Submatrix monotonicity of the Perron root

It is known that increasing an entry of a nonnegative matrix non-decreases (and generally increases) its Perron root. Motivated by a question raised by Jose Dias da Silva, we study the partial order on k-by-k nonnegative matrices in which A less than or similar to(DS) B if whenever A and B occur as submatrices in the same position in otherwise equal nonnegative matrices F and G, p (F) \u3c = p (G). We find that this partial order is equivalent to the entry-wise partial order. This is proven with some asymptotic results about the Perron root that may be of independent interest. (C) 2012 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved

Laughter as a diagnostic measure of psoriasis severity

Laughter has been studied for its beneficial effects on health and as a therapeutic method to prevent and treat medical conditions. We explore the predictive potential of laughter as a psoriasis severity diagnostic tool. In this study, the dermatologist first examines the patient and registers the PASI and BSA scores. Then patients complete the DLQI and EQ-5D-3L (quality of life), as well as the HADS (anxiety and depression) and the NEO PI-R (personality traits). Finally, the laughs of 30 patients with plaque psoriasis (15 mild cases and 15 moderate to severe cases), and 30 healthy controls will be registered. To do this, patients and accompanying health controls (in pairs), watch a 15-minute video with humorous sketches..

Plausibility of a Neural Network Classifier-Based Neuroprosthesis for Depression Detection via Laughter Records

The present work explores the diagnostic performance for depression of neural network classifiers analyzing the sound structures of laughter as registered from clinical patients and healthy controls. The main methodological novelty of this work is that simple sound variables of laughter are used as inputs, instead of electrophysiological signals or local field potentials (LFPs) or spoken language utterances, which are the usual protocols up-to-date. In the present study, involving 934 laughs from 30 patients and 20 controls, four different neural networks models were tested for sensitivity analysis, and were additionally trained for depression detection. Some elementary sound variables were extracted from the records: timing, fundamental frequency mean, first three formants, average power, and the Shannon-Wiener entropy. In the results obtained, two of the neural networks show a diagnostic discrimination capability of 93.02 and 91.15% respectively, while the third and fourth ones have an 87.96 and 82.40% percentage of success. Remarkably, entropy turns out to be a fundamental variable to distinguish between patients and controls, and this is a significant factor which becomes essential to understand the deep neurocognitive relationships between laughter and depression. In biomedical terms, our neural network classifier-based neuroprosthesis opens up the possibility of applying the same methodology to other mental-health and neuropsychiatric pathologies. Indeed, exploring the application of laughter in the early detection and prognosis of Alzheimer and Parkinson would represent an enticing possibility, both from the biomedical and the computational points of view

The sociotype questionnaire: assessing the social burden of skin diseases

Skin diseases can cause a significant psychosocial burden. A number of studies have considered issues such as a lower quality of life, increased anxiety, depression, suicidal ideation and other psychological disorders. However, adequate means for evaluating social interaction difficulties, diminished social networks, and the impoverished conversational exchanges that affect the wellbeing and mental health of the individual, have not been sufficiently developed. This study is based on the sociotype approach that has recently been proposed as a new theoretical construct implemented in the form of a questionnaire; it examines the social bonding structures and relational factors associated with dermatological conditions..

Proctitis in patients with monkeypox infection: a single‑center analysis of 42 consecutive cases from a multidisciplinary observational study on monkeypox proctitis

Background: The current monkeypox (MP) virus outbreak was declared an international emergency in July 2022. The aim of this report is to describe our initial experience with patients with MP, focusing on proctitis. Methods: We conducted an observational study between 20 May and 31 July 2022, on patients with MP at a reference tertiary center in Madrid, Spain. A descriptive analysis on MP was performed, focusing on its characteristics, symptoms, diagnosis, and outcomes. Results: A total of 143 positive MP cases were diagnosed in our center; 42 of them [all male, median age 39 years (range: 22–57 years)] had proctitis (29.37%), and 3 patients (2.09%/MP total cases and 7.14%/MP proctitis) required surgical drainage of a perianal abscess. Conclusions: General and digestive surgeons must be aware of the presence of proctological impairment and complications due to MP viru

Tailoring silk fibroin separator membranes pore size for improving performance of lithium ion batteries

The search of natural materials for their application in energy storage systems in general and batteries in particular is growing due to their promising properties and the need of environmental sustainability. Silk fibroin (SF) is one of those materials due to their mechanical and thermal properties, non-toxicity and biocompatibility. Further, SF exhibits excellent cycling performance as separator for lithium-ion battery applications. This work reports on SF membranes with different pore sizes (within the rages: 38–22, 106–38 and 250-106 μm) prepared for separators in lithium-ion batteries. The morphology, structure and thermal properties were evaluated. It is shown that the β-sheet conformation percentage increases with increasing pore size, which also leads to higher electrolyte uptake, reaching 350% for SF membranes with pore size of 250–106 μm. With respect to battery performance, a high discharge capacity (131.3 mAh g−1, for C/8) is obtained for this membraneFCT (Fundação para a Ciência e Tecnologia) for financial support under the framework of Strategic Funding grants UID/FIS/04650/2019, and UID/QUI/0686/2019 and project PTDC/FIS-MAC/28157/2017. The author also thanks the FCT for financial support under grant SFRH/BPD/112547/2015 (C.M.C.) and Investigator FCT Contract CEECIND/00833/2017 (R.G.). Financial support from the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness (MINECO) through project MAT2016-76039-C4-3-R (AEI/FEDER, UE) (including FEDER financial support) and from the Basque Government Industry and Education Departments under the ELKARTEK, HAZITEK and PIBA (PIBA-2018-06

Solid polymer electrolytes based on gellan gum and ionic liquid for sustainable electrochromic devices

Materials sustainability is becoming increasingly relevant in every developed technology and, consequently, environmentally friendly solid polymer electrolytes (SPEs) based on gellan gum and different quantities of ionic liquid (IL) 1- Ethyl-3-methyl-imidazolium-thiocyanate [Emim][SCN] have been prepared and applied in electrochromic devices (ECDs). The addition of the IL does not affect the crystalline phase of gellan gum and the samples show a compact morphology, surface uniformity, no phase separation and good distribution of the IL within the carrageenan matrix. The developed SPE are thermally stable up to ~ 100 ºC and show suitable mechanical properties. The most concentrated sample (39 wt.% IL content) reaches a maximum ionic conductivity value of 6.010–3 S cm–1 and 1.810–2 S cm–1 at 30 ºC and 90 ºC, respectively. The electrochromic device (ECD) was fabricated with poly(3,4- ethylenedioxythiophene) polystyrene sulfonate (PEDOT:PSS) as working electrode and the developed SPE was compared with an aqueous 0.1 M KNO3 solution. The electrochromic performance of the electrolyte was assessed in terms of spectroelectrochemistry, demonstrating a fully flexible ECD operating at voltages below 1.0 V. This novel electrolyte opens the door to the preparation of high performance sustainable ECD.Fundação para a Ciência e Tecnologia (FCT): Strategic Funding grants UID/FIS/04650/2021, UID/CTM/50025/2021, and UID/QUI/0686/2021; projects PTDC/FIS-MAC/28157/2017 and POCI-01-0247-FEDER-046985. R. G. and C. M. C. thank the FCT for the contracts under the Stimulus of Scientific Employment: CEECIND/00833/2017 and 2020.04028 CEECIND, respectively. Basque Government for funding under the ELKARTEK program; Basque University System Research Groups, IT-1290-19 and the University of the Basque Country (GIU18/197). L. C. -A. thanks the University of Basque Country (UPV/EHU) for the doctoral grant PIFI20/0