Ultrafast Metal-Free Microsupercapacitor Arrays Directly Store Instantaneous High-Voltage Electricity from Mechanical Energy Harvesters.

Harvesting renewable mechanical energy is envisioned as a promising and sustainable way for power generation. Many recent mechanical energy harvesters are able to produce instantaneous (pulsed) electricity with a high peak voltage of over 100 V. However, directly storing such irregular high-voltage pulse electricity remains a great challenge.

Opioid prescription and risk of atrial fibrillation in younger veterans.

Background: Opioids may play a part in the development of atrial fibrillation (AF). Understanding the relationship between opioid exposure and AF can help providers better assess the risk and benefits of prescribing opioids.

Objective: To assess the incidence of AF as a function of prescribed opioids and opioid type.

Myopericarditis with Significant Left Ventricular Dysfunction Following COVID-19 Vaccination: A Case Report.

BACKGROUND Since Emergency Use Authorization of COVID-19 vaccines in December 2020, more is becoming known about their adverse effects. Growing numbers of myopericarditis cases after COVID-19 vaccination are being reported, mostly in younger adults. While most of these patients have recovered rapidly and without complications, it is still unclear whether patients who are older and have greater cardiac dysfunction secondary to myopericarditis will also experience the same recovery.

Contemporary approach to stroke prevention in atrial fibrillation: Risks, benefits, and new options.

Atrial fibrillation is a common diagnosis affecting nearly 3 million adults in the United States. Morbidity and mortality in these patients is driven largely by the associated increased risk of thromboembolic complications, especially stroke. Atrial fibrillation is a stronger risk factor than hypertension, coronary disease, or heart failure and is associated with an approximately five-fold increased risk.

Prevalence and variability in reporting of clinically actionable incidental findings on attenuation-correction CT scans in a veteran population.

Background: Myocardial perfusion imaging (MPI) often employs attenuation-correction computed tomography (CTAC) to reduce attenuation artifacts and improve specificity. While there is no specific guideline on how they should be reported, incidental noncardiac findings identified on these scans may be clinically significant. The prevalence of these findings in veterans is not currently known.

Derivation of a Clinical Model to Predict Unchanged Inpatient Echocardiograms.

Background: Transthoracic echocardiography (TTE) is one of the most commonly ordered tests in healthcare. Repeat TTE, defined as a TTE done within 1 year of a prior TTE, represents 24% to 42% of all studies. The purpose of this study was to derive a clinical prediction model to predict unchanged repeat TTE, with the goal of defining a subset of studies that are unnecessary.

Incidental Thrombus in Transit Causing Embolic Stroke.

Thrombus in transit leading to paradoxical systemic arterial embolism is a rare echocardiographic finding in patients presenting with embolic stroke. We present a case of a patient who had an atrial thrombus in transit discovered incidentally and later suffered a fatal stroke. Etiologies of cardioembolic stroke and the use of echocardiography in diagnosis and management are briefly discussed.

Severe Aortic Insufficiency in a Patient with a Functionally Bicuspid Quadricuspid Aortic Valve.

• Quadricuspid aortic valve is an uncommon congenital cardiac malformation often discovered incidentally at the time of valve surgery or at autopsy. • It is commonly associated with progressive aortic regurgitation, with nearly half of affected patients requiring aortic valve replacement surgery during their lifetime. • Dilatation of the aortic root and ascending aorta has also been reported in a significant number of affected patients.

Multi-modality molecular imaging of aortic aneurysms.

Aneurysms of the thoracic and abdominal aorta are common and can be associated with significant morbidity and mortality when complications, including dissection, rupture, or thrombosis, occur. Current approaches to diagnosis and risk stratification rely on measurements of aneurysm size and rate of growth, often using various imaging modalities, which may be suboptimal in identifying patients at the highest and lowest risk of complications. Targeting the biological processes underlying aneurysm formation and expansion with molecular imaging offers an exciting opportunity to characterize aortic aneurysms beyond size and address current gaps in our approach to diagnosis and treatment.

Acute Myocardial Infarction from Coronary Vasospasm Precipitated by Pseudoephedrine and Metoprolol Use.

Pseudoephedrine is a sympathomimetic α- and β-adrenergic receptor agonist that causes vasoconstriction and reduction in edema throughout the nasal passages. Coronary vasospasm associated with pseudoephedrine has been reported in the literature. We discuss the case of a patient with new-onset atrial fibrillation receiving metoprolol for rate control on a background of pseudoephedrine use for allergic rhinitis leading to acute myocardial infarction from multivessel coronary vasospasm.

Order of magnitude improvement of nano-contact spin torque nano-oscillator performance.

Spin torque nano-oscillators (STNO) represent a unique class of nano-scale microwave signal generators and offer a combination of intriguing properties, such as nano sized footprint, ultrafast modulation rates, and highly tunable microwave frequencies from 100 MHz to close to 100 GHz. However, their low output power and relatively high threshold current still limit their applicability and must be improved. In this study, we investigate the influence of the bottom Cu electrode thickness (t) in nano-contact STNOs based on Co/Cu/NiFe GMR stacks and with nano-contact diameters ranging from 60 to 500 nm.

Characterization of molecularly imprinted polymer nanoparticles by photon correlation spectroscopy.

We follow template-binding induced aggregation of nanoparticles enantioselectively imprinted against (S)-propranolol, and the non-imprinted ones, using photon correlation spectroscopy (dynamic light scattering). The method requires no separation steps. We have characterized binding of (R,S)-propranolol to the imprinted polymers and determined the degree of non-specificity by comparing the specific binding with the results obtained using non-imprinted nanoparticles.

The double electrostatic ion ring experiment: a unique cryogenic electrostatic storage ring for merged ion-beams studies.

We describe the design of a novel type of storage device currently under construction at Stockholm University, Sweden, using purely electrostatic focussing and deflection elements, in which ion beams of opposite charges are confined under extreme high vacuum cryogenic conditions in separate "rings" and merged over a common straight section. The construction of this double electrostatic ion ring experiment uniquely allows for studies of interactions between cations and anions at low and well-defined internal temperatures and centre-of-mass collision energies down to about 10 K and 10 meV, respectively. Position sensitive multi-hit detector systems have been extensively tested and proven to work in cryogenic environments and these will be used to measure correlations between reaction products in, for example, electron-transfer processes.

Ischemic etiology for adenosine-sensitive fascicular tachycardia.

Adenosine-responsive ventricular tachycardias (VTs) typically occur in patients without structural heart disease; and thus, its association with myocardial ischemia is rare. In this case report, we describe a patient who had demonstrable ischemia along the anterolateral wall of the left ventricle and who developed a VT that was clinically terminated with adenosine. Surface electrocardiogram demonstrated a monomorphic VT with a right bundle-branch block morphology and a rightward axis configuration, and electrophysiologic testing showed atrioventricular dissociation upon atrial pacing and retrograde His waves following induction of VT.

Hibernating myocardium retains metabolic and contractile reserve despite regional reductions in flow, function, and oxygen consumption at rest.

Hibernating myocardium, characterized by reductions in flow and function at rest, has limited contractile reserve in response to increases in external workload. We hypothesized that this attenuation of function reflects an adaptive downregulation that prevents the development of metabolic evidence of ischemia during stress. To test this hypothesis, pigs were chronically instrumented with a proximal left anterior descending artery stenosis for 3 months, resulting in severe anteroapical hypokinesis with reduced resting perfusion (0.

Variability of contractile reserve in hibernating myocardium: dependence on the method of inotropic stimulation.

Objective: Contractile reserve during graded beta-adrenergic stimulation identifies viability in patients with left ventricular dysfunction. Nevertheless, contractile reserve is frequently absent in viable, chronically dysfunctional myocardium with reduced resting flow (hibernating myocardium). The goal of this study was to evaluate the mechanisms responsible for limited contractile reserve in hibernating myocardium.

A method suitable for the isolation of monoclonal antibodies from large volumes of serum-containing hybridoma cell culture supernatants.

A method suitable for the isolation of monoclonal antibodies from large volumes of serum-containing hybridoma cell culture supernatants is described. The purification is carried out in three steps; buffer exchange by chromatography on Sephadex G-25, fractionation by cation exchange chromatography on S Sepharose Fast Flow and, as a final step, gel filtration on Sephacryl S-200 HR. Experience from purification of 11 different mouse monoclonal antibodies is reported.

Process-scale purification from cell culture supernatants: monoclonal antibodies.

A method for processing monoclonal antibodies (mAb) from large volumes of cell culture supernatants using recently developed high performance and fast flow chromatography media is described. A high-antibody producing mouse hybridoma cell line was adapted to low serum containing medium (1% foetal calf serum) for the production of anti-tissue Plasminogen Activator (anti-tPA) monoclonal antibody (murine subclass IgG1). The process consisted of three main chromatographic steps: desalting, cation exchange on S Sepharose Fast Flow and gel filtration on Superose 6 prep grade.