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Virtually anything can be ranked; the US News and World Report (USNWR or US News) ranks the top 50 hospitals specializing in cardiology, heart, and vascular surgery. Here the authors propose validating the effectiveness of rankings by comparing differences among the USNWR metrics across the top 50 hospitals. Methods The ranking system for the top 50 hospitals specializing in cardiology, heart, and vascular surgery was derived from 16 variant scores. Each hospital's scores were collected from the USNWR. Hospitals were categorized into quintiles consisting of 10 institutions (1-10, 11-20, etc). An analysis of variance/χ² comprehensive statistical analysis was run alongside a Wilcoxon/Kruskal-Wallis test to compare statistical outcomes. A significant threshold was deemed to be P < 0.05. Results Significant differences were noted between quintiles for advanced technologies (P = 0.05), US News specialty score (P < 0.001), number of patient referrals (P = 0.004), and expert opinion (P < 0.001). Non-statistically significant differences were found among patient experience, public transparency, Society of Thoracic Surgery transparency, American College of Cardiology transparency, recognition as a magnet hospital, and nursing staffing. Interestingly, a large variance was noted in the average number of referrals between the first quintile (13,371) and the last (6690). Conclusions Expert opinion plays a critical role in the reputation of the USNWR's top 10 hospitals in cardiology, heart, and vascular surgery. Although many have argued about the merits of USNWR hospital rankings, taken together, rankings fill a strong customer demand and are sticky. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Introduction: In 2013, the US Public Health Service (PHS) updated guidelines for high-risk donor organs and renamed the category increased risk. Project Aims: We compared survival of patients who received increased risk or non-increased risk donor lungs to determine if PHS designated increased risk donor lungs were an underutilized resource. Design: This retrospective cohort analysis compared survival and utilization rates of increased-risk and non-increased-risk donor lungs used in lung transplantation at a single institution over a period of 8 years (Feb-2012 through Mar-2020). Survival was assessed using Kaplan-Meier analysis and compared by log-rank test. Cox proportional hazards modeling was used to analyze impact on survival of variables significantly associated with risk status, including recipient ethnicity, lung allocation score (LAS), donor age, year of transplant procedure, and lung transplant type. Results: Of 744 lung transplant recipients from February 2012 through March 2020, there were 192 (26%) recipients of increased risk designated lungs. In 2012 and 2013, 6% and 0% respectively of the lungs transplanted were increased risk labeled. After the PHS guidelines were nationally implemented in February 2014, the proportion of increased risk lung transplants rose to 7% (2014), 21% (2015), 27% (2016), 35% (2017), 28% (2018), 27% (2019), and 40% (January-March 2020). Kaplan-Meier analysis and log-rank test comparison showed no significant difference in survival between patients that received increased risk versus non-increased risk labeled lungs (P = 0.47). Conclusions: Our analysis suggested the 2013 PHS increased risk designation threatened underutilization of viable donor lungs, providing further support for the 2020 PHS changes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract Background Elevation of cardiac troponin has been documented in multiple settings without acute coronary syndrome. However, its impact on long-term cardiac outcomes in the context of acute decompensated diabetes remains to be explored. Methods We performed a retrospective analysis of 872 patients admitted to Temple University Hospital from 2004–2009 with DKA or HHS. Patients were included if they had cardiac troponin I (cTnI) measured within 24 hours of hospital admission, had no evidence of acute coronary syndrome and had a follow up period of at least 18 months. Of the 264 patients who met the criteria, we reviewed the baseline patient characteristics, admission labs, EKGs and major adverse cardiovascular events during the follow up period. Patients were categorized into two groups with normal and elevated levels of cardiac enzymes. The composite end point of the study was the occurrence of a major cardiovascular event (MACE) during the follow up period and was compared between the two groups. Results Of 264 patients, 24 patients were found to have elevated cTnI. Compared to patients with normal cardiac enzymes, there was a significant increase in incidence of MACE in patients with elevated cTnI. In a regression analysis, which included prior history of CAD, HTN and ESRD, the only variable that independently predicted MACE was an elevation in cTnI (p = 0.044). Patients with elevated CK-MB had increased lengths of hospitalization compared to the other group (p Conclusions Elevated cardiac troponin I in patients admitted with decompensated diabetes and without evidence of acute coronary syndrome, strongly correlate with a later major cardiovascular event. Thus, elevated troponin I during metabolic abnormalities identify a group of patients at an increased risk for poor long-term outcomes. Whether these patients may benefit from early detection, risk stratification and preventive interventions remains to be investigated.

This article summarizes the preparation and applications of carbon derived from jute sticks and fibers that are low‐cost, widely available, renewable, and environmentally friendly. Both the fibers and sticks are considered ideal candidates of carbon preparation because they are composed of cellulose, hemicelluloses, and lignin, and contain negligible ash content. Various carbon preparation methods including simple pyrolysis, pyrolysis with chemical and physical activations are discussed. The impacts of several parameters including types of activating agents, impregnation ratio, and temperature on their morphology, surface area, pore size, crystallinity, and surface functional groups are also emphasized. Various treatments to endow functionalization for increasing the practical applicability, such as chemical, physical, and physico‐chemical methods, are discussed. In addition, applications of jute‐derived carbon in various practical areas, including energy storage, water treatment, and sensors, are also highlighted in this report. Due to the porous fine structure and a large specific surface area, the jute‐derived carbon could be considered as a powerful candidate material for various industrial applications. Finally, possible future prospects of jute‐derived carbon for various applications are pointed out. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Altogether 300 soil samples, from surface and subsurface, were collected from Chittagong Hill Tracts, Bangladesh under different land use system like forest, orchard & shifting cultivation etc. Among those samples, 60 surface soil (0 to 15 cm.) samples under 4 different forest tree species like Teak (Tectona grandis), Jarul (Lagerstroemia speciosa), Gamar (Gmelina arborea) & Mahogany (Swietenia mahagony) were selected to analyze the soil pH, organic matter content, available phosphorus and available potassium for each land use system. The mean values of available phosphorus, available potassium, organic matter content and pH were calculated along with the soil texture determination. In addition, the simple linear correlations between available phosphorus-organic matters, available potassium-organic matter, available phosphorus-pH, available potassium-pH and organic matter-pH were calculated for all the land use system. The significance of the simple linear correlation was tested under 0.05 and 0.01 level of significance. The study revealed that there is a strong negative correlation between the available phosphorus and organic matter content in the soils of Jarul (Lagerstroemia speciosa) forest. The correlations of available phosphorus and potassium with pH and organic matter content remain nonsignificant in all other test cases. However there was a non-significant but positive trend of correlation between organic matter content and potassium in the soils under Gamar forests. There is no any significant correlation of soil pH with available phosphorus, available potassium or soil organic matter content. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]