Personal Experience of Daboia siamensis Envenomation

Reports of envenomation induced by Daboia siamensis, a medically important venomous snake in Taiwan, are rare, and species identification might not be definitive. This article reports the complete course of a definite D. siamensis bite. The patient in this report was one of the authors who was bitten on the right palm near the base of the index finger by D. siamensis. The patient experienced local effects, neurological manifestations, and acute kidney injury. The laboratory analysis revealed elevated D-dimer and coagulopathy. The patient was administered 8 vials of antivenom and did not undergo surgical intervention or endotracheal tube intubation, but serum sickness occurred 8 days after antivenom administration. The horse immunoglobulin produced by the Centers for Disease Control, R. O. C. (Taiwan), against D. siamensis was effective and safe in the treatment of the patient. However, the best antivenom administration strategy remains unclear and requires further study.

In vivo and in vitro prospection of the anti-ophidic properties exercised by the extracts of Jacaranda decurrens L.

The research and development of alternative treatments for snakebites (e.g., medicinal plants) is necessary due to the high costs of the existing ones. The effects of the aqueous extracts from Jacaranda decurrens leaves, roots, and xylopodium were analyzed upon the venom-induced (Bothrops spp. and Crotalus spp.) systemic and local toxicity. The extracts were able to partially inhibit the phospholipase activity of the venoms from Bothrops jararacussu and Crotalus durissus terrificus. The myotoxic, edema-inducing, coagulant, and hemorrhagic activities were also inhibited. The SDS-PAGE showed that the venom proteins were intact after their incubation with the extracts. This suggests that the possible mechanism of inhibition is not related to the degradation of the protein but rather to their binding to specific sites of the enzymes. The extracts significantly prolonged the survival time of animals in the lethality assay performed with Crotalus durissus terrificus venom and its toxin (crotoxin). The anti-ophidic activity of medicinal plants may aid in the management of snakebites in distant locations by reducing the victim’s local effects and time to heal.

A generalized additive model-based data-driven solution for lithium-ion battery capacity prediction and local effects analysis

Lithium-ion battery-based energy storage systems have been widely utilized in many applications such as transportation electrification and smart grids. As a key health status indicator, battery performance would highly rely on its capacity, which is easily influenced by various electrode formulation parameters within a battery. Due to the strongly coupled electrical, chemical, thermal dynamics, predicting battery capacity, and analysing the local effects of interested parameters within battery is significantly important but challenging. This article proposes an effective data-driven method to achieve effective battery capacity prediction, as well as local effects analysis. The solution is derived by using generalized additive models (GAM) with different interaction terms. Comparison study illustrate that the proposed GAM-based solution is capable of not only performing satisfactory battery capacity predictions but also quantifying the local effects of five important battery electrode formulation parameters as well as their interaction terms. Due to data-driven nature and explainability, the proposed method could benefit battery capacity prediction in an efficient manner and facilitate battery control for many other energy storage system applications.

Coordination and Equilibrium Selection in Games: The Role of Local Effects

We study the role of local effects and finite size effects in reaching coordination and in equilibrium selection in two-player coordination games. We investigate three update rules – the replicator dynamics (RD), the best response (BR), and the unconditional imitation (UI). For the pure coordination game with two equivalent strategies we find a transition from a disordered state to coordination for a critical value of connectivity. The transition is system-size-independent for the BR and RD update rules. For the IU it is system-size-dependent, but coordination can always be reached below the connectivity of a complete graph. We also consider the general coordination game which covers a range of games, such as the stag hunt. For these games there is a payoff-dominant strategy and a risk-dominant strategy with associated states of equilibrium coordination. We analyse equilibrium selection analytically and numerically. For the RD and BR update rules mean-field predictions agree with simulations and the risk-dominant strategy is evolutionary favoured independently of local effects. When players use the unconditional imitation, however, we observe coordination in the payoff-dominant strategy. Surprisingly, the selection of pay-off dominant equilibrium only occurs below a critical value of the network connectivity and disappears in complete graphs. As we show, it is a combination of local effects and update rule that allows for coordination on the payoff-dominant strategy.

Geometrization of light bending and its application to SdS w spacetime

The mysterious dark energy remains one of the greatest puzzles of modern science. Current detections for it are mostly indirect. The spacetime effects of dark energy can be locally described by the SdS$_w$ metric. Understanding these local effects exactly is an essential step towards the direct probe of dark energy. From first principles, we prove that dark energy can exert a repulsive dark force on astrophysical scales, different from the Newtonian attraction of both visible and dark matter. One way of measuring local effects of dark energy is through the gravitational deflection of light. We geometrize the bending of light in any curved static spacetime. First of all, we define a generalized deflection angle, referred to as the Gaussian deflection angle, in a mathematically strict and conceptually clean way. Basing on the Gauss-Bonnet theorem, we then prove that the Gaussian deflection angle is equivalent to the surface integral of the Gaussian curvature over a chosen lensing patch. As an application of the geometrization, we study the problem of whether dark energy affects the bending of light and provide a strict solution to this problem in the SdS$_w$ spacetime. According to this solution, we propose a method to overcome the difficulty of measuring local dark energy effects. Exactly speaking, we find the lensing effect of dark energy can be enhanced by 14 orders of magnitude when properly choosing the lensing patch in certain cases. It means that we can probe the existence and nature of dark energy directly in our solar system. This points to an exciting direction to help unraveling the great mystery of dark energy.

Rhabdomyolysis and Obstetric Correlates: Literature Perspectives for the Obstetric Anesthesiologist

Rhabdomyolysis complicating the antepartum or peripartum period is not a commonly reported finding and where they occur, it can be life-threatening. The problem with rhabdomyolysis during pregnancy or labour is the potential harmful systemic and local effects it can cause. These includes cardiac arrhythmias, acute kidney injury, clotting problems in severe cases [1]. To the fetus, foetal distress or foetal demise could be the end-result where timely management is not initiated [2].

On cosmological expansion and local physics

We find an exact convergence in the local dynamics described by two supposedly antagonistic approaches applied at the local, solar system scale: one starting from an expanding universe perspective such as FLRW, the other based on a local model ignoring any notion of expansion, such as static Schwarzschild dS. Both models are in complete agreement when the local effects of the expansion are circumscribed to the presence of the cosmological constant. We elaborate on the relevant role of static backgrounds like the Schwarzschild-dS metric in standard form as the most proper coordinatizations to describe physics at the local scale. We also elaborate on the popular expanding 3-space picture—to be distinguished from that of the expanding universe—and point out the confusion of scales which is typically associated with it. Finally, making use of an old and too often forgotten relativistic kinematical invariant, we address some remaining misunderstandings on space expansion, cosmological and gravitational redshifts. As a byproduct we propose a unique and unambiguous prescription to match the local and cosmological expression of a specific observable.

It’s complicated: characterizing the time-varying relationship between cell phone mobility and COVID-19 spread in the US

Restricting in-person interactions is an important technique for limiting the spread of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus-2 (SARS-CoV-2). Although early research found strong associations between cell phone mobility and infection spread during the initial outbreaks in the United States, it is unclear whether this relationship persists across locations and time. We propose an interpretable statistical model to identify spatiotemporal variation in the association between mobility and infection rates. Using 1 year of US county-level data, we found that sharp drops in mobility often coincided with declining infection rates in the most populous counties in spring 2020. However, the association varied considerably in other locations and across time. Our findings are sensitive to model flexibility, as more restrictive models average over local effects and mask much of the spatiotemporal variation. We conclude that mobility does not appear to be a reliable leading indicator of infection rates, which may have important policy implications.

Topical Capsaicin for the Treatment of Sensory Neuropathic Cough

Objective To evaluate a novel treatment for sensory neuropathic cough (SNC): topical capsaicin. Study Design Retrospective review. Setting Tertiary care laryngology clinic. Methods A retrospective review was performed on 201 consecutive patients treated for SNC with capsaicin 0.02% to 0.04% applied topically to the upper aerodigestive tract, typically after failure of standard medications. Patients were asked to use the spray 4 times daily for 2 weeks prior to assessment of benefit. Items assessed included the percentage reduction of coughing, type of benefit noted, and side effects. Results Of the 201 patients who used the spray, 36.3% noted no benefit, whereas 63.7% (n = 128) had benefit in terms of cough reduction: 30.8% (n = 62) reported ≥75% reduction; 17.4% (n = 35), 50%-74% reduction; 7.0% (n = 14), 25%-49% reduction; and 8.5% (n = 17), 1%-24% reduction. Of all patients, 78.3% reported no side effects or complications. Of the remaining 21.7%, 1 patient noted a nosebleed after a single administration, and 1 patient noted transient wheezing after administration. The others reported unpleasant local effects, including throat/ear discomfort, voice change, sneezing, reflexive vomiting, and headache. Conclusion In our group of 201 patients with SNC, most of which had failed to respond to standard treatments, 63.7% had some response to capsaicin spray, with 30.8% reporting ≥75% reduction. Minimal side effects of treatment were reported. Thus, we suggest that this therapy can be another treatment option for patients with SNC.