pandemic, there has been continued progress in combatting several notable causes of death, leading to improved global life expectancy over the study period. Each of the seven GBD super-regions showed an overall improvement from 1990 and 2021, obscuring the negative effect in the years of the pandemic. Additionally, our findings regarding regional variation in causes of death driving increases in life expectancy hold clear policy utility. Analyses of shifting mortality trends reveal that several causes, once widespread globally, are now increasingly concentrated geographically. These changes in mortality concentration, alongside further investigation of changing risks, interventions, and relevant policy, present an important opportunity to deepen our understanding of mortality-reduction strategies. Examining patterns in mortality concentration might reveal areas where successful public health interventions have been implemented. Translating these successes to locations where certain causes of death remain entrenched can inform policies that work to improve life expectancy for people everywhere. FUNDING Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation

Sex differences and correlates of poor glycaemic control in type 2 diabetes: a cross-sectional study in Brazil and Venezuela.

OBJECTIVE:Examine whether glycaemic control varies according to sex and whether the latter plays a role in modifying factors associated with inadequate glycaemic control in patients with type 2 diabetes (T2D) in Brazil and Venezuela. DESIGN, SETTING AND PARTICIPANTS:This was a cross-sectional, nationwide survey conducted in Brazil and Venezuela from February 2006 to June 2007 to obtain information about glycaemic control and its determinants in patients with diabetes mellitus attending outpatient clinics. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES:Haemoglobin A1c (HbA1c) level was measured by liquid chromatography, and patients with HbA1c ≥7.0% (53 mmol/mol) were considered to have inadequate glycaemic control. The association of selected variables with glycaemic control was analysed by multivariate linear regression, using HbA1c as the dependent variable. RESULTS:A total of 9418 patients with T2D were enrolled in Brazil (n=5692) and in Venezuela (n=3726). They included 6214 (66%) women and 3204 (34%) men. On average, HbA1c levels in women were 0.13 (95% CI 0.03 to 0.24; p=0.015) higher than in men, after adjusting for age, marital status, education, race, country, body mass index, duration of disease, complications, type of healthcare, adherence to diet, adherence to treatment and previous measurement of HbA1c. Sex modified the effect of some factors associated with glycaemic control in patients with T2D in our study, but had no noteworthy effect in others. CONCLUSIONS:Women with T2D had worse glycaemic control than men. Possible causes for poorer glycaemic control in women compared with men include differences in glucose homeostasis, treatment response and psychological factors. In addition, sex modified factors associated with glycaemic control, suggesting the need to develop specific treatment guidelines for men and women

Critical Impact of Graphene Functionalization for Transition Metal Oxide/Graphene Hybrids on Oxygen Reduction Reaction

Transition metal oxides (TMOs) anchored on a carbon nanostructure have been widely pursued for oxygen reduction reaction (ORR) catalysis. The high ORR activity of TMO/graphene has been often attributed to the synergistic nature between TMO and carbon but with little relevant mechanistic study. In this report, the focus is made on how the type of majority oxygen-containing functional group of graphene affects the ORR performance of the resulting TMO/graphene nanocomposites. Our TiO₂/carboxylated graphene and ZrO₂/hydroxylated graphene rendered an ORR activity very close to that of Pt/C with an equal mass loading, via a four-electron transfer dominant process unlike other TMO/graphene variants of study. It is revealed that a stable anchoring of nanoparticles (NPs) on the graphene surface, which is essential to prevent the restacking of graphene layers, is established only through a specific type of functional groups on the graphene. In addition, the interplay among TMOs, graphene, and functional groups is found to be deterministic in the activity and electron transfer pathway of ORR, which is supported by density function theory (DFT) calculations. The calculations indicate that the electron transfer pathway is dependent upon the structure of NPs interfacing with functional groups of the graphene as it affects the preferred sites for oxygen dissociation

Sex differences and correlates of poor glycaemic control in type 2 diabetes: a cross-sectional study in Brazil and Venezuela

Submitted by Ana Maria Fiscina Sampaio ([email protected]) on 2019-08-06T12:51:21Z No. of bitstreams: 1 Duarte F Sex differences correlates... 2019.pdf: 273092 bytes, checksum: 170cd2dcbe9e8edfb04f721c7ef5915c (MD5)Approved for entry into archive by Ana Maria Fiscina Sampaio ([email protected]) on 2019-08-06T16:36:12Z (GMT) No. of bitstreams: 1 Duarte F Sex differences correlates... 2019.pdf: 273092 bytes, checksum: 170cd2dcbe9e8edfb04f721c7ef5915c (MD5)Made available in DSpace on 2019-08-06T16:36:12Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Duarte F Sex differences correlates... 2019.pdf: 273092 bytes, checksum: 170cd2dcbe9e8edfb04f721c7ef5915c (MD5) Previous issue date: 2019-01-05Pfizer Inc. The Brazilian Study of Diabetes Control was funded by Pfizer Inc., Brazil. Coordination for the Improvement of Higher Education Personnel (CAPES), Brazilian Ministry of Education. EDMJ received support from the National Council for Scientific and Technological Development (CNPq).University of California. School of Public Health. Department of Epidemiology. Berkeley, CA, USA.Associação Obras Sociais Irmã Dulce. Salvador, BA, Brasil / Fundação Oswaldo Cruz. Instituto Gonçalo Moniz. Laboratório de Epidemiologia Molecular e Bioestatística. Salvador, BA, Brasil.Fundação Oswaldo Cruz. Instituto Gonçalo Moniz. Laboratório de Epidemiologia Molecular e Bioestatística. Salvador, BA, Brasil.Fundação Oswaldo Cruz. Instituto Gonçalo Moniz. Laboratório de Epidemiologia Molecular e Bioestatística. Salvador, BA, Brasil.Fundação Oswaldo Cruz. Instituto Gonçalo Moniz. Laboratório de Epidemiologia Molecular e Bioestatística. Salvador, BA, Brasil / Universidade Federal da Bahia. Escola de Nutrição. Departamento Ciências da Nutrição. Salvador, BA, Brasil.University of California. School of Public Health. Department of Epidemiology. Berkeley, CA, USA.Associação Obras Sociais Irmã Dulce. Salvador, BA, Brasil / Fundação Oswaldo Cruz. Instituto Gonçalo Moniz. Laboratório de Epidemiologia Molecular e Bioestatística. Salvador, BA, Brasil.Examine whether glycaemic control varies according to sex and whether the latter plays a role in modifying factors associated with inadequate glycaemic control in patients with type 2 diabetes (T2D) in Brazil and Venezuela. Design, setting and participants This was a crosssectional, nationwide survey conducted in Brazil and Venezuela from February 2006 to June 2007 to obtain information about glycaemic control and its determinants in patients with diabetes mellitus attending outpatient clinics. Main outcome measures Haemoglobin A1c (HbA1c) level was measured by liquid chromatography, and patients with HbA1c ≥7.0% (53 mmol/mol) were considered to have inadequate glycaemic control. The association of selected variables with glycaemic control was analysed by multivariate linear regression, using HbA1c as the dependent variable. Results A total of 9418 patients with T2D were enrolled in Brazil (n=5692) and in Venezuela (n=3726). They included 6214 (66%) women and 3204 (34%) men. On average, HbA1c levels in women were 0.13 (95% CI 0.03 to 0.24; p=0.015) higher than in men, after adjusting for age, marital status, education, race, country, body mass index, duration of disease, complications, type of healthcare, adherence to diet, adherence to treatment and previous measurement of HbA1c. Sex modified the effect of some factors associated with glycaemic control in patients with T2D in our study, but had no noteworthy effect in others. Conclusions Women with T2D had worse glycaemic control than men. Possible causes for poorer glycaemic control in women compared with men include differences in glucose homeostasis, treatment response and psychological factors. In addition, sex modified factors associated with glycaemic control, suggesting the need to develop specific treatment guidelines for men and women