Autonomous gathering of livestock using a multi-functional sensor network platform

In this paper we develop algorithms and hardware for the autonomous gathering of cattle. We present a comparison of three different autonomous gathering algorithms that employ sound and/or electric stimuli to guide the cattle. We evaluate these algorithms in simulation by extending previous behavioral simulations for cattle. We implemented one of these algorithms and present data from experiments in which cattle were equipped with sensor nodes that allowed cueing with sound and electric stimuli. We discuss the minimum requirements for algorithms and hardware for autonomous gathering

The only known cyclopygid–‘atheloptic’ trilobite fauna from North America: the upper Ordovician fauna of the Pyle Mountain Argillite and its palaeoenvironmental significance

The trilobite fauna of the upper Ordovician (middle Katian) Pyle Mountain Argillite comprises a mixture of abundant mesopelagic cyclopygids and other pelagic taxa and a benthic fauna dominated by trilobites lacking eyes. Such faunas were widespread in deep water environments around Gondwana and terranes derived from that continent throughout Ordovician time but this is the only known record of such a fauna from North America and thus from Laurentia. It probably reflects a major sea level rise (the ‘Linearis drowning events’) as does the development of coeval cyclopygid-dominated deep water trilobite faunas in terranes that were marginal to Laurentia and are now preserved in Ireland and Scotland. The Pyle Mountain Argillite trilobite fauna occurs with a deep water Foliomena brachiopod fauna and comprises 22 species. Pelagic trilobites (mostly cyclopygids) constitute 36% of the preserved sclerites, and 45% of the fauna is the remains of trilobites lacking eyes, including one new species, Dindymene whittingtoni sp. nov. Three species of cyclopygid are present, belonging in Cyclopyge, Symphysops and Microparia (Heterocyclopyge). Cyclopygids are widely thought to have been stratified in the water column in life and thus their taxonomic diversity reflects the relative depths of the sea-beds on which their remains accumulated. A tabulation of middle and upper Katian cyclopygid-bearing faunas from several palaeoplates and terranes arranged on the basis of increasing numbers of cyclopygid genera allows an assessment of the relative depth ranges of the associated benthic taxa. The Pyle Mountain Argillite fauna lies towards the deeper end of this depth spectrum

Elevated Diastolic Closing Margin Is Associated with Intraventricular Hemorrhage in Premature Infants.

OBJECTIVE: To determine whether the diastolic closing margin (DCM), defined as diastolic blood pressure minus critical closing pressure, is associated with the development of early severe intraventricular hemorrhage (IVH). STUDY DESIGN: A reanalysis of prospectively collected data was conducted. Premature infants (gestational age 23-31 weeks) receiving mechanical ventilation (n = 185) had ∼1-hour continuous recordings of umbilical arterial blood pressure, middle cerebral artery cerebral blood flow velocity, and PaCO2 during the first week of life. Models using multivariate generalized linear regression and purposeful selection were used to determine associations with severe IVH. RESULTS: Severe IVH (grades 3-4) was observed in 14.6% of the infants. Irrespective of the model used, Apgar score at 5 minutes and DCM were significantly associated with severe IVH. A clinically relevant 5-mm Hg increase in DCM was associated with a 1.83- to 1.89-fold increased odds of developing severe IVH. CONCLUSION: Elevated DCM was associated with severe IVH, consistent with previous animal data showing that IVH is associated with hyperperfusion. Measurement of DCM may be more useful than blood pressure in defining cerebral perfusion in premature infants.This is the author accepted manuscript. It is currently under an indefinite embargo pending publication by Oxford University Press

Does hypothermia impair cerebrovascular autoregulation in neonates during cardiopulmonary bypass?

BACKGROUND: Autoregulation monitoring has been proposed as a means to identify optimal arterial blood pressure goals during cardiopulmonary bypass, but it has been observed that cerebral blood flow is pressure passive during hypothermic bypass. When neonates cooled during cardiopulmonary bypass are managed with vasodilators and controlled hypotension, it is not clear whether hypothermia or hypotension were the cause of impaired autoregulation. AIM: We sought to measure the effect of both arterial blood pressure and hypothermia on autoregulation in a cohort of infants cooled for bypass, hypothesizing a collinear relationship between hypothermia, hypotension, and dysautoregulation. METHODS: Cardiopulmonary bypass was performed on 72 infants at Texas Children's Hospital during 2015 and 2016 with automated physiologic data capture, including arterial blood pressure, nasopharyngeal temperature, cerebral oximetry, and a cerebral blood volume index derived from near infrared spectroscopy. Cooling to 18°C, 24°C, and 30°C was performed on 33, 12, and 22 subjects, respectively. The hemoglobin volume index was calculated as a moving correlation coefficient between mean arterial blood pressure and the cerebral blood volume index. Positive values of the hemoglobin volume index indicate impaired autoregulation. Relationships between variables were assessed utilizing a generalized estimating equation approach. RESULTS: Hypothermia was associated with hypotension, dysautoregulation, and increased cerebral oximetry. Comparing the baseline temperature of 36°C with 18°C, arterial blood pressure was 44 mm Hg (39-52) vs 25 mm Hg (21-31); the hemoglobin volume index was 0.0 (-0.02 to 0.004) vs 0.5 (0.4-0.7) and cerebral oximetry was 59% (57-61) vs 88% (80-92) (Median, 95% CI of median; P<.0001 for all three associations by linear regression with generalized estimation of equations with data from all temperatures measured). CONCLUSIONS: Arterial blood pressure, temperature, and cerebral autoregulation were collinear in this cohort. The conclusion that hypothermia causes impaired autoregulation is thus confounded. The effect of temperature on autoregulation should be delineated before clinical deployment of autoregulation monitors to prevent erroneous determination of optimal arterial blood pressure. Showing the effect of temperature on autoregulation will require a normotensive hypothermic model

Postcardiotomy Venoarterial Extracorporeal Membrane Oxygenation With and Without Intra-Aortic Balloon Pump

Publisher Copyright: © 2022 The Author(s)Objectives: To compare the outcomes of patients with postcardiotomy shock treated with venoarterial extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (VA-ECMO) only compared with VA-ECMO and intra-aortic balloon pump (IABP). Design: A retrospective multicenter registry study. Setting: At 19 cardiac surgery units. Participants: A total of 615 adult patients who required VA-ECMO from 2010 to 2018. The patients were divided into 2 groups depending on whether they received VA-ECMO only (ECMO only group) or VA-ECMO plus IABP (ECMO-IABP group). Measurements and Main Results: The overall series mean age was 63 +/- 13 years, and 33% were female. The ECMO-only group included 499 patients, and 116 patients were in the ECMO-IABP group. Urgent and/or emergent procedures were more common in the ECMO-only group. Central cannulation was performed in 47% (n = 54) in the ECMO-IABP group compared to 27% (n = 132) in the ECMO-only group. In the ECMOIABP group, 58% (n = 67) were successfully weaned from ECMO, compared to 46% (n = 231) in the ECMO-only group (p = 0.026). However, inhospital mortality was 63% in the ECMO-IABP group compared to 65% in the ECMO-only group (p = 0.66). Among 114 propensity score-matched pairs, ECMO-IABP group had comparable weaning rates (57% v 53%, p = 0.51) and in-hospital mortality (64% v 58%, p = 0.78). Conclusions: This multicenter study showed that adjunctive IABP did not translate into better outcomes in patients treated with VA-ECMO for postcardiotomy shock. (C) 2022 The Author(s). Published by Elsevier Inc.Peer reviewe

Risk and management of patients with mastocytosis and MCAS in the SARS-CoV-2 (COVID-19) pandemic:Expert opinions

The COVID-19 (SARS-CoV-2) pandemic has massively distorted our health care systems and caused catastrophic consequences in our affected communities. The number of victims continues to increase and patients at risk can only be protected to a degree, since the virulent state may be asymptomatic. Risk factors concerning COVID-19-induced morbidity and mortality include advanced age, an impaired immune system, cardiovascular or pulmonary diseases, obesity, diabetes mellitus, and cancer treated with chemotherapy. Here within, we discuss the risk and impact of COVID-19 in patients with mastocytosis and mast cell activation syndromes. As no published data are yet available, expert opinions are, by necessity, based on case experience and reports from patients. Whereas the overall risk to acquire the SARS-CoV-2 virus may not be elevated in mast cell disease, certain conditions may increase the risk of infected patients to develop severe COVID-19. These factors include certain co-morbidities, mast cell activation-related events affecting the cardiovascular or bronchopulmonary system and chemotherapy or immunosuppressive drugs. Therefore, such treatments should be carefully evaluated on a case-by-case basis during a COVID-19 infection. By contrast, other therapies, such as anti-mediator-type drugs, venom immunotherapy, or vitamin D, should be continued. Overall, patients with mast cell disorders should follow the general and local guidelines in the COVID-19 pandemic and advice from their medical provider.P.V. was supported by the Austrian Science Fund (FWF), projects P32470-B and 46 F4704-B20. J.G. is supported by the Charles and Ann Johnson Foundation. 47 D.D.M. is supported by the Division of Intramural Research, NIAID.Peer reviewe

Multi-tensor investigation of orbitofrontal cortex tracts affected in subcaudate tractotomy

Subcaudate tractotomy (SCT) is a neurosurgical lesioning procedure that can reduce symptoms in medically intractable obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD). Due to the putative importance the orbitofrontal cortex (OFC) in symptomatology, fibers that connect the OFC, SCT lesion, and either the thalamus or brainstem were investigated with two-tensor tractography using an unscented Kalman filter approach. From this dataset, fibers were warped to Montreal Neurological Institute space, and probability maps with center-of-mass analysis were subsequently generated. In comparing fibers from the same OFC region, including medial OFC (mOFC), central OFC (cOFC), and lateral OFC (lOFC), the area of divergence for fibers connected with the thalamus versus the brainstem is posterior to the anterior commissure. At the anterior commissure, fibers connected with the thalamus run dorsal to those connected with the brainstem. As OFC fibers travel through the ventral aspect of the internal capsule, lOFC fibers are dorsal to cOFC and mOFC fibers. Using neuroanatomical comparison, tracts coursing between the OFC and thalamus are likely part of the anterior thalamic radiations, while those between the OFC and brainstem likely belong to the medial forebrain bundle. These data support the involvement of the OFC in OCD and may be relevant to creating differential lesional procedures of specific tracts or to developing deep brain stimulation programming paradigms

Collaborative research between clinicians and researchers: a multiple case study of implementation

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Bottom-up, clinician-conceived and directed clinical intervention research, coupled with collaboration from researcher experts, is conceptually endorsed by the participatory research movement. This report presents the findings of an evaluation of a program in the Veterans Health Administration meant to encourage clinician-driven research by providing resources believed to be critical. The evaluation focused on the extent to which funded projects: maintained integrity to their original proposals; were methodologically rigorous; were characterized by collaboration between partners; and resulted in sustained clinical impact.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>Researchers used quantitative (survey and archival) and qualitative (focus group) data to evaluate the implementation, evaluation, and sustainability of four clinical demonstration projects at four sites. Fourteen research center mentors and seventeen clinician researchers evaluated the level of collaboration using a six-dimensional model of participatory research.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Results yielded mixed findings. Qualitative and quantitative data suggested that although the process was collaborative, clinicians' prior research experience was critical to the quality of the projects. Several challenges were common across sites, including subject recruitment, administrative support and logistics, and subsequent dissemination. Only one intervention achieved lasting clinical effect beyond the active project period. Qualitative analyses identified barriers and facilitators and suggested areas to improve sustainability.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>Evaluation results suggest that this participatory research venture was successful in achieving clinician-directed collaboration, but did not produce sustainable interventions due to such implementation problems as lack of resources and administrative support.</p

Global Classification of Mast Cell Activation Disorders:An ICD-10-CM–Adjusted Proposal of the ECNM-AIM Consortium

Mast cell activation (MCA) is common and occurs in a number of pathologic conditions, including IgE-dependent and independent allergic reactions, atopic disorders, autoimmune processes, and mastocytosis. In a subset of patients, no underlying disease and no known trigger of MCA are found. When the symptoms are severe, systemic, and recurrent, and accompanied by a diagnostic increase in the serum tryptase level or other mast cell mediators, an MCA syndrome (MCAS) may be diagnosed. In these patients, the symptoms typically respond to drugs suppressing MCA, mediator production in mast cells, or mediator effects. In each case, diagnostic consensus criteria must be fulfilled to diagnose MCAS. In other patients, MCA may be local, less severe, or less acute, or may be suspected but not confirmed, so that the diagnostic criteria of MCAS are not fulfilled. In these patients, it may be difficult to prove MCA, for example, by measuring multiple mast cell mediators or basophil activation, the latter as a surrogate of IgE-dependent hypersensitivity. However, validated diagnostic criteria for implicating suspected MCA behind such conditions are lacking, even if some of these conditions have recently been assigned to an International Classification of Diseases-10-Clinical Modification code (ICD-10-CM). In this article, we discuss diagnostic features and criteria and propose a ICD-10-CM–adjusted classification for disorders associated with MCA, herein referred to as MCA disorders (MCADs), with special emphasis on the delineation between confirmed MCAS, MCAD not fulfilling MCAS criteria, and suspected MCAD that is not present. In addition, we discuss the discrimination between overt MCAD and predisposing conditions, such as atopic states, mastocytosis, and hereditary alpha tryptasemia.</p