Future universities in smart cities how to make smart use of a university hospital

Scientific institutions have a significant impact on the development and growth of regions. These include economic and social impacts ranging from the offer of employments and trainee positions to the economy’s supply side with qualified labor force, the provision of information and transfer of knowledge and technology as well as cultural opportunities. This holds in particular for university hospitals with their wealth of differ-ent disciplines extending into other academic fields and attracting addi-tional research institutes for intense collaboration. Considering this situa-tion leads immediately to the question, how to make best or “smart” use of an institution, such as a university hospital, that a larger city needs anyway? The term “smart” use refers, of course, to the economic impact, which is associated with this institution. However, before it is possible to provide a thorough answer to this ques-tion, we have to classify the various potential effects. There are, first of all, the so-called demand effects, pointing to resources the institution con-sumes, because it employs medical and administrative personnel, because it teaches and trains medical students, because it needs a large variety of medical supplies, and because it constantly needs to repair equipment and buildings or invest in new ones. The so-called supply effects are more difficult to investigate. They refer in particular to the attractiveness of the institution – due to its research ac-tivities, or due to the quality of the students leaving the institution with an academic degree – for other public or private research institutes settling in the neighborhood of the university hospital (sometimes referred to as “knowledge spillover”). The paper focuses in a first step on the demand effects, which include, however, also the demand effects associated with the institutions attracted through the university hospital. By comparing these effects for university hospitals in different regions or countries, it is possible to get some insight into the framework conditions, of relevance for strong supply effects. In a second step, the required conditions for an “optimal” regional impact lead-ing to substantial employment effects or outstanding innovation activities have to be investigated. This will then allow to optimize the framework conditions for the university hospital, to make “smart” use of this institu-tion. The methodology is characterized by an incidence analysis and specifies the Keynesian multiplier analysis in order to provide a framework for discov-ering and quantifying several regional economic effects and applies this analysis to university hospitals in Germany and Russia. The quantitative analysis shows the importance of these institutions for regional economic development. Differences regarding the size of the various multipliers re-sult from differences in relevant framework conditions, thus providing room for policy implications. The analysis investigates the university hospital in Leipzig (UML) in Ger-many, and the Siberian State Medical University (SSMU) in Tomsk, Rus-sia. Both institutions have a long history as research institutions, UML is larger in terms of the number of employees and the number of students, however SSMU serves a much larger area than UML. Moreover, these are-as are different regarding climatic and geographic conditions and regarding the density of the population. The results based on direct, indirect and induced demand effects show that UML reveals an employment multiplier of approximately 2, and SSMU of appropriately 1.5, implying that each full-time position in the hospitals leads to an additional full-time position in the vicinity of UML, and to an additional half-time position in the vicinity of SSMU. A more careful analysis shows that UML succeeds in attracting more additional research institutions, although SSMU supports more employees in the supplier in-dustries. Summarizing, the analysis points to significant differences regarding supply effects originating from university hospitals. Thus, it should be the concern of “smart” cities to make “smart” use of their university hospitals. A more detailed analysis regarding the second step mentioned above is required to provide further insight into the relevant framework conditions

Smart Institutions for Smart Cities

Smart cities employ creativity of the population for innovations supporting social and economic development. In this context, this paper explores the role of framework conditions on special supply effects of university hospitals, which can invite further research institutions for intense collaboration, thereby stimulating innovations. The case study, comparing a hospital in Russia with one in Germany, is based on the concept of the employment multiplier. The results show that exogenously given, but, more importantly, also modifiable framework conditions lead to large differences regarding the employment multiplier. Thus, it should be the concern of smart cities to make smart use of their institutions, such as university hospitals, by adjusting the conditions, under which they are operating. © 2018 Institute of Physics Publishing. All rights reserved

Coupling a model of human thermoregulation with computational fluid dynamics for predicting human-environment interaction

This paper describes the methods developed to couple a commercial CFD program with a multi-segmented model of human thermal comfort and physiology. A CFD model is able to predict detailed temperatures and velocities of airflow around a human body, whilst a thermal comfort model is able to predict the response of a human to the environment surrounding it. By coupling the two models and exchanging information about the heat transfer at the body surface the coupled system can potentially predict the response of a human body to detailed local environmental conditions. This paper presents a method of exchanging data, using shared files, to provide a means of dynamically exchanging simulation data with the IESD-Fiala model during the CFD solution process. Additional code is used to set boundary conditions for the CFD simulation at the body surface as determined by the IESD-Fiala model and to return information about local environmental conditions adjacent to the body surface as determined by the CFD simulation. The coupled system is used to model a human subject in a naturally ventilated environment. The resulting ventilation flow pattern agrees well with other numerical and experimental work

Arteriography during ex vivo renal perfusion A complication

A case of bilateral renal-cell carcinoma unsuccessfully treated with bench surgery is reported. The reason for failure was apparently the toxicity of the contrast media used during the ex vivo arteriographic studies. © 1973

Impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on breast, colorectal, lung, and prostate cancer stage at diagnosis according to race

PURPOSE: To determine if the COVID-19 pandemic has further exacerbated racial disparities in late-stage presentation of breast, colorectal, lung, and prostate cancers. METHODS: We conducted a registry-based retrospective study of patients with newly reported diagnoses of breast, colorectal, lung, and prostate cancers between March 2019-June 2019 (pre-COVID-19) and March 2020-June 2020 (early-COVID-19). We compared the volume of new diagnoses and stage at presentation according to race between both periods. RESULTS: During the study period, a total of 3528 patients had newly diagnosed cancer; 3304 of which had known disease stages and were included in the formal analyses. 467 (14.1%) were Blacks, and 2743 were (83%) Whites. 1216 (36.8%) had breast, 415 (12.6%) had colorectal, 827 (25%) had lung, and 846 (25.6%) had prostate cancers, respectively. The pre-COVID-19 period included 2120 (64.2%), and the early-COVID-19 period included 1184 (35.8%), representing a proportional 44.2% decline in the volume of new cases of breast, colorectal, lung, and prostate cancers, p \u3c 0.0001. Pre-COVID-19, 16.8% were diagnosed with metastatic disease, versus 20.4% early-COVID-19, representing a proportional increase of 21.4% in the numbers of new cases with metastatic disease, p = 0.01. There was a non-significant proportional decline of 1.9% in Black patients diagnosed with non-metastatic breast, colorectal, lung, and prostate cancers early-COVID-19 (p = 0.71) and a non-significant proportional increase of 7% in Black patients diagnosed with metastatic disease (p = 0.71). Difference-in-difference analyses showed no statistically significant differences in metastatic presentation comparing Black to White patients. CONCLUSION: While we identified substantial reductions in the volume of new cancer diagnoses and increases in metastatic presentations due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the impact was similar for White and Black patients

Ablation of VLA4 in multiple myeloma cells redirects tumor spread and prolongs survival

Multiple myeloma (MM) is a cancer of bone marrow (BM) plasma cells, which is increasingly treatable but still incurable. In 90% of MM patients, severe osteolysis results from pathological interactions between MM cells and the bone microenvironment. Delineating specific molecules and pathways for their role in cancer supportive interactions in the BM is vital for developing new therapies. Very Late Antigen 4 (VLA4, integrin

Restoration of Mitochondrial Cardiolipin Attenuates Cardiac Damage in Swine Renovascular Hypertension

BACKGROUND: Renovascular hypertension (RVH) impairs cardiac structure and left ventricular (LV) function, but whether mitochondrial injury is implicated in RVH-induced myocardial damage and dysfunction has not been defined. We hypothesized that cardiac remodeling in swine RVH is partly attributable to cardiac mitochondrial injury. METHODS AND RESULTS: After 12 weeks of hypercholesterolemic (HC)-RVH or control (n=14 each), pigs were treated for another 4 weeks with vehicle or with the mitochondrial-targeted peptide (MTP), Bendavia (0.1 mg/kg subcutaneously, 5 days/week), which stabilizes mitochondrial inner-membrane cardiolipin (n=7 each). Cardiac function was subsequently assessed by multidetector-computed tomography and oxygenation by blood-oxygen-level-dependent magnetic resonance imaging. Cardiolipin content, mitochondrial biogenesis, as well as sarcoplasmic-reticulum calcium cycling, myocardial tissue injury, and coronary endothelial function were assessed ex vivo. Additionally, mitochondrial cardiolipin content, oxidative stress, and bioenergetics were assessed in rat cardiomyocytes incubated with tert-butyl hydroperoxide (tBHP) untreated or treated with MTP. Chronic mitoprotection in vivo restored cardiolipin content and mitochondrial biogenesis. Thapsigargin-sensitive sarcoplasmic reticulum Ca(2+)-ATPase activity that declined in HC-RVH normalized in MTP-treated pigs. Mitoprotection also improved LV relaxation (E/A ratio) and ameliorated cardiac hypertrophy, without affecting blood pressure or systolic function. Myocardial remodeling and coronary endothelial function improved only in MTP-treated pigs. In tBHP-treated cardiomyocytes, mitochondrial targeting attenuated a fall in cardiolipin content and bioenergetics. CONCLUSIONS: Chronic mitoprotection blunted myocardial hypertrophy, improved LV relaxation, and attenuated myocardial cellular and microvascular remodeling, despite sustained HC-RVH, suggesting that mitochondrial injury partly contributes to hypertensive cardiomyopathy

Planar Graph Coloring with Forbidden Subgraphs: Why Trees and Paths Are Dangerous

We consider the problem of coloring a planar graph with the minimum number of colors such that each color class avoids one or more forbidden graphs as subgraphs. We perform a detailed study of the computational complexity of this problem. We present a complete picture for the case with a single forbidden connected (induced or non-induced) subgraph. The 2-coloring problem is NP-hard if the forbidden subgraph is a tree with at least two edges, and it is polynomially solvable in all other cases. The 3-coloring problem is NP-hard if the forbidden subgraph is a path, and it is polynomially solvable in all other cases. We also derive results for several forbidden sets of cycles

Attentive Learning of Sequential Handwriting Movements: A Neural Network Model

Defense Advanced research Projects Agency and the Office of Naval Research (N00014-95-1-0409, N00014-92-J-1309); National Science Foundation (IRI-97-20333); National Institutes of Health (I-R29-DC02952-01)