Traumatic brain injury in pedestrian–vehicle collisions: Convexity and suitability of some functionals used as injury metrics

Background and Objective: Abrupt accelerations or decelerations can cause large strain in brain tissues and, consequently, different forms of Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI). In order to predict the effect of the accelerations upon the soft tissues of the brain, many different injury metrics have been proposed (typically, an injury metric is a real valued functional of the accelerations). The objective of this article is to make a formal and empirical comparison, in order to identify general criteria for reasonable injury metrics, and propose a general guideline to avoid ill-proposed injury metrics. Methods: A medium-size sample of vehicle-pedestrian collisions, from Post Mortem Human Subject (PMHS) tests, is analyzed. A statistical study has been conducted in order to determine the discriminant power of the usual metrics. We use Principal Component Analysis to reduce dimensionality and to check consistency among the different metrics. In addition, this article compares the mathematical properties of some of these functionals, trying to identify the desirable properties that any of those functionals needs to fulfill in order to be useful for optimization. Results: We have found a pair-wise consistency of all the currently used metrics (any two injury metrics are always positively related). In addition, we observed that two independent principal factors explain about 72.5% of the observed variance among all collision tests. This is remarkable because it indicates that despite high number of different injury metrics, a reduced number of variables can explain the results of all these metrics. With regard to the formal properties, we found that essentially all injury mechanisms can be accounted by means of scalable, differentiable and convex functionals (we propose to call minimization suitable injury metric to any metric having these three formal properties). In addition three useful functionals, usable as injury metrics, are identified on the basis of the empirical comparisons. Conclusions: The commonly used metrics are highly consistent, but also highly redundant. Formal minimal conditions of a reasonable injury metric have been identified. Future proposals of injury metrics can benefit from the results of this study.Peer ReviewedPostprint (author's final draft

An addition to the diversity of dendrobatid frogs in Venezuela: description of three new collared frogs (Anura: Dendrobatidae: Mannophryne)

Three new species of collared frogs of the genus Mannophryne are described from Venezuela. Two are newly discovered taxa from the Venezuelan Andes, whereas the third species, previously confused with M. trinitatis, is from the Caracas area in the Cordillera de la Costa. The call of the three new species and that of Mannophryne collaris are described. Taxonomic, zoogeographic, and conservation issues are discussed

Polymorphisms in ACE, ACE2, AGTR1 genes and severity of COVID-19 disease.

post-print651 K

Survival analysis of productive life in Florida dairy goats using a Cox proportional hazards model

Longevity is an economically important trait, since extending the functional life of a doe would allow us to keep the most productive females in the herd as long as possible, and this could result in the increased profitability of dairy farms. Thus, the objectives of this study were to determine the most important factors that influence the length of productive life (LPL) of female Florida goats and to estimate its genetic additive variance using a Cox proportional hazards model. The data consisted of 70,695 productive life records from 25,722 Florida females kidding between 2006 and 2020. A total of 19,495 does had completed their productive life while 6227 (24.2%) does had censored information. The pedigree contained information on 56,901 animals. The average censoring age and average failure age after first kidding for LPL were 36 and 47 months respectively. The model included, as time-independent effects, the age at first kidding and the interaction between herd, year and season of birth of the doe, and as time-dependent effects, the age at kidding, the interaction between herd, year and season of kidding, the within-herd class of milk production deviation, and the interaction between the lactation number and the stage of lactation. All fixed effects had a significant effect on LPL (p < 0.05). Does with older ages at the first kidding and an earlier age at kidding were at higher risk of being culled. A large difference among herds was observed in terms of culling risk, which highlighted the importance of adequate management practices. Also, high-producing does were less likely to be culled. The estimate of the additive genetic variance was 1.844 (in genetic standard deviation), with a heritability estimate of 0.58 ± 0.012. The results of this study are expected to contribute to the development of a genetic model for genetic evaluation of the length of the productive life of Spanish dairy goat breeds.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

A complement to the modern crystallographer's toolbox: Caged gadolinium complexes with versatile binding modes

A set of seven caged gadolinium complexes were used as vectors for introducing the chelated Gd3+ ion into protein crystals in order to provide strong anomalous scattering for de novo phasing. The complexes contained multidentate ligand molecules with different functional groups to provide a panel of possible interactions with the protein. An exhaustive crystallographic analysis showed them to be nondisruptive to the diffraction quality of the prepared derivative crystals, and as many as 50% of the derivatives allowed the determination of accurate phases, leading to high-quality experimental electron-density maps. At least two successful derivatives were identified for all tested proteins. Structure refinement showed that the complexes bind to the protein surface or solvent-accessible cavities, involving hydrogen bonds, electrostatic and CH-π interactions, explaining their versatile binding modes. Their high phasing power, complementary binding modes and ease of use make them highly suitable as a heavy-atom screen for high-throughput de novo structure determination, in combination with the SAD method. They can also provide a reliable tool for the development of new methods such as serial femtosecond crystallography. © 2014 International Union of Crystallography.Peer Reviewe

Assessment of a Remote Sensing Energy Balance Methodology (SEBAL) Using Different Interpolation Methods to Determine Evapotranspiration in a Citrus Orchard

"(c) 2015 IEEE. Personal use of this material is permitted. Permission from IEEE must be obtained for all other users, including reprinting/ republishing this material for advertising or promotional purposes, creating new collective works for resale or redistribution to servers or lists, or reuse of any copyrighted components of this work in other works."A surface energy balance algorithm for land (SEBAL) for estimating evapotranspiration (ET) has been parameterized and tested in a 400-ha drip irrigated citrus orchard. Simultaneously, during three growing seasons, energy fluxes were measured using Eddy Covariance. Instantaneous fluxes obtained with SEBAL using 10 images from Landsat-5 were compared with the measured fluxes. The Perrier function was the best method for properly estimating the roughness momentum length for discontinuous canopies, as in citrus orchards. Crop height was estimated using LIDAR data. In general, SEBAL performed well for net radiation estimation but failed in soil heat flux estimation. Latent heat estimations from the SEBAL model had a relative root mean square error (rRMSE) of 0.06 when compared with measurements obtained by Eddy Covariance. Three procedures were tested for up-scaling the instantaneous ET estimates from SEBAL to daily ET values: 1) assuming the fraction between the actual ET and the reference ET is constant throughout the day; 2) using actual local crop coefficient curves; and 3) using an up-scaling factor where the fraction of hourly ET to daily ET equals the ratio of hourly to daily global solar radiation. This last method gave acceptable results for daily ET estimations (rRMSE = 0.09) and for 15day ET (rRMSE = 0.19), and its main advantage is that no local data are required. It is concluded that the SEBAL methodology can be successfully applied for determining actual ET, even in discontinuous citrus canopies. However, additional parameterizations of momentum roughness length were needed in order to obtain reliable ET determinations.This work was supported in part by MINECO project Rideco-Consolider CSD2006-0067 and in part by Interreg IV Sudoe project "Telerieg."Jiménez Bello, MÁ.; Castel, JR.; Testi, L.; Intrigliolo Molina, DS. (2015). Assessment of a Remote Sensing Energy Balance Methodology (SEBAL) Using Different Interpolation Methods to Determine Evapotranspiration in a Citrus Orchard. IEEE Journal of Selected Topics in Applied Earth Observations and Remote Sensing. 8(4):1465-1477. https://doi.org/10.1109/JSTARS.2015.2418817S146514778

Kerker Conditions Upon Lossless, Absorption, and Optical Gain Regimes

The directionality and polarization of light show peculiar properties when the scattering by a dielectric sphere can be described exclusively by electric and magnetic dipolar modes. Particularly, when these modes oscillate in-phase with equal amplitude, at the so-called first Kerker condition, the zero optical backscattering condition emerges for non-dissipating spheres. However, the role of absorption and optical gain in the first Kerker condition remains unexplored. In this work, we demonstrate that either absorption or optical gain precludes the first Kerker condition and, hence, the absence of backscattered radiation light, regardless of the size of the particle, incident wavelength, and incoming polarization. Finally, we derive the necessary prerequisites of the second Kerker condition of the zero forward light scattering, finding that optical gain is a compulsory requirement

Trispyrazolylborate Ligands Supported on Vinyl Addition Polynorbornenes and Their Copper Derivatives as Recyclable Catalysts

Polynorbornenes prepared by vinyl addition poly- merization and bearing pendant alkenyl groups serve as skeletons to support trispyrazolylborate ligands (Tpx) built at those alkenyl sites. Reaction with CuI in acetonitrile led to VA-PNB–TpxCu(NCMe) (VA-PBN = vinyl addition polynorbor- nene) with a 0.8–1.4 mmol incorporation of Cu per gram of polymer. The presence of tetracoordinated copper(I) ions was been assessed by FTIR studies on the corresponding VA-PNB-TpxCu(CO) adducts, in agreement with those on discrete TpxCu(CO). The new materials were employed as heteroge- neous catalysts in several carbene- and nitrene-transfer reac- tions, showing a behavior similar to that of the homogene- ous counterparts but also being recycled several times main- taining a high degree of activity and selectivity. This is the first example of supported Tpx ligands onto polymeric sup- ports with catalytic applications.MINECO (CTQ2017-82893-C2-1-R, CTQ2016-80913-P and Red Intecat CTQ2016-81923-REDC)Junta de Castilla y León (VA051P17, VA062G18)European Union (CHAOS COST ACTION CA-15106)

Structural instability of vortices in Bose-Einstein condensates

In this paper we study a gaseous Bose-Einstein condensate (BEC) and show that: (i) A minimum value of the interaction is needed for the existence of stable persistent currents. (ii) Vorticity is not a fundamental invariant of the system, as there exists a conservative mechanism which can destroy a vortex and change its sign. (iii) This mechanism is suppressed by strong interactions.Comment: 4 pages with 3 figures. Submitted to Phys. Rev. Let