Hemoglobin to red cell distribution width ratio as a prognostic marker for ischemic stroke after mechanical thrombectomy

BackgroundThe hemoglobin to red cell distribution width ratio (HRR) has been experimentally associated with the prognosis of acute ischemic stroke (AIS). However, its relationship with mechanical thrombectomy (MT) for AIS remains unclear. Therefore, this study aimed to investigate the relationship between HRR at admission, follow-up HRR, and clinical outcomes in patients undergoing MT.MethodsAcute ischemic stroke patients undergoing MT were consecutively enrolled from January 2017 to December 2022. Demographic, clinical, and laboratory information were collected. HRR was measured by dividing hemoglobin (Hb) by red cell distribution width (RDW) at admission and after 24 h of MT. Clinical outcomes after 3 months were evaluated using the modified Rankin Scale (mRS). The primary outcome was poor prognosis (mRS > 2) at 3 months, while the secondary outcome was death within 3 months.ResultsA total of 310 patients were analyzed, of whom 216 patients (69.7%) had poor prognosis, and 92 patients (29.6%) died. Patients with a poor prognosis and death had significantly lower HRR levels at admission and after 24 h. HRR at admission was not associated with clinical outcomes according to multivariable logistic regression analysis. However, HRR after 24 h was significantly associated with poor prognosis (adjusted odds ratio [OR]: 0.646, 95% confidence interval [CI]: 0.520–0.803, p < 0.001) and death (adjusted OR: 0.615, 95% CI: 0.508–0.744, p < 0.001). Receiver-operating characteristic curve analysis demonstrated the predictive ability of HRR after 24 h, with areas under the curves of 0.790 for poor prognosis and 0.771 for death.ConclusionRapidly measurable HRR levels are an independent marker of outcome after MT in AIS patients. This may provide a reliable auxiliary outcome measure for clinical routine and interventional therapy

Comprehensive Fracture Model of Reservoir Ice Layers in the Northeastern Cold Region of China

Meteorological and hydrological changes have an important influence on the ice formation mechanism and the detailed structure of ice materials in cold reservoirs, and directly determine the mechanical properties of ice materials. Based on long-term meteorological and hydrological monitoring data, and detailed structural evolution analysis of ice materials, combined with fracture mechanics and energy methods, a comprehensive fracture model of ice materials in cold regions is established. At the same time, the fracture mechanics test results and simulation results of ice materials are compared, and the model is finally optimized accurately to provide theoretical support for the study of the mechanical mechanism of ice materials

Security For Safety: A Path Toward Building Trusted Autonomous Vehicles

Automotive systems have always been designed with safety in mind. In this regard, the functional safety standard, ISO 26262, was drafted with the intention of minimizing risk due to random hardware faults or systematic failure in design of electrical and electronic components of an automobile. However, growing complexity of a modern car has added another potential point of failure in the form of cyber or sensor attacks. Recently, researchers have demonstrated that vulnerability in vehicle\u27s software or sensing units could enable them to remotely alter the intended operation of the vehicle. As such, in addition to safety, security should be considered as an important design goal. However, designing security solutions without the consideration of safety objectives could result in potential hazards. Consequently, in this paper we propose the notion of security for safety and show that by integrating safety conditions with our system-level security solution, which comprises of a modified Kalman filter and a Chi-squared detector, we can prevent potential hazards that could occur due to violation of safety objectives during an attack. Furthermore, with the help of a car-following case study, where the follower car is equipped with an adaptive-cruise control unit, we show that our proposed system-level security solution preserves the safety constraints and prevent collision between vehicle while under sensor attack

A field study on ice melting and breakup in a boreal lake, Pääjärvi, in Finland

Lake ice melting and breakup form a fast, non-linear process with important mechanical, chemical, and biological consequences. The process is difficult to study in the field due to safety issues, and therefore only little is known about its details. In the present work, the field data were collected on foot, by hydrocopter, and by boat for a full time series of the evolution of ice thickness, structure, and geochemistry through the melting period. The observations were made in lake Paajarvi in 2018 (pilot study) and 2022. In 2022, the maximum thickness of ice was 55 cm with 60% snow ice, and in 40 d the ice melted by 33 cm from the surface and 22 cm from the bottom while the porosity increased from less than 5% to 40 %-50% at breakup. In 2018, the snow-ice layer was thin, and bottom and internal melting dominated the ice decay. The mean melting rates were 1.31 cm d(-1) in 2022 and 1.55 cm d(-1) in 2018. In 2022 the electrical conductivity (EC) of ice was 11.4 +/- 5.79 mu S cm(-1), which is 1 order of magnitude lower than in the lake water, and ice pH was 6.44 +/- 0.28, which is lower by 0.4 than in water. The pH and EC of ice and water decreased during the ice decay except for slight increases in ice due to flushing by lake water. Chlorophyll a was less than 0.5 mu g L-1 in porous ice, approximately one-third of that in the lake water. The results are important for understanding the process of ice decay with consequences for lake ecology, further development of numerical lake ice models, and modeling the safety of ice cover and ice loads.Peer reviewe

在外中国人による日本での投資用住宅購入と選好パターン : 京阪神大都市圏と東京大都市圏における購入者へのインタビュー調査に基づいて

This research looked at the residential property investment for investment by non-resident Chinese, for example, the motives, type, and area of residence purchased. As a research method, we interviewed 21 Chinese investors who had purchased properties in Japan. They may be categoraized as follows are: 1."Investment efficiency-oriented type" -in which the Japanese property was selected after comparative analysis with potential aquisitions in other countries / regions. 2."Japan-oriented type" -in which the people respondents had underlying attachment to, and therefore only considered investment in property there. In the former case, the economic factors behind the motives of purchasing real estate are emphasized. On the other hand, in the latter case, it can be said that the purchases were greatly influenced by some non-economic factors（e.g. psychologically）. In addition, we concluded that there are many people whose purchases took on the asset value into consideration, such as yield of rental income and future stability. As for the type of residence purchase, many people chose second-hand apartments that were considered to have stable asset values. It can be deduced second-hand apartments were purchased on the premise of obtaining rental income. Moreover, geographically, areas with convenient access to city centers and commercial facilities are preferred. In particular, there were many respondents who have purchased residence mainly in Osaka and Tokyo, where property value is high and the asset value is likely to be maintained in the future. Especially among the people surveyed, investment in residence in Osaka city appeared to be more popular than in other large Japanese cities. As the specific reason for choosing Osaka City, “High recognition of Osaka City” and “Expectations for future development” were given by the people surveyed. Other than that, concerning the reason why respondents chose to purchase residence in Osaka City instead of Tokyo, it also can be pointed out that the cost of real estate in Osaka City is lower than in Tokyo, despite having the same level of recognition.日本国外に居住する中国人の個人投資家を対象としたインタビュー調査に基づいて，住宅購入の動機や購入する住宅の形態・購入地域について検討した．研究手法として日本で住宅を購入した中国人海外不動産投資家21人にインタビュー調査を実施した．調査対象者が日本の住宅を購入した動機や背景として，①他の国・地域と比較検討した上で日本での住宅購入を選択した「投資効率重視型」と，②最初から何らかの理由で日本に対して関心があり，日本の住宅に絞って購入を検討した「日本指向型」の2 つのパターンがみられる．また，調査対象者が購入した住宅の選定基準としては，賃貸収入の利回りや将来的な安定性といった資産価値を重視しながら住宅を選定した人が多いといえる．購入した住宅の類型として，資産価値が下がりにくいと考えられている中古マンションを選択した人が多く，賃貸収入を得て運用することを前提として住宅を購入した人が多いといえる．購入した地区の地理的な特徴として，中心市街地や商業施設への利便性が高い地域が好まれ，特に住宅の資産価値が高く，将来的にも資産価値を維持しやすいとみられる大阪市と東京都を中心に住宅を購入した調査対象者が多い．とりわけ，大都市の中でも，大阪市の住宅への投資が人気化している可能性がある．その理由として，「大阪市の知名度の高さ」と「将来の発展性への期待感」に加えて，「東京に比べると住宅価格が低い点」を評価して購入した点が指摘できる

Fabrication and Properties of InGaZnO Thin-Film Transistors Based on a Sol–Gel Method with Different Electrode Patterns

The preparation of thin-film transistors (TFTs) with InGaZnO (IGZO) channels using sol–gel technology has the advantages of simplicity in terms of process and weak substrate selectivity. We prepared a series of TFT devices with a top contact and bottom gate structure, in which the top contact was divided into rectangular and circular structures of drain/source electrodes. The field-effect performance of TFT devices with circular pattern drain/source electrodes was better than that with a traditional rectangular structure on both substrates. The uniform distribution of the potential in the circular electrode structure was more conducive to the regulation of carriers under the same channel length at different applied voltages. In addition, with the development of transparent substrate devices, we also constructed a hafnium oxide (HfO2) insulation layer and an IGZO active layer on an indium tin oxide conductive substrate, and explored the effect of circular drain/source electrodes on field-effect properties of the semitransparent TFT device. The IGZO deposited on the HfO2 dielectric layer by spin-coating can effectively reduce the surface roughness of the HfO2 layer and optimize the scattering of carriers at the interface in TFT devices