Random field sampling for a simplified model of melt-blowing considering turbulent velocity fluctuations

In melt-blowing very thin liquid fiber jets are spun due to high-velocity air streams. In literature there is a clear, unsolved discrepancy between the measured and computed jet attenuation. In this paper we will verify numerically that the turbulent velocity fluctuations causing a random aerodynamic drag on the fiber jets -- that has been neglected so far -- are the crucial effect to close this gap. For this purpose, we model the velocity fluctuations as vector Gaussian random fields on top of a k-epsilon turbulence description and develop an efficient sampling procedure. Taking advantage of the special covariance structure the effort of the sampling is linear in the discretization and makes the realization possible

Risk Factors for Graft-versus-Host Disease in Haploidentical Hematopoietic Cell Transplantation Using Post-Transplant Cyclophosphamide

Post-transplant cyclophosphamide (PTCy) has significantly increased the successful use of haploidentical donors with a relatively low incidence of graft-versus-host disease (GVHD). Given its increasing use, we sought to determine risk factors for GVHD after haploidentical hematopoietic cell transplantation (haplo-HCT) using PTCy. Data from the Center for International Blood and Marrow Transplant Research on adult patients with acute myeloid leukemia, acute lymphoblastic leukemia, myelodysplastic syndrome, or chronic myeloid leukemia who underwent PTCy-based haplo-HCT (2013 to 2016) were analyzed and categorized into 4 groups based on myeloablative (MA) or reduced-intensity conditioning (RIC) and bone marrow (BM) or peripheral blood (PB) graft source. In total, 646 patients were identified (MA-BM = 79, MA-PB = 183, RIC-BM = 192, RIC-PB = 192). The incidence of grade 2 to 4 acute GVHD at 6 months was highest in MA-PB (44%), followed by RIC-PB (36%), MA-BM (36%), and RIC-BM (30%) (P =.002). The incidence of chronic GVHD at 1 year was 40%, 34%, 24%, and 20%, respectively (P <.001). In multivariable analysis, there was no impact of stem cell source or conditioning regimen on grade 2 to 4 acute GVHD; however, older donor age (30 to 49 versus <29 years) was significantly associated with higher rates of grade 2 to 4 acute GVHD (hazard ratio [HR], 1.53; 95% confidence interval [CI], 1.11 to 2.12; P =.01). In contrast, PB compared to BM as a stem cell source was a significant risk factor for the development of chronic GVHD (HR, 1.70; 95% CI, 1.11 to 2.62; P =.01) in the RIC setting. There were no differences in relapse or overall survival between groups. Donor age and graft source are risk factors for acute and chronic GVHD, respectively, after PTCy-based haplo-HCT. Our results indicate that in RIC haplo-HCT, the risk of chronic GVHD is higher with PB stem cells, without any difference in relapse or overall survival

The Cholecystectomy As A Day Case (CAAD) Score: A Validated Score of Preoperative Predictors of Successful Day-Case Cholecystectomy Using the CholeS Data Set

Background Day-case surgery is associated with significant patient and cost benefits. However, only 43% of cholecystectomy patients are discharged home the same day. One hypothesis is day-case cholecystectomy rates, defined as patients discharged the same day as their operation, may be improved by better assessment of patients using standard preoperative variables. Methods Data were extracted from a prospectively collected data set of cholecystectomy patients from 166 UK and Irish hospitals (CholeS). Cholecystectomies performed as elective procedures were divided into main (75%) and validation (25%) data sets. Preoperative predictors were identified, and a risk score of failed day case was devised using multivariate logistic regression. Receiver operating curve analysis was used to validate the score in the validation data set. Results Of the 7426 elective cholecystectomies performed, 49% of these were discharged home the same day. Same-day discharge following cholecystectomy was less likely with older patients (OR 0.18, 95% CI 0.15–0.23), higher ASA scores (OR 0.19, 95% CI 0.15–0.23), complicated cholelithiasis (OR 0.38, 95% CI 0.31 to 0.48), male gender (OR 0.66, 95% CI 0.58–0.74), previous acute gallstone-related admissions (OR 0.54, 95% CI 0.48–0.60) and preoperative endoscopic intervention (OR 0.40, 95% CI 0.34–0.47). The CAAD score was developed using these variables. When applied to the validation subgroup, a CAAD score of ≤5 was associated with 80.8% successful day-case cholecystectomy compared with 19.2% associated with a CAAD score >5 (p < 0.001). Conclusions The CAAD score which utilises data readily available from clinic letters and electronic sources can predict same-day discharges following cholecystectomy

Peripheral Nerve Surgery: The Role of High-Resolution MR Neurography

High-resolution MRN is becoming increasingly available due to recent technical advancements, including higher magnetic field strengths (eg, 3T), 3D image acquisition, evolution of novel fat-suppression methods, and improved coil design. This review describes the MRN techniques for obtaining high-quality images of the peripheral nerves and their small branches and imaging findings in normal as well as injured nerves with relevant intraoperative correlations. Various microsurgical techniques in peripheral nerves, such as neurolysis, nerve repairs by using nerve grafts, and conduits are discussed, and MRN findings of surgically treated nerves are demonstrated

Protein complex analysis project (PCAP): Project overview

The Protein Complex Analysis Project (PCAP) has two major goals: 1. to develop an integrated set of high throughput pipelines to identify and characterize multi-protein complexes in a microbe more swiftly and comprehensively than currently possible and 2. to use these pipelines to elucidate and model the protein interaction networks regulating stress responses in Desulfovibrio vulgaris with the aim of understanding how this and similar microbes can be used in bioremediation of metal and radionuclides found in U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) contaminated sites. PCAP builds on the established research and infrastructure of another Genomics: GTL initiative conducted by the Environmental Stress Pathways Project (ESPP). ESPP has developed D. vulgaris as a model for stress responses and has used gene expression profiling to define specific sets of proteins whose expression changes after application of a stressor. Proteins, however, do not act in isolation. They participate in intricate networks of protein/protein interactions that regulate cellular metabolism. To understand and model how these identified genes affect the organism, therefore, it is essential to establish not only the other proteins that they directly contact, but the full repertoire of protein/protein interactions within the cell. In addition, there may well be genes whose activity is changed in response to stress not by regulating their expression level but by altering the protein partners that they bind, by modifying their structures, or by changing their subcellular locations. There may also be differences in the way proteins within individual cells respond to stress that are not apparent in assays that examine the average change in a population of cells. Therefore, we are extending ESPP's analysis to characterize the polypeptide composition of as many multi-protein complexes in the cell as possible and determine their stoichiometries, their quaternary structures, and their locations in planktonic cells and in individual cells within biofilms. PCAP will characterize complexes in wild type cells grown under normal conditions and also examine how these complexes are affected in cells perturbed by stress or by mutation of key stress regulatory genes. These data will all be combined with those of the ongoing work of the ESPP to understand, from a physical-chemical, control-theoretical, and evolutionary point of view, the role of multi-protein complexes in stress pathways involved in the biogeochemistry of soil microbes under a wide variety of conditions. Essential to this endeavor is the development of automated high throughput methods that are robust and allow for the comprehensive analysis of many protein complexes. Biochemical purification of endogenous complexes and identification by mass spectrometry is being coupled with in vitro and in vivo EM molecular imaging methods. Because no single method can isolate all complexes, we are developing two protein purification pipelines, one the current standard Tandem Affinity Purification approach, the other a novel tagless strategy. Specific variants ofeach of these are being developed for water soluble and membrane proteins. Our Bioinstrumentation group is developing highly parallel micro-scale protein purification and protein sample preparation platforms, and mass spectrometry data analysis is being automated to allow the throughput required. The stoichiometries of the purified complexes are being determined and the quaternary structures of complexes larger than 250 kDa are being solved by single particle EM. We are developing EM tomography approaches to examine whole cells and sectioned, stained material to detect complexes in cells and determine their localization and structures. New image analysis methods will be applied to speed determination of quaternary structures from EM data. Once key components in the interaction network are defined, to test and validate our pathway models, mutant strains not expressing thes