Spinoza

"Spinoza", second edition. Encyclopedia entry for the Springer Encyclopedia of EM Phil and the Sciences, ed. D. Jalobeanu and C. T. Wolfe

Neural fuzzy model applied to autohydrolysis of Paulownia trihybrid

A central composite factorial design was used in conjunction with the software ANFIS Edit MATLAB 6.5 to develop fuzzy neural model that reproduced the experimental results of the dependent variables with errors less than 6%. The model is therefore effective with a view to simulating the autohydrolysis process. In this study it was evaluated the potential of a species trihybrid Paulownia fortunei, tormentosa and elongata as an industrial crop in terms of its contents in holocellulose, lignin, xylo-oligomers, monomers and other glucan and its use for making cellulose pulp. It was optimized biomass autohydrolysis processes to obtain valuable liquid and solid phases that can be used to produce liquid fuels and cellulosic pulp. The process was modelled in order to optimize the extraction of xylo-oligomers and xylose in the liquid phase while preserving the integrity of cellulose fibres.The authors acknowledge financial support from the Grupo Empresarial ENCE, S.A. (San Juan delPuerto factory, Huelva, Spain) and VICIDEX EUROPA S.L., and the CICYT-FEDER (Science and Technology Inter Ministerial Commission, Spanish Government European Regional Development Fund), projects numbers CTQ2006-10329/PPQ and AGL2009-13113 for their support, and to the "Ramon y Cajal", "Juan de la Cierva" and FPU Programs of the Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation

Pan-cancer analysis of whole genomes

Cancer is driven by genetic change, and the advent of massively parallel sequencing has enabled systematic documentation of this variation at the whole-genome scale(1-3). Here we report the integrative analysis of 2,658 whole-cancer genomes and their matching normal tissues across 38 tumour types from the Pan-Cancer Analysis of Whole Genomes (PCAWG) Consortium of the International Cancer Genome Consortium (ICGC) and The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA). We describe the generation of the PCAWG resource, facilitated by international data sharing using compute clouds. On average, cancer genomes contained 4-5 driver mutations when combining coding and non-coding genomic elements; however, in around 5% of cases no drivers were identified, suggesting that cancer driver discovery is not yet complete. Chromothripsis, in which many clustered structural variants arise in a single catastrophic event, is frequently an early event in tumour evolution; in acral melanoma, for example, these events precede most somatic point mutations and affect several cancer-associated genes simultaneously. Cancers with abnormal telomere maintenance often originate from tissues with low replicative activity and show several mechanisms of preventing telomere attrition to critical levels. Common and rare germline variants affect patterns of somatic mutation, including point mutations, structural variants and somatic retrotransposition. A collection of papers from the PCAWG Consortium describes non-coding mutations that drive cancer beyond those in the TERT promoter(4); identifies new signatures of mutational processes that cause base substitutions, small insertions and deletions and structural variation(5,6); analyses timings and patterns of tumour evolution(7); describes the diverse transcriptional consequences of somatic mutation on splicing, expression levels, fusion genes and promoter activity(8,9); and evaluates a range of more-specialized features of cancer genomes(8,10-18).Peer reviewe

Medications for Children Receiving Intensive Care: A National Sample

© 2020 Lippincott Williams and Wilkins. All rights reserved. Objective: To examine medication administration records through electronic health record data to provide a broad description of the pharmaceutical exposure of critically ill children. Design: Retrospective cohort study using the Cerner Health Facts database. Setting: United States. Patients: A total of 43,374 children 7 days old to less than 22 years old receiving intensive care with available pharmacy data. Interventions: None. Measurements and Main Results: A total of 907,440 courses of 1,080 unique medications were prescribed with a median of nine medications (range, 1-99; 25-75th percentile, 5-16) per patient. The most common medications were acetaminophen, ondansetron, and morphine. Only 45 medications (4.2%) were prescribed to more than 5% of patients, and these accounted for 442,067 (48.7%) of the total courses of medications. Each additional medication was associated with increased univariate risk of mortality (odds ratio, 1.05; 95% CI, 1.05-1.06; p \u3c 0.001). Conclusions: Children receiving intensive care receive a median of nine medications per patient and one quarter are prescribed at least than 16 medications. Only 45 medications were prescribed to more than 5% of patients, but these accounted for almost half of all medication courses

Delayed Contrast Enhancement Imaging of a Murine Model for Ischemia Reperfusion with Carbon Nanotube Micro-CT

We aim to demonstrate the application of free-breathing prospectively gated carbon nanotube (CNT) micro-CT by evaluating a myocardial infarction model with a delayed contrast enhancement technique. Evaluation of murine cardiac models using micro-CT imaging has historically been limited by extreme imaging requirements. Newly-developed CNT-based x-ray sources offer precise temporal resolution, allowing elimination of physiological motion through prospective gating. Using free-breathing, cardiac-gated CNT micro-CT, a myocardial infarction model can be studied non-invasively and with high resolution. Myocardial infarction was induced in eight male C57BL/6 mice aged 8-12 weeks. The ischemia reperfusion model was achieved by surgically occluding the LAD artery for 30 minutes followed by 24 hours of reperfusion. Tail vein catheters were placed for contrast administration. Iohexol 300 mgI/mL was administered followed by images obtained in diastole. Iodinated lipid blood pool contrast agent was then administered, followed with images at systole and diastole. Respiratory and cardiac signals were monitored externally and used to gate the scans of free-breathing subjects. Seven control animals were scanned using the same imaging protocol. After imaging, the heart was harvested, cut into 1mm slices and stained with TTC. Post-processing analysis was performed using ITK-Snap and MATLAB. All animals demonstrated obvious delayed contrast enhancement in the left ventricular wall following the Iohexol injection. The blood pool contrast agent revealed significant changes in cardiac function quantified by 3-D volume ejection fractions. All subjects demonstrated areas of myocardial infarct in the LAD distribution on both TTC staining and micro-CT imaging. The CNT micro-CT system aids straightforward, free-breathing, prospectively-gated 3-D murine cardiac imaging. Delayed contrast enhancement allows identification of infarcted myocardium after a myocardial ischemic event. We demonstrate the ability to consistently identify areas of myocardial infarct in mice and provide functional cardiac information using a delayed contrast enhancement technique