TauFactor: An open-source application for calculating tortuosity factors from tomographic data

TauFactor is a MatLab application for efficiently calculating the tortuosity factor, as well as volume fractions, surface areas and triple phase boundary densities, from image based microstructural data. The tortuosity factor quantifies the apparent decrease in diffusive transport resulting from convolutions of the flow paths through porous media. TauFactor was originally developed to improve the understanding of electrode microstructures for batteries and fuel cells; however, the tortuosity factor has been of interest to a wide range of disciplines for over a century, including geoscience, biology and optics. It is still common practice to use correlations, such as that developed by Bruggeman, to approximate the tortuosity factor, but in recent years the increasing availability of 3D imaging techniques has spurred interest in calculating this quantity more directly. This tool provides a fast and accurate computational platform applicable to the big datasets (>10^8 voxels) typical of modern tomography, without requiring high computational power

Representation of Women Leaders in Business Magazines: 2010-2018

This framing analysis focuses on the portrayal of women leaders in popular business magazines. Framing theory was used to examine how women leaders were portrayed in Forbes, Fortune, Entrepreneur, and Bloomberg Businessweek magazines from 2010-2018. The study identified three key frames, which include the minority frame, asset and fixer frame, and the work-life balance frame. Further findings from the study suggested that the portrayals of women have changed following the women\u27s movement in the 1970\u27s and that women are indeed beneficial to organizations in senior-level positions, although there is still a low percentage of women in these roles

Assessment of the clinical utility of adding common single nucleotide polymorphism genetic scores to classical risk factor algorithms in coronary heart disease risk prediction in UK men

Background: Risk prediction algorithms for coronary heart disease (CHD) are recommended for clinical use. However, their predictive ability remains modest and the inclusion of genetic risk may improve their performance. Methods: QRISK2 was used to assess CHD risk using conventional risk factors (CRFs). The performance of a 19 single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) gene score (GS) for CHD including variants identified by genome-wide association study and candidate gene studies (weighted using the results from the CARDIoGRAMplusC4D meta-analysis) was assessed using the second Northwick Park Heart Study (NPHSII) of 2775 healthy UK men (284 cases). To improve the GS, five SNPs with weak evidence of an association with CHD were removed and replaced with seven robustly associated SNPs – giving a 21-SNP GS. Results: The weighted 19 SNP GS was associated with lipid traits (p<0.05) and CHD after adjustment for CRFs, (OR=1.31 per standard deviation, p=0.03). Addition of the 19 SNP GS to QRISK2 showed improved discrimination (area under the receiver operator characteristic curve 0.68 vs. 0.70 p=0.02), a positive net reclassification index (0.07, p=0.04) compared to QRISK2 alone and maintained good calibration (p=0.17). The 21-SNP GS was also associated with CHD after adjustment for CRFs (OR=1.39 per standard deviation, 1.42×10−3), but the combined QRISK2 plus GS score was poorly calibrated (p=0.03) and showed no improvement in discrimination (p=0.55) or reclassification (p=0.10) compared to QRISK2 alone. Conclusions: The 19-SNP GS is robustly associated with CHD and showed potential clinical utility in the UK population

Association of ACE and NOS3 Gene Polymorphisms with Blood Pressure in a Case Control Study of Coronary Artery Disease in Punjab, Pakistan

Single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs), ACE rs4341 and NOS3 rs1799983 have been reported to be associated with coronary artery disease (CAD) and blood pressure (BP)in many but not all studies. We aimed to investigate the effect of these SNPs on BP and CAD in people from Punjab, Pakistan. A total of 650 subjects (430 CAD cases and 220 controls) were genotyped by TaqMan/KASPar allelic discrimination technique. Two BP measurements were reordered and their mean was calculated. The results showed that the risk allele frequencies (RAFs) of both SNPs were higher in cases than controls but the difference was not statistically significant. For rs4341, RAF in cases and controls was 0.577 vs. 0.525, p = 0.08 and for rs1799983, the RAF was 0.202 vs. 0.178, p = 0.31. The SNPs were not associated with CAD. The CAD odds ratio of rs4341 (1.22,0.97-1.53, p = 0.09) and that of rs1799983 (1.15, 0.86-1.54, p=0.33) was not statistically significant. Mean systolic blood pressure (SBP) and diastolic blood pressure (DBP) were significantly higher in cases than controls (p<0.05) and the SNPs showed a significant association with BP. Each risk allele of rs4341 (G) increased SBP by 10.04±0.8 mmHg and DBP by 2.5±0.6mmHg, while risk allele of rs1799983 (T), increased SBP and DBP by 16.4±0.9mmHg and 8.8±0.6mmHg respectively, all were statistically significant (p<0.05). When a combined effect of genotypes of both SNPs was examined, a significant effect on CAD outcome (p=0.01) was observed when GG of rs4341 and GT of rs1799983 co-existed. Similarly, maximum elevation in BP was observed when risk alleles of both SNPs in homozygous form (GG and TT) appeared together. In conclusion, the SNPs were not independently associated with CAD but were associated with BP in Pakistani subjects under study and may be causing CAD by modulating BP

Double perovskite cathodes for proton-conducting ceramic fuel cells: are they triple mixed ionic electronic conductors?

Published by National Institute for Materials Science in partnership with Taylor & Francis. 18 O and 2 H diffusion has been investigated at a temperature of 300 °C in the double perovskite material PrBaCo 2 O 5+δ (PBCO) in flowing air containing 200 mbar of 2 H 2 16 O. Secondary ion mass spectrometry (SIMS) depth profiling of exchanged ceramics has shown PBCO still retains significant oxygen diffusivity (~1.3 × 10 −11 cm 2 s −1 ) at this temperature and that the presence of water ( 2 H 2 16 O), gives rise to an enhancement of the surface exchange rate over that in pure oxygen by a factor of ~3. The 2 H distribution, as inferred from the 2 H 2 16 O − SIMS signal, shows an apparent depth profile which could be interpreted as 2 H diffusion. However, examination of the 3-D distribution of the signal shows it to be nonhomogeneous and probably related to the presence of hydrated layers in the interior walls of pores and is not due to proton diffusion. This suggests that PBCO acts mainly as an oxygen ion mixed conductor when used in PCFC devices, although the presence of a small amount of protonic conductivity cannot be discounted in these materials

Common variants in the genes of triglyceride and HDL-C metabolism lack association with coronary artery disease in the Pakistani subjects.

BACKGROUND: Serum Triglyceride (TG) and High Density Lipoprotein (HDL-C) levels are modifiable coronary artery disease (CAD) risk factors. Polymorphisms in the genes regulating TG and HDL-C levels contribute to the development of CAD. The objective of the current study was to investigate the effect of four such single nucleotide polymorphism (SNPs) in the genes for Lipoprotein Lipase (LPL) (rs328, rs1801177), Apolipoprotein A5 (APOA5) (rs66279) and Cholesteryl ester transfer protein (CETP) (rs708272) on HDL-C and TG levels and to examine the association of these SNPs with CAD risk. METHODS: A total of 640 subjects (415 cases, 225 controls) were enrolled in the study. The SNPs were genotyped by KASPar allelic discrimination technique. Serum HDL-C and TG were determined by spectrophotometric methods. RESULTS: The population under study was in Hardy Weinberg equilibrium and minor allele of SNP rs1801177 was completely absent in the studied subjects. The SNPs were association with TG and HDL-C levels was checked through regression analysis. For rs328, the effect size of each risk allele on TG and HDL-C (mmol/l) was 0.16(0.08) and -0.11(0.05) respectively. Similarly, the effect size of rs662799 for TG and HDL-C was 0.12(0.06) and -0.13(0.0.3) and that of rs708272 was 0.08(0.04) and 0.1(0.03) respectively. The risk allele frequencies of the SNPs were higher in cases than controls, but the difference was not significant (p > 0.05) and SNPs were not associated with CAD risk (p > 0.05). The combined gene score of four SNPs significantly raised TG and lowered HDL-C but did not increase CAD risk. CONCLUSION: The studied SNPs were associated with TG and HDL-C levels, but not with CAD in Pakistani population under study

Effect of SORT1, APOB and APOE polymorphisms on LDL-C and coronary heart disease in Pakistani subjects and their comparison with Northwick Park Heart Study II

BACKGROUND: Many SNPs have been identified in genes regulating LDL-C metabolism, but whether their influence is similar in subjects from different ethnicities is unclear. Effect of 4 such SNPs on LDL-C and coronary heart disease (CHD) was examined in Pakistani subjects and was compared with middle aged UK men from Northwick Park Heart Study II (NPHSII). METHODS: One thousand nine hundred sixty-five (1770 non CHD, 195 CHD) UK and 623 (219 non CHD, 404 CHD) Pakistani subjects were enrolled in the study. The SNPs SORT1 rs646776, APOB rs1042031 and APOE rs429358, rs7412 were genotyped by TaqMan/KASPar technique and their gene score was calculated. LDL-C was calculated by Friedewald equation, results were analyzed using SPSS. RESULTS: Allele frequencies were significantly different (p = <0.05) between UK and Pakistani subjects. However, the SNPs were associated with LDL-C in both groups. In UK non CHD, UK CHD, Pakistani non CHD and Pakistani CHD respectively, for rs646776, per risk allele increase in LDL-C(mmol/l) was 0.18(0.04), 0.06(0.11), 0.15(0.04) and 0.27(0.06) respectively. For rs1042031, per risk allele increase in LDL-C in four groups was 0.11(0.04), 0.04(0.14), 0.15(0.06) and 0.25(0.09) respectively. For APOE genotypes, compared to Ɛ3, each Ɛ2 decreased LDL-C by 0.11(0.06), 0.07(0.15), 0.20(0.08) and 0.38(0.09), while each Ɛ4 increased LDL-C by 0.43(0.06), 0.39(0.21), 0.19(0.11) and 0.39(0.14) respectively. Overall gene score explained a considerable proportion of sample variance in four groups (3.8 %, 1.26 % 13.7 % and 12.3 %). Gene score in both non-CHD groups was significantly lower than CHD subjects. CONCLUSIONS: The SNPs show a dose response association with LDL-C levels and risk of CHD in both populations

The effectiveness of education in the recognition and management of deteriorating patients: A systematic review

publisher: Elsevier articletitle: The effectiveness of education in the recognition and management of deteriorating patients: A systematic review journaltitle: Nurse Education Today articlelink: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.nedt.2016.06.001 content_type: article copyright: © 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved

Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease as a Predictor of Cardiovascular Risk: A Case-Control Study.

This is an Accepted Manuscript of an article published by Taylor & Francis in on 13 December 2019, available online: https://doi.org/10.1080/15412555.2019.1694501Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) is a complex multi-morbid disorder with significant cardiac mortality. Current cardiovascular risk prediction models do not include COPD. We investigated whether COPD modifies future cardiovascular risk to determine if it should be considered in risk prediction models.Case-control study using baseline data from two randomized controlled trials performed between 2012 and 2015. Of the 90 eligible subjects, 26 COPD patients with lung hyperinflation were propensity matched for 10-year global cardiovascular risk score (QRISK2) with 26 controls having normal lung function. Patients underwent cardiac magnetic resonance imaging, arterial stiffness and lung function measurements. Differences in pulse wave velocity (PWV), total arterial compliance (TAC) and aortic distensibility were main outcome measures.PWV (mean difference 1.0 m/s, 95% CI 0.02-1.92; p = 0.033) and TAC (mean difference -0.27 mL/m2/mmHg, 95% CI 0.39-0.15; p < 0.001) were adversely affected in COPD compared to the control group. The PWV difference equates to an age, sex and risk-factor adjusted increase in relative risk of cardiovascular events and mortality of 14% and 15%, respectively.There were no differences in aortic distensibility. In the whole cohort (n = 90) QRISK2 (β = 0.045, p = 0.005) was associated with PWV in multivariate analysis. The relationship between QRISK2 and PWV were modified by COPD, where the interaction term reached significance (p = 0.014). FEV1 (β = 0.055 (0.027), p = 0.041) and pulse (B = -0.006 (0.002), p = 0.003) were associated with TAC in multivariate analysis.Markers of cardiovascular outcomes are adversely affected in COPD patients with lung hyperinflation compared to controls matched for global cardiovascular risk. Cardiovascular risk algorithms may benefit from the addition of a COPD variable to improve risk prediction and guide management.HAPPY London ClinicalTrials.gov: NCT01911910 and HZC116601; ClinicalTrials.gov: NCT01691885.The COPD trial was funded by GlaxoSmithKline (GSK), London, United Kingdom (HZC116601); SmithKline Beecham Pharma; The HAPPY London Study was funded by The Barts Charity (437/1412), London, United Kingdom