Alveolar ventilation carbon dioxide production regression slope, a new index of carbon dioxide mediated ventilatory drive during exercise

To comply with the rapidly increasing demand of information storage and processing, new strategies for computing are needed. The idea of molecular computing, where basic computations occur through molecular, supramolecular, or biomolecular approaches, rather than electronically, has long captivated researchers. The prospects of using molecules and (bio)macromolecules for computing is not without precedent. Nature is replete with examples where the handling and storing of data occurs with high efficiencies, low energy costs, and high-density information encoding. The design and assembly of computers that function according to the universal approaches of computing, such as those in a Turing machine, might be realized in a chemical way in the future; this is both fascinating and extremely challenging. In this perspective, we highlight molecular and (bio)macromolecular systems that have been designed and synthesized so far with the objective of using them for computing purposes. We also present a blueprint of a molecular Turing machine, which is based on a catalytic device that glides along a polymer tape and, while moving, prints binary information on this tape in the form of oxygen atoms

Robustness of the Oxygen Uptake Efficiency Slope to Exercise Intensity in Patients with Coronary Artery Disease

Oxygen uptake efficiency slope (OUES) and ventilatory efficiency (V˙ E/V˙CO2 slope) are widely used as submaximal measurements of cardiopulmonary exercise testing as the evaluator or prognosticator of cardiac diseases. However, very few studies have compared the effects of submaximal exercise on these measurements. A total of 58 patients with coronary artery disease underwent maximal cardiopulmonary exercise testing on a treadmill. We compared the values obtained from the first 75% (V˙ E/V˙CO2 slope75 and OUES75) and 90% (V˙ E/V˙CO2 slope90 and OUES90) of the exercise period with the entire duration (V˙ E/V˙CO2 slope100 and OUES100). Although OUES100, OUES90 and OUES75 were virtually identical, submaximal calculations of V˙ E/V˙CO2 slope underestimated the measurements. The Bland-Altman method revealed that submaximal measurements of OUES agreed very well with maximal OUES (limits of agreement –5.0% to +6.0% for OUES90, and –11.5% to +12.9% for OUES75). However, the submaximal calculations of V˙ E/V˙ CO2 slope showed rather poor agreement with the maximal calculations (limit of agreement –11.8% to +3.1% for V˙ E/V˙CO2 slope90, and –20.8% to +5.3%% for V˙ E/V˙CO2 slope75). These results revealed that both the OUES and the V˙ E/V˙CO2 slopes are not overly influenced by exercise