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The association of neutrophil-lymphocyte ratio and lymphocyte-monocyte ratio with 3-month clinical outcome after mechanical thrombectomy following stroke
Background and aim
Neutrophil-lymphocyte ratio (NLR) and lymphocyte-monocyte ratio (LMR) are associated with clinical outcomes in malignancy, cardiovascular disease and stroke. Here we investigate their association with outcome after acute ischaemic stroke treated by mechanical thrombectomy (MT).
Methods
Patients were selected using audit data for MT for acute anterior circulation ischaemic stroke at a UK centre from May 2016–July 2017. Clinical and laboratory data including neutrophil, lymphocyte and monocyte count tested before and 24 h after MT were collected. Poor functional outcome was defined as modified Rankin Scale (mRS) of 3–6 at 3 months. Multivariable logistic regression analyses were performed to explore the relationship of NLR and LMR with functional outcome.
Results
One hundred twenty-one patients (mean age 66.4 ± 16.7, 52% female) were included. Higher NLR (adjusted OR 0.022, 95% CI, 0.009–0.34, p = 0.001) and lower LMR (adjusted OR − 0.093, 95% CI (− 0.175)−(− 0.012), p = 0.025) at 24-h post-MT were significantly associated with poorer functional outcome when controlling for age, baseline NIHSS score, infarct size, presence of good collateral supply, recanalisation and symptomatic intracranial haemorrhage on multivariate logistic regression. Admission NLR or LMR were not significant predictors of mRS at 3 months. The optimal cut-off values of NLR and LMR at 24-h post-MT that best discriminated poor outcome were 5.5 (80% sensitivity and 60% specificity) and 2.0 (80% sensitivity and 50% specificity), respectively on receiver operating characteristic curve analysis.
Conclusion
NLR and LMR tested at 24 h after ictus or intervention may predict 3-month functional outcome
A strategic study of establishing the industrial needs in pattern design and technology in Mainland China
2007-2008 > Academic research: refereed > Publication in refereed journalVersion of RecordPublishe
Quantifying Rapid Variability in Accreting Compact Objects
I discuss some practical aspects of the analysis of millisecond time
variability X-ray data obtained from accreting neutron stars and black holes.
First I give an account of the statistical methods that are at present commonly
applied in this field. These are mostly based on Fourier techniques. To a large
extent these methods work well: they give astronomers the answers they need.
Then I discuss a number of statistical questions that astronomers don't really
know how to solve properly and that statisticians may have ideas about. These
questions have to do with the highest and the lowest frequency ranges
accessible in the Fourier analysis: how do you determine the shortest time
scale present in the variability, how do you measure steep low-frequency noise.
The point is stressed that in order for any method that resolves these issues
to become popular, it is necessary to retain the capabilities the current
methods already have in quantifying the complex, concurrent variability
processes characteristic of accreting neutron stars and black holes.Comment: To be published in the Proceedings of "Statistical Challenges in
Modern Astronomy II", University Park PA, USA, June 199
On the Proton Conductivity of Nafion-Faujasite Composite Membranes for Low Temperature Direct Methanol Fuel Cells.
Although zeolites are introduced to decrease methanol crossover of Nafion membranes for direct
methanol fuel cells (DMFCs), little is known about the effect of their intrinsic properties and the
interaction with the ionomer. In this work, Nafion-Faujasite composite membranes prepared by solution
casting were characterized by extensive physicochemical and electrochemical techniques. Faujasite was
found to undergo severe dealumination during the membrane activation, but its structure remained
intact. The zeolite interacts with Nafion probably through hydrogen bonding between Si-OH and SO3H
groups, which combined with the increase of the water uptake and the water mobility, and the addition
of a less conductive phase (the zeolite) leads to an optimum proton conductivity between 0.98 and 2
wt% of zeolite. Hot pressing the membranes before their assembling with the electrodes enhanced the
DMFC performance by reducing the methanol crossover and the serial resistance
Signal peptide peptidases and gamma-secretase: Cousins of the same protease family?
Signal peptide peptidase (SPIP) is an unusual aspartyl protease, which mediates clearance of signal peptides by proteolysis within the endoplasmic reticulum (ER). Like presenilins, which provide the proteolytically active subunit of the,gamma-secretase complex, SPP contains a conserved GxGD motif in its C-terminal domain which is critical for its activity. While SPIP is known to be an aspartyl protease of the GxGD type, several presenilin homologues/SPP-like proteins (PSHs/ SPPL) of unknown function have been identified by database searches. In contrast to SPP and SPPL3, which are both restricted to the endoplasmic reticulum, SPPL2b is targeted through the secretory pathway to endosomes/lysosomes. As suggested by the differential subcellular localization of SPPL2b and SPPL3 distinct phenotypes were found upon antisense gripNA-mediated knockdown in zebrafish. spp and sppl3 knockdowns in zebrafish result in cell death within the central nervous system, whereas reduction of sppl2b expression causes erythrocyte accumulation in an enlarged caudal vein. Moreover, expression of D/A mutants of the putative C-terminal active sites of spp, sppl2, and spp13 produced phenocopies of the respective knockdown phenotypes. These data suggest that all investigated PSHs/SPPLs are members of the novel family of GxGD aspartyl proteases. More recently, it was shown that SPPL2b utilizes multiple intramembrane cleavages to liberate the TNF(x intracellular domain into the cytosol and to release the C-terminal counterpart into the lumen. These findings suggest common principles of intramembrane proteolysis by GxGD type aspartyl proteases. In this article,we will review the similarities of SPPs and gamma-secretase based on recent findings by us and others
An Iterative Model Reduction Scheme for Quadratic-Bilinear Descriptor Systems with an Application to Navier-Stokes Equations
We discuss model reduction for a particular class of quadratic-bilinear (QB)
descriptor systems. The main goal of this article is to extend the recently
studied interpolation-based optimal model reduction framework for QBODEs
[Benner et al. '16] to a class of descriptor systems in an efficient and
reliable way. Recently, it has been shown in the case of linear or bilinear
systems that a direct extension of interpolation-based model reduction
techniques to descriptor systems, without any modifications, may lead to poor
reduced-order systems. Therefore, for the analysis, we aim at transforming the
considered QB descriptor system into an equivalent QBODE system by means of
projectors for which standard model reduction techniques for QBODEs can be
employed, including aforementioned interpolation scheme. Subsequently, we
discuss related computational issues, thus resulting in a modified algorithm
that allows us to construct \emph{near}--optimal reduced-order systems without
explicitly computing the projectors used in the analysis. The efficiency of the
proposed algorithm is illustrated by means of a numerical example, obtained via
semi-discretization of the Navier-Stokes equations
Binary pattern tile set synthesis is NP-hard
In the field of algorithmic self-assembly, a long-standing unproven
conjecture has been that of the NP-hardness of binary pattern tile set
synthesis (2-PATS). The -PATS problem is that of designing a tile assembly
system with the smallest number of tile types which will self-assemble an input
pattern of colors. Of both theoretical and practical significance, -PATS
has been studied in a series of papers which have shown -PATS to be NP-hard
for , , and then . In this paper, we close the
fundamental conjecture that 2-PATS is NP-hard, concluding this line of study.
While most of our proof relies on standard mathematical proof techniques, one
crucial lemma makes use of a computer-assisted proof, which is a relatively
novel but increasingly utilized paradigm for deriving proofs for complex
mathematical problems. This tool is especially powerful for attacking
combinatorial problems, as exemplified by the proof of the four color theorem
by Appel and Haken (simplified later by Robertson, Sanders, Seymour, and
Thomas) or the recent important advance on the Erd\H{o}s discrepancy problem by
Konev and Lisitsa using computer programs. We utilize a massively parallel
algorithm and thus turn an otherwise intractable portion of our proof into a
program which requires approximately a year of computation time, bringing the
use of computer-assisted proofs to a new scale. We fully detail the algorithm
employed by our code, and make the code freely available online
Nonlinear thermoelectric response of quantum dots: renormalized dual fermions out of equilibrium
The thermoelectric transport properties of nanostructured devices continue to
attract attention from theorists and experimentalist alike as the spatial
confinement allows for a controlled approach to transport properties of
correlated matter. Most of the existing work, however, focuses on
thermoelectric transport in the linear regime despite the fact that the
nonlinear conductance of correlated quantum dots has been studied in some
detail throughout the last decade. Here, we review our recent work on the
effect of particle-hole asymmetry on the nonlinear transport properties in the
vicinity of the strong coupling limit of Kondo-correlated quantum dots and
extend the underlying method, a renormalized superperturbation theory on the
Keldysh contour, to the thermal conductance in the nonlinear regime. We
determine the charge, energy, and heat current through the nanostructure and
study the nonlinear transport coefficients, the entropy production, and the
fate of the Wiedemann-Franz law in the non-thermal steady-state. Our approach
is based on a renormalized perturbation theory in terms of dual fermions around
the particle-hole symmetric strong-coupling limit.Comment: chapter contributed to 'New Materials for Thermoelectric
Applications: Theory and Experiment' Springer Series: NATO Science for Peace
and Security Series - B: Physics and Biophysics, Veljko Zlatic (Editor), Alex
Hewson (Editor). ISBN: 978-9400749863 (2012
3D multi-agent models for protein release from PLGA spherical particles with complex inner morphologies
In order to better understand and predict the release of proteins from bioerodible micro- or nanospheres, it is important to know the influences of different initial factors on the release mechanisms. Often though it is difficult to assess what exactly is at the origin of a certain dissolution profile. We propose here a new class of fine-grained multi-agent models built to incorporate
increasing complexity, permitting the exploration of the role of different parameters, especially that of the internal morphology of the spheres, in the exhibited release profile. This approach, based on Monte-Carlo (MC) and Cellular Automata (CA) techniques, has permitted the testing of various assumptions and hypotheses about several experimental systems of nanospheres encapsulating proteins. Results have confirmed that this modelling approach
has increased the resolution over the complexity involved, opening promising perspectives for future developments, especially complementing in vitro experimentation
Mitochondrial targeting adaptation of the hominoid-specific glutamate dehydrogenase driven by positive Darwinian selection
Many new gene copies emerged by gene duplication in hominoids, but little is known with respect to their functional evolution. Glutamate dehydrogenase (GLUD) is an enzyme central to the glutamate and energy metabolism of the cell. In addition to the single, GLUD-encoding gene present in all mammals (GLUD1), humans and apes acquired a second GLUD gene (GLUD2) through retroduplication of GLUD1, which codes for an enzyme with unique, potentially brain-adapted properties. Here we show that whereas the GLUD1 parental protein localizes to mitochondria and the cytoplasm, GLUD2 is specifically targeted to mitochondria. Using evolutionary analysis and resurrected ancestral protein variants, we demonstrate that the enhanced mitochondrial targeting specificity of GLUD2 is due to a single positively selected glutamic acid-to-lysine substitution, which was fixed in the N-terminal mitochondrial targeting sequence (MTS) of GLUD2 soon after the duplication event in the hominoid ancestor ~18–25 million years ago. This MTS substitution arose in parallel with two crucial adaptive amino acid changes in the enzyme and likely contributed to the functional adaptation of GLUD2 to the glutamate metabolism of the hominoid brain and other tissues. We suggest that rapid, selectively driven subcellular adaptation, as exemplified by GLUD2, represents a common route underlying the emergence of new gene functions
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