Survival after postoperative morbidity: a longitudinal observational cohort study

Prolonged morbidity after surgery is associated with a risk of premature death for a longer duration than perhaps is commonly thought; however, this risk falls with time. We suggest that prolonged postoperative morbidity measured in this way may be a valid indicator of the quality of surgical healthcare. Our findings reinforce the importance of research and quality improvement initiatives aimed at reducing the duration and severity of postoperative complication

HIF-mediated innate immune responses: cell signaling and therapeutic implications

Leukocytes recruited to infected, damaged, or inflamed tissues during an immune response must adapt to oxygen levels much lower than those in the circulation. Hypoxia inducible factors (HIFs) are key mediators of cellular responses to hypoxia and, as in other cell types, HIFs are critical for the upregulation of glycolysis, which enables innate immune cells to produce adenosine triphosphate anaerobically. An increasing body of evidence demonstrates that hypoxia also regulates many other innate immunological functions, including cell migration, apoptosis, phagocytosis of pathogens, antigen presentation and production of cytokines, chemokines, and angiogenic and antimicrobial factors. Many of these functions are mediated by HIFs, which are not only stabilized posttranslationally by hypoxia, but also transcriptionally upregulated by inflammatory signals. Here, we review the role of HIFs in the responses of innate immune cells to hypoxia, both in vitro and in vivo, with a particular focus on myeloid cells, on which the majority of studies have so far been carried out

Staggered flux and stripes in doped antiferromagnets

We have numerically investigated whether or not a mean-field theory of spin textures generate fictitious flux in the doped two dimensional $t-J$-model. First we consider the properties of uniform systems and then we extend the investigation to include models of striped phases where a fictitious flux is generated in the domain wall providing a possible source for lowering the kinetic energy of the holes. We have compared the energetics of uniform systems with stripes directed along the (10)- and (11)-directions of the lattice, finding that phase-separation generically turns out to be energetically favorable. In addition to the numerical calculations, we present topological arguments relating flux and staggered flux to geometric properties of the spin texture. The calculation is based on a projection of the electron operators of the $t-J$ model into a spin texture with spinless fermions.Comment: RevTex, 19 pages including 20 figure

Charge and mass effects on the evaporation of higher-dimensional rotating black holes

To study the dynamics of discharge of a brane black hole in TeV gravity scenarios, we obtain the approximate electromagnetic field due to the charged black hole, by solving Maxwell's equations perturbatively on the brane. In addition, arguments are given for brane metric corrections due to backreaction. We couple brane scalar and brane fermion fields with non-zero mass and charge to the background, and study the Hawking radiation process using well known low energy approximations as well as a WKB approximation in the high energy limit. We argue that contrary to common claims, the initial evaporation is not dominated by fast Schwinger discharge.Comment: Published version. Minor typos corrected. 29 pages, 5 figure

Abundance and phenology of two pest species, Cacoecimorpha pronubana and Epiphyas postvittana (Lepidoptera: Tortricidae)

Cacoecimorpha pronubana (Hübner, [1799]) and Epiphyas postvittana (Walker, 1863) are economically important polyphagous pest species. The larvae of these moths affect a wide range of horticultural crops. We evaluated the seasonal abundance and population dynamics of these two species, hypothesising that both species of moth exhibit similar patterns in their seasonal abundance and respond to abiotic factors. The study was carried out on a wide range of protected ornamental crops grown on a total area of one hectare at a commercial nursery. The study was completed over 5 consecutive years from 2015 to 2019, where both populations were monitored weekly during the months of moth activity, from April to November, using sex pheromone traps to trap the males of both species. The timing and abundance of catches were analysed in relation to local meteorological data. The mean yearly abundance of adult males was 604 ± 23.89 (mean ± SE; C. pronubana) and 1706 ± 167.18 (E. postvittana) also differing significantly between years for both species. There was no influence of any weather measures on the abundance of E. postvittana, but sunshine duration (4.84 ± 0.26 h) and temperature (13.04 ± 0.57°C) affected the mean seasonal abundance of C. pronubana. There was an overall difference in the seasonal pattern of abundance between the species studied. While we demonstrate a seasonal abundance difference between years for C. pronubana, we found no significant seasonal differences for E. postvittana. Improved understanding of seasonal abundance, phenological patterns and inter‐seasonal variations in population dynamics of these two species may be useful in developing forecasting models that can be used in improving integrated pest management strategies for these two pests

Anisotropy on the Fermi Surface of the Two-Dimensional Hubbard Model

We investigate anisotropic charge fluctuations in the two-dimensional Hubbard model at half filling. By the quantum Monte Carlo method, we calculate a momentum-resolved charge compressibility $\kappa (\bm{k}) = {d < n(\bm{k}) >}/{d \mu}$, which shows effects of an infinitesimal doping. At the temperature $T \sim {t^2}/{U}$, $\kappa (\bm{k})$ shows peak structure at the $(\pm \pi/2,\pm \pi/2)$ points along the $|k_x| + |k_y| = \pi$ line. A similar peak structure is reproduced in the mean-filed calculation for the d-wave pairing state or the staggered flux state.Comment: 5 pages, 3 figures, figures and presentation are modifie

Angular profile of emission of non-zero spin fields from a higher-dimensional black hole

Recent works have included the effect of rotation on simulations of black hole events at the LHC, showing that the angular momentum of the black hole cannot be ignored and it makes a non-trivial contribution for most of the lifetime of the black hole. A key consequence of the rotation of the black hole is that the Hawking radiation is no longer isotropic, making it more difficult to infer space–time parameters from measurements of the emitted particles. In this Letter we study the angular distribution of the Hawking emission of non-zero spin particles with specific helicity on the brane. We argue that the shape of the distribution could be used as a measure of the angular momentum of the black hole

Scents and sensibility: Best practice in insect olfactometer bioassays

Olfactometers have been used for more than 100 years and are integral to experimental chemical ecology. Studies utilising olfactometer bioassays form the foundation for understanding the behavioural responses of invertebrates to chemical stimuli under standardised laboratory conditions. Widely used olfactometry apparatuses include two-arm olfactometers for binary responses through to four- and six-arm arenas to evaluate more complex behaviours. Despite its prevalence in chemical ecology studies, there has never been a review of experimental best practice in olfactometry. This review critically evaluates both olfactometry methods and applications as well as experimental design and analysis. We aim to outline a standard of good practice to improve experimental design and reporting for studies involving olfactometry, thereby establishing a reference guide to build a robust experimental workflow for olfactometry bioassays

Influence of a Brane Tension on Phantom and Massive Scalar Field Emission

We elaborate the signature of the extra dimensions and brane tension in the process of phantom and massive scalar emission in the spacetime of (4+n)-dimensional tense brane black hole. Absorption cross section, luminosity of Hawking radiation and cross section in the low-energy approximation were found. We envisage that parameter connected with the existence of a brane imprints its role in the Hawking radiation of the considered fields.Comment: 7 pages, * figures, RevTex, to be published in General Relativity and Gravitatio