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4,509,100 | SINCERITY, HYPOCRISY, AND CONSPIRACY THEORY IN THE OCCUPIED PALESTINIAN TERRITORY Abstract Concerns about lying and sincerity in politics are common in most societies, as are concerns about conspiracy theories. But in the occupied Palestinian territory, these concerns give rise to particular kinds of effects because of the conditions of Israeli occupation. Political theorists often interpret opacity claims and conspiracy theories as responses to social disorder. In occupied Palestine, disorder and instability are standard. Opacity claims and conspiracy theories therefore require a different kind of analysis. Through an examination of the semiotic ideology of sincerity, especially as it has emerged in the conflict between Fatah and Hamas, this article argues that opacity claims act as a form of nationalist pedagogy, at once reinforcing the basic principles of sincerity of action and word, and encouraging a wariness of political spin. | 148491601 |
4,509,101 | Attachment and dysthymia: The contributions of preoccupied attachment and agency of self to depression in women The present research evaluated a conceptual model that links preoccupied attachment to dysthymic disorder in women. From an original community sample of 420 women, 129 women were identified with depressive symptomatology as assessed by the Centre for Epidemiological Studies Depression scale (CES-D). Twenty-four of these 129 women were diagnosed as dysthymic disordered according to the Structured Clinical Interview for DSM-III-R-non-patient edition (SCID-NP). Attachment patterns were assessed using the Adult Attachment Projective (AAP). The results indicate that preoccupied attachment was associated with dysthymia. Discussion concerns the processes that may underlie the association between preoccupied attachment and depression, with attention to the possibly complicating factor of unresolved mourning. | 16548201 |
4,509,102 | [Oxygen therapy in exercise-induced hypoxemia improves physical capacity and reduces dyspnea in patients with COPD]. Many chronic obstructive pulmonary disease patients suffer from dyspnoea and reduced physical abilities. Some of the patients exhibit desaturation during physical exercise. Few studies have examined if oxygen therapy during physical exercise can relieve symptoms and improve outcomes of pulmonary rehabilitation. These studies show that oxygen therapy during exercise results in significant improvement in exercise capacity. Yet it is not possible to draw a clear conclusion regarding the effects of more prolonged (weeks) treatment. The studies are in general small and of poor methodological quality. | 29043301 |
4,509,103 | The integration of silica and polymer waveguide devices for ROADM applications We report on our efforts to integrate silica and polymer waveguide devices, such as arrayed waveguide gratings (AWG's), tunable lenses, optical switches, variable optical attenuators (VOA's), power taps. In particular, the realizations of various optical add/drop multiplexers and tunable dispersion compensators are discussed. The integration techniques, the design architectures and the corresponding optical performances are presented. | 122840601 |
4,509,104 | Lessons from a search for leaf mutants in Arabidopsis thaliana. Large-scale exploratory approaches to understanding gene function laid the foundations for the -omics era. Based on modern technologies for the structural and functional characterization of genomes, these curiosity-driven approaches allow systematic accumulation of vast amounts of data, enabling subsequent hypothesis-driven research. Some years before the dawn of genomics, exploratory approaches were already furthering our understanding of gene function in the form of saturation mutagenesis experiments aimed at the identification of all genes that mutate to a given phenotype. Forward genetic approaches, conducted on experimental organisms such as Drosophila melanogaster and Caenorhabditis elegans, have led to the isolation of mutants affected in specific developmental processes, whose cellular and molecular characterization has unraveled the underlying genetic mechanisms of animal development. To shed light on the making of plant leaves, in 1993 we initiated an attempt to identify as many viable and fertile mutants with abnormal leaf morphology as possible, using the Arabidopsis thaliana model organism. We identified 25 fast-neutron- and 153 ethyl-methane sulfonate-induced mutations, which fell into eight and 94 complementation groups, respectively. We also studied 115 publicly available mutant lines isolated by previous authors, which fell into 37 complementation groups. Although we did not reach saturation of the Arabidopsis thaliana genome, the broad spectrum of leaf morphological alterations identified is facilitating the dissection of specific leaf developmental processes. In a complementary approach, we also analyzed leaf architecture in natural accessions and two populations of recombinant inbred lines. Using a high-throughput gene mapping method, we have already cloned | 7106551 |
4,509,105 | 25 of the genes identified by mutation, in some cases in collaboration with other groups. The products of these genes participate in various developmental processes, such as polar cell expansion, transduction of hormonal signals, gene regulation, plastid biogenesis, and chromatin remodeling, among others. The range of phenotypes and processes identified reveal the complexity of leaf ontogeny and will help explain the diversity of leaf morphology in nature. | 7106551 |
4,509,106 | Performance-based shape optimization of continuum structures This paper presents a performance-based optimization (PBO) method for optimal shape design of continuum structures with stiffness constraints. Performance-based design concepts are incorporated in the shape optimization theory to achieve optimal designs. In the PBO method, the traditional shape optimization problem of minimizing the weight of a continuum structure with displacement or mean compliance constraints is transformed to the problem of maximizing the performance of the structure. The optimal shape of a continuum structure is obtained by gradually eliminating inefficient finite elements from the structure until its performance is maximized. Performance indices are employed to monitor the performance of optimized shapes in an optimization process. Performance-based optimality criteria are incorporated in the PBO method to identify the optimum from the optimization process. The PBO method is used to produce optimal shapes of plane stress continuum structures and plates in bending. Benchmark numerical results are provided to demonstrate the effectiveness of the PBO method for generating the maximum stiffness shape design of continuum structures. It is shown that the PBO method developed overcomes the limitations of traditional shape optimization methods in optimal design of continuum structures. Performance-based optimality criteria presented can be incorporated in any shape and topology optimization methods to obtain optimal designs of continuum structures. | 111049401 |
4,509,107 | Development of acoustic sniper localization methods and models A novel examination of a method capable of providing situational awareness of sniper fire from small arms fire is presented. Situational Awareness (SA) information is extracted by exploiting two distinct sounds created by small arms discharge: the muzzle blast (created when the bullet leaves the barrel of the gun) and the shockwave (sound created by a supersonic bullet). The direction of arrival associated with the muzzle blast will always point in the direction of the shooter. Range can be estimated from the muzzle blast alone, however at greater distances geometric dilution of precision will make obtaining accurate range estimates difficult. To address this issue, additional information obtained from the shockwave is utilized in order to estimate range to shooter. The focus of the paper is the development of a shockwave propagation model, the development of ballistics models (based off empirical measurements), and the subsequent application towards methods of determining shooter position. Knowledge of the rounds ballistics is required to estimate range to shooter. Many existing methods rely on extracting information from the shockwave in an attempt to identify the round type and thus the ballistic model to use ([1]). It has been our experience that this information becomes unreliable at greater distances or in high noise environments. Our method differs from existing solutions in that classification of the round type is not required, thus making the proposed solution more robust. Additionally, we demonstrate that sufficient accuracy can be achieved without the need to classify the round. | 119546451 |
4,509,108 | Interrelationship among testicular cells in wall lizard Hemidactylus flaviviridis (Rüppell): an ultrastructural seasonal and experimental study. The present study was aimed at investigating ultrastructure of different testicular cells and their interactions through various junctional specializations during different phases of reproductive cycle in wall lizard H. flaviviridis to develop an integrated approach of cell-cell interaction in control of testicular functions. Specialized steroid synthesizing cell organelles such as smooth endoplasmic reticulum (SER) and long slender mitochondria with tubulo-vesicular cristae were predominantly seen in Leydig as well as Sertoli cells during spermatogenically active phase, suggesting their active involvement in steroid biosynthesis. Peritubular cells also exhibited marked seasonal variations. Multi-layered fibroblast-like peritubular cells during regressed phase became single layered myoid-like during spermatogenically active phase. The presence of various types of junctions, including gap and tight junctions (occluding junctions) and adhering junctions such as desmosomes, septate-like junction, ectoplasmic specializations and tubulo-bulbar complexes, were demonstrated among testicular cells in wall lizard H. flaviviridis. However, the nature and degree of junctional (environmental) interaction varied with the reproductive state of the wall lizard. Further, administration of dihydrotestosterone in wall lizards during regressed phase resulted in increase of lipid droplets in Leydig cells and accumulation of germ cell debris in seminiferous tubules. Some of the Sertoli cells were seen darker in response to testosterone treatment probably due to its inhibitory effect on lipid metabolism. These results suggest that testosterone either directly or via inhibiting pituitary basal gonadotropin secretion has suppressive effect on testicular cells. | 13515501 |
4,509,109 | Utilizing atomic number contrast for FESEM imaging of colloidal nanotopography underlying biological cells Developments within the electronics industry have led to the fabrication of surfaces with in-plane nanofeatures for use in biological investigations. An inexpensive, high throughput and accessible method has evolved, where a natural lithography technique utilizes off-the-shelf colloidal particles within the nanometric range to produce a variety of patterned substrates. Imaging of cell interactions with respect to underlying nanotopography (sub-100 nm) requires high resolution microscopy techniques. When utilizing field emission scanning electron microscopy (FESEM), operation is restricted to low voltage conditions in an attempt to image fine surface detail while limiting radiation damage, charging and carbon deposition with respect to biological material. The maximum number of backscattered electrons (BSEs) produced from biological specimens is achieved using low accelerating voltages while the number of BSEs emitted from high atomic number materials increases over the accelerating voltage range of 2–16 keV. By increasing the emission current, the number of electrons present in the primary beam is elevated, increasing BSE production at the low voltages utilized. Through the careful selection of high atomic number materials composing the colloids or similar topographical features, secondary electron (SE) and BSE detection can be utilized as complementary imaging techniques. This allows for the surface morphology of cell membranes to be imaged by SE detection in relation to the underlying high contrast nanotopography where BSEs are collected. Furthermore, cytoskeletal features of varying density can also be identified in relation to cells and colloidal nanofeatures when detecting BSEs. | 136844951 |
4,509,110 | Out of the closet: revolution and backlash. The growing conflict concerning the status of gay men and lesbians in the armed forces has become a focal point in the long, slow struggle toward equal rights for this stigmatized and oppressed segment of American society. The issue is a metaphor for the position long occupied by gay men and lesbians. Although it is well known that thousands of homosexuals serve in the armed forces, as long as they hide their sexual orientation, as long as they neither name it nor claim it, everyone can pretend they are not there, that they don't exist. It appears that it is not being gay or lesbian that brings wrath down on service personnel, but voicing it. Colin Powell, who has led the fight against President Clinton's commitment to eliminate discrimination against gays in the armed forces, claims that the president's position is very different than that of Truman when he ended the policy of racial segregation in the armed forces 45 years ago. In this situation, Powell argues, it is a question of behavior (Schmitt, 1993). The military's right to have an on-duty behavioral code for all service personnel, however, is not being challenged. The issue is not behavior, it is disclosure; it is the threat and the challenge posed when people come out of the closet. There is no better way to subjugate human beings than to silence them. There is nothing more oppressive than denying another's reality. Until the Stonewall demonstration and the birth of the gay liberation | 692851 |
4,509,111 | movement, lesbians and gay men survived through secrecy--and most still do. The cost was and continues to be great. As murdered gay sailor Allen Schindler poignantly wrote in his diary, "If you can't be yourself, then who are you?" ("Diary," 1993). Forced to be invisible, without rights or protections, gay men and lesbians have been personally and politically disempowered. In his book, Gays/Justice, Mohr (1988) explored the relationship between invisibility, powerlessness, and social change. He wrote, Only when the government protects gays against discrimination in housing, employment, and public accommodation will gays have first amendment rights as powers. For all potentially effective political strategies involve public actions. More specifically, all the actions protected by the first amendment are public actions (speaking, publishing, petitioning, assembling, associating). Now, a person who is a member of an invisible minority and who must remain invisible, hidden, and secreted in respect to her minority status...is effectively denied all political power.... Thus, for gays and lesbians to become politically active and to fight for their rights and protection, they must be safe enough to become visible; they are only safe to do so if those rights and protections are already in place--an immobilizing paradox. The same situation exists in the personal world. The closeted condition of gay men and lesbians blocks understanding. "Social reality is such that many people...think they do not know any gay people firsthand. Such widespread ignorance is a breeding ground for vicious stereotypes" (Mohr, 1988, p. 176). Such invisibility and powerlessness made it possible for Chief Justice Warren | 692851 |
4,509,112 | Burger to say, after the Supreme Court decision upholding the Georgia sodomy laws, that he had never personally known a gay person (Sedgwick, 1988, p. 44). The best way to change heterosexuals' views about gay men and lesbians is for them to interact personally with openly gay people. "Coming out," then, is an enormously powerful personal and political act. The courageous pioneers who came forward have taken great risks. But that was the message of Stonewall: Stand up, be counted, fight back. Every year, marches commemorating Stonewall give people an opportunity to stand up and be counted. As this goes to press, the planned April 25 march on Washington promises to be the largest demonstration to date of the increasing power of the gay rights movement. … | 692851 |
4,509,113 | A KL Divergence and DNN-Based Approach to Voice Conversion without Parallel Training Sentences We extend our recently proposed approach to cross-lingual TTS training to voice conversion, without using parallel training sentences. It employs Speaker Independent, Deep Neural Net (SIDNN) ASR to equalize the difference between source and target speakers and Kullback-Leibler Divergence (KLD) to convert spectral parameters probabilistically in the phonetic space via ASR senone posterior probabilities of the two speakers. With or without knowing the transcriptions of the target speaker’s training speech, the approach can be either supervised or unsupervised. In a supervised mode, where adequate training data of the target speaker with transcriptions is used to train a GMM-HMM TTS of the target speaker, each frame of the source speakers input data is mapped to the closest senone in thus trained TTS. The mapping is done via the posterior probabilities computed by SI-DNN ASR and the minimum KLD matching. In a unsupervised mode, all training data of the target speaker is first grouped into phonetic clusters where KLD is used as the sole distortion measure. Once the phonetic clusters are trained, each frame of the source speakers input is then mapped to the mean of the closest phonetic cluster. The final converted speech is generated with the max probability trajectory generation algorithm. Both objective and subjective evaluations show the proposed approach can achieve higher speaker similarity and better spectral distortions, when comparing with the baseline system based upon our sequential error minimization trained DNN algorithm. | 19621101 |
4,509,114 | Food Access and Fast Food Consumption Behaviour among Health Sciences Students at Uitm Puncak Alam Background: Fast foods are convenient to people who lives a busy lifestyle. Nevertheless, uncontrolled consumption of fast food can lead to obesity. About 84% of Malaysian students consume fast food and are often unable to meet recommended nutrient intake due to snacking habits and skipping meals. Objective: To identify food access and fast food consumption behaviour among Health Sciences students at UiTM Puncak Alam. Methods: This cross-sectional study was done among Health Sciences students at UiTM Puncak Alam. The questionnaire was adapted from ‘Fast Food Consumption and Obesity’. A total 267 from Year 2 and Year 3 was participated. The questionnaire consists of 27 questions including demographic data, food access and fast food consumption behaviour. Results: Majority of the students have problem in transportation for food access and consumed fast food many times per month. However, the study finding showed no relationship between transportation problem, fast food consumption behaviour and BMI. Conclusion: With the advance in technology food can be ordered online and can be delivered by the restaurant. Therefore, there was no relationship between transportation problem and fast food consumption behaviour. Future research should focus on effect of fast food consumption behaviour on students’ academic performance and health related quality of life. | 250104401 |
4,509,115 | Serum, like phorbol esters, rapidly activates protein kinase C in intact quiescent fibroblasts. Addition of serum to quiescent cultures of Swiss 3T3 cells and mouse embryo fibroblasts causes a rapid increase in the phosphorylation of an 80 000 mol. wt. cellular protein (termed 80 K). The effect is dose‐ and time‐dependent; enhancement in 80 K phosphorylation can be detected as early as 10‐15 s after adding serum. In contrast, platelet‐derived growth factor elicits the response after a lag of 1.5 min suggesting that this growth factor does not mediate the response to serum. Recently a rapid increase in the phosphorylation of an 80 K cellular protein following treatment with phorbol esters or diacylglycerol has been shown to reflect the activation of protein kinase C in intact fibroblasts. The 80 K phosphoproteins generated in response to serum and to phorbol dibutyrate (PBt2) co‐migrated in one‐ and two‐dimensional PAGE and produced identical phosphopeptide fragments when subjected to partial digestion with Staphyloccocus aureus V8 protease. These observations suggest that the same 80 K protein is generated in response to serum and PBt2. We conclude that activation of protein kinase C in intact cells is one of the earliest effects elicited by serum in quiescent fibroblasts. | 42012651 |
4,509,116 | Towards Physical Descriptors of Active and Selective Catalysts for the Oxidation of n‐Butane to Maleic Anhydride Based on our newly developed microwave cavity perturbation technique, the microwave conductivity of diverse vanadium(III), (IV), and (V) phosphate catalysts was measured under reaction conditions for the selective oxidation of n‐butane. The conductivity response on the gas phase was identified as a very sensitive measure for the redox kinetics, reversibility, and stability of the samples, which are important prerequisites for highly selective and active catalysts. The sensitivity achieved by our method was comparable to surface‐sensitive methods such as X‐ray photoelectron spectroscopy, whereas more conventional analytic techniques such as X‐ray diffractometry or Raman spectroscopy only indicated the stability of the bulk crystal phase under the same reaction conditions. | 97351151 |
4,509,117 | Carol Tulloch, The Birth of Cool: Style Narratives of the African Diaspora Carol Tulloch, The Birth of Cool: Style Narratives of the African Diaspora London and New York: Bloomsbury, 2016. Constantine Chatzipapatheodoridis Carol Tulloch’s The Birth of Cool: Style Narratives of the African Diaspora foregrounds a genealogy of black style and aesthetics across a diasporic context. Profoundly informed and well assembled, Tulloch’s project investigates individual and collective style narratives from the cross-temporal and transnational canvas of black culture, laying em... | 166174651 |
4,509,118 | Dense range image smoothing using adaptive regularization We propose an adaptive regularization algorithm for smoothing dense range images using a novel, first order stabilizing function. The stabilizer we suggest is based upon minimizing the reconstructed surface area and is derived in the native, spherical coordinate system of the range scanner. This allows adjustments to be made along only the direction of measurement, thereby preventing the data overlapping problem that can arise in dense images. Adaptation is achieved by adjusting the regularization parameter according to the results of 2D edge analysis. Results indicate effective noise suppression along with well preserved edges and details in the reconstructed, 3D surfaces. | 33625151 |
4,509,119 | Maximum Likelihood Restoration of Missing Samples in Sinusoidal Data A Maximum Likelihood Estimator (MLE) is used to predict missing samples of sinusoidal data. Using linear prediction, whose application is extended to the missing samples, simultaneously solve for the linear prediction coefficients (LPC) and the unknown samples via maximum likelihood. We compute the MLE by a generalization of the Iterative Quadratic Maximum Likelihood (IQML) algorithm where the prediction error is iteratively minimized over the LPC and the missing samples. A simple simulation example shows the higher accuracy of this method compared to an approach to estimate the LPC using only the available data samples to predict the missing samples. This problem has several applications in radar, digital communications and sonar signal processing for coping with interrupted signals. Related results have been recently obtained by, Li et al, [3]. | 29671851 |
4,509,120 | On-screen real-time cost estimating In the early phase of design the product detail is usually limited, offering general details such as overall size, basic shape and estimated volume. However, it is at this stage that a large proportion of the avoidable costs are typically created, normally between 50 and 70% of the final cost. Due to this the ability of designers to estimate product costs at this stage with more accuracy provides competitive advantage and can avoid some of these in-built costs. This paper describes a methodology of an on-line automated computer system for injection mouldings that enables more accurate cost estimating. The approach adopted enables designers to make informed choices during the design process, not only in terms of functionality, but cost implications in terms of design, materials and, in the case of injection mouldings, complexity. The proposed approach uses a CAD package, in this case IDEAS solid modeling, in which a special set of injection moulding features has been configured for product development. In the proposed approach the designer builds up the product stage by stage (sub-part by sub-part) and, at each addition to the design, parametrics are used to estimate costs using a small number of parameters derived from specific component features and other conceptual design data. This is the Injection Moulding Cost estimating Program. This process will be described in detail within this paper, illustrating the method of product build-up and how avoidable cost increases are identified easily during this process. The approach described provides a concurrent on-screen cost estimate as the | 111324601 |
4,509,121 | product is developed that has been validated to within 20% of the actual cost employing the processing parameters likely to be used. | 111324601 |
4,509,122 | Thermal lensing in Nd:GdVO4 laser with 912-nm diode pumping Thermal lensing effect in a Nd:GdVO4 laser system operating at 1063 nm with in-band pumping at 912 nm was studied. The thermal lensing strength was experimentally measured and the determined focal power was as strong as 9 m-1 at 11.3 W of output power. The sensitivity factor of the thermal lens was calculated to be as small as M = 0.503 m−1/W for the pump spot size radius of ~197 μm. The present work indicates that in-band pumping at 912 nm can offer further power scaling opportunities for the Nd:GdVO4 lasers due to the strongly reduced thermal lensing effect. | 139703901 |
4,509,123 | A Critical Location of the Contemporary Black Church This article explores attempts to transform Black forms of Christianity to assess their effectiveness in relationship to advancing African agency and cultural values. Utilizing an Afrocentric perspective that insists on discovering location in phenomenal and intellectual texts as a way of indicating distance from reality and history, this work intends to examine the relevance of the Word Church formation in the African American community. This article does not ask whether one form of religion is superior to another but rather how a certain form of spirituality is congruent to historical realities. Taking the term Colonial Christianity to mean the specific religion transmitted to enslaved and free Africans in the United States of America between the l7th and 20th centuries, this article engages the permutations of that religion in the minds of Africans in order to examine psychological dislocation. | 143774351 |
4,509,124 | BARK BEETLE RESPONSE TO AGGREGATION PHEROMONE 703 METHODS AND MATERIALS Substances and Release Rates -Six compounds previously identified from hindguts of unmated male Ips typographus (L.) during host colonization: 2-methyl-3-buten-2-ol (MB), cis-verbenol (cV), trans-verbenol (tV), myrtenol (Mt), trans-myrtanol (tM), and 2-phenylethanol (PE), were tested for their attractivity in the field with a subtractive method. The amounts of MB and cV released from a pipe trap were similar to those given off from the commercial bait Ipslure as well as that from a Norway spruce tree, Picea abies (L.) Karst., under mass attack. The blend of the compounds became nonattractive when either MB or cV was subtracted, while subtraction of any of the other four compounds bad no effect. Addition of ipsdienol (Id) to the blend did not significantly increase the attraction. In a second comparative test, the addition of three compounds as a group (tV + Mt + PE) to MB + cV again had no effect on the attraction, but the addition of Id increased the catch somewhat. Addition of host logs to a bait releasing MB + cV at a rate lower than in previous experiments did not influence the attraction to pipe traps. Sticky traps containing natural pheromone sources (50 males in a log), which released 1-5 rag/day of MB as determined by aerations with deuterated MB as internal standard, were less attractive than a synthetic source releasing similar amounts of MB. Key Words--2-Methyl-3-buten-2-ol, cis-verbenol, trans-verbenol, myrtenol, trans-myrtanol, 2-phenylethanol, ipsdienol, subtractive assay, Ips typographus, Coleoptera, Scolytidae, Picea abies, host volatiles. Coleoptera: Scolytidae. 2This | 8286551 |
4,509,125 | study was made within the Swedish project "Odour Signals for Control of Pest Insects." 701 0098-0331/87/0400-0701 $05.00/0 9 | 987 Plenum Publishing Corporation | 8286551 |
4,509,126 | A detailed approach to autonomous vehicle control through Ros and Pixhawk controllers A Polaris MRZR military utility vehicle was used as a testing platform to develop a novel, low cost yet feature-rich, approach to adding remote operation and autonomous driving capability to a military vehicle. The main concept of operation adapts steering and throttle output from a low cost commercially available Pixhawk autopilot controller and translates the signal into the necessary inputs for the Robot Operating System (ROS) based drive by wire system integrated into the MRZR. With minimal modification these enhancements could be applied to any vehicle with similar ROS integration. This paper details the methods and testing approach used to develop this autonomous driving capability. | 244748201 |
4,509,127 | A Rollout Policy for the Vehicle Routing Problem with Stochastic Demands The paper considers the single vehicle routing problem with stochastic demands. While most of the literature has studied the a priori solution approach, this work focuses on computing a reoptimization-type routing policy. This is obtained by sequentially improving a given a priori solution by means of a rollout algorithm. The resulting rollout policy appears to be the first computationally tractable algorithm for approximately solving the problem under the reoptimization approach. After describing the solution strategy and providing properties of the rollout policy, the policy behavior is analyzed by conducting a computational investigation. Depending on the quality of the initial solution, the rollout policy obtains 1% to 4% average improvements on the a priori approach with a reasonable computational effort. | 37738651 |
4,509,128 | [Proposal of Requirements Definition Method on Radiation Therapy Information System]. The troubles arising in the introduction of the medical information system are mostly related to the requirement definition. The present study proposed the requirements definition method on radiation therapy information system (RTIS) by using business modeling. The interview was conducted with six medical professionals regarding the entire business in the radiotherapy department. These businesses were modeled using Diamond Mandala Matrix (DMM) and data flow diagram (DFD) methods. Subsequently, functional requirements on RTIS were defined based on these modeling. As a result, 21 DMMs and 129 DFDs were created and 120 functional requirements were defined. By defining the functional requirements of the users, mutual understanding with vendors will deepen, and avoid an expected trouble in introducing RTIS. DMM was effective as an initial modeling such as the interviews and the organization of businesses. DFD was also effective for the business improvement and the definition of system functional requirements. | 52303151 |
4,509,129 | On the Design of Continuously Variable Transmissions with Bidirectional Bridge Structures for Hybrid Vehicles To increase the energy efficiency of road vehicles, an ideal transmission system should have a wide ratio coverage, a high torque capacity, and a high mechanical efficiency. Continuously variable units (CVUs) have been successfully implemented due to the smooth ratio variation, sufficient torque capacity, and ratio coverage. Hence, it will be beneficial to develop a hybrid powertrain comprising a CVU. In this paper, a design method called the “basic path diagram” (BPD) is proposed. It provides a simplified schematic of the system and represents the generic connections among the mechanical components. The system configurations synthesized by the BPD can be sorted according to three characteristics: Direction of power flows through the CVU, coupling pattern of the power inputs, and number of transmission paths parallel to the CVU. The first characteristic determines the number of times the CVU ratio coverage can be exploited, the second characteristic determines whether the torque of the power inputs can be independently controlled, and the third characteristic can help reduce the torque loading of the CVU. With the aid of a BPD, one of the possible system configurations is provided as an example. The result shows that the system can exploit twice the ratio coverage of the CVU and reduce the torque and power transmitted by the CVU in combination with planetary gearsets. | 233633001 |
4,509,130 | Gastrointestinal nutrition drainage tube The invention relates to a gastrointestinal nutrition drainage tube, which comprises a hollow tube body. The gastrointestinal nutrition drainage tube is characterized in that a seal provided with at least two lateral holes is fixed at one end of the tube body, a Y-shaped joint is fixed at the other end of the tube body and comprises a nutrition cavity and an injection cavity communicated with the same. The seal disposed at one end of the tube body effectively prevents foreign matters from entering a cavity of the tube body, so that blockage of the cavity of the tube body is avoided. The nutrition cavity and the injection cavity are respectively used for nutrition supply and drug administration for a patient. The seal is disposed on end of the tube body, and the nutrient cavity and the injection cavity are reserved at the other end of the tube body, so that liquid medicine or nutrient solution is guaranteed to smoothly enter a patient's body from the lateral holes while the foreign matters are also effectively prevented from entering the cavity of the tube body to block the cavity. The gastrointestinal nutrition drainage tube has the advantages that the structure is simple, operation is simple and convenient, practicality is high and surgical wounds are small, surgical time and postoperative relief period can be reduced, and surgical complications are reduced. | 140274201 |
4,509,131 | Who Cares? Fathers and the Time They Spend Looking After Children Changes in employment patterns and family structures may rede…ne what it means to be a father. Research in many countries con…rms that fathers spend less time with their children than mothers. A systematic comparison between countries, however, based on a common data source has until now not been possible. I analyse the time spent looking after children by fathers across the European Union, between the years 1994 - 2001, based on the European Community Household Panel Survey. Paternal time and gender inequalities in parental time vary substantially by country. The trend is for fathers to spend increasing amounts of paternal time. Certain socioeconomic characteristics such as level of education, having a working spouse, the number of children and being employed, are positively associated with paternal time. | 73992651 |
4,509,132 | Facial Papules in Fibrosing Alopecia in a Pattern Distribution (Cicatricial Pattern Hair Loss) Frontal fibrosing alopecia (FFA) and fibrosing alopecia in a pattern distribution (FAPD) represent clinically distinctive conditions characterized by pattern hair loss with evidence of follicular inflammation and fibrosis. Since Kossard's original description, the condition has been recognized to represent a rather generalized than localized process, with extension well beyond the frontotemporal hairline. More recently, peculiar facial papules have been reported in FFA representing facial vellus hair involvement. We report the case of a 42-year-old woman with FAPD associated with the same facial papules, supporting that both entities belong to the same spectrum of cicatricial pattern hair loss. | 75551 |
4,509,133 | Inhibition of cell proliferation by interferons. 1. Effects on cell division and DNA synthesis in human lymphoblastoid (Daudi) cells. Treatment of Daudi cells with human lymphoblastoid interferons for up to 5 days progressively inhibits cell proliferation. For the first 3 days cells continue to grow but with prolonged doubling times; subsequently, net proliferation ceases and is accompanied by a loss of cell viability. We have investigated the changes in labelling of DNA with radioactive precursors which occur during the first phase of the response to interferon treatment. We have shown previously [Gewert et al. (1981) Eur. J. Biochem. 116, 487-492] that inhibition of incorporation of [3H]thymidine into DNA can be accounted for by impairment of thymidine transport and thymidine kinase activity. In spite of this inhibition, the total intracellular dTTP pool is larger in interferon-treated than in control cells. Because of these changes it has been necessary to use other methods to determine whether interferon treatment inhibits the overall rate of DNA synthesis. The results of experiments employing (a) moderately high thymidine concentrations or (b) incorporation of radioactivity from deoxynucleoside triphosphates into DNA in detergent-lysed or permeabilised cell systems indicate that there is in fact relatively little inhibition of the overall rate of DNA synthesis in cells exposed to up to 100 units/ml of interferons for at least 48 h. Furthermore, a similar proportion of cells incorporate [3H]thymidine in control and interferon-treated cultures and there is only a small decrease in the number of cells in S phase after interferon treatment, as revealed by fluorescence-activated cell | 34019001 |
4,509,134 | sorting. These results indicate that cell proliferation may be regulated in this system by a mechanism in which there is a loss of coordination between the initiation of DNA synthesis and the subsequent events required for cell division. | 34019001 |
4,509,135 | An epidemiological survey of Cupressaceae pollenosis in Italy. Allergic reaction to Cupressaceae and Taxodiaceae pollens appears to be on the increase in the last years in Italy. An epidemiological survey on this pollenosis was conducted in 12 Italian centers. The diagnostic panel consisted of seven Cupressaceae and Taxodiaceae genus (Cupressus sempervirens, Cupressus arizonica, Cryptomeria japonica, Chamaecyparis obtusa, Thuja orientalis, Taxus baccata, and Juniperus oxycedrus). A total of 3057 pollen-sensitized outpatients were examined. The study took place from November 1999 to March 2000. At the same time pollen counts were carried out. The prevalence of positive skin tests to the diagnostic panel is different in northern (9.2%), central (28.2%), and southern (20.1%) Italy, the general average being 18.4%. The average age of sensitized patients was 36.99. Monosensitized patients represent only 14.7% of total Cupressaceae-sensitized patients, their average age being higher than the polysensitized ones (43.3 versus 35.86). Distribution of symptoms is as follows: rhinitis (49%), conjunctivitis (32%), asthma (16%), and dermatitis (3%). Months with the highest levels of symptoms are February and March. The more frequent allergens at prick tests are Cupressus sempervirens (90%) and Cupressus arizonica (88.9%). The more reactive allergens are the Cupressus arizonica and Juniperus oxycedrus. The clinical data suggest that, in Italy at least, this pollenosis is on the increase. The use of more than one extract of Cupressaceae and Taxodiaceae genus increases the diagnostic sensitivity of the disease. | 28823401 |
4,509,136 | PD06-11 REVISITING ADHERENCE TO THE AUA PUBLICATION GUIDELINES FOR SUI LITERATURE 63%). There was an increase usage of QoL questionaries' for post-operative evaluation (85% pre vs. 94% post) and increase usage of post- operative physical exam (67% pre vs 78% post). CONCLUSIONS: to reporting the proposed mum set for literature regarding female SUI surgical outcomes The lack of compliance may suggest a role for a more stringent editorial review process or alternatively that these fi ned data points are overly burdensome or not relevant. | 248033501 |
4,509,137 | Multi-core system performance prediction and analysis at the ESL Multi-core system and the associated software parallelisation techniques have become one of the major trends of SoC design. For higher system performance and lower power consumption, this paper reveals a system performance prediction and analysis method for multi-core system by adopting electronic system-level ESL design methodology. With the high simulation speed and approximate time characteristic, the ESL virtual platform can be done at early design stage before implementation on the real chip. Based on the scalable multi-core virtual platform, we can perform one to eight-core system performance trend prediction as well as multi-core system performance analysis. The software parallelisation experiments are conducted for observing the performance improvement and further discussed about hardware-software co-design and the hardware cost reduction benefited from increasing software parallelism. | 8567301 |
4,509,138 | Analysis of beta1 and beta2-adrenergic receptors polymorphism in patients with apical ballooning cardiomyopathy. OBJECTIVE The aim of our study was to analyse the frequency of beta1 and/or beta2 adrenergic receptor polymorphisms in patients with takotsubo cardiomyopathy (TTC). METHODS AND RESULTS beta1 and/or beta2 adrenergic receptor polymorphisms in 61 patients with TTC were compared with 109 controls. The beta1 adrenoreceptor (amino acid position 389) genotype frequencies were significantly different in the two groups; assuming a recessive model for the allelic variant coding for Arg on this position, the odds ratio was 3.14, 95% Cl 1.55-6.37 (P = 0.0015). The beta2 adrenoreceptor amino acid position 27 genotype was significantly different and assuming a recessive model for the allelic variant coding for Gln on this position, the odds ratio was 0.29, 95% Cl 0.12-0.74 (P = 0.009). CONCLUSIONS This study showed for the first time an association between TTC phenotype and beta1 adrenoreceptor gene polymorphisms. Beta adrenoreceptors gene polymorphisms are probably disease modifiers, and any risk estimate should be based on a combination of genotypes and on interactions with other genes and environmental features. | 46173451 |
4,509,139 | Selection of Appropriate Maintenance Strategy for Medical Equipment Clinical engineering departments in hospitals are responsible for establishing and regulating a Medical Equipment Management Program to ensure that medical equipment are safe and reliable. This paper describes an application of the Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) for selecting the appropriate maintenance strategy for radiology medical equipment as maintenance plays a key role in reliability, availability, increasing efficiency, and equipment safety. Three most common strategies are considered: corrective, time-based and condition-based maintenance. | 61808851 |
4,509,140 | The immobility of CO(2) in marine sediments beneath 1500 meters of water. Injecting liquid CO(2) into deep-sea sediments below ca. 3 km of seawater has been suggested for the permanent storage of anthropogenic CO(2). At the pressures and temperature found below 3 km of seawater, CO(2) becomes denser than seawater and so is likely to remain permanently sequestered in the sediment. Deepwater engineering, however, is expensive and seawater depths of greater than 3 km are often only reached far from shore. Here, we consider the less expensive alternative of injecting CO(2) into marine sediments at depths shallower than required for denser-than-seawater CO(2) storage. We compare the mobility of liquid CO(2) that has been injected into deep-sea reservoirs with the mobility of supercritical CO(2) that has been injected into geologically equivalent (i.e., identical porosity, permeability, and effective stress) reservoirs with terrestrial pressure and temperature conditions. We demonstrate that buoyant liquid CO(2) with a density of about 90 % that of seawater is sufficiently immobile that it can be considered trapped by gravity and capillarity. In contrast, supercritical CO(2) under typical terrestrial conditions is highly mobile and only trapped by the appropriate confining layer in either a structural or stratigraphic trap. As a result of its very high mobility under terrestrial conditions, CO(2) injected in an unconfined formation would spread beneath the confining layer to produce a large flat cylindrical-shaped plume of pure-phase CO(2). In contrast, the less mobile CO(2) in a typical deep-sea reservoir produces a spherical-shaped plume, resulting in a pure-phase-CO(2) footprint that is much smaller | 17730501 |
4,509,141 | than the pure-phase-CO(2) footprint formed in the confined-terrestrial reservoir. | 17730501 |
4,509,142 | Introducing patient safety to undergraduate medical students – A pilot program delivered by health care administrators Background: Identifying informed and interested staff to teach patient safety can be difficult. We report our experiences with a lecture-based program on patient safety delivered by health care administrators. Method: A self-administered questionnaire survey on patient safety culture was given to 130 third-year medical students before (‘pre-test’) and at 3 months after (‘post-test’) the program. The latter consisted of two 60-minute whole-class lectures using contemporary medical incidents in this locality as illustrative cases. Results: Thirteen of the 23 questionnaire items (56.5%) showed statistically significant changes at the post-test. Students became more appreciative of the notions that errors were inevitable, and that disciplinary actions and ‘being more careful’ may not be the most effective strategies for the prevention of error. Issues concerning error reporting were more resistant to our educational intervention. Students regarded patient safety as an important topic that should be included in undergraduate teaching and professional examinations. Conclusion: The implementation of a patient safety curriculum should be tailored to an institution's needs, limitations, and culture. Health care administrators were found to be effective faculties. A brief lecture-based program could be integrated readily into an existing curriculum, and was found to produce at least short-term, positive changes. | 3158751 |
4,509,143 | Mouthing and fingering supports vocal behaviors development ABSTRACT The current study explored the link between mouthing and fingering and vocal behaviours directed to objects and caregivers. Nine infants were tracked from the ages of 8–16 months by video recording their mouthing and fingering vignettes and vocal behaviours and vocal behaviours resulting in a total of 2,061 coded behaviours. Microanalysis revealed that the infants tended to accompany almost 25% of their mouthing and fingering vignettes with vocalization, a tendency that was found not associated with the attainment of linguistic milestones. Rather, it was found that the combination of mouthing and fingering link to most of the vocal behaviours directed to objects and caregivers. The benefits of mouthing and fingering to vocal behaviours development are discussed in terms of the level of exposure to vocal outputs and information integration skills provided by both exploratory forms. | 219925351 |
4,509,144 | Network Design Foundations Fall 2011 Lecture 10 Instructor Suppose we are given a graph G = (V, E), with a metric cost function c over the edges. (that is, a cost function which satisfies the triangle inequality). Suppose we have a set of clients D ⊆ V. Consider that facilities can be opened at any client vertex. Each client i ∈ D has an associated demand di. There are no facility opening costs. The task is to connect each client to a facility. Let us call this the connection cost. Additionally, all the opened facilities need to be connected to each other, via higher-cost edges. Let us call this second cost the Steiner cost. Let a set of facilities F ⊆ D be the set of opened facilities. Formally, we need to minimize the following objective function: | 2131051 |
4,509,145 | Towards Medical Ontology Construction Using Data Mining: An approach for creating a diabetic ontology using clustering Ontologies are abstract representation of domain knowledge that encompasses the structures and relations between concepts. They are stored in a form that prompts sharing, reusing, and querying of the knowledge base. Ontologies use processing and reasoning technology to derive information implied by knowledge. In healthcare, intelligent decision support systems are increasingly employing ontologies for diseases diagnosis, prevention, and treatment. Early diagnosis of diseases such as diabetes helps prevent the progression of severe health problems. Due to the massive amount of diabetes-related data in the medical field, data mining and semantic techniques have been utilized in building automated systems for diabetes prediction and diagnosis. This work aims to implement a methodology for creating a fuzzy ontology for diabetes diagnosis. It proposes a method for constructing a fuzzy ontology based on data mining techniques to reduce the time and effort of ontology construction process. Expectation maximization (EM) clustering algorithm was applied on a diabetic dataset to group concepts and attributes. | 252877101 |
4,509,146 | Preventing sex offences: the Dunkelfeld project Ho and Rampling highlight the ongoing debate regarding sex offenders.1 2 The situation is not as simple as sex offenders being perpetrators who should be punished, as they have often been victims themselves. Moreover, mental disorder is not uncommon in this group, and there may be a genetic component.3 4 Forensic services … | 43447101 |
4,509,147 | Social experience alters oxytocinergic modulation in the nucleus accumbens of female prairie voles Social relationships are dynamic and evolve with shared and personal experiences. Whether the functional role of social neuromodulators also evolves with experience to shape the trajectory of relationships is unknown. We utilized pair bonding in the socially monogamous prairie voles as an example of socio-sexual experience that dramatically alters behaviors displayed toward other individuals. We investigated oxytocin-dependent modulation of excitatory synaptic transmission in the nucleus accumbens as a function of pair bonding status. We found that an oxytocin receptor agonist decreases the amplitude of spontaneous Excitatory Postsynaptic Currents (EPSCs) in sexually naive virgin, but not pair-bonded, female voles, while it increases the amplitude of electrically evoked EPSCs in paired voles, but not in virgins. This oxytocin-dependent potentiation of synaptic transmission relies on the de novo coupling between oxytocin receptor signaling and endocannabinoid CB1 receptor signaling in pair bonded voles. Blocking CB1 receptors after pair bond formation increases the occurrence of a specific form of social rejection – defensive upright response – that is displayed towards the partner but not towards a novel individual. Altogether, our results demonstrate that oxytocin’s action in the nucleus accumbens is changed through social experience in a way that regulates the trajectory of social interactions as the relationship with the partner unfolds, potentially promoting the maintenance of a pair bond by inhibiting aggressive responses. These results provide a mechanism by which social experience and context shift oxytocinergic signaling to impact neural and behavioral responses to social cues. | 235770751 |
4,509,148 | Strontium Chloride Passivated Perovskite Thin Films for Efficient Solar Cells with Power Conversion Efficiency over 21% and Superior Stability. Industrialization of perovskite solar cells (PSCs) is constrained by adverse stability in the air. Herein, we report an effective strontium chloride (SrCl2) passivation upon the HC(NH2)2-CH3NH3 (FA-MA) based perovskite thin films for the suppression of non-radiative recombination. Moreover, the recombination dynamics, crystallinity, carrier transport, morphology and the elemental stoichiometry of this film were systematically studied. By optimizing the concentration of SrCl2, the corresponding devices exhibited an increased open-circuit voltage (1.00 V vs 1.09 V), in consistent with the enhanced photoluminescence lifetime. The champion passivated device showed a ascendant power conversion efficiency (PCE) about 21.11% , with over 90% retention of the primal PCE in dry air after 1000 h aging with 20% ~ 30% humidity. A superior stability and an accelerated eletron/hole extraction ability were futher observed by time-resolved photoluminescence (TRPL) spectroscopy. | 209510601 |
4,509,149 | Clostridium perfringens type D epsilon prototoxin. Some chemical, immunological and biological properties of a highly purified prototoxin. WORTHINGTON, R. W., MOLDERS, MARIAS. G . & VAN RENSBURG, J . J. , 1973. Clostridium perfringens typeD epsilon prototoxin. Some chemical, immunological and biological properties of a highly purified preparation of proto toxin . Onderstepoort J. vet. Res. 40(4) 145152 (1973) Highly purified C/. perfringens typeD epsilon prototoxin was prepared by ammonium sulphate precipitation and DEAE cellulose chromatography of culture filtrate of cultures of Cl. perfringens type D (Strain ET 468). Preparations of prototoxin were electrophoretically heterogeneous. The protein bands demonstrable in polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis were, however, all immunologically identical and toxic. The faster moving bands were shown to be degradation products of the main prototoxin band which was the slowest moving of the major bands. There was an inverse relationship between electrophoretic mobility and the activation ratio of these degradation products. The undegraded prototoxin could be separated from its degradation products by CM cellulose chromatography but degradation appears to be a continual process and isolation of an absolutely pure product was not achieved . | 2688451 |
4,509,150 | Silk Fibroin Films for Corneal Endothelial Regeneration: Transplant in a Rabbit Descemet Membrane Endothelial Keratoplasty. Purpose Develop a silk fibroin (SF)-based artificial endothelial graft for its use in a rabbit Descemet membrane endothelial keratoplasty (DMEK). Methods Human and rabbit artificial corneal endothelial grafts were developed through the culture of human and rabbit corneal endothelial cells (CECs) on SF films. Rabbit artificial SF endothelial grafts were transplanted in a DMEK surgery into a rabbit in vivo model. Results SF artificial endothelial grafts showed the characteristic endothelial markers: zonula occludens (ZO-1) and Na+/K+ ATPase. In a rabbit model of DMEK surgery, SF artificial endothelial graft restored the corneal transparency and thickness at 6 week of follow-up. Anterior segment optical coherence tomography revealed the SF graft as a fully integrated component in the corneal tissue, displaying a similar corneal thickness and endothelial cell count when compared with its healthy contralateral cornea. Histologic analysis showed that the SF artificial endothelial graft was attached and integrated on the surface of the corneal stroma without a significant inflammatory reaction, and rabbit CECs consisted in a monolayer that showed their characteristic markers ZO-1 and Na+/K+ ATPase, suggesting proper intercellular junctions and cellular pump function. Conclusions We have developed SF films with biological properties that supported the growth of rabbit and human CECs, which showed normal morphology and characteristic markers; and with mechanical properties that allowed its use in a DMEK surgery, proving its in vivo functionality in a rabbit model of endothelial dysfunction. | 1297301 |
4,509,151 | Systematic Review and Meta-analysis: Fecal Microbiota Transplantation for Treatment of Active Ulcerative Colitis. BACKGROUND Changes in the colonic microbiota may play a role in the pathogenesis of ulcerative colitis (UC) and restoration of healthy gut microbiota may ameliorate disease. A systematic review and meta-analysis was conducted to assess fecal microbiota transplantation (FMT) as a treatment for active UC. METHODS A literature search was conducted to identify high-quality studies of FMT as a treatment for patients with UC. The primary outcome was combined clinical remission and endoscopic remission or response. Secondary outcomes included clinical remission, endoscopic remission, and serious adverse events. Odds ratios with 95% confidence intervals (CIs) are reported. RESULTS Overall, 4 studies with 277 participants were eligible for inclusion. Among 4 randomized controlled trials, FMT was associated with higher combined clinical and endoscopic remission compared with placebo (risk ratio UC not in remission was 0.80; 95% CI: 0.71-0.89) with a number needed to treat of 5 (95% CI: 4-10). There was no statistically significant increase in serious adverse events with FMT compared with controls (risk ratio adverse event was 1.4; 95% CI: 0.55-3.58). CONCLUSIONS Among randomized controlled trials, short-term use of FMT shows promise as a treatment to induce remission in active UC based on the efficacy and safety observed. However, there remain many unanswered questions that require further research before FMT can be considered for use in clinical practice. | 47574401 |
4,509,152 | Mocking-up Desired UI Behaviors from UI Element-Based Recording Software developers often ask for support from other developers, but effective communication about programming problems can be challenging. In the context of user interface (UI) development, effective communication about interactive behaviors of a UI is particularly difficult as it often requires a visual demonstration of the UI behaviors as supporting context. My motivational study found that our participants can always correctly understand a request when it includes video demos of the problem UI behavior and desired UI behavior. I summarized that an ideal request regarding a UI interactive behavior problem should include interrelated natural language description, relevant code, and demonstrations of non-desired and desired UI behaviors. I observed that developers often provide only the demonstration of not desired UI behavior and then describing the desired behavior on top of it. Unable to provide desired UI behaviors makes communication about UI behavior ineffective, and I argue this is a limitation of existing techniques. In this work, I would like to propose a solution to address it. | 203703601 |
4,509,153 | Improvement of Dust Resistance Properties on The Surface of Jute Knitted Fabrics Jute knitted fabric was produced in knitting lab and was treated with natural and synthetic dust resistance compounds of perchloroethylene, wax, and mixers of vinegar and olive oil at different temperatures with contact of dust to develop anti-dust characteristics on jute knitted fabrics. It was found that at 80oC temperature, perchloro ethylene developed dust resistant property on jute knitted fabric whereas at 60oC, wax treatment improved a dust resistant property and in natural treatment at room temperature, spray of vinegar+olive oil improved dust resistant property as well | 252225801 |
4,509,154 | Exploring staff perceptions on the role of physical environment in dementia care setting This study explored staff perceptions of the role of physical environment in dementia care facilities in affecting resident’s behaviors and staff care practice. We conducted focus groups with staff (n = 15) in two purposely selected care facilities in Vancouver, Canada. Focus group participants included nurses, care aides, recreation staff, administrative staff, and family. Data analysis revealed two themes: (a) a supportive physical environment contributes positively to both quality of staff care interaction and residents’ quality of life and (b) an unsupportive physical environment contributes negatively to residents’ quality of life and thereby makes the work of staff more challenging. The staff participants collectively viewed that comfort, familiarity, and an organized space were important therapeutic resources for supporting the well-being of residents. Certain behaviors of residents were influenced by poor environmental factors, including stimulation overload, safety risks, wayfinding challenge, and rushed care. This study demonstrates the complex interrelationships among the dementia care setting’s physical environment, staff experiences, and residents’ quality of life. | 35659051 |
4,509,155 | Advanced Signal Processing Techniques for Underwater Acoustic Communication Networks In this thesis, we develop and investigate novel signal processing techniques for underwater acoustic communication networks. Underwater acoustic channels differ from radio communication channels in the lower speed of signal propagation, richer and often sparse multipath arrivals, and more severe Doppler effect. Therefore, many signal processing techniques developed for radio communications may not work equivalently well for underwater acoustic channels. To investigate signal processing techniques in underwater acoustics, efficient simulation of signal transmission is required. Specifically, there is requirement for accurate simulation of doubly-selective underwater channels for different acoustic environments. In this thesis, a low-complexity channel simulator has been developed for scenarios with moving transmitter/receiver. The simulator is based on efficient generation of time-varying channel impulse response obtained using interpolation over a set of waymark impulse responses for a relatively small number of sampling points on the transmitter/receiver trajectory. The waymark impulse responses are generated using an acoustic field computation method, which is the most computationally expensive part of the simulator. To reduce the trajectory sampling rate, and thus, to reduce the complexity of the field computation, an approach for adjusting the time-varying multipath delays has been developed. For setting the trajectory sampling interval, a simple rule has been proposed, based on the waveguide invariant theory. To further reduce the simulator complexity, local spline interpolation is exploited. The developed simulator has been verified by comparing the simulated data with data from real ocean experiments. In particular, applying simulated data to an OFDM modem shows similar performance with | 6162401 |
4,509,156 | that obtained from the data of a deep water experiment. In communication networks, knowledge of positions of communication nodes is important for improving the system performance. A multi-source localization technique has been proposed based on the matched field (MF) processing. The technique locates the nodes by solving a set of basis pursuit de-noising (BPDN) problems corresponding to a set of source frequencies. An efficient technique combining the homotopy approach and coordinate descent search has been developed to solve the BPDN problem. Further reduction in the complexity has been achieved by applying a position grid refinement method. Verified using simulated data generated by the proposed simulator and data from real experiment, the proposed technique outperforms other MF techniques in resolving sources positioned closely to each other, tolerance to noise and capability of locating multiple sources. To provide reliable localization based on MF techniques, accurate knowledge of the underwater acoustic environment is essential. However, such knowledge is not always available. Estimating uncertain environmental parameters can be achieved using MF inversion techniques. This requires solving a global optimization problem. Several global optimization algorithms have been investigated and an algorithm combining the simulated annealing and downhill simplex method has been applied for estimating the sound speed profile in a deep water scenario. Accurate MF localization results have been demonstrated when using the estimated sound speed profile. A very important task of communication receivers is accurate channel estimation. The knowledge of node positions and the environment can be exploited for enhancing the channel estimation accuracy and reducing the estimation complexity. This | 6162401 |
4,509,157 | knowledge can be used to define the structure of the channel impulse response, such as the multipath spread and the sparsity. A channel estimator exploiting the channel sparsity estimated from the node positions has been proposed and investigated. The sparse taps of the channel impulse response are identified by solving a BPDN problem. The estimator employs an iterative tap-by-tap processing and uses local splines to interpolate the time-varying tap coefficients. This allows reduction in the complexity and memory requirement, whereas providing a high estimation accuracy. | 6162401 |
4,509,158 | Uyghur and Uzbek, the Southeastern Turkic languages This chapter provides a general overview of the two Turkic languages spoken in Central Asia, Modern Uyghur and Uzbek in the southeastern group of Turkic, paying special attention to their relation and peculiarities. The languages share particular linguistic features such as palatalization of an original intervocalic -d- to -y-, the preservation of the suffix-initial uvular consonant in -GAn, long consonants in in some numerals, and the use of verbal nouns in -(X)š. Among the differences we find Uyghur umlauting, Uzbek labialized back vowel å, the Uzbek derivative suffix -li, the Uzbek use of auxiliary verbs to code actionality, etc. This chapter also briefly addresses the writing systems of the two languages, and contact with neighboring languages as well as their regional varieties. | 241171251 |
4,509,159 | DNAPL Removal from a Heterogeneous Alluvial Aquifer by Surfactant‐Enhanced Aquifer Remediation A demonstration of surfactant‐enhanced aquifer remediation (SEAR) was conducted at Hill Air Force Base (AFB), Utah. Two surfactant floods were undertaken in a test section of a heterogeneous alluvial aquifer with a hydraulic conductivity range of 2.8 to 8.6 ft/day (10‐5 to 10‐4 m/sec) and a pore volume of approximately 15,000 gallons (57 m3). The wellfield installed for the demonstration consisted of lines of three injection and three extraction wells, a central monitoring well, and a single hydraulic control well. No physical barriers to flow, such as sheet‐pile walls, were employed; surfactant flooding was controlled entirely by hydraulic manipulation of the flow field. The inter‐well distance between injectors and extractors was 20 feet (6 m); the distance between individual injectors and extractors in line was 10 feet (3 m). The water table was 25 feet (7.6 m) below ground surface with a saturated zone approximately 19‐feet thick (5.8 m). Residual dense nonaqueous phase liquids (DNAPL) remained in a zone of alluvium 42 to 46 feet (13 to 14 m) below ground surface following extraction of free‐phase DNAPL. The injectors and extractors were screened in this DNAPL zone. Three partitioning interwell tracer tests (PITTs) and two surfactant floods were conducted over four months during 1996. The surfactant floods removed 341 out of 346 gallons of residual DNAPL (1290 of 1310 L), according to the PITTs. This represents a total recovery of about 98.5% of the DNAPL volume present in the zone of residual DNAPL as determined | 247666101 |
4,509,160 | by comparing the initial and final PITTs. There was no reduction in hydraulic conductivity due to colloid mobilization during the surfactant floods; in fact, the hydraulic gradient across the test zone decreased as the floods progressed. Concentrations of dissolved total chlorinated hydrocarbons in the test section decreased from 1000 mg/L before the floods to less than 10 mg/L following the floods. This demonstration is evidence of the technical practicability of DNAPL removal from alluvium. | 247666101 |
4,509,161 | Short-term treatment outcomes and safety of two representative brands of the fifth-generation silicone gel-filled breast implants in Korea Abstract It is allegedly reported that the BellaGel® SmoothFine (HansBiomed Co. Ltd., Seoul, Korea) and Motiva ErgonomixTM (Establishment Labs Holdings Inc., Alajuela, Costa Rica) are representative brands of a microtextured breast implant in Korea. We compared short-term safety outcomes between them. We evaluated the patients who received breast augmentation using the BellaGel® SmoothFine (n = 264) or the Motiva Ergonomix™ (n = 76) for aesthetic purposes and those with available medical records. They were followed up during a mean period of 122.11 ± 95.37 (4–477) and 126.80 ± 116.29 (13–534) days in the corresponding order. Early seroma occurred at an incidence of 1.89 and 5.26% following breast augmentation using the BellaGel® SmoothFine and the Motiva ErgonomixTM, respectively. This difference reached statistical significance (p < 0.05). Of note, CC occurred at an incidence of 2.27 and 0.00% in the corresponding order. Cumulative incidences of postoperative complications depending on the type of breast implants showed no significant difference; statistical significance was analyzed using the log-rank test (χ2 = 1.71, df = 1, p = 0.19). Cumulative survival of the breast implant is shown in Table 3; the Motiva Ergonomix™ showed a longer survival as compared with the BellaGel® SmoothFine (130.13 ± 13.70 vs. 120.45 ± 5.76 days). In conclusion, we describe short-term treatment outcomes and safety of an implant-based breast augmentation using two representative brands of the fifth-generation silicone gel-filled breast implants in Korean women. | 232112501 |
4,509,162 | In the age of Omicron variant: Paxlovid raises new hopes of COVID‐19 recovery Dear Editor, Since the outbreak of COVID‐19, caused by the SARS‐CoV‐2, in December 2019, the ongoing pandemic has posed 5 318 216 deaths worldwide. Vaccines, traditional Chinese medicine, and small‐ molecule antiviral therapies were considered the emergency responders on the COVID‐19. However, Alpha (B.1.1.7), Beta (B.1.351), Gamma (P.1), and Delta (B.1.617.2) variants of SARS‐CoV‐2 cause the resurge of infections. More worrisome, the novel Omicron (B.1.1.529) variant, firstly identified in South Africa on November 24, 2021, has put the whole world on red alert. Based on the unprecedented number of mutations (>32 mutations in Spike), and enhanced transmissibility (three times more infectious or severe than the original Wuhan strain), on November 26, 2021, the World Health Organization announced it to be a variant of concern. Therefore, some necessary measures, such as wearing masks, getting vaccine booster doses, restricting gatherings, travel restrictions, increasing vaccination coverage (e.g., >80% of people in Africa have not had a single dose), and gene sequencing could help to reduce the Omicron variant spread globally. As it stands, early data hint that the Omicron variant might alter responses to COVID‐19 vaccines and weaken vaccine protection, as almost all vaccines targeted at the S protein. As for small molecule drugs, only an intravenous nucleotide prodrug remdesivir (Veklury) was currently approved by the U.S. FDA for the treatment of SARS‐ CoV‐2 infection, but it is difficult to be widely used in hospitalized patients due to its limitations and controversial efficacy. Only very recently, | 247475701 |
4,509,163 | the oral antiviral candidate PaxlovidTM (PF‐ 07321332 + ritonavir), developed by Pfizer Inc., raises new hopes of COVID‐19 recovery in the age of Omicron variant. PF‐07321332, the second‐generation orally bioavailable SARS‐CoV‐2 main protease (M) inhibitor developed by Pfizer Inc., is a novel molecular entity that combines the merits of both PF‐07304814 and boceprevir. PF‐07321332, recognized as a promising broad‐spectrum agent, can be used to treat infections with multiple human coronaviruses in vitro, including SARS‐CoV, SARS‐CoV‐2, HCoV‐HKU1, HCoV‐OC43, MERS‐CoV, HCoV‐229E, and HCoV‐NL63. Owen et al. revealed that PF‐07321332 exhibits strong anti‐SARS‐CoV‐2 M activity in Vero E6 cells with a half maximal effective concentration value of 74.5 nM without significant cytotoxicity. In addition, Owen et al. revealed that PF‐07321332 can enhance anti‐SARS‐CoV‐2 activity in a mouse‐adapted SARS‐CoV‐2 MA10 model, resulting in significantly reduced multifocal pulmonary lesions and viral load in mouse lungs in a dose‐dependent manner. PF‐07321332 was found to be safe and well‐tolerated with no adverse at oral dosing of 600mg/kg/day in monkeys and 1000mg/kg/day in rats for 14 days. PF‐07321332 exhibits favorable oral bioavailability and promising pharmacokinetic properties in preclinical absorption, distribution, metabolism, and excretion studies, supporting progression into clinical studies. To elucidate the inhibitory mechanism at a molecular level, Rao et al. determined the 1.6‐Å crystal structure of PF‐07321332 in complex with SARS‐CoV‐2 M (PDB: 7VH8), which indicates that PF‐ 07321332 binds to the enzyme via the covalent linkage of Cys145 with nitrile carbon to form a reversible thioimidate adduct. Specifically, Nitsche's in vitro data suggest that M mutants of SARS‐CoV‐2 variants remain susceptible to | 247475701 |
4,509,164 | PF‐07321332. They expressed five prevalent M variants (including G15S, T21I, L89F, K90R, and L205V) in different SARS‐CoV‐2 lineages, and enzyme kinetics showed that PF‐07321332 has promising potency against all the above‐ mentioned M variants, implying that PF‐07321332 could be effective in the management of the Omicron variant of SARS‐CoV‐2. In the Omicron variant, the P132H mutant was detected in the nsp5 (M), but structural analysis demonstrated that this mutant was kept away from the active site and may not hinder the performance of anti‐SARS‐ CoV‐2 agents. Neyts et al. revealed that PF‐07321332 (250mg/kg, twice daily) can completely protect the Syrian golden hamsters against intranasal infection with Beta and Delta SARS‐CoV‐2 variants. To achieve a maximal anti‐SARS‐CoV‐2 potency in clinical trials, PF‐07321332 was combined with ritonavir, an HIV drug used to slow down the metabolism of PF‐07321332 through inhibiting cytochrome P450 enzymes. For example, a double‐blind, placebo‐ controlled phase II/III trial was conducted by Pfizer Inc. to evaluate the anti‐SARS‐CoV‐2 efficacy of PaxlovidTM in 1219 nonhospitalized high‐risk adult patients with COVID‐19. The interim results showed that an 89% reduction in risk of COVID‐19‐related hospitalization or death from any cause compared to placebo in patients administered within three days of symptom onset. Notably, PaxlovidTM does appear to be effective at preventing death in COVID‐19 patients with high statistical significance (0/607 for PaxlovidTM group vs. 10/612 for the placebo group, p < 0.0001). This finding supports the potential value of PaxlovidTM as a promising therapy for COVID‐19 patients. Moreover, three clinical trials (Clinical Trials Registration NCT04962022, NCT04962230, and NCT04756531) | 247475701 |
4,509,165 | of PaxlovidTM have been completed, five clinical trials (NCT04960202, NCT05064800, NCT05005312, NCT05032950, and NCT05047601) of PaxlovidTM are currently underway and will be disclosed shortly. It is to be noted, however, that widespread use or misuse of PaxlovidTM | 247475701 |
4,509,166 | Clinical relevance of molecular subgrouping of gliomatosis cerebri per 2016 WHO classification: a clinicopathological study of 89 cases The extremely invasive phenotypes and genotypes related to progression of gliomatosis cerebri (GC) remain unclear although GC has been removed as an independent entity from the 2016 WHO classification. Hence, categorization of GC under the current WHO molecular classification is essential, and the molecular subgroups that might contribute to GC progression should be compared with the histopathological differences between initial and new lesions identified during follow‐up. Analyses of IDH1/2 and TERTp mutations and 1p/19q co‐deletion, and immunohistochemistry of IDH1‐R132H, ATRX, p53 and galectin‐3 were performed. Anaplastic astrocytoma, IDH‐wildtype (AA‐IDHwt) was the common molecular subgroup (52.8%), followed by diffuse astrocytoma, IDH‐wildtype (DA‐IDHwt) and AA, IDH‐mutant (AA‐IDHmt) (each 16.9%), DA‐IDHmt (7.9%), glioblastoma (GBM)‐IDHwt (3.3%) and GBM‐IDHmt (2.2%). Approximately 92% of the AA‐IDHwt lesions progressed to histologically confirmed GBM in the newly enhanced lesions harboring the TERTp mutation and expressing galectin‐3. Similar to primary GBMs, GC‐related GBMs that progressed from the IDHwt subgroups showed microvascular proliferation, palisading necrosis or thrombotic occlusion, implying that a subset of IDHwt subgroups may evolve to overt GBM. Molecular subgrouping did not provide the perfect prediction for the survival of GC patients. The AA‐IDHwt group showed worse overall and progression‐free survival (PFS) than the AA‐IDHmt group. Biopsy plus radiotherapy, chemotherapy and temozolomide treatment for DA‐IDHwt, and resection plus radiotherapy and temozolomide treatment for AA‐IDHwt prolonged PFS. In conclusions, majority of GC was of the AA‐IDHwt subgroup, which progressed to GBM. Molecular subgroups may assist in the | 201274851 |
4,509,167 | selection of treatment modalities, because “GC pattern” still remains as a special growth of gliomas in WHO 2016 classification without established treatment guideline. | 201274851 |
4,509,168 | Studies on the basidial Formation by Sclerotium rolfsii Sacc XII. A Discussion on the basidial Stage of Sclerotium Rolfsii Sacc. Isolates and its Identity In the earlier papers (Series I to XI, 1965) the authors had already reported the success obtained in getting basidial stage of Sclerotium rolfsii Sacc. isolates from potato, Colocasia and groundnut (Arachis hypogea L.) and media as well as conditions under which these stages could be obtained. It is proposed to review these in this paper and discuss in detail the basidial stage of S. rolfsii and its nomenclature. The authors attempted to obtain basidial stage using four isolates, two from potato named as potato isolate 1 and 2 and one each from Colocasia and groundnut. Of these isolates, success in getting the basidial stage was obtained by potato isolate 2, Colocasia and groundnut. While basidial formation by S. rolfsii appears to be difficult either in nature or on the culture media, in some isolates of S. rolfsii, particularly in those which Goto (1930—35) had classified under his groups I and II, no much difficulty in getting this stage was encuuntered. G o t o (1930) included potato isolate under his group I was easily spore formers, Colocasia isolate under group II as spore formers and groundnut isolate under group IV as non-spore forming strains. So far, perfect stage of the potato isolate had been reported by G o t o (1930) from Japan, C u r z i (1931) from Italy, B a r r e t t (1934) from U.S.A. | 42549501 |
4,509,169 | and by M u n d k u r (1934) and M i s r a et al (1960) from India. G o t o (1930) also noticed that one of his potato isolates did not produce basidia and hence he classified this isolate under group IV as non-spore forming strain. Except G o t o (1930—35) and A l t s t a t t (1941), who reported the perfect stage of S. rolfsii from Colocasia and groundnut respectively, no report of getting the perfect stage of this fungus from these two hosts is forthcoming. | 42549501 |
4,509,170 | Wearable chem-biosensing devices: from basic research to commercial market. Wearable chem-biosensors have been garnering tremendous interest due to the significant potential in tailored healthcare diagnostics and therapeutics. With the development of the medical diagnostics revolution, wearable chem-biosensors as a rapidly emerging wave allow individuals to perform on-demand detection and obtain the required in-depth information. In contrast to commercial wearables, which tend to be miniaturized for measuring physical activities, the recent progressive wearable chem-biosensing device have mainly focused on non-invasive or minimally invasive monitoring biomarkers at the molecular level. Wearables is a multidisciplinary subject, and chem-biosensing is one of the most significant technologies. In this review, the currently basic academic research of wearable chem-biosensing devices and its commercial transformation were summarized and highlighted. Moreover, some representative wearable products on the market for individual health managements are presented. Strategies for the identification and sensing of biomarkers are discussed to further promote the development of wearable chem-biosensing devices. We also shared the limitations and breakthroughs of the next generation of chemo-biosensor wearables, from home use to clinical diagnosis. | 239051451 |
4,509,171 | A Study of the Impact of Deficiency of Social Support on Driving Offenses among Motorcycle Users Introduction In recent years, violations of traffic laws in Iran has become one of the major problems that has created more physical, financial, and social damages. Unfortunately, Iran is one of the worst places in this regard. Traffic accidents were the first cause of death in Iran for during the years 2001 to 2010. According to estimations, 66 people were killed per day in traffic accidents during those years. In other words, 35 out of every 100000 Iranians were killed in the accidents. Etiology of traffic rules violation, like other social disorders and crimes, is very complicated. Previous studies dealing with violation of traffic rules by motorcycle users have mostly focused on risk factors such as social and environmental factors (alcohol consumption, drug misuse, insufficient light, illegal speed, using cellphone, lack of law enforcement by traffic police), psychological factors (aggression, type A personality, hasty personality, low IQ, depression, low motivation), and physiological factors (attention deficit, biological rhythm, fatigue, disease, malfunction of the eyes), and other factors (like age, gender, friction with other people, family trouble, and multiple tasks). One of the factors attracting scholar’s attention in recent years, is the effects of social capital and its subcategories such as social support in obeying or disobeying traffic rules. The aim of this study is to determine the relationship between social support and obeying or disobeying traffic rules. | 112513901 |
4,509,172 | The N‐terminal GIY‐YIG endonuclease activity of Arabidopsis glutaredoxin AtGRXS16 A chloroplastic monothiol glutaredoxin, AtGRXS16, comprises two distinct functional domains, an N‐terminal GIY‐YIG endonuclease motif (NTD) and a C‐terminal Grx module, to coordinate redox regulation and DNA cleavage in chloroplasts. Structural determination of AtGRXS16‐NTD showed that it possesses a GIY‐YIG endonuclease fold, but the critical residues for the nuclease activity are different from typical GIY‐YIG endonucleases. AtGRXS16‐NTD was able to cleave λDNA and chloroplast genomic DNA and the nuclease activity was significantly reduced in AtGRXS16. AtGRXS16‐NTD could inhibit the ability of AtGRXS16 to suppress the sensitivity of yeast grx5 cells to oxidative stress; however, AtGRXS16 with a Cys123Ser mutation were active in these cells and functional in Fe‐S cluster biogenesis. Furthermore, the two functional domains were shown to be negatively regulated through a formation of an intramolecular disulfide bond. These findings unravel a novel manner of regulation for Grxs and provide insights into the mechanistic link between redox regulation and DNA metabolism in chloroplasts. This study is supported by USDA Cris fund. | 249774551 |
4,509,173 | Diagnosis of inflammatory rheumatic diseases with photon density waves Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) is a common inflammatory disease of interphalangeal joints. The utilization of conventional imaging systems (e.g. x-rays) for non invasive diagnostics at an early stage of the disease is difficult, since pathologically induced changes do not occur at this stage in hard tissue. Use of MR and ultrasound methods are both methodically problematic and expensive. Therefore investigations for optical diagnostics using photon density waves (PDW) were carried out. The PDW was realized with an intensity modulated laser diode (825 nm, fmod: 110 MHz) and an ac- and phase detection in a 2D transillumination scanner. Measurements of optical properties of synovia and synovialis of healthy and early RA stages were performed and indicated a significant pathological increase of (mu) s. The detected PDW-pictures provided corresponding results. Further investigations regarding the object- variation of the modulation transfer function provide a sufficient spatial resolution in order to assign functional changes to anatomical structures. The results are presented using photos. | 136978601 |
4,509,174 | ‘My Car is the Best Thing That Ever Happened to Me’ A survey submitted to Icelandic novice drivers and the author’s personal experience of obtaining the drivers licence constitute the ground basis for this article. In their responses, many of the young people who answered the survey pointed out that their car use was an adaptation to the conditions in which they found themselves: a pervasively car-oriented transport system. Their car use is also symptomatic of how they approach their own automobility and spatiality. The present article concurs with current discussions of automobility and approaches it as a regime. The author argues, however, that one’s integration into the regime of automobility is an expression of human territoriality. This article also shows that automobility should be considered as a phase during which one’s individual motility is maximized according to the structural and social environments in which the individual finds himself or herself. Finally this article calls for greater considerations about youth within the field of mobilities. | 145292201 |
4,509,175 | How mature-age students succeed in higher education: implications for institutional support ABSTRACT This article draws on stories of success in higher education by mature-age students of diverse backgrounds to highlight some key implications for institutional support. We begin by reviewing the post-World War II background of mature-age study in Australian higher education to provide a context for presenting some major findings from a small, in-depth research project. We examine these findings to focus on the role of institutional support in the success of mature-age students, particularly given recent sectoral factors affecting their access and support. The study findings show students’ primary supports were families and friends. Participants all belonged to equity categories as designated by the Australian government, but many did not use institutional supports. Some lacked the confidence to approach staff; others were unaware support services existed or lacked the time to access them. The participants’ stories demonstrate the complex disadvantages experienced by mature-age students. They highlight universities’ need to ensure support services are ‘student-centred’ in order to ensure improved educational and equity outcomes for their mature-age student populations. | 157267451 |
4,509,176 | Hereditary multiple exostoses: report of a kindred. In a large family with 37 members with multiple exostoses, only one person has developed sarcomatous degeneration of a lesion. Our review of published reports revealed great variation in the incidence of malignancy in multiple exostoses (10 to 25%). Most studies had sampling errors leading to the apparent overstatement of risk. In large pedigrees with essentially complete ascertainment of affected subjects, the risk of malignancy is nearer 3% or less. This lower risk for malignancy may be more appropriate in counselling affected subjects. | 25947901 |
4,509,177 | [Importance of collateral circulation to preserve the exercise capacity in patients with coronary artery disease]. We studied the effects of coronary collaterals on exercise capacity in relation with the coronary flow reserve. Thirty-one patients with single vessel disease of the left anterior descending artery (LAD) were selected using coronary angiography. Thirteen of them had angiographical collaterals. A Doppler coronary catheter was positioned in the proximal portion of the LAD, and the resting and peak coronary flow velocity was measured using an intracoronary injection of 6 ml of contrast material. Peak to resting velocity ratio was calculated as an index of the coronary flow reserve. Multi-stage treadmill exercise ECG test was performed, and the end point of the exercise was 0.1 mV depression of ST segment. The exercise capacity was expressed as the ratio of maximal to resting double product. In patients without collaterals, peak to resting coronary flow velocity ratio was correlated with double product ratio (r = 0.94, p less than 0.01). But in patients with collaterals, double product ratios were higher than those in patients without collaterals. We conclude that coronary collaterals preserve exercise capacity in spite of the low coronary flow reserve in the recipient coronary artery. | 34508451 |
4,509,178 | Molecular Biology I Project Gutenberg is one of the largest sources for free books on the web, with over 30,000 downloadable free books available in a wide variety of formats. Project Gutenberg is the oldest (and quite possibly the largest) library on the web, with literally hundreds of thousands free books available for download. The vast majority of books at Project Gutenberg are released in English, but there are other languages available. | 202651501 |
4,509,179 | A symbol timing recovery algorithm of M-PSK signals for burst modem applications with small packet size Feedforward symbol timing recovery techniques are particularly important for initial acquisition in burst modems. However, these techniques either have large calculation burden or sensitive to frequency offsets. In this paper, we proposed an efficient symbol timing recovery algorithm of MPSK signals named OMQ (Ordered Maximum power using Quadratic approximation partially) algorithm which is based on the Quadratic Approximation (QA) algorithm. We used ordered statistic sorting method to reduce the computational complexity further, meanwhile maximum mean power principle was used to decrease frequency offset sensitivity. The proposed algorithm adopts estimation-down sampling structure which is suitable for small packet size transmission. The results show that, while comparing with the QA algorithm, the computational complexity is reduced by 75% at most when 8 samples per symbol are used. The proposed algorithm shows better performance in terms of the jitter variance and sensitivity to frequency offsets. | 24011901 |
4,509,180 | Long-Term Surface Electrode Impedance Recordings Associated with Gliosis for a Closed-Loop Neurostimulation Device Background: Closed-loop neurostimulation is a novel alternative therapy for medically intractable focal epilepsy for patients who are not candidates for surgical resection of a seizure focus. Electrodes for this system can be implanted either within the brain parenchyma or in the subdural space. The electrodes then serve the dual role of detecting seizures and delivering an electrical signal aimed at aborting seizure activity. The Responsive Neurostimulation (RNS®) system (Neuropace, Mountain View, CA, USA) is an FDA-approved implantable device designed for this purpose. Objective: One of the challenges of the brain machine interface devices is the potential for implanted neurostimulator devices to induce progressive gliosis, apart from that associated with the minimal trauma at implantation. Gliosis has the potential to alter impedances over time, thereby affecting the clinical efficacy of these devices, and also poses a challenge to the prospects of in vivo repositioning of depth electrodes. We present a clinical case with 3-year follow-up and pathology. Methods: Single-case, retrospective review within a randomized trial with specific minimum follow-up and impedance measurements. Results: Impedance changes in the surface electrode over time were observed. Surgical pathological findings revealed significant gliosis in the leptomeninges of the cortices. Conclusion: We report, for the first time, long-term impedance recordings from a surface electrode associated with pathologic findings of gliosis at the Neuropace device-tissue interface in a patient who was enrolled in the multicenter RNS System Pivotal Clinical Investigation. Further study is required to elucidate the temporal relationship of | 81550151 |
4,509,181 | pathological findings over time. Impedance changes were more complex than can be explained by a progressive or transient pathological mechanism. Further effort is required to elucidate the relationship between impedance change and seizure event capture. | 81550151 |
4,509,182 | METHOD TO DETERMINE THE DRAN A HYDROCARBON FUEL FIELD OF THE INVENTION (21) Appl. No.: 13/705.306 This instrumental method requires no sample preparation to (22) Filed: Dec. 5, 2012 determine not only whether a fuel contains DRA, but also the O O manufacturer(s) of the DRA. To date, there is no available Related U.S. Application Data method to quickly and easily perform this analysis. Only 60 (60) Provisional application No. 61/568,335, filed on Dec. microliters of sample are needed for the determination, which 8, 2011. can be performed within two hours. | 204875901 |
4,509,183 | Crystal Phase Transformation in Self-Assembled InAs Nanowire Junctions on Patterned Si Substrates. We demonstrate the growth and structural characteristics of InAs nanowire junctions evidencing a transformation of the crystalline structure. The junctions are obtained without the use of catalyst particles. Morphological investigations of the junctions reveal three structures having an L-, T-, and X-shape. The formation mechanisms of these structures have been identified. The NW junctions reveal large sections of zinc blende crystal structure free of extended defects, despite the high stacking fault density obtained in individual InAs nanowires. This segment of zinc blende crystal structure in the junction is associated with a crystal phase transformation involving sets of Shockley partial dislocations; the transformation takes place solely in the crystal phase. A model is developed to demonstrate that only the zinc blende phase with the same orientation as the substrate can result in monocrystalline junctions. The suitability of the junctions to be used in nanoelectronic devices is confirmed by room-temperature electrical experiments. | 28433301 |
4,509,184 | Three-dimensional synthetic turbulence constructed by spatially randomized fractal interpolation. A spatially randomized fractal interpolation algorithm to construct three-dimensional synthetic turbulence from original coarse field is reported. As in the one-dimensional case by Ding et al. (Phys. Rev. E 82, 036311, 2010), during the fractal interpolation, positions mapping between large and small scale cubes are chosen randomly, and the stretching factors are drawn from a log-Poisson random multiplicative process. A linear combination function defined as the base part in fractal interpolation and a theoretical energy spectrum model for fully developed turbulence are introduced into the procedure. Statistical analysis shows that the synthetic field displays some properties very close to the direct numeric simulated field, such as probability distributions of velocity, velocity gradient, velocity increment, and the anomalous scaling behavior of the longitude velocity structure functions, which follows the SL94 model precisely. After a short time using direct numeric simulation with the synthetic field as initial data, the typical local dynamical structures described by the teardrop shape of the Q-R plane for empirical turbulence can be reproduced. | 28388001 |
4,509,185 | PV self-consumption in cities: Solarfighter experience Small grid-tied PV systems for self-consumption and/or net-metering applications can intensively contribute to spread distributed renewable energy generation and the penetration of smart grids. Also they offer environmental benefits and savings for consumers. Unlike medium-large scale PV facilities, the integration of these small PV systems in city environments faces some specific challenges. Solarfighter is an all-in-one micro PV tracking system developed for this kind of applications. We explain here our experience, analyzing the specific needs of these applications and how they are solved in Solarfighter. | 38015151 |
4,509,186 | Performance demonstration of a single-frequency optically-pumped cesium beam frequency standard for space applications Observatoire de Neuchâtel (ON) is developing a compact optically-pumped cesium beam frequency standard in the frame of an ESA-ARTES 5 project. The simplest optical scheme, which is based on a single optical frequency for both preparation and detection processes of atoms, has been chosen to fulfill reliability constraints of space applications. With our laboratory demonstrator operated at 852 nm (D2 line), we have measured a frequency stability of σy=2.74x10-12 τ -1/2, which is compliant with the Galileo requirement. The atomic resonator is fully compliant to be operated with a single diode laser at 894 nm (D1 line). Sensitivity measurements of the clock signal to the microwave power and to the optical pumping power are also presented. Present performance limitations are discussed and further improvements are proposed in order to reach our ultimate frequency stability goal of σy=1x10-12 τ -1/2. The clock driving software is also briefly described. | 108479851 |
4,509,187 | On the analysis of thin walled members in the framework of the Generalized Beam Theory The analysis of thin walled members in the framework of the Ge neralized Beam Theory (GBT) is critically revised. Firstly, the classic form of the GBT is briefly expla ined along with its main advantages and problems. Subsequently, a new formulation that coherently accounts f or hear deformation is presented along with a unique modal decomposition, the Cross Section analysis, that allo ws t recover classical shear deformable beam theories exactly. Furthermore, a stress recovery procedure for the fi nite element analysis of GBT beams is proposed as an improvement on the traditional elasto-kinematic approach . Performance is shown in numerical tests. | 8838751 |
4,509,188 | Photonic crystal fiber with anomalous dispersion behavior and high birefringence A novel design of hexagonal PCF has been investigated with variation in areas of circular air holes. The structure consists of six rings. The three outermost ring has largest circular air holes. The immediate two rings next to the innermost ring consists of smallest circular air holes. The innermost ring consists of circular air holes whose area is lesser than the three outermost rings but larger than the second and third ring. The designed fiber reports a very low dispersion. Moreover a high birefringence is observed at the first optical window. Besides, normalized frequencies and confinement loss is also studied. This fiber can be used for generation of broadband supercontinnum and soliton based devices. | 7804551 |
4,509,189 | Coal Bed Methane Reservoir in the Mengjin Coalfield, Henan Province, China Coal is a continuous unconventional gas reservoir and coal bed methane has the potential to make an important contribution to the future energy demands. The second member coal seam of Shaxi Formation in the Mengjin coalfield is one of the most important methane bearing and exploration formations. Based on industrial analysis, elemental analysis and methane content test of thirty-five coal samples from the Mengjin coalfield, together with other geological data of the past five-year exploration, the factors that controlling the coal bed methane reservoir are identified in the Mengjin coalfield. The thick-bedded No. 2 coal seam, about 6 meters, of the Shaxi formation are continuous distributed in the Mengjin coalfield. The burial depth is from 400 to 800 meters, this is suitable for coal bed methane exploit. There is a trend which an increase in the degree of coalification is correlated with rise content of methane in No. 2 coal. Coal rank has a significant effect on the content of coal bed methane. The relationships between methane content and basin hydrodynamics are also described and discussed in this paper. The deep stagnant zone contains the largest coal bed methane accumulation. Future geological exploration for coal bed methane in Mengjin coalfield should be guided by the essential factors identified in this study. The application of them could benefit to solving the discrepancy between the amount of reserves and the question of their exploitability. | 108830001 |
4,509,190 | A unique case of a benign adrenocortical tumor with triple secretion of cortisol, androgens, and aldosterone: development of multiple sclerosis after surgical removal of the tumor. We present a 39-year old female with a benign adrenal tumor characterized by autonomous secretion of cortisol, androgens, and aldosterone. The patient presented with a 4-year history of hypertension and severe hirsutism. Baseline investigations revealed elevated testosterone, androstendione, and 17OH progesterone with normal levels of dehydroepi androsterone sulfate. CT of the adrenals revealed a 2.5 x 3.0 cm tumor with characteristics of an adenoma on the left adrenal gland. Pelvic ultrasound was normal. Further investigations revealed suppressed basal ACTH levels, loss of diurnal rhythm of cortisol, and failure to suppress on low dose dexamethasone suppression test, suggesting autonomous cortisol secretion by the tumor. She had an exaggerated response of 17OH progesterone to ACTH, implying reduced 21-hydroxylase activity. An elevated plasma aldosterone concentration to plasma renin activity ratio was suggestive of hyperaldosteronism, which was confirmed by failure of aldosterone to suppress to a formal saline infusion test. Complete clinical and biochemical remission of the disease was observed after left adrenalectomy. Histology confirmed the presence of an adrenocortical adenoma. The patient developed multiple sclerosis 6 months after the operation. The flare-up of an autoimmune disease (multiple sclerosis) postoperatively could be coincidental or possibly related to the high normalization of the high cortisol levels acting as a precipitating factor. | 4724801 |
4,509,191 | Research on method for improving depth of focus with Gaussian beam by super-resolving pupil filters The general super-resolving theories for Gaussian beam have been investigated. The three-zone amplitude pupils and phase-only pupils are adopted to provide specific numerical descriptions of improvement of DOF, respectively. Simulated results of comparison between Gaussian beam and Uniform amplitude beam have been presented. Furthermore, some useful advices for the design of super-resolving pupils to increase DOF of the optical system based on Gaussian beam are given. | 116454751 |
4,509,192 | Female caregivers' perceptions of reasons for violent behaviour among nursing home residents. Threats and violence against professional caregivers present a growing health and safety problem in elderly care. We aimed to explore female caregivers' perceptions of reasons for violent behaviour among nursing home residents. Forty-one caregivers at three nursing homes were interviewed and their responses were subjected to qualitative content analysis, which revealed three content areas of perceived reasons for patient violence: patient characteristics, caregiver approach and environmental aspects. The caregivers' perceptions were formulated in three core statements: 'they (the residents) are not who they used to be', 'we (the caregivers) have acted inappropriately' and 'we (residents and caregivers) are all surrounded by disorder'. Our findings indicate that the reasons for violence are complex and multifactorial, so interventions should be individually tailored. Caregivers involved in a violent situation need to see the person behind the behaviour, try to interpret what the behaviour is meant to communicate and adjust the intervention according to individual need. | 23975501 |
4,509,193 | [Effects of a partial agonist of beta 1 adrenergic receptors (ICI 118,587) on left ventricular performance and metabolism in coronary disease]. ICI 118/587 is a partial agonist of beta 1 adrenergic receptors, a partial agonist being an agent which has both agonist and antagonist properties. The agonist properties of ICI 118/587 stabilise 43 p. 100 of the maximal activity of the beta 1 receptors whilst preventing a resulting increase in sympathetic stimulation. The aim of this study was to evaluate the effects of this new inotropic agent on left ventricular function and metabolism in patients with chronic myocardial infarction and left ventricular dysfunction. The study of LV function was performed in an initial group of 14 patients. After control left ventriculography, the injection of 0,1 mg/kg of ICI 118/587 increased the peak dP/dt by 35 p. 100 (p less than 0,005), reduced mean systolic parietal stress by 8 p. 100 (p less than 0,05) and LV end systolic volume from 58 to 53 ml/m2 (p less than 0,05). The global ejection fraction rose slightly, largely due to increases in the regional ejection fractions of abnormal segments (from 20 +/- 5 p. 100 to 26 +/- 5 p. 100, p less than 0,02). Left ventricular diastolic function also improved as shown by a 38 p. 100 fall (p less than 0,001) in mean diastolic stress and an increase in the time constant of isovolumic relaxation. The metabolic effects of ICI 118/587 were assessed in a second group of 11 patients with anterior myocardial infarction.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 | 23183351 |
4,509,194 | WORDS) | 23183351 |
4,509,195 | Impact of p53 expression and microsatellite instability on stage III colon cancer disease-free survival in patients treated by 5-fluorouracil and leucovorin with or without oxaliplatin. BACKGROUND The aim was to determine the values of p53 tumour expression and microsatellite instability (MSI) phenotype to predict benefit from adjuvant chemotherapy of colon cancer by 5-fluorouracil and leucovorin (FL) alone or with oxaliplatin (FOLFOX). PATIENTS AND METHODS This retrospective study included 233 unselected patients with stage III colon cancer treated by FL (n = 124) or FOLFOX (n = 109). The impact of p53 expression and MSI on disease-free survival (DFS) was defined using univariate and multivariate analyses. A Cox proportional hazards model was specifically designed to evaluate the interaction between chemotherapy and these genetic alterations. RESULTS In univariate analyses, addition of oxaliplatin significantly improved DFS provided that tumour overexpressed p53 [hazard ratio (HR) 0.39; 95% confidence interval (CI) 0.19-0.82; P = 0.01] or displayed MSI phenotype (HR 0.17; 95% CI 0.04-0.68; P = 0.01). In multivariate analyses, p53 was confirmed as an independent factor predictive of benefit from FOLFOX (P = 0.03), while the interaction of MSI with chemotherapy could not be determined in the absence of relapse in the MSI group treated with FOLFOX. CONCLUSION Our observations indicate that MSI status and p53 expression may influence the impact of oxaliplatin on adjuvant treatment of stage III colon cancer patients. | 15127451 |
4,509,196 | EFFECT OF STRUCTURAL MODIFICATIONS OF ANTHRACYCLINE AGAINST DRUG-SENSITIVE AND RESISTANT CANCER CELLS Purpose: Many anthracycline anticancer drugs contain carbohydrate moieties as a part of their chemical structure. Research studies have suggested that the sugar moiety of these anthracyclines play an important role in determining the biological and pharmacological activities of the drug. The clinical application of anthracycline antibiotics, daunorubicin (DNR) and doxorubicin is limited by the development of multidrug resistance (MDR) in cancer therapy. To overcome multidrug resistance, we synthesized daunorubicin derivatives with disaccharides, monosaccharide bearing azido (d9) and triazole groups (compounds d10-d13), monosaccharide with uncommon (DNR1 to DNR 6, and aglycon compound (DNR-A). Methods: The anticancer activity of these compounds was examined in drug-sensitive leukemia K562 cells and drug-resistant K562/dox cells by MTS assay. MTS in the presence and absence of CsA, a potent inhibitor of P-glycoprotein, were conducted to measure drug uptake and efflux mediated by P-gp. Results: Compounds with various terminal 2,6-dideoxy sugars (d1, d3, d5, and d8) showed 30 to 60-fold higher anticancer activity than compounds with terminal 2deoxyor 6-deoxysugar (compound d6 and d7). This suggests that 2”-OH or 6”-OH groups in terminal sugar decrease its anticancer activity. Compound (d9) with azido deoxysugar showed potent anticancer activity in drug-sensitive K562 cells (IC50 of 0.075uM). Compared to DNR, compound (d9) is more active than DNR against K562 drug-resistant cells. The drug resistance index (DRI) value of compound (d9) is 10-fold less than that of DNR. P-gp inhibitor CsA did not change cell killing effects of compound d9 at 1uM concentration, while it significantly | 42754101 |
4,509,197 | increased DNR’s cell killing effect by more than 2-fold. These results indicate that compound (d9) may no longer be a P-gp | 42754101 |
4,509,198 | Notice of RetractionOrientation of Chemical Engineering Principles in Applied Chemistry Specialty and Teaching Reform Practice Orientation of chemical engineering principles (CEP) in Applied Chemistry Specialty and teaching reform were research in detail. From two aspects of sustainable development and social needs, CEP accounted for the important position. Under the engineering education idea of CDIO, the training plan was formulated. The teaching reform of CEP was explored in teaching practice from teaching content, teaching method, teaching manner, teaching conditions, practice, academic evaluation and practical operative ability. The practice results showed that, combining propagation with simple, extruding emphases and students' autonomous were adopt in teaching content. Combining theory with practice, paying equal attention to basic and advanced, proper bilingual teaching and converting the thought "assistant but not direction" were practiced in teaching method. Traditional blackboard writing modern assorted with multimedia technology and from perceptual knowledge to rational knowledge was carried out in teaching manner. Teaching conditions include multimedia class, lab, practice factory, teachers with engineering teaching and bilingual teaching. Base for practice include open laboratory, Middle-test Laboratory, and practice factory, especially utilizing favorable geographical situation for the cooperation of school with enterprises. Item bank and separation of teaching and examination were adopted. This reform makes students to meeting social requirements and developments faster and better, students' engineering ideas and practical ability was improved, which provides a solid foundation for sustainable development of applied chemistry specialty. | 11765151 |
4,509,199 | Configuration and Kinematic Analysis of a Novel Hybrid Surgical Robot with a Ball Joint According to the advantages and disadvantages of the serial and parallel robots' configuration, a small, compact hybrid surgical robot model with a ball joint was introduced in this paper. By the requirements of its working characteristics and design principles, taking hybrid as the basic structure and ball joint as the core, the joint types and distribution of degrees of freedom were determined. The Denavit-Hartenberg(D-H) method combining with successive rotation transformation was adopted to build the mathematical model for forward kinematics problem. The approach of geometry method combined with algebra method was proposed to solve the inverse kinematics problem, and then was validated with an example. The research results have proved that the designed configuration can satisfy the needs of surgical action, which will provide a theoretical reference for the robot trajectory planning, dynamic analysis and online real-time calculation. | 14989251 |
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