Transfusion thresholds and beyond

Comment on Liberal transfusion strategy improves survival in perioperative but not in critically ill patients. A meta-analysis of randomised trials. [Br J Anaesth. 2015

The random phase approximation applied to ice

Standard density functionals without van der Waals interactions yield an unsatisfactory description of ice phases, specifically, high density phases occurring under pressure are too unstable compared to the common low density phase I$_h$ observed at ambient conditions. Although the description is improved by using functionals that include van der Waals interactions, the errors in relative volumes remain sizable. Here we assess the random phase approximation (RPA) for the correlation energy and compare our results to experimental data as well as diffusion Monte Carlo data for ice. The RPA yields a very balanced description for all considered phases, approaching the accuracy of diffusion Monte Carlo in relative energies and volumes. This opens a route towards a concise description of molecular water phases on surfaces and in cavities

Pleural mesothelioma and lung cancer risks in relation to occupational history and asbestos lung burden.

BACKGROUND: We have conducted a population-based study of pleural mesothelioma patients with occupational histories and measured asbestos lung burdens in occupationally exposed workers and in the general population. The relationship between lung burden and risk, particularly at environmental exposure levels, will enable future mesothelioma rates in people born after 1965 who never installed asbestos to be predicted from their asbestos lung burdens. METHODS: Following personal interview asbestos fibres longer than 5 µm were counted by transmission electron microscopy in lung samples obtained from 133 patients with mesothelioma and 262 patients with lung cancer. ORs for mesothelioma were converted to lifetime risks. RESULTS: Lifetime mesothelioma risk is approximately 0.02% per 1000 amphibole fibres per gram of dry lung tissue over a more than 100-fold range, from 1 to 4 in the most heavily exposed building workers to less than 1 in 500 in most of the population. The asbestos fibres counted were amosite (75%), crocidolite (18%), other amphiboles (5%) and chrysotile (2%). CONCLUSIONS: The approximate linearity of the dose-response together with lung burden measurements in younger people will provide reasonably reliable predictions of future mesothelioma rates in those born since 1965 whose risks cannot yet be seen in national rates. Burdens in those born more recently will indicate the continuing occupational and environmental hazards under current asbestos control regulations. Our results confirm the major contribution of amosite to UK mesothelioma incidence and the substantial contribution of non-occupational exposure, particularly in women

Vitamin E in Viral Inactivated Vaccines

Abstract This research aimed at verifying whether vitamin E added to inactivated and emulsified vaccines enhances the immune response to viral antigens in chicken. Three hundred and twenty broilers (males and females) and 16 types of vaccines, varying in viral antigen [Newcastle disease virus, egg drop syndrome 1976 virus (EDS76V), and infectious bursal disease virus] and vitamin E amount (replacing 10, 20, and 30% of mineral oil) were used. Results show that vaccines with vitamin E, especially when it replaces 20 or 30% of mineral oil, induces a more rapid and higher antibody response than control vaccines. An adjuvant effect of vitamin E was also present in viral vaccine lacking bacterial antigens. Apart from vitamin E content, the Newcastle disease virus and infectious bursal disease virus monovalent vaccines induced higher titers of specific circulating antibodies in birds than did trivalent vaccines

Electronic State Unfolding for Plane Waves: Energy Bands, Fermi Surfaces, and Spectral Functions

Present day computing facilities allow for first-principles density functional theory studies of complex physical and chemical phenomena. Often such calculations are linked to large supercells to adequately model the desired property. However, supercells are associated with small Brillouin zones in the reciprocal space, leading to folded electronic eigenstates that make the analysis and interpretation extremely challenging. Various techniques have been proposed and developed to reconstruct the electronic band structures of super cells unfolded into the reciprocal space of an ideal primitive cell. Here we propose an unfolding scheme embedded directly in the Vienna Ab initio Simulation Package (VASP) that requires modest computational resources and allows for an automatized mapping from the reciprocal space of the supercell to the primitive cell Brillouin zone. This algorithm can compute band structures, Fermi surfaces, and spectral functions by using an integrated postprocessing tool (bands4vasp). Here the method is applied to a selected variety of complex physical situations: the effect of doping on the band dispersion in the BaFe2(1-x)Ru2xAs2 superconductor, the interaction between adsorbates and polaronic states on the TiO2(110) surface, and the band splitting induced by noncollinear spin fluctuations in EuCd2As2

Denoising Diffusion Models on Model-Based Latent Space

With the recent advancements in the field of diffusion generative models, it has been shown that defining the generative process in the latent space of a powerful pretrained autoencoder can offer substantial advantages. This approach, by abstracting away imperceptible image details and introducing substantial spatial compression, renders the learning of the generative process more manageable while significantly reducing computational and memory demands. In this work, we propose to replace autoencoder coding with a model-based coding scheme based on traditional lossy image compression techniques; this choice not only further diminishes computational expenses but also allows us to probe the boundaries of latent-space image generation. Our objectives culminate in the proposal of a valuable approximation for training continuous diffusion models within a discrete space, accompanied by enhancements to the generative model for categorical values. Beyond the good results obtained for the problem at hand, we believe that the proposed work holds promise for enhancing the adaptability of generative diffusion models across diverse data types beyond the realm of imagery

Qualidade física do solo em um sistema de integração lavoura-pécuaria com diferentes pressões de pastejo.

bitstream/item/71522/1/ID-30987.pd

Structural and vibrational properties of two-dimensional MnxOy\rm Mn_xO_y nanolayers on Pd(100)

Using different experimental techniques combined with density functional based theoretical methods we have explored the formation of interface-stabilized manganese oxide structures grown on Pd(100) at (sub)monolayer coverage. Amongst the multitude of phases experimentally observed we focus our attention on four structures which can be classified into two distinct regimes, characterized by different building blocks. Two oxygen-rich phases are described in terms of MnO(111)-like O-Mn-O trilayers, whereas the other two have a lower oxygen content and are based on a MnO(100)-like monolayer structure. The excellent agreement between calculated and experimental scanning tunneling microscopy images and vibrational electron energy loss spectra allows for a detailed atomic description of the explored models.Comment: 14 pages, 11 figure