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29872231 | s2ag/train | v2 | 2018-04-03T01:34:37.697Z | 2002-01-01T00:00:00.000Z | Detergent-resistant membrane microdomains and apical sorting of GPI-anchored proteins in polarized epithelial cells.
Detergent-insoluble microdomains or rafts play a crucial role in many cellular functions: membrane traffic, cell signalling and human diseases. In this work we investigate the role of rafts in the sorting of GPI-anchored proteins in polarized epithelial cells. In contrast to MDCK cells, the majority of endogenous GPI-anchored proteins are sorted to the basolateral surface of Fischer rat thyroid cells (Zurzolo et al., J. Cell Biol. 121, 1031-1039, 1993). We analyzed a set of transfected GPI proteins in order to understand the role of the GPI anchor and of association with rafts for apical sorting. We found that the GPI moiety is necessary but not sufficient for apical sorting of GPI proteins and that the ectodomain has a major role. We propose a new model in which the stabilization of proteins into rafts, probably mediated by interactions between protein ectodomains and a putative receptor, plays a crucial role in apical sorting. |
40140381 | s2ag/train | v2 | 2018-04-03T04:42:38.074Z | 2001-01-01T00:00:00.000Z | Hydroxyapatite coating of detachable coils for endovascular occlusion of experimental aneurysm.
SUMMARY
The purpose of this study was to evaluate the effect of hydroxyapatite (HAp) coating on Guglielmi detachable coils (GDCs) in an experimental aneurysm model. A total of 12 aneurysms were experimentally made in the common carotid arteries of swine using a microsurgical technique. Embolization was done on these aneurysms using standard GDCs and GDCs coated with HAp (GDC-HAp). The animals were then killed 14 days after embolization. The physical properties of coated coils and the development of tissue scarring and coverage the aneurysm's orifice were evaluated macroscopically and microscopically. Macroscopically, a scar formation and coverage at the neck of aneurysms were observed in a group with GDC-HAp, while such findings were not seen in a group with GDC. With light microscope, fibroblasts were seen in the neck of the aneurysms in a group using GDC-HAp, whereas only a fibrin- like net was seen in a group using GDC. In a group with GDC-HAp, inflammatory response was more intense in the dome of the aneurysm with faster re-endothelial coverage of the neck of the aneurysm than the ones in a group with GDC. These results indicated that GDC-HAp might create a clinically beneficial biological surface in an experimental aneurysm model. |
206729231 | s2ag/train | v2 | 2018-01-23T22:48:18.492Z | 1984-03-01T00:00:00.000Z | Segmentation of computerized tomography images for three dimensional analysis
Accurate segmentation methods for the three-dimensional information contained in stacks of two-dimensional CT slices are required for object definition and solid modeling of objects within the data. Displays showing the surfaces of solid models present three-dimensional structural relationships more clearly than sequential viewing of the stack of slices. Methods of segmentation and their performance in the presence of noise typically found in CT images are considered with respect to accurate solid modeling, volume determination, and display quality. The same techniques can also be applied to general non-invasive examination procedures which generate three-dimensional density information representing internal objects. |
225825631 | s2ag/train | v2 | 2020-06-04T09:05:15.339Z | 2020-05-30T00:00:00.000Z | Eliminating Sociocultural Barriers in an International Students’ Group
The article looks into the problem of preventing the difficulties connected with sociocultural barrier in the international groups of students of MSc. Program as the most significant barrier that hinders the process of studies. The factors that create such barriers have been analyzed. The author comes to the conclusion that preventive measures such as information about the roots of the barrier, open discussion of the ways of eliminating it at the initial stage of studies can give effective results. Some practical advice on how to make the process of studies efficient and create a comfortable working environment in the classroom is given. |
22043831 | s2ag/train | v2 | 2018-01-23T22:39:16.452Z | 1996-08-01T00:00:00.000Z | Relating information and value disciplines
Shows, giving examples, how information technology is changing business practices. Investigates the benefits of information systems which are brought about by structural changes to processes and organizations. Identifies three value disciplines on which market leaders concentrate ‐ operational excellence, customer intimacy and product leadership. Concludes that information processes operate to achieve better control and efficiency, enhance productivity and harness innovation. |
23330681 | s2ag/train | v2 | 2017-02-16T21:11:08.090Z | 2015-12-01T00:00:00.000Z | A distributed algorithm for efficiently solving linear equations
A distributed algorithm is proposed for solving a linear algebraic equation Ax = b over a multi-agent network, where the equation has a unique solution x* ∈ ℝn. Each agent knows only a subset of the rows of [A b], controls a state vector xi(t) of size smaller than n and is able to receive information from its nearby neighbors. Neighbor relations are characterized by time-dependent directed graphs. It is shown that for a large class of time-varying networks, the proposed algorithm enables each agent to recursively update its own state by only using its neighbors' states such that all xi(t) converge exponentially fast to a specific part of x* of interest to agent i. Applications of the proposed algorithm include solving the least square solution problem and the network localization problem. |
3221731 | s2ag/train | v2 | 2016-01-13T18:10:52.408Z | 2006-01-01T00:00:00.000Z | On the Correctness of Model Transformations
Flight-critical aviation software today is often being developed using ‘model-based’ techniques. The industry-standard tools for such development are widely available, and they typically include a visual modeling language (supporting dataflow-style and statechart-style modeling paradigms), a simulation engine, and a code-generator that produces embedded code from the diagrams. The modeling languages used are practical, but their semantics is often not defined precisely, to the level of detail used in case of more traditional languages, like Ada. Concurrency issues often complicate language specifications. System verification in practice means simulation using the engine; an activity which cannot be exhaustive, by definition. In spite of these shortcomings, the tools are popular and allow the rapid construction of flight control software. |
249089631 | s2ag/train | v2 | 2022-05-27T00:25:16.121Z | 2022-11-24T00:00:00.000Z | A universally applicable method of calculating confidence bands for ice nucleation spectra derived from droplet freezing experiments
Abstract. A suite of generally applicable statistical methods based
on empirical bootstrapping is presented for calculating uncertainty and
testing the significance of quantitative differences in temperature and/or
ice active site densities between ice nucleation temperature spectra derived
from droplet freezing experiments. Such experiments are widely used to
determine the heterogeneous ice nucleation properties and ice nucleation
particle concentration spectra of different particle samples, as well as in
studies of homogeneous freezing. Our methods avoid most of the assumptions
and approximations inherent to existing approaches, and when sufficiently
large sample sizes are used (approximately >150 droplets and
>=1000 bootstrap samples in our system), can capture the full
range of random variability and error in ice nucleation spectra.
Applications include calculation of accurate confidence intervals and
confidence bands, quantitative statistical testing of differences between
observed freezing spectra, accurate subtraction of the background filtered
water freezing signal, and calculation of a range of statistical parameters
using data from a single droplet array freezing experiment if necessary. By
providing additional statistical tools to the community, this work will
improve the quality and accuracy of statistical tests and representations of
uncertainty in future ice nucleation research, and will allow quantitative
comparisons of the ice nucleation ability of different particles and
surfaces.
|
1294731 | s2ag/train | v2 | 2017-08-15T06:39:17.474Z | 2003-06-01T00:00:00.000Z | Hepatobiliary excretion of acetaminophen glutathione conjugate and its derivatives in transport-deficient (TR-) hyperbilirubinemic rats.
The involvement of the canalicular multidrug resistance protein 2 (Mrp2) in the hepatobiliary excretion of acetaminophen (APAP)-glutathione (GSH) conjugate and its derivatives was investigated using transport-deficient (TR- rats. Although no differences in the biliary concentration of APAP itself were detected between normal Wistar and TR- rats, significant differences in the biliary disposition of several conjugated metabolites of APAP were detected. APAP-GSH was virtually absent in bile from TR- rats. Also, biliary concentrations of APAP-mercapturate (NAC; N-acetylated l-cysteine) and APAP-GLU were significantly reduced in TR- rats. No differences in the biliary concentration of APAP-cysteinylglycine/cysteine (CG/CYS) were detected between normal and mutant rats. The cumulative amounts of APAP-CG/CYS and APAP-NAC excreted in urine of mutant rats were decreased, whereas APAP-GLU was markedly increased. Analysis of liver samples revealed that APAP-GSH and APAP-NAC accumulate in mutant rat livers. Our results support the direct involvement of Mrp2 in the hepatobiliary excretion of several conjugated metabolites of APAP, including APAP-GSH and APAP-NAC, and provide relevant information on processes that may be involved with both their hepatic basolateral transport and renal elimination. |
43688031 | s2ag/train | v2 | 2018-04-03T05:40:30.230Z | 1993-01-01T00:00:00.000Z | Electrotransfer of fixed phosphoproteins from pieces of dried polyacrylamide gel to small disks of nitrocellulose, nylon or polyvinylidene difluoride
A simple method for the transfer of 32P‐labeled proteins from dried polyacrylamide gels to small disks of nitrocellulose, nylon or polyvinylidene difluoride (PVDF) is described. Gel pieces containing the desired phosphoprotein are rehydrated in buffer containing sodium dodecyl sulfate (SDS) and sealed in agarose in a glass tube over a supporting gel of polyacrylamide. Protein is transferred upwards through a discontinuous density gradient of SDS‐buffer and methanol to a disk of membrane sealed to the mouth of the tube with dialysis membrane. The method allows the concentration of a phosphoprotein present in several gel pieces to a single disk of immobilized membrane. Recovery of phosphoprotein was at least as good as obtained with conventional electroblotting. Application of the method to the analysis of the phosphoamino acid content of the astrocyte marker, glial fibrillary acidic protein, is described. |
159012081 | s2ag/train | v2 | 2018-12-29T20:08:11.742Z | 2018-07-30T00:00:00.000Z | Good practices, drawbacks and improvement strategies in external peer monitoring and evaluation: A case of Uganda National Council for Higher Education
Background: Growing demand for higher education by national governments and their citizens, and the growth of public and private higher education institutions resulting from increased enrolment have augmented the demand for monitoring and evaluation (M&E). Consequently, the National Council for Higher Education in Uganda was established and mandated to among others monitor, evaluate and regulate higher education institutions.Objectives: To explore good practices, drawbacks and improvement strategies in the external peer M&E of higher education institutions.Method: Using the qualitative research design, data were collected from 15 peers invited by the Council to participate in external M&E visits to higher education institutions.Results: Several categories of good external peer M&E practices and drawbacks emerged including statutory provisions for the external M&E exercise by the Council; purpose, planning and capacity for undertaking external M&E activities; involvement of peers and professional bodies; and political and legal interference.Conclusion: Despite availability of an M&E framework and involvement of peers, the current external M&E model is centralised, bureaucratic and summative and therefore generally not supportive of continuous institutional improvement based on feedback from M&E visits. The current Higher Education Law should be amended; the Council M&E framework and practices should be periodically reviewed to match trends and needs, a gradual shift from compliance to participatory and performance-based M&E, and creation of a good policy environment to nurture the growth and development of institutional self-monitoring and evaluation mechanisms geared towards a culture of continuous self-improvement. |
109414981 | s2ag/train | v2 | 2019-02-19T00:31:06.648Z | 1999-11-30T00:00:00.000Z | The SãO Mateus Jabaquara Trolleybusway Concession in Brazil
The authors describe how Sao Paulo State granted a 20-year concession for operating a busway, one requirement for which was that the concessionaire replace the diesel bus operation with electric traction (trolleys). This was not a"greenfield concession"but is probably the only"busway"concession undertaken so far worldwide. With roughly 16,000 buses fighting their way through heavy traffic under traffic policies geared to automobiles, bus services was slow and unreliable. Then Sao Paulo adopted certain practices aimed at improving bus operations. Between 1983 and 1987, it implemented a segregated trolleybus corridor between Sao Mateus and Jabaquara, to be opened as a private concession regulated by the state of Sao Paulo. The concession was to operate for 20 years but the winning consortium had to invest in only part of the equipment, because part of it was in place. This made things less risky for the private consortium and allowed thestate to complete an environmentally friendly project with the help of the private sector. The concession has so far been a success - an example to be followed. After an initial increase, demand for the busway began to fall in 1998 and 1999. This was part of a general decline in demand for the bus system because of: a) A drop in jobs resulting from the economic slowdown. b) A growth in the use of automobiles. c) Competition from illegal buses (vans), which offer door-to-door service. The state was late in completing the aerial network for the trolleyway and rehabilitating sections of the roadway. This delayed replacement of diesel buses by trolleybuses. State representatives indicated it might be better in future to find a mechanism through which the concessionaire instead of the state would undertake infrastructure works and would also handle administration of integration terminals. |
2795081 | s2ag/train | v2 | 2017-04-19T08:23:03.956Z | 2001-01-01T00:00:00.000Z | A simple staining method for the visualisation of metacercariae in small fish and tadpoles.
There are several kinds of larval trematodes that can get into very young fish fry placed into fish ponds and cause illness or death in their hosts. An effective way to investigate these metacercariae is to prepare the living parasites fresh from the bodies of hosts, but occasionally the need arrises to inspect dead and fixed fish for the presence of the larvae. In this case, the fixed metacercariae are not identified as easily or as accurately as the living ones. Nevertheless, it is useful to determine the intensity and the abundance of the metacercarial infection in this case, too. In order to obtain information about the quantity and the distribution of metacercariae in fish, the entire bodies must be searched for the larvae. Histological methods have been traditionally used for the detection of digenean trematode larvae in small fish (e.g. Rees G. 1957: Parasitology 47: 126-137; Ratanarat-Brockelman C. 1968: Z. Parasitenkd. 43: 123-134; Hendrickson G.L. 1978: Proc. Helminthol. Soc. Wash. 45: 64-68). In order to get an approximation of the number and location of larvae within a fish, a series of histological sections must be prepared from the infected animal (Hendrickson G.L. 1979: Exp. Parasitol. 48: 245-248). Histological techniques are time-consuming and expensive and not all larvae can be found in histological sections, unless the whole fish is sectioned carefully and the sections are arranged in series. For this reason some parasitologists have tried to develop methods to demonstrate metacercariae in the entire fish (Rau M.E., Gordon D.M. 1977: Can. J. Zool. 55: 1200-1201). In order to avoid the above-mentioned problems, a new method is presented here for observing of metacercariae in small fish. (For larger fish this procedure can be used only on small pieces of their dissected organs or slices of their body, not thicker than 5 mm.) This staining method consists of the following steps: 1. Small (maximum 2-3 cm long) fish or tadpoles are fixed in 4% formaldehyde buffered with phosphate buffer (pH 7.0) for at least 24 hours. If the fixation time lasts slightly longer than that, the effectiveness of the procedure is not reduced. However, in less concentrated (2%) formaldehyde, specimens can be stored up to several months without a substantial change in the subsequent staining quality. 2. Fixed animals are bathed in distilled water for 1-2 hours to remove the formaldehyde. Changing the water twice is satisfactory. 3. The animals are then transferred into Mayer’s haemalum stock solution (Kiernan J.A. 1990: Histological and Histochemical Methods – Theory and Practice. Pergamon Press, 433 pp.) mixed with 90-95% distilled water. The animals are left in the haemalum mixture until they assume an opaque purplish-black colour. Depending on the mass of the animals and the permeability of their integument, intense staining can occur in 4-5 hours, but occasionally it may take a whole day. Specimens should be markedly overstained so that the staining solution can penetrate their entire body, thus reaching the internal tissues. If the fish or tadpoles are left in the staining solution for one or two days, steps should be taken to avoid alkalisation of the solution and precipitation of the stain. The staining dish should be covered to prevent the absorption of carbon dioxide and excessive evaporation. 4. The animals are then transferred to containers with plenty of tap water and soaked for 12 hours. To speed up the drenching process, a few drops of saturated caustic soda (Na2CO3) solution is added to the tap water. The preparations should be stained deep blue by the end of this period. 5. The specimens are immersed in a 10% lactic acid solution which re-dissolves the haematoxylin from the tissues (i.e., differentiates), causing the animals to fade and turn red. Differentiation with lactic acid lasts at most a few minutes and needs to be checked under a dissecting microscope until the encapsulated or free metacercariae become visible in the host tissue, i.e., extraction of the stain continues until the parasite larvae, which destain more slowly, become distinguishable from the host tissues. Differentiation is based on the principle that lactic acid finds its way into the host cells more easily than it penetrates the parasite through the syncytial tegument or the walls of the cyst of the metacercaria. In addition, as the cell nuclei are more densely located in the tissues of parasites than hosts, the parasites retain their colour longer than do host organs. 6. When the hosts are cleared and trematode larvae can be discerned, lactic acid treatment is very quickly discontinued by washing the animals with distilled water once and then placing them in tap water containing two or three drops of saturated Na2CO3 solution. The elution of haematoxylin is stopped and the stain becomes dark bluish-purple again with a reddish tint. This second “bluing” phase takes approximately 10-20 minutes, depending on the body mass of the host, and is followed by rinsing in tap-water again to remove all traces of soda. FOLIA PARASITOLOGICA 48: 73-75, 2001 |
13085581 | s2ag/train | v2 | 2018-04-03T00:34:38.570Z | 2009-08-05T00:00:00.000Z | Abdominal pain and swelling
A 78 year old woman presented with a sudden onset tender palpable lump just to the right of the midline in the infraumbilical region. The patient was taking warfarin for previous prosthetic heart valve surgery. No history of trauma was present. An ultrasound examination showed a cystic mass with echogenic sediment in the rectus abdominis muscle. Two days later, the patient’s abdominal pain increased, her abdomen became distended, and she became hypotensive with a blood pressure of 75/45 mm Hg despite fluid resuscitation. Blood tests showed a drop in haemoglobin concentration—from 100 g/l to 70 g/l—and an increase in serum creatinine—from normal (45-90 μmol/l) to 230 μmol/l over the two day period. The patient had an international normalised ratio (INR) of 7.
### Short answers |
59372731 | s2ag/train | v2 | 2018-12-20T20:45:50.228Z | 2004-12-01T00:00:00.000Z | Political Economy as Subject and Form in Contemporary Art
Political economy is a theme both explicit and submerged in modernist and postmodernist art. Art production is founded in the gift. The author historicizes artistic representations of political economy, particularly postwar conceptual art and theory. African American artists explore the black image in terms redolent of the commoditization of their ancestors under slavery. Media art engages dominant modes of media industry production. Art based in conceptions of the gift embodies noncapitalist modes of social relations. |
135854881 | s2ag/train | v2 | 2019-04-28T13:13:33.388Z | 2005-02-15T00:00:00.000Z | Ab-Initio Study of Mechanical Properties of Transition-Metal Aluminides: A Case Study for Al3(V,Ti)
On the basis of ab-initio density-functional calculations we have analyzed the character of interatomic bonding in the intermetallic compounds Al3(V,Ti) with the D022 and L12 structures. In all structures we found an enhanced charge density along the Al-(V,Ti) bonds, a characteristic feature of covalent bonding. The bond strength is quantitatively examined by tensile deformations. The ideal strength of Al3V and Al3Ti under uniaxial tensile deformation was found to be significantly higher than that of both fcc Al and bcc V. We investigated also the changes of the interatomic bonding in Al3V during tensile deformations. We found that the covalent interplanar Al- V bonds disappear before reaching the maximal stress. The weakening of the bonding between the atomic planes during the deformation is accompanied by a strengthening of in-plane bonding and an enhanced covalent character of the intraplanar bonds. Interplanar bonding becomes more metallic under tensile deformation. |
23210131 | s2ag/train | v2 | 2017-02-16T01:11:47.078Z | 2014-05-25T00:00:00.000Z | Breakdown law and post-breakdown current-voltage characteristics of emission-driven microplasmas
Summary form only given. Microplasmas are traditionally defined as plasmas that are confined to gaps that are less than 1 mm and have found applications in nanoparticle synthesis, plasma medicine and flow control. More recently, there has been significant emphasis on microplasmas operating at even smaller gaps that are less than 100 μm. It is now well-established that the breakdown voltages at microgaps deviate from Paschen law due to field emission from the cathode [1]. Numerical simulations [2,3], experiments [2] and theoretical studies [1,3] have focused on both pre-breakdown and certain basic post-breakdown characteristics [4] of these discharges. This talk will present an extension to these studies by presenting a breakdown law for microplasmas that are driven by a combination of both thermionic and field emission. The emission of electrons from the cathode is governed by the thermo-field theory [5]. The cathode source current is enhanced due to ionization in the gap, the secondary electron emission and the enhancement in emission current due to the ions that reach the cathode. Equations are formulated to describe the steady-state current density of the pre-breakdown Townsend dark discharges. The condition for absence of a steady-state pre-breakdown state is used to determine the breakdown voltage as a function of cathode temperature and applied voltage and present a scaling law for thermo-field emission driven breakdown. The theoretical results for the pre-breakdown state and breakdown voltage are validated using one-dimensional particle-in-cell with Monte Carlo collisions (PIC/MCC) simulations using a modified version of XPDP1 code. Finally, a theoretical model for the post-breakdown state comprising a cathode-fall and a quasi-neutral region is formulated to obtain current density as a function of applied voltage and then validated using constant current density PIC/MCC simulations. The variation of electron energy distribution function across the gap is also presented. |
20223881 | s2ag/train | v2 | 2018-04-03T02:05:23.668Z | 2009-07-09T00:00:00.000Z | Ovarian follicle development in Booroola sheep exhibiting impaired bone morphogenetic protein signalling pathway.
The role of bone morphogenetic proteins (BMPs) in the regulation of ovarian function has been extensively investigated but the mechanism of regulation is not well understood. The aim of this study was to investigate the effect of mutation in the BMP receptor in Booroola sheep on the number of primordial follicles and rate of follicle recruitment in comparison with that in normal merino sheep in vivo. Whole sheep ovaries at the time of birth, 1.5 and 5 years old were collected and processed for the follicle quantification, using computerised stereological methods and statistical analyses. At birth, the total number of primordial follicles in Booroola sheep was significantly lower than in merino sheep. At 1.5 and 5 years, a reversed pattern in favour of Booroola ewes was seen with significantly more primordial follicles than merino. In parallel, the rate of primordial follicle recruitment to developing cohort was substantially lower in Booroola ewes with only 51 and 66% of primordial follicle consumption at 1.5 and 5 years respectively compared to 92 and 97% in merino ewes. On other hand, the mean numbers of developing primary follicles were smaller in Booroola sheep at the time of birth, yet, Booroola ewes possess more primary follicles than merino at 1.5 years. These findings suggest that attenuation of the intraovarian signalling pathway of BMPs may in fact be a successful means of rationalising follicle consumption, preventing unnecessary loss of follicles from the initial primordial follicle pool, hence increasing reproductive longevity and fertility. |
521231 | s2ag/train | v2 | 2016-11-05T07:37:12.269Z | 2013-01-01T00:00:00.000Z | Iterative Learning Control for a Class of Inhomogeneous Heat Equations
Abstract This paper addresses the boundary control problem of heat equations under the framework of iterative learning control (ILC). Without any simplification or discretization of the 3D dynamics in the time, space as well as iteration domains, the learning convergence of ILC is guaranteed through rigorous analysis by transforming the inhomogeneous heat equation into its integral form and exploiting the properties of the embedded Jacobi Theta functions. The proposed scheme not only makes anticipatory compensation possible to overcome the heat conduction delay in boundary output tracking, but also eliminates the gain margin limitation encountered in feedback control. In the end, an illustrative example is presented to demonstrate the performance of the proposed ILC scheme. |
137704381 | s2ag/train | v2 | 2019-04-28T13:10:11.073Z | 2011-09-01T00:00:00.000Z | Dynamic Characteristics of Composite Materials Body for Bi-Modal Tram
The car body of the bi-modal tram has been designed and built to have low floor to provide the old and the handicapped with easy access considering Korean physical standard, passenger capacity (standee, seated, handicapped), and bus and urban railway regulations in Korea. The car body has been composed of composite materials (light-weight sandwich constructions) with glass epoxy skins, aluminum honeycomb cores and aluminum inner-frames. This paper was aimed to evaluate dynamic characteristics of the car body while the bi-modal tram was running in the test track. Based on the results from vibration accelerations measured on the floor level of centers of car bodies and axle, dynamic characteristics of the composite materials car body were discussed in this paper. |
1663931 | s2ag/train | v2 | 2018-04-03T03:15:20.301Z | 2003-01-01T00:00:00.000Z | End-to-side anastomoses in small arteries with partial lateral clipping. An experimental study.
The problem of total therapeutic occlusion of the cranial arteries remains a relatively important area of concern for neurosurgery, neurology, neuroradiology and neuroanesthesia as well as for the patients. Cerebral revascularization procedures require total occlusion of the cranial arteries for a while. End-to-side anastomoses with partial lateral clipping were done in 20 cadaver arteries and then, in one rat common carotid artery. The results of the study were compared with the current cerebrovascular bypass procedures on a theoretical basis and possible clinical implications of the method were suggested. All the anastomoses were found to be open. As conclusions; 1) End-to-side anastomosis with partial lateral clipping and along with this technique the maintenance of blood flow in the target vessel during the anastomosis procedure are experimentally possible. 2) Although the available aneurysm clips may be used in the bigger vessels (> 2.5 mm), currently, the exclusive clips for the technique are not available commercially. 3) Further clinical implications of the technique may be investigated. |
65136781 | s2ag/train | v2 | 2019-01-02T03:40:51.658Z | 2018-06-14T00:00:00.000Z | A Quick Judgment Method for the Infeasible Solution of Distribution Network Reconfiguration
The radial and connectivity of distribution network are the constraint conditions in distribution network reconfiguration. Large numbers of infeasible solutions will be produced in the random search of Quantum particle swarm optimization (QPSO). A quick method for judging the infeasible solution of distribution network reconfiguration is presented in this paper. First, the switches in network are coded based on integer loop encoding rules. Large numbers of infeasible solutions will be eliminated through integer coded. Then, infeasible solutions are divided into two types: loop infeasible solutions and island infeasible solutions. The method named switch loop matrix and node-layer strategy (NS) for judging infeasible solution is proposed. Finally, the judgment method is tested on IEEE33-bus distributed systems to demonstrate the performance and effectiveness of the proposed method. |
144526481 | s2ag/train | v2 | 2019-05-05T13:05:22.025Z | 1986-07-01T00:00:00.000Z | A Single-Region Carrier Model for the Simulation of Hodgkin's Disease Applied to its Incidence in Greater Manchester, 1962–1976
Epidemiologists have found a good deal of anecdotal and statistical evidence to suggest that Hodgkin's disease may be an infectious entity. In this paper a deterministic carrier model is developed in the light of these findings and, in particular, the equilibrium behaviour of the model is explored under various assumptions about the incidence of the disease in Greater Manchester, 1962 – 1976. The object of this analysis is to identify those equilibrium populations which seem most capable of supporting the monthly incidence of Hodgkin's disease in the region. |
20549131 | s2ag/train | v2 | 2018-04-03T04:26:35.457Z | 1986-09-01T00:00:00.000Z | 2-(1,1'-Biphenyl-4-yl)- 1,2,4-triazole[5,1-a] isoquinoline (L 14105), a potential orally active contragestational agent for the bitch: studies in the rat, hamster and dog.
In the search for second generation post-coital pregnancy terminating agents belonging to the class of 2-phenyl-triazole[5,1-a]isoquinolines, the contragestational profile of (1,1'-biphenyl)-4-yl-1,2,4-triazole[5,1-a]isoquinoline, referred to as L 14105, was investigated in hamsters, rats, and bitches. Following subcutaneous or intramuscular administration in oily vehicles, L 14105 shows a very high anti-fertility activity in the three animal species, being from 1.8 to 2.5 times more effective than the parent drug, DL 717-IT. Unlike DL 717-IT, L 14105 possesses a high activity when administered by the oral route. The results obtained in the bitch make it confirm its potential use as a new orally active agent for the interruption of unwanted pregnancies. |
24449531 | s2ag/train | v2 | 2017-02-15T23:51:00.658Z | 2014-08-01T00:00:00.000Z | An improved genetic approach for test path generation
Quality of a software system depends on testing approaches adopted to analyze the software product. Testing process itself depends on two main vectors called test sequence generation and test data generation. Test sequence generation is about to identify the order in which the particular test cases will be executed and the test data defines the various checks performed on each test case. In this present work, a fuzzy improved genetic approach is suggested for test case generation. The sequence on these test cases is here dependent on module interaction analysis. Based on this analysis, the test case prioritization will be defined. Once the test cases will be prioritized, the next work is to apply fuzzy improved genetic approach for test path generation. The work is analyzed under different prioritization vectors. Analysis of work is defined in terms of test cost estimation under different prioritization scenarios. |
204730981 | s2ag/train | v2 | 2019-06-19T13:23:59.729Z | 2018-01-02T00:00:00.000Z | Child & Co
Child & Co explores Arjun Appadurai’s call for ‘research as a human right’ (2013) in the context of a radically inclusive invitation to expand the academic, intellectual and creative campus towards young people of all ages. The article considers the potential of child-led research encouraging what Appadurai would call a politics of possibility, rather than a politics of probability, that is the financialised state common to a capital-intensive context that reduces the child to the object of research and commercial exploitation. The material examples of children’s potential labour as researchers includes those sites that most threaten their existence, in adulterised arenas such as air pollution and road safety. In these contexts Child & Co troubles the very idea of research, its possible forms and contents, rather gesturing towards a future of ‘hope’ after Munoz (2009); a forensic faith in futurity as a social and material fact that counters the critique of ‘reproductive futurism’ well known and oft returned to without question in Edelman (2004). By the end of Child & Co the author has picked up the guitar that he has not played since his own ‘youth’, outsourcing a public lecture contract to those under eighteen who are present, distributing the fee for that work at living wage levels, while serenading those present with a song he has not sung for years. Build Your Own Keynote, which follows Child & Co, picks up where that song dies away and as such is considered to be at once chorus to, and critique of, all that has gone before. |
237882531 | s2ag/train | v2 | 2021-09-01T15:14:22.814Z | 2021-06-19T00:00:00.000Z | The role of roots and rhizosphere in providing tolerance to toxic metals and metalloids
Human activity and natural processes have led to widespread
dissemination of metals and metalloids, many of which are toxic and have
a negative impact on agronomic production. Roots, as the first point of
contact, are essential in endowing plants with tolerance to excess
metal(loid) in the soil. The most important root responses include:
adaptation of transport processes that affect uptake, efflux and long
distance transport of metal(loid)s; metal(loid) detoxification within
root cells via conjugation to thiol rich compounds and subsequent
sequestration in the vacuole; plasticity in root architecture; the
presence of bacteria and fungi in the rhizosphere that impact on
metal(loid) bioavailability; the role of root exudates. In this review
we will provide details on these processes and assess their relevance
for the detoxification of arsenic, cadmium, mercury and zinc.
Furthermore, we will assess if any of these methodologies has been
tested in field conditions and whether they are effective in terms of
improving crop metal(loid) tolerance. |
211055831 | s2ag/train | v2 | 2020-02-06T09:17:17.147Z | 2019-09-01T00:00:00.000Z | Numerical Modeling of Dynamics of Thermal Power Equipment of the Power unit at the Nazarovo Power Station by Volterra Polynomial
The paper focuses on an approach to the identification of Volterra polynomials. The approach is based on the generalization of the product integration method. An algorithm for the numerical identification of a quadratic scalar Volterra polynomial is proposed. The algorithm is based on the application of test signals in the form of a combination of Heaviside functions and deviating argument. The suggested approach was used for modeling the dynamics of pressure in the condenser of generating unit at the Nazarovo power plant. The results of the calculations have shown sufficient accuracy of the models for practical application. |
5956481 | s2ag/train | v2 | 2016-03-22T00:56:01.885Z | 2006-12-01T00:00:00.000Z | Lyapunov Analysis of Sample-and-Hold Hybrid Feedbacks
For hybrid closed-loop systems arising from hybrid control of nonlinear systems, we show that the sample-and-hold implementation of the hybrid controller preserves (semiglobally and practically) the stability properties of the closed-loop system. We provide a general model for the hybrid closed-loop system where the hybrid controller is implemented digitally and it is interfaced to the nonlinear system through sample and hold devices. We model the sample device and the digital controller/hold device as single asynchronous hybrid systems with independent timing constants and data. The main result is established by means of a Lyapunov function for the hybrid closed-loop system resulting from the interconnection of its hybrid and nonlinear subsystems |
235783431 | s2ag/train | v2 | 2021-07-10T20:02:29.663Z | 2021-01-01T00:00:00.000Z | Research on access efficiency and optimization of massive seismic data
With the continuous development of exploration technology, the magnitude of seismic data is getting larger and larger, and the access efficiency of seismic data has become the main bottleneck in the process of seismic data processing. The cluster structure realizes the separation of computing and storage. The data is stored in the disk array, and the data is calculated in the computing node. The maximum network speed between each computing node and the management node is 1GB/s, and the total maximum network speed of all computing nodes is 5GB/S (peak value). In addition, for disk array, the maximum read speed can be ignored (more than 1GB/s) without considering the network bandwidth, while the maximum write speed is 350MB/s. In the process of data processing, it needs to flow between the disk array and the computing node, and its speed must be affected by the network bandwidth. Therefore, the theoretical maximum I/O speed of the system is 1GB/s for reading and 350MB/s for writing. To build a multi format seismic data model, the loading of the system before optimization can not support the original seismic data format, so the original seismic data (such as SEGY and SEGD) needs to be converted into the internal ATT format of the system. In this process, the whole original data needs to be read circularly, and the new file is written circularly, and then the new file is decompiled, Save the header part into the table in the database. Export is the opposite process, which needs to convert ATT format to SEGY or SEGD format. |
16669731 | s2ag/train | v2 | 2017-04-01T05:59:32.928Z | 2012-01-01T00:00:00.000Z | Prognosis and management for gallbladder cancer with hepatic invasion: long-term results of 139 patients from a single center in China.
OBJECTIVE
To improve the diagnosis of primary gallbladder carcinoma (GBC) with/without hepatic metastases by analyzing our experience of different GBC treatment in our patients.
METHODS
A retrospective study was carried out to analyze the clinical data of the 139 patients with GBC who underwent hepatic resection in our unit from January 2003 to December 2007. Patients were divided into two groups according to whether they demonstrated hepatic invasion. Tumor presentation, surgical modes, and prognosis of each patient were retrospectively reviewed. Kaplan-Meier curves and log-rank tests were employed to compare the survival rates of those patients undergoing different surgical procedures.
RESULTS
Of the 139 patients, 46 were men and 93 were women with the male to female ratio of 1:2.0. Their ages were ranged from 35 to 86 years with a mean age of 62.8±10.4 years. There were 73 patients complicated with hepatic invasion (group A), and no hepatic invasion occurred in the other 66 patients (group B). Compared with the group B, the patients with hepatic invasion suffered lower differentiation of tumor (p=0.000), more advanced Nevin staging (p=0.008) and poorer prognosis (p=0.013). Radical resection were more frequently performed in group B (75.76%) than in group A (45.20%) with better outcomes (p=0.000).
CONCLUSION
GBC patients complicated with hepatic invasion had poorer prognosis than those without invasion in long-term follow-ups. Radical resection might result in a satisfied prognosis in patients without hepatic invasion, but appears less favorable than palliative resection in those who were complicated with hepatic invasion. |
155078281 | s2ag/train | v2 | 2019-05-16T13:03:42.967Z | 1989-01-01T00:00:00.000Z | Reflections on Capital Punishment: One Side of an Uncompleted Discussion
Bob Cover's work was, at the end, explicitly concerned with the law as an instrument of violence. Unsurprisingly, then, he addressed himself to the question of capital punishment. Surprisingly, though, he said “I am not an abolitionist” — surprisingly, that is, to those who understood that Cover was a radical in politics and who believed that because one touchstone of contemporary liberalism is opposition to the death penalty, radicals (who are however not liberals, after all) should support abolition of the death penalty. As Avi Soifer said, “We all are the worse for being unable to argue about that issue with Cover, and therefore to learn from him.” In this essay I want to think about why someone who is drawn to Cover's legal thought, as I am, might be inclined to take a similar position to his on the death penalty. I hasten to add, though, that I do not pretend here to represent Cover's thought; I have no idea why he was not an abolitionist, only why I am ambivalent about the death penalty. Nor do I have any reason to believe that the lines of argument that I will sketch here are ones that Cover would have found acceptable or even interesting. |
86820631 | s2ag/train | v2 | 2019-03-28T13:42:02.583Z | 2012-07-01T00:00:00.000Z | Phylogeography of Cyananthus delavayi (Campanulaceae) in Hengduan Mountains inferred from variation in nuclear and chloroplast DNA sequences
Abstract Phylogeographic studies on alpine plants endemic to the Hengduan Mountains of the southeastern Qinghai–Tibet Plateau are still limited in number. In this study, we used sequence variation of one nuclear gene (ncpGS, which encodes the chloroplastic glutamine synthetase) and in two chloroplast DNA segments to investigate the phylogeographic structure and population demographic history of Cyananthus delavayi, a narrow‐range species endemic to this region. We identified eight chlorotypes and 16 nuclear genotypes in a survey of 10 populations sampled throughout the range of the species. The results of both phylogenetic and network analyses suggested that the genealogical relationships of both chlorotypes and nuclear genotypes showed a clear geographical correlation. High total genetic diversity, low levels of within‐population diversity, and strong population differentiation (chloroplast DNA: hT= 0.827, hS= 0.087, NST= 0.899, GST= 0.895; nuclear DNA: hT= 0.910, hS= 0.348, NST= 0719, GST= 0.618) were identified. Based on the mismatch distribution analyses, no evidence of recent demographic population expansion was found for this species. Nested clade analyses of both chlorotypes and nuclear genotypes indicated that restricted gene flow resulting from isolation by distance and allopatric fragmentation were likely to have been the major processes that shaped their present‐day spatial distribution. Our dating of the genetic divergences between three major geographic lineages suggested that the largest glaciation of the early Quaternary developed in the Qinghai–Tibet Plateau and mountainous isolation may have together led to deep intraspecific vicariance within this species. |
208688281 | s2ag/train | v2 | 2019-11-22T00:44:37.909Z | 2019-11-15T00:00:00.000Z | The Influence of James Anquandah on the Development and Practice of Eclectic Archaeology in Ghana
ABSTRACT:This paper elucidates the impact and influence that Professor James Anquandah's work and efforts had on the development and practice of archaeology in Ghana. As the first Ghanaian-trained archaeologist, Anquandah committed his life and expertise to the establishment and consolidation of archaeological training in the Department of Archaeology and Heritage Studies, at the University of Ghana. In doing so, he trained five generations of archaeology students over five decades. His passion for archaeological fieldwork, community participation in archaeology, and, ultimately, the use of eclectic archaeology in solving societal challenges has influenced the scholastic practices of many of the students he trained. In this paper, the coauthors explain how Anquandah's concept and practice of eclectic archaeology has influenced their ongoing research projects in Ghana. |
14228131 | s2ag/train | v2 | 2015-03-12T23:57:50.000Z | 2005-01-01T00:00:00.000Z | Discrimination of herg carrier from non-carrier adult patients with borderline prolonged QTc interval
Ten to fifteen percent of individual with the hereditary long-QT syndrome (LQTS) involving the human ether-a-go-go related gene (HERG) do not have an abnormal QT prolongation but are at risk of lethal arrhythmic event. We investigated the phenotypic T-wave morphology for the identification of patients with HERG mutations. The standard 12-lead ECGs from carrier and non-carrier LQT2 patients were digitized and the RR intervals and T-waves were quantified using QT/QTc, QT apex, T-wave amplitude, ascending (alphaL) and its descending slopes (alphaR). A logistic regression model selected 3 parameters for the classification of the groups: QT, RR and alphaL. The model provided 92.7% sensitivity and 90.0 % specificity. The information within the T-wave morphology is complementary to the information of repolarization duration. Abnormal T-wave morphology is a phenotypic expression of the HERG mutation in adult LQTS patient |
22589181 | s2ag/train | v2 | 2018-04-03T05:55:04.104Z | 2005-08-20T00:00:00.000Z | Screening for familial ovarian cancer: failure of current protocols to detect ovarian cancer at an early stage according to the international Federation of gynecology and obstetrics system.
PURPOSE
To assess the effectiveness of annual ovarian cancer screening (transvaginal ultrasound and serum CA-125 estimation) in detecting presymptomatic ovarian cancer in women at increased genetic risk.
PATIENTS AND METHODS
A cohort of 1,110 women at increased risk of ovarian cancer were screened between January 1991 and March 2004; 553 were moderate-risk individuals (4% to 10% lifetime risk) and 557 were high-risk individuals (> 10% lifetime risk). Outcome measurements include the number and stage of screen-detected cancers, the number and stage of cancers not detected at screening, the number of equivocal screening results requiring recall/repetition, and the number of women undergoing surgery for benign disease.
RESULTS
Thirteen epithelial ovarian malignancies (12 invasive and one borderline), developed in the cohort. Ten tumors were detected at screening: three International Federation of Gynecology and Obstetrics (FIGO) stage I (including borderline), two stage II, four stage III, and one stage IV. Of the three cancers not detected by screening, two were stage III and one was stage IV; 29 women underwent diagnostic surgery but were found not to have ovarian cancer.
CONCLUSION
Annual surveillance by transvaginal ultrasound scanning and serum CA-125 measurement in women at increased familial risk of ovarian cancer is ineffective in detecting tumors at a sufficiently early stage to influence prognosis. With a positive predictive value of 17% and a sensitivity of less than 50%, the performance of ultrasound does not satisfy the WHO screening standards. In addition, the combined protocol has a particularly high false-positive rate in premenopausal women, leading to unnecessary surgical intervention. |
253046931 | s2ag/train | v2 | 2022-10-22T13:11:22.180Z | 2022-09-15T00:00:00.000Z | Complete OCR Solution for Image Analysis of World War 2 Documents
The field of Optical Character Recognition (OCR) consists of techniques that are mainly focused on document image analysis. Aside from generating significant speedups of everyday procedures, OCR has a considerable role in the preservation of historical sources of information. Most of the World War 2 (WW2) documents are of great importance, especially with applications in virtual archives, museums, and research. The situation asks for an efficient, yet not aggressive, transcribing method using OCR tools. This paper describes an approach in the context of the given problem. The focus is oriented towards extracting the information from documents affected by their age, but with simpler structures, mainly split into paragraphs, such as letters and military reports. The approach is based on combining the results of multiple OCR engines, with the final objective of achieving better performance compared to the individual performance of each engine. |
36473931 | s2ag/train | v2 | 2018-04-03T03:45:35.471Z | 2009-12-10T00:00:00.000Z | Dual HIV Infection Uncommon in Patients on Antiretroviral Therapy in a Region with High HIV Prevalence.
Dual HIV infection has been found in regions with high HIV prevalence and in populations infected with diverse strains of HIV. The prevalence of dual infection in KwaZulu-Natal (KZN), where there is a high prevalence of HIV and an influx of immigrants who may be infected with different HIV subtypes, is unknown. The aim of this study was to determine the prevalence of dual infection in KZN. Eighty-three samples were obtained from chronically infected patients on ARV treatment from sites throughout KZN. Subtyping of the samples was performed using the heteroduplex mobility assay (HMA). Twelve samples that had possible dual infection by HMA were cloned and sequenced. Phylogenetic analysis showed that there was no dual infection in these samples. Contrary to a previous study, we did not find dual infection in this region. The patients in our study may be different from those in the previous study in terms of transmission risk factors, treatment, and stage of infection (acute vs. chronic). This study may have important implications for vaccine development and for the pathogenesis and treatment of dual HIV infection. |
3797331 | s2ag/train | v2 | 2018-04-03T03:30:43.229Z | 2017-02-02T00:00:00.000Z | A Self-Regulatory Perspective of Work-to-Home Undermining Spillover/Crossover: Examining the Roles of Sleep and Exercise
Research demonstrating that employees who are undermined at work engage in similar behavior at home suggests this connection reflects displaced aggression. In contrast, the present study draws on self-regulation theory to examine the work-home undermining spillover/crossover process. We propose that poor sleep quality transmits the influence of workplace undermining to home undermining per self-regulatory impairment, and exercise moderates this indirect effect per self-regulatory improvement. Using matched data from 118 employees and a member of their household to test our model, results demonstrated that undermining experienced from supervisors increased subjective (i.e., self-reported) but not objective (i.e., actigraph-recorded) sleep difficulties, which, in turn, increased the frequency with which individuals engaged in undermining at home (as reported by cohabitants). Additionally, indirect effects occurred for employees with low but not high levels of physical exercise (as measured by self-reports, step counts, and energy expenditure). Our findings suggest sleep and exercise may serve as valuable intervention points to prevent the spread of harmful behavior across contexts. Implications for theory and practice are discussed. |
15580181 | s2ag/train | v2 | 2015-06-01T23:46:22.000Z | 2010-01-01T00:00:00.000Z | Multispecies modeling of Atka mackerel / Pacific cod interactions in the Aleutian Islands
Steller Sea Lions, Pacific cod, and Atka mackerel are part of a complex, interrelated food web in the Aleutian Islands (Fig. 1). The effects of fishing policy changes, therefore, should be evaluated in both single-species and multispecies contexts. In particular, Atka mackerel are a central species in the Aleutian Islands food web, serving as both predator and prey for many species, as well as being the source for a commercially important fishery (Fig. 2). Additionally, Pacific cod play a strong role as a predator within the system, as well as being a food source for marine mammals. In order to evaluate the effects of attempting to direct prey to Steller Sea Lions through fishing reduction or area closure for either species, it’s important to evaluate how these species might interact by using existing multispecies and ecosystem models developed for the Aleutian Islands. |
21789881 | s2ag/train | v2 | 2018-04-03T00:40:02.292Z | 1996-12-01T00:00:00.000Z | Heat shock protein changes in hibernation: a similarity with heart failure?
Myocardial hibernation is an adaptive phenomenon occurring during ischaemia. Patients with hibernating myocardium often have a history of an acute ischaemic insult, followed by prolonged hypoperfusion and symptoms of congestive heart failure (CHF), which is a complex syndrome involving several adaptational mechanisms. We tested the hypothesis that these two conditions evoke the myocardial expression of heat shock protein 72 (hsp72) as an adaptive response at the molecular level. Short-term acute hibernation was induced in isolated and perfused rat hearts subjected to 8 min total ischaemia followed by 292 min low-flow ischaemia (coronary flow: 1.0 ml/min), followed by 60 min of reperfusion. Total ischaemia caused quiescience. Subsequent low-flow resulted in a temporal early increase of lactate release, no re-establishment of developed pressure, no increase in diastolic pressure. Reperfusion resulted in 85.7 +/- 7.2% recovery of developed pressure, a small washout of lactate and CPK, no contracture, confirming that viability was maintained despite prolonged hypoperfusion. This sequence of events was linked to an increase in hsp72 content in the right (from 18.1 +/- 3.8% to 34.6 +/- 2.3%. P < 0.01) and left (from 19.7 +/- 2.6% to 37.6 +/- 3.3%, P < 0.01) ventricles. Three-hundred min of low-flow perfusion of the rat heart in absence of the short period of total ischaemia caused irreversible damage and failed to induced hsp72. CHF was induced in rats by intraperitoneal administration of monocrotaline. As a result, right ventricular weight increased from 171.3 +/- 7.2 to 412.3 +/- 18.7 mg. P < 0.001, peripheral and pleural effusion were evident and measurable, plasma arterial natriuretic peptide increased from 15.2 +/- 1.9 to 123.5 +/- 5.4 pg/ml, P < 0.001, confirming the occurrence of the syndrome of CHF. This was concomitant with significant expression of hsp72, more evident in the right (from 5.0 +/- 0.9% to 39.4 +/- 1.6%, P < 0.001) than in the left (from 3.5 +/- 0.6% to 13.0 +/- 1.2%, P < 0.001) ventricle. These data suggest that an adaptational process occurs at myocardial level during either hibernation or CHF. The expression of hsp72 could be viewed as a stereotyped adaptational reaction of the cardiac cell to stress conditions. |
14356531 | s2ag/train | v2 | 2017-04-20T10:47:13.216Z | 2014-08-19T00:00:00.000Z | Quantification of nitrate sources to an urban stream using dual nitrate isotopes.
Human-engineered landscapes and subsequent altered hydrology affect the fate and transport of reactive nitrogen, particularly in urban watersheds. In this study, we used dual-nitrate isotopes and mixing model analysis (δ(15)N and δ(18)O of NO3(-)) to quantify nitrogen inputs from two sources concentrated in urban systems, sewage and atmospheric deposition. Analysis was conducted on samples collected from Nine Mile Run (Pittsburgh, PA) including over two years of samples collected biweekly and samples collected through the hydrographs of four storm events. Mixing models incorporated uncertainties in the isotopic composition of potential nitrate sources and resolved the relative proportions of nitrate inputs from each source using Bayesian techniques. The results indicate that up to 94% of nitrate in streamwater originated from sewage sources during baseflow conditions. During storms, atmospheric deposition was a substantial nitrate source (∼ 34%) to total event-based nitrate loads, although sewage-derived nitrate remained the dominant source (66%). The potential influence of denitrification was considered by incorporating associated isotopic fractionations into mixing models; up to 19% of sewage-derived samples showed the isotopic effects of denitrification. This study quantitatively delineates proportions of nitrate from different sources to urban streamwater, while incorporating remaining uncertainties in source endmember compositions. |
122778881 | s2ag/train | v2 | 2019-04-20T13:13:36.928Z | 2010-01-01T00:00:00.000Z | Competitive Exclusion Principle Revised by Noise
A fundamental tenet in theoretical ecology is the competitive exclusion principle. Two competitive species for a limited resource cannot coexist and thus one of the species will be driven to extinction. However, we show that noise can revise this principle in a resonance-like manner, which makes coherence resonance in the system. Our obtained results well enrich the findings in the interaction of populations in ecosystems, which may explain some filed observations in the real world. |
25688681 | s2ag/train | v2 | 2018-04-03T05:16:46.314Z | 2002-02-01T00:00:00.000Z | Roles of cytotoxic T‐lymphocyte‐associated antigen‐4 in the inductive phase of oral tolerance
To elucidate the roles of cytotoxic T‐lymphocyte‐associated antigen‐4 (CTLA‐4) in oral tolerance, we studied the consequences of CTLA‐4 blockade during the inductive phase of oral tolerance using a transgenic T‐cell transfer model. We found that CTLA‐4 blockade significantly accelerated cell cycle progression of antigen‐specific T cells and dramatically increased their numbers in lymphoid organs following oral administration of ovalbumin (OVA). In mice fed with OVA, only ≈ 35% of specific T cells underwent more than four cycles of cell division. This was increased to 65% in mice fed with OVA and treated with a blocking anti‐CTLA‐4 monoclonal antibody (mAb). The OVA‐specific T cells in the latter group were localized primarily in the T‐cell zones of the mesenteric lymph nodes and Peyer's patches with a few penetrated into B‐cell follicles. Nevertheless, both faecal anti‐OVA immunoglobulin A (IgA) and seral anti‐OVA immunoglobulin G (IgG) were produced in anti‐CTLA‐4 mAb‐treated mice. These results suggest that CTLA‐4 limits the degree of T‐cell activation by blocking cell cycle progression during the inductive phase of oral tolerance. In the absence of the CTLA‐4 signal, mucosal exposure of antigen induces heightened T‐cell activation and expansion, which in turn promotes the production of antigen‐specific antibodies. |
23742431 | s2ag/train | v2 | 2018-04-03T05:10:58.563Z | 2001-01-01T00:00:00.000Z | [Psychotherapeutic testimony be refugees from Bosnia-Herzegovina: a pilot study].
GOAL
The authors wished to describe the need of the psychotherapy by the witnessing in the group of the adult refugees who have survived the genocide in B&H.
METHODOLOGY
The subjects of the study were 20 refugees from B&H with the residence in Chicago, which gave the written assent for participation in the study of the psychotherapy by witnessing. All the participants were this method, what in the average were 6 sessions, the approximative duration 90 minutes, once a week or once in two weeks. The participants were tested by the application of the standardized instruments for PTSP, depression, traumatic events, the global functioning and the previous therapy, after the last seance and after 2 and 6 months.
RESULT
The estimations done after the therapy showed significantly the decrease in the percentage of the diagnoses of PTSP (repeated living, escaping, increase arousing attention). The symptom of the depression have also significantly lower, and the estimation of the global functioning was significantly higher. To the testing after 2 and 6 months showed that the further significant decreasing of the symptoms and the significant increase of the functioning.
CONCLUSION
This pilot study offers the preliminary proves that psychotherapy by the witnessing of the symptoms of PTSP and also the depression as well as to the improvement of the functioning in the survived political and war violence. |
144491631 | s2ag/train | v2 | 2019-05-05T13:05:10.426Z | 2000-12-01T00:00:00.000Z | Empowering Pedagogies that Enhance the Learning of Multicultural Students
In this article, I lay out the tenets of a critical pedagogy and present the details of a study designed to investigate the presence of those tenets within the discourse patterns and pedagogical practices observed in community-based classrooms, which serve as alternative sites of urban multicultural education. Through analyses of the discourses and pedagogies used in the classrooms of three African American female teachers, I investigate the degree to which these teachers are able to challenge their students to consider alternative life possibilities, to become critical thinkers, and to consider transformation of their current life situations and the life situations of others. Through depictions of everyday activities and discourses that occur in these community-based classrooms, I illustrate how, although the overt rhetoric of these organizations is one that often says, “follow the rules… don't challenge lines of authority,” the covert communicative messages in these community-based classrooms were often geared toward encouraging students to develop higher levels of consciousness and the skills needed to take control of and perhaps even transform their existing life experiences. Based on the findings of this investigation, I advocate for the conscious creation of dialogic, multiculturally sensitive classrooms where empowering, dynamic constructions of knowledge can become a reality by expanding upon the strategic uses of discourse patterns and pedagogical practices observed in the classrooms of these African American female teachers. |
205066031 | s2ag/train | v2 | 2018-04-03T03:44:35.349Z | 2016-01-01T00:00:00.000Z | Possible Dangers of the Bubble Fountain.
The propaganda in the interest of public health has succeeded in introducing numerous innovations into our daily life. Most of these have improved sanitary conditions; some have helped to eradicate disease and to promote hygienic efficiency. The dangers to health which lurk in the common use of articles that find an application in the everyday life of man with respect to his person have become more clearly recognized with the development of bacteriology. Dentists’ and barbers’ utensils, the common towel, and the public drinking cup are believed to harbor a menace because of the possibility of transmitting infection from person to person through the successive use of the same device without special purification or sterilization for each application. Laws have been framed to prohibit the use of the common drinking cup and are being widely enforced in this country. As a result, the “individual” or single service cup, usually made of paper, has come into use; and where suitable water supply is available, the bubble fountain has been generally installed. In the latter device it has seemed as if the application of sanitary science had almost reached hygienic perfection; for what could be more obvious than the freedom of the ever changing bubbling stream of pure water from contamination through the evanescent contact with the mouth? The circumstance of an epidemic of streptococcus tonsillitis two years ago in one of the dormitories of the University of Wisconsin unexpectedly directed suspicion to the bubble fountains in the building. The water pressure in them was so low that it was scarcely possible to drink from the bubbler without touching the metal portions with the lips. An examination of the fountains showed them to be heavily contaminated with streptococci. Positive results were obtained from the surface of the fountain, from the inside and from the water discharged, but the city water supply by which they were operated gave no evidence of these organisms. These facts led to an extensive bacteriologic investigation of the hygiene of the bubble fountain in general by Pettibone, Bogart and Clark1 of the University of Wisconsin Laboratory of Medical Bacteriology. From this it appears that the bubble fountains may become a factor in transmitting disease. The facts of the Wisconsin investigation are surprising as well as unexpected. A survey of all fountains of the university showed the presence of streptococci in over 50 per cent. of the total number. These bacteria varied in abundance from a few chains to an almost pure culture obtained by swabbings from fountains in the epidemic-ridden dormitory. In an experimental bubble fountain, Bacillus prodigiosus when introduced either by means of a pipet or by the moistened lips remained in the water from two to 135 minutes, depending partly on the height of the “bubble.” The explanation of this finding seems to be clear. Most of the organisms are flushed away in the water stream; but some remain dancing in the column much as a ball dances on the garden fountain, even though the bubble be increased to the impracticable height of 4 inches. To avoid this difficulty, always present in the vertical column of spouting water, a simple fountain with a tube at an angle of 50 degrees from the vertical was constructed. B. prodigiosus was never found in the culture plates from this type of fountain, even when samples were taken immediately after the intentional introduction of the organisms. Danger disguised in the cloak of safety is a menace of the most potent sort, particularly when it receives the approbation of health authorities in the way that the bubble fountain has shared it. The Wisconsin investigators believe that a jet of water from a tube erected at an angle of 15 degrees or more from the vertical and with an adequate collar guard to prevent possible contact with the orifice is adequate to prevent micro-organisms from “dancing” on the column of water. The construction of a safe bubble fountain is thus made practicable, and the problem of furnishing water uncontaminated by human lips even to a constant succession of thirsty persons is apparently solved anew. |
8628081 | s2ag/train | v2 | 2014-10-01T00:00:00.000Z | 2009-01-01T00:00:00.000Z | Medical and the Architecture of Total Wellness The Potential and Development in Malaysia
This paper discuss on how medical as the science and " art " of restoring human health and the art and science of designing built environment i.e. could carefully integrate from day one to plan, design and built a total wellness health care facilities which could benefit the users of all level and complement the system of medical services. It will discuss the integration of medical services and architecture integration from the view of Malaysia contacts in particularly. |
10796031 | s2ag/train | v2 | 2018-04-03T00:16:56.061Z | 2016-05-04T00:00:00.000Z | The outcome of a modified version of the Cheneau brace in adolescent idiopathic scoliosis (AIS) based on SRS and SOSORT criteria: a retrospective study.
BACKGROUND
Bracing therapy for patients with adolescent idiopathic scoliosis (AIS) continues to be a controversial issue. As a consequence, to achieve an adequate level of evidence, there is a strong need for specific studies conducted according to standard outcome and management criteria.
AIM
To assess the outcomes of a modified version of the Cheneau brace, ("Cheneau-P") in patients with AIS, based on SRS and SOSORT criteria.
DESIGN
Retrospective study.
SETTING
Scoliosis Unit of a Clinical Center.
POPULATION
Sixty-seven patients, 56 females and 11 males.
METHODS
Inclusion criteria were: diagnosis of AIS, age ≥10 years, Risser Score 0-2, Cobb degrees 20-40, no previous treatment, beginning of brace treatment within 1 year after menarche and minimum 2-year follow-up. According to SRS criteria, bracing outcomes were classified, as follows: "improved" (reduction of the curve ≥6°), "unchanged" (5° curve progression or reduction), "worsened" (≥6° curve progression), and "over 45°" (curve exceeding 45° or undergone surgery during the follow-up). The outcomes "improved" and "unchanged" were considered as successful outcomes. Groups and related subgroups were created according to curve type (thoracic, thoraco-lumbar, lumbar and double major) and magnitude (20°-30°; 30°-40°) and to skeletal age (Risser score 0, 1, 2). A separate analysis was also performed on the 37 patients, 30 females and 7 males, who completely fulfilled the SRS eligibility criteria, showing spinal curves between 25 and 40 Cobb degrees.
RESULTS
In the whole group SRS outcome after bracing treatment was successful in 93% and in 81% of patients, at per protocol (PP) and intention to treat (ITT) analysis, respectively, the latter also including drop-outs as worst outcomes. Cobb angles significantly decreased in all subgroups except in patients showing double major curves, lower curve magnitude (20-30°) and Risser score 2. Rib humps and balance rate also significantly improved in the whole sample (12.78±4.54 at T0 vs. 6.83±4.33 at T1 P<0.001; 60% at T0 vs. 94% at T1 P<0.001, respectively). In the subgroup that completely fulfilled the SRS eligibility criteria, the outcome was successful in 92% and 83% of patients, at PP and ITT analysis, respectively, the latter also including, even in this case, drop-outs as worst outcomes.
CONCLUSIONS
This study shows that in patients with AIS the treatment with the "Cheneau-P" brace is associated with a remarkably high rate of successful outcomes, both in the whole sample and in the subgroup of patients completely fulfilling the SRS criteria.
CLINICAL REHABILITATION IMPACT
The "Cheneau-P" brace proved effective as a conservative treatment for AIS by stabilizing curve progression and limiting the need for surgical treatment. |
225818231 | s2ag/train | v2 | 2020-07-02T10:15:24.903Z | 2020-05-20T00:00:00.000Z | Ways to improve process of wet granulation of fermented poultry litter solid fraction
The carried-out analysis of designs of granulators for the process of damp pressing showed that this method is implemented by means of screw granulators better. At the same time effective objectives are achieved by production of the end product – granules, their quantitative and qualitative indexes. Preliminary search experiments on pressing of firm fraction of the fermented bird dung in the screwgranulator, which is most meeting the requirements of obtaining a certain quantity of qualitative granules, are made. The unstable movement of the pressed material in matrix dies was as a result revealed. It does not allow to reach the required capacity of the screw granulator and to receive granules with quality characteristics.For realization of an effective objective – obtaining necessary quantity of qualitative granules from firm fraction of the fermented bird dung the constructive and technology scheme of the screw granulator is proved. For this purpose innovations are entered into a design of the screw granulator: zone of plasticization and bladed knife. The zone of plasticization is located between the screw and the matrix in the screw granulator and the bladed knife in the plasticization zone before the matrix.Researches of the process of damp granulation were conducted by means of a multiplefactor planning method of an experiment. During the research of the process of damp granulation of FF FBD in the screw granulator we studied the following factors: frequency of rotation of the screw of the granulator (1727 rad·s -1 ), humidity of the pressed material (34-40 %) and the number of blades of the knife (0-4 pcs), influencing the productivity and specific expenses of energy. After processing of the results of the experiment performance (in the range of 240-265 kg·h -1 ) specific power costs were received (in the range of 17.1-24, 317 kW·h·t -1 ). The greatest influence both on the performance and specific power costs has the factor of the number of blades of the knife, the smallest – the frequency of rotation of the screw of the granulator. With increase in the number of blades of the knife, also the performance increases. |
15081881 | s2ag/train | v2 | 2017-04-09T14:33:56.879Z | 2015-02-28T00:00:00.000Z | Application of damage detection methods using passive reconstruction of impulse response functions
In structural health monitoring (SHM), using only the existing noise has long been an attractive goal. The advances in understanding cross-correlations in ambient noise in the past decade, as well as new understanding in damage indication and other advanced signal processing methods, have continued to drive new research into passive SHM systems. Because passive systems take advantage of the existing noise mechanisms in a structure, offshore wind turbines are a particularly attractive application due to the noise created from the various aerodynamic and wave loading conditions. Two damage detection methods using a passively reconstructed impulse response function, or Green's function, are presented. Damage detection is first studied using the reciprocity of the impulse response functions, where damage introduces new nonlinearities that break down the similarity in the causal and anticausal wave components. Damage detection and localization are then studied using a matched-field processing technique that aims to spatially locate sources that identify a change in the structure. Results from experiments conducted on an aluminium plate and wind turbine blade with simulated damage are also presented. |
244807881 | s2ag/train | v2 | 2021-12-03T16:31:50.710Z | 2021-11-30T00:00:00.000Z | Experimental Test on Nonuniform Deformation in the Tilted Strata of a Deep Coal Mine
Taking a deep-mine horizontal roadway in inclined strata as our research object, the true triaxial simulation technique was used to establish a model of the inclined strata and carry out high-stress triaxial loading experiments. The experimental results show that the deformation of surrounding rock in the roadway presents heterogeneous deformation characteristics in time and space: the deformation of the surrounding rock at different positions of the roadway occurs at different times. In the process of deformation of the surrounding rock, deformation and failure occur at the floor of the roadway first, followed by the lower shoulder-angle of the roadway, and finally the rest of the roadway. The deformation amount in the various areas is different. The floor heave deformation of the roadway floor is the greatest and shows obvious left-right asymmetry. The deformation of the higher side is greater than that of the lower side. The model disassembly shows that the development of cracks in the surrounding rock is characterized by more cracks on the higher side and fewer cracks on the lower side but shows larger cracks across the width. The experimental results of high-stress deformation of the surrounding rock are helpful in the design of supports, the reinforcement scheme, and the parameter optimization of roadways in high-stress-inclined rock, and to improve the stability control of deep high-stress roadways. |
9555231 | s2ag/train | v2 | 2014-10-01T00:00:00.000Z | 2008-07-13T00:00:00.000Z | Distance metric learning vs. Fisher discriminant analysis
There has been much recent attention to the problem of learning an appropriate distance metric, using class labels or other side information. Some proposed algorithms are iterative and computationally expensive. In this paper, we show how to solve one of these methods with a closed-form solution, rather than using semidefinite programming. We provide a new problem setup in which the algorithm performs better or as well as some standard methods, but without the computational complexity. Furthermore, we show a strong relationship between these methods and the Fisher Discriminant Analysis. |
33245831 | s2ag/train | v2 | 2017-02-14T10:06:00.201Z | 2012-07-08T00:00:00.000Z | Experimental verification of substrate-induced bianisotropy in optical metamaterials
In this paper, we experimentally prove the theory that the supporting substrate underneath metallodielectric optical metamaterials induces bianisotropy due to the broken symmetry of the system. Specifically, an on-wafer fishnet structured metamaterial at near-infrared wavelengths was fabricated and fully characterized. The effective medium parameters extracted from the experimental data agree well with the theoretical predictions, thus confirming the existence of magnetoelectric coupling introduced by the substrate, which is otherwise absent in a free-standing fishnet metamaterial with the same dimensions. This study provides engineers and scientists insight into oft-overlooked properties of optical metamaterials. |
46873431 | s2ag/train | v2 | 2018-04-03T05:58:54.031Z | 1998-11-06T00:00:00.000Z | Limb Girdle Muscular Dystrophy Type 2A (CAPN3): Mapping Using Allelic Association
Recently a graphical study of linkage disequilibrium around the CAPN3 locus failed to refine the 1.3-Mb interval suggested by haplotype sharing. On the contrary, the Malecot model as implemented in the ALLASS program maps CAPN3 within 3 kb of its true location (23 kb from the locus midpoint), overcoming identified problems with small samples, interrelated sibships, and short duration. |
147501781 | s2ag/train | v2 | 2019-05-08T13:30:04.409Z | 2011-12-31T00:00:00.000Z | Reid's moral psychology: animal motives as guides to virtue
My aim in this paper is to show that animal motives play an important role in guiding human agents to virtue, according to Reid. Animal motives, for Reid, are constituted of desires and of their objects. These desires are intrinsic desires for objects other than moral or prudential worth. However, from a rational and moral point of view, animal motives are good and useful parts of the human constitution that lead to happiness, teach self-government, create the habit of acting virtuously, and add force to rational motives. Understanding animal motives as guides to virtue provides Reid with the hybrid sentimentalist/rationalist account he seeks to offer. |
25588631 | s2ag/train | v2 | 2018-04-03T03:40:08.701Z | 2005-12-01T00:00:00.000Z | Value of Immunohistochemistry for Somatostatin Receptor Subtype sst2A in Cancer Tissues: Lessons From the Comparison of Anti-sst2A Antibodies With Somatostatin Receptor Autoradiography
The somatostatin receptor sst2A is highly expressed at the cellular surface of neuroendocrine and other human tumor cells, allowing somatostatin receptor-targeted scintigraphic tumor imaging and tumor therapy. In vitro information on tumoral somatostatin receptor expression is provided mainly by receptor autoradiography, based on binding of radiolabeled somatostatin analogs to tumoral somatostatin receptors. Recent availability of anti-sst2A antibodies opens the possibility of sst2A assessment in human tumors with immunohistochemistry. The aim of the present study was to evaluate the usefulness of several commercial anti-sst2A antibodies for this purpose in comparison with the extensively characterized antibody R2-88 and with receptor autoradiography. sst2A immunohistochemistry was performed in 64 formalin-fixed tumors known to frequently express sst2A (pancreatic, gastrointestinal, pulmonary neuroendocrine tumors, breast carcinomas, meningiomas, pituitary adenomas, neuroblastomas, medulloblastomas, pheochromocytomas, and paragangliomas); receptor autoradiography could be performed simultaneously in 37 of these cases. The commercial antibody SS-800 clearly identified sst2A and correlated excellently with R2-88: compared with R2-88, SS-800 immunohistochemistry generally yielded the same tissular and subcellular staining distribution. Results of R2-88 and SS-800 immunohistochemistry correlated excellently with those obtained with receptor autoradiography; compared with receptor autoradiography, immunohistochemistry with both R2-88 and SS-800 resulted in a slightly lower tumoral sst2A incidence, but a higher resolution, with frequent identification of heterogeneous sst2A distribution at high magnification. Finally, not only membranous, but also cytoplasmic, sst2A immunostaining was simultaneously observed with both antibodies in some tumors. In conclusion, the commercially available SS-800 antibody promises to be useful for the routine immunohistochemical assessment of sst2A in formalin-fixed human tumors. |
247168231 | s2ag/train | v2 | 2022-03-02T06:23:41.051Z | 2022-02-28T00:00:00.000Z | The Impact of the COVID-19 Pandemic on the Scientific Community
I believe that all members of the scientific community would acknowledge that the pandemic has impacted their personal life and careers. Although it is too early for a full accounting of the impact of the pandemic on science, this topic nevertheless deserves discussion. I wear many hats: parent, spouse, son, (older) brother, physician-scientist, cancer-researcher, editor, dog breeder-owner-handler, rower, Cub Scout leader, and more recently, COVID-19 researcher. On multiple occasions—most notably with reference to my life as a parent and Cub Scout leader—I have noted, “There is no playbook for a Pandemic.” In reflection, both with poignancy and with reflection, my great-grandfather and I wore the same hat during pandemics—Boy Scout leaders. He headed a Boy Scout troop during the Influenza/1918 pandemic, and I now lead a Cub Scout pack during the COVID-19 pandemic. I have no direct knowledge of how his father (my great-grandfather) coped during that pandemic, as my grandfather died the year of my birth. Given the gap of 102 years between these pandemics, it is obvious that the changes in society, medicine, and technology present a very different playbook for a parent and a scientist today compared with 1918. The similarities are at times disconcerting: the battle over the role of masks in preventing the spread of disease, the battle of politicians vs public health officials, and the misunderstanding of public health laws to address the spread of disease. While there are similarities, especially with how some members of society responded to both pandemics, the tools of science and media have evolved substantially in their impacts on the lives of parents and scientists. The spread of rumors, the spread of inaccurate information, and the spread of dangerous advice are no longer limited to the spoken word—person to person or over the radio or in newspapers—but is now spread and amplified via the Internet. One observation the scientific community must address is the level and quality of science education in this country, particularly as it relates to the understanding of health and medicine by the general public. Understanding of basic disease spread and methods of mitigation and prevention is woefully inadequate. Although we teach science aggressively, we fail to effectively teach general principles of good health and the value of preventive medicine. The ignorance of the benefits and risk of vaccination and their overall impact on society have resulted in regular outbreaks of once nearly banished childhood diseases such as measles and whooping cough, not to mention the needless deaths of thousands of Americans due to baseless claims that vaccination may negatively impact fertility. The vast majority of people who refused the SARS-CoV-2 vaccine are in fact vaccinated for a long list of diseases. The pandemic has highlighted the role of Peer Review. Although we would all acknowledge that peer review is imperfect, it serves an important role in assuring reproducible science. The pandemic has seen the release of a myriad of COVID-related preprints and a corresponding increased number of retractions, as the community attempts to provide scientific knowledge concerning SARS-CoV-2. The pandemic has highlighted the strengths and weaknesses of both preprint servers and peer review, and hopefully has made both the scientific community and the public more critical readers and expecting of both controls 1084760 JHCXXX10.1369/00221554221084760Short TitleHewitt editorial2022 |
17604731 | s2ag/train | v2 | 2016-04-07T22:52:55.727Z | 2002-09-01T00:00:00.000Z | Paradigm shifts in Alzheimer's disease and other neurodegenerative disorders: The emerging role of oligomeric assemblies
Alzheimer's disease (AD) is a progressive, neurodegenerative disorder characterized by amyloid deposition in the cerebral neuropil and vasculature. These amyloid deposits comprise predominantly fragments and full‐length (40 or 42 residue) forms of the amyloid β‐protein (Aβ) organized into fibrillar assemblies. Compelling evidence indicates that factors that increase overall Aβ production or the ratio of longer to shorter forms, or which facilitate deposition or inhibit elimination of amyloid deposits, cause AD or are risk factors for the disease. In vitro studies have demonstrated that fibrillar Aβ has potent neurotoxic effects on cultured neurons. In vivo experiments in non‐human primates have demonstrated that Aβ fibrils directly cause pathologic changes, including tau hyperphosphorylation. In concert with histologic studies revealing a lack of tissue injury in areas of the neuropil in which non‐fibrillar deposits were found, these data suggested that fibril assembly was a prerequisite for Aβ‐mediated neurotoxicity in vivo. Recently, however, both in vitro and in vivo studies have revealed that soluble, oligomeric forms of Aβ also have potent neurotoxic activities, and in fact, may be the proximate effectors of the neuronal injury and death occurring in AD. A paradigm shift is thus emerging that necessitates the reevaluation of the relative importance of polymeric (fibrillar) vs. oligomeric assemblies in the pathobiology of AD. In addition to AD, an increasing number of neurodegenerative disorders, including Parkinson's disease, familial British dementia, familial amyloid polyneuropathy, amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, and prion diseases, are associated with abnormal protein assembly processes. The archetypal features of the assembly‐dependent neuropathogenetic effects of Aβ may thus be of relevance not only to AD but to these other disorders as well. © 2002 Wiley‐Liss, Inc. |
70444181 | s2ag/train | v2 | 2019-03-07T14:07:21.672Z | 1998-02-01T00:00:00.000Z | A Long-Term Study of Hydroxychloroquine Withdrawal on Exacerbations in Systemic Lupus Erythematosus
The ability of antimalarials to moderate severe disease activity in systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) is plausible but undemonstrated. We evaluated the long-term effectiveness of maintaining treatment with hydroxychloroquine sulphate (HCQ) to prevent major flares in quiescent SLE. Forty-seven patients with quiescent SLE who had been randomized to take HCQ (n = 25) or placebo (n = 22) as part of a 24-week withdrawal trial were evaluated for an additional 3 years. The primary outcome was time to a major flare of SLE which resulted in either the institution of or an increase in the current dosage of prednisone of 10 mg/day or more, or institution of therapy with immunosuppressive agents. Secondary outcomes included the specific subtype of these major flares (glomerulonephritis, vasculitis or other) and hospitalization for an exacerbation of SLE. An intent-to-treat analysis was conducted. Over the 42 months of study, 11 of 22 (50%) patients randomized initially to placebo, and seven of 25 (28%) patients randomized to continue treatment experienced a major flare. The relative risk of major flare for those randomized to continue HCQ compared with controls was 0.43 (95% CI: 0.17, 1.12). The relative risks for subtypes of flares were 0.26 (95% CI: 0.03, 2.54) for nephritis, 0.51 (95% CI: 0.09, 3.08) for vasculitis and 0.65 (95% CI: 0.17, 2.41) for flares characterized by other symptoms. The relative risk of hospitalization for major flare for patients randomized to continue hydroxychloroquine was 0.58 (95% CI: 0.13, 2.60). While the results are not statistically significant, they are compatible with the clinical belief that HCQ has a long-term protective effect against major disease flares in SLE and suggest that on average, HCQ use reduces major flares by 57% (95% CI: 83% reduction to 12% increase). |
109168581 | s2ag/train | v2 | 2019-04-12T13:58:13.645Z | 1999-06-22T00:00:00.000Z | Optical test method to measure the corner turning and the retonation distance in one firing
The detonic people know that the detonation waves need some minimum radius to turn the detonation direction for 90 degrees and much more to come from a forward detonation in a rearward detonation or retonation. Most of the corresponding tests can distinguish between the build-up distance and the necessary minimum radius. The retonation behavior is generally tested with tubular charges where the minimum wall thickness is determined at which a forward detonation converts also into a retonation. A new method with the help of multiple flash gap technique was tried in which the corner turning distance and the retonation behavior or the necessary minimum explosive layer thickness should be defined with 'one' test only. |
5533031 | s2ag/train | v2 | 2017-02-20T08:52:47.801Z | 2007-09-17T00:00:00.000Z | Implementing a Multiplexed System of Detectors for Higher Photon Counting Rates
Photon counting applications are typically limited by detector deadtime to operate at count rates of a few megahertz, at best, and often at significantly lower levels. This limitation is becoming more critical with the advance of photon counting applications such as photon-based quantum information. We present a first experimental proof of principle, and review the theoretical foundation of a multiplexed detection scheme that allows photons to be counted at higher rates than is possible with individual detectors or simple detector trees. In addition to this deadtime improvement, we discuss the impact of this scheme on other relevant characteristics such as afterpulsing and dark count rates. |
232115431 | s2ag/train | v2 | 2021-03-05T14:03:41.239Z | 2021-02-24T00:00:00.000Z | Structure Formation of Butt Joints Made of Aluminum Alloys to Ensure the Quality of Mechanical Engineering Products
The article discusses the problems of ensuring high-quality formation and normative properties of butt joints of the 1560M and 1980T1 (AMg6 and B48) aluminum alloys as applied to engineering. A method is proposed for joining materials by means of EBW using an electron beam sweep. Homogeneous and dissimilar joints have been investigated, heat treatment of joint from the 1980T1 alloy and a dissimilar joint from the 1560M + 1980T1 alloys is recommended. The paper also presents the results of mechanical properties testing, the corrosion resistance and the delayed fracture tests. A welding technology that makes it possible to obtain high-quality butt-welded joints from aluminum alloys in thicknesses up to 40 mm has been developed and implemented. |
19157131 | s2ag/train | v2 | 2017-06-24T20:55:10.322Z | 2012-06-07T00:00:00.000Z | Chemotactic adaptation kinetics of individual Escherichia coli cells
Escherichia coli chemotaxis serves as a paradigm for the way living cells respond and adapt to changes in their environment. The chemotactic response has been characterized at the level of individual flagellar motors and in populations of swimming cells. However, it has not been previously possible to quantify accurately the adaptive response of a single, multiflagellated cell. Here, we use our recently developed optical trapping technique to characterize the swimming behavior of individual bacteria as they respond to sudden changes in the chemical environment. We follow the adaptation kinetics of E. coli to varying magnitudes of step-up and step-down changes in concentration of chemoattractant. We quantify two features of adaptation and how they vary with stimulus strength: abruptness (the degree to which return to prestimulus behavior occurs within a small number of run/tumble events) and overshoot (the degree of excessive response before the return to prestimulus behavior). We also characterize the asymmetry between step-up and step-down responses, observed at the single-cell level. Our findings provide clues to an improved understanding of chemotactic adaptation. |
201650931 | s2ag/train | v2 | 2019-08-27T13:13:47.206Z | 2019-06-01T00:00:00.000Z | Digital Signage Personalization for Smart City: Major Requirements and Approach
Providing information in smart cities is possible in various ways. Digital signage is one of such options. However, personalization and contextualization of digital signage is complicated due to both technological and legislative reasons. When providing contextual information to a group of users, consideration of preferences and interests of users is complicated by a number of additional problems, most of which are related to identifying preferences/interests common to this group of users, as well as to their confidentiality. At the moment, such solutions do not exist. The paper presents a methodology of building a personalized digital signage system taking into account confidentiality and using tacit feedback to clarify the information provided, as well as information about users. |
82922481 | s2ag/train | v2 | 2015-03-12T23:57:50.000Z | 2002-01-01T00:00:00.000Z | Catalase activity in the placenta during pregnancy-induced hypertension
Diseases associated with hypertension in women during pregnancy are often the cause of their death, as well as being significantly responsible for miscarriages and stillbirths and complications with infants' health, and infant deaths. In most cases of hypertension in pregnant women – especially in pre-eclampsia – the etiopathogenesis remains unknown. In chronic hypertension, the main pathophysiological feature is enhanced arterial tension, whereas pregnancy induced hypertension (PIH) is a symptom of a disorder and a potential cause of complications for pregnant women. The latest studies show that oxidative stress, including an increase in the amount reactive oxygen species (ROS) and inflammation, plays an important role in the pathogenesis of this disorder. There is a lot of information indicating that the placenta is the focus of the pathological alterations. The placenta uses a lot of oxygen in its function. Oxidative stress is an imbalance between pro-oxidant and antioxidant forces. This research was undertaken to determine placental catalase activity. The presence of the catalase (CT) was investigated by means of immunoblotting of proteins. CT activity was measured via the Bears and Sizer method. The presence of CT was shown by western blott. The results revealed a difference between CT activity in pathological placentas and CT activity in normal placentas. The immunoblotting of CT showed a difference in quantity between normal and pathological placentas. |
15010431 | s2ag/train | v2 | 2017-04-14T09:26:31.771Z | 2012-06-01T00:00:00.000Z | microRNA involvement in human cancer.
When, ∼20 years ago, investigators first determined that components of the genome considered nonfunctional had, in fact, gene regulatory capacity, they probably had no idea of their potential in controlling cell fate and were forced to revise and somehow reorganize their view of the molecular biology. Indeed, it is currently well documented how a class of small non-coding RNAs, microRNAs, are conserved among the species, expressed in different tissues and cell types and involved in almost every biological process, including cell cycle, growth, apoptosis, differentiation and stress response, exerting a finely tuned regulation of gene expression by targeting multiple molecules. As a consequence of the widespread range of processes they are able to influence, it is not surprising that miRNA deregulation is a hallmark of several pathological conditions, including cancer. Indeed, the aberrant expression of these tiny molecules in human tumors is not just a casual association, but they can exert a causal role, as oncogenes or tumor suppressors, in different steps of the tumorigenic process, from initiation and development to progression toward the acquisition of a metastatic phenotype. An increasing body of evidence has indeed proved the importance of miRNAs in cancer, suggesting their possible use as diagnostic, prognostic and predictive biomarkers and leading to exploit miRNA-based anticancer therapies, either alone or in combination with current targeted therapies, with the goal to improve disease response and increase cure rates. Here, we review our current knowledge about miRNA involvement in cancer. |
56500031 | s2ag/train | v2 | 2019-01-23T00:11:36.132Z | 2015-01-02T00:00:00.000Z | Computer-Assisted Learning in Elementary Reading: A Randomized Control Trial
This study evaluated the efficacy of Accelerated Reader, a computer-based learning program, at improving student reading. Accelerated Reader is a progress-monitoring, assessment, and practice tool that supports classroom instruction and guides independent reading. Researchers used a randomized controlled trial to evaluate the program with 344 first- through fourth-grade students in three schools in a large Midwestern U.S. city. The results of hierarchical linear modelling analyses indicated that the computer-assisted learning program had a statistically significant positive impact on student reading gains when compared with traditional reading instruction alone. The impact corresponded to a moderate effect size (d = 0.38). |
19795481 | s2ag/train | v2 | 2018-04-03T02:27:41.797Z | 1990-01-01T00:00:00.000Z | [Basis for the evaluation of health care quality at the medical units of the health sector].
A methodology for evaluating the quality of services rendered by the health institutions is presented. This methodology, proposed by the Basic Evaluation Group of the Health Sector, includes an operational diagnosis of the health care units, allowing the identification of service-rendering problems, this facilitating the elaboration of alternative solutions in the patient's best interests. It can be applied at all levels of the institutional hierarchy, from service and department levels to the macro dimension of health care. In order to obtain its best results, the methodology must be utilized systematically and continuously. |
123269231 | s2ag/train | v2 | 2018-12-26T20:54:37.161Z | 2014-01-01T00:00:00.000Z | PERFORMANCE MEASURES OF FM/FM/1 QUEUING SYSTEM WITH N-POLICY
In this paper we analyse the N-policy of FM/FM/1 Queuing system in Fuzzy environment which helps to control the queues in different situation. We have studied a N-policy queuing system with infinite capacity under uncertain arrival and service information. A mathematical Parametric Non-linear Programming (NLP) method is used to construct the membership function of the system characteristic of a N-policy queue with infinite capacity in which arrival rate, service rate, are fuzzy numbers. The α-cut and Zadeh’s Extension Principle are used to transform a fuzzy queue into a family of conventional crisp queues. By means of membership functions of the system characteristics, a set of parametric non linear program is developed to calculate the lower and upper bound of the system characteristics function at α. Thus the membership functions of the system characteristics are constructed. Numerical example is also illustrated to check the validity of the proposed system. |
246778881 | s2ag/train | v2 | 2022-02-13T16:10:48.706Z | 2022-02-11T00:00:00.000Z | Analysis of the Molecular Mechanism of Punicalagin in the Treatment of Alzheimer’s Disease by Computer-Aided Drug Research Technology
The objective of this work is to explore the effect and potential mechanism of Punicalagin (Pun) in managing Alzheimer’s disease (AD) based on computer-aided drug technology. The following methods were used: the intersection genes of Pun and AD were retrieved from the database and subjected to PPI analysis, GO, and KEGG enrichment analyses. Preliminary verification was performed by molecular docking, molecular dynamics (MD) simulation, and combined free energy calculation. The motor coordination and balance ability, anxiety degree, spatial learning, and memory ability of mice were measured by a rotating rod fatigue instrument, elevated cross maze, and Y maze, respectively. The amyloid β protein (Aβ) in the hippocampus was examined by immunohistochemistry, and the phosphorylation of serine at position 404 of the tau protein (Tau-pS404) was examined by western blot in the mouse brain. The PPI network of Pun showed that the intersection genes were closely related and enriched in muscle cell proliferation and the response to lipopolysaccharide. Results of molecular docking, MD simulations, and MM-GBSA demonstrated that Pun was closely bound to the target protein. Pun could improve the cognitive function of AD mice, as well as reduce Aβ1-42 deposition and Tau phosphorylation in the brain (P < 0.05, P < 0.01). It can be concluded that Pun holds great promise in improving the cognitive function of AD mice. Mechanistically, Pun potentially acts on ALB, AKT1, SRC, EGFR, CASP3, and IGF-1 targets and mediates proteoglycan, lipid, and atherosclerosis in cancer, so as to reduce the accumulation of neurotoxic proteins in the brain. |
199668681 | s2ag/train | v2 | 2019-08-15T07:13:20.000Z | 2019-08-01T00:00:00.000Z | Tracking Paths in Planar Graphs
We consider the NP-complete problem of tracking paths in a graph, first introduced by Banik et. al. [3]. Given an undirected graph with a source $s$ and a destination $t$, find the smallest subset of vertices whose intersection with any $s-t$ path results in a unique sequence. In this paper, we show that this problem remains NP-complete when the graph is planar and we give a 4-approximation algorithm in this setting. We also show, via Courcelle's theorem, that it can be solved in linear time for graphs of bounded-clique width, when its clique decomposition is given in advance. |
11979481 | s2ag/train | v2 | 2018-04-03T00:28:16.439Z | 1990-01-01T00:00:00.000Z | Neurofilament gene expression in transgenic mice.
1. DNA fragments that include the human neurofilament NF-L gene was found to be correctly expressed in the majority of neurons in transgenic mice. 2. The NF-L transgene product, which is detectable in situ with a species-specific monoclonal antibody, provides a powerful genotype marking system applicable to developmental and regeneration studies of the mammalian nervous system. 3. The proximal 5'-flanking region of the NF-L gene is sufficient to direct expression of a heterologous gene in the mouse nervous system. |
227160531 | s2ag/train | v2 | 2020-11-24T18:56:19.864Z | 2020-11-01T00:00:00.000Z | PARCOACH Extension for Static MPI Nonblocking and Persistent Communication Validation
The Message Passing Interface (MPI) is a parallel programming model used to exchange data between working units in different nodes of a supercomputer. While MPI blocking operations return when the communication is complete, non-blocking and persistent operations return before the communication is complete, enabling a developer to hide communication latency. However the usage of these latter comes with additional rules the user has to abide to. This is error prone, which makes verification tools valuable for MPI program writers. PARCOACH is a framework that detects MPI collective errors using a static/dynamic analysis. In this paper we present an extension of PARCOACH static analysis to detect misuse of MPI nonblocking and persistent communications. Our new analysis adds the detection of four new error classes related to these types of communications. Its implementation was tested on several MPI micro-benchmarks, and on some CORAL or Mantevo benchmarks on which we observed an acceptable overhead at compile-time. |
4507231 | s2ag/train | v2 | 2018-04-03T03:56:53.593Z | 1990-07-01T00:00:00.000Z | Essential fatty acid nutrition of the American alligator (Alligator mississippiensis).
The essential fatty acid (EFA) nutrition of young American alligators (Alligator mississippiensis) was examined by feeding a variety of fats/oils with potential EFA activity. Over a 12-wk period, alligators fed diets containing 2.5 or 5.0% chicken liver oil grew longer and heavier and converted feed to body mass more efficiently than alligators fed other fat/oil combinations that lacked or contained only trace amounts of arachidonic acid [20:4(n-6)]. Alligators fed an EFA-deficient diet (containing only coconut fat as the dietary fat) were the slowest-growing animals and converted feed to body mass least efficiently. However, over a 41-wk feeding period, alligators fed this diet showed no obvious external signs of deficiency other than being reduced in size and unthrifty. Fatty acid composition of heart, liver, muscle, skin and adipose tissue lipids was influenced markedly by dietary fat composition. Tissues varied significantly in response to dietary fat composition. Heart lipids contained the lowest levels of short- and medium-chain fatty acids and the highest levels of arachidonic acid. Arachidonic acid levels were less influenced by diet than were levels of other 20- and 22-carbon polyunsaturated fatty acids. Radiotracer studies indicated that linoleic acid was converted to arachidonic acid in the liver. Nevertheless, tissue arachidonic acid levels also appeared to be maintained by concentration from dietary sources and selective conservation. It appears that a dietary source of arachidonic acid may be required for a maximum rate of growth. |
9013731 | s2ag/train | v2 | 2017-02-20T22:30:22.297Z | 2011-09-01T00:00:00.000Z | Reliable overlay topology design for the smart microgrid network
Integration of the advances in information and communication technologies to the power grid technologies is changing the architecture and operation of the traditional grid, leading the grid to gradually evolve into a smart grid. Generation in the smart grid will be different than it is in today's grid, mainly due to the high penetration level of distributed renewable power generators. The distributed generator (DG) is favorable for its low transmission losses and low emissions. On the other hand, control of a high number of DGs is challenging. Almost a decade ago, microgrids were proposed to tackle the challenge of handling the growing number of DGs and fault isolation. A microgrid is a medium voltage or low voltage electrical power system that contains DGs, storage units, controllable loads, small-scale combined heat and power units, and an energy management system. In this article, we revisit the microgrid concept in light of survivability approaches borrowed from high-speed networks. We provide an analogy between survivability in metroaccess networks and reliability of the overlay topology for the smart microgrid network (SMGN). We develop the idea of resource sharing among smart microgrids for the sake of increased reliability. In our case, reliability corresponds to supplying power to the loads using the energy generated in the SMGN, without importing power from the utility grid. We provide a reliable overlay topology design scheme that maximizes the usage of renewable energy in the SMGN. |
62584731 | s2ag/train | v2 | 2019-02-14T14:05:45.606Z | 1998-07-13T00:00:00.000Z | Infrared model development for a high-speed imaging fuze
Development and generation of high-fidelity IR scenes to support testing requirements at the Kinetic Kill Vehicle Hardware-in-the-Loop Simulator (KHILS) facility at Eglin AFB, Florida has been the mission for the Air Force Research Laboratory's (AFRL) scene generation team throughout the past ten years. During that time scene generation efforts have supported operational scenarios ranging from surveillance through terminal homing. Recent programs have required the development of IR target and background models to support the testing needs of a high-speed fuze. Development of IR models and techniques to support high-speed fuze applications required advancing the state-of-the-art in IR scene generation. This effort required the development of several target models not available from other sources. In addition, due to the unusual proximity fuze seeker configuration that utilizes a wide angle lens to encompass a full 360 degree field-of-view (FOV) and very fast frame rate requirements, normal scene generation techniques were not adequate. Hundreds of scenarios consisting of hundreds of image frames were needed to develop the fuzing algorithms. This scene generation requirement necessitated that realistic scene sequences be produced in minutes rather than hours. This paper discusses the IR model development path to generate IR scene sequences to support the algorithm development for this fuzing program. The discussion describes the process and unique modeling techniques that were implemented to build foreign target models that include fighter and bomber aircraft, low-flying cruise missiles, and helicopters. Implementation of appropriate rendering techniques to support the generation of backgrounds that include atmospherics, terrain, and sea for realistic target engagements are also discussed. Finally, a description of the process utilized in merging IR model and commercial hardware solutions to satisfy the IR scene generation requirements for this program is presented. |
95261581 | s2ag/train | v2 | 2018-12-07T21:42:30.350Z | 1991-12-30T00:00:00.000Z | In SituCharacterization of the Initial Growth Stage of GaAs on Si by Coaxial Impact-Collision Ion Scattering Spectroscopy
The initial growth stage of GaAs on Si has been characterized in situ by coaxial impact-collision ion scattering spectroscopy (CAICISS). The behavior of As atoms on the Si surface and at the step sites is analyzed. The results of analysis on the initial growth stage strongly suggest that the three-dimensional island growth of GaAs on Si occurs even in 1-monolayer (ML) GaAs growth. |
25759631 | s2ag/train | v2 | 2018-04-03T00:40:38.408Z | 2001-07-01T00:00:00.000Z | Evaluation of a residency program's experience with a one-week emergency medicine resident rotation at a medical liability insurance company.
INTRODUCTION
The authors' residency program implemented a one-week rotation at the office of a medical liability insurance company. Residents examined 30 closed malpractice claims cases and sat in on settlement discussions.
OBJECTIVE
To review the residents' evaluations of their experiences and to determine whether this was a worthwhile addition to the emergency medicine (EM) residency curriculum.
METHODS
This was a five-year retrospective study that reviewed residents' annual evaluations from 1994 to 1999 regarding the medical liability rotation. A five-point scale was used to score specific categories in the rotation and an open-ended section was used to collect general comments.
RESULTS
A total of 179 resident evaluations were reviewed. The quality of teaching ranked in the 80th percentile, the clinical caseload ranked in the 85th percentile, and level of responsibility ranked in the 79th percentile for all EM rotations. Specific comments included "All MDs should do this in their training"; "Quite an eye opener"; and "Good exposure to legal aspects of EM."
CONCLUSIONS
Overall, EM residents found the one-week rotation to be invaluable and a good learning experience. This rotation ranked above average when compared with all of our other EM residency rotations. |
144215681 | s2ag/train | v2 | 2017-09-27T08:54:51.384Z | 2004-03-01T00:00:00.000Z | Language, conflict and community: linguistic accommodation in the urban US
Schools have linguistic agendas. Seldom do schools promote ‘the accretion and growth of every dialect’. At best, schools offer students access to standard language — a culture’s prestige codes, control over which is an important factor in social mobility (see Delpit, 1995). Seldom do we accomplish this as fully as the public expects, for even in the most idyllic circumstances, teachers do not control classroom discourse to the extent people imagine. Students arrive in schools with a variety of dialects, determined by region, neighbourhood and social class. When we offer access to prestige codes, we model a series of verbal dance steps, which students may imitate and replicate. But what happens if the ‘dance’ in which we seek to engage students is felt to be unfriendly or even inimical to the students’ home culture? And what if more than one ethno-linguistic variety is represented in a classroom — groups which alternately bond and collide? Between 1991 and 2002, it was my privilege to work as an English teacher and reading specialist in a rustbelt city in the United States. The school system which employed me served a range of races and socioeconomic levels; however, the racially isolated schools to which I was assigned — middle schools, and in one case a K-8 school for delinquent and ‘pre-delinquent’ youth — served overwhelmingly lowincome and African American youngsters. There was a sprinkling of white youngsters in these schools. Most of them were what sociologists describe as ‘Urban Appalachians’, young people whose families had migrated to our city from the mountains of Kentucky, Tennessee, Alabama, Georgia, Virginia, West Virginia, the Carolinas, Pennsylvania and New York to find employment. Annual tests of literacy and achievement characterized the racially isolated schools as ‘low-performing’. One such school was New Vista xMiddle School. It occupied a half-block of real estate in the city’s Lower Basin section, a run-down, high-crime neighbourhood, with broken-windowed and abandoned buildings, a place where police distrusted the (mostly African American) community, and the community feared the police. |
11757731 | s2ag/train | v2 | 2018-04-03T01:29:59.766Z | 2008-03-01T00:00:00.000Z | Patients' perceived care needs whilst waiting for a heart or lung transplant.
AIM
To explore the perceptions of caring and expectations of nursing care in patients on a heart and/or lung transplant waiting list.
BACKGROUND
The waiting period for a heart or lung transplant can be very stressful and demanding for patients and their families. Care during the waiting period needs to be aimed at treating the symptoms and complications of patients' underlying condition and also specific issues related to organ transplant candidacy.
METHOD
A qualitative research design, using semi-structured interviews with 22 patients on a heart and/or lung transplant waiting list was used. Participants were interviewed on three separate occasions.
FINDINGS
Qualitative analysis of the data revealed five major themes related to the nursing care needs of heart and lung transplant candidates. The themes were identified as information giving, maintenance of regular contact, familiarity, positive thinking and compassionate manner. These were five key aspects of communication within the nurse-patient relationship and formed the essence of caring as perceived by patients awaiting heart and/or lung transplantation.
CONCLUSION
Transplant candidates often experience prolonged waiting times for a transplant which is often laden with uncertainties and stress. This study provided an in-depth description of patients' perceptions of caring and their nursing care needs whilst on a heart and lung transplant waiting list.
RELEVANCE TO CLINICAL PRACTICE
The findings provide useful advice to nurses about ways they can improve care and enhance caring for patients waiting for an organ transplant. Key elements of nursing care that foster the nurse-patient relationship that can be incorporated into nursing care pathways have been highlighted. |
228949581 | s2ag/train | v2 | 2020-11-12T09:10:03.179Z | 2020-10-08T00:00:00.000Z | Peaceful Change in Western Europe
This chapter traces three different conceptions of peaceful change in Western Europe since 1945 and discusses their implications for understanding peaceful change in that region today. The first is Hobbesian. Corresponding to a largely realist understanding, Hobbesians view peaceful change in Western Europe as a byproduct of balancing and hegemony in the Cold War. The second is Lockean. Corresponding to a largely liberal understanding of peaceful change, the Lockean perspective views such change in the region as the product of liberal democratic states responding rationally to the challenges of international anarchy by institutionalizing the region. The third is Kantian. Corresponding to a largely constructivist understanding, Kantians view peaceful change in Europe as the construction of a civil league of nations exercising “normative power Europe” inside and outside the region. |
204883631 | s2ag/train | v2 | 2019-10-26T13:08:33.553Z | 2019-10-25T00:00:00.000Z | Differing protocols of managing adult diabetic ketoacidosis outside of the intensive care unit make no difference to the rate of resolution of hyperglycaemia and acidosis.
AIMS
To compare the outcome of people with type 1 diabetes admitted to the general ward with diabetic ketoacidosis (DKA) to two hospitals in Auckland, using different protocols of care.
METHODS
North Shore Hospital uses a UK weight-based, ketone centric protocol while Auckland Hospital uses a protocol based on glucose measurements only. All notes of people over 16 years of age admitted to the general wards with DKA to these hospitals in one year were reviewed and their outcome compared.
RESULTS
Forty-one admissions in 35 people with DKA at Auckland Hospital were compared to 30 admissions in 26 people with DKA at North Shore Hospital. The degree of ketoacidosis and hyperglycaemia on admission was similar at the two hospitals. The duration of insulin and 10% dextrose infusions was similar but the total number of units of insulin infused and rate of dextrose given per hour were higher at North Shore, with similar rates of hypokalaemia and hypoglycaemic events at each site. The rate of resolution of hyperglycaemia and acidosis did not differ. The length of stay of patients was similar at the two hospitals.
CONCLUSIONS
The frequent measurement of bedside ketones did not result in more rapid resolution of DKA compared to relying on glucose measurements alone. |
236515581 | s2ag/train | v2 | 2021-07-31T06:16:21.494Z | 2021-07-30T00:00:00.000Z | LINC00511 facilitates Temozolomide resistance of glioblastoma cells via sponging miR‐126‐5p and activating Wnt/β‐catenin signaling
Temozolomide (TMZ) is the first‐line chemotherapy drug for glioblastoma (GBM) but acquired TMZ resistance is frequently observed. Thus, a TMZ resistant GBM cell line U87‐R was established to search for potential long noncoding RNAs (lncRNAs) used in TMZ resistance. In our study, LINC00511 was identified as a TMZ resistance‐associated lncRNA in U87‐R cells by transcriptome RNA sequencing. The potential functions of LINC00511 were evaluated by quantitative real‐time polymerase chain reaction, cell viability assay, colony formation assay, western blot, soft agar assay, flow cytometry, tumor xenograft model, immunofluorescence, sphere formation assay, fluorescent in situ hybridization, luciferase reporter assay, and RNA pull‐down assay. We found that LINC00511 was upregulated in U87‐R cells and GBM samples, and correlated with poor prognosis of GBM patients. Silencing LINC00511 impaired TMZ tolerance of U87‐R cells, while LINC00511 overexpression increased TMZ resistance of sensitive GBM cells. Wnt/β‐catenin signaling was activated in U87‐R cells, and inhibiting Wnt/β‐catenin signaling enhanced TMZ sensitivity. Furthermore, LINC00511 was mainly distributed in the cytoplasm of GBM cells and regulated Wnt/β‐catenin activation by acting as a molecular sponge for miR‐126‐5p. Multiple genes of Wnt/β‐catenin signaling such as DVL3, WISP1, and WISP2 were targeted by miR‐126‐5p. MiR‐126‐5p restoration impaired TMZ resistance of GBM cells. In conclusion, our results provided a novel insight into acquired TMZ resistance of GBM cells and suggested LINC00511 as a potential biomarker or therapeutic target for GBM patients. |
18222321 | s2ag/train | v2 | 2017-04-01T10:57:06.377Z | 2014-07-12T00:00:00.000Z | Different Lipid Variables Predict Incident Coronary Artery Disease in Patients With Type 1 Diabetes With or Without Diabetic Nephropathy: The FinnDiane Study
OBJECTIVE To study the ability of lipid variables to predict incident coronary artery disease (CAD) events in patients with type 1 diabetes at different stages of nephropathy. RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODS Patients (n = 3,520) with type 1 diabetes and available lipid profiles participating in the Finnish Diabetic Nephropathy Study (FinnDiane) were included in the study. During a follow-up period of 10.2 years (8.6–12.0), 310 patients suffered an incident CAD event. RESULTS Apolipoprotein B (ApoB)/ApoA-I ratio was the strongest predictor of CAD in normoalbuminuric patients (hazard ratio 1.43 [95% CI 1.17–1.76] per one SD increase), and ApoB was the strongest in macroalbuminuric patients (1.47 [1.19–1.81]). Similar results were seen when patients were stratified by sex or glycemic control. LDL cholesterol was a poor predictor of CAD in women, normoalbuminuric patients, and patients with HbA1c below the median (8.3%, 67 mmol/L). The current recommended triglyceride cutoff of 1.7 mmol/L failed to predict CAD in normoalbuminuric patients, whereas the cohort median 0.94 mmol/L predicted incident CAD events. CONCLUSIONS In patients with type 1 diabetes, the predictive ability of the lipid variables differed substantially depending on the patient’s sex, renal status, and glycemic control. In normoalbuminuric patients, the ratios of atherogenic and antiatherogenic lipoproteins and lipids were the strongest predictors of an incident CAD event, whereas in macroalbuminuric patients, no added benefit was gained from the ratios. Current treatment recommendations may need to be revised to capture residual CAD risk in patients with type 1 diabetes. |
21837321 | s2ag/train | v2 | 2018-04-03T01:33:56.859Z | 1981-03-01T00:00:00.000Z | Analysis of particles produced at the end of mastication in subjects with normal dentition.
A study was made to establish a norm for the frequency distribution of the size of particles produced by masticating a certain food item to its swallowable composition by normal dentate subjects. Only about 80% of the initial weight of food taken into the mouth could be recovered after mastication for particle size analysis. The particles ranged from 53 micrometers to 4750 micrometers, showing a positively skewed distribution with a mode value between 600 micrometers and 1200 micrometers. |
16758471 | s2ag/train | v2 | 2014-10-01T00:00:00.000Z | 2010-01-01T00:00:00.000Z | Beryllium isotopes studied in Fermionic Molecular Dynamics
Fermionic Molecular Dynamics (FMD) [1] is a microscopic many-body approach using Gaussian wave packets localized in phase-space as single-particle basis stat es. Slater determinants projected on parity, angular and total linear momentum are used as many-body basis states. The FMD basis is very flexible and contains harmonic oscillator shell model and Brink-type cluster wave functions as special cases. The widths of the wave packets are also variational parameters which is useful for the description of halo nuclei with extended single-particle wave functions. An effective interaction derived from the realistic Argonn e V18 interaction by explicitly including short-range centr al and tensor correlations in the Unitary Correlation Operato r Method is used. A phenomenological two-body correction term is added which is fitted to binding energies and radii of closed-shell nuclei. In recent years it has become possible to measure the isotope shifts of short-lived nuclei. With that precise and model independent measurements of the charge radii are possible. As shown in Fig. 1 the Beryllium isotopes BeBe measured by Nörtershäuser et al [2, 3] show an interesting behavior. Starting from a very large radius for Be the charge radius decreases going to Be andBe and increases again when going to Be. These pronounced changes in the charge radii are related to changes in the structure of these nuclei. Important are here clustering ef fects due to low cluster thresholds in Be andBe and the halo nature ofBe. In a simple Hartree-Fock FMD calculation (HF) the charge radii come out to small. This is explained by intrin- |
122313221 | s2ag/train | v2 | 2019-04-19T13:12:37.862Z | 2014-03-27T00:00:00.000Z | Tuning the surface plasmon resonance and surface-enhanced Raman scattering of pulsed laser deposited silver nanoparticle films by ambience and deposition temperature
Silver nanoparticle (AgNP) thin films were deposited by pulsed laser deposition onto glass substrates, at different fixed temperatures, under inert gas ambience and vacuum. Their morphology, surface plasmon resonance (SPR) and surface-enhanced Raman scattering (SERS) activities were investigated. AFM analysis of the films showed the formation of densely packed nanoparticles of varying size and shape by changing the ambience and deposition temperature (Ts). A SPR peak is not evidently observed in the spectrum of films deposited at room temperature, in either high vacuum or neon ambience. The SPR frequency blue shifts from 569 to 470 nm and from 581 to 574 nm with increasing Ts for the films processed in high vacuum and in neon ambience, respectively, while the absorption band becomes narrower with increasing Ts. The SERS intensity of Rhodamine B (RhB) adsorbed on a AgNP substrate grown at 600 °C in neon ambience exhibits a higher intensity compared with that of RhB adsorbed on the SERS active substrates at other values of Ts. Good correlation has been observed between the SPR and SERS activities and the morphology of the NPs. |
145721 | s2ag/train | v2 | 2018-04-03T03:03:59.223Z | 1998-07-01T00:00:00.000Z | Posttraumatic stress disorder following an air disaster: a prospective study.
OBJECTIVE
The purpose of this study was to determine predictors of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) in health care workers exposed to a disaster, in order to facilitate early case identification and prevention of subsequent morbidity.
METHOD
Following an air disaster, 355 military medical health care workers were studied over an 18-month follow-up period. Measures included assessment of peritraumatic reactions associated with the disaster, the frequency of other stressful events after the disaster, and standard PTSD rating scales at 6, 12, and 18 months.
RESULTS
Multivariate logistic regression of data on health care workers who cared for victims of the air disaster showed that PTSD was more likely to develop in those who had not completed college, those who had worked with burn victims, those who had experienced more stressful life events in a period of approximately 6 months following the disaster, and those who experienced emotional numbness immediately after the disaster.
CONCLUSIONS
Results suggest that lower levels of education, exposure to grotesque burn injuries, stressful life events following exposure, and feelings of numbness following exposure are useful predictors of subsequent development of PTSD. |
7553021 | s2ag/train | v2 | 2018-04-03T03:37:00.582Z | 1988-03-01T00:00:00.000Z | [Mechanism of production of pulse deficit in atrial fibrillation: assessment by blood flow dynamics].
Pulse deficit in patients with atrial fibrillation is caused by the reduction of preload. The purpose of this study was to visualize the mechanism in view of blood flow dynamics using pulsed Doppler echocardiography. The subjects were 15 cases with atrial fibrillation and pulse deficit, and the results were as follows: 1. Simultaneous recordings of the carotid pulse wave (CPW) and blood flow at the left ventricular inflow tract indicated that, in nine of the total 15 cases, CPW disappeared from the cardiac cycle even with sufficient preceding RF in the other six cases (Group B). 2. In Group A, %RF correlated well with %CPW; however, there was poor correlation between them in Group B. Moreover, CPW was always greater than 26% if RF was greater than 50% of each mean value in Group A, but less than 25% in Group B, suggesting poor left ventricular ejection in the latter group. 3. The left ventricular ejection fraction (EF) and %fractional shortening (%FS) decreased significantly in Group B compared to those in Group A (EF; 59 +- 7 vs 41 +- 12%, p less than 0.01, %FS; 31 +- 5 vs 20 +- 6, p less than 0.01). These findings indicate that left ventricular contractility was significantly reduced in the cases with pulse deficit in Group B. 4. Systolic backward flow in the mid-ventricle caused by left ventricular asynchrony due to localized apical wall motion abnormalities was observed in all 15 cases. The heart rate during pulsed Doppler echocardiography was significantly increased in Group A as compared to that in Group B.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS) |
120140121 | s2ag/train | v2 | 2019-04-18T13:12:17.542Z | 2002-11-01T00:00:00.000Z | Tip Effects of Piezoelectric-Mode Atomic Force Microscope for Local Piezoelectric Measurements of an SrBi2Ta2O9 Thin Film
Piezoelectric-mode atomic force microscope was utilized to characterize a polycrystalline SrBi2Ta2O9 thin film. It was found that a hysteresis loop can be obtained using a stiff tip with force constant of 48 N/m. On the other hand, the detected signal using a soft conducting tip with force constant of 3 N/m increases linearly with the increase of the applied dc electric field. In order to identify the types of the measured signals, we simulated a case, in which an ideal piezoelectric hysteresis loop is overlapped by a linear electrostatic signal. It was found that the coercive voltage of the electrostatic-force-coupled hysteresis loops decreases with the increase of the electrostatic signal. Furthermore, the electrostatic-force-coupled piezoresponse can not reach a saturated value. This suggests that the signal measured using the soft tip is an electrostatic predominant signal, while the signal detected using the stiff tip is a piezoelectric predominant response. |
201741171 | s2ag/train | v2 | 2019-08-27T13:06:36.761Z | 2019-06-01T00:00:00.000Z | Clustering-based Discrimination of multiple Partial Discharge Sources: A Case Study
We develop a numerical method i) to pick impulsive electro-magnetic (EM) signals in densely sampled recordings in the very/ultra high frequency band and ii) to identify groups of signals sharing similar waveforms. We associate each group to a process, which we characterize by a set of statistically based single- and multi-sensor features. The pattern of features depicted for each process gives insights into number and nature of Partial Discharge (PD) sources as well as into interferences acting in the monitored area. Moreover, a coarse grained pulse localization technique helps to further constrain the sources. We apply the procedure to signals acquired in a 220kV outdoor power substation. First results indicate that our approach can distinguish different sources of the EM wavefield and identify the radiation emitted from multiple PD sources. |
4864271 | s2ag/train | v2 | 2018-04-03T04:05:58.327Z | 2017-01-18T00:00:00.000Z | Photophysical Behavior of Isocyanine/Clay Hybrids in the Solid State †.
In the present study, we have attempted to investigate, for the first time, the photophysical behavior of 1,1'-diethyl-2,4'-cyanine (ICY)/clay mineral hybrids in the solid state. The effects promoted by ICY loading and clay type on the spectroscopic properties were studied by UV-vis diffuse reflectance spectroscopy (DR) and different fluorescence techniques. The hybrids were characterized by X-ray diffraction (XRD) and thermogravimetric analysis (TGA). UV-vis-DR revealed the formation of ICY H-aggregates in Wyoming montmorillonite (SWy-1) and Laponite (Lap); however, J-aggregates were predominant for ICY on Arizona (SAz-1) and Barasym (SYn-1) montmorillonites. The formation of J-aggregates was favored on clays with a high layer charge density (SAz-1 and SYn-1). Increasing ICY loading leads to an increase in H-aggregates, which become predominant in all of the samples. The fluorescence spectra of ICY-Lap and ICY-SYn-1 hybrids showed two emissive bands, and they were assigned to the monomeric and J-aggregate species. The fluorescence lifetime showed consistent and distinct values for the two species. The longer fluorescence lifetime can be assigned to the ICY monomers, while the second component has a short lifetime value and may be attributed to J-aggregate emission species. Moreover, confocal fluorescence micrographs showed two different fluorescent domains; monomers (greenish domain) and J-aggregates (orange domain) can be clearly distinguished. For ICY adsorbed on SWy-1 and SAz-1, the intensities of the fluorescence spectra were very low, and it was not possible to measure the fluorescence lifetimes due to high iron content in these clays, which acts as an efficient quencher of the excited singlet state of the dye molecules. XRD and TGA curves showed that the intercalation of ICY into the interlayer regions of SWy-1, SAz-1, and SYn-1 occurred for high dye concentration only. In the case of Laponite, ICY adsorbs on the external surface of the layer. Our studies indicate that the ICY-clays, in particular, ICY-SYn-1 and ICY-Lap, are promising hybrid materials with interesting optical and photophysical properties. |
250357521 | s2ag/train | v2 | 2022-07-09T06:17:26.205Z | 2022-06-06T00:00:00.000Z | Review of chaotic mapping enabled nature-inspired algorithms.
Chaotic maps were frequently introduced to generate random numbers and used to replace the pseudo-random numbers distributed in Gauss distribution in computer engineering. These improvements in optimization were called the chaotic improved optimization algorithm, most of them were reported better in literature. In this paper, we collected 19 classical maps which could all generate pseudo-random numbers in an interval between 0 and 1. Four types of chaotic improvement to original optimization algorithms were summarized and simulation experiments were carried out. The classical grey wolf optimization (GWO) and sine cosine (SC) algorithms were involved in these experiments. The final simulation results confirmed an uncertainty about the performance of improvements applied in different algorithms, different types of improvements, or benchmark functions. However, Results confirmed that Bernoulli map might be a better choice for most time. The code related to this paper is shared with https://gitee.com/lvqing323/chaotic-mapping. |
235281571 | s2ag/train | v2 | 2021-06-03T00:50:20.306Z | 2021-01-01T00:00:00.000Z | Peer review declaration
All papers published in this volume of Journal of Physics: Conference Series have been peer reviewed through processes administered by the Editors. Reviews were conducted by expert referees to the professional and scientific standards expected of a proceedings journal published by IOP Publishing. • Type of peer review: Double-blind • Conference submission management system: CMT • Number of submissions received: 42 • Number of submissions sent for review: 38 • Number of submissions accepted: 19 • Acceptance Rate (Number of Submissions Accepted / Number of Submissions Received X 100): 58% • Average number of reviews per paper: 2 • Total number of reviewers involved: 19 • Any additional info on review process: One paper was peer-reviewed by 2 reviewers. If the paper needs revising, it should be resubmitted for peer review again. Manuscript requirements: 1. Manuscripts must be written in English; 2. The manuscript should be written in accordance with the standard of template; 3. The topics of paper should be relevant to conference topics; 4. Plagiarism and duplicate submission are prohibited; 5. Innovation and scientific value is a must. • Contact person for queries: Lyn Lee ( [email protected]) |
42686721 | s2ag/train | v2 | 2018-04-03T05:23:35.089Z | 2004-06-01T00:00:00.000Z | Organizational Lifecycle in a School of Nursing
This article is a historical case study of the organizational lifecycle of the DePauw University School of Nursing in Greencastle, Indiana. Few studies have examined schools of nursing over their entire lifecycles. The school was created in 1954, existed for 40 years, and closed in 1994. Organizational lifecycle theory posits that organizations undergo four stages: creation, transformation, decline, and closing or death. We used this theory to guide our study, which was based on data from interviews, archival documents, and institutional records. We found that factors associated with the creation of this organization had long-lasting effects, the external environment profoundly influenced the school, and that a shift in shared values and institutional linkages contributed to its closure. As society’s need and demand for nurses increases, the continuance of schools of nursing and reasons for their demise merits the attention of faculty and administrators. |
232414271 | s2ag/train | v2 | 2021-03-30T13:24:12.647Z | 2021-01-01T00:00:00.000Z | Patient Pathways for Comprehensive Care Networks - A Development Method and Lessons from its Application in Oncology Care
Patient pathways are recognized as a valuable tool to support standardization, comparability, quality, and transparency of care processes in comprehensive care networks. Still, existing development approaches lack real practical guidance as well as an integration of the network and patient perspectives. Therefore, a usercentered and requirements-based approach was chosen to design a patient pathway development method. It defines a role model and procedural steps. The method’s innovative character lies in the development of generic patient pathway templates to be adapted to national, regional, and local conditions of specific comprehensive care networks. The method was positively assessed in terms of demonstrating its applicability and the fulfilment of user requirements with a use case from oncology care – the development of a colorectal cancer patient pathway template. This work drives the standardization of patient pathway development and their large-scale implementation in comprehensive care networks, supporting the analysis, design, and optimization of healthcare processes. |
42152871 | s2ag/train | v2 | 2018-04-03T05:14:17.785Z | 1999-02-01T00:00:00.000Z | Lung Abscess Caused by Paecilomyces lilacinus
We report the case of a 57-year-old man who was referred to our department for further investigation of an abnormal chest shadow. Radiography on admission demonstrated a coin lesion in the right hilum. To make a final diagnosis, right middle lobectomy was performed and the mass was revealed to be a fungal abscess. Further examination confirmed that the fungus was Paecilomyces lilacinus. This is the first reported case of lung abscess caused by P. lilacinus in an otherwise healthy person. |
153270221 | s2ag/train | v2 | 2018-12-18T11:55:54.113Z | 2008-02-06T00:00:00.000Z | Energy Charter Treaty's Investor Protection Provisions: Potential to Foster Solutions to Global Warming and Promote Sustainable Development
The Energy Charter Treaty (ECT) is the only multi-lateral treaty that deals specifically with the energy sector. It must be carefully reviewed to see if it can play a role in addressing climate change. The importance of international investment in the energy sector in the developing countries has been a theme of the discussions on climate change for many years. The developing countries are rapidly becoming major sources of GHG emissions with China surpassing the United States in emissions in 2007. There is a consensus that enormous investments in the developing countries will be required to foster the development of clean sustainable energy to arrest the increase in GHG emissions and avoid the worst case climate change scenarios. The Kyoto Protocol which set binding GHG limits for the industrialized countries for the 2008-2012 period does not set binding emission reduction targets for the developing countries. The developing countries, most recently at the UN conference in Bali in December of 2007, have steadfastly refused to be bound by GHG emissions caps and have instead remained committed to the principle of common but differentiated responsibilities as defined in the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change. It behooves the developing countries to combat climate change by fostering foreign investment to mitigate GHG emissions in their countries. Consideration should be given to whether the developing countries should be urged to accede to the ECT, in its current or modified form, and whether such accession would contribute significantly to the attractiveness of investment in the developing countries and serve to reduce the cost of such investments making more investment possible. |
226853671 | s2ag/train | v2 | 2020-11-14T14:07:04.020Z | 2020-11-13T00:00:00.000Z | Letter to the Editor: Examining HBV‐RNA Kinetics During NA Treatment—Are NAs Multifunctional Antiviral Agents?
Carey et al1 recently proposed that HBV pregenomic RNA (pgRNA) is a sensitive indicator of covalently closed circular DNA (cccDNA) transcription status in patients receiving nucleos(t)ide analogue therapy (NA) for hepatitis B. pgRNA is transcribed from the cccDNA minichromosome and therefore reflects a product of cccDNA transcriptional activity and its prevalence within HBV-infected cells. They observed that some patients reached pgRNA negativity 12 months of NA, suggesting a surprisingly rapid decline in transcriptional activity/prevalence of cccDNA. |