Design automation based on fluid dynamics

This article was accepted and presented at the 9th International Workshop on Bio-Design Automation, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania (2017).Microfluidic devices provide researchers with numerous advantages such as high throughput, increased sensitivity and accuracy, lower cost, and reduced reaction time. However, design, fabrication, and running a microfluidic device are still heavily reliant on expertise. Recent studies suggest micro-milling can be a semi-automatic, inexpensive, and simple alternative to common fabrication methods. Micro-milling does not require a clean-room, mask aligner, spin-coater, and Plasma bonder, thus cutting down the cost and time of fabrication significantly. Moreover, through this protocol researchers can easily fabricate microfluidic devices in an automated fashion eschewing levels of expertise required for typical fabrication methods, such as photolithography, soft-lithography, and etching. However, designing a microfluidic chip that meets a certain set of requirements is still heavily dependent on a microfluidic expert, several days of simulation, and numerous experiments to reach the required performance. To address this, studies have reported random automated design of microfluidic devices based on numerical simulations for micro-mixing. However, random design generation is heavily reliant on time-consuming simulations carried out beforehand, and is prone to error due to the accuracy limitations of the numerical method. On the other hand, by using micro-milling for ultra-fast and inexpensive fabrication of microfluidic devices and Taguchi design of experiments for state-space exploration of all of the geometric parameters, we are able to generate a database of geometries, flow rates, and flow properties required for a single primitive to carry out a specified microfluidic task

Standardizing design performance comparison in microfluidic manufacturing

Microfluidic devices published in literature today lack sufficient information for automating the physical design process. Moreover, the constantly changing landscape of manufacturing and technological requirements poses a large problem in the physical design automation space. In this talk, we discuss some of the methodologies and standards formulated by CIDAR at BU and CARES at UC Riverside that allow not only allow the researchers in the physical design automation space to share and compare their results but also provide means for capturing the Specify, Design and Build lifecycle in microfluidic design

The Role of the Selective Adaptor p62 and Ubiquitin-Like Proteins in Autophagy.

The ubiquitin-proteasome system and autophagy were long viewed as independent, parallel degradation systems with no point of intersection. By now we know that these degradation pathways share certain substrates and regulatory molecules and show coordinated and compensatory function. Two ubiquitin-like protein conjugation pathways were discovered that are required for autophagosome biogenesis: the Atg12-Atg5-Atg16 and Atg8 systems. Autophagy has been considered to be essentially a nonselective process, but it turned out to be at least partially selective. Selective substrates of autophagy include damaged mitochondria, intracellular pathogens, and even a subset of cytosolic proteins with the help of ubiquitin-binding autophagic adaptors, such as p62/SQSTM1, NBR1, NDP52, and Optineurin. These proteins selectively recognize autophagic cargo and mediate its engulfment into autophagosomes by binding to the small ubiquitin-like modifiers that belong to the Atg8/LC3 family

Hazai kardiológiai betegek pszichés státusza és a rehabilitáció lehetőségei = Mental health status of Hungarian cardiological patients and possible tasks for rehabilitation

Elméleti háttér: A kardiológiai rehabilitációt igénylő betegek száma folyamatosan növekszik. A rehabilitációs folyamat eredményességét és hatékonyságát a kardiológiai betegek pszichés státusza is befolyásolhatja. Cél: A tanulmány célja egy, a kardiológiai betegek pszichés státuszára vonatkozó empirikus vizsgálat eredményeinek bemutatása és a rehabilitáció aspektusából történő elemzése. Módszerek: Kardiológiai rehabilitációs osztályon ápolt betegek körében (49 fő) végzett, nem reprezentatív kérdőíves vizsgálat. A pszichés státusz vizsgálatára a WHO Jól-lét Indexet, a Beck Depresszió Kérdőívet, a Betegségteher Indexet, az Életesemény Hatás Skálát, a Diszfukcionális Attitűd Skálát, a Harag és Düh Kifejezési Mód Skálát, valamint a Megküzdési Módok Kérdőívet használtuk. Eredmények: A kardiológiai betegek szubjektív jólléte szignifikánsan rosszabb (p < 0,001) az országos adatoknál. A depresszió esetében a férfiak átlaga (5,79 ± 5,07) szignifikánsan kedvezőbb (p = 0,007) az országos minta vonatkozó átlagánál (8,51), miközben a nők átlagának (9,25 ± 5,95) eltérése nem szignifikáns. A betegségteher mintánkban közepes mértékű (47,62 ± 15,03) és elsősorban instrumentális formában jelentkezik. A megkérdezettek közel harmadánál (28,9%) mérsékelt vagy erős poszttraumás stresszhatás volt azonosítható. A leggyakrabban azonosítható diszfunkcionális attitűd a „fokozott környezeti elvárások” (férfiak: 35,48%, nők: 52,94%). A Harag és Düh Kifejezési Mód Skála düh-elfojtási dimenziójában magas értékeket mértünk (férfiaknál 25,33 ± 4,34; nőknél 22,56 ± 4,86). A megkérdezettekre a problémaközpontú megküzdési stratégia jellemzőbb, de válaszadóink az országos átlaghoz képest közel háromszoros arányban próbálták a stresszkeltő élethelyzeteket egészségkárosító (pl. szerhasználat) viselkedéssel enyhíteni. Következtetések: A fenti eredmények felhívják a figyelmet arra, hogy a kardiológiai betegek pszichés státuszának javításához érdemes volna pszichológiai, tanácsadási módszereket alkalmazni. | Background: The number of patients requiring cardiac rehabilitation is growing. The effectiveness and efficiency of a rehabilitation process can be influenced by the mental health status of the cardiac patient involved. Aim: The aim of the present study is to present and analyze the results of an empirical survey on the mental health status of a group of Hungarian cardiac patients. Methods: A non-representative questionnaire survey was conducted among 49 patients treated in a cardiac rehabilitation ward. To assess mental health, the WHO Well-Being Scale, the shortened Beck Depression Inventory, the Illness Intrusiveness Rating Scale, the Impact of Event Scale, the Dysfunctional Attitude Scale, the Anger Expression Scale, and the Ways of Coping Inventory were administered. Results: The subjective well-being of cardiac patients in the sample is significantly lower than that of the general population (p < 0.001). As to depression, the average for men, 5.79 ± 5.07, is noticeably more favorable than that of the general population (8.51). Illness intrusiveness was proved to be moderate in our CVD sample (47.62 ± 15.03), and it was manifested in an instrumental way predominantly. At nearly one third of the participants, moderate or strong posttraumatic stress symptoms could be identified. Increased social expectations appeared to be the most recognizable dysfunctional attitude among the cardiac patients: 35.48% of men and 52.94% of women could be characterized by such an attitude. Using the Anger Expression Scale, we measured high values for both men (25.33 ± 4.34) and women (22.56 ± 4.86). Problem focused coping proved to be the most typical copying technique among the participants. However, our respondents were also trying to release stress from their lives through health impairing behaviors (e.g., substance use), which proved to be three times more common in the sample, compared to the population. Conclusion: Our results highlight the necessity of applying counseling interventions to improve the mental health status and coping skills of Hungarian cardiac patients

COVID-related disclosure practices of Hungarian entities

The pandemic has brought unexpected challenges to businesses as they need to cope with the impact of the virus on their sales performance and face the information need of their stakeholders at the same time. Our study aims to discover the COVID-related risk disclosure practices of Hungarian, publicly listed sample entities in the annual statements prepared for the year 2020. Based on what we have found, the disclosure practices of Hungarian listed entities is quite heterogeneous, there are great differences in the extent of communication with the stakeholders

Innovation and Sustainability: Disclosure Practices of Hungarian Pharmaceutical Companies

Today, innovation and sustainability are issues that organizations need to address when they compose their strategies. Moreover, it is not enough to align these with organizational objectives, it is also necessary to inform the stakeholders about the firms’ attitude towards R&D&I and its connection with sustainability. The tool for this communication – besides the narrative parts of traditional financial statements – is voluntary reporting. This paper presents an empirical research about the disclosure practices of dominant actors of the Hungarian pharmaceutical industry: the aim of the content analysis is to discover items related to innovation and sustainability in the mandatory and voluntary reports issued by companies. This is done in order to support planned future research aiming to compare the disclosure practices of different reporting environments. We concentrate on the Hungarian market at this initial phase because our first aim is to come up with a list of items to search for in financial statements. Results show that the reporting practices of the sample firms are determined by the requirements of the Hungarian Accounting Act. Voluntary reporting and voluntary disclosure were found only in case of the sole public entity in the sample, which presented the highest scores. Another important finding is that the two areas of our interest were not interlinked in the statements, so companies did not report on the sustainability aspects of their research practices