Pressure-induced radial collapse in few-wall carbon nanotubes: A combined theoretical and experimental study

Brazilian authors acknowledge funding from CNPq (grant 307317/2010-2, INCT NanoBioSimes) and Central Analítica-UFC/CT-INFRA-FINEP/Pró-Equipamentos-CAPES/CNPq-SisNano-MCTI (grant 402284/2013-5). R. S. Alencar is also in debt to Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior under the grant No. 99999.004227/2014-00 for financial support. Alexander Soldatov (University of Lulea, Sweden) is warmly acknowledged for discussions on the RBM Raman spectra interpretation at the collapse region

The Dutch Data Warehouse, a multicenter and full-admission electronic health records database for critically ill COVID-19 patients

Background The Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has underlined the urgent need for reliable, multicenter, and full-admission intensive care data to advance our understanding of the course of the disease and investigate potential treatment strategies. In this study, we present the Dutch Data Warehouse (DDW), the first multicenter electronic health record (EHR) database with full-admission data from critically ill COVID-19 patients. Methods A nation-wide data sharing collaboration was launched at the beginning of the pandemic in March 2020. All hospitals in the Netherlands were asked to participate and share pseudonymized EHR data from adult critically ill COVID-19 patients. Data included patient demographics, clinical observations, administered medication, laboratory determinations, and data from vital sign monitors and life support devices. Data sharing agreements were signed with participating hospitals before any data transfers took place. Data were extracted from the local EHRs with prespecified queries and combined into a staging dataset through an extract-transform-load (ETL) pipeline. In the consecutive processing pipeline, data were mapped to a common concept vocabulary and enriched with derived concepts. Data validation was a continuous process throughout the project. All participating hospitals have access to the DDW. Within legal and ethical boundaries, data are available to clinicians and researchers. Results Out of the 81 intensive care units in the Netherlands, 66 participated in the collaboration, 47 have signed the data sharing agreement, and 35 have shared their data. Data from 25 hospitals have passed through the ETL and processing pipeline. Currently, 3464 patients are included in the DDW, both from wave 1 and wave 2 in the Netherlands. More than 200 million clinical data points are available. Overall ICU mortality was 24.4%. Respiratory and hemodynamic parameters were most frequently measured throughout a patient's stay. For each patient, all administered medication and their daily fluid balance were available. Missing data are reported for each descriptive. Conclusions In this study, we show that EHR data from critically ill COVID-19 patients may be lawfully collected and can be combined into a data warehouse. These initiatives are indispensable to advance medical data science in the field of intensive care medicine.Perioperative Medicine: Efficacy, Safety and Outcome (Anesthesiology/Intensive Care

Comparison of outcome and characteristics between 6343 COVID-19 patients and 2256 other community-acquired viral pneumonia patients admitted to Dutch ICUs

Purpose: Describe the differences in characteristics and outcomes between COVID-19 and other viral pneumonia patients admitted to Dutch ICUs. Materials and methods: Data from the National-Intensive-Care-Evaluation-registry of COVID-19 patients admitted between February 15th and January 1th 2021 and other viral pneumonia patients admitted between January 1st 2017 and January 1st 2020 were used. Patients' characteristics, the unadjusted, and adjusted in-hospital mortality were compared. Results: 6343 COVID-19 and 2256 other viral pneumonia patients from 79 ICUs were included. The COVID-19 patients included more male (71.3 vs 49.8%), had a higher Body-Mass-Index (28.1 vs 25.5), less comorbidities (42.2 vs 72.7%), and a prolonged hospital length of stay (19 vs 9 days). The COVID-19 patients had a significantly higher crude in-hospital mortality rate (Odds ratio (OR) = 1.80), after adjustment for patient characteristics and ICU occupancy rate the OR was respectively 3.62 and 3.58. Conclusion: Higher mortality among COVID-19 patients could not be explained by patient characteristics and higher ICU occupancy rates, indicating that COVID-19 is more severe compared to other viral pneumonia. Our findings confirm earlier warnings of a high need of ICU capacity and high mortality rates among relatively healthy COVID-19 patients as this may lead to a higher mental workload for the staff. (c) 2021 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Inc. This is an open access article under the CC BY license (http:// creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/)

Mathematics Motivation in Students with Low Cognitive Ability: A Longitudinal Study of Motivation and Relations with Effort, Self-Regulation, and Grades

Expectancy-value theory (EVT) is a popular framework to understand and improve students’ motivation. Unfortunately, limited research has verified whether EVT predictions generalize to students with low levels of cognitive ability. This study relies on Grade 5 and 8 data from 177 students with low levels of cognitive ability and a matched sample of 177 students with average to high cognitive ability from the German ‘Project for the Analysis of Learning and Achievement in Mathematics’. Results showed that students with low levels of cognitive ability were able to differentiate EVT components. Both groups demonstrated a similar downward developmental trend in motivation from early to middle adolescence, and similar relations between EVT components and levels of efforts, self-regulation, and mathematics class grades

Animal-Friendly Affinity Reagents: Replacing the Needless in the Haystack

The multibillion-dollar global antibody industry produces an indispensable resource but that is generated using millions of animals. Despite the irrefutable maturation and availability of animal-friendly affinity reagents (AFAs) employing naïve B lymphocyte or synthetic recombinant technologies expressed by phage display, animal immunisation is still authorised for antibody production. Remarkably, replacement opportunities have been overlooked, despite the enormous potential reduction in animal use. Directive 2010/63/EU requires that animals are not used where alternatives exist. To ensure its implementation, we have engaged in discussions with the EU Reference Laboratory for alternatives to animal testing (EURL ECVAM) and the Directorate General for Environment to carve out an EU-led replacement strategy. Measures must be imposed to avoid outsourcing, regulate commercial production, and ensure that antibody producers are fully supported

Silagem de alfafa colhida no início do florescimento e submetida ao emurchecimento e à ação de aditivos biológicos Alfalfa silage harvest at the early flowering stage and submitted to wilt and action of biological additives

A alfafa (Medicago sativa L.) foi segada no verão com 40 dias de rebrote no estádio de início de florescimento (26,3% MS; 18,94% PB; 8,9% de carboidratos solúveis na MS; e 43,35 meqOH-/100 g de MS de poder tampão). Parte do material foi ensilada fresca (26,30% MS) e parte, emurchecida por 20 horas (44,12% MS). Ambas as silagens, emurchecidas e não-emurchecidas, foram submetidas a quatro tratamentos, Controle, Enzimas, Lactobacilos e Lactobacilos mais Enzimas, e ensiladas em silos de laboratório (3,6 L), com quatro repetições por tratamento, por um período de 60 dias. O emurchecimento propiciou silagens de melhor qualidade com menor pH, maior relação ácido lático/ácido acético, menores níveis de N amoniacal (N - NH3) e menor solubilização das frações nitrogenadas, com maior teor de carboidratos solúveis residuais. A ação dos aditivos na silagem de alfafa não-emurchecida determinou valores mais baixos de pH e N-NH3 nos tratamentos com Enzimas e Lactobacilos mais Enzimas, quando comparados com o tratamento Lactobacilos, mas que não diferiram do Controle. Em ambas as silagens fresca e emurchecida, houve diminuição do nível de FDN no tratamento Lactobacilos mais Enzimas.<br>A 40 days alfalfa (Medicago sativa) regrowth was harvested in the summer at the early flowering stage with (26.3% DM, 18.94% CP, 8,90% DM soluble carbohydrates and 43.35 meq OH-/100 g DM buffering capacity). Part of the material was direct cut ensiled (26.3% DM) and part was wilted for 20 hours (44.12% DM). Both silages, either wilted or not, were assigned to four treatments: Control, Enzymes, Inoculate and Inoculate plus Enzymes and were ensiled in laboratory silos (3.6 L), with four replicates, per treatment, per a period 60 days. Wilting provived silages of better quality with lower pH, higher lactic acid/acetic acid ratio, lower N-NH3 and lower solubilization of the nitrogen fraction, with higher residual soluble carbohydrates content. The direct cut alfalfa silages additive action provided lower pH and N-NH3 in the treatments with Enzymes and Inoculate plus enzymes when compared to the treatment with Inoculate, however when compared to the treatment with Inoculate, but did not differ from Control. In both silages (direct cut and wilted), there was a decrease in the NDF contents in the Inoculates plus Enzymes treatment