Dynamics of a higher dimensional analog of the trigonometric functions

We introduce a higher dimensional quasiregular map analogous to the trigonometric functions and we use the dynamics of this map to define, for d>1, a partition of d-dimensional Euclidean space into curves tending to infinity such that two curves may intersect only in their endpoints and such that the union of the curves without their endpoints has Hausdorff dimension one.Comment: 12 page

The visitor from an ancient galaxy: A planetary companion around an old, metal-poor red horizontal branch star

We report the detection of a planetary companion around HIP 13044, a metal-poor red horizontal branch star belonging to a stellar halo stream that results from the disruption of an ancient Milky Way satellite galaxy. The detection is based on radial velocity observations with FEROS at the 2.2-m MPG/ESO telescope. The periodic radial velocity variation of P=16.2 days can be distinguished from the periods of the stellar activity indicators. We computed a minimum planetary mass of 1.25 Jupiter masses and an orbital semimajor axis of 0.116 AU for the planet. This discovery is unique in three aspects: First, it is the first planet detection around a star with a metallicity much lower than few percent of the solar value; second, the planet host star resides in a stellar evolutionary stage that is still unexplored in the exoplanet surveys; third, the planetary system HIP 13044 most likely has an extragalactic origin in a disrupted former satellite of the Milky Way.Comment: 5 pages, 2 figures, 2 tables, submitted to the Proceedings of the 276th IAU Symposium "The Astrophysics of Planetary Systems

IAMCV Multi-Scenario Vehicle Interaction Dataset

The acquisition and analysis of high-quality sensor data constitute an essential requirement in shaping the development of fully autonomous driving systems. This process is indispensable for enhancing road safety and ensuring the effectiveness of the technological advancements in the automotive industry. This study introduces the Interaction of Autonomous and Manually-Controlled Vehicles (IAMCV) dataset, a novel and extensive dataset focused on inter-vehicle interactions. The dataset, enriched with a sophisticated array of sensors such as Light Detection and Ranging, cameras, Inertial Measurement Unit/Global Positioning System, and vehicle bus data acquisition, provides a comprehensive representation of real-world driving scenarios that include roundabouts, intersections, country roads, and highways, recorded across diverse locations in Germany. Furthermore, the study shows the versatility of the IAMCV dataset through several proof-of-concept use cases. Firstly, an unsupervised trajectory clustering algorithm illustrates the dataset's capability in categorizing vehicle movements without the need for labeled training data. Secondly, we compare an online camera calibration method with the Robot Operating System-based standard, using images captured in the dataset. Finally, a preliminary test employing the YOLOv8 object-detection model is conducted, augmented by reflections on the transferability of object detection across various LIDAR resolutions. These use cases underscore the practical utility of the collected dataset, emphasizing its potential to advance research and innovation in the area of intelligent vehicles

Lack of methylated hopanoids renders the cyanobacterium Nostoc punctiforme sensitive to osmotic and pH stress

© 2017 American Society for Microbiology. To investigate the function of 2-methylhopanoids in modern cyanobacteria, the hpnP gene coding for the radical S-adenosyl methionine (SAM) methylase protein that acts on the C-2 position of hopanoids was deleted from the filamentous cyanobacterium Nostoc punctiforme ATCC 29133S. The resulting ΔhpnP mutant lacked all 2-methylhopanoids but was found to produce much higher levels of two bacteriohopanepentol isomers than the wild type. Growth rates of the ΔhpnP mutant cultures were not significantly different from those of the wild type under standard growth conditions. Akinete formation was also not impeded by the absence of 2-methylhopanoids. The relative abundances of the different hopanoid structures in akinete-dominated cultures of the wild-type and ΔhpnP mutant strains were similar to those of vegetative cell-dominated cultures. However, the ΔhpnP mutant was found to have decreased growth rates under both pH and osmotic stress, confirming a role for 2-methylhopanoids in stress tolerance. Evidence of elevated photosystem II yield and NAD(P)H-dependent oxidoreductase activity in the ΔhpnP mutant under stress conditions, compared to the wild type, suggested that the absence of 2-methylhopanoids increases cellular metabolic rates under stress conditions

Platelet consumption during neonatal extracorporeal life support (ECLS)

This paper reports the results of a retrospective study of blood use and blood loss in 40 neonates during extracorporeal life support (ECLS). Immediately after onset of bypass 39±2.5ml platelets, 59.4±6.5ml packed red blood cells (PRBC) and 15.0±5.4ml fresh frozen plasma (FFP) per patient were needed. The average daily amount given per patient was 49.0±3.0ml of platelets and 48.0±3.4ml and 9.6±3.9ml of PRBC and FFP respectively. The 10 patients who had bleeding complications received 50.0±6.3ml/day of platelets compared to 49.0±3.4ml in the other patients. The majority of blood loss during the entire period of ECLS was from samples, averaging 43.0 ± 1.5ml/day. Neck wound drainage, 6.7±2.5ml/day per patient, lasted for the entire period.Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/68887/2/10.1177_026765919200700106.pd

Epidemiologic Studies on Exposure Patterns to Agent Orange in Vietnam Veterans and Vietnamese Migrants to the South Bay Region

A radially periodic two-dimensional leaky-wave antenna is studied for the generation of zeroth-order Bessel beams within a limited spatial region and over a wide frequency range. The antenna design is wideband and based on an annular metal strip grating placed on top of a grounded dielectric slab, supporting a cylindrical leaky wave with a fast backward spatial harmonic. The focusing capabilities of the relevant leaky-wave aperture fields are investigated over the considered frequency range (15 to 21 GHz), in conjunction with the dispersion analysis of the optimized structure, which is developed by means of an efficient in-house method-of-moments code. Fullwave simulations using a commercial tool including a simple coaxial feeder are presented and discussed, demonstrating the desired wideband operation. The antenna design is validated by means of measurements performed on a manufactured prototype, considering different frequencies and components of the electric field within the nondiffracting range of the system. The proposed design represents an attractive simple and low-cost solution potentially able to generate arbitrary-order Bessel beams at microwaves as well as in the millimeter-wave and terahertz frequency regions

A palmitoylethanolamide producing lactobacillus paracasei improves clostridium difficile toxin a-induced colitis

Genetically engineered probiotics, able to in situ deliver therapeutically active compounds while restoring gut eubiosis, could represent an attractive therapeutic alternative in Clostridium difficile infection (CDI). Palmitoylethanolamide is an endogenous lipid able to exert immunomodulatory activities and restore epithelial barrier integrity in human models of colitis, by binding the peroxisome proliferator–activated receptor-α (PPARα). The aim of this study was to explore the efficacy of a newly designed PEA-producing probiotic (pNAPE-LP) in a mice model of C. difficile toxin A (TcdA)-induced colitis. The human N-acyl-phosphatidylethanolamine-specific phospholipase D (NAPE-PLD), a key enzyme involved in the synthesis of PEA, was cloned and expressed in a Lactobacillus paracasei that was intragastrically administered to mice 7 days prior the induction of the colitis. Bacteria carrying the empty vector served as negative controls (pLP).In the presence of palmitate, pNAPE-LP was able to significantly increase PEA production by 27,900%, in a time- and concentration-dependent fashion. Mice treated with pNAPE-LP showed a significant improvement of colitis in terms of histological damage score, macrophage count, and myeloperoxidase levels (−53, −82, and −70.4%, respectively). This was paralleled by a significant decrease both in the expression of toll-like receptor-4 (−71%), phospho-p38 mitogen-activated protein kinase (−72%), hypoxia-inducible factor-1-alpha (−53%), p50 (−74%), and p65 (−60%) and in the plasmatic levels of interleukin-6 (−86%), nitric oxide (−59%), and vascular endothelial growth factor (−71%). Finally, tight junction protein expression was significantly improved by pNAPE-LP treatment as witnessed by the rescue of zonula occludens-1 (+304%), Ras homolog family member A-GTP (+649%), and occludin expression (+160%). These protective effects were mediated by the specific release of PEA by the engineered probiotic as they were abolished in PPARα knockout mice and in wild-type mice treated with pLP. Herein, we demonstrated that pNAPE-LP has therapeutic potential in CDI by inhibiting colonic inflammation and restoring tight junction protein expression in mice, paving the way to next generation probiotics as a promising strategy in CDI prevention

Using Electronic Technology to Improve Clinical Care -- Results from a Before-after Cluster Trial to Evaluate Assessment and Classification of Sick Children According to Integrated Management of Childhood Illness (IMCI) Protocol in Tanzania.

Poor adherence to the Integrated Management of Childhood Illness (IMCI) protocol reduces the potential impact on under-five morbidity and mortality. Electronic technology could improve adherence; however there are few studies demonstrating the benefits of such technology in a resource-poor settings. This study estimates the impact of electronic technology on adherence to the IMCI protocols as compared to the current paper-based protocols in Tanzania. In four districts in Tanzania, 18 clinics were randomly selected for inclusion. At each site, observers documented critical parts of the clinical assessment of children aged 2 months to 5 years. The first set of observations occurred during examination of children using paper-based IMCI (pIMCI) and the next set of observations occurred during examination using the electronic IMCI (eIMCI). Children were re-examined by an IMCI expert and the diagnoses were compared. A total of 1221 children (671 paper, 550 electronic) were observed. For all ten critical IMCI items included in both systems, adherence to the protocol was greater for eIMCI than for pIMCI. The proportion assessed under pIMCI ranged from 61% to 98% compared to 92% to 100% under eIMCI (p < 0.05 for each of the ten assessment items). Use of electronic systems improved the completeness of assessment of children with acute illness in Tanzania. With the before-after nature of the design, potential for temporal confounding is the primary limitation. However, the data collection for both phases occurred over a short period (one month) and so temporal confounding was expected to be minimal. The results suggest that the use of electronic IMCI protocols can improve the completeness and consistency of clinical assessments and future studies will examine the long-term health and health systems impact of eIMCI

The Clinical Impact of the Pulmonary Embolism Severity Index on the Length of Hospital Stay of Patients with Pulmonary Embolism: A Randomized Controlled Trial.

BACKGROUND The Pulmonary Embolism Severity Index (PESI) is an extensively validated prognostic score, but impact analyses of the PESI on management strategies, outcomes and health care costs are lacking. Our aim was to assess whether the adoption of the PESI for patients admitted to an internal medicine ward has the potential to safely reduce the length of hospital stay (LOS). METHODS We carried out a multicenter randomized controlled trial, enrolling consecutive adult outpatients diagnosed with acute PE and admitted to an internal medicine ward. Within 48 h after diagnosis, the treating physicians were randomized, for every patient, to calculate and report the PESI in the clinical record form on top of the standard of care (experimental arm) or to continue routine clinical practice (standard of care). The ClinicalTrials.gov identifier is NCT03002467. RESULTS This study was prematurely stopped due to slow recruitment. A total of 118 patients were enrolled at six internal medicine units from 2016 to 2019. The treating physicians were randomized to the use of the PESI for 59 patients or to the standard of care for 59 patients. No difference in the median LOS was found between the experimental arm (8, IQR 6-12) and the standard-of-care arm (8, IQR 6-12) (p = 0.63). A pre-specified secondary analysis showed that the LOS was significantly shorter among the patients who were treated with DOACs (median of 8 days, IQR 5-11) compared to VKAs or heparin (median of 9 days, IQR 7-12) (p = 0.04). CONCLUSIONS The formal calculation of the PESI in the patients already admitted to internal medicine units did not impact the length of hospital stay