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The spatial organisation of Orai channels and SERCA pumps within ER-PM junctions is important for enhancing the versatility and specificity of sub-cellular Ca 2+ signals generated during store operated Ca 2+ entry (SOCE). In this paper, we present a novel three dimensional spatio-temporal model describing Ca 2+ dynamics in the ER-PM junction and sub-PM ER during SOCE. We investigate the role of Orai channel and SERCA pump location to provide insights into how these components shape the Ca 2+ signals generated and affect ER refilling. We find that the organisation of Orai channels within the ER-PM junction controls the amplitude and shape of the Ca 2+ profile but does not enhance ER refilling. The model shows that ER refilling is only weakly affected by the location of SERCA2b pumps within the ER-PM junction and that the placement of SERCA2a pumps within the ER-PM junction has much greater control over ER refilling. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Human papillomavirus (HPV) is the most common sexually transmitted infection in the United States and is a well-known cause of oropharyngeal, cervical, vaginal, vulvar, penile, and anal cancers. Despite the proven efficacy of the HPV vaccine, vaccination rates remain persistently low. Much literature has focused on attitudes toward the HPV vaccine; however, researchers have also investigated strategies clinicians can use to improve vaccination attitudes and acceptance. Such strategies include provider education, vaccine reminder/recall, and chart audit and feedback. The purpose of this integrative review is to uncover the best evidence-based practice interventions, with the aim of improving HPV knowledge, patient–provider conversations, and immunization uptake. This integrative review concludes that multicomponent interventions have a synergistic effect, resulting in increased provider vaccine support, improved patient/parental attitudes toward HPV vaccination, and increased immunization uptake. Such strategies hold much promise for today's pediatric providers as they work to combat current vaccination disparities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Language Nutrition, a term created to describe language exposure that is rich in quality and quantity and delivered in the context of social interactions, is crucial for a child's development and is strongly associated with his/her future literacy, academic achievement, and health. However, significant differences in children's early language environments contribute to disparities in their educational and health trajectories. Interventions, including book distribution programs, coaching parents to enrich their child's language environment, and public awareness campaigns, have all been shown to positively influence a child's access to language-rich interactions. Incorporating Language Nutrition coaching and literacy promotion into pediatrics is a promising platform for building the capacity of parents to provide language exposure to their children. By teaching parents both how and why to treat their child as a conversational partner and by modeling such interactions, pediatric health care providers can help parents set their children on a pathway toward literacy, educational success, and health. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Three-dimensional imaging of the tracer concentration field is demonstrated at a rate of 20 kHz in a turbulent gaseous free jet. The acetone tracer species that is seeded into the jet is excited by the fourth-harmonic output of a Nd:YAG burst-mode laser. The laser beam is expanded and re-collimated to a 35-mm-diameter beam and passed through a diffuser to reduce spatial variations within the beam profile. Seven high-speed cameras coupled to high-speed intensifiers with vertical stereoscopes collect fourteen simultaneous views of the fluorescence emission. The images are processed and a linear relationship between signal intensity and acetone concentration was verified. Eight of the fourteen processed views are then reconstructed into volumes using a simultaneous multiplicative algebraic-reconstruction technique, limited by the software. The mixing behavior is characterized and compared with turbulent-jet scaling laws and data from the literature at similar conditions. The accuracy, precision, and limitations of the technique are discussed, and potential strategies for implementation in reacting flows are considered. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Early childhood is a critical period for language and cognitive development. Evidence suggests that children need “language nutrition”, or language-rich interactions with caregivers, for optimal language and cognitive development. This integrated review was conducted to evaluate the influence of language nutrition, through talking, interacting, or reading, in early childhood and language or cognitive development. Articles published from 1990–2014 were identified through PubMed, CINAHL, and Web of Science databases and through reference lists of identified articles. Of the 1273 articles identified, 103 articles met the search criteria. Aspects of speech, including the quantity of words, lexical diversity, linguistic and syntactical complexity, intonation, and prosody, all contribute to the comprehension and production of language through enhancing speech processing, phonemic awareness, word segmentation, and knowledge of grammatical rules. In addition to features of language, the delivery of language contributes to variance in developmental outcomes. Language delivered in the context of an adult–child interaction characterized by responsiveness and positive regard helps to scaffold a child’s learning and encourages verbal behaviors. Additionally, shared reading increases language and literacy skills by introducing new vocabulary and facilitating dialogue between children and adults. In conclusion, studies consistently demonstrate that quantity and quality of talking, interacting, and reading with a child in the first three years of life are strongly associated with language and cognitive development as well as school readiness and academic performance. As a result, interventions aimed at increasing the quality and quantity of language nutrition have the potential to leverage dramatic results for children’s developmental outcomes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective To compare the results of elective open surgical repair (OSR) and total endovascular repair of juxtarenal aortic aneurysms (JAA), with either the Cook Zenith or the Vascutek Anaconda fenestrated stent grafts (F-EVAR) in a university hospital setting. Patients and methods Between April 1999 and July 2014, of 926 patients with an abdominal aortic aneurysm, 69 were juxtarenal, where 34 had an elective OSR and 35 had F-EVAR. A post-operative rise of baseline creatinine by >50% and/or deterioration of estimated glomerular filtration rate by 25% were defined as renal failure. Results The demographics of the patients were similar except for heart insufficiency, peripheral arterial disease, and pre-existing renal artery stenosis ( p < .05). Median aneurysm diameters were 57 mm (range 50–80 mm) and 56 mm (range 36–64 mm) ( p = .194), respectively, and the median pre-operative serum creatinine levels were 94 μmol/L (range 65–286 μmol/L) and 96 μmol/L (range 57–333 μmol/L) ( p = .871) with median estimated glomerular filtration rate of 68 mL/min (range 21–117 mL/min) and 70 mL/min (range 18–114 mL/min) ( p = .308) in the open and endovascular groups, respectively. The technical success (OSR versus F-EVAR) was 100% versus 94.3% with complete exclusion of the aneurysms in all cases. Median procedure time was 171 versus 188 min. During median in hospital stay of 11 versus 7 days ( p = .05), mortality was 0 versus 2.9% and new onset of post-operative renal insufficiency was detected in 26.5% versus 8.5% patients ( p = .05), although with 11.8% versus 5.7% being persistent ( p = .428). During follow up, statistically similar new (late or persistent post-operative) renal insufficiency was detected in 14.7% versus 8.8% with dialysis in 3% of patients in each group with similar mortality within the 24 months. Conclusions This retrospective analysis demonstrates that OSR might be combined with more acute post-operative renal impairment than F-EVAR for JAA, but with similar intermediate term procedure related mortality and renal outcomes. Article history: [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Introduction Lipoxygenase pathway yields both pro-inflammatory leukotrienes and pro-resolving lipoxins. The aim of the present study was to determine the effects of T-lymphocytes and pro-inflammatory stimuli on the expression levels of the lipoxin FPR2/ALX receptor, and the leukotriene BLT1 receptor in monocytes and macrophages, and to characterize LXA4-induced effects on pro-inflammatory mediators. Methods Human macrophages were co-cultured with activated CD4 + cells. THP-1 cells were stimulated with different cytokines, LXA4 and supernatant from activated CD4 + cells. mRNA was extracted for qPCR experiments and protein was analyzed by flow cytometry. Results Co-culture of macrophages with activated CD4 + cells or their supernatants up-regulated macrophage FPR2/ALX expression but did not alter BLT1 receptor expression. Monocyte stimulation with IFN-γ up-regulated FPR2/ALX mRNA and protein levels, whereas BLT1 mRNA was down-regulated. Finally, LXA4 decreased mRNA levels of MMP-9, CXCL16, IL-1β, and IL-8 in THP-1 cells. Conclusion The present study shows that pro-inflammatory stimuli lead to FPR2/ALX expression. LXA4 induces an anti-inflammatory response, which could participate in the resolution of inflammation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: Experimental methods of infrared, Raman and electronic absorption spectroscopy and DFT calculations using B3LYP functionals and 6-31G** and 6-311++G** basis sets have been used to understand the structural and spectral characteristics of 2-pyranones, 6-phenyl-4-methylsulfanyl-2-oxo-2H-pyran and 6-phenyl-4-methylsulfanyl-2-oxo-2H-pyran-3-carbonitrile in the electronic ground (S0) and first excited (S1) states. Information about the size, shape, charge density distribution and site of chemical reactivity of the molecules has been obtained by mapping electron density isosurface with electrostatic potential surfaces (ESP). Based on TD-DFT calculations using 6-31+G**5D basis set, an assignment of absorption peaks in the UV–VIS region has been suggested. The S1 state is found to be a 1(π,π*) state. A complete vibrational analysis has been attempted on the basis of experimental infrared and Raman spectra and calculated frequency and intensity of the vibrational bands and potential energy distribution over the internal coordinates. Characteristic vibrational bands of the 2-pyranone ring and methylsulfanyl and carbonyl groups have been identified. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: We present a bidomain threshold model of intracellular calcium (Ca2+) dynamics in which, as suggested by recent experiments, the cytosolic threshold for Ca2+ liberation is modulated by the Ca2+ concentration in the releasing compartment. We explicitly construct stationary fronts and determine their stability using an Evans function approach. Our results show that a biologically motivated choice of a dynamic threshold, as opposed to a constant threshold, can pin stationary fronts that would otherwise be unstable. This illustrates a novel mechanism to stabilise pinned interfaces in continuous excitable systems. Our framework also allows us to compute travelling pulse solutions in closed form and systematically probe the wave speed as a function of physiologically important parameters. We find that the existence of travelling wave solutions depends on the time scale of the threshold dynamics, and that facilitating release by lowering the cytosolic threshold increases the wave speed. The construction of the Evans function for a travelling pulse shows that of the co-existing fast and slow solutions the slow one is always unstable. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Background & Aims: The US Medicare indications for intestinal transplantation are based on failure of home parenteral nutrition. The American Society of Transplantation also includes patients at high risk of death from their primary disease or with high morbidity intestinal failure. A 3-year prospective study evaluated the appropriateness of these indications. Methods: Survival on home parenteral nutrition or after transplantation was analyzed in 153 (97 adult, 56 pediatric) candidates for transplantation and 320 (262 adult, 58 pediatric) noncandidates, enrolled through a European multicenter cross-sectional survey performed in 2004. Kaplan–Meier and chi-square test statistics were used. Results: The 3-year survival was 94% (95% CI, 92%–97%) in noncandidates and 87% (95% CI, 81%–93%) in candidates not receiving transplants (P = .007). Survival was 80% (95% CI, 70%–89%), 93% (95% CI, 86%–100%), and 100% in parenteral nutrition failure, high-risk primary disease, and high-morbidity intestinal failure, respectively (P = .034). Fifteen candidates underwent transplantation. Six died, including all 3 of those who were in hospital, and 25% of those who were at home at time of transplantation (P = .086). Survival in the 10 patients receiving a first isolated small bowel transplant was 89% (95% CI, 70%–100%), compared with 85% (95% CI, 74%–96%) in the candidates with parenteral nutrition failure not receiving transplants because of central venous catheter complications, or 70% (95% CI, 53%–88%) in those with parenteral nutrition–related liver failure (P = .364). Conclusions: The results confirm home parenteral nutrition as the primary therapeutic option for intestinal failure and support the appropriateness and potential life-saving role of timely intestinal transplantation for patients with parenteral nutrition failure. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Sarcoidosis is a granulomatous disease of unknown etiology and is only rarely seen in infants and children. We present the case of a 9-year-old boy who developed sarcoidosis with multi-organ involvement 9 years after cardiac transplantation for Shone complex. The patient was on immunosuppressive therapy with tacrolimus and mycophenolate mofetil. He presented with severe respiratory distress due to marked mediastinal lymphadenopathy and bilateral pulmonary infiltrates in association with fatigue, low-grade fever, hepatosplenomegaly and generalized lymphadenopathy. Lymph node histology showed non-caseating epitheloid cell granulomas and giant cells. Initialization of therapy with prednisolone resulted in prompt clinical recovery and resolution of all symptoms except for the development of mild pulmonary fibrosis. Tapering of the steroids led to recurrence of mediastinal lymphadenopathy 5 months after the initial disease, which responded to an increase in steroid dose. The clinical course, the medical management, and the possible role of immunosuppression in the etiology of the disease are discussed. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Summary: Introduction & aim: To gather information about how adult patients on home parenteral nutrition (HPN) are monitored after discharge from the hospital. Method: A questionnaire about HPN monitoring practice was circulated to HPN centres in eight European countries through the representative of the ESPEN 1 [1] The European Society for Clinical Nutrition and Metabolism. HAN-working group 2 [2] Home Artificial Nutrition–working group. . Centres were asked about guidelines, home visits and how monitoring and handling of complications were managed. Results: Fourty-two centres in eight European countries completed the questionnaire: UK , France , Belgium , Italy , Poland , Denmark , Spain , Germany . The HPN experience of the centres was in the range 2–30 years. Centres ranged in size from 0 to 125 HPN patients representing a total number of 934 of whom 54% had received HPN for more than 2 years. The primary disease was non-malignant in 90% whilst 10% had been diagnosed with active cancer. Of the centres 92% had a HPN team and 66% had written guidelines for monitoring HPN. Home visits after discharge for monitoring purposes were carried out by 31 of the centres involving the HPN team, general practitioner, community nurse or home care agency. Stable patients on HPN for more than 12 months were monitored at the discharging hospital (73%), at a local hospital (12%), by the General Practitioner (11%) or by a home care agency (4%). Of the centres, 90% reported that the main responsibility for monitoring was assigned to a specific person. The intervals between monitoring visits for the stable HPN patient was in the range 1–6 months, 52% of the centres reported intervals of 2–3 months. In case of complications 76% of centres reported that patients got in touch with the HPN team, 2% the local hospital, 5% the home care agency, and 17% other. Re-admission to hospital was usually to the HPN centre and only occasionally to a local hospital. Conclusion: In Europe a specialised team at the discharging hospital monitors HPN patients and 66% of the centres had some kind of written guidelines. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Summary: Undernutrition as well as specific nutrient deficiencies have been described in patients with Crohn''s disease (CD), ulcerative colitis (UC) and short bowel syndrome (SBS). The present guideline gives evidence-based recommendations for the indication, application and type of formula of enteral nutrition (EN) (oral nutritional supplements (ONS) or tube feeding (TF)) in these patients. It was developed in an interdisciplinary consensus-based process in accordance with officially accepted standards and is based on all relevant publications since 1985. ONS and/or TF in addition to normal food is indicated in undernourished patients with CD or CU to improve nutritional status. In active CD EN is the first line therapy in children and should be used as sole therapy in adults mainly when treatment with corticosteroids is not feasible. No significant differences have been shown in the effects of free amino acid, peptide-based and whole protein formulae for TF. In remission ONS is recommended only in steroid dependent patients in CD. In patients with SBS TF should be introduced in the adaptation phase and should be changed with progressing adaptation to ONS in addition to normal food. The full version of this article is available at www.espen.org. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

• We compared two modeling approaches applied to data with by-trial fluctuations. • Linear Mixed-Effects Models (LMEMs) did not show excess false positive rates. • Generalized Additive Mixed Models (GAMMs) impaired between-subject power. • Randomization is sufficient defense against by-trial noise in experimental datasets. Data from each subject in a repeated-measures experiment form a time series, which may include trial-by-trial fluctuations arising from human factors such as practice or fatigue. Concerns about the statistical implications of such effects have increased the popularity of Generalized Additive Mixed Models (GAMMs), a powerful technique for modeling wiggly patterns. We question these statistical concerns and investigate the costs and benefits of using GAMMs relative to linear mixed-effects models (LMEMs). In two sets of Monte Carlo simulations, LMEMs that ignored time-varying effects were no more prone to false positives than GAMMs. Although GAMMs generally boosted power for within-subject effects, they reduced power for between-subject effects, sometimes to a severe degree. Our results signal the importance of proper subject-level randomization as the main defense against statistical artifacts due to by-trial fluctuations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Implementation of filament applications in practical settings requires robust field testing facilities. • The MU-HELF is a compact, stable ultrafast source providing multi-terawatt outputs suitable for long-range filament studies. • The associated testing infrastructure enables the characterization of multi-filament atmospheric propagation while recording metrological conditions. • Preliminary studies have demonstrated accurate filament measurements and the first demonstration of large scale engineered filament arrays at 1 km. We present the design, performance, and initial activation of the Mobile Ultrafast High Energy Laser Facility, a 5 TW near-infrared laser source located on a multi-km test range at Kennedy Space Center. The system is compact, readily transportable, and provides a robust, tunable output suitable for long range studies of high intensity laser propagation. The supporting testing infrastructure, which includes stand-alone beam diagnostic stations and atmospheric monitoring capabilities, makes this facility ideal for the development of stand-off high energy ultrafast applications and fundamental studies of atmospheric laser science. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Oxytocin is hypothesized to have a role in postpartum depression. • Synthetic oxytocin (Pitocin) is regularly administered to women during labor and immediately postpartum. • Literature studying the relationship between both endogenous and synthetic oxytocin and postpartum depression are reviewed. Postpartum depression (PPD) is a significant mental health concern, especially for women in vulnerable populations. Oxytocin (OT), a hormone essential for a variety of maternal tasks, including labor, lactation, and infant bonding, has also been hypothesized to have a role in postpartum depression. Women are routinely given synthetic oxytocin to induce or augment labor and to prevent postpartum hemorrhage. The aim of this study was to review the quality and reliability of literature that examines potential relationships between OT and PPD to determine if there is sufficient data to reliably assess the strength of these relationships. We conducted a literature search in December of 2018 using five databases (PubMed, Web of Science, Embase, PsycInfo, and CINAHL). Eligible studies were identified, selected, and appraised using the Newcastle-Ottawa quality assessment scale and Cochrane Collaboration's tool for assessing risk of bias, as appropriate. Sixteen studies were included in the analysis and broken into two categories: correlations of endogenous OT with PPD and administration of synthetic OT with PPD. Depressive symptoms were largely measured using the Edinburgh Postnatal Depression Scale. OT levels were predominately measured in plasma, though there were differences in laboratory methodology and control of confounders (primarily breast feeding). Of the twelve studies focused on endogenous oxytocin, eight studies suggested an inverse relationship between plasma OT levels and depressive symptoms. We are not able to draw any conclusions regarding the relationship between intravenous synthetic oxytocin and postpartum depression based on current evidence due to the heterogeneity and small number of studies (n = 4). Considering limitations of the current literature and the current clinical prevalence of synthetic OT administration, we strongly recommend that rigorous studies examining the effects of synthetic OT exposure on PPD should be performed as well as continued work in defining the relationship between endogenous OT and PPD. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Buildings are responsible for a large portion of the overall energy consumption. With the rising penetration of renewable energies, the heating and cooling demand of buildings will be increasingly satisfied by heat pumps. However, faults in the heat pump systems reduce energy efficiency or cause system failure, leading to an increased demand for primary energy. Hence, fault detection algorithms (FDA) are used to identify faults before system failure or efficiency deterioration occurs. With the rise of artificial intelligence and big data as well as more detailed monitoring systems, data-driven FDA have become a focus of research in recent years, showing promising results with acceptable effort. However, studies often use specific training data sets, thus generating FDAs adapted to a specific experimental system. In this paper, we investigate whether FDAs trained on a fault data set gathered with a laboratory heat pump system can be deployed on a real-world application system without the need for expensive modifications. We also investigate a big data approach, in which we use data collected over an extended period of time to train the FDAs. To this end, we use a data set kindly provided by the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) containing data for typical heat pump failures measured on a specially outfitted air-water heat pump. From this data, we extract a series of features as input for the FDAs and evaluate the importance of those features for the FDAs. We train the algorithms to detect faults on the NIST data set, and transfer the fitted FDAs to our own measurement data. The results show that the trained FDAs perform very well on the NIST data set, but poorly on the real-world data set. We identify several reasons for the FDAs' poor performance and derive mitigating actions. We believe that big data approaches for FDAs are facing several issues beyond the simple gathering of large data quantities, especially the labelling of occurred faults and completeness of the data set. • State-of-the-art machine learning was applied to experimental and building data. • Even simple fault detection algorithms provide good results when the training data is good. • Models were transferred to real-world building data. • Differences between Experiment and Real world are too significant to allow simple transfer of laboratory algorithms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Through a series of complex surgical and interventional procedures including downsizing of an unrestricted atrial septal defect, aortic arch reconstruction, pulmonary artery banding, reversed Potts shunt, and Melody valve in a mitral position, biventricular conversion was successfully achieved in a patient with a distinct borderline left ventricle. By use of these interventional steps, flow-mediated and load-mediated growth of a small left ventricle was observed, highlighting the plasticity of hearts in growing children. Surgical and catheter interventional teamwork may lead to fascinating results, provoking us to quote Aristotle’s wisdom: “The whole is more than the sum of its parts.” [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective This retrospective study presents our operative results, mortality, and morbidity with regard to pulmonary artery growth and reinterventions on the pulmonary artery and aortic arch, including key features of our institutional standards for the 3-stage hybrid palliation of patients with hypoplastic left heart syndrome. Methods Between June 1998 and February 2015, 182 patients with hypoplastic left heart structures underwent the Giessen hybrid stage I procedure. Among these, 126 patients with hypoplastic left heart syndrome who received a univentricular palliation or heart transplantation were included in the main analysis. Median age and body weight of patients at hybrid stage I were 6 days (0-237) and 3.2 kg (1.2-7), respectively. Comprehensive stage II operation was performed at 4.5 months (2.9-39.5), and Fontan completion was established at 33.7 months (21.1-108.2). Operative and interstage mortality, morbidity, growth and reinterventions on the pulmonary arteries, and long-term operative results of the aortic arch reconstruction were assessed. Results Median follow-up time after Giessen hybrid stage I palliation was 4.6 years (0-16.8). Operative mortality at hybrid stage I, comprehensive stage II, and Fontan completion was 2.5%, 4.9%, and 0%, respectively. Cumulative interstage mortality was 14.2%. At 10 years, the probability of survival is 77.8%. Body weight (<2.5 kg) and aortic atresia had no significant impact on survival. McGoon ratio did not differ at comprehensive stage II and Fontan completion ( P = .991). Freedom from pulmonary artery intervention was estimated to be 32.2% at 10 years. Aortic arch reinterventions were needed in 16.7% of patients; 2 reoperations on the aortic arch were necessary. Conclusions In view of the early results and long-term outcome, the hybrid approach has become an alternative to the conventional strategy to treat neonates with hypoplastic left heart syndrome and variants. Further refinements are warranted to decrease patient morbidity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]