SIRS Triggered by Acute Right Ventricular Function, Mimicked Septic Shock.

BACKGROUND: The systemic inflammatory response syndrome (SIRS) is a complex immune response which can be precipitated by non-infectious aetiologies such as trauma, burns or pancreatitis. Addressing the underlying cause is crucial because it can be associated with increased mortality. Although the current literature associates chronic heart failure with SIRS, acute right ventricular dysfunction has not previously been reported to trigger SIRS. This case report describes the presentation of acute right ventricular dysfunction that triggered SIRS and mimicked septic shock. CASE PRESENTATION: A 70-year-old male presented to the Intensive Care Unit (ICU) with elevated inflammatory markers and refractory hypotension after a robotic-assisted laparoscopic radical choledochectomy with pancreaticoduodenectomy. Septic shock was misdiagnosed, and he was later found to have a pulmonary embolus. Thrombectomy and antimicrobials had no significant efect on lowering the elevated inflammatory markers or improving the persistent hypotension. Through Point of Care Ultrasound (POCUS), right ventricular dysfunction was diagnosed. Treatment with intravenous milrinone improved blood pressure, normalised inflammatory markers and led to a prompt discharge from the ICU. CONCLUSION: Acute right ventricular dysfunction can trigger SIRS, which may mimic septic shock and delay appropriate treatment

Design of Planar Differential Microphone Array Beampatterns with Controllable Mainlobe Beamwidth and Sidelobe Level

The differential microphone array, or differential beamformer, has attracted much attention for its frequency-invariant beampattern, high directivity factor and compact size. In this work, the design of differential beamformers with small inter-element spacing planar microphone arrays is concerned. In order to exactly control the main lobe beamwidth and sidelobe level and obtain minimum main lobe beamwidth with a given sidelobe level, we design the desired beampattern by applying the Chebyshev polynomials at first, via exploiting the structure of the frequency-independent beampattern of a theoretical Nth-order differential beamformer. Next, the so-called null constrained and least square beamformers, which can obtain approximately frequency-invariant beampattern at relatively low frequencies and can be steered to any direction without beampattern distortion, are proposed based on planar microphone arrays to approximate the designed desired beampatterns. Then, for dealing with the white noise amplification at low-frequency bands and beampattern divergence problems at high-frequency bands of the null constrained and least square beamformers, the so-called minimum norm and combined solutions are deduced, which can compromise among the white noise gain, directivity factor and beampattern distortion flexibly. Preliminary simulation results illustrate the properties and advantages of the proposed differential beamformers

A comparative study on silicon-based negatrode materials in metallic cavity electrode and button half cell — Uncovering unseen microscopic and dynamic features

The electrochemical characterization of lithium storage materials using the button cell is commonplace, but it is also tedious and time-consuming. Also, the results are often affected by the use of the binders and separator membranes, and by the electrode forming and cell assembly methods. To study the changes in materials before and after dis-/charging, one has to break up the button cell and disturb the packing structure of electrode. In this work, the metallic cavity electrode made of copper (Cu-MCE) was used to study silicon-based negative electrode (negatrode) materials during electrochemical de-/lithiation. The initial apparent reaction area (i.e. the contacting area between the Cu substrate and the active materials, 0.785 mm2) of the Cu-MCE was much smaller than that of the half-button cell (153.86 mm2), reducing significantly the overall current and hence polarization in the Cu-MCE. Powders of commercial silicon and phosphorus-doped silicon (P-doped Si) were tested in the Cu-MCE and a conventional button cell. Cyclic voltammograms (CVs) recorded using the Cu-MCE showed full activation in the first cycle, unlike the button cell whose CVs expanded continuously beyond 5 cycles. Current peaks on the CVs of the Cu-MCE agreed with the expected redox reactions but were more pronounced. The subtle differences between P-doped Si and pure Si could also be revealed by the Cu-MCE with the current peaks becoming more obvious, apparently due to modification in material structures and improved ion transport dynamics. The peak currents on the CVs of the Cu-MCE were plotted against the square root of scan rate (v1/2), showing non-linearity for the two oxidation peaks at 0.35 and 0.54 V, indicating both diffusion and surface of the delithiation processes. Linear plots were obtained for the two reduction peaks at 0.165 and 0.245 V with comparable slopes (−0.024 and 0.029 mA mV−1/2 s1/2), confirming diffusion control with insignificant polarization. However, similar analyses of the button cell revealed diffusion control in both oxidation and reduction, indicating slower dynamics with large polarization to delithiation. More importantly, the Cu-MCE can be inspected directly after dis-/charging without any disturbance, and provides unseen variation in the packing structure, particle morphology, and elemental information of the active materials. It is hoped that the higher accuracy, better details, and greater efficiency offered by the Cu-MCE for studying the intrinsic electrode reaction characteristics of Si-based electrode materials can be extended to other powdery materials for charge storage

SIRS Triggered by Acute Right Ventricular Function, Mimicked Septic Shock

The systemic inflammatory response syndrome (SIRS) is a complex immune response which can be precipitated by non-infectious aetiologies such as trauma, burns or pancreatitis. Addressing the underlying cause is crucial because it can be associated with increased mortality. Although the current literature associates chronic heart failure with SIRS, acute right ventricular dysfunction has not previously been reported to trigger SIRS. This case report describes the presentation of acute right ventricular dysfunction that triggered SIRS and mimicked septic shock

Database Resources of the National Genomics Data Center, China National Center for Bioinformation in 2021

The National Genomics Data Center (NGDC), part of the China National Center for Bioinformation (CNCB), provides a suite of database resources to support worldwide research activities in both academia and industry. With the explosive growth of multiomics data, CNCB-NGDC is continually expanding, updating and enriching its core database resources through big data deposition, integration and translation. In the past year, considerable efforts have been devoted to 2019nCoVR, a newly established resource providing a global landscape of SARS-CoV-2 genomic sequences, variants, and haplotypes, as well as Aging Atlas, BrainBase, GTDB (Glycosyltransferases Database), LncExpDB, and TransCirc (Translation potential for circular RNAs). Meanwhile, a series of resources have been updated and improved, including BioProject, BioSample, GWH (Genome Warehouse), GVM (Genome Variation Map), GEN (Gene Expression Nebulas) as well as several biodiversity and plant resources. Particularly, BIG Search, a scalable, one-stop, cross-database search engine, has been significantly updated by providing easy access to a large number of internal and external biological resources from CNCB-NGDC, our partners, EBI and NCBI. All of these resources along with their services are publicly accessible at https://bigd.big.ac.cn