Using Social Media to Promote STEM Education: Matching College Students with Role Models

STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics) fields have become increasingly central to U.S. economic competitiveness and growth. The shortage in the STEM workforce has brought promoting STEM education upfront. The rapid growth of social media usage provides a unique opportunity to predict users' real-life identities and interests from online texts and photos. In this paper, we propose an innovative approach by leveraging social media to promote STEM education: matching Twitter college student users with diverse LinkedIn STEM professionals using a ranking algorithm based on the similarities of their demographics and interests. We share the belief that increasing STEM presence in the form of introducing career role models who share similar interests and demographics will inspire students to develop interests in STEM related fields and emulate their models. Our evaluation on 2,000 real college students demonstrated the accuracy of our ranking algorithm. We also design a novel implementation that recommends matched role models to the students.Comment: 16 pages, 8 figures, accepted by ECML/PKDD 2016, Industrial Trac

New-Onset Atrial Fibrillation After Aortic Valve Replacement Comparison of Transfemoral, Transapical, Transaortic, and Surgical Approaches

ObjectivesThis study sought to determine the incidence of new-onset atrial fibrillation (AF) associated with different methods of isolated aortic valve replacement (AVR)—transfemoral (TF), transapical (TA), and transaortic (TAo) catheter-based valve replacement and conventional surgical approaches.BackgroundThe relative incidences of AF associated with the various access routes for AVR have not been well characterized.MethodsIn this single-center, retrospective cohort study, we evaluated a total of 231 consecutive patients who underwent AVR for degenerative aortic stenosis (AS) between March 2010 and September 2012. Patients with a history of paroxysmal, persistent, or chronic AF, with bicuspid aortic valves, and patients who died within 48 h after AVR were excluded. A total of 123 patients (53% of total group) qualified for inclusion. Data on documented episodes of new-onset AF, along with all clinical, echocardiographic, procedural, and 30-day follow-up data, were collated.ResultsAF occurred in 52 patients (42.3%). AF incidence varied according to the procedural method. AF occurred in 60% of patients who underwent surgical AVR (SAVR), in 53% after TA-TAVR, in 33% after TAo-TAVR cases, and 14% after TF-TAVR. The episodes occurred at a median time interval of 53 (25th to 75th percentile, 41 to 87) h after completion of the procedure. Procedures without pericardiotomy had an 82% risk reduction of AF compared with those with pericardiotomy (adjusted odds ratio: 0.18; 95% confidence interval: 0.05 to 0.59).ConclusionsAF was a common complication of AVR with a cumulative incidence of >40% in elderly patients with degenerative AS who underwent either SAVR or TAVR. AF was most common with SAVR and least common with TF-TAVR. Procedures without pericardiotomy were associated with a lower incidence of AF

Design and testing of hydrophobic core/hydrophilic shell nano/micro particles for drug-eluting stent coating

In this study, we designed a novel drug-eluting coating for vascular implants consisting of a core coating of the anti-proliferative drug docetaxel (DTX) and a shell coating of the platelet glycoprotein IIb/IIIa receptor monoclonal antibody SZ-21. The core/shell structure was sprayed onto the surface of 316L stainless steel stents using a coaxial electrospray process with the aim of creating a coating that exhibited a differential release of the two drugs. The prepared stents displayed a uniform coating consisting of nano/micro particles. In vitro drug release experiments were performed, and we demonstrated that a biphasic mathematical model was capable of capturing the data, indicating that the release of the two drugs conformed to a diffusion-controlled release system. We demonstrated that our coating was capable of inhibiting the adhesion and activation of platelets, as well as the proliferation and migration of smooth muscle cells (SMCs), indicating its good biocompatibility and anti-proliferation qualities. In an in vivo porcine coronary artery model, the SZ-21/DTX drug-loaded hydrophobic core/hydrophilic shell particle coating stents were observed to promote re-endothelialization and inhibit neointimal hyperplasia. This core/shell particle-coated stent may serve as part of a new strategy for the differential release of different functional drugs to sequentially target thrombosis and in-stent restenosis during the vascular repair process and ensure rapid re-endothelialization in the field of cardiovascular disease

Changing trends in mortality among solid organ transplant recipients hospitalized for COVID-19 during the course of the pandemic

Mortality among patients hospitalized for COVID-19 has declined over the course of the pandemic. Mortality trends specifically in solid organ transplant recipients (SOTR) are unknown. Using data from a multicenter registry of SOTR hospitalized for COVID-19, we compared 28-day mortality between early 2020 (March 1, 2020–June 19, 2020) and late 2020 (June 20, 2020–December 31, 2020). Multivariable logistic regression was used to assess comorbidity-adjusted mortality. Time period of diagnosis was available for 1435/1616 (88.8%) SOTR and 971/1435 (67.7%) were hospitalized: 571/753 (75.8%) in early 2020 and 402/682 (58.9%) in late 2020 (p <.001). Crude 28-day mortality decreased between the early and late periods (112/571 [19.6%] vs. 55/402 [13.7%]) and remained lower in the late period even after adjusting for baseline comorbidities (aOR 0.67, 95% CI 0.46–0.98, p =.016). Between the early and late periods, the use of corticosteroids (≥6 mg dexamethasone/day) and remdesivir increased (62/571 [10.9%] vs. 243/402 [61.5%], p <.001 and 50/571 [8.8%] vs. 213/402 [52.2%], p <.001, respectively), and the use of hydroxychloroquine and IL-6/IL-6 receptor inhibitor decreased (329/571 [60.0%] vs. 4/492 [1.0%], p <.001 and 73/571 [12.8%] vs. 5/402 [1.2%], p <.001, respectively). Mortality among SOTR hospitalized for COVID-19 declined between early and late 2020, consistent with trends reported in the general population. The mechanism(s) underlying improved survival require further study

COVID-19 in hospitalized lung and non-lung solid organ transplant recipients: A comparative analysis from a multicenter study

Lung transplant recipients (LTR) with coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) may have higher mortality than non-lung solid organ transplant recipients (SOTR), but direct comparisons are limited. Risk factors for mortality specifically in LTR have not been explored. We performed a multicenter cohort study of adult SOTR with COVID-19 to compare mortality by 28 days between hospitalized LTR and non-lung SOTR. Multivariable logistic regression models were used to assess comorbidity-adjusted mortality among LTR vs. non-lung SOTR and to determine risk factors for death in LTR. Of 1,616 SOTR with COVID-19, 1,081 (66%) were hospitalized including 120/159 (75%) LTR and 961/1457 (66%) non-lung SOTR (p =.02). Mortality was higher among LTR compared to non-lung SOTR (24% vs. 16%, respectively, p =.032), and lung transplant was independently associated with death after adjusting for age and comorbidities (aOR 1.7, 95% CI 1.0–2.6, p =.04). Among LTR, chronic lung allograft dysfunction (aOR 3.3, 95% CI 1.0–11.3, p =.05) was the only independent risk factor for mortality and age >65 years, heart failure and obesity were not independently associated with death. Among SOTR hospitalized for COVID-19, LTR had higher mortality than non-lung SOTR. In LTR, chronic allograft dysfunction was independently associated with mortality