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In this issue of I Experimental Physiology i , Ewalts et al. (2021) report that the degree of RV intraventricular dyssynchrony is related to an interaction between RV preload (volume) and afterload (PA pressure). Keywords: dyssynchrony; loading; right ventricle EN dyssynchrony loading right ventricle 797 800 4 04/02/21 20210401 NES 210401 It is a well-worn cliché that the right ventricle (RV) is forgotten or neglected, yet it is already the subject of a huge scientific literature. The RV preload was estimated using the echocardiographic surrogate marker of end-diastolic area on an apical four-chamber image, meaning that changes in RV shape and global volumes and function were not explicitly measured. It is clear that pulmonary arterial (PA) pressure and RV function are major predictors of morbidity and mortality in many cardiovascular diseases, but improving RV function as a therapeutic target remains elusive. [Extracted from the article]

This paper investigates whether encouraging children to become more physically active in their everyday life affects their primary school performance. We use data from a field quasi‐experiment called the Active Living Program, which aimed to increase active modes of transportation to school and active play among 8‐ to 12‐year‐olds living in low socioeconomic status (SES) areas in the Netherlands. Difference‐in‐differences estimations reveal that while the interventions increase time spent on physical activity during school hours, they negatively affect school performance, especially among the worst‐performing students. Further analyses reveal that increased restlessness during instruction time is a potential mechanism for this negative effect. Our results suggest that the commonly found positive effects of exercising or participating in sports on educational outcomes may not be generalizable to physical activity in everyday life. Policymakers and educators who seek to increase physical activity in everyday life need to weigh the health and well‐being benefits against the probability of increasing inequality in school performance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article comments on "Materiality Allocation in Audit Planning: A Feasibility Study," a research paper by Barry E. Cushing, D. Gerald Searfoss, and Reed H. Randall (C-S-R). The issues are: the method used to model professional decision problems; three assumptions about the application of a statistical decomposition algorithm to materiality allocation; possible consequences from applying the C-S-R model to audit planning; the evaluation of field testing in the C-S-R study; and the failure to examine audit-planning dynamics. The materiality allocation formula, risk coefficients and potential for multiple solutions, and optimization technique are discussed, as well as the C-S-R model's similarity to Elliott and Rogers (1972), Roberts (1978), and Heimann and Chesley (1977).

The article presents research into professional attitudes on auditing materiality constructions, exploring the consensus among accountants on the importance of materiality and its related issues as well as the personality characteristics identifying differing attitudes. Hypotheses are given suggesting little difference between auditing firm priority rankings of materiality. Q-sort methodology is explained and utilized to test the hypothesis on decision ordering. Results are provided and endorse generalizations of professional consensus on materiality significance.

Significant industrial relevance of gas-liquid-liquid flows calls for understanding of their various aspects. This study focusing on one of the aspects, i.e., interaction of a single bubble with a liquid-liquid interface, is aimed at providing the experimental evidence of a hitherto unreported phenomenon of conditional bouncing of a bubble at the interface between two immiscible, initially quiescent liquids. Bouncing of the bubble is observed for two of the six pairs of the immiscible liquids used in the experiments. The data, obtained by conducting experiments with different pairs of the lighter and heavier liquid bubble diameters and rise heights, suggest that a bubble crossing a liquid-liquid interface is expected to bounce when its average velocity is less than a threshold value that depends on the interfacial tension between the two liquids and the viscosity of the heavier liquid. © 2017 American Institute of Chemical Engineers AIChE J, 63: 3150-3157, 2017 [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Right ventricular ( RV) pressure overload has a vastly different clinical course in children with idiopathic pulmonary arterial hypertension ( iPAH) than in children with pulmonary stenosis ( PS). While RV function is well recognized as a key prognostic factor in iPAH, adverse ventricular-ventricular interactions and LV dysfunction are less well characterized and the pathophysiology is incompletely understood. We compared ventricular-ventricular interactions as hypothesized drivers of biventricular dysfunction in pediatric iPAH versus PS. Eighteen iPAH, 16 PS patients and 18 age- and size-matched controls were retrospectively studied. Cardiac cycle events were measured by M-mode and Doppler echocardiography. Measurements were compared between groups using ANOVA with post hoc Dunnet's or ANCOVA including RV systolic pressure ( RVSP; iPAH 96.8 ± 25.4 mmHg vs. PS 75.4 ± 18.9 mmHg; P = 0.011) as a covariate. RV-free wall thickening was prolonged in iPAH versus PS, extending beyond pulmonary valve closure (638 ± 76 msec vs. 562 ± 76 msec vs. 473 ± 59 msec controls). LV and RV isovolumetric relaxation were prolonged in iPAH ( P < 0.001; LV 102.8 ± 24.1 msec vs. 63.1 ± 13.7 msec; RV 95 [61-165] vs. 28 [0-43]), associated with adverse septal kinetics; characterized by rightward displacement in early systole and leftward displacement in late RV systole (i.e., early LV diastole). Early LV diastolic filling was decreased in iPAH (73 ± 15.9 vs. PS 87.4 ± 14.4 vs. controls 95.8 ± 12.5 cm/sec; P = 0.004). Prolonged RVFW thickening, prolonged RVFW isovolumetric times, and profound septal dyskinesia are associated with interventricular mechanical discoordination and decreased early LV filling in pediatric iPAH much more than PS. These adverse mechanics affect systolic and diastolic biventricular efficiency in iPAH and may form the basis for worse clinical outcomes. We used clinically derived data to study the pathophysiology of ventricular-ventricular interactions in right ventricular pressure overload, demonstrating distinct differences between pediatric pulmonary arterial hypertension ( iPAH) and pulmonary stenosis ( PS). Altered timing of right ventricular free wall contraction and profound septal dyskinesia are associated with interventricular mechanical discoordination and decreased early LV filling in iPAH much more than PS. These adverse mechanics affect systolic and diastolic biventricular efficiency, independent of right ventricular systolic pressure. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background Patients with advanced cancer experience problems and unmet needs. However, we assume that patients with advanced cancer will have more problems and unmet needs in a country with a lower economic status than in an economically stronger country. We studied whether patients with advanced cancer in Indonesia have more problems and unmet needs than a similar group of patients in the Netherlands. Methods We performed a cross-sectional survey. We compared the data for 180 Indonesian and 94 Dutch patients relating to 24 items of the Problems and Needs in Palliative Care-short version questionnaire. We performed descriptive and χ2 analysis with Bonferroni correction. Results The prevalence of most physical problems, including pain, was similar in the 2 groups. In Indonesia, financial problems were the most common: 70 to 80% vs. 30 to 42% in the Netherlands. In Indonesia, 25 to 50% of the patients reported psychological and autonomy problems versus 55 to 86% in the Netherlands. The Indonesian group had many more unmet needs for each problem (> 54%) than the Dutch group (< 35%). Conclusion Apparently, economic and cultural differences hardly influence physical problems. Nonetheless, fewer Indonesian patients reported psychological and autonomy problems than Dutch patients. This difference contradicts our hypothesis. However, we found more unmet needs for professional attention in Indonesia than in the Netherlands, which is compatible with our hypothesis. These simple comparative data provide interesting insights into problems and unmet needs and give rise to our new hypothesis about cultural influences. This hypothesis should be studied in more depth. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

1. Plant roots selectively forage for soil nutrients when these are heterogeneously distributed. In turn, effects of plant roots on biotic and abiotic conditions in the soil, which result in socalled plant–soil feedback can be heterogeneously distributed as well, but it is unknown how this heterogeneity affects root distribution, nutrient uptake and plant biomass production. Here, we investigate plant root distribution patterns as influenced by spatial heterogeneity of plant–soil feedback in soil and quantify consequences for plant nitrogen uptake and biomass production. 2. We conditioned soils by four grassland plant species to obtain ‘own’ and ‘foreign’ soils that differed in biotic conditions similar as is done by the first phase of plant–soil feedback experiments. We used these conditioned soils to create heterogeneous (one patch of own and three patches of foreign soils) or homogeneous substrates where own and foreign soils were mixed. We also included sterilized soil to study the effect of excluding soil biota, such as pathogens, symbionts and decomposers. We supplied 15N as tracer to measure nutrient uptake. 3. In nonsterile conditions, most plant species produced more biomass in heterogeneous than in homogeneous soil. Root biomass and 15N uptake rates were higher in foreign than own soil patches. These differences between heterogeneous and homogeneous soil disappeared when soil was sterilized, suggesting that the effects in non-sterilized soils were due to species-specific soil biota that had responded to soil conditioning. 4. We conclude that plants produce more biomass when own and foreign soils are patchily distributed than when mixed. We show that this enhanced productivity is due to nutrient uptake being overall most efficient when own and foreign soils are spatially separated. We propose that spatial heterogeneity of negative plant–soil feedback in species diverse plant communities may provide a better explanation of overyielding than assuming that plant–soil feedback effects are diluted. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background A deficit in affective rather than cognitive empathy is thought to be central to psychopathic traits. However, empirical evidence for empathy deficits in adolescents with psychopathic traits is limited. We investigated the concurrent and prospective effects of psychopathic traits on affective and cognitive trait empathy in late adolescence. Methods A community sample of 107 males and 126 females who were approximately 16-year olds at Time 1 participated in four annual waves. Sex-specific classes of adolescents' psychopathic traits were created using Latent Class Analyses. Subsequently, we investigated class differences in level and development of empathy. Results For both sexes, Latent Class Analyses produced two classes: one class with low and one with moderate levels of psychopathic traits. Consistent with our hypothesis, for both sexes, adolescents with moderate levels of psychopathic traits reported lower mean levels of affective empathy than adolescents with low levels of psychopathic traits. In addition, female adolescents with moderate psychopathic traits reported lower mean levels of cognitive empathy. Male adolescents showed a trend in this direction. No differences between classes were found in development of empathy, which increased over years. Conclusions This is the first study to show that male and female adolescents with higher levels of psychopathic traits have lower levels of affective empathy not only concurrently but also prospectively over a 3-year period. Females additionally showed a similar pattern on cognitive empathy. In this community sample, developmental results suggest that adolescents with higher levels of psychopathic traits have relative rather than absolute empathy deficits. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

First experimental results of the transfer from an analytical batch electrochromatography to a continuous annular electrochromatographic process are presented. In order to study the electrochromatographic effects, hydrodynamics and functionality tests were investigated in a planar reference system. As stationary phase inside the annular gap, an inorganic C8 reverse-phase monolith prepared by an in situ sol-gel process was implemented. The generation of Joule heating during the process was determined by a contact-free thermal camera system. The volumetric flow rates of the electrolyte were detected by a gravimetric contact-free measurement method. Finally, a mixture of neutral test substances was used to evaluate the continuous separation efficiency and to fractionate the single substances under process-like conditions. The separation results were detected by an inline UV-Vis detection cell and the analysis of the single fractions was performed by an analytical electrochromatograph. The results indicate uniform electroosmotic flow as well as successful separation and fractioning of a neutral test mixture. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The glass packing QVF DURAPACK® was developed to use the advantages of structured mass transfer packings, especially when handling corrosive media. To match up with the latest developments for sheet metal packings, further optimization for liquid-liquid separation processes was performed for the QVF DURAPACK®. The complex geometry of structured packings and the wall thickness of glass sheets complicate the numerical investigations. The modeling strategy is presented, and the limitations of CFD tools are given. The experimental and numerical results show similar trends as known for perforated metal structures. The extraction efficiency of the packing prototype could also be reproduced with the column design tool LLECMOD. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

ABSTRACT Dutch adults from a nationwide Internet panel ( N = 426) were asked to imagine that their next-door neighbours would move out and that people with intellectual disability would move in. Severity of disability and group size were varied to manipulate intergroup threat. These two factors independently influenced social acceptance and a variety of emotional and behavioural measures. In particular, it was found that a large group with severe disability aroused the strongest negative response, whereas a small group with mild disability aroused the weakest negative response. Small groups with a severe disability and large groups with a mild disability aroused similar and intermediate negative responses. Results are discussed in terms of theories of intergroup threat and stigmatisation. Practical implications for predicting the success of de-institutionalisation and social integration of groups with special needs are addressed. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: To investigate the presence of any regional myocardial deformation abnormalities in Marfan syndrome (MFS) and determine the benefits of using advanced echocardiography compared to conventional techniques. Background: Myocardial dysfunction in MFS may be caused by extracellular matrix remodeling thus, resulting in uniform reduced functionality. However, increased aortic stiffness may cause segmental ventricular abnormalities. Strain rate imaging (SRI) constitutes a validated technique to assess regional deformation in various clinical conditions. With this in mind, we aimed to investigate biventricular function in MFS using SRI. Methods: Forty-four MFS patients (mean age 30 ± 12 years, 26 men) and 49 controls without valvular disease were examined using SRI. Ejection fraction (EF) was calculated by the Simpson's biplane method. Biventricular deformation was assessed by measuring strain/strain rate. Strain values were divided by left ventricular (LV) end-diastolic volume to adjust LV deformation for geometry changes providing a strain index (SI). Aortic stiffness was evaluated using the β-stiffness index. Results: EF (%) was reduced in MFS patients (59 ± 5 vs 72 ± 4, P < 0.001), whereas β-stiffness was increased (P < 0.001). LV radial and LV and right ventricular (RV) long-axis strain values (%) were reduced in the patient group (70 ± 17 vs 93 ± 10; 19 ± 2 vs 25 ± 2; 30 ± 9 vs 36 ± 8, respectively, P < 0.001). Strain rate measurements were also reduced (P < 0.001). In a multiple regression analysis, MFS diagnosis was negatively associated with LV SI (−0.262 [−0.306, −0.219], P < 0.001). β-Stiffness was negatively associated with SI obtained from the septum, inferior and anterior walls. ROC analyses demonstrated that SRI, when compared with conventional echocardiography, had higher sensitivity and specificity in predicting biventricular dysfunction in MFS. Conclusions: Our study showed a uniform reduction in biventricular deformation in MFS. These findings suggest that assessment of myocardial function using advanced echocardiographic techniques could be more accurate in MFS patient evaluation than conventional echocardiography alone. (Echocardiography 2011;28:416-430) [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Extracellular matrix remodeling in the aortic wall results in increased aortic stiffness (AoS) in Marfan syndrome (MFS). Pulsed-wave velocity (PWV) constitutes the best indirect AoS measurement. We aimed to assess PWV in MFS patients using two-dimensional (2D) and Doppler echocardiography. Methods: Thirty-one MFS patients, (mean age 31 ± 14 years, 16 men) and 31 controls were examined. Blood flow was recorded in the aorta near the aortic valve and immediately after in the descending aorta with simultaneous electrocardiography. PWV was calculated by dividing the distance between the two sample volume positions (D) by the time difference (TD) between the intervals from the QRS start to the ascending and descending aortic flow onsets. B-stiffness was also measured. Results: TD (described in 'Methods' section) and, aortic arch length were significantly increased in MFS patients, P < 0.001. Thus, PWV values were significantly higher in patients when compared with controls, 7.20 m/s (5.12, 9.43) versus 4.64 m/s (3.37, 6.24), P < 0.001. B-stiffness was also significantly increased in MFS patients; 5.15 (3.69, 7.65) versus 2.44 (1.82, 3.66), P < 0.001. Multiple regression analysis showed a positive association with MFS diagnosis and age, (P = 0.002 and 0.009, respectively). Reproducibility of PWV measurements was <5%. Conclusions: AoS was significantly higher in MFS patients as expected. Our data demonstrated that PWV measurements can be performed, in the absence of serious musculoskeletal abnormalities in MFS adults, as part of a cardiac ultrasound scan. This technique can be helpful in diagnosis and management in MFS. (Echocardiography 2011;28:29-37) [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Although people with intellectual disabilities (ID) are increasingly expected to relocate from traditional institutional care to ‘regular’ neighbourhood housing facilities and socially integrate in these neighbourhoods, little is known about how they are perceived and appreciated as neighbours. This paper reports on interviews carried out with 30 neighbours without ID who were neighbours of small-scale care facilities for people with ID. Interviews addressed the neighbours' everyday experiences of neighbouring in general, and neighbouring people with ID in particular. Neighbouring, for these informants, called for a fine balance between friendliness without over-involvement. While they were generally positive about their interactions with their neighbours with ID, it emerged that the formal nature of the care facility and the interaction style of some of the neighbours with ID often contravened informants' assumptions about neighbouring. Informants expressed concern about a possible lack of appropriate distance, reciprocity and accountability among their neighbours with ID. The nature of the care facility, with paid staff, often group activities, formal means of achieving the everyday small tasks which neighbours sometimes do for each other, and a high turnover of residents, all undermined the possibility of a typical neighbourly relationship. In conclusion, we suggest that integration of people with ID into everyday neighbouring relationships raises complex challenges for care organizations that need to find a balance between supporting the needs of people with ID they care for, adequate support and mediation for other neighbours when necessary, and all the while avoid becoming overly involved in neighbouring as a formal partner. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: In this article, the authors studied the feasibility of estimating regional mechanical properties in cerebral aneurysms, integrating information extracted from imaging and physiological data with generic computational models of the arterial wall behavior. Methods: A data assimilation framework was developed to incorporate patient-specific geometries into a given biomechanical model, whereas wall motion estimates were obtained from applying registration techniques to a pair of simulated MR images and guided the mechanical parameter estimation. A simple incompressible linear and isotropic Hookean model coupled with computational fluid-dynamics was employed as a first approximation for computational purposes. Additionally, an automatic clustering technique was developed to reduce the number of parameters to assimilate at the optimization stage and it considerably accelerated the convergence of the simulations. Several in silico experiments were designed to assess the influence of aneurysm geometrical characteristics and the accuracy of wall motion estimates on the mechanical property estimates. Hence, the proposed methodology was applied to six real cerebral aneurysms and tested against a varying number of regions with different elasticity, different mesh discretization, imaging resolution, and registration configurations. Results: Several in silico experiments were conducted to investigate the feasibility of the proposed workflow, results found suggesting that the estimation of the mechanical properties was mainly influenced by the image spatial resolution and the chosen registration configuration. According to the in silico experiments, the minimal spatial resolution needed to extract wall pulsation measurements with enough accuracy to guide the proposed data assimilation framework was of 0.1 mm. Conclusions: Current routine imaging modalities do not have such a high spatial resolution and therefore the proposed data assimilation framework cannot currently be used on in vivo data to reliably estimate regional properties in cerebral aneurysms. Besides, it was observed that the incorporation of fluid-structure interaction in a biomechanical model with linear and isotropic material properties did not have a substantial influence in the final results. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Valuation of the prepayment option in Dutch mortgages is complicated. In the Netherlands, mortgagors are not allowed to prepay the full mortgage loan without a compensating penalty. Only a limited amount of the initial mortgage loan can be prepaid penalty-free. We introduce a general model formulation for the valuation of limited callable mortgages, based on binomial trees. This model can be used for determining both the optimal prepayment strategy and the value of embedded prepayment options. For some mortgage types the prepayment option can be valued exactly, whereas other types require approximative methods for efficient valuation. The heuristic we propose here determines the prepayment option value efficiently and accurately for general mortgage types. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An inverse problems method is applied to a two-phase liquid-liquid system in a rotating disc contactor (RDC). The dispersed phase is modeled by population balance equations, which are solved by a Monte Carlo method, together with the equations for the parametric derivatives of the solution with respect to the parameters of the model. The best-fitting problem is solved by a gradient search method. Because the inverse problem is ill-posed, the iteration procedure is augmented by an appropriate termination criterion to stabilize the calculations. The parametric derivatives of the solution can be used to quantify the relative importance of different parameters of the model. It is shown that the model's parameters, which are identified on one set of the experimental data, adequately describe the behavior of the system under another unfitted operation condition, that is, the proposed method can be applied to scale-up problems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

At various levels of environmental policy making there is a demand to translate polluting emissions into monetary units. In the so-called reduction cost approach, based upon policy targets, polluting emissions are expressed in monetary terms by determination of the marginal unit reduction cost at the emission target level. This approach provides shadow prices for emissions by which it can be established whether a certain measure or technology belongs to the most efficient set of measures by which the policy targets can be reached. This article argues that, if clear (generic) government targets such as national emission reduction targets exist for an emission, shadow prices derived by this method are to be preferred to shadow prices derived by other methods for decisions at the project (implementation) level. By application of the reduction cost approach, implementation decisions can be made that are both cost-effective and consistent with government policy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]