Micromechanisms of Deformation and Fracture in Porous L-PBF 316l Stainless Steel at Different Strain Rates

The process of an unstable plastic flow associated with the strain rate sensitivity of mechanical properties was studied in porous 316L austenitic steel samples manufactured by laser powder bed fusion (L-PBF). Different micromechanisms of deformation and fracture of porous samples dependent on strain rate were found. It was found that despite the porosity, the specimens showed high strength, which increased with the loading rate. Porosity led to lower ductility of the studied specimens, in comparison with literature data for low porous 316L L-PBF samples and resulted in de-localization of plastic deformation. With an increase in strain rate, nucleation of new pores was less pronounced, so that at the highest strain rate of 8 × 10-3s-1, only pore coalescence was ob-served as the dominating microscopic mechanism of ductile fracture. © 2021 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland.Funding: This work was founded by the Swedish Agency for Economic and Regional Growth, grant № 20201144 and Russian State program of Institute of Metal Physics “Additivity” № 121102900049-1

Reading comprehension in autism spectrum disorders: The role of oral language and social functioning

Reading comprehension is an area of difficulty for many individuals with autism spectrum disorders (ASD). According to the Simple View of Reading, word recognition and oral language are both important determinants of reading comprehension ability. We provide a novel test of this model in 100 adolescents with ASD of varying intellectual ability. Further, we explore whether reading comprehension is additionally influenced by individual differences in social behaviour and social cognition in ASD. Adolescents with ASD aged 14-16 years completed assessments indexing word recognition, oral language, reading comprehension, social behaviour and social cognition. Regression analyses show that both word recognition and oral language explain unique variance in reading comprehension. Further, measures of social behaviour and social cognition predict reading comprehension after controlling for the variance explained by word recognition and oral language. This indicates that word recognition, oral language and social impairments may constrain reading comprehension in ASD

Novel Biochemical Markers of Psychosocial Stress in Women

Background: Prolonged psychosocial stress is a condition assessed through self-reports. Here we aimed to identify biochemical markers for screening and early intervention in women

Recovery of dialysis patients with COVID-19 : health outcomes 3 months after diagnosis in ERACODA

Background. Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19)-related short-term mortality is high in dialysis patients, but longer-term outcomes are largely unknown. We therefore assessed patient recovery in a large cohort of dialysis patients 3 months after their COVID-19 diagnosis. Methods. We analyzed data on dialysis patients diagnosed with COVID-19 from 1 February 2020 to 31 March 2021 from the European Renal Association COVID-19 Database (ERACODA). The outcomes studied were patient survival, residence and functional and mental health status (estimated by their treating physician) 3 months after COVID-19 diagnosis. Complete follow-up data were available for 854 surviving patients. Patient characteristics associated with recovery were analyzed using logistic regression. Results. In 2449 hemodialysis patients (mean ± SD age 67.5 ± 14.4 years, 62% male), survival probabilities at 3 months after COVID-19 diagnosis were 90% for nonhospitalized patients (n = 1087), 73% for patients admitted to the hospital but not to an intensive care unit (ICU) (n = 1165) and 40% for those admitted to an ICU (n = 197). Patient survival hardly decreased between 28 days and 3 months after COVID-19 diagnosis. At 3 months, 87% functioned at their pre-existent functional and 94% at their pre-existent mental level. Only few of the surviving patients were still admitted to the hospital (0.8-6.3%) or a nursing home (∼5%). A higher age and frailty score at presentation and ICU admission were associated with worse functional outcome. Conclusions. Mortality between 28 days and 3 months after COVID-19 diagnosis was low and the majority of patients who survived COVID-19 recovered to their pre-existent functional and mental health level at 3 months after diagnosis

Investigating the use of world knowledge during on-line comprehension in adults with autism spectrum disorder

The on-line use of world knowledge during reading was examined in adults with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). Both ASD and typically developed (TD) adults read sentences that included plausible, implausible and anomalous thematic relations, as their eye movements were monitored. No group differences in the speed of detection of the anomalous violations were found, but the ASD group showed a delay in detection of implausible thematic relations. These findings suggest that there are subtle differences in the speed of world knowledge processing during reading in ASD

Outcome measures associated with perceived stress

We tend to think of situations in life as stressful when they are unpredictable, uncontrollable or overloading. Stress is a very personal experience. Perceived stress is a reflection of how such external stressful events and everyday hassles are ‘filtered’ according to our individual personality traits and coping strategies. People with tinnitus describe various stress-related complaints, but these symptoms are not just restricted to tinnitus. Poor concentration, sense of loss of control, sleep disturbance and irritability are also shared with people who are experiencing a state of generalised anxiety or depression. Whatever their origin, the goal of any clinical intervention for people with tinnitus should be to reduce these negative symptoms. This chapter takes a look at the way in which perceived stress associated with tinnitus has been measured. My focus is on clinical trials, but I start from the perspective of questionnaire construction by describing and comparing tinnitus-specific and general stress measures. I then evaluate how these instruments have been applied in a range of contemporary tinnitus trials. The chapter includes tutorials that introduce the reader to fundamental concepts in clinical trial design, understanding the purpose of questionnaires and appreciating the relevance of sample size calculations