Preoperative cerebrospinal fluid β-Amyloid/Tau ratio and postoperative delirium

Objective: The neuropathogenesis of postoperative delirium remains unknown. Low cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) β-amyloid protein (Aβ) and high CSF Tau levels are associated with Alzheimer's disease. We, therefore, assessed whether lower preoperative CSF Aβ/Tau ratio was associated with higher incidence and greater severity of postoperative delirium. Methods: One hundred and fifty-three participants (71 ± 5 years, 53% men) who had total hip/knee replacement under spinal anesthesia were enrolled. CSF was obtained during initiation of spinal anesthesia. The incidence and severity of postoperative delirium were determined by Confusion Assessment Method (CAM) and Memorial Delirium Assessment Scale (MDAS) on postoperative day 1 and 2. Aβ40, Aβ42, and Tau levels in the CSF were measured by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay. The relationships among these variables were determined, adjusting for age and gender. Results: Participants in the lowest quartile of preoperative CSF Aβ40/Tau and Aβ42/Tau ratio had higher incidence (32% vs. 17%, P = 0.0482) and greater symptom severity of postoperative delirium (Aβ40/Tau ratio: 4 vs. 3, P = 0.034; Aβ42/Tau ratio: 4 vs. 3, P = 0.062, the median of the highest MDAS score) as compared to the combination of the rest of the quartiles. The preoperative CSF Aβ40/Tau or Aβ42/Tau ratio was inversely associated with MDAS score (Aβ40/Tau ratio: −0.12 ± 0.05, P = 0.014, adj. −0.12 ± 0.05, P = 0.018; Aβ42/Tau ratio: −0.65 ± 0.26, P = 0.013, adj. −0.62 ± 0.27, P = 0.022). Interpretation Lower CSF Aβ/Tau ratio could be associated with postoperative delirium, pending confirmation of our preliminary results in further studies. These findings suggest potential roles of Aβ and/or Tau in postoperative delirium neuropathogenesis

Fundamental Properties of Kepler Planet-Candidate Host Stars using Asteroseismology

We have used asteroseismology to determine fundamental properties for 66 Kepler planet-candidate host stars, with typical uncertainties of 3% and 7% in radius and mass, respectively. The results include new asteroseismic solutions for four host stars with confirmed planets (Kepler-4, Kepler-14, Kepler-23 and Kepler-25) and increase the total number of Kepler host stars with asteroseismic solutions to 77. A comparison with stellar properties in the planet-candidate catalog by Batalha et al. shows that radii for subgiants and giants obtained from spectroscopic follow-up are systematically too low by up to a factor of 1.5, while the properties for unevolved stars are in good agreement. We furthermore apply asteroseismology to confirm that a large majority of cool main-sequence hosts are indeed dwarfs and not misclassified giants. Using the revised stellar properties, we recalculate the radii for 107 planet candidates in our sample, and comment on candidates for which the radii change from a previously giant-planet/brown-dwarf/stellar regime to a sub-Jupiter size, or vice versa. A comparison of stellar densities from asteroseismology with densities derived from transit models in Batalha et al. assuming circular orbits shows significant disagreement for more than half of the sample due to systematics in the modeled impact parameters, or due to planet candidates which may be in eccentric orbits. Finally, we investigate tentative correlations between host-star masses and planet candidate radii, orbital periods, and multiplicity, but caution that these results may be influenced by the small sample size and detection biases.Comment: 19 pages, 10 figures, 4 tables; accepted for publication in ApJ; machine-readable versions of tables 1-3 are available as ancillary files or in the source code; v2: minor changes to match published versio

Content validity of symptom‐based measures for diabetic, chemotherapy, and HIV peripheral neuropathy

INTRODUCTION: No treatments for axonal peripheral neuropathy are approved by the United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA). Although patient- and clinician-reported outcomes are central to evaluating neuropathy symptoms, they can be difficult to assess accurately. The inability to identify efficacious treatments for peripheral neuropathies could be due to invalid or inadequate outcome measures. METHODS: This systematic review examined the content validity of symptom-based measures of diabetic peripheral neuropathy, HIV neuropathy, and chemotherapy-induced peripheral neuropathy. RESULTS: Use of all FDA-recommended methods to establish content validity was only reported for 2 of 18 measures. Multiple sensory and motor symptoms were included in measures for all 3 conditions; these included numbness, tingling, pain, allodynia, difficulty walking, and cramping. Autonomic symptoms were less frequently included. CONCLUSIONS: Given significant overlap in symptoms between neuropathy etiologies, a measure with content validity for multiple neuropathies with supplemental disease-specific modules could be of great value in the development of disease-modifying treatments for peripheral neuropathies

Order-of-magnitude speedup for steady states and traveling waves via Stokes preconditioning in Channelflow and Openpipeflow

Steady states and traveling waves play a fundamental role in understanding hydrodynamic problems. Even when unstable, these states provide the bifurcation-theoretic explanation for the origin of the observed states. In turbulent wall-bounded shear flows, these states have been hypothesized to be saddle points organizing the trajectories within a chaotic attractor. These states must be computed with Newton's method or one of its generalizations, since time-integration cannot converge to unstable equilibria. The bottleneck is the solution of linear systems involving the Jacobian of the Navier-Stokes or Boussinesq equations. Originally such computations were carried out by constructing and directly inverting the Jacobian, but this is unfeasible for the matrices arising from three-dimensional hydrodynamic configurations in large domains. A popular method is to seek states that are invariant under numerical time integration. Surprisingly, equilibria may also be found by seeking flows that are invariant under a single very large Backwards-Euler Forwards-Euler timestep. We show that this method, called Stokes preconditioning, is 10 to 50 times faster at computing steady states in plane Couette flow and traveling waves in pipe flow. Moreover, it can be carried out using Channelflow (by Gibson) and Openpipeflow (by Willis) without any changes to these popular spectral codes. We explain the convergence rate as a function of the integration period and Reynolds number by computing the full spectra of the operators corresponding to the Jacobians of both methods.Comment: in Computational Modelling of Bifurcations and Instabilities in Fluid Dynamics, ed. Alexander Gelfgat (Springer, 2018

Preparing and Analyzing Iced Airfoils

SmaggIce version 1.2 is a computer program for preparing and analyzing iced airfoils. It includes interactive tools for (1) measuring ice-shape characteristics, (2) controlled smoothing of ice shapes, (3) curve discretization, (4) generation of artificial ice shapes, and (5) detection and correction of input errors. Measurements of ice shapes are essential for establishing relationships between characteristics of ice and effects of ice on airfoil performance. The shape-smoothing tool helps prepare ice shapes for use with already available grid-generation and computational-fluid-dynamics software for studying the aerodynamic effects of smoothed ice on airfoils. The artificial ice-shape generation tool supports parametric studies since ice-shape parameters can easily be controlled with the artificial ice. In such studies, artificial shapes generated by this program can supplement simulated ice obtained from icing research tunnels and real ice obtained from flight test under icing weather condition. SmaggIce also automatically detects geometry errors such as tangles or duplicate points in the boundary which may be introduced by digitization and provides tools to correct these. By use of interactive tools included in SmaggIce version 1.2, one can easily characterize ice shapes and prepare iced airfoils for grid generation and flow simulations

A Randomized Trial to Increase Colonoscopy Screening in Members of High-Risk Families in the Colorectal Cancer Family Registry and Cancer Genetics Network

Individuals with a strong family history of colorectal cancer (CRC) have significant risk for CRC, though adherence to colonoscopy screening in these groups remains low. This study assessed whether a tailored, telephone counseling intervention can increase adherence to colonoscopy in members of high risk families in a randomized, controlled trial

Convergent algorithms for protein structural alignment

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Many algorithms exist for protein structural alignment, based on internal protein coordinates or on explicit superposition of the structures. These methods are usually successful for detecting structural similarities. However, current practical methods are seldom supported by convergence theories. In particular, although the goal of each algorithm is to maximize some scoring function, there is no practical method that theoretically guarantees score maximization. A practical algorithm with solid convergence properties would be useful for the refinement of protein folding maps, and for the development of new scores designed to be correlated with functional similarity.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>In this work, the maximization of scoring functions in protein alignment is interpreted as a Low Order Value Optimization (LOVO) problem. The new interpretation provides a framework for the development of algorithms based on well established methods of continuous optimization. The resulting algorithms are convergent and <it>increase the scoring functions at every iteration</it>. The solutions obtained are critical points of the scoring functions. Two algorithms are introduced: One is based on the maximization of the scoring function with Dynamic Programming followed by the continuous maximization of <it>the same </it>score, with respect to the protein position, using a smooth Newtonian method. The second algorithm replaces the Dynamic Programming step by a fast procedure for computing the correspondence between C<it>α </it>atoms. The algorithms are shown to be very effective for the maximization of the STRUCTAL score.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>The interpretation of protein alignment as a LOVO problem provides a new theoretical framework for the development of convergent protein alignment algorithms. These algorithms are shown to be very reliable for the maximization of the STRUCTAL score, and other distance-dependent scores may be optimized with same strategy. The improved score optimization provided by these algorithms provide means for the refinement of protein fold maps and also for the development of scores designed to match biological function. The LOVO strategy may be also used for more general structural superposition problems such as flexible or non-sequential alignments. The package is available on-line at http://www.ime.unicamp.br/~martinez/lovoalign.</p

Expected Performance of the ATLAS Experiment - Detector, Trigger and Physics

A detailed study is presented of the expected performance of the ATLAS detector. The reconstruction of tracks, leptons, photons, missing energy and jets is investigated, together with the performance of b-tagging and the trigger. The physics potential for a variety of interesting physics processes, within the Standard Model and beyond, is examined. The study comprises a series of notes based on simulations of the detector and physics processes, with particular emphasis given to the data expected from the first years of operation of the LHC at CERN

GO Explorer: A gene-ontology tool to aid in the interpretation of shotgun proteomics data

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Spectral counting is a shotgun proteomics approach comprising the identification and relative quantitation of thousands of proteins in complex mixtures. However, this strategy generates bewildering amounts of data whose biological interpretation is a challenge.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Here we present a new algorithm, termed GO Explorer (GOEx), that leverages the gene ontology (GO) to aid in the interpretation of proteomic data. GOEx stands out because it combines data from protein fold changes with GO over-representation statistics to help draw conclusions. Moreover, it is tightly integrated within the PatternLab for Proteomics project and, thus, lies within a complete computational environment that provides parsers and pattern recognition tools designed for spectral counting. GOEx offers three independent methods to query data: an interactive directed acyclic graph, a specialist mode where key words can be searched, and an automatic search. Its usefulness is demonstrated by applying it to help interpret the effects of perillyl alcohol, a natural chemotherapeutic agent, on glioblastoma multiform cell lines (A172). We used a new multi-surfactant shotgun proteomic strategy and identified more than 2600 proteins; GOEx pinpointed key sets of differentially expressed proteins related to cell cycle, alcohol catabolism, the Ras pathway, apoptosis, and stress response, to name a few.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>GOEx facilitates organism-specific studies by leveraging GO and providing a rich graphical user interface. It is a simple to use tool, specialized for biologists who wish to analyze spectral counting data from shotgun proteomics. GOEx is available at <url>http://pcarvalho.com/patternlab</url>.</p

Measurements of Higgs boson production and couplings in diboson final states with the ATLAS detector at the LHC

Measurements are presented of production properties and couplings of the recently discovered Higgs boson using the decays into boson pairs, H →γ γ, H → Z Z∗ →4l and H →W W∗ →lνlν. The results are based on the complete pp collision data sample recorded by the ATLAS experiment at the CERN Large Hadron Collider at centre-of-mass energies of √s = 7 TeV and √s = 8 TeV, corresponding to an integrated luminosity of about 25 fb−1. Evidence for Higgs boson production through vector-boson fusion is reported. Results of combined fits probing Higgs boson couplings to fermions and bosons, as well as anomalous contributions to loop-induced production and decay modes, are presented. All measurements are consistent with expectations for the Standard Model Higgs boson