Wichita State University

About: Wichita State University is a education organization based out in Wichita, Kansas, United States. It is known for research contribution in the topics: Population & Poison control. The organization has 4988 authors who have published 9563 publications receiving 253824 citations. The organization is also known as: WSU & Fairmount College.

Photochemical Charge Separation in Closely Positioned Donor–Boron Dipyrrin–Fullerene Triads

Abstract: A series of molecular triads, composed of closely positioned boron dipyrrin-fullerene units, covalently linked to either an electron donor (donor(1)-acceptor(1)-acceptor(2)-type triads) or an energy donor (antenna-donor(1)-acceptor(1)-type triads) was synthesized and photoinduced energy/electron transfer leading to stabilization of the charge-separated state was demonstrated by using femtosecond and nanosecond transient spectroscopic techniques. The structures of the newly synthesized triads were visualized by DFT calculations, whereas the energies of the excited states were determined from spectral and electrochemical studies. In the case of the antenna-donor(1)-acceptor(1)-type triads, excitation of the antenna moiety results in efficient energy transfer to the boron dipyrrin entity. The singlet-excited boron dipyrrin thus generated, undergoes subsequent energy and electron transfer to fullerene to produce a boron dipyrrin radical cation and a fullerene radical anion as charge-separated species. Stabilization of the charge-separated state in these molecular triads was observed to some extent.

Age and understanding speakers with spanish or taiwanese accents

Abstract: This pilot study concerned the intelligibility of accented speech for listeners of different ages. 72 native speakers of English, representing three age groups (20-39, 40-59, 60 and older) listened to words and sentences produced by native speakers of English, Taiwanese, and Spanish. Listeners transcribed words and sentences. Listeners also rated speakers' comprehensibility, i.e., listeners' perceptions of difficulty in understanding utterances, and accentedness, i.e., how strong a speaker's foreign accent is perceived to be. On intelligibility measures, older adults had significantly greater difficulty in understanding individuals with accented speech than the other two age groups. Listeners, regardless of age, were more likely to provide correct responses if they perceived the speaker easier to understand. Ratings of comprehensibility were highly correlated with ratings of accentedness.

A probabilistic data-driven framework for scoring the preoperative recipient-donor heart transplant survival

Abstract: Recent research has shown that data mining models can accurately predict the outcome of a heart transplant based on predictors that include patient and donor's health/demographics. These models have not been adopted in practice, however, since they did not: a) consider the interactions between the explanatory variables; b) provide a patient's specific risk of survival (reported results have been primarily deterministic); and c) offer an automated decision tool that can provide some data-driven insights to practitioners. In this study, we attempt to overcome these three limitations through the use of Bayesian Belief Networks (BBN). The proposed BBN framework is comprised of four phases. In the first two phases, the data is preprocessed, and a candidate set of predictors is generated based on employing several variable selection methods. The third phase involves the addition of medically relevant variables to the list. In phase four, the BBN model is applied. The results show that the proposed BBN method provides similar predictive performance to the best approaches in the literature. More importantly, our method provides novel information on the interactions among the predictors and the conditional probability of survival for a given set of relevant donor-recipient characteristics. We offer U.S. practitioners a decision support tool that presents an individualized survival score based on our BBN model (and the UNOS dataset). A model that provides competitive predictors for 9-year heart transplantation outcomes.The BBN model presents data-driven insights into how the predictors interact.The result of the methodology is a novel individualized risk score for heart transplant outcomes.A decision support tool is provided to assist practitioners in characterizing a heart transplant's risk.

Sexual Problems in Cardiac Patients How to Assess, When to Refer

Abstract: It is increasingly realized that discussing sexuality is an important issue in the holistic care for cardiac patients. In this review article, the conditions of a good assessment of sexual problems are identified such as creating an appropriate environment, ensuring confidentiality, and using appropriate language. Second, we present different styles and approaches that can be used to start the assessment, differing between settings, persons, or disciplines. The PLISSIT (permission, limited information, specific suggestion, and intensive therapy) model can be helpful to initiate discussion about sexuality with the cardiac patient and his/her partner. This model is a stepwise approach using various levels of discussion or treatment. Open-ended question can facilitate discussion about sexual concerns, and validated questionnaires or diaries can be used to assess sexual problems. Patients with sexual concerns and problems should be counseled and/or treated appropriately, and adequate follow-up is needed. Additional training and research are needed to further improve the quality of sexual assessment and counseling in cardiac patients.