Abstract
Patient reported outcomes measures (PROMS) are important endpoints to measure patient health status in the perioperative setting. However, there are no good tools to measure PROMS in the ...pediatric surgical population. Patients 7 to 17 years old undergoing surgery were included and followed up for 1 day after surgery (POD1). At POD1 the patients were asked to rate their overall postoperative recovery using a 100-mm visual analog scale (VAS). The primary outcome was the pediatric QoR-15 score on postoperative day 1 (POD1). 150 patients completed the study. The mean (SD) pediatric QoR-15F scores were 132.1 (14.1) and 111.0 (27.0), preoperatively and on POD1, respectively. Convergent validity confirmed with Pearson (r) correlation between the postoperative pediatric QoR-15F and the patient-rated global recovery assessment was 0.72 (95% confidence interval 0.63–0.79; p < 10
–16
). Concerning reliability, internal consistency of the pediatric QoR-15 assessed by Cronbach’s alpha was 0.90. The test–retest concordance correlation coefficient was 0.92; 95% CI 0.83–0.96. Split-half alpha was 0.74. The pictorial pediatric version of the QoR-15F showed good validity, reliability, responsiveness, acceptability and feasibility. This PROMS should be considered for clinical care and research in the perioperative pediatric patient setting.
Trial Registration:
NCT04453410 on clinicaltrials.gov.
Wide low-mass substellar companions are known to be very rare among low-mass stars, but appear to become increasingly common with increasing stellar mass. However, B-type stars, which are the most ...massive stars within ~150 pc of the Sun, have not yet been examined to the same extent as AFGKM-type stars in that regard. In order to address this issue, we launched the ongoing B-star Exoplanet Abundance Study (BEAST) to examine the frequency and properties of planets, brown dwarfs, and disks around B-type stars in the Scorpius-Centaurus (Sco-Cen) association; we also analyzed archival data of B-type stars in Sco-Cen. During this process, we identified a candidate substellar companion to the B9-type spectroscopic binary HIP 79098 AB, which we refer to as HIP 79098 (AB)b. The candidate had been previously reported in the literature, but was classified as a background contaminant on the basis of its peculiar colors. Here we demonstrate that the colors of HIP 79098 (AB)b are consistent with several recently discovered young and low-mass brown dwarfs, including other companions to stars in Sco-Cen. Furthermore, we show unambiguous common proper motion over a 15-yr baseline, robustly identifying HIP 79098 (AB)b as a bona fide substellar circumbinary companion at a 345 ± 6 AU projected separation to the B9-type stellar pair. With a model-dependent mass of 16–25
M
Jup
yielding a mass ratio of <1%, HIP 79098 (AB)b joins a growing number of substellar companions with planet-like mass ratios around massive stars. Our observations underline the importance of common proper motion analysis in the identification of physical companionship, and imply that additional companions could potentially remain hidden in the archives of purely photometric surveys.
Hyperglycemia-induced oxidative stress is detrimental for endothelial cells, contributing to the vascular complications of diabetes. The mitochondrial permeability transition pore (PTP) is an ...oxidative stress-sensitive channel involved in cell death; therefore, we have examined its potential role in endothelial cells exposed to oxidative stress or high glucose level. Metformin, an antihyperglycemic agent used in type 2 diabetes, was also investigated because it inhibits PTP opening in transformed cell lines. Cyclosporin A (CsA), the reference PTP inhibitor, and a therapeutic dose of metformin (100 micromol/l) led to PTP inhibition in permeabilized human microvascular endothelial cells (HMEC-1). Furthermore, exposure of intact HMEC-1 or primary endothelial cells from either human umbilical vein or bovine aorta to the oxidizing agent tert-butylhydroperoxide or to 30 mmol/l glucose triggered PTP opening, cytochrome c decompartmentalization, and cell death. CsA or metformin prevented all of these effects. The antioxidant N-acetyl-l-cysteine also prevented hyperglycemia-induced apoptosis. We conclude that 1) elevated glucose concentration leads to an oxidative stress that favors PTP opening and subsequent cell death in several endothelial cell types and 2) metformin prevents this PTP opening-related cell death. We propose that metformin improves diabetes-associated vascular disease both by lowering blood glucose and by its effect on PTP regulation.
Gadolinium‐loaded nanomicelles show promise as future magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) contrast agents (CAs). Their increased size and high gadolinium (Gd) loading gives them an edge in proton ...relaxivity over smaller molecular Gd‐complexes. Their size and stealth properties are fundamental for their long blood residence time, opening the possibility for use as blood‐pool contrast agents. Using l‐tyrosine as a three‐functional scaffold we synthesized a nanostructure building block 8. The double C18 aliphatic chain on one side, Gd‐1,4,7,10‐tetraazacyclododecane‐1‐4‐7‐triacetic acid (Gd‐DO3A) with access to bulk water in the center and 2 kDa PEG on the hydrophilic side gave the amphiphilic properties required for the core–shell nanomicellar architecture. The self‐assembly into Gd‐loaded monodispersed 10–20 nm nanomicelles occurred spontaneously in water. These nanomicelles (Tyr‐MRI) display very high relaxivity at 29 mm−1 s−1 at low field strength and low cytotoxicity. Good contrast enhancement of the blood vessels and the heart together with prolonged circulation time in vivo, makes Tyr‐MRI an excellent candidate for a new supramolecular blood‐pool MRI CA.
A three‐functional amphiphilic nanostructure building block was synthesized from l‐tyrosine. In aqueous media the building block self‐assembled into Gd‐loaded core–shell Tyr‐MRI nanomicelles. Very high relaxivity, prolonged circulation time and contrast enhancement of the blood compartment in vivo, make Tyr‐MRI an excellent blood‐pool contrast agent for magnetic resonance imaging.
Agricultural practices significantly affect soil biodiversity and functions, altering biogeochemical cycles and potentially compromising food production. Increased employment of sustainable ...agricultural practices is of growing policy concern and requires a better understanding and quantification of how agriculture affects soil functioning. We conducted a worldwide meta-analysis by computing 4855 effect sizes from 103 publications to quantify the effect of agricultural practices on soil nematodes, known to be key biological indicators of soil health. Our meta-analysis summarized the effects of tillage, pesticides use, fertilization, manipulation of above-ground plant including cover crop, rotation and agricultural system shift (the conversion from the conventional to conservation or organic agriculture systems). We quantified how each agricultural practice alters nematode indices of ecological relevance including the absolute abundance of trophic groups, the taxonomic richness and diversity and the food web structure based on functional guilds. At the global level, organo-mineral fertilization, conservation system, cover crop and nematicides exhibited the greatest effect sizes (averaged all nematode indices) while herbicides, plant association, mineral fertilization and tillage had the lowest ones. At the level of trophic groups, the agricultural practices had varying impacts, e.g. crop rotation mainly reduced the abundance of the plant-feeding nematodes (−47%), cover crop mainly increased the abundance of omnivore-predators (+80%) while organic fertilization predominately promoted bacterial (+113%) and fungal feeders (+141%). Crop rotation reduced the absolute abundance of plant feeders by 47% when the rotation is longer than 2 years. At the community level, chemical inputs, monoculture and pesticide application reduced nematode abundance, the food web structure and favoured copiotrophic nematode communities. Biocides and nematicides reduced total abundance, Shannon diversity and the food web complexity of soil nematode (structure index). Using meta-regressions, our meta-analysis revealed that the effect of agricultural practices depends on the time since the last agricultural intervention (e.g. input of fertilizers, pesticide application) and on how long a practice has been adopted. This study will be a useful aid for decision maker to better manage soil nematode community and to identify gaps in current available literature. In providing the direction and magnitude of soil nematode responses to agricultural practices, the effect size produced by this study are critical in facilitating worldwide modelling of soil biodiversity under global change scenarios.
Display omitted
•The worldwide effects of agricultural practices on soil nematodes were quantified.•Rotation, cover crop, organic fertilization and biocides practices had the greatest effects.•Conversion from conventional to conservation agriculture increased nematode abundance and diversity.•Time since the last agricultural intervention and initial nematode abundance were identified as key moderators.•These data could help to model biodiversity under global change scenarios.
While the occurrence rate of wide giant planets appears to increase with stellar mass at least up through the A-type regime, B-type stars have not been systematically studied in large-scale surveys ...so far. It therefore remains unclear up to what stellar mass this occurrence trend continues. The B-star Exoplanet Abundance Study (BEAST) is a direct imaging survey with the extreme adaptive optics instrument SPHERE, targeting 85 B-type stars in the young Scorpius-Centaurus (Sco-Cen) region with the aim to detect giant planets at wide separations and constrain their occurrence rate and physical properties. The statistical outcome of the survey will help determine if and where an upper stellar mass limit for planet formation occurs. In this work, we describe the selection and characterization of the BEAST target sample. Particular emphasis is placed on the age of each system, which is a central parameter in interpreting direct imaging observations. We implement a novel scheme for age dating based on kinematic sub-structures within Sco-Cen, which complements and expands upon previous age determinations in the literature. We also present initial results from the first epoch observations, including the detections of ten stellar companions, of which six were previously unknown. All planetary candidates in the survey will need follow up in second epoch observations, which are part of the allocated observational programme and will be executed in the near future.
Recent observations by the B-star Exoplanet Abundance Study (BEAST) illustrate the existence of substellar companions around very massive stars. Here, we present the detection of two lower mass ...companions to a relatively nearby (148.7
−1.3
+1.5
pc), young (17
−4
+3
Myr), bright (
V
= 6.632 ± 0.006 mag), 2.58 ± 0.06
M
⊙
B9V star HIP 81208 residing in the Sco-Cen association using the Spectro-Polarimetric High-contrast Exoplanet REsearch (SPHERE) instrument at the Very Large Telescope (VLT) in Chile. Our analysis of the photometry obtained gives mass estimates of 67
−7
+6
M
J
for the inner companion and 0.135
−0.013
+0.010
M
⊙
for the outer companion, indicating that the former is most likely a brown dwarf and the latter a low-mass star. The system is compact but unusual, as the orbital planes of the two companions are likely close to orthogonal. The preliminary orbital solutions we derive for the system indicate that the star and the two companions are likely in a Kozai resonance, rendering the system dynamically very interesting for future studies.
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