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Background. Serious heart failure may be treated with extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO) when other treatment fails. The aim of the present study was to analyse preoperative risk factors of early mortality in patients treated with veno-arterial (VA)-ECMO. Methods. We studied a total of 18 possible risk factors in 80 patients with severe cardiac insufficiency treated with VA-ECMO. All consecutive cases treated at our institution between Sept.1990 and May 2006 were included. Univariate analysis and multiple logistic regression analysis were performed on 16 risk factors. The endpoint was early mortality (any death within 30 days of ECMO treatment). Results. Thirty patients (37.5%) died within 30 days. Age, gender, cause of cardiac failure, pre-ECMO treatment (ventilator, NO, IABP) did not significantly influence early mortality. A higher SvO2 was associated with survival and remained significant in the multivariate analysis. Conclusion. Treatment with VA-ECMO in patients with severe cardiac failure may save lives. It is, however, difficult to predict outcome. In this study, only SvO2 values prior to ECMO were positively associated with survival. Perfusion (2007) 22, 225—229.

We outline our work on using bintrees as an efficient representation for qualitative information about spatial objects. Our approach represents each spatial object as a bintree satisfying the exact same qualitative relationships to other bintree representations as the corresponding spatial objects. We prove that such correct bintrees always exist and that they can be constructed as a sum of local representations, allowing a practically efficient construction. Our representation is both efficient, with respect to storage space and query time, and can represent many well-known qualitative relations, such as the relations in the Region Connection Calculus and Allen’s Interval Algebra.

The Norwegian Biodiversity Information Centre (NBIC) is currently building a traitbank for Norwegian species. The purpose of the NBIC TraitBank is to enhance sharing of traits and other information about species to support conservation actions and ecological research. The traitbank will cover a subset of traits for all multicellular species and taxa that are found in Norway. Observations of traits, collected through citizen science as well as by experts, are connected to the NBIC TraitBank ontology, forming a knowledge base. We have modeled TraitBank’s ontology in accordance with NBIC’s data management requirements, focusing on the domain knowledge necessary for ontology-based data integration of internal databases and queries specified by use cases. Our initial steps in ontology construction included outlining competency questions, which are natural language sentences expressing the questions system users expect an ontology to answer (Bezerra et al. 2013, Ren et al. 2014). The ontology for the TraitBank is populated using expert input (manual entry) and through harvesting of traits from existing internal databases at NBIC. We will present our experiences with implementing Reasonable Ontology Templates (OTTR) (Skjæveland et al. 2021) as the means for modeling the ontology and populating the TraitBank ontology. OTTR is a language for formally representing and instantiating ontology modeling patterns and is designed to support knowledge base construction and interaction at a higher level of abstraction. In the case of the TraitBank, ontology patterns are edited and published using a Semantic MediaWiki (SMW) extension for OTTR (FloSchroeder 2022), thereby providing a tool for the domain expert to work directly with templates. We build the TraitBank ontology by instantiating the templates directly in SMW as wiki pages. We argue that templates are an effective means to support the integration and use of digital biodiversity data in transparent ways, leading to successful collaboration and reuse of data. Following the \" Don't repeat yourself \" (DRY) principle of software development (Hunt and Thomas 1999), OTTR templates lend themselves well to easier ontology maintenance, allowing updates to occur through changes in individual template definitions rather than to repeated statements spread throughout the ontology. OTTR reshapes how domain experts work with ontologies and the data connected to the knowledge base, lifting the biodiversity expert away from dealing directly with logical axioms and Web Ontology Language (OWL). The template libraries have the power to improve international collaboration, making it easier to exchange and reuse specific templates and suggest improvements. Our templates include mappings to standards developed by Biodiversity Information Standards (TDWG) and biodiversity-related ontologies, linking to the international community. Use of OTTR supports the principles of Findable, Accessible, Interoperable, and Reusable (FAIR) data and demonstrates a new technology that can support the creation of an extensive online network of knowledge. Example: Scientific Name The NBIC uses Scientific Name as the main identifier and means to track a species. The OTTR template shown below captures the NBIC’s modelling pattern for Scientific Name. The signature of the template specifies the Internationalized Resource Identifier (IRI) of the template (adb-t:ScientificName), and six parameters (where ?iri is the 1st parameter). The parameters are used in the body of the template and define how instances of the template are expanded to Resource Description Framework (RDF) statements. Template instance expansion is done in a recursive manner, similar to many macro programming languages. With the OTTR template definition given in Fig. 1, a template instance can be expanded, as shown in the example for Metopa glacialis Fig. 2. The benefits of using the OTTR framework is that modeling patterns are explicitly represented as an OTTR template, allowing for instances of patterns to be compactly and consistently captured. The format of template instances lends itself to instantiation from tabular data sources like spreadsheets and databases.

Cardiopulmonary bypass (CPB) exposes blood to large, foreign surfaces. This exposure may activate the cellular and humoral inflammatory systems, resulting in inflammatory reactions and organ dysfunction. Coating the inner surfaces of the bypass circuit may help alleviate these side-effects. The objective of this study was to determine the influence of two new surface treatments on blood cell and complement activation. Oxygenator and tubing sets coated with synthetic polymers (n = 7) or heparin (n = 7) were compared to uncoated sets (n = 7) in an in vitro model of CPB. The circuits were run at 4 l/min and recirculated for 120 min. The inflammatory response was assessed at regular intervals by platelet counts, and activation of complement, leucocytes and platelets. We found that the median platelet counts decreased from 127 to 122 × 109/l (not significant, NS) in the synthetic polymer sets, from 96 to 88 × 109/l (NS) in the heparin-coated sets, and from 93 to 54 × 109/l (p < 0.01) in the uncoated sets after 2 h of recirculation. There were significant differences in platelet counts between the coated sets and the uncoated set at end of experiments (p < 0.05). Beta-thromboglobulin (BTG) concentrations increased in the synthetic polymer sets from 166 to 352 ng/ml (p < 0.01), in the heparin coated sets from 336 to 1168 ng/ml (p < 0.01), and in the uncoated sets from 301 to 3149 ng/ml (p < 0.01) after 2 h of recirculation. The differences in BTG at termination of the experiments were significant among all three sets (p < 0.05). Myeloperoxidase (MPO) concentrations in the synthetic polymer sets increased from 63 to 86 μg/l (p < 0.01), in the heparin-coated sets from 90 to 208 μg/l (p < 0.01), and in the uncoated sets from 122 to 513 μg/l (p < 0.01) after 2 h of recirculation. The differences in MPO at termination of the experiments were significant among all three groups (p < 0.01). There were no significant differences at termination of the experiments among the three sets regarding complement activation as measured by C3 activation products and the terminal complement complex. We conclude that in the current in vitro model of a CPB circuit, the synthetic polymer coating and the heparin coating caused significantly less platelet loss and granulocyte and platelet activation than the uncoated surface (p < 0.05). The synthetic polymer coating caused significantly less granulocyte and platelet activation than the heparin coating (p < 0.05). There was moderate complement activation within each group, but no significant differences among the three groups.

Background Left ventricular ejection fraction (LVEF) is an established method for evaluation of left ventricular (LV) systolic function. Global longitudinal strain (GLS) by speckle tracking echocardiography seems to be an important additive method for evaluation of LV function with improved reproducibility compared with LVEF. Our aim was to compare reproducibility of GLS and LVEF between an expert and trainee both as echocardiographic examiner and analyst. Methods Forty-seven patients with recent Acute Coronary Syndrome (ACS) underwent echocardiographic examination by both an expert echocardiographer and a trainee. Both echocardiographers, blinded for clinical data and each other’s findings, performed image analysis for evaluation of intra- and inter- observer variability. GLS was measured using speckle tracking echocardiography. LVEF was calculated by Simpson’s biplane method. Results The trainee measured a GLS of − 19.4% (±3.5%) and expert − 18.7% (±3.2%) with an Intra class correlation coefficient (ICC) of 0.89 (0.74–0.95). LVEF by trainee was 50.3% (±8.2%) and by expert 53.6% (±8.6%), ICC coefficient was 0.63 (0.32–0.80). For GLS the systematic difference was 0.21% (− 4.58–2.64) vs. 4.08% (− 20.78–12.62) for LVEF. Conclusion GLS is a more reproducible method for evaluation of LV function than LVEF regardless of echocardiographic training.

CorA is a copper repressible protein previously identified in the methanotrophic bacterium Methylomicrobium album BG8. In this work, we demonstrate that CorA is located on the cell surface and binds one copper ion per protein molecule, which, based on X-ray Absorption Near Edge Structure analysis, is in the reduced state (Cu(I)). The structure of endogenously expressed CorA was solved using X-ray crystallography. The 1.6 Å three-dimensional structure confirmed the binding of copper and revealed that the copper atom was coordinated in a mononuclear binding site defined by two histidines, one water molecule, and the tryptophan metabolite, kynurenine. This arrangement of the copper-binding site is similar to that of its homologous protein MopE* from Metylococcus capsulatus Bath, confirming the importance of kynurenine for copper binding in these proteins. Our findings show that CorA has an overall fold similar to MopE, including the unique copper(I)-binding site and most of the secondary structure elements. We suggest that CorA plays a role in the M. album BG8 copper acquisition.

Background Individuals with higher weight (overweight or obesity) may experience social stigma due to their weight. Weight stigma can be internalized with adverse health effects. Internalized weight stigma is relevant across different weight categories, but no validated weight-neutral measure of internalized weight bias currently exists in Norway. The current study aimed to examine the validity of a Norwegian translation of the Modified Weight Bias Internalization Scale. Methods A Norwegian translation of the Modified Weight Bias Internalization Scale (WBIS-M) was administered in an adult Norwegian sample ( N  = 315, of which 251 women) ranging from self-reported “very underweight” to “very overweight”. Results A confirmatory factor analysis was conducted on 11 of the original 11 items in the WBIS-M. Based on previous factor analyses with this scale, we expected a one-factor model. One of the items related to competence showed poor model fit, and concern was raised around possible item ambiguity partway through the study. Two versions of this item were therefore tested, neither of which yielded an acceptable fit. After exclusion of this item, the results showed high loadings for the remaining 10 items on one factor with a high internal consistency (α = 0.94). Convergent validity was approached by looking at the relationship between answers on the WBIS-M, self-perceived weight, and items on overall health and psychological/emotional state. Conclusion The 10-item Norwegian version of the WBIS-M shows sound psychometric properties and can be used to measure internalized weight bias in a weight-neutral fashion in a Norwegian-speaking population. Internalized weight bias was correlated with psychological/emotional state and overall health, with those reporting more internalized weight bias also reporting that they felt worse. This relationship was stronger for women than men in our sample and was partially dependent on weight. The women also showed higher internalized weight bias than the men. Future studies should include more male participants and explore alternative versions of the missing item related to competence. Plain English summary Individuals with higher weight may experience social stigma due to their weight. This can include encountering beliefs that people of higher weight lack willpower or are not as smart or valuable as others. Stigma related to weight can then be internalized, leading to weight bias internalization , which is when people start to believe in weight-related stigma about themselves. A Norwegian translation of the modified weight bias internalization scale (WBIS-M) was answered by a Norwegian sample. A confirmatory factor analysis was conducted to determine whether the scale had a single-factor structure. The results showed that 10 of the original 11 items fit well, but one item related to the experience of competence should be removed. Once this item was removed, the scale had good statistical properties, indicating that internalized weight bias can be measured by the 10 items of the Norwegian WBIS-M. Internalized weight bias was related to how well people were feeling psychologically and health-wise, with those reporting more internalized weight bias also reporting that they felt worse. This relationship was stronger for women than men in our sample. Future studies should include more male participants and explore further versions of the competence item.

= 20 mT). Immobilized metal affinity chromatography binding studies suggests that residues in the N-terminal part of MopE* are involved in forming binding site(s) for Cu(II) ions. Our results support the hypothesis that MopE plays an important role in copper uptake, possibly making use of both its high (Cu(I) and low Cu(II) affinity properties.

Light cues vary along the axis of periodicity, intensity and spectrum and perception of light is dependent on the photoreceptive capacity encoded within the genome and the opsins expressed. A global approach was taken to analyze the photoreceptive capacity and the effect of differing light conditions on a developing teleost prior to first feeding. The transcriptomes of embryos and alevins of Atlantic salmon (Salmo salar) exposed to different light conditions were analyzed, including a developmental series and a circadian profile. The results showed that genes mediating nonvisual photoreception are present prior to hatching when the retina is poorly differentiated. The clock genes were expressed early, but the circadian profile showed that only two clock genes were significantly cycling before first feeding. Few genes were differentially expressed between day and night within a light condition; however, many genes were significantly different between light conditions, indicating that light environment has an impact on the transcriptome during early development. Comparing the transcriptome data from constant conditions to periodicity of white light or different colors revealed overrepresentation of genes related to photoreception, eye development, muscle contraction, degradation of metabolites and cell cycle among others, and in constant light, several clock genes were upregulated. In constant white light and periodicity of green light, genes associated with DNA replication, chromatin remodeling, cell division and DNA repair were downregulated. The study implies a direct influence of light conditions on the transcriptome profile at early developmental stages, by a complex photoreceptive system where few clock genes are cycling.

The regulation of aquaculture production in Norway considers the potential impact of salmon lice on wild fish. However, most attention has been focused on impacts on wild Atlantic salmon, despite the fact that anadromous brown trout spend the majority of their marine phase in coastal waters, where salmon lice have the highest impact. In the present study, we first suggest changes in marine living area and marine feeding time as sustainability indicators for first-time migrant sea trout, as high salmon lice densities may exclude sea trout from otherwise usable habitat and force them to return early to freshwater. Further, a method based on a bio-hydrodynamic model was developed to serve as a proxy for these indicators. The method accounted for the size, migration timingandspatial extent of sea troutandwasdemonstrated in 2Norwegiansalmon aquaculture production areas, Hardangerfjord (PO3) and Romsdalsfjord (PO5), and 2 focal rivers from within each fjord. Based on these comparisons, we exemplify how the change in marine living area and marine feeding time differed between PO3 and PO5 and within the areas. Sea trout migrating to sea late (June 5) were always more affected by lice than those migrating early (April 24) or at intermediate dates (May 15). Our estimates revealed dramatic potential impacts of salmon lice on sea trout populations, which were greatly influenced by spatial and temporal aspects. Considering the negative impacts of salmon lice on sea trout, a holistic view of environmental inter actions between aquaculture and wild species that depend on habitats exploited for production is necessary.