Beriberi: A Reversible Cause of Acute Severe Pulmonary Hypertension.

Thiamine, also known as vitamin B1, plays a fundamental role in energy metabolism. The organs most sensitive to thiamine deficiency are the cardiovascular and nervous systems. The usual presentations include Wernicke's encephalopathy, polyneuropathy (known as "dry beriberi"), and the cardiovascular form (known as "wet beriberi").

A confocal microscope position sensor for micron-scale target alignment in ultra-intense laser-matter experiments.

A diagnostic tool for precise alignment of targets in laser-matter interactions based on confocal microscopy is presented. This device permits precision alignment of targets within the Rayleigh range of tight focusing geometries for a wide variety of target surface morphologies. This confocal high-intensity positioner achieves micron-scale target alignment by selectively accepting light reflected from a narrow range of target focal planes.

Demonstrating a correlation between the maturity of road safety practices and road safety incidents.

Objective: The objective of this study is to demonstrate a correlation between the maturity of a country's road safety practices and road safety incidents.

Methods: Firstly, data on a number of road injuries and fatalities for 129 countries were extracted from the United Nations Global Status on Road Safety database. These data were subdivided according to road safety incident and accident causation factors and normalized based on vehicular fleet (per 1000 vehicles) and road network (per meter of paved road).