Colony is the basic geometric construction of coral reef. However, both the forming regulations of colony and reef are still obscure. In this study, we reconstructed 21 important samples by high-resolution micro-computed tomography to investigate coral growth pattern and parameter. Our skeleton and canal reconstructions revealed characteristics of different coral species and we further visualized the growth axes and growth rings to reveal coral growth directions. We drew a skeleton gray-scale map and calculated coral skeleton void ratios to reveal skeletal diversity, devising a method to quantify coral growth. On the bases of the 3D reconstructions and growth parameters, we investigated growth strategies of different coral species. This work extends the knowledge of how reef-building corals grow their colonies, giving a hint on reef forming regulation. The data of this paper contain large amount of coral growth information, and can be used in further research on reef forming patterns under different conditions. The method used in this study can also be applied in animals with porous skeletons.

Introduction: Human atria comprise distinct epicardial layers, which can bypass endocardial layers and lead to downstream centrifugal propagation at the “epi-endo” connection. We sought to characterize anatomical substrates, electrophysiological properties, and ablation outcomes of “pseudo-focal” atrial tachycardias (ATs), defined as macroreentrant ATs mimicking focal ATs. Methods and Results: We retrospectively analyzed ATs showing centrifugal propagation with post-pacing intervals (PPIs) after entrainment pacing suggestive of a macroreentry. A total of 26 patients had pseudo-focal ATs consisting of 15 perimitral, 7 roof-dependent, and 5 cavotricuspid isthmus (CTI)-dependent flutters. A low-voltage area was consistently found at the collision site and co-localized with epicardial layers like the: (1) coronary sinus-great cardiac vein bundle (22%); (2) vein of Marshall bundle (15%); (3) Bachmann bundle (22%); (4) septopulmonary bundle (15%); (5) fossa ovalis (7%); and (6) low right atrium (19%). The mean missing tachycardia cycle length (TCL) was 67 ± 29 ms (22%) on the endocardial activation map. PPI was 9 [0-15] ms and 10 [0-20] ms longer than TCL at the breakthrough site and the opposite site, respectively. While feasible in 25 pseudo-focal ATs (93%), termination was better achieved by blocking the anatomical isthmus than ablating the breakthrough site [24/26 (92%) vs. 1/6 (17%); p < 0.001]. Conclusion: Perimitral, roof-dependent, and CTI-dependent flutters with centrifugal propagation are favored by a low-voltage area located at well-identified epicardial bundles. Comprehensive entrainment pacing maneuvers are crucial to distinguish pseudo-focal ATs from true focal ATs. Blocking the anatomical isthmus is a better therapeutic option than ablating the breakthrough site.

This paper investigates the feedback stabilization of non-homogeneous delayed bilinear systems, evolving in Hilbert state space. More precisely, under observability like assumption, we prove the exponential and strong stability of the solution by using a bounded feedback control. The partial stabilization is discussed as well. The proof of the main results is based on the decomposition method. The decay estimates of the corresponding solution are obtained. Finally, some examples are presented.

Background/aim: The aim of this study was to evaluate the effects of general anesthesia and ultrasonography-guided interscalene block on pain and oxidative stress evaluated by thiol–disulphide balance and C-reactive protein levels in patients undergoing shoulder arthroscopy. Materials and methods: A total of 42 patients aged 18–75 years who were scheduled to undergo shoulder arthroscopy were randomized into interscalene block group (Group-IB, n = 20) and general anesthesia group (Group-GA, n = 22). All patients received patient-controlled analgesia during the postoperative period. Additional analgesics were administered to patients with a visual analog scale score of > 4. Native -thiol, total -thiol, disulphide and C-reactive protein levels were measured. Patients’ visual analog scale scores, morphine and additional analgesic consumption were recorded. A shift in thiol–disulphide balance toward decreased thiol and increased disulphide levels was regarded as an indicator of oxidative stress. Results: Pain level, morphine and additional analgesic consumption were higher in Group-GA. Native-thiol and total-thiol levels were higher in Group-IB postoperatively and also disulphide levels were lower at postoperative 18 hours. C-reactive protein levels were similar in both the groups. Conclusion: Interscalene block induced less oxidative stress during the postoperative period, as evaluated by thiol–disulphide balance.

Aims: It is evident that COVID-19 pandemic have affected the medical practice and training of residents. In this study, we evaluated the Physical Examination (PE) habits of residents working in a university hospital and how their PE practices did change during the pandemic. Methods: This single-center, non-interventional, cross-sectional descriptive study was conducted in a university hospital using an online survey questionnaire from 5 to 20 October 2020. Results: 308 residents participated in the study of whom 172 of them (55.8%) were female and the median age was 27 (IQR:3). Among all, 263 participants (85.4%) declared that they have worked in the areas where suspected/confirmed COVID-19 patients were being served. A total of 262 (85%) residents stated that PE habits have changed generally during the pandemic. There was a significant difference between those residents who have worked in the COVID-19 areas (n=230,87.5%) and those who have not (n=32, 71.1%) (p=0.004). PE habits of Internal Medicine Residents were more changed than others (p<0.001). The main reason for the change in PE habits in general (77.9%) and during the examination of suspected/confirmed COVID-19 patients (89.7%) were ‘’self-protection”. Reliance on laboratory and radiologic investigations during practice and not having a thought that less PE will disrupt the diagnosis and course of COVID-19 were also independent risk factors for performing less PE in suspected/confirmed COVID-19 patients. Discussion: This study clearly demonstrated that the COVID-19 pandemic has had a serious impact on the PE habits of the residents while examing patients in general and with COVID-19.

Steady increases in human population size and resource consumption levels are driving rampant agricultural expansion and intensification in some of the world's most pristine ecosystems. Habitat loss caused by agriculture puts the integrity of ecosystems at risk, and as a consequence, threatens the persistence of human societies that rely on ecosystem services to produce resources. Here we develop a spatially explicit model describing the coupled dynamics of an agricultural landscape and human population size to study the effect of different land-use management strategies, defined by the levels of agricultural clustering and intensification, on the sustainability of the social-ecological system. We show how gradual agricultural expansion can cause natural habitat to undergo a percolation transition leading to abrupt habitat fragmentation that feedbacks on human's decision making, causing faster agricultural expansion and aggravating habitat loss and fragmentation. We found that agricultural intensification to spare land from conversion is a successful strategy only in highly natural landscapes and that clustering agricultural land is the most effective measure to preserve landscape connectivity and avoid severe fragmentation. Our work highlights the importance of preserving large connected natural fragments in agricultural landscapes to enhance sustainability.

The paper provides a study of the commutative algebras generated by iteration of the cross products in $\mathbb{C}^3$. Focusing on particular real forms we also consider the analytical properties of the corresponding rings of functions and relate them to different physical problems. Familiar results from the theory of holomorphic and bi-holomorphic functions appear naturally in this context, but new types of hypercomplex calculi emerge as well. The parallel transport along smooth curves in $\mathbb{E}^3$ and the associated Maurer-Cartan form are also studied with examples from kinematics and electrodynamics. Finally, the dual extension is discussed in the context of screw calculus and Galilean mechanics; a similar construction is studied also in the multi-dimensional real and complex cases.

A document by Mark Davies. Click on the document to view its contents.

Longer stent graft in frozen elephant trunk procedure: A fear or truth?

Situs inversus totalis associated with partial anomalous pulmonary venous connection is a very rare congenital heart malformation. Herein, we describe successful surgical repair of the case of a 30-month-old girl who had situs inversus totalis, partial anomalous pulmonary venous connection , large atrial septal defect, and severe pulmonary hypertension.

Bacteriophage is considered an alternative to antibiotics and environmentally friendly approach to tackle antimicrobial resistance (AMR) in aquaculture. Here, we reported isolation, morphology and genomic characterizations of a newly isolated lytic bacteriophage, designated pAh6.2TG. Host range and stability of pAh6.2TG in different environmental conditions, and protective efficacy against a pathogenic multidrug-resistant (MDR) Aeromonas hydrophila in Nile tilapia were subsequently evaluated. The results showed that pAh6.2TG is a member of the family Myoviridae which has genome size of 51,780 bp, encoding 65 putative open reading frames (ORFs), and is most closely related to Aeromonas phage PVN02 (99.33% nucleotide identity). The pAh6.2TG was highly specific to A. hydrophila and infected 83.3% tested strains of MDR A. hydrophila (10 out of 12) with relative stability at pH 7 ­ 9, temperature 0 ­ 40 °C and salinity 0 ­ 40 ppt. In experimental challenge, pAh6.2TG treatments significantly improved survivability of Nile tilapia exposed to a lethal dose of the pathogenic MDR A. hydrophila, with relative percent survival (RPS) of 73.3% and 50% for phage multiplicity of infection (MOI) 1.0 and 0.1, respectively. Significant reduction of bacterial counts in rearing water at 3 h (6.7 ± 0.5 to 18.1 ± 6.98 folds) and in fish liver at 48 h post-treatment (2.7 ± 0.24 to 34.08 ± 26.4 folds) was observed in phage treatment groups while opposite pattern for bacterial counts was observed in untreated control. Interestingly, the surviving fish provoked specific antibody (IgM) against the challenged A. hydrophila. These results might explain the higher survival in phage treatment groups. In summary, the findings suggested that the lytic bacteriophage pAh6.2TG is an effective alternative to antibiotics to control MDR A. hydrophila in tilapia and possibly other freshwater fish.

In this paper, a rapid and high accurate numerical method for pricing discrete single and double barrier knock-out call options is presented. With regard to the well-known Black-Scholes model, the price of an option in each monitoring date could be calculated by computing a recursive integral formula that is based on the heat equation solution. We have approximated these recursive solutions with the aid of Lagrange interpolation on Jacobi polynomial nodes. After that, an operational matrix, that makes our computation significantly fast, has been derived. In some theorems, the convergence of the presented method has been shown and the rate of convergence has been derived. The most important benefit of this method is that its complexity is very low and does not depend on the number of monitoring dates. The numerical results confirm the accuracy and efficiency of the presented numerical algorithm.

Retained Products of Conception as an Etiology for EndometritisPietro Bortoletto, MD1, Phillip A. Romanski, MD1, Nina Schatz-Siemers, DO2, Steven D. Spandorfer, MD11 The Ronald O. Perelman and Claudia Cohen Center for Reproductive Medicine, Weill Cornell Medical College, 1305 York Ave, 7th Floor, New York, NY 10021, USA.2 Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine, Weill Cornell Medicine-New York Presbyterian Hospital, New York, NY 10021, USA.

Pulmonary artery and pulmonary valve sarcoma are malignant and very rare vascular tumors with aggressive clinical course and very poor outcomes. Patients affected by coronavirus disease of 2019 (COVID-19) are at higher risk for thromboembolism complication. we describe young woman with history of corona virus pneumonia and progressive dyspnea, hemodynamic disturbance, edema with initial evaluation and clinical diagnosis of pulmonary thromboembolism. But further imaging study and pathology demonstrated, Giant sarcoma of pulmonary valve, obstructing pulmonary valve and extending to right ventricular outflow tract and main of pulmonary artery.

Efficient and economical separation of 1,3-butadiene (C4H6) from C4 hydrocarbons is imperative yet challenging in industrial separation processes. Herein, a guest-induced flexible Mn-bpdc MOF has been employed to separate C4H6 from C4 hydrocarbons, including n-butene (n-C4H8), iso-butene (iso-C4H8), n-butane (n-C4H10) and iso-butane (iso-C4H10). Significantly, C4H6 can instantaneously induce gate-opening of Mn-bpdc MOF at 0.13 bar and 298 K, thus significant amounts of C4H6 can be adsorbed, while other C4 hydrocarbons cannot induce the gate-opening even at 1 bar. The uptake selectivities of Mn-bpdc MOF for C4H6/n-C4H8 and C4H6/iso-C4H8 are up to 40.0 and 45.0 at 298 K and 1 bar, respectively, both surpassing all the reported adsorbents. In addition, breakthrough experiments verified that C4H6/n-C4H8, C4H6/iso-C4H8, C4H6/n-C4H10 and C4H6/iso-C4H10 mixture can be efficiently separated. More importantly, Mn-bpdc possesses excellent water stability and outstanding regeneration ability for C4H6 separation, making it a new benchmark for C4H6 purification.

In this study, different calorimetric and analytical techniques were used to evaluate the thermal behaviour of the preparation of 1-nitronaphthalene through the nitration of naphthalene with mixed acid. Differential scanning calorimetry and adiabatic calorimetry revealed that 1-nitronaphthalene lacks thermal decomposition characteristics. The results of reaction calorimetry, high-performance liquid chromatography, and the density function theory method were combined to analyse the reaction mechanism. An expanded Stoessel criticality diagram was developed to evaluate the process safety of the semibatch nitration reaction. The results revealed a higher degree of risk than that obtained when using the traditional Stoessel criticality diagram. Kinetics parameters of the reaction were investigated.

We develop a simulation toolset employing density functional theory (DFT) in conjunction with grand canonical Monte Carlo (GCMC) to study coke formation on Fe-based catalysts during propane dehydrogenation (PDH). As expected, pure Fe surfaces develop stable graphitic coke structures and rapidly deactivate. We find that coke formation is markedly less favorable on Fe3C and FeS surfaces. Fe-Al alloys display varying degrees of coke resistance, depending on their composition, suggesting that they can be optimized for coke resistance under PDH conditions. Electronic structure analyses show that both electron-withdrawing effects (on Fe3C and FeS) and electron-donating effects (on Fe-Al alloys) destabilize adsorbed carbon. On the alloy surfaces, a geometric effect also isolates Fe sites and disrupts the formation of graphitic carbon networks. This work demonstrates the utility of GCMC for studying the formation of disordered phases on catalyst surfaces and provides insights for improving the coke resistance of Fe-based PDH catalysts.

The Bayer process holds an exclusive status for alumina extraction, but a massive amount of caustic “red mud” waste is generated. In this work, three oxalate reagents: potassium hydrogen oxalate (KHC2O4), potassium tetraoxalate (KHC2O4·H2C2O4), and oxalic acid (H2C2O4) were investigated for the Al and Fe extraction process from NIST SRM 600 – Australian Darling range bauxite ore. More than 90% of Al and Fe was extracted into the aqueous phase in less than 2 h with 0.50 M C2O42- for all three reagents. The Fe and Al can be selectively precipitated by hydrolyzing the aqueous phase. By acidifying the Al and Fe free filtrate, 80% of the C2O42- can be precipitated as KHC2O4·H2C2O4. Greater than 90% of the aqueous acid can also be recycled using a cation exchange resin. The proposed closed-loop process is an energy-efficient, cost-effective, environmentally-friendly route for extracting Al and Fe from bauxite ore.