Adeno-tonsillectomy and rapid maxillary distraction in pre-pubertal children: a pilot study

Introduction When both narrow maxilla and moderately enlarged tonsils are present in children with obstructive sleep apnea, the decision of which treatment to do first is unclear. A preliminary randomized study was done to perform a power analysis and determine the number of subjects necessary to have an appropriate response. Thirtyone children, 14 boys, diagnosed with OSA based on clinical symptoms and polysomnography (PSG) findings had presence of both narrow maxillary complex and enlarged tonsils. They were scheduled to have both adeno-tonsillectomy and RME for which the order of treatment was randomized: group 1 received surgery followed by orthodontics, while group 2 received orthodontics followed by surgery. Each child was seen by an ENT, an orthodontist, and a sleep medicine specialist. The validated pediatric sleep questionnaire and PSG were done at entry and after each treatment phase at time of PSG. Statistical analyses were ANOVA repeated measures and t tests. Results The mean age of the children at entry was 6.5± 0.2 years (mean ± SEM). Overall, even if children presented improvement of both clinical symptoms and PSG findings, none of the children presented normal results after treatment 1, at the exception of one case. There was no significant difference in the amount of improvement noted independently of the first treatment approach. Thirty children underwent treatment 2, with an overall significant improvement shown for PSG findings compared to baseline and compared to treatment 1, without any group differences. Conclusion This preliminary study emphasizes the need to have more than subjective clinical scales for determination of sequence of treatments

High-Performance Zinc–Air Batteries with Scalable Metal–Organic Frameworks and Platinum Carbon Black Bifunctional Catalysts

Metal-organic framework (MOF)-related derivatives have generated significant interest in numerous energy conversion and storage applications, such as adsorption, catalysis, and batteries. However, such materials' real-world applicability is hindered because of scalability and reproducibility issues as they are produced by multistep postsynthesis modification of MOFs, often with high-temperature carbonization and/or calcination. In this process, MOFs act as self-sacrificial templates to develop functional materials at the expense of severe mass loss, and the resultant materials exhibit complex process-performance relationships. In this work, we report the direct applicability of a readily synthesized and commercially available MOF, a zeolitic imidazolate framework (ZIF-8), in a rechargeable zinc-air battery. The composite of cobalt-based ZIF-8 and platinum carbon black (ZIF-67@Pt/CB) prepared via facile solution mixing shows a promising bifunctional electrocatalytic activity for oxygen evolution reaction (OER) and oxygen reduction reaction (ORR), the key charge and discharge mechanisms in a battery. ZIF-67@Pt/CB exhibits long OER/ORR activity durability, notably, a significantly enhanced ORR stability compared to Pt/CB, 85 versus 52%. Interestingly, a ZIF-67@Pt/CB-based battery delivers high performance with a power density of >150 mW cm-2 and long stability for 100 h of charge-discharge cyclic test runs. Such remarkable activities from as-produced ZIF-67 are attributed to the electrochemically driven in situ development of an active cobalt-(oxy)hydroxide nanophase and interfacial interaction with platinum nanoparticles. This work shows commercial feasibility of zinc-air batteries as MOF-cathode materials can be reproducibly synthesized in mass scale and applied as produced

Size-Related Electrochemical Performance in Active Carbon Nanostructures: A MOFs-Derived Carbons Case Study

Metal–organic framework–derived carbon nanostructures have generated significant interest in electrochemical capacitors and oxygen/hydrogen catalysis reactions. However, they appear to show considerably varied structural properties, and thus exhibit complex electrochemical–activity relationships. Herein, a series of carbon polyhedrons of different sizes, between 50 nm and µm, are synthesized from zeolitic imidazolate frameworks, ZIF-8 (ZIF-derived carbon polyhedrons, ZDCPs) and their activity is studied for capacitance and the oxygen reduction reaction (ORR). Interestingly, a well-correlated performance relationship with respect to the particle size of ZDCPs is evidenced. Here, the identical structural features, such as specific surface area (SSA), microporosity, and its distribution, nitrogen doping, and graphitization are all strictly maintained in the ZDCPs, thus allowing identification of the effect of particle size on electrochemical performance. Supercapacitors show a capacity enhancement of 50 F g−1 when the ZDCPs size is reduced from micrometers to ≤200 nm. The carbonization further shows a considerable effect on rate capacitance—ZDCPs of increased particle size lead to drastically reduced charge transportability and thus inhibit their performance for both the charge storage and the ORR. Guidelines for the capacitance variation with respect to the particle size and SSA in such carbon nanostructures from literature are presented

A global characterization of the translational and transcriptional programs induced by methionine restriction through ribosome profiling and RNA-seq

Background: Among twenty amino acids, methionine has a special role as it is coded by the translation initiation codon and methionyl-tRNAi (Met-tRNAi) is required for the assembly of the translation initiation complex. Thus methionine may play a special role in global gene regulation. Methionine has also been known to play important roles in cell growth, development, cancer, and aging. In this work, we characterize the translational and transcriptional programs induced by methionine restriction (MetR) and investigate the potential mechanisms through which methionine regulates gene expression, using the budding yeast S. cerevisiae as the model organism. Results: Using ribosomal profiling and RNA-seq, we observed a broad spectrum of gene expression changes in response to MetR and identified hundreds of genes whose transcript level and/or translational efficiency changed significantly. These genes show clear functional themes, suggesting that cell slows down its growth and cell cycle progression and increases its stress resistance and maintenance in response to MetR. Interestingly, under MetR cell also decreases glycolysis and increases respiration, and increased respiration was linked to lifespan extension caused by caloric restriction. Analysis of genes whose translational efficiency changed significantly under MetR revealed different modes of translational regulation: 1) Ribosome loading patterns in the 5'UTR and coding regions of genes with increased translational efficiency suggested mechanisms both similar and different from that for the translational regulation of Gcn4 under general amino acid starvation condition; 2) Genes with decreased translational efficiency showed strong enrichment of lysine, glutamine, and glutamate codons, supporting the model that methionine can regulate translation by controlling tRNA thiolation. Conclusions: MetR induced a broad spectrum of gene expression changes at both the transcriptional and translational levels, with clear functional themes indicative of the physiological state of the cell under MetR. Different modes of translational regulation were induced by MetR, including the regulation of the ribosome loading at 5'UTR and regulation by tRNA thiolation. Since MetR extends the lifespan of many species, the list of genes we identified in this study can be good candidates for studying the mechanisms of lifespan extension.National Institutes of Health [AG043080]SCI(E)ARTICLE1

New monotonicity formulas for Ricci curvature and applications. I

Original manuscript November 21, 2011We prove three new monotonicity formulas for manifolds with a lower Ricci curvature bound and show that they are connected to rate of convergence to tangent cones. In fact, we show that the derivative of each of these three monotone quantities is bounded from below in terms of the Gromov–Hausdorff distance to the nearest cone. The monotonicity formulas are related to the classical Bishop–Gromov volume comparison theorem and Perelman’s celebrated monotonicity formula for the Ricci flow. We will explain the connection between all of these. Moreover, we show that these new monotonicity formulas are linked to a new sharp gradient estimate for the Green function that we prove. This is parallel to the fact that Perelman’s monotonicity is closely related to the sharp gradient estimate for the heat kernel of Li–Yau. In [CM4] one of the monotonicity formulas is used to show uniqueness of tangent cones with smooth cross-sections of Einstein manifolds. Finally, there are obvious parallelisms between our monotonicity and the positive mass theorem of Schoen–Yau and Witten.National Science Foundation (U.S.) (Grant DMS-11040934)National Science Foundation (U.S.). Focused Research Group (Grant DMS 0854774)National Science Foundation (U.S.) (Grant 0932078

Branching dendrites with resonant membrane: a “sum-over-trips” approach

Dendrites form the major components of neurons. They are complex branching structures that receive and process thousands of synaptic inputs from other neurons. It is well known that dendritic morphology plays an important role in the function of dendrites. Another important contribution to the response characteristics of a single neuron comes from the intrinsic resonant properties of dendritic membrane. In this paper we combine the effects of dendritic branching and resonant membrane dynamics by generalising the “sum-over-trips” approach (Abbott et al. in Biol Cybernetics 66, 49–60 1991). To illustrate how this formalism can shed light on the role of architecture and resonances in determining neuronal output we consider dual recording and reconstruction data from a rat CA1 hippocampal pyramidal cell. Specifically we explore the way in which an Ih current contributes to a voltage overshoot at the soma

Patterns of analgesic use, pain and self-efficacy: a cross-sectional study of patients attending a hospital rheumatology clinic

Background: Many people attending rheumatology clinics use analgesics and non-steroidal anti-inflammatories for persistent musculoskeletal pain. Guidelines for pain management recommend regular and pre-emptive use of analgesics to reduce the impact of pain. Clinical experience indicates that analgesics are often not used in this way. Studies exploring use of analgesics in arthritis have historically measured adherence to such medication. Here we examine patterns of analgesic use and their relationships to pain, self-efficacy and demographic factors. Methods: Consecutive patients were approached in a hospital rheumatology out-patient clinic. Pattern of analgesic use was assessed by response to statements such as 'I always take my tablets every day.' Pain and self-efficacy (SE) were measured using the Western Ontario and McMaster Universities Osteoarthritis Index (WOMAC) and Arthritis Self-Efficacy Scale (ASES). Influence of factors on pain level and regularity of analgesic use were investigated using linear regression. Differences in pain between those agreeing and disagreeing with statements regarding analgesic use were assessed using t-tests. Results: 218 patients (85% of attendees) completed the study. Six (2.8%) patients reported no current pain, 26 (12.3%) slight, 100 (47.4%) moderate, 62 (29.4%) severe and 17 (8.1%) extreme pain. In multiple linear regression self efficacy and regularity of analgesic use were significant (p < 0.01) with lower self efficacy and more regular use of analgesics associated with more pain. Low SE was associated with greater pain: 40 (41.7%) people with low SE reported severe pain versus 22 (18.3%) people with high SE, p < 0.001. Patients in greater pain were significantly more likely to take analgesics regularly; 13 (77%) of those in extreme pain reported always taking their analgesics every day, versus 9 (35%) in slight pain. Many patients, including 46% of those in severe pain, adjusted analgesic use to current pain level. In simple linear regression, pain was the only variable significantly associated with regularity of analgesic use: higher levels of pain corresponded to more regular analgesic use (p = 0.003). Conclusion: Our study confirms that there is a strong inverse relationship between self-efficacy and pain severity. Analgesics are often used irregularly by people with arthritis, including some reporting severe pain

Quantum Computing Without Wavefunctions: Time-Dependent Density Functional Theory for Universal Quantum Computation

We prove that the theorems of TDDFT can be extended to a class of qubit Hamiltonians that are universal for quantum computation. The theorems of TDDFT applied to universal Hamiltonians imply that single-qubit expectation values can be used as the basic variables in quantum computation and information theory, rather than wavefunctions. From a practical standpoint this opens the possibility of approximating observables of interest in quantum computations directly in terms of single-qubit quantities (i.e. as density functionals). Additionally, we also demonstrate that TDDFT provides an exact prescription for simulating universal Hamiltonians with other universal Hamiltonians that have different, and possibly easier-to-realize two-qubit interactions. This establishes the foundations of TDDFT for quantum computation and opens the possibility of developing density functionals for use in quantum algorithms