Post-intensive care syndrome and pulmonary fibrosis in patients surviving ARDS-pneumonia of COVID-19 and non-COVID-19 etiologies.

The purpose was to examine patient-centered outcomes and the occurrence of lung fibrotic changes on Chest computed tomography (CT) imaging following pneumonia-related acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS). We sought to investigate outpatient clinic chest CT imaging in survivors of COVID19-related ARDS and non-COVID-related ARDS, to determine group differences and explore relationships between lung fibrotic changes and functional outcomes. A retrospective practice analysis of electronic health records at an ICU Recovery Clinic in a tertiary academic medical center was performed in adult patients surviving ARDS due to COVID-19 and non-COVID etiologies.

A nationwide study on consumption of opioid analgesics in Iran from 2000 to 2018.

Background: Opioid analgesics play a unique role in pain management. National opioid consumption studies could provide indirect evidence of pain management in a country. National, regional, and global opioid consumption have been studied in other countries so far; however, conducting a focused study to illuminate the consumption of opioid analgesics over the past decades in Iran seemed necessary.

Relationship Between Psychological Impacts of COVID-19 and Loneliness in Patients With Dementia: A Cross-Sectional Study From Iran.

Objectives: Although the COVID-19 pandemic has affected people all around the world, the elderly is at a higher risk of suffering from its consequences. One of the serious concerns is developing loneliness and post-traumatic stress symptoms, which may contribute to cognitive decline at older ages. This study aimed to examine the psychological responses and loneliness in elderly patients diagnosed with dementia.

Quantification of Neurite Degeneration with Enhanced Accuracy and Efficiency in an Model of Parkinson's Disease.

Neurite degeneration is associated with early stages of neurodegenerative disorders such as Alzheimer's disease, Parkinson's disease (PD), and amyotrophic lateral sclerosis. One method that is commonly used to analyze neurite degeneration involves calculation of a Degeneration Index (DI) following utilization of the Analyze Particles tool of ImageJ to detect neurite fragments in micrographs of cultured cells. However, DI analyses are prone to several types of measurement error, can be time consuming to perform, and are limited in application.

Impact of COVID-19 on Radiology Residency Selection Process: A Survey of Radiology Residency Programs in the US.

Rationale And Objectives: Virtual residency interviews have become crucial in maintaining CDC-recommended precautionary measures throughout the ongoing COVID-era. However, scant literature exists regarding the direct impact the pandemic has had on the radiology program selection process, including preferred modalities of residency interviews and social media utilization. This survey aimed to understand how radiology programs adapted to changes in the 2020-2021 virtual application cycle.

Field Programmable Gate Arrays for Enhancing the Speed and Energy Efficiency of Quantum Dynamics Simulations.

We present the first application of field programmable gate arrays (FPGAs) as new, customizable hardware architectures for carrying out fast and energy-efficient quantum dynamics simulations of large chemical/material systems. Instead of tailoring the software to fixed hardware, which is the typical case for writing quantum chemistry code for central processing units (CPUs) and graphics processing units (GPUs), FPGAs allow us to directly customize the underlying hardware (even at the level of specific electrical signals in the circuit) to give a truly optimized computational performance for quantum dynamics calculations. By offloading the most intensive and repetitive calculations onto an FPGA, we show that the computational performance of our real-time electron dynamics calculations can even exceed that of optimized commercial mathematical libraries running on high-performance GPUs.

Simultaneous Analysis of Equilibrium Fluctuations at the Surface and in the Bulk of a Binary Liquid Mixture by Dynamic Light Scattering.

For the first time, we demonstrate that it is possible to simultaneously analyze microscopic fluctuations at the surface and in the bulk of a binary liquid mixture by dynamic light scattering in macroscopic thermodynamic equilibrium. For a model system containing n-octacosane and ethanol, three individual signals distinguishable in the time-resolved analysis of the scattered light intensity appear on different time scales. One oscillatory signal from surface fluctuations at the vapor-liquid interface in the short-time range and two exponential Rayleigh signals from fluctuations in temperature and concentration in the bulk of fluid in the long-time range could be associated with hydrodynamic modes.

Characterization of Water Solubility in n-Octacosane Using Raman Spectroscopy.

In this study, we demonstrate the ability of polarization-difference Raman spectroscopy (PDRS) to detect dissolved free water molecules in a n-octacosane (n-CH) liquid-rich phase, and thus to determine its solubility, at temperatures and pressures relevant to the Fischer-Tropsch synthesis. Our results for the pure alkane reveal thermal decomposition above a temperature of 500 K as well as an increase of gauche conformers of the alkane chains with an increase in temperature. For binary homogeneous mixtures, raw spectra obtained from two different polarization scattering geometries did not show a relevant signal in the OH stretching frequency range.

Role of folic acid in atherosclerosis after kidney transplant: a double-blind, randomized, placebo-controlled clinical trial.

Objectives: We investigated the effects of folic acid supplementation on plasma total homocysteine levels and carotid intima-media thickness after kidney transplant.

Materials And Methods: Sixty patients who had undergone a kidney transplant were studied in this double-blind, randomized, placebo-controlled clinical trial. Those subjects were randomized to receive either 5 mg/d of oral folic acid or an equivalent dosage of placebo.

Microsatellite data support subpopulation structuring among Basques.

Genomic diversity based on 13 short tandem repeat (STR) loci (D3S1358, vWA, FGA, D8S1179, D21S11, D18S51, D5S818, D13S317, D7S820, D16S539, TH01, TPOX, and CSF1PO) is reported for the first time in Basques from the provinces of Guipúzcoa and Navarre (Spain). STR data from previous studies on Basques from Alava and Vizcaya provinces were also examined using hierarchal analysis of molecular variance (AMOVA) and genetic admixture estimations to ascertain whether the Basques are genetically heterogeneous. To assess the genetic position of Basques in a broader geographic context, we conducted phylogenetic analyses based on F(ST) genetic distances [neighbor-joining trees and multidimensional scaling (MDS)] using data compiled in previous publications.

Allelic frequencies of 13 STR loci in autochthonous Basques from the province of Vizcaya (Spain).

Allelic frequencies of 13 STR loci (D3S1358, VWA, FGA, D8S1179, D21S11, D18S51, D5S818, D13S317, D16S539, TH01, TPOX, CSF1PO, and D7S820) were estimated from a sample of 73 unrelated healthy donors natives of the Spanish Basque province of Vizcaya. These STR loci constitute the core of polymerase chain reaction (PCR)-based DNA genetic markers in the US Combined DNA Index System (CODIS). All STR loci analysed met Hardy-Weinberg expectations.

Biases in summary statistics of slopes and intercepts in linear regression with errors in both variables.

Monte Carlo simulations are employed to investigate the bias in linear regression parameters for cases in which both variables are subject to normally distributed errors. Both homoscedastic and heteroscedastic errors are treated. The results show that, in general, the arithmetic mean, geometric mean, and angle mean (tangent of the mean of the arctangents) of the slopes are biased and non-normally distributed.

Limiting efficiencies of the non-parametric median method for A exp(-kt) data.

Weighted least squares analysis and the median method are used to extract A and k from simulated single exponential decays. The standard deviations of these parameters (sigma p) depend upon the method of analysis. The sigma p are compared as efficiencies (= sigma 2p[least squares]/sigma 2p[median]).