Design of micromixers using CFD modelling

The effect of various geometrical parameters of a grooved staggered herringbone micromixer on the mixing performance has been investigated using Computational Fluid Dynamics. Mixing quality has been quantified with spatial data statistics, maximum striation thickness and residence time analyses. The results show that the number of grooves per mixing cycle does not affect the mixing quality in an important way. On the other hand, a larger groove depth and width allow the maximum striation thickness to be rapidly reduced, without increasing the pressure drop across the mixer. Wide grooves, however, create significant dead zones in the microchannel, whereas deep grooves improve the spatial mixing quality

The Relationship Between Irrational Beliefs and Depressed Mood in Clinically Depressed Outpatients

Studies into the relationship between irrational beliefs and severity of depression have yielded variable results. Furthermore, there is a lack of information on the nature of this relationship within clinically depressed patients. The paper explores the relationship between BDI scores and individual irrational beliefs as measured by the Irrational Beliefs Test (IBT) in a clinical outpatient group (N=63) with major and minor depressive disorders diagnosed according to Research Diagnostic Criteria and in a comparison group of university students (N=43). The results of MANOVA analyses showed that the two groups differed significantly in overall level of irrational beliefs and in their endorsement of 7 out of 10 irrational belief scales. They also differed as to which irrational belief scale scores were predictive of BDI score. Findings suggested that several rational emotive therapy constructs lack explanatory and predictive power with respect to depressive relationships

The unique ethical challenges of conducting research in the rehabilitation medicine population

BACKGROUND: The broad topic of research ethics is one which has been relatively well-investigated and discussed. Unique ethical issues have been identified for such populations as pediatrics, where the issues of consent and assent have received much attention, and obstetrics, with concerns such as the potential for research to cause harm to the fetus. However, little has been written about ethical concerns which are relatively unique to the population of patients seen by the practitioner of rehabilitation medicine. DISCUSSION: This paper reviews unique ethical concerns in conducting research in this population, including decision-making capacity, communication, the potential for subject overuse, the timing of recruitment, hope for a cure and therapeutic misconception and the nature of the health care provider-research subject relationship. SUMMARY: Researchers in the area of rehabilitation medicine should be aware of some of the unique ethical challenges posed by this patient population and should take steps to address any potential concerns in order to optimize subject safety and ensure that studies meet current ethical guidelines and standards

A PXY-Mediated Transcriptional Network Integrates Signaling Mechanisms to Control Vascular Development in Arabidopsis

Vascular meristems generate the majority of biomass in higher plants. They constitute a bifacial stem cell population from which xylem and phloem are specified on opposing sides by positional signals. The PHLOEM INTERCALATED WITH XYLEM (PXY) receptor kinase promotes vascular cell division and organisation. However, how these functions are specified and integrated is unknown. Here, a putative PXY-mediated transcriptional regulatory network comprised of 690 transcription factor-promoter interactions was mapped. Among these interactions was a feed-forward loop containing transcription factors WUSCHEL HOMEOBOX RELATED 14 (WOX14) and TARGET OF MONOPTEROS 6 (TMO6), which each regulate the expression of a third transcription factor, LATERAL ORGAN BOUNDARIES DOMAIN 4 (LBD4). PXY signalling in turn regulates the WOX14, TMO6, LBD4 loop to control vascular proliferation. Genetic interaction between LBD4 and PXY suggests that LBD4 marks the phloem-procambium boundary, thus defining the shape of the vascular bundle. These data collectively support a novel mechanism that influences recruitment of cells into the phloem lineage, and defines the role of PXY signalling in this context to the arrangement of vascular tissue

Assessment of the capacity to consent to treatment in patients admitted to acute medical wards

BACKGROUND: Assessment of capacity to consent to treatment is an important legal and ethical issue in daily medical practice. In this study we carefully evaluated the capacity to consent to treatment in patients admitted to an acute medical ward using an assessment by members of the medical team, the specific Silberfeld's score, the MMSE and an assessment by a senior psychiatrist. METHODS: Over a 3 month period, 195 consecutive patients of an internal medicine ward in a university hospital were included and their capacity to consent was evaluated within 72 hours of admission. RESULTS: Among the 195 patients, 38 were incapable of consenting to treatment (unconscious patients or severe cognitive impairment) and 14 were considered as incapable of consenting by the psychiatrist (prevalence of incapacity to consent of 26.7%). Agreement between the psychiatrist's evaluation and the Silberfeld questionnaire was poor (sensitivity 35.7%, specificity 91.6%). Experienced clinicians showed a higher agreement (sensitivity 57.1%, specificity 96.5%). A decision shared by residents, chief residents and nurses was the best predictor for agreement with the psychiatric assessment (sensitivity 78.6%, specificity 94.3%). CONCLUSION: Prevalence of incapacity to consent to treatment in patients admitted to an acute internal medicine ward is high. While the standardized Silberfeld questionnaire and the MMSE are not appropriate for the evaluation of the capacity to consent in this setting, an assessment by the multidisciplinary medical team concurs with the evaluation by a senior psychiatrist

Dementia Wristband Report

This research project explored the use of new wearable and mobile technologies to support independent living and social interactions in the community for people living with dementia and their carers, more safely and for longer. The three key aims of the project were to: • Assess the potential acceptability, and usability of a mobile phone App and wearable wristband solution • Test the use of the technological in the everyday life contexts • Evaluate the usability and utility of a mobile phone App and digital wristband to reduce social isolation and improve health outcomes The research project had two stages: Stage 1 - Acceptability, utility and usability of the devices This stage of the project focused on developing initial understandings of the ways in which the proposed technological solutions work and potentially meet the needs of people living with dementia and their carers. This was achieved through: - Technology testing by the project team members. This gave the team a better understanding of the device used in the project. - Interviews with people with dementia and their carers, and with health and social care professionals. The interviews explored whether participants were receptive to, and what they thought about, the proposed solutions. Any concerns they had about the tracking technology in general or about the technology used in the project were also examined. Stage 2: Real world testing of the wristbands and smartphone App Research participant’s trialled the technology, as part of their everyday lives, for up to three months. During this period the research team worked closely with them to provide training and technological support and used a multi-method data collection focused on semi-structured interviews and observation to capture their experiences of using the technology. The participants living with dementia and their carers were given the opportunity to choose the technology that best suits them, either a wristbands or a smartphone application. Key findings In summary, through the interviews and focus groups and real world technology testing the research team and SME partners found there are issues around: - the use of technology for people living with dementia and their carers – for some people it was seen as a real benefit, others did not want to engage with the technology or have others know where they were. - education, information and support for people living with dementia and their carers to use new technologies; even when delivered via familiar technologies this can be challenging and needs support and time - support for family/other carers who are key to the support of mobile and wearable technologies. - support for people who do not have a local or remote family carer who can support the use of new technologies needs to be considered. - current GPS technologies not being accurate as a stand alone way of finding someone who may be lost or needing support. - safeguarding – which needs to take an holistic approach and include more traditional and ‘paper based’ safeguarding systems such as the Herbert protocol, - emerging and new technologies, which are developing constantly but a national approach is still missing; - the challenges for unpaid carers and people living with dementia to around exploring options around new technologies and deciding what are the best/cost effective options for their situations. - wearable and mobile technologies which can support people to be more independent in the community, but the technologies need to be: introduced early; affordable and be more easily supported by family and professional care givers as appropriate

How to find simple and accurate rules for viral protease cleavage specificities

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Proteases of human pathogens are becoming increasingly important drug targets, hence it is necessary to understand their substrate specificity and to interpret this knowledge in practically useful ways. New methods are being developed that produce large amounts of cleavage information for individual proteases and some have been applied to extract cleavage rules from data. However, the hitherto proposed methods for extracting rules have been neither easy to understand nor very accurate. To be practically useful, cleavage rules should be accurate, compact, and expressed in an easily understandable way.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>A new method is presented for producing cleavage rules for viral proteases with seemingly complex cleavage profiles. The method is based on orthogonal search-based rule extraction (OSRE) combined with spectral clustering. It is demonstrated on substrate data sets for human immunodeficiency virus type 1 (HIV-1) protease and hepatitis C (HCV) NS3/4A protease, showing excellent prediction performance for both HIV-1 cleavage and HCV NS3/4A cleavage, agreeing with observed HCV genotype differences. New cleavage rules (consensus sequences) are suggested for HIV-1 and HCV NS3/4A cleavages. The practical usability of the method is also demonstrated by using it to predict the location of an internal cleavage site in the HCV NS3 protease and to correct the location of a previously reported internal cleavage site in the HCV NS3 protease. The method is fast to converge and yields accurate rules, on par with previous results for HIV-1 protease and better than previous state-of-the-art for HCV NS3/4A protease. Moreover, the rules are fewer and simpler than previously obtained with rule extraction methods.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>A rule extraction methodology by searching for multivariate low-order predicates yields results that significantly outperform existing rule bases on out-of-sample data, but are more transparent to expert users. The approach yields rules that are easy to use and useful for interpreting experimental data.</p

A weak scientific basis for gaming disorder: let us err on the side of caution

We greatly appreciate the care and thought that is evident in the 10 commentaries that discuss our debate paper, the majority of which argued in favor of a formalized ICD-11 gaming disorder. We agree that there are some people whose play of video games is related to life problems. We believe that understanding this population and the nature and severity of the problems they experience should be a focus area for future research. However, moving from research construct to formal disorder requires a much stronger evidence base than we currently have. The burden of evidence and the clinical utility should be extremely high, because there is a genuine risk of abuse of diagnoses. We provide suggestions about the level of evidence that might be required: transparent and preregistered studies, a better demarcation of the subject area that includes a rationale for focusing on gaming particularly versus a more general behavioral addictions concept, the exploration of non-addiction approaches, and the unbiased exploration of clinical approaches that treat potentially underlying issues, such as depressive mood or social anxiety first. We acknowledge there could be benefits to formalizing gaming disorder, many of which were highlighted by colleagues in their commentaries, but we think they do not yet outweigh the wider societal and public health risks involved. Given the gravity of diagnostic classification and its wider societal impact, we urge our colleagues at the WHO to err on the side of caution for now and postpone the formalization

Deformation analysis of a metropolis from C- to X-band PSI: proof-of-concept with Cosmo-Skymed over Rome, Italy

Stability of monuments and subsidence of residential quarters in Rome (Italy) are depicted based on geospatial analysis of more than 310,000 Persistent Scatterers (PS) obtained from Stanford Method for Persistent Scatterers (StaMPS) processing of 32 COSMO-SkyMed 3m-resolution HH StripMap ascending mode scenes acquired between 21 March 2011 and 10 June 2013. COSMO-SkyMed PS densities and associated displacement velocities are compared with almost 20 years of historical C-band ERS- 1/2, ENVISAT and RADARSAT-1/2 imagery. Accounting for differences in image processing algorithms and satellite acquisition geometries, we assess the feasibility of ground motion monitoring in big cities and metropolitan areas by coupling newly acquired and legacy SAR in full time series. Limitations and operational benefits of the transition from medium resolution C-band to high resolution X-band PS data are discussed, alongside the potential impact on the management of expanding urban environments