Critical congenital heart disease screening by pulse oximetry in a neonatal intensive care unit.

ObjectiveCritical congenital heart disease (CCHD) screening is effective in asymptomatic late preterm and term newborn infants with a low false-positive rate (0.035%). (1) To compare 2817 neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) discharges before and after implementation of CCHD screening; and (2) to evaluate CCHD screening at <35 weeks gestation.Study designCollection of results of CCHD screening including pre- and postductal pulse oximetry oxygen saturation (SpO2) values.ResultDuring the pre-CCHD screen period, 1247 infants were discharged from the NICU and one case of CCHD was missed. After 1 March 2012, 1508 CCHD screens were performed among 1570 discharges and no CCHDs were missed. The pre- and postductal SpO2 values were 98.8 ± 1.4% and 99 ± 1.3%, respectively, in preterm and 98.9 ± 1.3% and 98.9 ± 1.4%, respectively, in term infants. Ten infants had false-positive screens (10/1508 = 0.66%).ConclusionPerforming universal screening in the NICU is feasible but is associated with a higher false-positive rate compared with asymptomatic newborn infants

Estudio de la nueva torre de control del aeropuerto de Tenerife-Norte

Aunque el criterio fundamental de diseño de la torre de control de un aeropuerto es obviamente que esta instalación satisfaga los requisitos funcionales propios del control del tráfico aéreo (suministrar los servicios de control de tránsito aéreo a tránsito de aeródromo), el hecho de que este elemento de la arquitectura aeroporLuaria deba ocupar, precisamente debido a los req ui sitos específicos de vis ibilidad, un lugar destacado dentro del complejo aeroportuario, ha ocasionado que con el tiempo en las construcciones se hayan convertido en elementos singulares y emblemáticos, diseñados tanto para cumplir la batería de requisitos operativos, constructivos y de equipamiento que asegurcn el cumplimiento de su misión, como para, en muchos casos, servir de signo identificador de l aeropuerto. Todo ello ha ocasionado que en los últimos años se haya vertido mucha imaginación en el diseño de tales torres de control, pudiéndose encontrar en los aeropuertos las torres de control de las más variadas formas y aspectos

Big brother is watching - using digital disease surveillance tools for near real-time forecasting

Abstract for the International Journal of Infectious Diseases 79 (S1) (2019).https://www.ijidonline.com/article/S1201-9712(18)34659-9/abstractPublished versio

On Supergroups with Odd Clifford Parameters and Supersymmetry with Modified Leibniz Rule

We investigate supergroups with Grassmann parameters replaced by odd Clifford parameters. The connection with non-anticommutative supersymmetry is discussed. A Berezin-like calculus for odd Clifford variables is introduced. Fermionic covariant derivatives for supergroups with odd Clifford variables are derived. Applications to supersymmetric quantum mechanics are made. Deformations of the original supersymmetric theories are encountered when the fermionic covariant derivatives do not obey the graded Leibniz property. The simplest non-trivial example is given by the N=2 SQM with a real $(1,2,1)$ multiplet and a cubic potential. The action is real. Depending on the overall sign ("Euclidean" or "Lorentzian") of the deformation, a Bender-Boettcher pseudo-hermitian hamiltonian is encountered when solving the equation of motion of the auxiliary field. A possible connection of our framework with the Drinfeld twist deformation of supersymmetry is pointed out.Comment: Final version to be published in Int. J. Mod. Phys. A; 20 page

Godel-type Universes in String-inspired Charged Gravity

We consider a string-inspired, gravitational theory of scalar and electromagnetic fields and we investigate the existence of axially-symmetric, G\"{o}del-type cosmological solutions. The neutral case is studied first and an "extreme" G\"{o}del-type rotating solution, that respects the causality, is determined. The charged case is considered next and two new configurations for the, minimally-coupled to gravity, electromagnetic field are presented. Another configuration motivated by the expected distribution of currents and charges in a rotating universe is studied and shown to lead to a G\"{o}del-type solution for a space-dependent coupling function. Finally, we investigate the existence of G\"{o}del-type cosmological solutions in the framework of the one-loop corrected superstring effective action and we determine the sole configuration of the electromagnetic field that leads to such a solution. It turns out that, in all the charged cases considered, Closed Timelike Curves do appear and the causality is always violated.Comment: 26 pages, LaTex file, a few comments and references added, version to appear in Physical Review

Lactate signalling regulates fungal β-glucan masking and immune evasion

AJPB: This work was supported by the European Research Council (STRIFE, ERC- 2009-AdG-249793), The UK Medical Research Council (MR/M026663/1), the UK Biotechnology and Biological Research Council (BB/K017365/1), the Wellcome Trust (080088; 097377). ERB: This work was supported by the UK Biotechnology and Biological Research Council (BB/M014525/1). GMA: Supported by the CNPq-Brazil (Science without Borders fellowship 202976/2014-9). GDB: Wellcome Trust (102705). CAM: This work was supported by the UK Medical Research Council (G0400284). DMM: This work was supported by UK National Centre for the Replacement, Refinement and Reduction of Animals in Research (NC/K000306/1). NARG/JW: Wellcome Trust (086827, 075470,101873) and Wellcome Trust Strategic Award in Medical Mycology and Fungal Immunology (097377). ALL: This work was supported by the MRC Centre for Medical Mycology and the University of Aberdeen (MR/N006364/1).Peer reviewedPostprin

Imaging Flash Lidar for Safe Landing on Solar System Bodies and Spacecraft Rendezvous and Docking

NASA has been pursuing flash lidar technology for autonomous, safe landing on solar system bodies and for automated rendezvous and docking. During the final stages of the landing from about 1 kilometer to 500 meters above the ground, the flash lidar can generate 3-Dimensional images of the terrain to identify hazardous features such as craters, rocks, and steep slopes. The onboard flight computer can then use the 3-D map of terrain to guide the vehicle to a safe location. As an automated rendezvous and docking sensor, the flash lidar can provide relative range, velocity, and bearing from an approaching spacecraft to another spacecraft or a space station. NASA Langley Research Center has developed and demonstrated a flash lidar sensor system capable of generating 16,000 pixels range images with 7 centimeters precision, at 20 Hertz frame rate, from a maximum slant range of 1800 m from the target area. This paper describes the lidar instrument and presents the results of recent flight tests onboard a rocket-propelled free-flyer vehicle (Morpheus) built by NASA Johnson Space Center. The flights were conducted at a simulated lunar terrain site, consisting of realistic hazard features and designated landing areas, built at NASA Kennedy Space Center specifically for this demonstration test. This paper also provides an overview of the plan for continued advancement of the flash lidar technology aimed at enhancing its performance to meet both landing and automated rendezvous and docking applications

Somatostatin subtype-2 receptor-targeted metal-based anticancer complexes

Conjugates of a dicarba analogue of octreotide, a potent somatostatin agonist whose receptors are overexpressed on tumor cells, with [PtCl 2(dap)] (dap = 1-(carboxylic acid)-1,2-diaminoethane) (3), [(η 6-bip)Os(4-CO 2-pico)Cl] (bip = biphenyl, pico = picolinate) (4), [(η 6-p-cym)RuCl(dap)] + (p-cym = p-cymene) (5), and [(η 6-p-cym)RuCl(imidazole-CO 2H)(PPh 3)] + (6), were synthesized by using a solid-phase approach. Conjugates 3-5 readily underwent hydrolysis and DNA binding, whereas conjugate 6 was inert to ligand substitution. NMR spectroscopy and molecular dynamics calculations showed that conjugate formation does not perturb the overall peptide structure. Only 6 exhibited antiproliferative activity in human tumor cells (IC 50 = 63 ± 2 μ in MCF-7 cells and IC 50 = 26 ± 3 μ in DU-145 cells) with active participation of somatostatin receptors in cellular uptake. Similar cytotoxic activity was found in a normal cell line (IC 50 = 45 ± 2.6 μ in CHO cells), which can be attributed to a similar level of expression of somatostatin subtype-2 receptor. These studies provide new insights into the effect of receptor-binding peptide conjugation on the activity of metal-based anticancer drugs, and demonstrate the potential of such hybrid compounds to target tumor cells specifically. © 2012 American Chemical Society

First narrow-band search for continuous gravitational waves from known pulsars in advanced detector data

Spinning neutron stars asymmetric with respect to their rotation axis are potential sources of continuous gravitational waves for ground-based interferometric detectors. In the case of known pulsars a fully coherent search, based on matched filtering, which uses the position and rotational parameters obtained from electromagnetic observations, can be carried out. Matched filtering maximizes the signalto- noise (SNR) ratio, but a large sensitivity loss is expected in case of even a very small mismatch between the assumed and the true signal parameters. For this reason, narrow-band analysis methods have been developed, allowing a fully coherent search for gravitational waves from known pulsars over a fraction of a hertz and several spin-down values. In this paper we describe a narrow-band search of 11 pulsars using data from Advanced LIGO’s first observing run. Although we have found several initial outliers, further studies show no significant evidence for the presence of a gravitational wave signal. Finally, we have placed upper limits on the signal strain amplitude lower than the spin-down limit for 5 of the 11 targets over the bands searched; in the case of J1813-1749 the spin-down limit has been beaten for the first time. For an additional 3 targets, the median upper limit across the search bands is below the spin-down limit. This is the most sensitive narrow-band search for continuous gravitational waves carried out so far