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Outcome after traumatic brain injury (TBI) is typically assessed using the Glasgow outcome scale extended (GOSE) with levels from 1 (death) to 8 (upper good recovery). Outcome prediction has classically been dichotomized into either dead/alive or favorable/unfavorable outcome. Binary outcome prediction models limit the possibility of detecting subtle yet significant improvements. We set out to explore different machine learning methods with the purpose of mapping their predictions to the full 8 grade scale GOSE following TBI. The models were set up using the variables: age, GCS-motor score, pupillary reaction, and Marshall CT score. For model setup and internal validation, a total of 866 patients could be included. For external validation, a cohort of 369 patients were included from Leuven, Belgium, and a cohort of 573 patients from the US multi-center ProTECT III study. Our findings indicate that proportional odds logistic regression (POLR), random forest regression, and a neural network model achieved accuracy values of 0.3–0.35 when applied to internal data, compared to the random baseline which is 0.125 for eight categories. The models demonstrated satisfactory performance during external validation in the data from Leuven, however, their performance were not satisfactory when applied to the ProTECT III dataset.

Cardiovascular development is influenced by the flow-induced stress environment originating from cardiac biomechanics. To characterize the stress environment, it is necessary to quantify flow and pressure. Here, we quantify the flow field in a developing zebrafish heart during the looping stage through micro-particle imaging velocimetry and by analyzing spatiotemporal plots. We further build upon previous methods to noninvasively quantify the pressure field at a low Reynolds number using flow field data for the first time, while also comparing the impact of viscosity models. Through this method, we show that the atrium builds up pressure to ~0.25mmHg relative to the ventricle during atrial systole and that atrial expansion creates a pressure difference of ~0.15mmHg across the atrium, resulting in efficient cardiac pumping. With these techniques, it is possible to noninvasively fully characterize hemodynamics during heart development.

Platelet thrombosis under arterial conditions remains a large clinical problem. Previous in vitro experiments have concentrated on early adherence without thrombotic occlusion. We have developed a controllable hemodynamic system that creates intravascular thrombosis to occlusion. Lightly heparinized (3.5 USP units/mL), whole, porcine blood is perfused through a 1.5 mm inner diameter, tubular, collagen-coated stenosis. The microscopic growth of thrombus is optically recorded using a high resolution CCD camera. Occlusive thrombus is examined using microcomputed tomography and histology. Thrombus consistently formed in the throat of the stenosis where wall shear rates were greatest. Rapid platelet accumulation (RPA) reached rates as high as 13.7 μm 3  μm −2  min −1 . Total occlusion of flow occurred after 17 ± 2.6 min ( n  = 6). The average thrombus volume accumulation of 7.8 ± 3.5 μm 3  μm 2  min −1 occurred under very high wall shear rates exceeding 100,000 s −1 . Significant volumes of thrombus did not form until 7.6 ± 3.6 min after the onset of flow, a delay consistent with activation of adherent mural platelets. Platelets did not accumulate with large volume for normal wall shear rates <2000 s −1 . Very high wall shear rates stimulate the capture of millions of circulating platelets with exposure times <2 ms in an arterial stenosis.

In order to create a P300-based brain-computer interface (BCI) (the so-called Farwell-Donchin paradigm, FD) with a symbol matrix used as a stimulus, we compared characteristics of event-related potentials (ERPs) in response to stimulation by 6 × 6 matrices composed of either pictogram symbols or Cyrillic alphabet characters. Nine healthy adults were examined in 18 experiments, during which 28-channel EEGs were recorded in the course of stimulation with matrices of these two types. The obtained ERP data, i.e., amplitudes and peak latencies of the ERP components N1, P3 (with the P3a and P3b sub-components), and N4 were compared and analyzed for different types of stimulation matrices. In at least seven out of nine subjects, P3a, P3b, and N4 ERP amplitudes were larger in response to the symbol matrix than to the character matrix, while N1 amplitudes were larger for the character matrix. For N1 and P3a, the ERP latencies were shorter for the symbol matrix, while for P3b and N4, they were longer for the character matrix. The topography of differential ERP responses to the two types of stimuli was analyzed using a series of paired t-tests. Differences of ERP component amplitudes were determined individually for each of the 28 channels; next, for each site, absolute t-test values were summed for all nine subjects. For all ERP components studied, the t-test for peak amplitudes in response to target and non-target letters identified two separate areas with distinct lateralization. ERP responses to target and non-target symbols differed most in transversely extended areas. Finally, the yield surface of differential response to target letters and target symbols had a complex topography.

The numbers of alpha-rhythm equivalent current dipoles (ECD) arising in the human brain before and during rhythmic photostimulation at the alpha-rhythm frequency was studied in six healthy adult subjects. Dipoles were calculated using a single-dipole model for the whole of the alpha-range and three subranges by solution of inverse equations in a three-layer model of the head obtained by simultaneous use of EEG data and MRI tomograms of the subjects' heads. The number of apparent ECD was significantly associated with rhythmic photostimulation and depended on the phase of the alpha-rhythm wave at which stimulation started and on the type of visual illusion (circle, spiral, grid) appearing during this time. The relationship between these data and the hypothetical wave process scanning the human visual cortex at the frequency of the alpha-rhythm is discussed.

Soil temperature strongly influences both percentage germination and time of emergence of sorghum. Ten hybrids were hand planted in the field. Soil surface was irrigated frequently and emerging plants were counted daily. On three treatments, soil temperature was monitored every hour at five depths. Treatments were designed to achieve a range in surface soil temperature. Results of the study indicated an optimum germination temperature of about 23°C and a heat requirement of 67 degree days. The maturity classifications of the hybrids did not show a consistent trend in their heat requirement for emergence.

The review of the climate of the summer of 1983 and associated economic impacts were collated by the state climatologists of 12 states of the Upper Midwest. Their data archives and facilities permitted relatively fast analysis of cooperative station data. Whereas June temperature was near normal across the region, July and August temperatures were generally higher than the 1951–80 normal, with anomalies of +2°C common, and some August anomalies representing a departure greater than 4σ. Cooling degree days were 50% greater than normal over about 1/3 of the 12-state area. Precipitation was mixed over the area in June, with the greatest anomalies (ca. 200% of normal) in Illinois, Iowa, Minnesota, and Nebraska. July and August precipitation anomalies were similar to each other, and generally negative. Twenty–five percent of normal precipitation was not uncommon. Indeed, two stations in Nebraska and Missouri recorded no precipitation in August. The impact of high temperatures and low rainfall resulted in substantially less corn and bean yields than expected, but yields of wheat in Kansas, and corn in Wisconsin were greater than last summer. Electrical demand was generally higher than one year earlier, with increases of +15% to +25% common, and 60% greater this July than July 1982 in South Dakota. New climatological records of high temperatures, low rainfall, and number of days with high temperatures were established and re–established during the summer, primarily in the southwestern Upper Midwest.

Climatologists from the climate centers of 12 states of the upper Midwest contributed temperature, precipitation, and related data for December 1982, January and February 1983. Analyses present the month-to-month spatial anomaly patterns of these parameters. Mean monthly temperatures were much above normal (30-year means) during the three months in virtually the entire region, with maximum magnitudes (+4 to +9°C) extending from the Dakotas to Iowa, and to Indiana (December) and Missouri (January and February). December precipitation was also above normal with anomalies of +100 mm in much of Missouri, Illinois, extreme southwest Michigan, and Indiana. The maximum anomaly was over +250 mm in southern Illinois. January and February precipitation anomalies showed only little deviation from normal. Impacts of the mild winter were generally favorable to consumers in that heating demand was reduced from normal, and particularly reduced from that of the previous year. Costs for urban snow removal were much under budget, as well. The only potentially negative impact was a relatively high survival rate of insect larvae, which is usually controlled by normally colder winter temperatures. The 1982 peach crop of southern Illinois was essentially lost during the 1981–82 winter due to record cold temperatures. The 1983 crop was also lost largely by a late spring frost, even though the winter was one of the warmest on record.

[Connie Chung] and Barbara Walters are still the only women to co-anchor an evening newscast on a broadcast network. In her second tour at CBS, Chung and Dan Rather went from kissy-face to frosty mugs while time-sharing the \"Evening News\" from 1993 to 1995. When his name is mentioned to her now, Chung says of Rather, \"such a silly boy.\" And leaves it at that. Chung and Barbara Walters are still the only women to co-anchor an evening newscast on a broadcast network. In her second tour at CBS, Chung and Dan Rather went from kissy-face to frosty mugs while time-sharing the \"Evening News\" from 1993 to 1995. When his name is mentioned to her now, Chung says of Rather, \"such a silly boy.\" And leaves it at that. Chung says she got the interview only after [Gary Condit]'s representatives said they had narrowed the field to her and a reporter from a rival network. Rather than lose the interview entirely, ABC allowed Chung to endure the congressman's mantra of \"I've not been a perfect man.\"

Duration of pollen maturation (quartet stage to anthesis) was significantly affected by temperature and cultivar. However, the temperature-by-cultivar interaction also was significant indicating that genotypic differences in duration of pollen maturation were modified by temperature. Since pollen is exposed to rigorous changes in the environment, longer duration may mean more susceptibility to environmental stress and more nonfunctional pollen grains, leading to lower seed set. With all cultivars, time required for pollen maturation was greater at low temperature than at simulated natural temperatures, supporting the theory that duration of pollen maturation is indicative of rate of cell division in gametophytic tissue. However, auricular distance was decreased at low temperature in some cultivars and increased in others, suggesting that that trait is a function of both rate of cell division in sporophytic tissue and the time available for cell division. Low temperature reduced the leaf number for most cultivars but had no effect on pollen stainability. The percentage of spikelets setting seeds was significantly affected by both temperature and cultivar. Duration of pollen maturation was not significantly correlated with any of the agronomic traits studied.