Chances of Employment in a Population of Women and Men after Surgery of Congenital Heart Disease: Gender-Specific Comparisons between Patients and the General Population

It was examined whether women and men (17-45 years) with operated congenital heart disease (CHD) differ with respect to chances of employment. Patients were compared with the general population. Patients (N=314) were classified by type of surgery (curative, reparative, palliative) as indicator of initial severity of disease. The second classification was performed according to a system proposed by the New York Heart Association in order to take subjectively reported impairments into account. Controls (N=1165) consisted of a 10% random sample drawn from the German Socio-Economic Panel. Chances of full- time employment decreased as disease severity increased. Chances of part- time and minor employment were higher in patients than among controls. These general effects were due to male patients, while the employment patterns of women did not differ from the control group. Independently of patient status women were more likely to have lower rates of full- time employment, and the rates of part- time and minor employment were higher. Long- term adaptation to impairments due to congenital heart disease differs between women and men with respect to employment status. While female patients do not differ from the general population, males may lower their engagement in paid work.

Construction and establishment of a new environmental chamber to study real-time cardiac development

Heart development, especially the critical phase of cardiac looping, is a complex and intricate process that has not yet been visualized "live" over long periods of time. We have constructed and established a new environmental incubator chamber that provides stable conditions for embryonic development with regard to temperature, humidity, and oxygen levels. We have integrated a video microscope in the chamber to visualize the developing heart in real time and present the first "live" recordings of a chick embryo in shell-less culture acquired over a period of 2 days. The time-lapse images we show depict a significant time window that covers the most critical and typical morphogenetic events during normal cardiac looping. Our system is of interest to researchers in the field of embryogenesis, as it can be adapted to a variety of animal models for organogenesis studies including heart and limb development. © MICROSCOPY SOCIETY OF AMERICA 2007

Lesson Learnt and Future of AI Applied to Manufacturing

This chapter touches on several aspects related to the role of Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Machine Learning (ML) in the manufacturing sector, and is split in different sub-chapters, focusing on specific new technology enablers that have the potential of solving or minimizing known issues in the manufacturing and, more in general, in the Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) domain. After introducing AI/ML as a technology enabler for the IoT in general and for manufacturing in particular, the next four sections detail two key technology enablers (EdgeML and federated learning scenarios, challenges and tools), one most important area of the IoT system that needs to decrease energy consumption and increase reliability (reduce receiver Processing complexity and enhancing reliability through multi-connectivity uplink connections), and finally a glimpse at the future describing a promising new technology (Embodied AI), its link with millimetre waves connectivity and potential business impact

Quantitative Proteomics Identify Novel miR-155 Target Proteins

Background: MicroRNAs are 22 nucleotides long non-coding RNAs and exert their function either by transcriptional or translational inhibition. Although many microRNA profiles in different tissues and disease states have already been discovered, only little is known about their target proteins. The microRNA miR-155 is deregulated in many diseases, including cancer, where it might function as an oncoMir. Methodology/Principal Findings: We employed a proteomics technique called ‘‘stable isotope labelling by amino acids in cell culture’ ’ (SILAC) allowing relative quantification to reliably identify target proteins of miR-155. Using SILAC, we identified 46 putative miR-155 target proteins, some of which were previously reported. With luciferase reporter assays, CKAP5 was confirmed as a new target of miR-155. Functional annotation of miR-155 target proteins pointed to a role in cell cycle regulation. Conclusions/Significance: To the best of our knowledge we have investigated for the first time miR-155 target proteins in the HEK293T cell line in large scale. In addition, by comparing our results to previously identified miR-155 target proteins i

DRLLA: Deep Reinforcement Learning for Link Adaptation

Link adaptation (LA) matches transmission parameters to conditions on the radio link, and therefore plays a major role in telecommunications. Improving LA is within the requirements for next-generation mobile telecommunication systems, and by refining link adaptation, a higher channel efficiency can be achieved (i.e., an increased data rate thanks to lower required bandwidth). Furthermore, by replacing traditional LA algorithms, radio transmission systems can better adapt themselves to a dynamic environment. There are several drawbacks to current state-of-the-art approaches, including predefined and static decision boundaries or relying on a single, low-dimensional metric. Nowadays, a broadly used approach to handle a variety of related input variables is a neural network (NN). NNs are able to make use of multiple inputs, and when combined with reinforcement learning (RL), the so-called deep reinforcement learning (DRL) approach emerges. Using DRL, more complex parameter relationships can be considered in order to recommend the modulation and coding scheme (MCS) used in LA. Hence, this work examines the potential of DRL and includes experiments on different channels. The main contribution of this work lies in using DRL algorithms for LA, optimized for throughput based on a subcarrier observation matrix and a packet success rate feedback system. We apply Natural Actor-Critic (NAC) and Proximal Policy Optimization (PPO) algorithms on simulated channels with a subsequent feasibility study on a prerecorded real-world channel. Empirical results produced by experiments on the examined channels hint that Deep Reinforcement Learning for Link Adaptation (DRLLA) offers good performance indicated by a promising data rate on the additive white Gaussian noise (AWGN) channel, the non-line-of-sight (NLOS) channel, and a prerecorded real-world channel. No matter the channel impairment, the agent is able to respond to changing signal-to-interference-plus-noise-ratio (SINR) levels, as exhibited by expected changes in the effective data rate

Transcriptional defect of an inherited NKX2-5 haplotype comprising a SNP, a nonsynonymous and a synonymous mutation, associated with human congenital heart disease.

Germline mutations in cardiac-specific transcription factor genes have been associated with congenital heart disease (CHD) and the homeodomain transcription factor NKX2-5 is an important member of this group. Indeed, more than 40 heterozygous NKX2-5 germline mutations have been observed in individuals with CHD, and these are spread along the coding region, with many shown to impact protein function. In pursuit of understanding causes of CHD, we analyzed n = 49 cardiac biopsies from 28 patients and identified by direct sequencing two nonsynonymous NKX2-5 alterations affecting alanine 119, namely c.356C>A (p.A119E) and c.355G>T, (p.A119S), in patients with AVSD and HLHS, respectively. In functional assays, a significant reduction in transcriptional activities could be determined for the NKX2-5 variants. Importantly, in one family the mother, besides p.A119E, carried a synonymous mutant allele in the homeodomain (c.543G>A, p.Q181), and a synonymous dbSNP (c.63A>G, p.E21) in the transactivation domain of the protein, that were transmitted to the CHD daughter. The presence of these variants in-cis with the p.A119E mutation led to a further reduction in transcriptional activities. Such difference in activity may be in part related to reduced protein expression for the double variant c.356C>A and c.543G>A. We propose changes in mRNA stability and folding, due to a silent mutation and a dbSNP in the NKX2-5 coding region to contribute to the functional defect. Although the clinical significance of the NKX2-5 haplotype identified in the CHD patients remains to be ascertained, we provide evidence of an interaction of a dbSNP, with synonymous and nonsynonymous mutations to negatively impact NKX2-5 transcriptional activity