Meaningful Associations Research Articles

Association between mean arterial pressure and sublingual microcirculation during major non-cardiac surgery: Post hoc analysis of a prospective cohort.

To test the hypothesis that there is an association between mean arterial pressure (MAP) and sublingual perfusion during major surgery, and perhaps an identifiable harm threshold. This post hoc analysis of a prospective cohort included patients who had elective major non-cardiac surgery with a duration of ≥2 h under general anesthesia. We assessed sublingual microcirculation every 30min using SDF+ imaging and determined the De Backer score, Consensus Proportion of Perfused Vessels (Consensus PPV), and the Consensus PPV (small). Our primary outcome was the relationship between MAP and sublingual perfusion which was evaluated with linear mixed effects modeling. A total of 100 patients were included, with MAP ranging between 65 mmHg and 120 mmHg during anesthesia and surgery. Over a range of intraoperative MAPs between 65 and 120 mmHg, there were no meaningful associations between blood pressure and various measures of sublingual perfusion. There were also no meaningful changes in microcirculatory flow over 4.5 h of surgery. In patients having elective major non-cardiac surgery with general anesthesia, sublingual microcirculation is well maintained when MAP ranges between 65 and 120 mmHg. It remains possible that sublingual perfusion will be a useful marker of tissue perfusion when MAP is lower than 65 mmHg.

Maternal dietary caffeine consumption and risk of birth defects in the National Birth Defects Prevention Study, 1997-2011.

Caffeine consumption is common during pregnancy, but published associations with birth defects are mixed. We updated estimates of associations between prepregnancy caffeine consumption and 48 specific birth defects from the National Birth Defects Prevention Study (NBDPS) for deliveries from 1997 to 2011. NBDPS was a large population-based case-control study conducted in 10 U.S. states. We categorized self-reported total dietary caffeine consumption (mg/day) from coffee, tea, soda, and chocolate as: <10, 10 to <100, 100 to <200, 200 to <300, and ≥ 300. We used logistic regression to estimate adjusted odds ratios (aORs [95% confidence intervals]). Analyses for defects with ≥5 exposed case children were adjusted for maternal race/ethnicity, age at delivery, body mass index, early pregnancy cigarette smoking and alcohol use, and study site. Our analysis included 30,285 case and 11,502 control children, with mothers of 52% and 54%, respectively, reporting consuming <100 mg caffeine, and 11% of mothers of both cases and controls reported consuming ≥300 mg per day. Low (10 to <100 mg/day) levels of prepregnancy caffeine consumption were associated with statistically significant increases in aORs (1.2-1.7) for 10 defects. Associations with high (≥300 mg/day) levels of caffeine were generally weaker, except for craniosynostosis and aortic stenosis (aORs=1.3 [1.1-1.6], 1.6 [1.1-2.3]). Given the large number of estimates generated, some of the statistically significant results may be due to chance and thus the weakly increased aORs should be interpreted cautiously. This study supports previous observations suggesting lack of evidence for meaningful associations between caffeine consumption and the studied birth defects.

A systematic review of associations between gut microbiota composition and growth failure in preterm neonates

ABSTRACT Growth failure is among the most prevalent and devastating consequences of prematurity. Up to half of all extremely preterm neonates struggle to grow despite modern nutrition practices. Although elegant preclinical models suggest causal roles for the gut microbiome, these insights have not yet translated into biomarkers that identify at-risk neonates or therapies that prevent or treat growth failure. This systematic review aims to identify features of the neonatal gut microbiota that are positively or negatively associated with early postnatal growth. We identified 860 articles, of which 14 were eligible for inclusion. No two studies used the same definitions of growth, ages at stool collection, and statistical methods linking microbiota to metadata. In all, 58 different taxa were associated with growth, with little consensus among studies. Two or more studies reported positive associations with Enterobacteriaceae, Bacteroides, Bifidobacterium, Enterococcus, and Veillonella, and negative associations with Citrobacter, Klebsiella, and Staphylococcus. Streptococcus was positively associated with growth in five studies and negatively associated with growth in three studies. To gain insight into how the various definitions of growth could impact results, we performed an exploratory secondary analysis of 245 longitudinally sampled preterm infant stools, linking microbiota composition to multiple clinically relevant definitions of neonatal growth. Within this cohort, every definition of growth was associated with a different combination of microbiota features. Together, these results suggest that the lack of consensus in defining neonatal growth may limit our capacity to detect consistent, meaningful clinical associations that could be leveraged into improved care for preterm neonates.

Bacterial profile, antimicrobial resistance, and molecular detection of ESBL and quinolone resistance gene of uropathogens causing urinary tract infection in the southeastern part of Bangladesh.

Humans frequently contract urinary tract infections (UTIs), which can be brought on by uropathogens (UPs) that are multi-drug resistant. Treatment for UTIs brought on by pathogenic UPs that produce extended-spectrum lactamases (ESBLs) is more costly and potentially fatal. As a result, the objective of this study was to use culture, biochemical, and 16S rRNA sequencing to identify and characterize UPs isolated from outpatients in Noakhali, Bangladesh, who had symptoms of UTIs. ESBL gene identification and quinolone resistance gene typing were then performed on the isolates using polymerase chain reaction (PCR). Throughout the trial's 8-month duration, 152 (76%) of 200 urine samples were positive for the presence of UPs. The overall number of UPs recovered was 210, with 39 individuals having multiple UPs present in their samples. Among all of the isolates, Escherichia coli (45.24%, 95/210; 95% confidence interval (CI): 35.15-57.60%), Enterobacter spp. (24.76%, 52/210; CI: 19.15-35.77%), Klebsiella spp. (20.95%; 44/210; CI: 15.15-30.20%), and Providencia spp. (9.05%; 19/210; CI: 4.95-19.25%) were the four most prevalent bacteria found in the isolates. The UPs displayed a very high level of resistance to piperacillin 96.92% (126/130), ampicillin 90% (117/130), nalidixic acid 77.69% (101/130), cefazolin 70% (91/130), amoxicillin 50% (55/130), cefazolin 42.31% (55/130), nitrofurantoin 43.08% (56/130), and ciprofloxacin 33.08% (43/130), whereas resistance to netilmicin (3.85%), amikacin (4.62%), and imipenem (9.23%) was low. Individually, every species of E. coli and Providencia spp. showed greater ampicillin, amikacin, cefazolin, cefazolin, and nalidixic acid resistance than the others. The bivariate results indicate several antibiotic pairings, and isolates had meaningful associations. All MDR isolates were subjected to PCR, which revealed that blaCTX-M-15 genes predominated among the isolates, followed by the blaTEM class (37%). Isolates also had the qnrS, aac-6´-Ib-cr, and gyrA genes. The findings provide worrying indications of a major expansion of MDR isolates in the study locations, particularly the epidemiological balCTX-M 15, with the potential for the transmission of multi-drug-resistant UP strains in the population.

Perioperative Hypoxemia and Postoperative Respiratory Events in Infants with Hypertrophic Pyloric Stenosis.

Normalization of metabolic alkalosis is an important pillar in the treatment of infantile hypertrophic pyloric stenosis (IHPS) because uncorrected metabolic alkalosis may lead to perioperative respiratory events. However, the evidence on the incidence of respiratory events is limited. We aimed to study the incidence of peroperative hypoxemia and postoperative respiratory events in infants undergoing pyloromyotomy and the potential role of metabolic alkalosis. We retrospectively reviewed all patients undergoing pyloromyotomy between 2007 and 2017. All infants received intravenous fluids preoperatively to correct metabolic abnormalities close to normal. We assessed the incidence of perioperative hypoxemia (defined as oxygen saturation [SpO2] < 90% for > 1min) and postoperative respiratory events. Additionally, the incidence of difficult intubations was evaluated. We performed a multivariate logistic regression analysis to evaluate the association between admission or preoperative serum pH values, bicarbonate or chloride, and peri- and postoperative hypoxemia or respiratory events. Of 406 included infants, 208 (51%) developed 1 or more episodes of hypoxemia during the perioperative period, of whom 130 (32%) experienced it during induction, 43 (11%) intraoperatively, and 112 (28%) during emergence. About 7.5% of the infants had a difficult intubation and 17 required more than 3 attempts by a pediatric anesthesiologist. Three patients developed respiratory insufficiency and 95 postoperative respiratory events were noticed. We did not find a clinically meaningful association between laboratory values reflecting metabolic alkalosis and respiratory events. IHPS frequently leads to peri- and postoperative hypoxemia or respiratory events and high incidence of difficult tracheal intubations. Preoperative pH, bicarbonate, and chloride were bad predictors of respiratory events.

The Prevalence of Andropause and Its Relationship With Sexual Quality of Life Among Older Iranian Men.

Available evidence indicates insufficient knowledge about the status of andropause and sexual quality of life among Iranian older men. The study aimed to investigate the prevalence of andropause and its relationship with sexual quality among older adults. This descriptive-analytical study was conducted among 576 older people referred to urban health centers in Mashhad, Iran. The eligible samples were selected through the cluster sampling method. To collect data, the male andropause symptoms' self-assessment questionnaire and the sexual quality of life-male were used. Forty-seven of the respondents (n = 271) were diagnosed with a "moderate" level of andropause. A strong negative correlation was identified between the sexual quality of life and the severity of andropause (r = -.366, p < .001). Sexual quality of life and andropause was also affected by age, marital status, health status, and exercise. Thirty-six percent of the changes in the quality of sexual life of older men were influenced by the independent variables (adjusted R2 = .36; R2 = .40; R = .63). The findings indicated that andropause has highly prevailed among the participants. There was a meaningful association between andropause and sexual quality of life among older men. Further studies are recommended to investigate sexual orientation qualitatively and to discover other factors influencing andropause among adult men.

How Can Restaurant Companies Effectively Deliver CSR Efforts to Consumers on Social Media?

This study emphasized the source credibility effect on consumers' responses to restaurant companies' CSR efforts on social media. Based on the source credibility brand development process (i.e., brand trust, brand affect, and brand engagement), this study employed an online survey-based experiment and revealed the meaningful associations among types of CSR posters (a restaurant brand vs. a nonprofit organization), brand trust, brand affect, and brand engagement. The empirical results indicated that the nonprofit organization has higher significant effects on brand trust and brand affect than those of the restaurant brand. Additionally, in the case of the nonprofit organization, the effects of brand trust and brand affect on brand engagement were significantly stronger than that of the restaurant brand. Based on the empirical findings, this study provided several theoretical and managerial implications for restaurant companies' CSR communication on social media.

Abstract PD12-07: PD12-07 The effect of BMI on the pathological response after neoadjuvant systemic therapy in breast cancer patients: a nationwide retrospective study

Abstract Background: Neoadjuvant systemic therapy is increasingly applied in breast cancer patients to improve surgical and oncological outcomes. There is only limited data from clinical practice on the relevance of body mass index (BMI) on the pathologic complete response (pCR) rate following neoadjuvant systemic treatment (NST). We aimed to retrospectively analyze the impact of BMI on pCR after NST for Dutch breast cancer patients. Methods: Patients diagnosed with invasive breast cancer between 2019 and 2021 who were treated with NST followed by a surgical procedure, were selected from the Netherlands Cancer Registry (NCR). Patients were divided into three groups based on BMI: patients with underweight/normal weight (BMI&amp;lt; 25 kg/m2), patients with overweight (BMI 25-29.9 kg/m2) and patients with obesity (BMI&amp;gt;30 kg/m2). Patients with unknown BMI, ER/PR/HER2 or pCR status were excluded for analysis. The primary outcome was pCR after NST. The association between BMI and pCR was estimated using logistic regression models with the expression of odds ratios (ORs). Results: After applying in- and exclusion criteria, 4430 patients were included for analysis, statified into four molecular breast cancer subtypes; HR+/HER2- (n=2256), HR+/HER2- (n=722), HR-/HER2+ (n=405) and HR-/HER2- (n=1047). The predictors age, differentiation grade, histological type, clinical tumor (cT) and nodal (cN) stage and molecular breast cancer subtype were found siginificant for achieving pCR after NST. Multivariabele regression analysis identified differentiation grade, cT and cN stage and molecular subtype as independent predictors for pCR after NST. There was no association between pCR and (continuous or categorical) BMI. Above mentioned analyses performed by stratification according to molecular breast cancer subtype, also showed no statistically meaningful association between BMI and pCR. Conclusion: In this nationwide retrospective cohort study, evaluating 3340 patients with invasive breast cancer, we found no evidence of BMI being a predictive factor for achieving pCR following NST in neither the whole cohort, nor stratified according to molecular breast cancer subtype. Table 1. Multivariable regression analysis of the total cohort Citation Format: Britt Jansen, Anke Gielen, Mariette Agteroff, Marissa van Maaren, Sandra Beijer, Martine Moossdorff, Marjolein Smidt, Emily Postma. PD12-07 The effect of BMI on the pathological response after neoadjuvant systemic therapy in breast cancer patients: a nationwide retrospective study [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the 2022 San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium; 2022 Dec 6-10; San Antonio, TX. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2023;83(5 Suppl):Abstract nr PD12-07.

Abstract 13: Circadian Misalignment is Associated With Impaired Heart Rate Variability in Adolescents

Introduction: Adequate sleep has been recognized by AHA as part of Life’s Essential 8 in the prevention of cardiovascular disease (CVD). The circadian system, which governs the sleep-cycle, is also involved in cardiac, metabolic and autonomic regulation. Heart rate variability (HRV), a marker of cardiac autonomic modulation (CAM), is known to predict CVD. As a result, circadian misalignment of the sleep-wake cycle, which is highly prevalent in adolescents, may impact CAM and be a potential risk factor for adverse CVD outcomes in early life. Hypothesis: We hypothesize that deviations in the circadian timing of sleep are associated with blunted HRV in adolescents. Methods: We analyzed data from 337 population-based randomly-selected adolescents from the Penn State Child Cohort (median 16 years; 47% female; 21% racial/ethnic minority) who had at least 3-night at-home actigraphy (ACT), in-lab 9-h polysomnography (PSG) and 24-h Holter-monitoring heart rate variability (HRV) data. ACT-sleep duration and sleep midpoint (SM) were calculated as the intra-individual mean total sleep time and midpoint of the sleep period, respectively. ACT-sleep variability and sleep regularity (SR) were calculated as the intra-individual standard deviation of sleep duration and sleep midpoint across nights, respectively. Frequency and time-domain HRV indices, including HR oscillations at high frequencies (HF), standard deviation between normal heart beats or R-R intervals (SDNN), and root mean square of successive differences between normal heartbeats (RMSSD), were primary outcomes. Linear regression models tested SM and SR as predictors of HRV indices, while accounting for sex, race/ethnicity, age, body mass index, ACT-sleep duration, ACT-sleep variability, and PSG-apnea/hypopnea index. Results: While there were no meaningful associations between SM or SR with daytime HRV, there were significant associations between SM with nighttime HRV. A later SM was associated with lower nighttime Log-HF, SDNN and RMSSD, yet higher nighttime LF/HF (all p&lt;0.03). For each standard deviation increase in SM (i.e., 1.5 hours later), there was a decrease of -5.50ms (1.92) in nighttime RMSSD (p=0.004). More specifically, the nighttime RMSSD of adolescents with a SM at 5:30 (i.e., sleep onset at 2:00, sleep offset at 9:00), was 18.2ms (6.7) lower (p=0.007) than that of adolescents with a SM at 2:30 (i.e., sleep onset at 23:00, sleep offset at 6:00). Conclusions: A delayed sleep phase is associated with impaired CAM in adolescents. These data support that circadian misalignment of the sleep-wake cycle may independently contribute to CVD risk.

The relationship between dissolved radon and other geochemical parameters in Campi Flegrei volcanic aquifer (Southern Italy): A follow-up study

Campi Flegrei is one of the most active volcanic areas in the world and assessing the potential proxies of volcanic-related phenomena is critical. Therefore, the spatial distribution of radon and carbon dioxide in groundwater and the statistical relationships between the dissolved gases and other variables deserve further attention. Compositional data analysis (CoDA) was proposed at the end of the last century and further developed in the last decades for reliable data mining, but its potential has not been fully explored for characterization of the groundwater aquifers affected by hydrothermal activity. Based on a prospecting campaign mainly aimed at the determination of both radon and carbon dioxide in Campi Flegrei groundwater, this article explores the spatial patterns of these gases in the local aquifer system and uses a CoDA approach to extract the relevant information and to determine the meaningful geochemical associations. The results show that the spatial distribution of both dissolved gases corresponds to the hydrothermal system. The logratio transformed CO2 (aq) distinguishes bicarbonate-rich groundwater better than the raw values. Principal component analysis reveals two associations: A1) Ca2+, Mg2+, K+, SO42−, HCO3− + CO2 and pH; and A2) Na+, Cl−, As, B, Li, Rn, TDS and T. It highlights that the groundwater composition is generally influenced by two main factors: (1) meteoric water, which is modified by CO2‒rich magmatic gases in some cases; and (2) hydrothermal fluid and/or seawater. The results are in agreement with the literature and application of CoDA is recommended in future investigations because the study area is highly populated and considering the compositional nature of geochemical data might help mitigate the volcanic hazard at Campi Flegrei.

Authorial voice in source-based and opinion-based argumentative writing: Patterns of voice across task types and proficiency levels

This study examined first-year university students’ use of textual voice markers in two argumentative writing tasks. Previous findings of authorial voice have shown unclear relationships between voice elements and writing proficiency, making us question the pedagogical value of voice for L2 writers. However, it should be noted that the majority of studies on this topic have used timed opinion-based argumentative tasks which may not be the most relevant task type for academic writers, as they are often expected to build source-based argumentation. To fill this gap, we collected 110 opinion-based and source-based essays from 55 students and quantified a wide range of stance and engagement elements that appeared in the essays. Results showed a higher frequency of use of textual voices in opinion-based than in source-based writing, but there was no meaningful association between voice and writing proficiency in both tasks. However, different patterns were exhibited when we examined section-specific voice elements. In the source-based essays, more proficient writers used more varied types of hedges in the synthesis section but fewer boosters and reader pronouns in the introduction. With these quantitative results of authorial voice, we discuss our findings in the light of first-year writing instructional needs and writing assessment.

The association of regional perinatal risk factors and neonatal intensive care capacity for Military Health System-insured newborns.

To characterize hospitals where military-insured newborns received care and test the association of regional perinatal risk with neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) capacity. We identified birth hospitals for live newborns October 2015-December 2018 (n = 296,568) and assigned newborns to health service areas (HSAs). Perinatal risk factors and the number of neonatal special care beds and neonatologists were calculated at HSA levels. Cross-sectional correlation analyses assessed perinatal risk factors and capacity across HSAs. 27.0% (n = 10) of military birth hospitals had special care beds (intermediate and intensive) compared with 44.3% of civilian hospitals (n = 1224; p < 0.05). The number of special care beds and neonatologists per newborn varied more than twofold across regions and were only weakly associated with the proportion of higher risk newborns (R2 < 0.05). The lack of meaningful association of regional perinatal risk with NICU capacity poses challenges for effective specialized care among military-associated newborns.

Persistence and fading of the cognitive and socio-emotional benefits of preschool education in a low-resource setting: Group differences and dose-dependent associations in longitudinal data from Vietnam.

Four analytic approaches examined the effectiveness of preschool education in Vietnam, which provides a context in which national curricula and teaching standards for preschools and schools, high levels of preschool attendance, and fee subsidies for disadvantaged children, limit the heterogeneity in children's experiences that often obscure the outcomes associated with preschool attendance. The Young Lives Study provided longitudinal data on children's receptive vocabulary, mathematics, and life satisfaction at 5, 8, 12, and 15 years of age, and on their self-concept and relationships at 12 and 15 years. The first analysis found that children who attended preschool (n = 1,562 at 5 years of age) had larger vocabularies at 5, 8, 12, and 15 years, greater mathematics knowledge at 5, 8, and 12 years, and higher life satisfaction at 5 and 12 years of age than the small number of children who did not attend preschool (n = 164 at 5 years of age). The second, found that the dose of preschool education (hours per week × 4 × months) received by children who attended preschool was positively associated with their receptive vocabulary and mathematics scores at 5, 8, 12, and 15 years of age, and with their life satisfaction at 5 and 15 years of age. Although the magnitude of the effect for vocabulary declined over time, it remained stable for mathematics. The third analysis found that a high dose of preschool education allowed disadvantaged rural children to achieve comparable or better scores than their urban peers for receptive vocabulary at 8, 12, and 15 years, mathematics at 12 years, and life satisfaction at all ages. The final analysis found that even a low dose of preschool education improved rural children's receptive vocabulary at 5, 8, and 15 years, and their numeracy/mathematics scores at 5, 8, and 12 years. Together, the results suggest that preschool attendance had a small but meaningful positive association with Vietnamese children's cognitive skills and life satisfaction that persisted for at least 10 years. These findings provide insights into the scale, scope, and longevity of effects that can be achieved from scaled-up preschool programs under resource-constrained conditions.

Do gender diverse boards enhance managerial ability?

We examine the link between board gender diversity and managerial ability to transform corporate resources into revenue. Drawing on a sample of U.S firms during the period 2001–2016, we find a positive and economically meaningful association between female directors on boards and managerial ability, particularly when female directors are in monitoring roles on the board. The documented effect is stronger when using a tenure weighted measure of female representation on boards; and more pronounced for firms that have three or more women on the board of directors, in line with the critical mass hypothesis. We uncover that critical mass of female directors in monitoring roles is particularly conducive to enhancing managerial ability. Our channel analysis tests further reveal a distinctive tendency of firms with more gender diverse boards to shape the human capital of the firm by promoting managers with more generalist managerial skills. We find consistent results when we employ propensity score matching estimates and difference-in-differences using sudden deaths of female directors as a potential shock to address endogeneity concerns. We discuss implications for theory and policy.

Associations of height, weight, and body mass index with handgrip strength: A Bayesian comparison in older adults

Handgrip strength is commonly normalized or stratified by body size to define subgroup-specific cut-points and reference limits values. However, it remains unclear which anthropometric variable is most strongly associated with handgrip strength. We aimed to, in older adults with no self-reported mobility limitations, determine whether height, weight, and body mass index (BMI) were meaningfully associated with handgrip strength. This cross-sectional study included community-dwelling ambulant participants, and we identified 775 older adults who reported no difficulty walking 100m, climbing stairs, and rising from the chair. Handgrip strength was measured with a digital dynamometer. Bayesian linear regression was used to estimate the probabilities that the positive associations of height, weight, and BMI with handgrip strength exceeded 0kg (the null value) and 2.5kg (the clinically meaningful threshold value). Mean handgrip strength was 22.1kg (SD, 4) for women and 32.9kg (SD, 6) for men. Body height, weight, and BMI had >99.9% probabilities of a positive association with handgrip strength; however, the associations of per interquartile increase in body weight and BMI with handgrip strength had low probabilities (<5%) of exceeding the clinically meaningful threshold of 2.5kg. In contrast, body height had the highest probability (99.6%) of a clinically meaningful association with handgrip strength: adjusting for age and gender, handgrip strength was 3.2kg (95% CrI, 2.7 to 3.8) greater in older adults 1.61m tall than in older adults 1.51m tall. In a large sample of mobile-intact older adults, handgrip strength differed meaningfully by body height. Although requiring validation, our findings suggest that future efforts should be directed at normalizing handgrip strength by body height to better define subgroup-specific handgrip weakness. A web-based application (https://sghpt.shinyapps.io/ippts/) was created to allow interactive exploration of predicted values and reference limits of age-, gender-, and height-subgroups.

Abstract WP229: Hub Genes Drive Specific Gene Expression Changes Seen In Intracerebral Hemorrhage And Ischemic Stroke.

Gene expression changes in peripheral leukocytes display distinctive profiles after intracerebral hemorrhage (ICH) and ischemic stroke (IS), differentiating both conditions at the molecular level. The breadth of data produced by high-throughput transcriptomic analyses can identify groups of genes and main gene expression drivers that have meaningful functional associations with the disease. This can help prioritize the investigation of key genes for diagnosis and treatment. Thus, we performed whole transcriptome analyses on ICH and IS samples and constructed gene networks from a genome-wide perspective. RNA-seq was performed on peripheral blood (WB) and isolated monocytes (MON) and neutrophils (NEU) (n=6 ICH, n=33 IS and n=9 vascular risk factors control (VRFC) subjects). Gene expression results were used to construct separate co-expression networks for all datasets analyzed (ICH + VRFCs, and IS + VRFCs, for MON, NEU and WB) using Weighted Gene Co-expression Network Analysis. Modules of genes significantly associated with ICH in the ICH + VRFCs network, and with IS in the IS + VRFCs network, were identified. The most highly interconnected genes in each of these modules were identified, representing hub genes that are potential master regulators. Functional annotation of the modules and hubs were done using gene ontology. From the significantly associated modules for ICH and IS in all sample types analyzed, there was little overlap in genes between diagnoses (≤2% in MON, ≤21 % in NEU and ≤16% in WB), and no overlap of ICH or IS hub genes from MON and NEU. In WB, ≤2% of the hubs were common to ICH and IS. It is plausible that these potential master regulators drive diagnosis-specific gene expression profiles. ICH hubs were associated with RNA splicing and mRNA processing (MON), cell adhesion (NEU) and NF-κβ signaling (WB). IS hubs were associated with cell migration (MON), T cell chemotaxis (NEU) and transcription factor activity (WB). In addition, most hubs in IS MON were noncoding RNA. The gene networks and their respective hub genes provide novel cell-specific pathophysiological insights and could represent potential key pharmacological targets and biomarkers.

Eastern Sages in Roman Egypt

Scholars have long been curious about the transmission of religious and philosophical ideas across Eurasia in antiquity. It is well known that Mani named a number of important figures from “Eastern” religious traditions—such as Buddha and Zoroaster—among his list of prophetic forerunners in an effort to establish his own authority as a religious teacher. Recently published portions of the Dublin codex of the Manichaean Kephalaia provide an additional attestation of this prophetological paradigm in an even more amplified form, as it includes figures not previously attested. Textual analysis of this new testimonium invites us to reflect on how Mani and his early followers imagined their relationships to other religious traditions. It will be shown that, while Manichaean textual traditions were an important conduit of religious information across Eurasia, modern interpreters should be cautious about supposing that ancient readers of Manichaean texts made any meaningful association between the names of these prophetic forerunners and particular doctrines, which by then had been fully naturalized as “Manichaean” teachings.

Data mining of the essential causes of different types of fatal construction accidents

Accident analysis is used to discover the causes of workplace injuries and devise methods for preventing them in the future. There has been little discussion in the previous studies of the specific elements contributing to deadly construction accidents. In contrast to previous studies, this study focuses on the causes of fatal construction accidents based on management factors, unsafe site conditions, and workers' unsafe actions. The association rule mining technique identifies the hidden patterns or knowledge between the root causes of fatal construction accidents, and one hundred meaningful association rules were extracted from the two hundred and fifty-three rules generated. It was discovered that many fatal construction accidents were caused by management factors, unsafe site circumstances, and risky worker behaviors. These analyses can be used to demonstrate plausible cause-and-effect correlations, assisting in building a safer working environment in the construction sector. The study findings can be used more efficiently to design effective inspection procedures and occupational safety initiatives. Finally, the proposed method should be tested in a broader range of construction situations and scenarios to ensure that it is as accurate as possible.

Physicochemical Modeling of Electrochemical Impedance in Solid-State Supercapacitors.

Solid-state supercapacitors (SSCs) consist of porous carbon electrodes and gel-polymer electrolytes and are used in novel energy storage applications. The current study aims to simulate the impedance of SSCs using a clearly defined equivalent circuit (EC) model with the ultimate goal of improving their performance. To this end, a conventional mathematical and a physicochemical model were adapted. The impedance was measured by electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS). An EC consisting of electrical elements was introduced for each modeling approach. The mathematical model was purely based on a best-fit method and utilized an EC with intuitive elements. In contrast, the physicochemical model was motivated by advanced theories and allowed meaningful associations with properties at the electrode, the electrolyte, and their interface. The physicochemical model showed a higher approximation ability (relative error of 3.7%) due to the interface impedance integration in a more complex circuit design. However, this model required more modeling and optimization effort. Moreover, the fitted parameters differed from the analytically calculated ones due to uncertainties in the SSC's microscale configuration, which need further investigations. Nevertheless, the results show that the proposed physicochemical model is promising in simulating EIS data of SSCs with the additional advantage of utilizing well-reasoned property-based EC elements.

Discordance between joint pain and imagery severity in the ankle joint and contributors of lower limb activity limitations in adults with haemophilia: A cross-sectional study.

People with haemophilia (PwH) suffer from knee and ankle joint pain, but the association with structural damage remains underexplored. They report activity limitations but it is unclear which factors contribute to lower limb activity limitations (LL-AL). This study aimed (i) to analyse the association between ankle joint pain and structure and (ii) explore the contribution of haemophilia-related, individual and psychological factors to LL-AL in PwH. This study included 104 moderate/severe PwH. Ankle pain intensity was assessed with a numeric rating scale and pain sensitivity with algometry (pressure pain threshold (PPTA )). Ankle structure was assessed with MRI (IPSG-MRI) and ultrasound (HEAD-US), joint health with the Haemophilia Joint Health Score (HJHS). The HAL-LOWCOM subscore evaluated LL-AL. A Spearman correlation analysed the correlation between ankle pain and structure. The contribution of haemophilia-related factors (joint health, overall pain (Brief Pain Inventory-Pain Severity (BPI-PS)), functional status (2-Minute-Walking-Distance, Timed Up and Go); individual factors (age, BMI) and psychological factors (fear and avoidance beliefs over physical activity (FABQ-PA) and work (FABQ-Work), anxiety and depression) to LL-AL was explored using a regression analysis. Only low correlations were found between ankle pain intensity and structure (IPSG-MRI, HEAD-US). PPTA was unrelated to structure. Altogether, HJHS, overall pain (BPI-PS), FABQ-Work and age explained 69% of HAL-LOWCOM variance, with 65% explained by the combination of HJHS and BPI-PS. No meaningful associations were found between ankle pain and structural damage, suggesting that other factors may contribute to PwH's ankle pain. In contrast, mainly haemophilia-related factors explained LL-AL variance.