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We present the open source micromagnetic framework, MagTense, which utilizes a novel discretization approach of rectangular cuboid or tetrahedron geometry “tiles” to analytically calculate the demagnetization field. Each tile is assumed to be uniformly magnetized, and from this assumption only, the demagnetization field can be analytically calculated. Using this novel approach we calculate the solution to the mag standard micromagnetic problems 2, 3 and 4 and find that the MagTense framework accurately predicts the solution to each of these. Finally, we show that simulation time can be significantly improved by performing the dense demagnetization tensor matrix multiplications using NVIDIA CUDA.

The everyday lives of Danish inhabitants have been affected by the COVID-19 pandemic, e.g., by social distancing, which was employed by the government in March 2020 to prevent the spread of SARS-CoV-2. Moreover, the pandemic has entailed economic consequences for many people. This study aims to assess changes in physical and mental health-related quality of life (MCS, PCS), in stress levels, and quality of sleep during the COVID-19 pandemic and to identify factors that impact such changes, using a prospective national cohort study including 26,453 participants from the Danish Blood Donor Study who answered a health questionnaire before the pandemic and during the pandemic. Descriptive statistics, multivariable linear and multinomial logistic regression analyses were applied. A worsening of MCS and quality of sleep was found, and an overall decrease in stress levels was observed. PCS was decreased in men and slightly increased in women. The extent of health changes was mainly affected by changes in job situation, type of job, previous use of anti-depressive medication and the participants' level of personal stamina. Thus, living under the unusual circumstances that persisted during the COVID-19 pandemic has had a negative impact on the health of the general population. This may, in time, constitute a public health problem.

The risk factors and disease implications of hyperhidrosis are unknown. The objectives of this retrospective cohort study were to estimate the prevalence of hyperhidrosis and to compare demographic, life-style, and socioeconomic parameters in blood donors with and without self-reported or hospital-diagnosed hyperhidrosis. The study included blood donors from the Danish Blood Donor Study for the period 2010-2019. Registry data were collected from Statistics Denmark. Overall, 2,794 of 30,808 blood donors (9.07%; 95% confidence interval (95% CI) 8.75-9.40) had self-reported hyperhidrosis and 284 of 122,225 (0.23%; 95% CI 0.21-0.26) had hospital-diagnosed hyperhidrosis. Self-reported hyperhidrosis was associated with smoking (odds ratio (OR) 1.17; 95% CI 1.05-1.31), overweight (OR 1.72; 95% CI 1.58-1.87), "unemployed" (OR 1.60; 95% CI 1.24-2.08), "short education" (OR 0.76; 95% CI 0.64-0.90), and lower income (beta-coefficient -26,121; 95% CI -37,931, -14,311). Hospital-diagnosed hyperhidrosis did not differ from controls. Thus, self-reported hyperhidrosis was associated with potential hyperhidrosis risk factors (smoking, overweight) and disease implications (unemployment, low education level and income).

Purpose: Pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC) is one of the most lethal solid tumors. Most patients are diagnosed at an advanced stage where curative surgery is not an option. The aim of this study was to identify a panel of circulating proteins that could distinguish patients with PDAC from non-PDAC individuals. Experimental Design: We investigated 92 proteins known to be involved in inflammation, development, and progression of PDAC using the Olink immuno-oncology panel in serum samples from 701 patients with PDAC (stage I-IV), 102 patients with nonmalignant pancreatic diseases, and 180 healthy blood donors. Patients were included prospectively between 2008 and 2018. Plasma carbohydrate antigen 19-9 (CA19-9) was measured in all samples. The protein panels with the best diagnostic performances were developed by two bioinformaticians working independently, using LASSO and Ridge regression models. Results: Two panels of proteins (index I, containing 9 proteins+ CA19-9, and index II, containing 23 proteins + CA19-9) were identified. Index I was able to discriminate patients with PDAC from all patients with non-PDAC, with a ROC AUC value of 0.92 [95% confidence interval (CI), 0.89-0.96] in the discovery cohort and 0.92 (95% CI, 0.87-0.97) in the replication cohort. For index II, the AUC value was 0.96 (95% CI, 0.95-0.98) in the discovery cohort and 0.93 (95% CI, 0.90-0.96) in the replication cohort. All nine serum proteins of index I were found in index II. Conclusions: This study identified two circulating protein indices with the potential to discriminate between individuals with and without PDAC.

Background: Allergic rhinitis (AR), allergic conjunctivitis (AC), and asthma composing multiple phenotypes and improved understanding of these phenotypes and their respective risk factors are needed. Objectives: The objective of this study was to define the prevalence of AR, AC, and asthma and their association with allergen-specific immunoglobulin E (sIgE) sensitization in a large cohort of blood donors and identify risk factors. Methods: From the nationwide population-based Danish Blood Donor Study, 52,976 participants completed an electronic questionnaire including AR, AC, asthma, allergic predisposition, and childhood residence. Of these, 25,257 were additionally tested for sIgE to inhalation allergens (Phadiatop). Results: The prevalence of sIgE sensitization, AR, AC, and asthma was 30%, 19%, 15%, and 9%, respectively. The youngest birth cohorts had the highest prevalence of sIgE sensitization and symptoms of asthma, AR, and AC, and for asthma, they apparently experienced symptoms at an earlier age. The sIgE sensitization was positively associated with male sex. The sIgE seroprevalence was higher in participants with both AR and AC (ARC) than in participants with either AR or AC. Allergic predisposition and sIgE sensitization increased the risk of the diseases, while farm upbringing was associated with reduced prevalence of ARC, however, only in sIgE sensitized participants. Conclusion: Birth year, childhood residence, sIgE sensitization, and allergic predisposition were associated with asthma, AR, and AC prevalence. Individuals with self-reported ARC represent a primarily sIgE-positive phenotype, while those with either AR or AC represent more diverse phenotypes.

AIMS: The aim of this study was to use human genetics to investigate the pathogenesis of sick sinus syndrome (SSS) and the role of risk factors in its development.METHODS AND RESULTS: We performed a genome-wide association study of 6469 SSS cases and 1 000 187 controls from deCODE genetics, the Copenhagen Hospital Biobank, UK Biobank, and the HUNT study. Variants at six loci associated with SSS, a reported missense variant in MYH6, known atrial fibrillation (AF)/electrocardiogram variants at PITX2, ZFHX3, TTN/CCDC141, and SCN10A and a low-frequency (MAF = 1.1-1.8%) missense variant, p.Gly62Cys in KRT8 encoding the intermediate filament protein keratin 8. A full genotypic model best described the p.Gly62Cys association (P = 1.6 × 10-20), with an odds ratio (OR) of 1.44 for heterozygotes and a disproportionally large OR of 13.99 for homozygotes. All the SSS variants increased the risk of pacemaker implantation. Their association with AF varied and p.Gly62Cys was the only variant not associating with any other arrhythmia or cardiovascular disease. We tested 17 exposure phenotypes in polygenic score (PGS) and Mendelian randomization analyses. Only two associated with the risk of SSS in Mendelian randomization, AF, and lower heart rate, suggesting causality. Powerful PGS analyses provided convincing evidence against causal associations for body mass index, cholesterol, triglycerides, and type 2 diabetes (P > 0.05).CONCLUSION: We report the associations of variants at six loci with SSS, including a missense variant in KRT8 that confers high risk in homozygotes and points to a mechanism specific to SSS development. Mendelian randomization supports a causal role for AF in the development of SSS.

Bell’s palsy is the most common cause of unilateral facial paralysis and is defined as an idiopathic and acute inability to control movements of the facial muscles on the affected side. While the pathogenesis remains unknown, previous studies have implicated post-viral inflammation and resulting compression of the facial nerve. Reported heritability estimates of 4–14% suggest a genetic component in the etiology and an autosomal dominant inheritance has been proposed. Here, we report findings from a meta-analysis of genome-wide association studies uncovering the first unequivocal association with Bell’s palsy (rs9357446-A; P = 6.79 × 10−23, OR = 1.23; Ncases = 4714, Ncontrols = 1,011,520). The variant also confers risk of intervertebral disc disorders (P = 2.99 × 10−11, OR = 1.04) suggesting a common pathogenesis in part or a true pleiotropy.

Background: Blood donors report better health-related quality of life (HRQL) than non-donors. Likewise, donors reporting good health are less likely to stop donating and have a higher donation frequency. This is evidence of the healthy donor effect (HDE). This study is the first to investigate the impact of HRQL and depressive symptoms on subsequent donor career. Study Design and Methods: Prospective cohort study includes 102,065 participants from the Danish Blood Donor Study applying the 12-item short-form health survey (SF-12) measuring a mental (MCS) and a physical component score (PCS) and the Major Depression Inventory (MDI). Poisson and Cox regression models were used to assess the effect of SF-12 and MDI scores on donation frequency and donor cessation. Higher MCS/PCS scores indicate good HRQL, while higher MDI score indicates higher experience of depressive symptoms. Results: For both sexes, MCS was positively correlated with donation frequency for up to 5 years, and similarly for PCS among women. A negative correlation between MDI score and donation frequency in the year following assessment was observed only among men. No correlation was observed among women. An increase in both MCS and PCS was associated with a lower risk of donation cessation in both sexes, while an increase in MDI score was only associated with an increased risk of donation cessation in men. Conclusion: MCS, PCS, and MDI score affect donor career. Thus, adjusting for donation frequency may reduce HDE-bias in donor health research. However, because of the small effect sizes, other ways of quantifying HDE may be beneficial.

Four different magnet bearing configurations, with varying numbers of combined radially and axially magnetized rings, are studied both experimentally and using the modeling framework MagTense. First the optimal vertical position of the radially magnetized ring is determined using the numerical model. Then the model is validated using experimental data. Finally, we show that a bearing where the rotor and the stator each consist of a single ring of axially magnetized magnets and a single ring of radially magnetized magnets has the smallest radial force per axial lift force at an axial air gap of 1 mm. For this bearing, the ratio of the radial force per axial lift here is 0.383 times that of the same bearing without the radially magnetized ring.

We show that low ramp rate differential scanning calorimetry of the magnetocaloric material La ( Fe 11.47 Si 1.28 Mn 0.25 ) H 1.65 at different applied magnetic fields reveals the presence of distributed phase transitions. Experimentally, we find that with or without an applied magnetic field, samples show a distinct peak pattern in their heat capacity around the transition temperature ( T t ≈ 30 ° C), i.e., multiple heat capacity peaks occur as a function of sample temperature. Additionally, these reproducible patterns occur asymmetrically when heating and cooling. At finite applied fields higher than 0.15 T, we observe clearly distinguishable peaks of identical shape, albeit with different intensities. According to the latter, we re-identify the peaks under seven applied magnetic fields up to 1 T. We find that the peaks shift differently relative to each other as a function of field. In particular, for cooling experiments, the peak temperatures vary linearly in the field, although with different slopes. Through Bean–Rodbell (BR) modeling, we show that the experimentally observed behavior can be simulated by small decoupled variations in the BR parameters η and T 0, indicating a distributed composition of the magnetocaloric material.

A novel freeze-casting device utilizing a thermoelectric element for high precision temperature control allowing for dynamic freezing conditions of freeze-cast materials is presented. Freeze-casting is a processing route for producing materials of anisotropic porosity in the form of aligned and well-defined microchannels. In freeze-casting, particulates of a material are suspended in a fluid and a thermal gradient is applied across for directional freezing. Controlling the thermal gradient across the suspension amounts to controlling the kinetics and freezing direction in the suspension and thus the resulting structural features and dimensions of the microchannels. The performance of the device presented here was evaluated by directional freezing of both water and aqueous ceramic suspension samples using both linear and exponential freezing profiles. The freezing front was successfully tracked by continuously measuring the temperature gradient along the sample using thermocouples directly mounted on the freeze-casting mold. The current minimum operational temperature of the freeze-caster is ∼220 K, with freezing front velocities in the range of ∼5 μm/s to 30 μm/s for sample lengths of 5 mm–25 mm.

We investigate whether field homogeneity of a magnetic assembly can be optimized by varying the remanence of its constituting magnetic segments. We specifically study this hypothesis for a Halbach cylinder using a numerical model, MagTense. We consider a Halbach cylinder consisting of six layers of three concentric rings, each ring made from 16 segments. We show that ideally, the homogeneity can reach close to 1 ppm for a finite magnet. We then proceed to consider a real world set of magnet segments, i.e. non-ideal magnets with a variation in their remanence. This reduces the field homogeneity to about 1000 ppm when considering a Gaussian perturbation of the remanence with a standard deviation of 1%. However, we also show that the reduction in homogeneity may be countered by organizing the magnet pieces found through optimization, which is possible if each magnet segment is well characterized experimentally. We note that the presented method is applicable to any case where homogeneity of the field is important. The results we present are considered for the specific case of nuclear magnetic resonance for concretenes.

The heat transfer and flow resistance of a novel freeze-cast porous regenerator of the magnetocaloric ceramic La0.66Ca0.27Sr0.06Mn1.05O3 was experimentally characterized. Such a porous architecture may be useful as a regenerator geometry in magnetic refrigeration applications due to the sub-millimeter hydraulic diameters that can be achieved. Here the heat transfer effectiveness and friction losses are characterized using experiments and processed with a 1D numerical model. Empirical correlations of the friction factor and Nusselt number are reviewed and chosen for modelling the specific geometry. The experimental results show that the freeze-cast regenerator has increased heat transfer effectiveness and pressure drop compared to reference packed bed regenerators made from epoxy bonded spherical and irregular particles, as well as packed, unbonded spheres. Fixing the pressure drop and regenerator size, the freeze-cast regenerator achieves 10-15% higher heat transfer performance compared to packed bed regenerators.

The stray- and demagnetization tensor field for a homogeneously magnetized tetrahedron is found analytically. The tetrahedron is a special case of four triangular faces with constant magnetization-charge surface density, for which we also determine the tensor field. The tensor field is implemented in the open source micromagnetic and magnetostatic simulation framework MagTense and compared with the obtained magnetic field from an FEM solution, showing excellent agreement. This result is important for modeling magnetostatics in general and for micromagnetism in particular as the demagnetizing field of an arbitrary body discretized using conventional meshing techniques is significantly simplified with this approach., Comment: 5 pages, 4 figures

MicroRNAs are small regulatory RNAs that are deregulated in a wide variety of human cancers, including different types of B-cell lymphoma. Nevertheless, the feasibility of circulating microRNA for early diagnosis of B-cell lymphoma has not been established. To address the possibility of detecting specific circulating microRNAs years before a B-cell lymphoma is diagnosed, we studied the plasma expression of microRNA first in pre-treatment samples from patients with diffuse large B-cell lymphoma and subsequently in repository samples from blood donors who later developed B-cell lymphomas. In addition, we studied the microRNA expression in the diagnostic lymphoma biopsy. The most strongly induced (miR-326) and suppressed (miR-375) plasma microRNA at diagnosis, when compared with healthy blood donors, were also substantially up- or down-regulated in plasma repository samples taken from several months to up to two years before the blood donors were diagnosed with B-cell lymphoma. Importantly, at these time points the donors had no signs of disease and felt healthy enough to donate blood. In conclusion, this first study of plasma microRNA profiles from apparently healthy individuals, taken several years before B-cell lymphoma diagnosis, suggests that plasma microRNA profiles may be predictive of lymphoma development.

BACKGROUND: Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (CJD) is an uncommon, invariably fatal, neurodegenerative disorder that presents as progressive dementia with concurrent motor symptoms and myoclonia. The pathophysiology involves prion protein misfolding and spreading in a self-catalyzed manner. It has been shown to be transmissible through tissue transplants. Variant CJD (vCJD), a subtype of the disease is also transmissible through transfusion of blood products. This study aims to corroborate the scarce data that suggest that sporadic CJD (sCJD) is not transmitted via blood transfusion. METHODS AND STUDY DESIGN: A retrospective cohort study was performed, using data from the bi-national Scandinavian Donations and Transfusions (SCANDAT2) database containing data on blood donors, donations, transfusions, and transfused patients in Sweden and Denmark since 1968 and 1982, respectively. Mortality and medical data were collected from nationwide health care and population registries. Donors with subsequent CJD were identified, as well as recipients of blood products from these donors. A second analysis was performed, screening for clustering of CJD cases from donors without a CJD diagnosis. RESULTS: We identified 39 donors with a subsequent diagnosis of sCJD. No cases of CJD occurred among the 883 recipients of blood products from these donors. A total of 89 CJD cases were identified among recipients of transfusions. No clustering of cases from the same donor occurred. DISCUSSION: Using data from a large, bi-national database of transfused patients, we find no evidence of sCJD transmission. Our data adds to the growing body of evidence indicating that sCJD is not transfusion transmitted.

Micromagnetic simulations are employed for predicting the behavior of magnetic materials from their microscopic properties. In this paper we focus on hysteresis loops, which are computed by assuming quasistatic conditions: i.e. the magnetization distribution remains at equilibrium while the applied magnetic field is slowly varied. The dynamic behavior of micromagnetic systems is governed by the Landau-Lifshitz equation. In order to apply the dynamic equation to a quasistatic problem, it is necessary to artificially decouple the relaxation dynamics from the time-scale of the variation of the applied field. This decoupling is normally done in an iterative fashion: the field is considered fixed until the equilibrium point is reached, and subsequently updated. However, this approach is indirect and also has the potential issue that a system might switch to a different equilibrium configuration before the previous equilibrium becomes unstable, which is a behavior not possible in the quasistatic regime. Instead, here we derive the differential equation, which directly describes the evolution of the equilibrium states of the Landau-Lifshitz equation as a function of the external field, or any other externally varied parameter. This approach is a more rigorous description of quasistatic processes and inherently enforces the system to follow a given equilibrium configuration until this disappears or becomes unstable. We demonstrate this approach with simple examples and show it to be as or more stable than the previously used approaches.

The efficiency of the magnetic refrigeration process strongly depends on the heat transfer performance of the regenerator. As a potential way to improve the heat transfer performance of a regenerator, the design of sub-millimeter hydraulic diameter porous structures is realized by freeze-cast structures. Four freeze-cast regenerators with different pore widths are characterized experimentally and numerically. Empirical parameters are determined for the correlations of heat transfer and flow resistance via a 1D model. Thermal effectiveness and pressure drop are measured for thermal-hydraulic evaluations. Temperature span and specific cooling capacity are obtained to compare the magnetocaloric potential based on the material La0.66Ca0.27Sr0.06Mn1.05O3. The stability of freeze-cast regenerators is validated by comparing the performance during, before and after oscillatory flow and periodic magnetic field tests. Smaller pore design obtain the better heat transfer performance and required mechanical strength, while pore design with significant dendrites provides the worst tradeoff between heat transfer performance and flow resistance.