The year in cardiology: valvular heart disease. The year in cardiology 2019.

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Cooperative gas adsorption without a phase transition in metal-organic frameworks

Cooperative adsorption of gases by porous frameworks permits more efficient uptake and removal than does the more usual non-cooperative (Langmuir-type) adsorption. Cooperativity, signaled by a step-like isotherm, is usually attributed to a phase transition of the framework. However, the class of metal-organic frameworks mmen-M$_2$(dobpdc) exhibit cooperative adsorption of CO2 but show no evidence of a phase transition. Here we show how cooperativity emerges in these frameworks in the absence of a phase transition. We use a combination of quantum and statistical mechanics to show that cooperativity results from a sharp but finite increase, with pressure, of the mean length of chains of CO2 molecules that polymerize within the framework. Our study provides microscopic understanding of the emergent features of cooperative binding, including the position, slope and height of the isotherm step, and indicates how to optimize gas storage and separation in these materials.Comment: 18 pages, 11 figure

Antibiotic prophylaxis of infective endocarditis

Links between infective endocarditis (IE) and den-tal and other invasive procedures were first identified in the1920s, and the use of antibiotic prophylaxis (AP) to prevent IEwas first recommended by the American Heart Association in1955. Recognising the weak evidence to support this practiceand the wider risks of anaphylaxis and antibiotic resistance,guidelines in the USA and Europe have been rationalised inthe last decade with restriction of AP to those patients per-ceived to be at the highest risk. In the UK, the NationalInstitute for Health and Care Excellence controversially rec-ommended the complete cessation of AP for all invasive pro-cedures in 2008 and subsequent epidemiological studies havesuggested a significant increase in cases above the baselinetrend. AP appears to be safe and is likely to be cost-effective.Until further data are available, we recommend continued ad-herence to US and European guidelines

IDO1 is an Integral Mediator of Inflammatory Neovascularization.

The immune tolerogenic effects of IDO1 (indoleamine 2,3-dioxygenase 1) have been well documented and genetic studies in mice have clearly established the significance of IDO1 in tumor promotion. Dichotomously, the primary inducer of IDO1, the inflammatory cytokine IFNγ (interferon-γ), is a key mediator of immune-based tumor suppression. One means by which IFNγ can exert an anti-cancer effect is by decreasing tumor neovascularization. We speculated that IDO1 might contribute to cancer promotion by countering this anti-neovascular effect of IFNγ, possibly through IDO1-potentiated elevation of the pro-tumorigenic inflammatory cytokine IL6 (interleukin-6). In this study, we investigated how genetic loss of IDO1 affects neovascularization in mouse models of oxygen-induced retinopathy and lung metastasis. Neovascularization in both models was significantly reduced in mice lacking IDO1, was similarly reduced with loss of IL6, and was restored in both cases by concomitant loss of IFNγ. Likewise, the lack of IDO1 or IL6 resulted in reduced metastatic tumor burden and increased survival, which the concomitant loss of IFNγ abrogated. This insight into IDO1\u27s involvement in pro-tumorigenic inflammatory neovascularization may have important ramifications for IDO1 inhibitor development, not only in cancer where clinical trials are currently ongoing, but in other disease indications associated with neovascularization as well

Do patients at risk of infective endocarditis need antibiotics before dental procedures?

What you need to know: - Patients with prosthetic heart valves, previous infective endocarditis, and some types of congenital heart disease are at highest risk of infective endocarditis - Invasive dental procedures cause bacteraemia, which can be complicated by infective endocarditis in those at increased risk of the disease - Antibiotic prophylaxis reduces the incidence of bacteraemia, but high level studies confirming that this reduces the incidence of infective endocarditis are lacking - Warn high risk patients undergoing high risk dental interventions of the risk of infective endocarditis. Offer these patients antibiotic prophylaxis, and discuss with them the risks and benefits of this option - Where patients are at moderate risk, encourage preventative measures, such as maintaining good oral hygiene and infection control, and discourage tattooing or piercin

Female rats are not more variable than male rats: a meta-analysis of neuroscience studies

Abstract Background Not including female rats or mice in neuroscience research has been justified due to the variable nature of female data caused by hormonal fluctuations associated with the female reproductive cycle. In this study, we investigated whether female rats are more variable than male rats in scientific reports of neuroscience-related traits. Methods PubMed and Web of Science were searched for the period from August 1, 2010, to July 31, 2014, for articles that included both male and female rats and that measured diverse aspects of brain function. Only empirical articles using both male and female gonad-intact adult rats, written in English, and including the number of subjects (or a range) were included. This resulted in 311 articles for analysis. Data were extracted from digital images from article PDFs and from manuscript tables and text. The mean and standard deviation (SD) were determined for each data point and their quotient provided a coefficient of variation (CV) as a measure of trait-specific variability for each sex. Additionally, the results were coded for the type of research being measured (behavior, electrophysiology, histology, neurochemistry, and non-brain measures) and for the strain of rat. Over 6000 data points were extracted for both males and females. Subsets of the data were coded for whether male and female mean values differed significantly and whether animals were grouped or individually housed. Results Across all traits, there were no sex differences in trait variability, as indicated by the CV, and there were no sex differences in any of the four neuroscience categories, even in instances in which mean values for males and females were significantly different. Female rats were not more variable at any stage of the estrous cycle than male rats. There were no sex differences in the effect of housing conditions on CV. On one of four measures of non-brain function, females were more variable than males. Conclusions We conclude that even when female rats are used in neuroscience experiments without regard to the estrous cycle stage, their data are not more variable than those of male rats. This is true for behavioral, electrophysiological, neurochemical, and histological measures. Thus, when designing neuroscience experiments to include both male and female rats, power analyses based on variance in male measures are sufficient to yield accurate numbers for females as well, even when the estrous cycle is not taken into consideration.http://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/134612/1/13293_2016_Article_87.pd

Super-Eddington Atmospheres that Don't Blow Away

We show that magnetized, radiation dominated atmospheres can support steady state patterns of density inhomogeneity that enable them to radiate at far above the Eddington limit, without suffering mass loss. The inhomogeneities consist of periodic shock fronts bounding narrow, high-density regions, interspersed with much broader regions of low density. The radiation flux avoids the regions of high density, which are therefore weighed down by gravity, while gas in the low-density regions is slammed upward into the shock fronts by radiation force. As the wave pattern moves through the atmosphere, each parcel of matter alternately experiences upward and downward forces, which balance on average. Magnetic tension shares the competing forces between regions of different densities, preventing the atmosphere from blowing apart. We calculate the density structure and phase speed of the wave pattern, and relate these to the wavelength, the density contrast, and the factor by which the net radiation flux exceeds the Eddington limit. In principle, this factor can be as large as the ratio of magnetic pressure to mean gas pressure, or the ratio of radiation pressure to gas pressure, whichever is smaller. Although the magnetic pressure must be large compared to the mean gas pressure in order to support a large density contrast, it need not be large compared to the radiation pressure. These highly inhomogeneous flows could represent the nonlinear development of the "photon bubble" instability discovered by Gammie. We briefly discuss the applicability of these solutions to astrophysical systems.Comment: 11 pages, 1 figure, accepted for publication in The Astrophysical Journa

An Euler Solver Based on Locally Adaptive Discrete Velocities

A new discrete-velocity model is presented to solve the three-dimensional Euler equations. The velocities in the model are of an adaptive nature---both the origin of the discrete-velocity space and the magnitudes of the discrete-velocities are dependent on the local flow--- and are used in a finite volume context. The numerical implementation of the model follows the near-equilibrium flow method of Nadiga and Pullin [1] and results in a scheme which is second order in space (in the smooth regions and between first and second order at discontinuities) and second order in time. (The three-dimensional code is included.) For one choice of the scaling between the magnitude of the discrete-velocities and the local internal energy of the flow, the method reduces to a flux-splitting scheme based on characteristics. As a preliminary exercise, the result of the Sod shock-tube simulation is compared to the exact solution.Comment: 17 pages including 2 figures and CMFortran code listing. All in one postscript file (adv.ps) compressed and uuencoded (adv.uu). Name mail file `adv.uu'. Edit so that `#!/bin/csh -f' is the first line of adv.uu On a unix machine say `csh adv.uu'. On a non-unix machine: uudecode adv.uu; uncompress adv.tar.Z; tar -xvf adv.ta