Irish public opinion on assisted human reproduction services: Contemporary assessments from a national sample

Walsh, David J.,Sills, E. Scott,Collins, Gary S.,Hawrylyshyn, Christine A.,Sokol, Piotr,Walsh, Anthony P.H. The Korean Society for Reproductive Medicine 2013 Clinical and Experimental Reproductive Medicine Vol.40 No.4

Objective: To measure Irish opinion on a range of assisted human reproduction (AHR) treatments. Methods: A nationally representative sample of Irish adults (n=1,003) were anonymously sampled by telephone survey. Results: Most participants (77%) agreed that any fertility services offered internationally should also be available in Ireland, although only a small minority of the general Irish population had personal familiarity with AHR or infertility. This sample finds substantial agreement (63%) that the Government of Ireland should introduce legislation covering AHR. The range of support for gamete donation in Ireland ranged from 53% to 83%, depending on how donor privacy and disclosure policies are presented. For example, donation where the donor agrees to be contacted by the child born following donation, and anonymous donation where donor privacy is completely protected by law were supported by 68% and 66%, respectively. The least popular (53%) donor gamete treatment type appeared to be donation where the donor consents to be involved in the future life of any child born as a result of donor fertility treatment. Respondents in social class ABC1 (58%), age 18 to 24 (62%), age 25 to 34 (60%), or without children (61%) were more likely to favour this donor treatment policy in our sample. Conclusion: This is the first nationwide assessment of Irish public opinion on the advanced reproductive technologies since 2005. Access to a wide range of AHR treatment was supported by all subgroups studied. Public opinion concerning specific types of AHR treatment varied, yet general support for the need for national AHR legislation was reported by 63% of this national sample. Contemporary views on AHR remain largely consistent with the Commission for Assisted Human Reproduction recommendations from 2005, although further research is needed to clarify exactly how popular opinion on these issues has changed. It appears that legislation allowing for the full range of donation options (and not mandating disclosure of donor identity at a stipulated age) would better align with current Irish public opinion.

Low velocity impact resistance and energy absorption of environmentally friendly expanded cork core-carbon fiber sandwich composites

Walsh, Joe,Kim, Hyung-Ick,Suhr, Jonghwan Elsevier Science Ltd 2017 Composites Applied science and manufacturing Vol.101 No.-

<P><B>Abstract</B></P> <P>This study investigates the use of expanded cork (a 100% natural lightweight agglomerate material) as a core material in composite sandwich structures with carbon fiber face sheets. The characterization performed focused particularly on energy absorption capability. Rohacell® 110 IG, a synthetic foam commonly used as a core material in high performance aerospace applications, was also used and characterized to compare the energy absorbing characteristics of the sandwich composites. Bending tests were done to examine the stiffness of the sandwich beams. Wavenumber and damping tests were performed to characterize the acoustic and vibrational damping properties of the composites. Both full penetration and partial penetration low velocity impact tests were completed to determine the damage resistance of the composites. It was seen that when compared to the synthetic foam, expanded cork showed a decrease in bending stiffness, but a large improvement in acoustic, damping, and impact damage resistance characteristics. It seems that expanded cork could be an attractive lightweight sandwich core material that will allow for increased energy absorption and will also reduce the carbon footprint of the structures.</P>

Relative importance of symptoms, cognition, and other multilevel variables for psychiatric disease classifications by machine learning

Walsh-Messinger, Julie,Jiang, Haoran,Lee, Hyejoo,Rothman, Karen,Ahn, Hongshik,Malaspina, Dolores Elsevier/North Holland Biomedical Press 2019 Psychiatry Research Vol. No.

<P><B>Abstract</B></P> <P>This study used machine-learning algorithms to make unbiased estimates of the relative importance of various multilevel data for classifying cases with schizophrenia (<I>n</I> = 60), schizoaffective disorder (<I>n</I> = 19), bipolar disorder (<I>n</I> = 20), unipolar depression (<I>n</I> = 14), and healthy controls (<I>n</I> = 51) into psychiatric diagnostic categories. The Random Forest machine learning algorithm, which showed best efficacy (92.9% SD: 0.06), was used to generate variable importance ranking of positive, negative, and general psychopathology symptoms, cognitive indexes, global assessment of function (GAF), and parental ages at birth for sorting participants into diagnostic categories. Symptoms were ranked most influential for separating cases from healthy controls, followed by cognition and maternal age. To separate schizophrenia/schizoaffective disorder from bipolar/unipolar depression, GAF was most influential, followed by cognition and paternal age. For classifying schizophrenia from all other psychiatric disorders, low GAF and paternal age were similarly important, followed by cognition, psychopathology and maternal age. Controls misclassified as schizophrenia cases showed lower nonverbal abilities, mild negative and general psychopathology symptoms, and younger maternal or older paternal age. The importance of symptoms for classification of cases and lower GAF for diagnosing schizophrenia, notably more important and distinct from cognition and symptoms, concurs with current practices. The high importance of parental ages is noteworthy and merits further study.</P> <P><B>Highlights</B></P> <P> <UL> <LI> Machine-learning algorithms estimated importance of multilevel data for diagnostic classification. </LI> <LI> Symptoms were most influential for differentiating psychiatric cases from healthy controls. </LI> <LI> Function was most important for separating the schizophrenias from affective disorder cases. </LI> <LI> Function and paternal age were equally important for separating schizophrenia from all other cases. </LI> <LI> Misclassified controls had mild symptoms, lower cognition, and/or younger mothers/older fathers. </LI> </UL> </P>

Self-Regulation Mechanism for Charged Point Defects in Hybrid Halide Perovskites

Walsh, Aron,Scanlon, David O,Chen, Shiyou,Gong, X G,Wei, Su-Huai WILEY-VCH Verlag 2015 Angewandte Chemie Vol.54 No.6

<P>Hybrid halide perovskites such as methylammonium lead iodide (CH<SUB>3</SUB>NH<SUB>3</SUB>PbI<SUB>3</SUB>) exhibit unusually low free-carrier concentrations despite being processed at low-temperatures from solution. We demonstrate, through quantum mechanical calculations, that an origin of this phenomenon is a prevalence of ionic over electronic disorder in stoichiometric materials. Schottky defect formation provides a mechanism to self-regulate the concentration of charge carriers through ionic compensation of charged point defects. The equilibrium charged vacancy concentration is predicted to exceed 0.4 % at room temperature. This behavior, which goes against established defect conventions for inorganic semiconductors, has implications for photovoltaic performance.</P>

Endoscopic Management of Large Peripancreatic Fluid Collections in Two Pediatric Patients by Endoscopic Ultrasound-guided Transmural Drainage

Walsh, Leonard T.,Groff, Andrew,Mathew, Abraham,Moyer, Matthew T. The Korean Society of Pediatric Gastroenterology 2020 Pediatric gastroenterology, hepatology & nutrition Vol.23 No.1

The incidence of acute pancreatitis (AP) has increased in the pediatric population over the past few decades and it stands to follow that the complications of severe AP, including symptomatic pancreatic fluid collections (PFCs) will increase as well. In adults, the therapeutic options for this situation have undergone a dramatic evolution from mainly surgical approaches to less invasive endoscopic approaches, mainly endoscopic ultrasound-guided transmural drainage (EUS-TD) followed be direct endoscopic necrosectomy if needed. This has proven safe and effective in adults; however, this approach has not been well studied or reported in pediatric populations. Here we demonstrate that EUS-TD seems to offer a safe, efficacious and minimally invasive approach to the management of large PFCs in pediatric patients by reviewing two representative cases at our institution.

Laser-assisted photothermal heating of a plasmonic nanoparticle-suspended droplet in a microchannel

Walsh, Timothy,Lee, Jungchul,Park, Keunhan The Royal Society of Chemistry 2015 The Analyst Vol.140 No.5

<P>The present article reports the numerical and experimental investigations on the laser-assisted photothermal heating of a nanoliter-sized droplet in a microchannel when plasmonic particles are suspended in the droplet. Plasmonic nanoparticles exhibit strong light absorption and scattering upon the excitation of localized surface plasmons (LSPs), resulting in intense and rapid photothermal heating in a microchannel. Computational models are implemented to theoretically verify the photothermal behavior of gold nanoshell (GNS) and gold nanorod (GNR) particles suspended in a liquid microdroplet. Experiments were conducted to demonstrate rapid heating of a sub-100 nL droplet up to 100 °C with high controllability and repeatability. The heating and cooling time to the steady state is on the order of 1 second, while cooling requires less time than heating. The effects of core parameters, such as nanoparticle structure, volumetric concentration, microchannel depth, and laser power density on heating are studied. The obtained results can be integrated into existing microfluidic technologies that demand accurate and rapid heating of microdroplets in a microchannel.</P> <P>Graphic Abstract</P><P>The present article reports the numerical and experimental investigations on the laser-assisted photothermal heating of a nanoliter-sized droplet in a microchannel when plasmonic particles are suspended in the droplet. <IMG SRC='http://pubs.rsc.org/services/images/RSCpubs.ePlatform.Service.FreeContent.ImageService.svc/ImageService/image/GA?id=c4an01750a'> </P>

Oxidation states and ionicity

Walsh, Aron,Sokol, Alexey A.,Buckeridge, John,Scanlon, David O.,Catlow, C. Richard A. Springer Science and Business Media LLC 2018 NATURE MATERIALS Vol.17 No.11

통일사상에 있어서의 윤리론

Walsh, Thomas G. 선문대학교 통일사상연구원 1996 통일사상 연구논총 Vol.1 No.-

본 논문은 통일사상의 윤리론의 일반적인 소개를 위한 시도이다. 필자가 본 논문을 통해 언급할 통일사상의 내용은 1988년 통일사상개요라는 미 출판본이다. 본내용은 통일사상과 통일사상요강으로 불리는 통일사상의 초고에 근거하고 있다. 여기서는 통일사상의 윤리론의 내용뿐만 아니라 그것과 서양사상의 일반적인 윤리이론과의 관계를 언급한다. 덧붙여 필자는 통일윤리론의 현대상황에 대한 탁월한 공헌을 확인한다. 한편 통일사상은 인간의 창조성과 자유를 회생시키지 않고 규범적인 질서의 요구를 주장하며, 윤리적 상대주의에 강력한 도전을 하고 있다. 다른 한편으로 통일사상은 그 자체를 가정의 규범에 중심을 두고 근대와 현대 윤리학자들이 간과한 점인 가정에 대한 사회적, 그리고 심리적 중요성에 우리의 주의를 이끌고 있다. 다음의 제2장은 서양윤리론의 일반적인 개관을 포함하고 있다. 이 부분은 이미 윤리론에 상당히 친숙한 사람들에게는 반드시 읽어야할 필요는 없을 것이며, 그러한 사람들은 통일사상과 다른 서양 철학 윤리의 주요 입장과의 관계에 대한 간략한 요약을 한 후에 다룰 제3장의 통일사상의 윤리론의 해설로 넘어가고 싶을 것이다. 마지막 장은 주로 통일사상이 윤리론에 공헌한 점에 관하여 다루고 있다. 통일사상은 포스트모던(후기 현대)와 포스트 막시스트(후기 마르크스) 시대를 거쳐 그 이후에도 인류를 인도해 줄 수 있는 윤리적 관점을 제공한다. New functions of AZEOPERT [Kim and Simmrock, 1997] were investigated to predict the occurrence of ternary azeotropes and their azeotropic compositions in an organic mixture. This study describes its new problem-solving strategy. The knowledge base of AZEOPERT for ternary azeotropes is hierarchically structured with the several levels of domain-specific knowledge on ternary azeotropy. First, an azeotropic data bank including ternary azeotropic experimental data was implemented in AZEOPERT as the lowest level. It may be used to determine whether or not ternary azeotropic experimental data for the consulted organic mixture are already available. Moreover, compiled heuristic knowledge as the second level and class-oriented model-based knowledge as the highest level were implemented in the knowledge base. The problem-solving strategy through the integration of model-based reasoning into compiled reasoning gives a very efficient, general way for the prediction of ternary azeotrope formation in a wide varitey of organic mixtures, and especially, in unknown mixture systems.

Rates of Readmission after Inpatient Plastic Surgery May Not Tell the Whole Story

Walsh, Kieran Korean Society of Plastic and Reconstructive Surge 2014 Archives of Plastic Surgery Vol.41 No.6

IL-18 Synergizes with IL-7 To Drive Slow Proliferation of Naive CD8 T Cells by Costimulating Self-Peptide–Mediated TCR Signals

Walsh, Matthew C.,Pearce, Erika L.,Cejas, Pedro J.,Lee, JangEun,Wang, Li-San,Choi, Yongwon American Association of Immunologists 2014 Journal of Immunology Vol. No.

<P>Naive T cell populations are maintained in the periphery at relatively constant levels via mechanisms that control expansion and contraction and are associated with competition for homeostatic cytokines. It has been shown that in a lymphopenic environment naive T cells undergo expansion due, at least in part, to additional availability of IL-7. We have previously found that T cell–intrinsic deletion of TNFR-associated factor (TRAF) 6 (TRAF6ΔT) in mice results in diminished peripheral CD8 T cell numbers. In this study, we report that whereas naive TRAF6ΔT CD8 T cells exhibit normal survival when transferred into a normal T cell pool, proliferation of naive TRAF6ΔT CD8 T cells under lymphopenic conditions is defective. We identified IL-18 as a TRAF6–activating factor capable of enhancing lymphopenia-induced proliferation (LIP) in vivo, and that IL-18 synergizes with high-dose IL-7 in a TRAF6-dependent manner to induce slow, LIP/homeostatic-like proliferation of naive CD8 T cells in vitro. IL-7 and IL-18 act synergistically to upregulate expression of IL-18R genes, thereby enhancing IL-18 activity. In this context, IL-18R signaling increases PI3K activation and was found to sensitize naive CD8 T cells to a model noncognate self-peptide ligand in a way that conventional costimulation via CD28 could not. We propose that synergistic sensitization by IL-7 and IL-18 to self-peptide ligand may represent a novel costimulatory pathway for LIP.</P>