General framework for network throughput maximization in sink-based energy harvesting wireless sensor networks

Due to the advancement in energy harvesting wireless sensor networks (EH-WSNs), the data collection from one-hop stationary sensor nodes using a path-constrained mobile element (ME) has become one of the challenging issues. Toward the throughput improvement, we propose a general framework for network throughput maximization (NTM) problem by optimizing practically feasible parameters. For each proposed scenario, a mixed integer linear programming (MILP) optimization model is introduced for the problem formulation. Due to the NP-Hardness of the MILP models, we design two efficient algorithms namely as ODSAA and ODAA for two practically implementable scenarios. Having a preknowledge about the deployed location of nodes, the proposed algorithms run centrally by sink and find the sub-optimal solutions within a reasonable computation time. Furthermore, under the uniform distribution of energy harvesting, we find out two threshold points on respectively energy harvesting mean and battery capacity of nodes after which the network throughput reaches a stable point. Finally, simulations are conducted on different set of node deployments, which the results confirm that the proposed algorithms significantly improve the data throughput collected by sink and also the theoretical thresholds provide a confidence interval of 90%

Low-complexity charging/discharging scheduling for electric vehicles at home and common lots for smart households prosumers

—Plug-in electric vehicles are becoming one of indispensable prosumer electronics components for smart households and therefore, their cost efficient energy scheduling is one of the main challenging issues. In the current schemas, the charging and discharging interval of the vehicles are normally announced by the owners in advance leading to the suboptimal profit gain in some situations and hence consumers dissatisfaction. In this paper, we propose an efficient charging/discharging scheduling mechanism for electric vehicles in multiple homes common parking lot for smart households prosumers. The proposed mechanism takes into account the optimal interval allocation considering the instantaneous electricity load and the vehicles request pattern. Based on the data from the vehicles, a mixed optimization model is formulated by the central scheduler which aims to maximize the profit of consumers and is then solved using an effective algorithm. The optimization results are then sent to the system controller determining the interval and energy trading patterns between the power grid and the vehicles. The proposed algorithm has low complexity and ensures the energy satisfaction for all consumers. The performance of the scheduling schema is verified through multiple simulation scenarios

Sealive: the use of technical vessel-sealing devices for recipient hepatectomy in liver transplantation: study protocol for a randomized controlled trial

Background: The surgical technique used in liver transplantation has undergone constant evolution in an effort to develop a safe, highly standardized procedure. Despite this, the initial step of recipient hepatectomy has not been the focus of clinical research thus far. Due to advanced coagulopathy in liver transplant recipients, this part of the operation still carries the risk of severe hemorrhage. This trial is designed to compare an electrothermal bipolar vessel sealing device (LigaSure™) and an ultrasound dissector (HARMONIC ACE®+7) with standard surgical techniques during the recipients’ hepatectomy in liver transplantation. Methods/design: In a single-center, prospective, randomized, controlled, parallel, three-armed, confirmatory, open trial, LigaSure™ and HARMONIC ACE®+7 will be compared with standard surgical techniques that use titanium clips and conventional knot-tying ligations during recipient hepatectomy in liver transplantation. Intraoperative total blood loss is the primary endpoint of the trial. Secondary endpoints include blood loss during hepatectomy, the duration of both the hepatectomy and the entire surgical procedure, and blood transfusion requirements of the procedure. To generate reliable data, intraoperative blood loss will be recorded with respect to all rinse fluids during surgery, ascites, and by weighing used swabs. At 80% power and an alpha of 0.025 for both of the experimental groups, 23 subjects will be analyzed per protocol in each study arm in order to detect clinically relevant reduction of intraoperative blood loss. The intention-to-treat analysis will include 69 patients. The follow-up period for each patient will be 90 days for safety reasons, whereas all clinical outcomes will be measured within the first 10 postoperative days. Discussion: To our knowledge, this is the first prospective, randomized trial comparing two innovative technical methods of vessel sealing and dissection with standard techniques for recipient hepatectomy. This will be done to detect relevant reduction of intraoperative blood loss during liver transplant. The results of the trial are expected to improve patient outcome and safety after liver transplant and to increase the general safety of this procedure. Trial registration: ClinicalTrials.gov, NCT 03323242 . Registered on October 26, 2017

Safety and effectiveness of low-dose amikacin in nontuberculous mycobacterial pulmonary disease treated in Toronto, Canada

Amikacin; NTM lung disease; Nontuberculous mycobacteriaAmikacina; Malaltia pulmonar per micobacteri no tuberculós; Micobacteri no tuberculósAmikacina; Enfermedad pulmonar por micobacteria no tuberculosa; Micobacteria no tuberculosaBACKGROUND: Treatment guidelines suggest either a low-dose or high-dose approach when prescribing amikacin for nontuberculous mycobacterial pulmonary disease (NTM PD), but data supporting the low-dose approach are limited. The purpose of this study was to describe the safety and efficacy of the use of a low-dose of intravenous amikacin in a cohort of patients with NTM PD. METHODS: We retrospectively reviewed all patients with NTM PD who received amikacin at our institution between July 1, 2003 and February 28, 2017. Demographics, clinical, microbiological and radiological data, indication and dose of amikacin, and adverse drug effects were recorded. RESULTS: A total of 107 patients received a regimen containing amikacin for a median (IQR) of 7 (4-11) months. Seventy (65.4%) were female and the mean age (SD) was 58.3 (14.9) years. Amikacin was started at a median dose of 9.9 (2.5) mg/kg/day. Ototoxicity was observed in 30/77 (39%) patients and it was related to female sex (OR 4.96, 95%CI 1.24-19.87), and total dose of amikacin per bodyweight (OR 1.62, 95%CI 1.08-2.43). Patients of East Asian ethnicity were less likely to develop ototoxicity (0.24, 95%CI 0.06-0.95). Out of 96 patients who received amikacin for more than 3 months, 65 (67.7%) experienced symptom improvement and 30/62 (49.2%) converted their sputum to culture negative within a year. CONCLUSIONS: Patients with NTM PD treated with low-dose intravenous amikacin frequently developed ototoxicity, which was associated with female sex, and total dose of amikacin per bodyweight. Physicians should carefully consider dose, treatment duration, and long term prognosis in balancing risks and benefits of intravenous amikacin in NTM PD

Safety and effectiveness of low-dose amikacin in nontuberculous mycobacterial pulmonary disease treated in Toronto

Treatment guidelines suggest either a low-dose or high-dose approach when prescribing amikacin for nontuberculous mycobacterial pulmonary disease (NTM PD), but data supporting the low-dose approach are limited. The purpose of this study was to describe the safety and efficacy of the use of a low-dose of intravenous amikacin in a cohort of patients with NTM PD. We retrospectively reviewed all patients with NTM PD who received amikacin at our institution between July 1, 2003 and February 28, 2017. Demographics, clinical, microbiological and radiological data, indication and dose of amikacin, and adverse drug effects were recorded. A total of 107 patients received a regimen containing amikacin for a median (IQR) of 7 (4-11) months. Seventy (65.4%) were female and the mean age (SD) was 58.3 (14.9) years. Amikacin was started at a median dose of 9.9 (2.5) mg/kg/day. Ototoxicity was observed in 30/77 (39%) patients and it was related to female sex (OR 4.96, 95%CI 1.24-19.87), and total dose of amikacin per bodyweight (OR 1.62, 95%CI 1.08-2.43). Patients of East Asian ethnicity were less likely to develop ototoxicity (0.24, 95%CI 0.06-0.95). Out of 96 patients who received amikacin for more than 3 months, 65 (67.7%) experienced symptom improvement and 30/62 (49.2%) converted their sputum to culture negative within a year. Patients with NTM PD treated with low-dose intravenous amikacin frequently developed ototoxicity, which was associated with female sex, and total dose of amikacin per bodyweight. Physicians should carefully consider dose, treatment duration, and long term prognosis in balancing risks and benefits of intravenous amikacin in NTM PD

Make Fitness Fun: Could Novelty Be the Key Determinant for Physical Activity Adherence?

The benefits of physical activity (PA) are well known and are extensively delineated in the scientific literature. Regular participation in PA, or exercise as its subset (structured, preplanned form of PA), is positively associated with numerous physical and psychological health benefits across all population subgroups (i.e., different age groups, gender, ethnicity, and socioeconomic status) (Paterson and Warburton, 2010; Warburton and Bredin, 2017). The current PA guidelines for adults, proposed by the American College for Sports Medicine and American Heart Association (ACSM/AHA), recommend the accumulation of at least 150 min of moderate intensity aerobic PA per week (Nelson et al., 2007). Additionally, it is recommended that adults should engage in muscle-strengthening activities at least two times per week (Garber et al., 2011). Despite this, sedentary behavior remains a major challenge, and insufficient PA rates have remained stable at the global level between 2001 and 2016 (Guthold et al., 2018). Physical inactivity is the fourth leading cause of death worldwide and its annual health-care costs have been estimated at 53.8 billion US dollars in 2012 internationally (Ding et al., 2016). However, it has recently been shown that with sufficient PA, as many as 3.9 million premature deaths could be averted annually (Strain et al., 2020), and thus more needs to be done to improve engagement and maintenance of PA throughout the lifespan

3,3′-[(4-Nitro­phen­yl)methyl­ene]bis­(4-hy­droxy-2H-chromen-2-one)

The molecular conformation of the title compound, C25H15NO8, is stabilized by strong intramolecular O—H⋯O hydrogen bonds, resulting in the formation of S 1 1(7) ring motifs. In the crystal, π–π stacking inter­actions are observed between adjacent nitrobenzene and pyranone rings with a centroid–centroid distance of 3.513 (12) Å. The dihedral angles between the nitrobenzene ring and the coumarin ring systems are 65.61 (8) and 66.11 (8)° while the coumarin ring systems are inclined at 65.69 (8)°

Phosphopantetheinyl transferase (Ppt)-mediated biosynthesis of lysine, but not siderophores or DHN melanin, is required for virulence of Zymoseptoria tritici on wheat

Zymoseptoria tritici is the causal agent of Septoria tritici blotch (STB) disease of wheat. Z. tritici is an apoplastic fungal pathogen, which does not penetrate plant cells at any stage of infection, and has a long initial period of symptomless leaf colonisation. During this phase it is unclear to what extent the fungus can access host plant nutrients or communicate with plant cells. Several important primary and secondary metabolite pathways in fungi are regulated by the post-translational activator phosphopantetheinyl transferase (Ppt) which provides an essential co-factor for lysine biosynthesis and the activities of non-ribosomal peptide synthases (NRPS) and polyketide synthases (PKS). To investigate the relative importance of lysine biosynthesis, NRPS-based siderophore production and PKS-based DHN melanin biosynthesis, we generated deletion mutants of ZtPpt. The ?ZtPpt strains were auxotrophic for lysine and iron, non-melanised and non-pathogenic on wheat. Deletion of the three target genes likely affected by ZtPpt loss of function (Aar- lysine; Nrps1-siderophore and Pks1- melanin), highlighted that lysine auxotrophy was the main contributing factor for loss of virulence, with no reduction caused by loss of siderophore production or melanisation. This reveals Ppt, and the lysine biosynthesis pathway, as potential targets for fungicides effective against Z. tritici

Deamidation of the human eye lens protein γS-crystallin accelerates oxidative aging

Cataract, a clouding of the eye lens from protein precipitation, affects millions of people every year. The lens proteins, the crystallins, show extensive post-translational modifications (PTMs) in cataractous lenses. The most common PTMs, deamidation and oxidation, promote crystallin aggregation; however, it is not clear precisely how these PTMs contribute to crystallin insolubilization. Here, we report six crystal structures of the lens protein γS-crystallin (γS): one of the wild-type and five of deamidated γS variants, from three to nine deamidation sites, after sample aging. The deamidation mutations do not change the overall fold of γS; however, increasing deamidation leads to accelerated disulfide-bond formation. Addition of deamidated sites progressively destabilized protein structure, and the deamidated variants display an increased propensity for aggregation. These results suggest that the deamidated variants are useful as models for accelerated aging; the structural changes observed provide support for redox activity of γS-crystallin in the lens