Large Drop Research Articles

Enhanced the Structure of Ophthalmic Implants (Rigid Contact Lenses) by Aloe Vera Addition

Contact lenses are being used by more than 125 million people around the world for ophthalmic treatments. There has been a recent surge in interest in researching and developing new materials for contact lenses (CLs). With the advancement of associated biomaterials, such as drug delivery, these materials will continue to grow in importance in the future. If you're looking to buy contact lenses, you'll most likely find them made out of polymer or silicone hydrogel. To meet the ever-increasing needs for contact lenses and the ever-increasing number of contact lens users, this work aims to study the effect of adding aloe Vera gel to contact lenses, antibacterial behavior, surface texture, and wettability. Results show the addition of aloe Vera natural materials to rigid PMMA contact lenses aid to promote the performance of contact lenses by changing the internal structure of PMMA, especially when using (0.1%, 0.2%, and 0.3%) of aloe Vera due to the increasing in OH content as well as the increasing in the uniformity of microstructure. addition of (0.4% and 0.5 %) of aloe Vera make a reverse effect on the structure due to the saturation of PMMA chain with OH leading to destroying the connections between bonds, therefore, weakening PMMA lenses also using aloe Vera gel act to soften the lenses by increasing the OH content in PMMA structure lead to improving the lens wettability at about (0.2-0.3) % after these percentage large drop in whole properties will occur. Keywords: Rigid contact lens, PMMA, natural materials, Aloe Vera, OH content.

Impact of the COVID-19 epidemic on cancer burden and cancer care in Slovenia: a follow-up study.

In Slovenia, cancer care services were exempt from government decrees for COVID-19 containment. Nevertheless, cancer control can be impacted also by access to other health services and changes in health-seeking behaviour. In this follow up study, we explored changes in cancer burden and cancer care beyond the first months after the onset of the COVID-19 epidemic. We analysed routinely collected data for the period January 2019 through July 2022 from three sources: (1) pathohistological and clinical practice cancer notifications from two major cancer centres in Ljubljana and Maribor (source: Slovenian Cancer Registry); (2) referrals issued for oncological services (source: e-referral system); and (3) outpatient appointments and diagnostic imaging performed (source: administrative data of the Institute of Oncology Ljubljana - IOL). Additionally, changes in certain clinical and demographic characteristics in patients diagnosed and treated during the epidemic were analysed using the Hospital-Based Cancer Registry of the IOL (period 2015-2021). After a drop in referrals to follow-up cancer appointments in April 2020, in June-August 2020, there was an increase in referrals, but it did not make-up for the drop in the first wave; the numbers in 2021 and 2022 were even lower than 2020. Referrals to first cancer care appointments and genetic testing and counselling increased in 2021 compared to 2019 and in 2022 increased further by more than a quarter. First and follow-up outpatient appointments and cancer diagnostic imaging at the IOL dropped after the onset of the epidemic in March 2020 but were as high as expected according to 2019 baseline already in 2021. Some deficits remain for follow-up outpatients' appointments in surgical and radiotherapy departments. There were more CT, MRI and PET scans performed during the COVID-19 period than before. New cancer diagnoses dropped in all observed years 2020, 2021 and until July 2022 by 6%, 3% and 8%, respectively, varying substantially by cancer type. The largest drop was seen in the 50-64 age group (almost 14% in 2020 and 16% in 2021), while for patients older than 80 years, the numbers were above expected according to the 2015-2019 average (4% in 2020, 8% in 2021). Our results show a varying effect of COVID-19 epidemic in Slovenia for different types of cancers and at different stages on the patient care pathway - it is probably a mixture of changes in health-seeking behaviour and systemic changes due to modifications in healthcare organisation on account of COVID-19. A general drop in new cancer cases reflects disruptions in the pre-diagnostic phase and could have profound long-term consequences on cancer burden indicators.

Intermittency and collisions of fast sedimenting droplets in turbulence

The formation of large drops via collisions of droplets in warm clouds constitutes a major unsolved problem in rain prediction studies. Often typical turbulent accelerations of parcels of air that generate collisions are much smaller than gravitational acceleration. We manage to provide a complete theory in the limit of small accelerations and confirm it by direct numerical simulations of the Navier-Stokes turbulence. However, the theory is limited to Reynolds numbers much smaller than those in clouds, where, as we show, huge Reynolds number can overturn many existing paradigms.

Grain boundary and dislocation strengthening of nanocrystalline NiTi for stable elastocaloric cooling

We fabricate a nanocrystalline NiTi with an average grain size of 31 nm and high-density (4.7 × 1015 m−2) dislocations via cold rolling (38% thickness reduction) and annealing (310 ℃, 2 min) for elastocaloric cooling. It is found that the high-density-dislocation nanocrystalline NiTi shows a high yield strength of 2.09 GPa, a large and stable average temperature drop (ΔT) of 17.3 ℃ over 106 phase-transition cycles under the stress of 1.4 GPa at room temperature. The high cyclic stability originates from grain boundary and dislocation strengthening mechanisms, where the grain boundaries and the high-density dislocations suppress the nucleation of transformation-induced dislocations. The simple and effective processing route via cold rolling and low-temperature annealing is applicable to mass production of bulk nanostructured NiTi with stable elastocaloric cooling performances.

Eliminating flooding by phase separation in condenser tube

Flooding may take place for in-tube condensation, causing unstable flow and deteriorated heat transfer. Here, the phase separation principle is proposed to eliminate flooding. Comparative experiments of condensation were performed in both bare tube (BT) and modulated heat transfer tube (MHTT) with a mesh membrane tube (MMT) insert. The working fluid is water-steam under a sub-atmospheric pressure. It was observed that slug flow exists at small mass fluxes and vapor mass qualities in BT. Due to the periodic formation of liquid column over the tube cross section, flooding indeed takes place, causing unstable flow, deteriorated heat transfer, and large pressure drop. The MHTT completely eliminated flooding, converting the unstable flow into a stable flow. Heat transfer coefficients are 7.47 times of those in BT, maximally, accompanying reduced pressure drops. High-speed visualization and theoretical analysis indicated that smaller pore size provides larger capability to prevent the vapor phase penetrating the mesh screen, resulting in larger driving force for liquid suction toward the MMT inside. The MMT provided a tunnel for liquid transportation in the upward direction, which is the mechanism to eliminate flooding. The modulation of the annular flow pattern was also performed and analyzed by using the phase separation principle, and the results indicated the effectiveness of MMT in the annular flow regime. This work is benefit for applications, such as air-cooled condenser, whose performance is important to influence the whole system performance for power generation.

Intra-Lid Multi-Core Vapor Chamber Architecture for Heterogeneous Electronic Packages: Technology Concept to Prototype Evaluation

Thermal management of future heterogeneous electronic packages with extreme heat fluxes relies on effective spreading of heat in the package lid. Intra-lid integration of vapor chambers is a promising strategy for simultaneous dissipation of large total heat loads and localized high-flux hot spots. However, conventional vapor chambers comprising a single vapor core require relatively thick evaporator wicks to prevent dry out at high total heat loads, thereby imposing a large temperature drop across the wick at the hot spot location. We recently proposed a cascaded multi-core vapor chamber (CMVC) architecture comprising a single-core vapor chamber stacked on an array of smaller footprint vapor cores having relatively thinner wicks. The multi-core array is designed to spread heat from arbitrarily distributed high-flux hot spots before they enter the top vapor chamber having a thicker wick. Then, the top vapor chamber spreads the high total heat loads to the base of the mounted heat sink. To evaluate the proposed CMVC technology, we make a weighted decision to identify an appropriate minimum viable prototype for subsequent design and testing. A reduced-order model is used to determine the dimensions and properties of the wick and vapor core that minimize the temperature drop across the down-selected multi-core vapor chamber architecture for a given power map, considering manufacturing process constraints. Finite element analysis (FEA) simulations are employed to decide a condenser wall thickness that avoids permanent deformation in the vapor chamber architecture under a mechanical load. A prototype is manufactured by a commercial vendor following these parameters and manufacturing constraints. As predicted by the thermal model, experimental characterization of this first-reported multi-core vapor chamber array prototype offers a notable reduction in temperature drop relative to a benchmark solid copper spreader, owing to attenuation of hot spots at a low temperature difference.

The Garden Atonement and the Mormon Cross Taboo

The Garden Atonement and the Mormon Cross Taboo

How can structure and nectar composition explain the secretory process in super productive nuptial nectaries of Mabea fistulifera Mart. (Euphorbiaceae)?

Mabea fistulifera, a species pollinated mainly by diurnal and nocturnal vertebrates, presents pendulous inflorescences with approximately 70 pairs of nuptial nectaries (NNs). These NNs exude voluminous nectar drops that defy gravity, remaining exposed at the inflorescence for more than a day. We aimed to investigate the NN secretory process and the unique nectar presentation of M. fistulifera. NNs and their exudate were collected at different secretory stages and submitted to structural studies and chemical analysis. The epidermis is devoid of stomata and constitutes the main site of synthesis for non-sugar metabolites found on nectar and nectar-coating film. Nectary parenchyma presents few small starch grains, and vascular strands are distributed until the nectary parenchyma cells close to the epidermis. Vascular tissues at the nectary parenchyma seem to provide sugar and water for the nectar. A film composed of lipids, alkaloids, and proteins covers the nectar drops. The film guarantees the nectar offering for several hours, as it minimizes water loss and prevents falls by gravitational action. The release of large nectar drops is intrinsically linked to the NN anatomical traits and the exudate composition. Low sugar concentration and predominance of hexoses in M. fistulifera nectar are essential for maintaining nectar exudation for many hours, which results in the visitation of a broad spectrum of pollinators.

Relation of Young Children's Parasympathetic Reactivity During a Learning Task to Their Self‐Regulation and Early Academic Skills

AbstractThere is growing interest among educational researchers in using heart rate variability (HRV) as an index of children's capacity to regulate their physiological arousal. Links between HRV and young children's self‐regulation have, however, been inconsistent, and there is limited research on children's HRV in learning‐related contexts. HRV was collected from 86 children aged 3.41 to 5.83 years before, during, and after they engaged in a learning interaction with an examiner. Higher HRV during a pre‐learning episode and a larger drop in HRV during the learning interaction were associated with stronger behavioral performance on self‐regulation and early academic skill assessments. Children's capacity to modulate their HRV in response to learning opportunities may be linked to their broader self‐regulation and early academic skill development. Effects varied by episode and gender, underscoring a need for further research to rigorously evaluate the utility and generalizability of HRV in authentic educational settings.

Morphofunctional state of the rat’s liver under the influence of Aralia elata alcohol tincture during the high-fat diet

Aralia tincture (Aralia elata) is a well-known adaptogen, so most of its effects that influence the body are associated with the general properties of this plant's preparations. They are metabolic regulators that increase the body's ability to adapt to various environmental stressors and prevent occurring damage. The purpose of this work is to determine the effect of various doses of A. elata roots alcohol tincture on the liver morphofunctional state of laboratory rats that are receiving a diet with excess fat. From 28 young laboratory rats that consumed an excess fat diet for 35 days, four groups were formed. Animals of the first group (control) received pure water without restriction; the second group – 0.1 % ethanol, and the third and fourth – received 0.1 % and 0.01 % alcohol tincture of Aralia (A. elata), respectively. After the experiment's completion, the absolute and relative mass and liver histostructure of animals were determined, and biochemical blood tests were performed to determine the main indicators of this organ's functional activity. In rats that were kept on the excess fat diet, the replacement of water with 0.1 % ethanol solution and 0.01 % alcohol tincture of aralia caused a decrease in the relative mass of the liver, and 0.1 % aralia alcohol tincture – caused a significant increase. It has been demonstrated that 0.1 % ethanol causes a significant increase in the total protein level in the blood. An analysis of the blood enzyme activity has shown that ethanol consumption reduced the activity of AST and ALT from the value of the control group, and the Aralia alcohol tincture returned these indicators to the level of the control group. The liver histostructure of rats in the control group was characterized by the appearance of signs of fatty degeneration along the periphery of the hepatic lobules, with the consumption of 0.1 % ethanol in addition to the excess fat diet, the accumulation of fat droplets was detected in both perilobular (around lobules) zone and in the center of the lobule itself near the central vein. In hepatocytes located along the periphery of the lobules, mainly large fat drops have accumulated, and in the center – small ones. The use of Aralia alcohol tinctures improved the liver parenchyma's morphological state. Fatty degeneration of hepatocytes was less pronounced. Fat inclusions in the cytoplasm of hepatocytes were small, diffusely located in the cytoplasm, and did not show cell destruction.

Quantitative investigation of the evaporation and resistance characteristics of inlet jet precooling

Abstract A quantitative study is carried out to explore the air/mist-coupled cooling in the cooling section incorporating a spray device, aiming to conduct a comparative simulation on the effects of two radial spray arrangements (Apparatus A and Apparatus B) on the change of flow field. The results show that an even spray arrangement leads to improved flow performance owing to the large temperature drop in the cooling section. Compared with Apparatus A, Apparatus B enables a 1.60–2.25% higher temperature drop coefficient and a 1.1–3.0% higher water evaporation rate. Six high-altitude conditions are simulated to find that the spray device and water injection are the main factors causing flow loss, whereas the additional mass flow caused by water vapor reduces the amount of loss. The highest temperature drop coefficient is observed for Case 6 (27.3%), in which there is a more uniform nozzle arrangement. A slight difference in terms of total pressure drop coefficient between Apparatus A and Apparatus B is observed. Moreover, the highest total pressure drop coefficient (5.8%) at the location of the spray system is observed for Case 6, which has the largest injection rate and highest inlet air Mach number.

Compact Point of Care Ultrasound Reveals Hemodynamic Abnormalities in Children with Sickle Cell Disease

In sickle cell disease (SCD), kidney related morbidity and mortality are significant, with ~80% of patients displaying signs of chronic kidney disease (CKD) by age 401 and kidney related mortality being the third leading cause of death (16.4%)2. Children with SCD are also prone to kidney disease with 20% of 12 years-old displaying microalbuminuria4 and enuresis and hyposthenuria commonly observed in infants4. Current clinical guidelines are insufficient as they ignore pediatric disease until the development of late signs like proteinuria or large drops in eGFR have occurred5. A major limitation in the assessment of kidney disease in children with SCD is the incomplete understanding of disease progression and the lack of suitable biomarkers to discriminate health and disease. Serum creatinine based eGFR is the most common biomarker of kidney function but is poorly validated and relatively insensitive in SCD patients due low muscle mass and hyperfiltration6. Point of care ultrasound (POCUS) offers a non-invasive alternative to blood based biomarkers. POCUS has proven clinical utility in decreasing primary and secondary stroke7. Additionally, POCUS technology now offers compact, cartless systems, with tablet and smartphone compatibility, multiprobe functionality in a single probe and an economical price point (<3000$)8. Therefore, the goals of this study were two-fold. 1) Determine the feasibility of renal assessment using compact POCUS in children with SCD in a clinical setting. 2) Establish normative values for possible compact POCUS biomarkers that could supplement existing biomarkers of kidney disease in SCD. Methods: Studies were performed with informed consent under an IRB approved protocol. 18 patients with SCD were recruited during their routine clinical visit to undergo a 10-20 minute ultrasound examination. All POCUS exams were performed in supine position, on the right kidney by an experienced imaging researcher (AB, +10 years). Images were acquired with a Butterfly IQ+ (Burlington, MA, USA) system and an Apple Smartphone (Cupertino, CA, USA). The abdominal preset and B-mode imaging was used to determine the long axis renal length and echogenicity of the renal/liver parenchyma. The cardiac preset, pulsed Doppler mode was used to determine the peak systolic velocity (PSV), end diastolic velocity (EDV) and resistive index (RI = (PSV-EDV)/PSV) of the main right renal artery. Images were saved to a cloud based, HIPPA protected database, downloaded to a local workstation and processed using custom MATLAB scripts. An angle correction of 1/cos(60°) was applied to the uncorrected velocity values. Results: Renal length and serum creatinine was measured in 18 patients with SCD (3 HbSC, 15 HbSS) and pulsed Doppler estimates were obtained in 14 of 18 subjects (hemoglobin 9.9±2.3,12 male). The average renal length was 8.7±1.3 cms and serum creatinine was 0.69±0.16 and showed a statistically significant increase with respect to age (Figure 1). The average angle corrected main renal artery PSV was 74.5±64.4 cm/s and RI was 0.49±0.33 and both decreased with respect to age (Figure 1). The average echogenicity ratio between kidney and liver parenchyma was 0.64±0.14 and was uncorrelated with age. Discussion: This work demonstrates that high quality structural and hemodynamic images can be acquired with low cost, compact POCUS in a clinical setting. The age dependent increase in serum creatinine9 and kidney length10 were in good agreement with prior cart-based sonography work in healthy children. Conversely, the age dependent drop in main renal artery PSV and RI was in opposition to work in healthy children that showed no change11 or an increase with age12. The clinical significance of abnormally elevated velocity in young children with SCD and its impact on the development of sickle nephropathy should be studied in more detail. Future work comparing cross-sectional and longitudinal variability in compact POCUS and physiologic biomarkers of kidney function in both pediatric and adult subjects with and without SCD is ongoing.

Monitoring Land Use and Land Cover Changes Prospects Using Remote Sensing and GIS for Mahanadi River Delta, Orissa, India

Natural landscapes have altered dramatically via anthropogenic activity, particularly in places that are heavily influenced by climate change and population increase, such as nation like India. It is crucial for sustainable development, particularly effective water management methods, to know about the influence of land use and land cover (LULC) changes. Geographic information systems (GIS) and remote sensing (RS) were employed for monitoring land use changes utilising quantum ArcGIS and ERDAS Imagine were done for prediction of LULC changes. This research studied the variations in LULC in the Mahanadi river basin delta, Orissa for the years 2010, 2015, and 2020. Landsat satellite pictures were employed to track the land use changes. For the categorization of Landsat images, maximum- likelihood supervised classification was applied. The broad categorization identifies four basic groups in the research region, including (i) waterbodies, (ii) agriculture fields (iii) forests (iv) barren lands (v) built-up areas, and (vi) aquaculture. The findings indicated a big growth in forests from the year 2010 to 2020, but a substantial increase in barren lands had happened by the year 2020, while built-up lands use has witnessed a quick climb. The kappa coefficient was used to measure the validity of identified photos, with an overall kappa coefficient of 0.82, 0.84, and 0.90 for the years 2010, 2015, and 2020, respectively. However, a large drop will occur in agriculture fields in the predicted years. The study effectively demonstrates LULC alterations showing substantial pattern of land use change in the Mahanadi delta. This information might be valuable for land use management and future planning in the region

Intensive Pegcetacoplan Dosing in the Management of Acute Hemolysis As Part of the 307 Open-Label Extension Study

Background Paroxysmal nocturnal hemoglobinuria (PNH) is a rare, potentially life-threatening disease characterized by complement-mediated hemolysis and thrombosis. Complement C5 inhibitors, i.e., eculizumab (ECU) and ravulizumab, inhibit intravascular (IVH) but can develop extravascular hemolysis (EVH). Pegcetacoplan (PEG) is the first FDA/EMA approved C3 complement inhibitor therapy for adults with PNH (US) and adults with PNH who remain anemic after ≥3 months of C5 inhibitor treatment (EU) that controls both IVH and EVH. PEG led to significantly improved hemoglobin (Hb) levels in early and pivotal late phase studies in patients with PNH who remained anemic with ECU treatment (PHAROAH [NCT02264639]; PEGASUS [NCT03500549]) or were naïve to complement-inhibitor therapy (PALOMINO [NCT03593200]; PADDOCK [NCT02588833]; PRINCE [NCT04085601]). The ongoing PEG 307 open-label extension (OLE) study (NCT03531255) is evaluating the long-term safety and efficacy of PEG in patients with PNH who had completed previous Phase 1-3 PEG trials. All patients with PNH on complement inhibition are at risk of breakthrough IVH with complement amplifying conditions such as infection, vaccination, or surgery. As expected, some PEG-treated clinical trial patients also experienced episodes of acute hemolysis (AH). We hypothesized that exposure to a higher and sustained PEG dosing regimen may help with immediate management of AH events. Here, we report findings on a subset of patients enrolled in the 307 OLE study examining the effect of acute treatment with intensive subcutaneous (SC) or intravenous (IV) PEG following an AH event. Methods Patients enrolled in the OLE study, who experienced AH warranting acute intervention, were offered the opportunity to receive intensive PEG SC or IV dosing at the discretion of the investigator. Eligibility criteria for the intensive dosing regimen included lactate dehydrogenase (LDH) >2x the upper limit of normal (ULN) and 1 new or worsening sign or symptom of hemolysis (e.g., decreased Hb, hemoglobinuria, or fatigue). Patients with AH on a steady-state PEG dose of 1080 mg SC twice weekly received a single dose of 1080 mg IV, or 1080 mg SC every 24 hours for 3 doses (intensive PEG treatment), followed by an increased maintenance regimen of 1080 mg SC every 3 days. For those receiving 1080 mg SC every 3 days or 3 times weekly, intensive PEG treatment was undertaken followed by maintenance doses of 1080 mg SC 3 times weekly. Levels of Hb and LDH during the event of AH are described. Safety was evaluated by the incidence and severity of adverse events (AEs). Results In total, 13 of 137 patients who entered the OLE aged 20 to 72 years received intensive PEG treatment: 10 from PEGASUS, 2 from PRINCE, and 1 from PADDOCK (Table 1). On entry into the OLE study, these 13 patients had a mean LDH level of 249 U/L (5 patients >ULN; 11 patients <1.5x ULN) and a mean Hb level of 12.0 g/dL (range: 8 - 15 g/dL). Table 1 shows LDH data before and during the intensive PEG treatment. Hb data before and at day 1 are presented. LDH levels from a range of local labs and central lab are presented in Table 1; local lab values were standardized. At day 1, 9 patients had LDH <10x ULN and 4 patients had LDH >10x ULN. From before intensive PEG treatment to day 1, Hb dropped by <2 g/dL in 6 patients and by >2 g/dL in 7 patients. The largest drop in one patient was 4.9 g/dL (from 11.4 g/dL to 6.5 g/dL). Management of the AH event included intensive PEG SC dosing in 9 patients and a single PEG IV dose in 4 patients. LDH levels decreased between day 1 and day 2 in 8 of 12 evaluable patients (4 of 8 intensive SC and 4 of 4 IV treated patients) and in all 13 patients at day 7-12. The incidence and severity of AEs was similar to that seen in the overall OLE study. Nine of 13 patients (69%) experienced treatment-emergent AEs; 4 of 13 patients (31%) experienced serious AEs. The majority (76%) of treatment-emergent AEs were mild. No AEs of meningitis or thrombosis occurred. Among the 4 patients who experienced serious AEs, 3 experienced a second event of hemolysis leading to another round of intensive treatment. None of the AEs led to treatment discontinuation. Conclusions We report novel data from a subset of patients enrolled in the 307 OLE study, which support effective management of AH events with intensive SC or IV dosing regimens of PEG and that LDH levels can be rapidly controlled. Intensive treatment with PEG was safe and well tolerated. The study is ongoing. Figure 1View largeDownload PPTFigure 1View largeDownload PPT Close modal

Liquid-liquid dispersion and flow characteristics in a miniaturized annular rotating device

Liquid-liquid microchemical processes suffer from the problems of small handling capacity and large pressure drops. In particular, process intensification is highly required for high phase ratios of the dispersion phase to the continuous phase and high- viscosity conditions. In this study, we reported a novel microdispersion device named miniaturized annular rotating device (m-ARD), which is a novel microdispersion device with a large handling capacity, small pressure drop, and relatively narrow droplet distribution, even at a low phase ratio of the continuous phase to the dispersion phase and under high-viscosity conditions. Various parameters were studied to determine the dispersion of the generated droplets and the flow pattern, average droplet diameter, pressure drop, and hold-up of the dispersion phase. Two typical droplet generation routes, namely, dripping and jetting, and typical flow patterns, i.e., helical and annular flows were also obtained. Transition maps of the droplet generation route and flow pattern were constructed. The average droplet diameter and handling capacity were up to 380 μm and 30 mL/min, respectively. A small pressure drop was observed in the m-ARD. Furthermore, two dimensionless equations were developed to calculate the average droplet diameter and hold-up of the dispersion phase. This work provides a promising dispersion technology for the process intensification of liquid–liquid mass transfer and reactions.

Modeling transient cavitating flow in large drop crude oil pipelines

Transient cavitating flow is a dangerous condition in the operation of large drop crude oil pipelines. Accurately predicting the high pressure generated by cavity collapse is the premise of analyzing and formulating pipeline safety management and control strategies. A new numerical simulation method for one dimension cavitating flow in crude oil pipelines considering the effect of unsteady friction was proposed. The unsteady friction (UF) term is coupled to the classical discrete gas cavity model (DGCM) for modeling the cavitating flow, and the proposed model is called UF-DGCM. The method of characteristics (MOC) is used to solve the UF-DGCM. The validity of the model has been verified with experimental data. The pipeline length of the two test cases is 37.23 m and 15.22 m, respectively, and the pipeline diameter is 22.1 mm and 20.0 mm, respectively. For the two test cases, the accuracy of the prediction results is improved by 6.7% and 4.4%, respectively. A case study of cavitating flow caused by pump shutdown in a pipeline with a length of 35 km and a diameter of 738 mm was performed using UF-DGCM, and the effects of water hammer wave speed, crude oil vapor pressure, and pump shutdown time on cavitating flow were analyzed. The results show that the maximum pressure peak is dependent on the water hammer wave speed. About the increase in the wave speed value of 200 m/s will lead to an increase in the maximum pressure head value of 10.1 m. The increase of pump shutdown time will inhibit the growth of cavities, and increasing the pump shutdown time by 4 s will shorten the existence time of cavities by about 3 s. The extension of the pump shutdown time will prevent cavitating flow. The proposed improved model is more suitable for transient cavitating flow analysis, and the results of flow parameters research will be helpful to prevent cavitating flow in crude oil pipelines.

Intellectually able adults with autism spectrum disorder show typical resting-state EEG activity

There is broad interest in discovering quantifiable physiological biomarkers for psychiatric disorders to aid diagnostic assessment. However, finding biomarkers for autism spectrum disorder (ASD) has proven particularly difficult, partly due to high heterogeneity. Here, we recorded five minutes eyes-closed rest electroencephalography (EEG) from 186 adults (51% with ASD and 49% without ASD) and investigated the potential of EEG biomarkers to classify ASD using three conventional machine learning models with two-layer cross-validation. Comprehensive characterization of spectral, temporal and spatial dimensions of source-modelled EEG resulted in 3443 biomarkers per recording. We found no significant group-mean or group-variance differences for any of the EEG features. Interestingly, we obtained validation accuracies above 80%; however, the best machine learning model merely distinguished ASD from the non-autistic comparison group with a mean balanced test accuracy of 56% on the entirely unseen test set. The large drop in model performance between validation and testing, stress the importance of rigorous model evaluation, and further highlights the high heterogeneity in ASD. Overall, the lack of significant differences and weak classification indicates that, at the group level, intellectually able adults with ASD show remarkably typical resting-state EEG.

On the predictive ability of conditional market skewness

This study analyzes the capacity of conditional market skewness to predict future market returns over a recent period of time, which contains the last two major market crises: the financial crisis of 2008 and the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020. The results show that conditional market skewness performs well in terms of predicting future S&P 500, Nasdaq Composite and EUR/USD returns, even after controlling for business cycle fluctuations. However, contrary to what is expected, it is found that during this period containing two major financial crises, the relationship between conditional market asymmetry and future returns is positive. The rationale behind this finding is that during periods with major crises, when large drops in asset prices that sharply reduce market asymmetry occur, many investors find prices attractive, increasing buying pressure and thus reducing market returns in the next period.

Generalization of Deep Learning in Digital Pathology: Experience in Breast Cancer Metastasis Detection.

Poor generalizability is a major barrier to clinical implementation of artificial intelligence in digital pathology. The aim of this study was to test the generalizability of a pretrained deep learning model to a new diagnostic setting and to a small change in surgical indication. A deep learning model for breast cancer metastases detection in sentinel lymph nodes, trained on CAMELYON multicenter data, was used as a base model, and achieved an AUC of 0.969 (95% CI 0.926-0.998) and FROC of 0.838 (95% CI 0.757-0.913) on CAMELYON16 test data. On local sentinel node data, the base model performance dropped to AUC 0.929 (95% CI 0.800-0.998) and FROC 0.744 (95% CI 0.566-0.912). On data with a change in surgical indication (axillary dissections) the base model performance indicated an even larger drop with a FROC of 0.503 (95%CI 0.201-0.911). The model was retrained with addition of local data, resulting in about a 4% increase for both AUC and FROC for sentinel nodes, and an increase of 11% in AUC and 49% in FROC for axillary nodes. Pathologist qualitative evaluation of the retrained model´s output showed no missed positive slides. False positives, false negatives and one previously undetected micro-metastasis were observed. The study highlights the generalization challenge even when using a multicenter trained model, and that a small change in indication can considerably impact the model´s performance.

Effect of cold ambient temperature on heat flux, skin temperature, and thermal sensation at different body parts in elite biathletes.

When exercising in the cold, optimizing thermoregulation is essential to maintain performance. However, no study has investigated thermal parameters with wearable-based measurements in a field setting among elite Nordic skiers. Therefore, this study aimed to assess the thermal response and sensation measured at different body parts during exercise in a cold environment in biathletes. Thirteen Swiss national team biathletes (6 females, 7 males) performed two skiing bouts in the skating technique on two consecutive days (ambient temperature: -3.74 ± 2.32 °C) at 78 ± 4% of maximal heart rate. Heat flux (HF), core (Tcore) and skin (Tskin) temperature were measured with sensors placed on the thigh, back, anterior and lateral thorax. Thermal sensation (TS) was assessed three times for different body parts: in protective winter clothing, in a race suit before (PRE) and after exercise (POST). HF demonstrated differences (p < 0.001) between sensor locations, with the thigh showing the highest heat loss (344 ± 37 kJ/m2), followed by the back (269 ± 6 kJ/m2), the lateral thorax (220 ± 47 kJ/m2), and the anterior thorax (192 ± 37 kJ/m2). Tcore increased (p < 0.001). Tskin decreased for all body parts (p < 0.001). Thigh Tskin decreased more than for other body parts (p < 0.001). From PRE to POST, TS of the hands decreased (p < 0.01). Biathletes skiing in a race suit at moderate intensity experience significant heat loss and a large drop in Tskin, particularly at the quadriceps muscle. To support the optimal functioning of working muscles, body-part dependent differences in the thermal response should be considered for clothing strategy and for race suit design.