Laboratory studies in cross-species lung transplantation

The lack of sufficient suitable human donor lungs for the many patients requiring pulmonary transplantation as life-saving therapy for end-stage lung diseases has generated extensive interest in cross-species lung transplantation. Ethical concerns and those of animal rights advocates have prompted studies of nonprimate species as potential solid organ donors for humans. This paper provides an overview of some of the laboratory studies of cross-species pulmonary transplantation performed over the past 20 years and focuses, in particular, on more recent work (from our laboratory and others) in the area of porcine-to-primate pulmonary xenotransplantation.     

Multiplexed biochemical assays with biological chips

High density peptide and oligonucleotide chips are fabricated using semiconductor-based technologies. These chips have a variety of biological applications.     

A GPC method to determine the composition of two component copolymers

Summary The hydrolytic degradation of Kevlar 49 fibers when dissolved in H₂SO₄ is characterized from (i) Fourier transform infrared (FTIR), CNH analyses and optical microscopy studies of insoluble crystals formed in the PPTA-H₂SO₄ dope and (ii) the rates of H₂SO₄-catalyzed hydrolysis of model compound aromatic amides. After hydrolysis of a PPTA amide linkage, the amide linkage adjacent to the freshly formed-COOH macromolecular end group rapidly hydrolyses resulting in the formation of terephthalic acid which then forms insoluble crystals in the PPTA-H₂SO₄ dope.Dedicated to Professor Dragutin Fle on the occasion of his 70th birthdaySupported in part by U.S. Department of Energy, LL National Laboratory under Contract W-7405-Eng-48     

Estimation in Random Coefficient Autoregressive Models

Abstract. We propose the quasi‐maximum likelihood method to estimate the parameters of an RCA(1) process, i.e. a random coefficient autoregressive time series of order 1. The strong consistency and the asymptotic normality of the estimators are derived under optimal conditions.     

On Weakly Smooth Uninorms on Finite Chain

In this paper, we characterize all weakly smooth uninorms (i.e., uninorms with smooth underlying operators) defined on a finite chain. It is proved that any such uninorm is determined by three unary functions and vice versa. As a by‐product, we obtain the characterizations of smooth t‐norms, smooth t‐conorms through additive generators and show that on a finite chain, there exists no counterpart of the class of uninorms continuous in ]0, 1[².     

Analysis of Gasolines by FT-IR Spectroscopy

An experimental and computational protocol was established for the simultaneous determination of several key gasoline properties from a single Fourier transform infrared (FT-IR) spectrum. The study has shown that midband FT-IR spectroscopy combined with multivariate calibration analysis is a versatile, efficient, and accurate technique for the simultaneous estimation of key gasoline properties within about 1 min with less than 2 mL of sample. The FT-IR-derived values of gasoline properties include research and motor octane numbers, aromatic, olefinic, and saturated hydrocarbon content, benzene content, and concentrations of ethanol, methyl tert-butyl ether, and total oxygen. Concentrations of other oxygenated compounds are expected to be equally predictable. However, since these oxygen-containing species have not been adequately represented among the currently commercially available gasoline samples, their calibration may only be achieved using laboratory fuel blends. Midrange boiling point data may also be estimated. Fuel properties determined by minor concentrations of fuel components, e.g., flash point, sulfur content, etc., may not be modeled because the corresponding FT-IR signals are below detection limits of presented experimental protocol. The precision of this procedure was shown to be comparable to reproducibility of the standard laboratory analyses used for direct measurement of specific fuel properties, with squared correlation coefficient (R(2)) ranging from 0.94 to 0.99 between the two sets of measurements. This new methodology could increase the corresponding output of the petroleum laboratories by a factor of over 200 to 1 while maintaining data integrity and minimizing sample requirements, environmental hazards, and cost.     

A class of aggregation functions encompassing two-dimensional OWA operators

In this paper we prove that, under suitable conditions, Atanassov’s K_α operators, which act on intervals, provide the same numerical results as OWA operators of dimension two. On one hand, this allows us to recover OWA operators from K_α operators. On the other hand, by analyzing the properties of Atanassov’s operators, we can generalize them. In this way, we introduce a class of aggregation functions - the generalized Atanassov operators - that, in particular, include two-dimensional OWA operators. We investigate under which conditions these generalized Atanassov operators satisfy some properties usually required for aggregation functions, such as bisymmetry, strictness, monotonicity, etc. We also show that if we apply these aggregation functions to interval-valued fuzzy sets, we obtain an ordered family of fuzzy sets.     

Cardiac Toxicity Associated with Immune Checkpoint Inhibitors: A Systematic Review

Immune checkpoint inhibitors (ICIs) are an important advancement in the field of cancer treatment, significantly improving the survival of patients with a series of advanced malignancies, like melanoma, non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC), hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC), renal cell carcinoma (RCC), and Hodgkin lymphoma. ICIs act upon T lymphocytes and antigen-presenting cells, targeting programmed cell death protein 1 (PD1), programmed cell death protein ligand 1 (PD-L1), and cytotoxic T-lymphocyte antigen 4 (CTLA-4), breaking the immune tolerance of the T cells against malignant cells and enhancing the body’s own immune response. A variety of cardiac-adverse effects are associated with ICI-based treatment, including pericarditis, arrhythmias, cardiomyopathy, and acute coronary syndrome, with myocarditis being the most studied due to its often-unexpected onset and severity. Overall, Myocarditis is rare but presents an immune-related adverse event (irAE) that has a high fatality rate. Considering the rising number of oncological patients treated with ICIs and the severity of their potential adverse effects, a good understanding and continuous investigation of cardiac irAEs is of the utmost importance. This systematic review aimed to revise recent publications (between 2016–2022) on ICI-induced cardiac toxicities and highlight the therapeutical approach and evolution in the selected cases.