On Investigating the Potential Effects of Private Autonomous Vehicle Use on Home/Work Relocations and Commute Times

You're viewing a past article from the Good Systems Grand Challenge team at The University of Texas at Austin published in 2020.Office of the VP for Researc

Incorporating Autonomous Vehicles in the Traditional Four-Step Model

You're viewing a piece from the Good Systems Grand Challenge team at The University of Texas at Austin.Office of the VP for Researc

A Comparison of Online and In-Person Activity Engagement: The Case of Shopping and Eating Meals

You're viewing a past Journal from the Good Systems Grand Challenge team at The University of Texas at Austin from February 2020.Office of the VP for Researc

Toxoplasma gondii infection, congenital toxoplasmosis, toxoplasmic retinochoroiditis and neurotoxoplasmosis: an overview

Introduction: The toxoplasmosis disease resulting from Toxoplasma gondii infection can manifest itself in many ways, however, congenital, ocular and cerebral forms require greater care. The infection by this protozoan is directly related to environmental and economic factors of the region. Objective: The present study, through a review in the literature, aimed to reinforce the knowledge about the infection caused by Toxoplasma gondii and its main clinical manifestations. Methods: This is a literature overview from academic books and scientific articles available in the Scientific Electronic Library Online, US National Library of Medicine National Institutes of Health and Google Scholar databases. To search the publications, the following descriptors were used: Toxoplasma gondii, toxoplasmosis, congenital toxoplasmosis, ocular toxoplasmosis and cerebral toxoplasmosis. The most relevant articles corresponding to the period from 2000 to 2017 were selected. Development: Toxoplasmosis may be of congenital or acquired origin after birth. The congenital form occurs during the embryonic/fetal life and through the passage of Toxoplasma gondii through the transplacental route. Ocular disease is common in both congenital and acquired infections and is closely associated with the presence of neurotoxoplasmosis in AIDS patients. Conclusion: Thus, immunocompromised patients and immunosuppressed patients are considered to be risk groups for Toxoplasma gondii infection

Renal denervation in an animal model of diabetes and hypertension: Impact on the autonomic nervous system and nephropathy

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>The effects of renal denervation on cardiovascular reflexes and markers of nephropathy in diabetic-hypertensive rats have not yet been explored.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>Aim: To evaluate the effects of renal denervation on nephropathy development mechanisms (blood pressure, cardiovascular autonomic changes, renal GLUT2) in diabetic-hypertensive rats. Forty-one male spontaneously hypertensive rats (SHR) ~250 g were injected with STZ or not; 30 days later, surgical renal denervation (RD) or sham procedure was performed; 15 days later, glycemia and albuminuria (ELISA) were evaluated. Catheters were implanted into the femoral artery to evaluate arterial pressure (AP) and heart rate variability (spectral analysis) one day later in conscious animals. Animals were killed, kidneys removed, and cortical renal GLUT2 quantified (Western blotting).</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Higher glycemia (p < 0.05) and lower mean AP were observed in diabetics <it>vs. </it>nondiabetics (p < 0.05). Heart rate was higher in renal-denervated hypertensive and lower in diabetic-hypertensive rats (384.8 ± 37, 431.3 ± 36, 316.2 ± 5, 363.8 ± 12 bpm in SHR, RD-SHR, STZ-SHR and RD-STZ-SHR, respectively). Heart rate variability was higher in renal-denervated diabetic-hypertensive rats (55.75 ± 25.21, 73.40 ± 53.30, 148.4 ± 93 in RD-SHR, STZ-SHR- and RD-STZ-SHR, respectively, p < 0.05), as well as the LF component of AP variability (1.62 ± 0.9, 2.12 ± 0.9, 7.38 ± 6.5 in RD-SHR, STZ-SHR and RD-STZ-SHR, respectively, p < 0.05). GLUT2 renal content was higher in all groups <it>vs</it>. SHR.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>Renal denervation in diabetic-hypertensive rats improved previously reduced heart rate variability. The GLUT2 equally overexpressed by diabetes and renal denervation may represent a maximal derangement effect of each condition.</p

Quality Assessment of Photoplethysmography Signals For Cardiovascular Biomarkers Monitoring Using Wearable Devices

Photoplethysmography (PPG) is a non-invasive technology that measures changes in blood volume in the microvascular bed of tissue. It is commonly used in medical devices such as pulse oximeters and wrist worn heart rate monitors to monitor cardiovascular hemodynamics. PPG allows for the assessment of parameters (e.g., heart rate, pulse waveform, and peripheral perfusion) that can indicate conditions such as vasoconstriction or vasodilation, and provides information about microvascular blood flow, making it a valuable tool for monitoring cardiovascular health. However, PPG is subject to a number of sources of variations that can impact its accuracy and reliability, especially when using a wearable device for continuous monitoring, such as motion artifacts, skin pigmentation, and vasomotion. In this study, we extracted 27 statistical features from the PPG signal for training machine-learning models based on gradient boosting (XGBoost and CatBoost) and Random Forest (RF) algorithms to assess quality of PPG signals that were labeled as good or poor quality. We used the PPG time series from a publicly available dataset and evaluated the algorithm s performance using Sensitivity (Se), Positive Predicted Value (PPV), and F1-score (F1) metrics. Our model achieved Se, PPV, and F1-score of 94.4, 95.6, and 95.0 for XGBoost, 94.7, 95.9, and 95.3 for CatBoost, and 93.7, 91.3 and 92.5 for RF, respectively. Our findings are comparable to state-of-the-art reported in the literature but using a much simpler model, indicating that ML models are promising for developing remote, non-invasive, and continuous measurement devices.Comment: 9 page

Compostos orgânicos e resíduos da cadeia produtiva do arroz como substrato para produção de mudas de cana-de-açúcar.

O objetivo do presente trabalho foi determinar o potencial agronômico de substratos produzidos a base de um composto orgânico para a produção, a partir de minitoletes, de mudas de cana-de-açúcar genótipo RB86751

QCD Corrections to QED Vacuum Polarization

We compute QCD corrections to QED calculations for vacuum polarization in background magnetic fields. Formally, the diagram for virtual $e\bar{e}$ loops is identical to the one for virtual $q\bar{q}$ loops. However due to confinement, or to the growth of $\alpha_s$ as $p^2$ decreases, a direct calculation of the diagram is not allowed. At large $p^2$ we consider the virtual $q\bar{q}$ diagram, in the intermediate region we discuss the role of the contribution of quark condensates \left and at the low-energy limit we consider the $\pi^0$, as well as charged pion $\pi^+\pi^-$ loops. Although these effects seem to be out of the measurement accuracy of photon-photon laboratory experiments they may be relevant for $\gamma$-ray burst propagation. In particular, for emissions from the center of the galaxy (8.5 kpc), we show that the mixing between the neutral pseudo-scalar pion $\pi_0$ and photons renders a deviation from the power-law spectrum in the $TeV$ range. As for scalar quark condensates \left and virtual $q\bar{q}$ loops are relevant only for very high radiation density $\sim 300 MeV/fm^3$ and very strong magnetic fields of order $\sim 10^{14} T$.Comment: 15 pages, 4 figures; Final versio