AIM To determine clear cut echocardiographic criteria for isolated ventricular non-compaction (IVNC), a cardiomyopathy as yet “unclassified” by the World Health Organization. The disease is not ...widely known and its diagnosis mostly missed. METHODS AND RESULTS In seven out of a series of 34 patients with IVNC the in vivo echocardiographic characteristics were validated against the anatomical examination of the heart removed after death in four and due to heart transplantation in three patients. Four morphological criteria diagnostic for IVNC were found. (1) Coexisting cardiac abnormalities were absent (by definition). (2) A two layer structure was seen, with a compacted thin epicardial band and a much thicker non-compacted endocardial layer of trabecular meshwork with deep endomyocardial spaces. A maximal end systolic ratio of non-compacted to compacted layers of > 2 is diagnostic. (3) The predominant localisation of the pathology was to mid-lateral (seven of seven patients), apical (six), and mid-inferior (seven) areas. The pathological preparations confirmed the echocardiographic findings. Concomitant regional hypokinesia was not confined to the non-compacted segments. (4) There was colour Doppler evidence of deep perfused intertrabecular recesses. CONCLUSIONS Four clear cut echocardiographic diagnostic criteria were established. It is suggested that the WHO classification of cardiomyopathies be reconsidered to include IVNC as a distinct cardiomyopathy.
Background
The increasing production of nanoplastics and the fragmentation of microplastics into smaller particles suggest a plausible yet unclear hazard in the natural environment, such as soil. We ...investigated the short-term effects (28 days) of polystyrene nanoparticles (PS-NPs) on the activity and biomass of soil microbiota, and the functional diversity of soil enzymes at environmental relevant low levels in an incubation experiment.
Results
Our results showed a significant decrease in microbial biomass in treatments of 100 and 1000 ng PS-NP g
−1
DM throughout the incubation period. Dehydrogenase activity and activities of enzymes involved in
N
-(leucine-aminopeptidase),
P
-(alkaline-phosphatase), and C-(β-glucosidase and cellobiohydrolase) cycles in the soil were significantly reduced at day 28 suggesting a broad and detrimental impact of PS-NPs on soil microbiota and enzymes. Leucine-aminopeptidase and alkaline-phosphatase activities tended to decrease consistently, while β-glucosidase and cellobiohydrolase activities increased at high concentrations (e.g., PS-NP-1000) in the beginning of the incubation period, e.g., at day 1. On the other hand, basal respiration and metabolic quotient increased with increasing PS-NP application rate throughout the incubation period possibly due to increased cell death that caused substrate-induced respiration (cryptic growth).
Conclusions
We herewith demonstrated for the first time the potential antimicrobial activity of PS-NPs in soil, and this may serve as an important resource in environmental risk assessment of PS-NPs in the soil environment.
The wetting and decomposition behavior of LiBH4 has been investigated in the presence of highly ordered nanoporous hard carbon (NPC) with hexagonally packed 2 nm diameter columnar pores. Calorimetry, ...X-ray diffraction, and IR spectroscopy measurements confirm that the LiBH4 within the pores is amorphous. The confinement of LiBH4 in such small pores results in the disappearance of the low-temperature structural phase transition, the melting transition, and also the significant decrease of the onset desorption temperature from 460 to 220 °C with respect to bulk LiBH4, a lower temperature than observed in larger pore sizes in the literature. Most importantly, our results suggest that diborane release is suppressed or eliminated in the decomposition of noncrystalline LiBH4. Tight nanoconfinement may therefore mitigate both safety concerns and loss of active material in borohydride-based hydrogen storage systems.
We present physics results from simulations of QCD using Nf=2 dynamical Wilson twisted mass fermions at the physical value of the pion mass. These simulations are enabled by the addition of the ...clover term to the twisted mass quark action. We show evidence that compared to previous simulations without this term, the pion mass splitting due to isospin breaking is almost completely eliminated. Using this new action, we compute the masses and decay constants of pseudoscalar mesons involving the dynamical up and down as well as valence strange and charm quarks at one value of the lattice spacing, a≈0.09 fm. Further, we determine renormalized quark masses as well as their scale-independent ratios, in excellent agreement with other lattice determinations in the continuum limit. In the baryon sector, we show that the nucleon mass is compatible with its physical value and that the masses of the Δ baryons do not show any sign of isospin breaking. Finally, we compute the electron, muon and tau lepton anomalous magnetic moments and show the results to be consistent with extrapolations of older ETMC data to the continuum and physical pion mass limits. We mostly find remarkably good agreement with phenomenology, even though we cannot take the continuum and thermodynamic limits.
We present results for the isospin-0 ππ s-wave scattering length calculated with Osterwalder-Seiler valence quarks on Wilson twisted mass gauge configurations. We use three Nf=2 ensembles with ...unitary (valence) pion mass at its physical value (250 MeV), at 240 MeV (320 MeV) and at 330 MeV (400 MeV), respectively. By using the stochastic Laplacian Heaviside quark smearing method, all quark propagation diagrams contributing to the isospin-0 ππ correlation function are computed with sufficient precision. The chiral extrapolation is performed to obtain the scattering length at the physical pion mass. Our result Mπa0I=0=0.198(9)(6) agrees reasonably well with various experimental measurements and theoretical predictions. Since we only use one lattice spacing, certain systematics uncertainties, especially those arising from unitary breaking, are not controlled in our result.
We present results for the interaction of two kaons at maximal isospin. The calculation is based on Nf=2+1+1 flavor gauge configurations generated by the European Twisted Mass Collaboration with pion ...masses ranging from about 230 MeV to 450 MeV at three values of the lattice spacing. The elastic scattering length a0I=1 is calculated at several values of the bare strange and light quark masses. We find MKa0=−0.385(16)stat(+0−12)ms(+0−5)ZP(4)rf as the result of a combined extrapolation to the continuum and to the physical point, where the first error is statistical, and the three following are systematical. This translates to a0=−0.154(6)stat(−5+0)ms(−2+0)ZP(2)rffm.
In this paper we explore the computation of topological susceptibility and η′ meson mass in Nf=2 flavor QCD using lattice techniques with a physical value of the pion mass as well as larger pion mass ...values. We observe that the physical point can be reached without a significant increase in the statistical noise. The mass of the η′ meson can be obtained from both fermionic two point functions and topological charge density correlation functions, giving compatible results. With the pion mass dependence of the η′ mass being flat we arrive at Mη′=772(18) MeV without an explicit continuum limit. For the topological susceptibility we observe a linear dependence on Mπ2, however, with an additional constant stemming from lattice artifacts.
Directly observed therapy (DOT) is a widely recommended and promoted strategy to manage tuberculosis (TB), however, there is still disagreement about the role of DOT in TB control and the impact it ...has on reducing the acquisition and transmission of drug resistant TB. This study compares the portion of drug resistant genotype clusters, representing recent transmission, within and between communities implementing programs differing only in their directly observed therapy (DOT) practices.
Genotype clusters were defined as 2 or more patient members with matching IS6110 restriction fragment length polymorphism (RFLP) and spoligotype patterns from all culture-positive tuberculosis cases diagnosed between January 1, 1995 and December 31, 2001. Logistic regression was used to compute maximum-likelihood estimates of odds ratios (ORs) and 95% confidence intervals (CIs) comparing cluster members with and without drug resistant isolates. In the universal DOT county, all patients received doses under direct observation of health department staff; whereas in selective DOT county, the majority of received patients doses under direct observation of health department staff, while some were able to self-administer doses.
Isolates from 1,706 persons collected during 1,721 episodes of tuberculosis were genotyped. Cluster members from the selective DOT county were more than twice as likely than cluster members from the universal DOT county to have at least one isolate resistant to isoniazid, rifampin, and/or ethambutol (OR = 2.3, 95% CI: 1.7, 3.1). Selective DOT county isolates were nearly 5 times more likely than universal DOT county isolates to belong to clusters with at least 2 resistant isolates having identical resistance patterns (OR = 4.7, 95% CI: 2.9, 7.6).
Universal DOT for tuberculosis is associated with a decrease in the acquisition and transmission of resistant tuberculosis.
COVID-19 is a global pandemic that continues to spread around the world, including to Africa where cases are steadily increasing. The African Centres for Disease Control and Prevention is leading the ...pandemic response in Africa, with direction from the World Health Organization guidelines for critical preparedness, readiness, and response actions. These are written for national governments, lacking nuance for population and local differences. In the greater Horn of Africa, conditions unique to pastoralists such as inherent mobility and limited health and service infrastructure will influence the dynamics of COVID-19. In this paper, we present a One Health approach to the pandemic, consisting of interdisciplinary and intersectoral collaboration focused on the determinants of health and health outcomes amongst pastoralists. Our contextualized public health strategy includes community One Health teams and suggestions for where to implement targeted public health measures. We also analyse the interaction of COVID-19 impacts, including those caused directly by the disease and those that result from control efforts, with ongoing shocks and vulnerabilities in the region (e.g. desert locusts, livestock disease outbreaks, floods, conflict, and development displacement). We give recommendations on how to prepare for and respond to the COVID-19 pandemic and its secondary impacts on pastoral areas. Given that the full impact of COVID-19 on pastoral areas is unknown currently, our health recommendations focus on disease prevention and understanding disease epidemiology. We emphasize targeting pastoral toponymies with public health measures to secure market access and mobility while combating the direct health impacts of COVID-19. A contextualized approach for the COVID-19 public health response in pastoral areas in the Greater Horn of Africa, including how the pandemic will interact with existing shocks and vulnerabilities, is required for an effective response, while protecting pastoral livelihoods and food, income, and nutrition security.
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