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Abstract The dynamics of quantum systems coupled to baths are typically studied using the Nakajima-Zwanzig memory kernel ( $${{{\bf{{{{\mathcal{K}}}}}}}}$$ K ) or the influence functions (I), particularly when memory effects are present. Despite their significance, formal connections between the two have not been explicitly known. We establish their connections by examining the system propagator for a N-level system linearly coupled to Gaussian baths with various types of system-bath coupling. For a certain class of problems, we devised a non-perturbative, diagrammatic approach to construct $${{{\bf{{{{\mathcal{K}}}}}}}}$$ K from I for (driven) systems interacting with Gaussian baths, bypassing conventional projection-free dynamics inputs. Our work provides a way to interpret approximate path integral methods in terms of approximate memory kernels. Moreover, it offers a Hamiltonian learning procedure to extract the bath spectral density from reduced system trajectories, opening new avenues in quantum sensing and engineering. The insights we provide advance our understanding of non-Markovian dynamics and will serve as a stepping stone for future theoretical and experimental developments in this area.

Objective To assess prenatal ultrasonographic findings and postnatal outcomes in fetuses with intracranial hemorrhage (ICH). Methods This retrospective study included fetuses prenatally diagnosed with ICH between December 2012 and August 2023. Maternal characteristics, prenatal ultrasonographic findings, and postnatal outcomes were reviewed. Results Twenty-seven fetuses with ICH were reviewed. Intracranial hemorrhage was classified as grade 3 and 4 in 24 fetuses. Twenty-two fetuses had ICH, four had ICH with subdural hemorrhage, and one had ICH with subarachnoid hemorrhage. Ventriculomegaly was the most common ultrasonographic finding, and was observed in 22 of the 27 (81.5%) fetuses. Seven fetuses were lost to follow-up, and four intrauterine fetal deaths occurred. The remaining 16 fetuses were delivered at a median gestational age of 35+2 weeks. The infants were followed-up for 40.1 months (range, 4-88). Nine of the 16 infants underwent ventriculoperitoneal placement. One infant underwent brain surgery for severe epilepsy. Motor impairment, including cerebral palsy, was observed in 13 infants (81.2%). Neurologic impairment occurred in six infants (37.5%), developmental delay in nine (56.2%), and epilepsy in 11 (68.7%). Conclusion Fetal ICH is a rare complication diagnosed during pregnancy, which results in subsequent fetal neurological sequelae or death. This study demonstrated that the common ultrasonographic findings in fetal ICH were progressive ventriculomegaly and increased periventricular echogenicity. Fetuses diagnosed with prenatal ICH, especially those affected by higher-grade ICH, may be at an increased risk of long-term neurodevelopmental problems.

The current understanding of the formation mechanism and kinetics of the σ phase in DSS remains ambiguous. This study investigates the in-situ evolution of the σ phase in DSS through a multi-faceted approach. Distinct σ phase formation mechanisms were identified at 850 °C and 950 °C, with short-range diffusion of eutectoid decomposition at 850 °C and long-range diffusion of nucleation and growth at 950 °C. In-situ X-ray diffraction (XRD) revealed that the lattice parameter of the γ phase peaks at ∼ 600 °C. The thermal expansion coefficient (CTE) of the γ phase is 1.8 times higher than that of the α phase at low temperatures. Interestingly, the convergence of the CTEs of the α and γ phases above 600 °C triggers σ nucleation. The strain field diagram shows maximum impinging strain at the lattice parameter maxima just before the σ formation range. The adverse effects of the σ phase on DSS heat transport properties were also explored, showing an initial increase in thermal conductivity with an increasing γ volume fraction, followed by an 18 % decrease upon σ evolution. First-principle calculations highlight the correlation between Ni enrichment and lattice parameter maxima, supporting these findings.

FINEX process, which utilizes hydrogen (H2) as a part of reductants, has emerged as an environmentally sustainable ironmaking process to meet the upcoming carbon-neutral era. In the H2-enriched atmosphere, local slag holdup in the carbonaceous particle bed may increase due to the increased melting temperature of slags by the rapid reduction of iron oxide and the resulting lower wettability of the carbonaceous materials by liquid slag. In-situ SiC formation on the carbon surface gains much attention as a method to reduce the slag holdup. In this study, as a fundamental study, we investigated the SiC formation on the surface of a graphite substrate under a CO-H2-SiO gas environment at 1873 K. It was found that as the partial pressure of H2 increased, the penetration depth of a SiC layer formed on the graphite surface increased, and the surface roughness became enhanced. A reaction rate analysis revealed that the H2-CO gas mixture accelerated the SiC formation on the graphite surface compared to the N2-CO gas mixture. This effect was attributed to the high bimolecular diffusivity of H2-CO. Our results demonstrate that under a CO-H2-SiO gas environment, the fast diffusion of H2 gas through micropores in the graphite significantly enhances the formation of SiC on the graphite surface. The results obtained in this study show that the acceleration of SiC formation under an H2-enriched atmosphere would improve the wettability of molten slag and reduce the slag holdup in the FINEX process.

Accurately segmenting cancer lesions is essential for effective personalized treatment and enhanced patient outcomes. We propose a multi-resolution selective segmentation (MurSS) model to accurately segment breast cancer lesions from hematoxylin and eosin (H&E) stained whole-slide images (WSIs). We used The Cancer Genome Atlas breast invasive carcinoma (BRCA) public dataset for training and validation. We used the Korea University Medical Center, Guro Hospital, BRCA dataset for the final test evaluation. MurSS utilizes both low- and high-resolution patches to leverage multi-resolution features using adaptive instance normalization. This enhances segmentation performance while employing a selective segmentation method to automatically reject ambiguous tissue regions, ensuring stable training. MurSS rejects 5% of WSI regions and achieves a pixel-level accuracy of 96.88% (95% confidence interval (CI): 95.97–97.62%) and mean Intersection over Union of 0.7283 (95% CI: 0.6865–0.7640). In our study, MurSS exhibits superior performance over other deep learning models, showcasing its ability to reject ambiguous areas identified by expert annotations while using multi-resolution inputs.

Abstract Quantum algorithms for simulating electronic ground states are slower than popular classical mean-field algorithms such as Hartree–Fock and density functional theory but offer higher accuracy. Accordingly, quantum computers have been predominantly regarded as competitors to only the most accurate and costly classical methods for treating electron correlation. However, here we tighten bounds showing that certain first-quantized quantum algorithms enable exact time evolution of electronic systems with exponentially less space and polynomially fewer operations in basis set size than conventional real-time time-dependent Hartree–Fock and density functional theory. Although the need to sample observables in the quantum algorithm reduces the speedup, we show that one can estimate all elements of the k-particle reduced density matrix with a number of samples scaling only polylogarithmically in basis set size. We also introduce a more efficient quantum algorithm for first-quantized mean-field state preparation that is likely cheaper than the cost of time evolution. We conclude that quantum speedup is most pronounced for finite-temperature simulations and suggest several practically important electron dynamics problems with potential quantum advantage.

Family child care (FCC) is uniquely positioned to address challenges with insufficient early care and education supply and access in the United States. FCC programs were steadily declining before COVID-19, and many child care programs, both center- and home-based, were at risk of closure early in the pandemic. This study examines closure among Alabama FCC providers during COVID-19. Specifically, we examine the timing and predictors of FCC providers’ closure using discrete time-hazard modeling. We analyze administrative data for the 788 FCC programs licensed in March 2020. Over the following 28 months, FCC closure risk was closely linked with COVID-19 disease spread trends. Providers who participated in child care subsidy or national accreditation had lower closure risk than those who did not. The protective effects of subsidy participation were amplified in lower-opportunity communities. Results have implications for mitigating FCC decline and identifying resources to support FCC providers’ continued operation.

The extent of problems in quantum chemistry for which quantum algorithms could provide a speedup is still unclear, as well as the kind of speedup one should expect. Here, the authors look at the problem of ground state energy estimation, and gather theoretical and numerical evidence for the fact that an exponential quantum advantage is unlikely for generic problems of interest.

In-situ observation of the transformation behavior of acicular ferrite in high-strength low-alloy steel using confocal laser scanning microscopy was discussed in terms of nucleation and growth. It is found that acicular ferrite nucleated at dislocations and slip bands in deformed austenite grains introduced by hot deformation in the non-recrystallization austenite region, and then proceeded to grow into an austenite grain boundary. According to an ex-situ EBSD analysis, acicular ferrite had an irregular shape morphology, finer grains with sub-grain boundaries, and higher strain values than those of polygonal ferrite. The fraction of acicular ferrite was affected by the deformation condition and increased with increasing the amount of hot deformation in the non-recrystallization austenite region.

Precipitation behaviors of Ni-Cr-Co-based superalloys with different Ti/Al ratios aged at 750, 800, and 850 °C for up to 10,000 h were investigated using scanning and transmission electron microscopy. The Ti/Al ratio did not significantly affect the diameter of the γ′ phase. However, the volume fraction of the γ′ phase increased with increasing Ti/Al ratios. The η phase was not observed in alloys with a small Ti/Al ratio, whereas it was precipitated after aging at 850 °C for 1000 h in alloys with a Ti/Al ratio greater than 0.80. Higher aging temperatures and higher Ti/Al ratios led to faster η formation kinetics and accelerated the degradation of alloys. It is thought that the increase in hardness with an increase in the Ti/Al ratio is attributed to the effective inhibition of the γ′ phase on dislocation movement due to the increase in the volume fraction of the γ′ phase and an increase in the antiphase boundary (APB) energy.

Abstract Although the potential role of superior longitudinal fasciculus (SLF) in intellectual deficits and treatment response (TR) in patients with schizophrenia (SZ) has been previously described, little is known about the white-matter (WM) integrity of SLF subcomponents (SLF I, II, III, and arcuate fasciculus) and their particular relationships with the clinical presentations of the illness. This study examined the associations between fractional anisotropy (FA) of SLF subcomponents and intelligence level and 6-month treatment response (TR) of negative symptoms (NS) in patients with SZ. At baseline, 101 patients with SZ and 101 healthy controls (HCs) underwent structural magnetic resonance imaging. Voxel-wise group comparison analysis showed significant SLF FA reductions in patients with SZ compared with HCs. Voxel-wise correlation analyses revealed significant positive correlations of FAs of right SLF II with Korean–Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale at baseline and the percentage reduction of negative syndrome subscale of the Positive and Negative Syndrome Scales at 6 months. These findings suggest that aberrance in WM microstructure in SLF II may be associated with intellectual deficits in patients with SZ and TR of NS, which may support the potential role of SLF II as a novel neuroimaging biomarker for clinical outcomes of the illness.

The simulation of chemistry is among the most promising applications of quantum computing. However, most prior work exploring algorithms for block encoding, time evolving, and sampling in the eigenbasis of electronic structure Hamiltonians has either focused on modeling finite-sized systems, or has required a large number of plane-wave basis functions. In this work, we extend methods for quantum simulation with Bloch orbitals constructed from symmetry-adapted atom-centered orbitals so that one can model periodic ab initio Hamiltonians using only a modest number of basis functions. We focus on adapting existing algorithms based on combining qubitization with tensor factorizations of the Coulomb operator. Significant modifications of those algorithms are required to obtain an asymptotic speedup leveraging translational (or, more broadly, Abelian) symmetries. We implement block encodings using known tensor factorizations and a new Bloch orbital form of tensor hypercontraction. Finally, we estimate the resources required to deploy our algorithms to classically challenging model materials relevant to the chemistry of lithium nickel oxide battery cathodes within the surface code. We find that even with these improvements, the quantum runtime of these algorithms is on the order of thousands of days and further algorithmic improvements are required to make realistic quantum simulation of materials practical.

In-situ study on the high-temperature fracture behaviour of 347 stainless steel was carried out by using a confocal laser scanning microscope (CLSM). The welding microstructures of the 347 stainless steel were simulated by subjecting the steel specimen to solution and aging treatments. Undissolved NbC carbides were present within grains after solution treatment, and M23C6 carbides were preferentially formed at grain boundaries after subsequent aging treatment. The M23C6 carbides formed at grain boundaries worked as stress concentration sites and thus generated larger cracks during high-temperature tensile testing. In addition, grain boundary embrittlement was found to be a dominant mechanism for the high-temperature fracture of the 347 stainless steel because vacancy diffusion in the Cr-depleted zones enhances intergranular fracture due to the precipitation of M23C6 carbides at grain boundaries.

Neuromodulation represents a cutting edge class of both invasive and non-invasive therapeutic methods which alter the activity of neurons. Currently, several different techniques have been developed - or are currently being investigated – to treat a wide variety of neurological and neuropsychiatric disorders. Recently, in vivo and in vitro studies have revealed that neuromodulation can also induce myelination, meaning that it could hold potential as a therapy for various demyelinating diseases including multiple sclerosis and progressive multifocal leukencepalopathy. These findings come on the heels of a paradigm shift in the view of myelin's role within the nervous system from a static structure to an active co-regulator of central nervous system plasticity and participant in neuron-mediated modulation. In the present review, we highlight several of the recent findings regarding the role of neural activity in altering myelination including several soluble and contact-dependent factors that seem to mediate neural activity-dependent myelination. We also highlight several considerations for neuromodulatory techniques, including the need for further research into spatiotemporal precision, dosage, and the safety and efficacy of transcranial focused ultrasound stimulation, an emerging neuromodulation technology. As the field of neuromodulation continues to evolve, it could potentially bring forth methods for the treatment of demyelinating diseases, and as such, further investigation into the mechanisms of neuron-dependent myelination as well as neuro-imaging modalities that can monitor myelination activity is warranted.

A biomimetic aluminum oxide membrane having asymmetric channels with a minimum diameter of 20 nm, a maximum diameter of 80 nm, and a length of 5 µm was prepared using square pulse anodization. The membrane effectively permitted transfer of anions only and showed an ionic current rectification characteristic with a rectification ratio of 2.4. After the sulfonic acid group was introduced by surface modification, the membrane effectively permitted transfer of cations only and showed a rectification ratio of 2.7. This modulation of the ionic current rectification direction was consistent with the theoretical prediction through the numerical analysis of 2D models. These findings present a convenient method to control ion transport for the ion exchange membrane.

While most work on the quantum simulation of chemistry has focused on computing energy surfaces, a similarly important application requiring subtly different algorithms is the computation of energy derivatives. Almost all molecular properties can be expressed an energy derivative, including molecular forces, which are essential for applications such as molecular dynamics simulations. Here, we introduce new quantum algorithms for computing molecular energy derivatives with significantly lower complexity than prior methods. Under cost models appropriate for noisy-intermediate scale quantum devices, we demonstrate how low-rank factorization and other tomography schemes can be optimized for energy derivative calculations. We numerically demonstrate that our techniques reduce the number of circuit repetitions required by many orders of magnitude for even modest systems, and that the cost of estimating an entire force vector may in some systems be lower than the cost of estimating the energy. In the context of fault-tolerant algorithms, we develop new methods of estimating energy derivatives with Heisenberg limited scaling, incorporating state-of-the-art techniques for block encoding fermionic operators. In contrast to our near-term results, we find that the cost of estimating forces with any of our Heisenberg-limited methods is bounded by the cost of estimating energies, due to inner loops requiring either energy estimation or reflections around the ground state. This implies that applications such as geometry optimization, coupling parameter estimation, and spectral prediction may be practical on fault-tolerant quantum devices, but tractable molecular dynamics simulations of large-scale systems requires further algorithmic advances.

Among thermophysical properties, the surface/interfacial tension, viscosity, and density/molar volume of liquid alloys are the key properties for the modelling of microstructural evolution during solidification. Therefore, only reliable input data can yield accurate predictions preventing the error propagation in numerical simulations of solidification related processes. To this aim, the thermophysical properties of the Fe-Si and Cu-Pb systems were analysed and the connections with the peculiarities of their mixing behaviours are highlighted. Due to experimental difficulties related to reactivity of metallic melts at high temperatures, the measured data are often unreliable or even lacking. The application of containerless processing techniques either leads to a significant improvement of the accuracy or makes the measurement possible at all. On the other side, accurate model predicted property values could be used to compensate for the missing data; otherwise, the experimental data are useful for the validation of theoretical models. The choice of models is particularly important for the surface, transport, and structural properties of liquid alloys representing the two limiting cases of mixing, i.e., ordered and phase separating alloy systems.

Energy consumption in the industrial sector can be significantly reduced by improving heat transfer rates in heat exchanger circuits, pool boiling, metal cutting industries, etc. Numerous energy-related issues can be overcome to a large extent by improving heat flow properties by utilizing nanofluids. The present contribution reviews the improvement in thermophysical properties of metal oxide-based nanofluids. Key parameters affecting the thermophysical properties of nanofluids, such as particle volume fraction, temperature, particle size and various stabilizers, were reviewed. The importance of DLVO theory and zeta potential to control the electrostatic repulsion and pH values of nanofluids for stable nanofluid formulations were discussed. It has been observed that classical theories of thermal conductivity and viscosity cannot predict exact values for a wide range of variables. Therefore, various extensive correlations have been introduced to predict the thermophysical properties of nanofluids. In these correlations, individual dependent variables such as particle size, temperature, nanofluid layer thickness, and Brownian velocity of nanoparticles, etc. were considered for more accurate prediction. The heat transfer efficiencies of nanofluids to base fluids in the laminar and turbulent regimes have been discussed using various figures of merits. Finally, the scope of industrial applications of metal oxide-based nanofluids and future research opportunities have been discussed.

Abstract Background Among the non-invasive screening methods for the identification of fetal aneuploidy, NIPT (non-invasive prenatal testing) shows the highest sensitivity and specificity in high-risk pregnancies. Due to the low false positive rate of NIPT, it is assumed that the implementation of NIPT as a primary screening method may reduce the number of invasive fetal tests and result in a similar or lowered cost in the overall detection of Down syndrome. However, most previous studies are based on theoretical economic analysis. This study aims to determine the cost effectiveness of various prenatal test strategies, including NIPT, in real clinical settings in both low risk and high risk pregnancies. Methods/design In this prospective observational study, women (

The sintering process is a thermal agglomeration process, and it is accompanied by chemical reactions. In this process, a mixture of iron ore fines, flux, and coal particles is heated to about 1300 °C–1480 °C in a sinter bed. The strength and reducibility properties of iron ore sinter are obtained by liquid phase sintering. The silico-ferrite of calcium and aluminum (SFCA) is the main bonding phase found in modern iron ore sinters. Since the physicochemical and crystallographic properties of the SFCA are affected by the chemical composition and mineral phases of iron ores, a crystallographic understanding of iron ores and sintered ore is important to enhance the quality of iron ore sinter. Scrap and by-products from steel mills are expected to be used in the iron ore sintering process as recyclable resources, and in such a case, the crystallographic properties of iron ore sinter will be affected using these materials. The objective of this paper is to present a short review on research related to mineral phases and structural properties of iron ore and sintered ore.

Contemporary quantum computers have relatively high levels of noise, making it difficult to use them to perform useful calculations, even with a large number of qubits. Quantum error correction is expected to eventually enable fault-tolerant quantum computation at large scales, but until then, it will be necessary to use alternative strategies to mitigate the impact of errors. We propose a near-term friendly strategy to mitigate errors by entangling and measuring M copies of a noisy state ρ. This enables us to estimate expectation values with respect to a state with dramatically reduced error ρ^{M}/Tr(ρ^{M}) without explicitly preparing it, hence the name “virtual distillation.” As M increases, this state approaches the closest pure state to ρ exponentially quickly. We analyze the effectiveness of virtual distillation and find that it is governed in many regimes by the behavior of this pure state (corresponding to the dominant eigenvector of ρ). We numerically demonstrate that virtual distillation is capable of suppressing errors by multiple orders of magnitude and explain how this effect is enhanced as the system size grows. Finally, we show that this technique can improve the convergence of randomized quantum algorithms, even in the absence of device noise.

AMPK regulates cellular energy balance using its γ subunit as an energy sensor of cellular AMP and ADP to ATP ratios. Here, the authors show that γ2 AMPK activation lowers heart rate by reducing the activity of pacemaker cells, whereas loss of γ2 AMPK increases heart rate and prevents the adaptive bradycardia of endurance training in mice.

We describe quantum circuits with only O[over ~](N) Toffoli complexity that block encode the spectra of quantum chemistry Hamiltonians in a basis of N arbitrary (e.g., molecular) orbitals. With O(λ/ϵ) repetitions of these circuits one can use phase estimation to sample in the molecular eigenbasis, where λ is the 1-norm of Hamiltonian coefficients and ϵ is the target precision. This is the lowest complexity shown for quantum computations of chemistry within an arbitrary basis. Furthermore, up to logarithmic factors, this matches the scaling of the most efficient prior block encodings that can work only with orthogonal-basis functions diagonalizing the Coloumb operator (e.g., the plane-wave dual basis). Our key insight is to factorize the Hamiltonian using a method known as tensor hypercontraction (THC) and then to transform the Coulomb operator into an isospectral diagonal form with a nonorthogonal basis defined by the THC factors. We then use qubitization to simulate the nonorthogonal THC Hamiltonian, in a fashion that avoids most complications of the nonorthogonal basis. We also reanalyze and reduce the cost of several of the best prior algorithms for these simulations in order to facilitate a clear comparison to the present work. In addition to having lower asymptotic scaling space-time volume, compilation of our algorithm for challenging finite-sized molecules such as FeMoCo reveals that our method requires the least fault-tolerant resources of any known approach. By laying out and optimizing the surface-code resources required of our approach we show that FeMoCo can be simulated using about four million physical qubits and under 4 days of runtime, assuming 1-μs cycle times and physical gate-error rates no worse than 0.1%.

CALPHAD (CALculation of PHAse Diagram) is a useful tool to construct phase diagrams of various materials under different thermodynamic conditions. Researchers have extended the use of the CALPHAD method to nanophase diagrams and pressure phase diagrams. In this study, the phase diagram of an arbitrary A–B nanoparticle system under pressure was investigated. The effects of the interaction parameter and excess volume were investigated with increasing pressure. The eutectic temperature was found to decrease in most cases, except when the interaction parameter in the liquid was zero and that in the solid was positive, while the excess volume parameter of the liquid was positive. Under these conditions, the eutectic temperature increased with increasing pressure.

Electrical stimulation has been playing a significant role in revealing various functions and mechanisms of the nervous system. It is no different for myelination, a process in which oligodendrocytes in the central nervous system (CNS) or Schwann Cells in the peripheral nerve system (PNS) wrap around axons to provide an insulating layer in vitro and in vivo. It has been widely recognized that the myelin sheath accelerates axon signal conduction and provides neuroprotection. Recent studies have begun to reveal its role in plasticity. The major mechanism that enables this process is activity-dependent myelination – the phenomenon where neuronal activity supports oligodendrocyte maturation and myelin sheath formation. In light of recent discoveries, a better understanding of this phenomenon has a potential to provide therapeutic targets for not only demyelinating diseases, but also psychiatric disorders. There is a growing need for experimental platforms capable of dissecting the effect of neural activity on myelination in health and disease. The effect of neural activity is commonly studied by comparing the myelination levels in cultures with neurons of low and high activity. Electrical stimulation is particularly well suited as a method of inducing neural activity in these systems. In this review, we describe in vitro platforms for studying activity-dependent myelination, which utilize neuron stimulation via electrical field. We also discuss stimulation profiles, as well as the alternatives to electrical stimulation in the context of regular, compartmentalized, and organotypic co-cultures.

Family child care (FCC) is uniquely positioned to address challenges with insufficient early care and education supply and access in the United States. FCC programs were steadily declining before COVID-19, and many child care programs, both center- and home-based, were at risk of closure early in the pandemic. This study examines closure among Alabama FCC providers during COVID-19. Specifically, we examine the timing and predictors of FCC providers' closure using discrete time-hazard modeling. We analyze administrative data for the 788 FCC programs licensed in March 2020. Over the following 28 months, FCC closure risk was closely linked with COVID-19 disease spread trends. Providers who participated in child care subsidy or national accreditation had lower closure risk than those who did not. The protective effects of subsidy participation were amplified in lower-opportunity communities. Results have implications for mitigating FCC decline and identifying resources to support FCC providers' continued operation.

A new architecture for antireflection (AR) has been developed to break the trade-off between the optical transmittance and the electrical conduction impeding the performance of transparent conductive oxide (TCO) films. The tapered porous nanostructure with a complex continuous refractive index effectively eliminates reflections from the interfaces between air and the TCO and TCO and the substrate. Compared to the conventional TCO film, the AR TCO film exhibited the same electrical conduction, with an average transmittance of 88.7% in the 400–800 nm range, a 10.3% increase. The new AR TCO film is expected to improve the performance of various optoelectronic devices.

The nutritional condition of patients is an important prognostic factor in various diseases. Free flap failure is a serious complication in patients undergoing free flap reconstruction, increasing morbidity and hospital costs. We evaluated the predictive factors, including the prognostic nutritional index (PNI), associated with free flap failure in extremity reconstruction. The PNI was calculated as follows: 10 × serum albumin (g/dL) + 0.005 × total lymphocyte count (per mm3), with a PNI p = 0.031) and a low PNI (odds ratio: 3.859; p p

Variational algorithms for strongly correlated chemical and materials systems are one of the most promising applications of near-term quantum computers. We present an extension to the variational quantum eigensolver that approximates the ground state of a system by solving a generalized eigenvalue problem in a subspace spanned by a collection of parametrized quantum states. This allows for the systematic improvement of a logical wavefunction ansatz without a significant increase in circuit complexity. To minimize the circuit complexity of this approach, we propose a strategy for efficiently measuring the Hamiltonian and overlap matrix elements between states parametrized by circuits that commute with the total particle number operator. This strategy doubles the size of the state preparation circuits but not their depth, while adding a small number of additional two-qubit gates relative to standard variational quantum eigensolver. We also propose a classical Monte Carlo scheme to estimate the uncertainty in the ground state energy caused by a finite number of measurements of the matrix elements. We explain how this Monte Carlo procedure can be extended to adaptively schedule the required measurements, reducing the number of circuit executions necessary for a given accuracy. We apply these ideas to two model strongly correlated systems, a square configuration of H _4 and the π -system of hexatriene (C _6 H _8 ).

Positive end-expiratory pressure (PEEP) can increase intracranial pressure. Pneumoperitoneum and the Trendelenburg position are associated with an increased intracranial pressure. We investigated whether PEEP ventilation could additionally influence the sonographic optic nerve sheath diameter as a surrogate for intracranial pressure during pneumoperitoneum combined with the Trendelenburg position in patients undergoing robot-assisted laparoscopic prostatectomy.After anesthetic induction, 38 patients were randomly allocated to a low tidal volume ventilation (8 ml/kg) without PEEP group (zero end-expiratory pressure [ZEEP] group, n = 19) or low tidal volume ventilation with 8 cmH2O PEEP group (PEEP group, n = 19). The sonographic optic nerve sheath diameter was measured prior to skin incision, 5 min and 30 min after pneumoperitoneum and the Trendelenburg position, and at the end of surgery. The study endpoint was the difference in the sonographic optic nerve sheath diameter 5 min after pneumoperitoneum and the Trendelenburg position between the ZEEP and PEEP groups.Optic nerve sheath diameters 5 min after pneumoperitoneum and the Trendelenburg position did not significantly differ between the groups [least square mean (95% confidence interval); 4.8 (4.6-4.9) mm vs 4.8 (4.7-5.0) mm, P = 0.618]. Optic nerve sheath diameters 30 min after pneumoperitoneum and the Trendelenburg position also did not differ between the groups [least square mean (95% confidence interval); 4.5 (4.3-4.6) mm vs 4.5 (4.4-4.6) mm, P = 0.733].An 8 cmH2O PEEP application under low tidal volume ventilation does not induce an increase in the optic nerve sheath diameter during pneumoperitoneum combined with the steep Trendelenburg position, suggesting that there might be no detrimental effects of PEEP on the intracranial pressure during robot-assisted laparoscopic prostatectomy.ClinicalTrial.gov NCT02516566.

OBJECTIVE:To compare the concentrations of adipokines in amniotic fluid (AF) and cord blood collected from discordant dichorionic-diamniotic (DCDA) twin fetuses. STUDY DESIGN:The study population included DCDA twins discordant for fetal growth (birth weight difference >10%) who either underwent mid-trimester amniocentesis for routine clinical indication (Cohort 1) or whose amniotic fluid was collected at the time of delivery (Cohort 2). In both cohorts, cord blood was collected at delivery. RESULTS:A total of 92 twin pairs were enrolled (n = 49 in Cohort 1; n = 43 in Cohort 2). In Cohort 1, the concentrations of adiponectin (median, 68.5 ng/mL vs 61.4 ng/mL; p

ObjectivePresenting twins are less likely to develop respiratory complications than non-presenting twins. The precise reason for this difference is not well understood, although it is known that the presence of inflammation reduces the risk of respiratory morbidity at birth. To further investigate this association, we compared the concentrations of inflammatory biomarkers in mid-trimester amniotic fluid (AF) of asymptomatic twin pairs.Study designThe study population consisted of women with twin pregnancies who underwent mid-trimester amniocentesis (15-20 weeks) for routine clinical indications and delivered at term. AF was analyzed for pro-inflammatory cytokines (IL-1β, IL-2, IL-4, IL-5, IL-6, IL-8, IL-10, IL-12, IL-13, IL-15, IFN-γ, TNF-α), matrix metalloproteinases (MMP-1, MMP-2, MMP-3, MMP-8, MMP-9, MMP-12), and chemokines (Complement Factor D/Adipsin, Serpin E1/PAI-1, Adiponectin/Acrp30, CRP, CCL2/MCP-1, Leptin, Resistin) using Luminex Performance Assay multiplex kits. Data were analyzed using Wilcoxon signed rank test.ResultsA total of 82 twin pairs were enrolled. Mid-trimester AF concentrations of IL-8, MMP-8, CRP, MCP-1, leptin, and resistin were significantly higher in the presenting twin compared with the non-presenting twin (pConclusionThese data suggest that, as early as the mid-trimester, the presenting fetus in an otherwise uncomplicated twin pregnancy is exposed to higher levels of pro-inflammatory mediators (especially IL-8, MMP-8, and CRP) than its non-presenting co-twin. Whether this pro-inflammatory milieu reduces the risk of neonatal respiratory morbidity at birth or has other functional implications needs to be further evaluated.

Chronic chorioamnionitis is found in more than one-third of spontaneous preterm births. Chronic chorioamnionitis and villitis of unknown etiology represent maternal anti-fetal cellular rejection. Antibody-mediated rejection is another type of transplantation rejection. We investigated whether there was evidence for antibody-mediated rejection against the fetus in spontaneous preterm birth.This cross-sectional study included women with (1) normal pregnancy and term delivery (n = 140) and (2) spontaneous preterm delivery (n = 140). We analyzed maternal and fetal sera for panel-reactive anti-HLA class I and class II antibodies, and determined C4d deposition on umbilical vein endothelium by immunohistochemistry. Maternal anti-HLA class I seropositivity in spontaneous preterm births was higher than in normal term births (48.6% vs. 32.1%, p = 0.005). Chronic chorioamnionitis was associated with a higher maternal anti-HLA class I seropositivity (p

The human amnion plays a pivotal role in parturition. Two of its compartments, the placental amnion and the reflected amnion, have distinct transcriptome and are functionally coordinated for parturition. This study was conducted to determine the microRNA (miRNA) expression pattern and its significance in the placental amnion and the reflected amnion in association with labor at term.MicroRNA microarray, real-time quantitative RT-PCR (qRT-PCR), and miRNA in situ hybridization analyses of the placental amnion and the reflected amnion (n = 20) obtained at term were conducted. Luciferase assay, transfection, and qRT-PCR analyses of primary amnion epithelial cells (AECs) and amnion mesenchymal cells (AMCs) were performed. MicroRNA microarray analysis demonstrated differential expression of 32 miRNAs between the placental amnion and the reflected amnion after labor. Thirty-one (97%) miRNAs, which included miR-143 and miR-145, a cardiovascular-specific miRNA cluster, were down-regulated in the reflected amnion. Analyses of miR-143 and miR-145 by qRT-PCR confirmed microarray results, and further demonstrated their decreased expression in the reflected amnion with labor. Interestingly, expression of miR-143 and miR-145 was higher in AMCs than in AECs (p