The ground states of the neutral and anionic tetrafluoride and hexafluoride series of 3
-metal atoms from Sc to Zn were assigned by using a double-check approach in which the pure and hybrid density ...functional methods were interchangeably used. It was confirmed that all these neutral fluorides are superhalogens except for TiF
. The electron affinities of the hexafluorides were shown to be consistently higher than those of the tetrafluorides in accordance with the superhalogen conception of the extra electron delocalization over a larger number of the electronegative ligands. In the search for mononuclear fluorides possessing higher electron affinities, we considered the
(F
)
and
(F
)
series where
= Sc-Zn. We found that the optimized geometrical structures in both series may be described as
F
-
(F
),
= 3 and 6, of which the geometry of the
F
core mimics that of the corresponding hexafluoride anion and the F
dimers are kept in a bound state by polarizing forces. In these cases, the electron affinity is decreased by tenths of eV with respect to the electron affinity of the core hexafluorides due to a confinement of the extra electron by the F
environment.
Objectives
Pain localized to the thyrohyoid region may be due to neuralgia of the superior laryngeal nerve (SLN), inflammation of the thyrohyoid complex, or a voice disorder. We present outcomes of ...treatment of paralaryngeal pain and odynophonia with SLN block.
Study Design
Retrospective Review.
Methods
A retrospective chart review of patients undergoing in‐office SLN block for paralaryngeal pain between 2015 and 2018 at two tertiary care centers was conducted. Patient demographics, indications, and response to treatment were analyzed.
Results
Thirty‐eight patients underwent blockade of the internal branch of the SLN for paralaryngeal pain, with 10 excluded for incomplete medical records. Eighty‐two percent (23/28) reported an improvement in their symptoms. Patients underwent an average of 2.5 blocks (SD = 1.88, range 1–8), with 10 patients (36%) undergoing a single procedure. Of the 18 patients who underwent multiple blocks, nine had eventual cessation of symptoms (50%) compared to resolution in 6/10 undergoing a single injection. Eleven patients (39%) noted odynophonia related to vocal effort, and all of these patients had improvement in or resolution of their symptoms and were more likely to improve compared to those without odynophonia (P = .006). Of the four patients who had a vocal process granuloma (VPG) at presentation, three had complete resolution of the lesion at follow‐up.
Conclusion
In‐office SLN block is effective in the treatment of paralaryngeal pain. It may be used as an adjunct in the treatment of vocal process granulomas, as well as voice disorders where odynophonia is a prominent symptom.
Level of Evidence
4 Laryngoscope, 132:401–405, 2022
Neurofibromatosis 2 (NF2) is an autosomal dominant condition presenting with bilateral vestibular schwannomas and other neural tumors. Vocal fold paralysis (VFP) in NF2 patients is typically due to ...compression of the vagus nerve at the cerebellopontine angle (CPA) or vagal injury during tumor surgery. Idiopathic VFP in these patients has not been reported.
Case series.
A 15 year old female with NF2 presenting with dyspnea and dysphonia was found to have left VFP and right vocal fold paresis narrowing her glottic airway. She had no history of surgery for CPA tumors, and bilateral vestibular schwannomas were stable on imaging and not compressing the vagus nerves. Symptoms improved with voice and respiratory retraining therapy. She remains under close observation and may require surgical intervention to relieve glottic airway obstruction should her right vocal fold become immobile.
A 14-year-old male with NF2 presenting with new onset dysphonia was found to have left VFP. He had undergone surgery for a right facial neuroma and right eye enucleation 7 years prior. His left CPA tumors were stable on imaging and not compressing the vagus nerve. He has undergone two in-office injection laryngoplasties and voice therapy with improvement in dysphonia. He will be a candidate for medialization thyroplasty as an adult if his right vocal fold remains mobile.
Currently there are no reports of idiopathic VFP in patients with NF2. Given these patients’ young age and the progressive nature of NF2, they are managed with temporary interventions and observation.
Production of microalgae is a potential technology for capturing and recycling carbon dioxide from cement kiln emissions. In this study, a process of selecting a suitable strain that would ...effectively utilize carbon dioxide and generate biomass was investigated. A down-selection screening method was applied to 28 strains isolated from the area surrounding a commercial cement plant. In laboratory-scale (1 L) continuous-mode chemostats, observed productivity was > 0.9 g L
−1
d
−1
for most strains studied.
Chlorella sorokiniana
(strain SMC-14M) appeared to be the most tolerant to cement kiln gas emissions in situ, delivered under control of a pH-stat system, and was down-selected to further investigate growth and biomass production at large-scale (1000 L) cultivation. Results demonstrated little variability in lipid, crude protein, and carbohydrate composition throughout growth between kiln-gas grown algal biomass and biomass produced with laboratory grade CO
2
. The growth rate at which the maximum quantity of CO
2
from the emissions is recycled also produced the maximum amount of the targeted biomass components to increase commercial value of the biomass. An accumulation of some heavy metals throughout its growth demonstrates the necessity to monitor the biomass cultivated with industrial flue gases and to carefully consider the potential applications for this biomass; despite its other attractive nutritional properties.
Key points
•
Studied high biomass producing algal strains grown on CO
2
from cement flue gas.
•
Chlorella sorokiniana SMC-14M grew well at large scale, in situ on cement flue gas.
•
Demonstrated the resulting commercial potential of the cultured algal biomass.
Dissociation of CO
on iron clusters was studied by using semilocal density functional theory and basis sets of triple-zeta quality. Fe
, Fe
, and Fe
clusters were selected as the representative host ...clusters. When searching for isomers of Fe
CO
, n=2, 4 and 16 corresponding to carbon dioxide attachment to the host clusters, its reduction to O and CO, and to the complete dissociation, it was found that the total spin magnetic moments of the lowest energy states of the isomers are often quenched with respect to those of initial reagents Fe
+CO
. Dissociation pathways of the Fe
+CO
, Fe
+CO
, and Fe
+CO
reactions contain several transition states separated by the local minima states; therefore, a natural question is where do the spin flips occur? Since lifetimes of magnetically excited states were shown to be of the order of 100 fs, the search for the CO
dissociation pathways was performed under the assumption that magnetic deexcitation may occur at the intermediate local minima. Two dissociation pathways were obtained for each Fe
+CO
reaction using the gradient-based methods. It was found that the Fe
+CO
reaction is endothermic with respect to both reduction and complete dissociation of CO
, whereas the Fe
+CO
and Fe
+CO
reactions are exothermic to both reduction and complete dissociation of carbon dioxide. The CO
reduction was found to be more favorable than its complete dissociation in the Fe
case.
Pavlova
sp. 459 has been used as a high-quality liquid live-feed for cultivated bivalves, while this is its first evaluation as a low-trophic dry aquafeed ingredient.
Pav
459 was batch-cultivated in ...photobioreactors and prepared as an intact-cell meal (direct freeze-drying) and a cell-ruptured meal (freeze-drying following microfluidic high-pressure homogenization) and evaluated for nutritional characteristics relevant for salmonid aquafeeds. Protein quality was based on essential amino acid (EAA) profiles, chemical scores, and in vitro 2-phase gastric/pancreatic digestion (GPD) for salmonids. Nutrients were well-preserved after processing and meals contained 66% protein, 16% lipid, 7% carbohydrate, 24 MJ kg
-
1
DW energy, and 11% ash. Protein quality of the meals was good as indicated by their high EAA/non-EAA ratios (0.91), high EAA indices of 0.82–1.06 (relative to egg albumin, premium fish meal, and soy protein), high chemical scores (1.4–2.2) for most EAAs (calculated against published salmonid dietary requirements), and high in vitro GPD (82%), irrespective of cell-rupture.
Pav
459 meals contained health-promoting compounds (fucoxanthin, 358–368 mg (100 g)
-
1
DW; lutein, 101–162 mg (100 g)
-
1
DW; total phenolic compounds, 33 mg gallic acid equivalents g
−
1
DW) with negligible contaminating heavy metals (< 1 ppm) and anti-nutritional factors (ANFs) (1 TUI mg
−
1
DW trypsin inhibition; < 10 mg g
−
1
DW phytate).
Pav
459 lipid was highest in PUFA (> 60% of FAME), most of which was nutritionally superior
n
-3 series (50–52% of FAME) relative to
n
-6 series (10% of FAME). In addition, the vast majority of
n
-3 PUFA (81%) was comprised of essential LC-PUFA, eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA, 20:5
n
-3) at 3% of the meals and docosahexaenoic acid (DHA, 22:6
n
-3) at 2% of the meals.
Laryngeal cancer accounts for approximately 2.4% of new malignancies worldwide each year. Early identification of laryngeal neoplasms results in improved prognosis and functional outcomes. Imaging ...plays an integral role in the diagnosis, staging, and long-term follow-up of laryngeal cancer. This article highlights advanced laryngeal imaging techniques and their application to early glottic neoplasms.
•Review of crystalline and hydrophobic pore blocker permeability reducing admixtures.•Discussion of PRA composition, mechanism, test methods, and performance.•Lab performance varied greatly by test ...method and PRA classification.•There was insufficient field-testing data to correlate to lab performance for PRAs.•Test methods are needed to measure self-healing performance of PRAs after cracking.
Permeability-reducing admixtures (PRAs) are marketed as an option to improve the concrete durability and reduce water ingress in structures. Two categories of PRAs that have become more prominent recently are hydrophobic pore blockers and crystalline waterproofers. A literature review was performed to determine the composition, mechanism of action, test methods to indicate durability, and performance of PRAs in concrete, with focus on their use in infrastructure. The test methods for evaluating the performance of PRAs and their effects have varying degrees of frequency and standardization and there is a lack of consistency in the experimental methods used to evaluate PRAs based on the studies found in the literature; the dosage, water to cementitious ratio (w/cm), testing age, and mixture designs were variable. There remains a need for studies with both field and lab data to establish relationships between lab results and field performance to determine laboratory test method validity for PRAs.
Standard metrics for evaluating rapid response systems (RRSs) include cardiac and respiratory arrest rates. These events are rare in children; therefore, years of data are needed to evaluate the ...impact of RRSs with sufficient statistical power. We aimed to develop a valid, pragmatic measure for evaluating and optimizing RRSs over shorter periods of time.
We reviewed 724 medical emergency team and 56 code-blue team activations in a children's hospital between February 2010 and February 2011. We defined events resulting in ICU transfer and noninvasive ventilation, intubation, or vasopressor infusion within 12 hours as "critical deterioration." By using in-hospital mortality as the gold standard, we evaluated the test characteristics and validity of this proximate outcome metric compared with a national benchmark for cardiac and respiratory arrest rates, the Child Health Corporation of America Codes Outside the ICU Whole System Measure.
Critical deterioration (1.52 per 1000 non-ICU patient-days) was more than eightfold more common than the Child Health Corporation of America measure of cardiac and respiratory arrests (0.18 per 1000 non-ICU patient-days) and was associated with >13-fold increased risk of in-hospital death. The critical deterioration metric demonstrated both criterion and construct validity.
The critical deterioration rate is a valid, pragmatic proximate outcome associated with in-hospital mortality. It has great potential for complementing existing patient safety measures for evaluating RRS performance.
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