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4,509,300 | An absolute calibration method of an ethyl alcohol biosensor based on wavelength-modulated differential photothermal radiometry. In this work, laser-based wavelength-modulated differential photothermal radiometry (WM-DPTR) is applied to develop a non-invasive in-vehicle alcohol biosensor. WM-DPTR features unprecedented ethanol-specificity and sensitivity by suppressing baseline variations through a differential measurement near the peak and baseline of the mid-infrared ethanol absorption spectrum. Biosensor signal calibration curves are obtained from WM-DPTR theory and from measurements in human blood serum and ethanol solutions diffused from skin. The results demonstrate that the WM-DPTR-based calibrated alcohol biosensor can achieve high precision and accuracy for the ethanol concentration range of 0-100 mg/dl. The high-performance alcohol biosensor can be incorporated into ignition interlocks that could be fitted as a universal accessory in vehicles in an effort to reduce incidents of drinking and driving. | 29953751 |
4,509,301 | Comparsion of different microwave radiometric calibration techniques In this paper we compare three techniques typically used for calibrating a microwave radiometer and understanding its design stability. The first calibration technique utilizes cold and hot load measurements to construct calibration curves. For our case, we used sky as the cold load and microwave absorber at ambient temperature as hot load. The second calibration technique utilizes measurements of the brightness temperature of the sky at various zenith angles to determine the atmospheric opacity needed for the calibration curves. The third calibration technique utilizes measurements of internal reference load and micro-controller inside the radiometer at both polarizations to estimate the system gain fluctuations and the receiver noise temperatures. We calibrated our University of Florida C-band Microwave Radiometer (UFCMR) every two weeks during the first Microwave Water and Energy Balance Experiment (MicroWEX-1). We found that, the first and third techniques produced similar calibration results with 1 Kelvin/volt standard deviation. However, the third technique was the most stable during the entire experiment with the smallest standard deviations which were 2.41 Kelvin/volt for the slope of the calibration curves at H-pol and 7.46 Kelvin/volt for the slope of the calibration curves at V-pol during MicroWEX-1 | 13300871 |
4,509,302 | Diet-dependent hyperplastic growth of adipose tissue in hypothalamic obese rats. Accelerated production of fat cells is often seen in dietary obesity in rats but not in obesity occurring in response to damage to the medial area of the hypothalamus (MH). The basis for this difference was examined. MH damage (MHD) was produced in rats by either electric current or small knife cuts. Rats were then fed either chow or a high-fat high-sugar diet (HFS) for up to 6 mo. Fat cell production did not accelerate during the 1st 16 wk after MHD in rats fed only chow, but acceleration clearly occurred in rats fed HFS during only 4 wk. At 18 wk after MHD rats fed only chow showed evidence of accelerated fat cell production. However, there was greater acceleration after MHD in HFS-fed rats held to the same weight gain as chow-fed rats. Rats allowed to freely eat HFS for 6 mo after MHD showed extremely large increases in body weight and fat cell number. The plateau in body weight often seen in rats fed only chow after MHD did not occur. Because HFS-feeding promoted unimpeded production of fat cells, accelerated weight gain induced by MHD could continue indefinitely. These findings suggest that enlargement of fat cells and components of the diet act synergistically in the promotion of adipocyte hyperplasia in adult rats and also suggest that accelerated weight gain after MHD is not due to elevation of a set point for body weight or body fat. | 25116721 |
4,509,303 | Parallel loss of nuclear-encoded mitochondrial aminoacyl-tRNA synthetases and mtDNA-encoded tRNAs in Cnidaria. Unlike most animal mitochondrial (mt) genomes, which encode a set of 22 transfer RNAs (tRNAs) sufficient for mt protein synthesis, those of cnidarians have only retained one or two tRNA genes. Whether the missing cnidarian mt-tRNA genes relocated outside the main mt chromosome or were lost remains unclear. It is also unknown what impact the loss of tRNA genes had on other components of the mt translational machinery. Here, we explored the nuclear genome of the cnidarian Nematostella vectensis for the presence of mt-tRNA genes and their corresponding mt aminoacyl-tRNA synthetases (mt-aaRS). We detected no candidates for mt-tRNA genes and only two mt-aaRS orthologs. At the same time, we found that all but one cytosolic aaRS appear to be targeted to mitochondria. These results indicate that the loss of mt-tRNAs in Cnidaria is genuine and occurred in parallel with the loss of nuclear-encoded mt-aaRS. Our phylogenetic analyses of individual aaRS revealed that although the nearly total loss of mt-aaRS is rare, aaRS gene deletion and replacement have occurred throughout the evolution of Metazoa. | 18040621 |
4,509,304 | Optimized transection: a prelude to oriented sectioning. A technique is described which permits blocks of tissue to be flat-embedded in euhedral plastic castings and then to be transected along a plane so that sections may be cut which are optimally oriented to the internal ultrastructure of the block. In the transection procedure a hollow plastic cylinder is placed on the specimen trimming block. The cylinder's top prescribes a plane to which the tissue block is accurately oriented and clamped at a predetermined level. Two hand files and a burnisher are worked across the cylinder's top to 1) remove extraneous material above the plane of transection, 2) expose the tissue for sectioning and 3) smooth the block face. The clear plastic at the periphery of the exposed tissue is then easily trimmed away with a razor blade. The result is a block face with a flat, reflective surface which may be quickly aligned to the knife on the ultramicrotome. The effort needed to transect, align and face the block is minimal and 1-micron or semithin sections produced will be precisely parallel to, and at, the plane of transection. Dust produced by the transection procedure is easily eliminated from the work area by use of a small disposable vacuum cleaner. The technique of producing optimally oriented light microscope sections, using the transector, is enhanced by application of solvents to the block face which cause it to develop a temporary low relief, exactly matching the structural detail of sections cut from the block face.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS) | 6763621 |
4,509,305 | The expression of p53 protein in non-Hodgkin's lymphomas is not always dependent on p53 gene mutations. p53 overexpression has been found to be a fairly common feature in high grade lymphomas in the majority of tumoral cells. The results vary from series to series, from 25% to 33% of cases. To assess whether immunohistochemical positivity for p53 correlated with the presence of structural gene abnormalities, DNA from 16 non-Hodgkin's lymphomas with high and low p53 values was amplified and sequenced to determine the existence of point mutations in the highly conserved regions of the p53 gene. In the group of 8 cases containing high levels of protein, 3 cases showed missense point mutations at the codons mapping between exons 5 through 8. Of the 8 cases of tumors containing undetectable or low levels of p53 protein, 1 case presented a nonsense point mutation giving a stop codon. No missense mutations were detected in this group. The finding of p53 mutations in 4 of 16 cases confirms the presence of p53 gene mutations in high grade lymphomas distributed over different histologic groups. These include Burkitt's lymphoma, together with centroblastic, immunoblastic, and large cell lymphoma of mucosa origin. Nevertheless, the absence of mutations in 5 of the 8 cases that overexpressed p53 suggests that the nuclear or cytoplasmic stabilization of p53 protein could also depend on other factors. The absence of detectable levels of p53 protein cannot discount the existence of p53 mutations, as is shown by a case of Burkitt's lymphoma in which a nonsense mutation was | 13064671 |
4,509,306 | detected. The impact of this range of p53 alterations on clinical course and treatment response of the patients deserves to be explored, in an attempt to differentiate the specific consequences of each one. | 13064671 |
4,509,307 | Quantifying undiagnosed organic mental disorder in geriatric inpatients. Organic mental disorder often goes undetected in geriatric patients who have coexisting psychiatric symptoms. To determine the prevalence of organic mental disorders in geriatric patients admitted to a large metropolitan psychiatric inpatient service, charts for 95 patients over the age of 60 were reviewed, and diagnoses at admission and discharge were compared. Despite the facility's admission policy of excluding patients with only organic mental disorder, 32 patients required evaluation for organic mental disorder during hospitalization, and on reevaluation 15 patients received a primary diagnosis of organic mental disorder. The author discusses the mental health care and fiscal considerations of accurately assessing geriatric patients, especially in the context of the new federal regulations prohibiting most nursing home admissions for mentally ill patients. | 44635421 |
4,509,308 | Bacteriophages Reduce Experimental Contamination of Hard Surfaces, Tomato, Spinach, Broccoli, and Ground Beef by Escherichia coli O157:H7 ABSTRACT A bacteriophage cocktail (designated ECP-100) containing three Myoviridae phages lytic for Escherichia coli O157:H7 was examined for its ability to reduce experimental contamination of hard surfaces (glass coverslips and gypsum boards), tomato, spinach, broccoli, and ground beef by three virulent strains of the bacterium. The hard surfaces and foods contaminated by a mixture of three E. coli O157:H7 strains were treated with ECP-100 (test samples) or sterile phosphate-buffered saline buffer (control samples), and the efficacy of phage treatment was evaluated by comparing the number of viable E. coli organisms recovered from the test and control samples. Treatments (5 min) with the ECP-100 preparation containing three different concentrations of phages (1010, 109, and 108 PFU/ml) resulted in statistically significant reductions (P = <0.05) of 99.99%, 98%, and 94%, respectively, in the number of E. coli O157:H7 organisms recovered from the glass coverslips. Similar treatments resulted in reductions of 100%, 95%, and 85%, respectively, in the number of E. coli O157:H7 organisms recovered from the gypsum board surfaces; the reductions caused by the two most concentrated phage preparations were statistically significant. Treatment with the least concentrated preparation that elicited significantly less contamination of the hard surfaces (i.e., 109 PFU/ml) also significantly reduced the number of viable E. coli O157:H7 organisms on the four food samples. The observed reductions ranged from 94% (at 120 ± 4 h posttreatment of tomato samples) to 100% (at 24 ± 4 h posttreatment of spinach | 9317021 |
4,509,309 | samples). The data suggest that naturally occurring bacteriophages may be useful for reducing contamination of various hard surfaces, fruits, vegetables, and ground beef by E. coli O157:H7. | 9317021 |
4,509,310 | A brief intervention to increase physical activity in sedentary working women. The purpose of this study was to determine whether a brief, tailored counselling intervention is effective for increasing physical activity in sedentary women when delivered in the workplace. This prospective randomized trial used a brief intervention based on the Transtheoretical Model. The intervention group received health screening, a brief intervention, and, 2 weeks later, a booster telephone call from a nurse practitioner. The intervention was tailored to each woman's reported exercise behaviour. The 134 women randomized to the intervention were compared with 153 women in a control group who received health counselling not tailored to their exercise behaviour and no telephone call. Six weeks later, the intervention group, when compared to baseline, had significantly improved their physical activity, increasing their amount of weekend physical activity as well as minutes walked for exercise, on errands, total walking, and total daily blocks walked. When compared to controls, they showed significantly greater gains. This test of a brief, tailored strategy provides a critical contribution to the search for efficient, effective ways for nurses to deliver workplace health promotion interventions. | 3104971 |
4,509,311 | Novel Approaches for Scheduling in D-Grid - Towards an interoperable Scheduling Framework As the Grid is becoming the day-to-day infrastructure for e-Science and e-Business, support is required for more complex and demanding application scenarios in which not just a single resource is required, but a set of resources with certain dependencies. Such workflows complicate the management of resources, especially in cases where they are offered by several different resource providers, since resource access must be synchronised in advance to allow reliable workflow execution. In this paper we show the differ ent Grid scheduling solutions which exist in the D-Grid ecosystem and describe in detail a workflow-aware D-Grid sel f-development and another, complementary, German scheduling solution. Based on the functional characterist ics of these systems we identify existing gaps and show potential solutions towards an interoperable scheduling f ramework in the D-Grid environment. | 15584021 |
4,509,312 | [Nicotine gum and lipid profile]. Smoking promotes for atherosclerosis by several mechanisms and particularly its actions on lipid metabolism; nicotine liability is well established. In one patient the use of nicotine-gum was reported to increase total cholesterol and LDL cholesterol. We studied lipid modifications in 14 voluntary students, heavy smokers (greater than 20 cigarettes/day) and nicotine dependent (Fagerström test; score greater than 7). They gave up smoking and received in double blind study either 2 mg nicotine-gum, or placebo-gum (8-12 gums a day for one month). Total and HDL cholesterol (chol.), triglycerides (TG) were measured at day 0, day 30 and day 60. Giving up smoking was ascertained by CO-analyser. At day 30 total chol and TG were unmodified, and HDL chol appeared slightly increased. At day 60 HDL and LDL chol were significantly improved. So in nicotine-dependent smokers, by giving up smoking and receiving 2 mg nicotine-gum, lipid patterns are not worsened but improved. | 22707421 |
4,509,313 | [Choice of bone cement augmentation techniques when sacral pedicle screw loosening]. OBJECTIVE To biomechanically compare the maximum pull-out strengths among two pedicle screws and three salvage techniques using poly methylmethacrylate (PMMA) augmentation in osteoporotic sacrum, and to determine which PMMA augmentation technique could serve as the salvage fixation for loosening sacral pedicle screws. METHODS Eleven sacral were harvested from fresh adult donated cadavers, aged from 66 to 83 years (average 74.4 years) and included 5 men and 6 women. Radiography was used to exclude sacral that showed tumor or inflammatory or any other anatomic abnormalities. Following the measurement of bone mineral density, five sacral screw fixations were sequentially established on the same sacrum as follows: unicortical pedicle screw (group A), bicortical pedicle screw (group B), unicortical pedicle screw with the traditional PMMA augmentation (group C), ala screw with the traditional PMMA augmentation (group D), and ala screw with a kyphoplasty-assisted PMMA augmentation technique (group E). According to the sequence above, the axial pull-out test of each screw was conducted on a MTS-858 material testing machine. The maximum pull-out forces were measured and compared. The morphologies of PMMA augmented screws after being pulled-out were also inspected. RESULTS The average bone mineral density of 11 osteoporotic specimens was (0.71 +/- 0.08) g/cm2. By observation of the pull-out screws, groups C, D, E showed perfect bonding with PMMA, and group E bonded more PMMA than groups C and D. The maximum pull-out forces of groups A, B, C, D, and E were (508 +/- 128), (685 +/- 126), (846 | 11266371 |
4,509,314 | +/- 230), (543 +/- 121), and (702 +/- 144) N, respectively. The maximum pullout strength was significantly higher in groups B, C, and E than in groups A and D (P < 0.05), and in group C than in groups B and E (P < 0.05). There was no significant difference in pull-out strength between groups A and D, and between groups B and E (P > 0.05). CONCLUSION For sacral screw fixation of osteoporotic patients with bone mineral density more than 0.7 g/cm2, bicortical pedicle screw could acquire significantly higher fixation strength than the unicortical. Once the loosening of pedicle screw occurs, the traditional PMMA augmentation or ala screw with kyphoplasty-assisted PMMA augmentation may serve as a suitable salvage technique. | 11266371 |
4,509,315 | Reduction of police vehicle accidents through mechaniically aided supervision. Tachograph recorders were installed in 224 vehicles of a metropolitan police department to monitor vehicle operation in an attempt to reduce the rate of accidents. Police sergeants reviewed each tachograph chart and provided feedback to officers regarding their driving performance. Reliability checks and additional feedback procedures were implemented so that upper level supervisors monitored and controlled the performance of field sergeants. The tachograph intervention and components of the feedback system nearly eliminated personal injury accidents and sharply reduced accidents caused by officer negligence. A cost-benefit analysis revealed that the savings in vehicle repair and injury claims outweighed the equipment and operating costs. | 34269871 |
4,509,316 | Interactions between Nutrients and the Immune System* Exposure to pathogenic organisms, is a normal consequence of living in an environment populated by a multitude of life forms. Highly effective barriers and mechanisms have developed during evolution for preventing the entry of pathogens into the body, or for creating a hostile environment within the body should pathogenic invasion occur. The immune system is responsible for the latter form of defence. The strength of immune defenses lies in their complexity and flexibility. The system involves both innate and acquired immune components. Both have cellular and secretory aspects. Phagocytic cells, cytokines, free radicals and other oxidant molecules comprise the innate component which acts as a first line of defence against pathogens. T and B lymphocytes and immunoglobulins compose the acquired component of defence. This paper concerns itself primarily with the impact of nutrients upon the first line of defence. Innate defences are activated within hours of entry of a pathogen into the body and do not depend upon prior exposure of the subject to the pathogen for the vigour with which they operate. The encounter between phagocytic cells and pathogens results in a rapid release of a wide range of potent molecules which include cytokines, nitric oxide, hydrogen peroxide and superoxide, hydroxyl and hypochlorite free radicals. 1 Nitric oxide, hydrogen peroxide and free radicals provide a potent means of defense by means of chemical attack upon the membranes, cellular proteins and nuclear material of the invading pathogen. The cytokines which include the interleukins (IL) and tumour necrosis factors (TNF), | 34548321 |
4,509,317 | bring about activation and modulation of lymphocyte activity and widespread metabolic changes | 34548321 |
4,509,318 | Abortion Access in Ohio's Changing Legislative Context, 2010-2018. Objectives. To examine abortion utilization in Ohio from 2010 to 2018, a period when more than 15 abortion-related laws became effective.Methods. We evaluated changes in abortion rates and ratios examining gestation, geographic distribution, and abortion method in Ohio from 2010 to 2018. We used data from Ohio's Office of Vital Statistics, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's Abortion Surveillance Reports, the American Community Survey, and Ohio's Public Health Data Warehouse.Results. During 2010 through 2018, abortion rates declined similarly in Ohio, the Midwest, and the United States. In Ohio, the proportion of early first trimester abortions decreased; the proportion of abortions increased in nearly every later gestation category. Abortion ratios decreased sharply in most rural counties. When clinics closed, abortion ratios dropped in counties in which clinics were located and in surrounding counties.Conclusions. More Ohioans had abortions later in the first trimester, compared with national patterns, suggesting delays to care. Steeper decreases in abortion ratios in rural versus urban counties suggest geographic inequity in abortion access.Public Health Implications. Policies restricting abortion access in Ohio co-occur with delays to care and increasing geographic inequities. Restrictive policies do not improve reproductive health. (Am J Public Health. Published online ahead of print May 21, 2020: e1-e7. doi:10.2105/AJPH.2020.305706). | 218832721 |
4,509,319 | The influence of anemia on respiratory gases and acid base parameters of the fetus. Fetal blood samples were collected by cordocentesis from 82 pregnant women; 12 of whom had severe forms of Rh isoimmunization, while 70 comprised the control group. The mean hematocrit value in the group under investigation was 15.72 +/- 3.62% and indication of severe anemia. The pH value in this group was 7.31 +/- 0.06; pCO2 partial pressure 6.36 +/- 0.64; O2-2.65 +/- 0.89 kPa; bicarbonate 23.84 +/- 3.02 mMol/l: base excess was -2.72 +/- 2.66 mMol/l and saturation 28.66 +/- 15.56%. In the control group the following values were established: pH -7.386 +/- 0.05; partial pressure pCO2-4.980 +/- 0.31 kPa; O2--4.960 +/- 0.90 kPa; bicarbonate 21.560 +/- 0.27 mMol/l; base excess -2.30 +/- 0.90 mMol/l and saturation 67.23 +/- 11.60%. The pH, partial pressure O2 and saturation values were significantly lower, while partial pressure CO2 was significantly higher in the investigated group than in the control group. Bicarbonates and base excess do not change significantly in the presence of anemia. Fetal blood sampling carried out by means of cordocentesis is the most reliable method for assessment of the degree of fetal anemia. The values of acid base parameters and of blood gases are an indication of either respiratory, respiratory-metabolic or metabolic acidosis. The possibilities of prenatal diagnostics, undoubtedly, contribute to a significant reduction of perinatal mortality. | 29411221 |
4,509,320 | Temporal Fine-Structure Cues to Speech and Pure Tone Modulation in Observers with Sensorineural Hearing Loss Objective: The purpose of this study was to examine the effect of sensorineural hearing loss on the ability to make use of fine temporal information and to evaluate the relation between this ability and the ability to recognize speech. Design: Fourteen observers with normal hearing and 12 observers with sensorineural hearing loss were tested on open-set word recognition and on psychophysical tasks thought to reflect use of fine-structure cues: the detection of 2 Hz frequency modulation (FM) and the discrimination of the rate of amplitude modulation (AM) and quasifrequency modulation (QFM). Results: The results showed relatively poor performance for observers with sensorineural hearing loss on both the speech recognition and psychoacoustical tasks. Of particular interest was the finding of significant correlations within the hearing-loss group between speech recognition performance and the psychoacoustical tasks based on frequency modulation, which are thought to reflect the quality of the coding of temporal fine structure. Conclusions: These results suggest that sensorineural hearing loss may be associated with a reduced ability to use fine temporal information that is coded by neural phase-locking to stimulus fine-structure and that this may contribute to poor speech recognition performance and to poor performance on psychoacoustical tasks that depend on temporal fine structure. | 11620271 |
4,509,321 | ON THE DIAGONAL LEMMA OF GÖDEL AND CARNAP Abstract A cornerstone of modern mathematical logic is the diagonal lemma of Gödel and Carnap. It is used in, for example, the classical proofs of the theorems of Gödel, Rosser, and Tarski. From its first explication in 1934, just essentially one proof has appeared for the diagonal lemma in the literature; a proof that is so tricky and hard to relate that many authors have tried to avoid the lemma altogether. As a result, some so-called diagonal-free proofs have been given for the above-mentioned fundamental theorems of logic. In this paper, we provide new proofs for the semantic formulation of the diagonal lemma, and for a weak version of the syntactic formulation of it. | 225727221 |
4,509,322 | Eurasian milfoil in Gulf of Mexico estuaries: does invasion of complex submerged vegetation lead to a “trophic dead end” in estuarine food webs? Estuaries of the northern Gulf of Mexico contain an abundance of habitat-forming submerged aquatic vegetation (SAV) that provide refuge and protection for a variety of freshwater, estuarine, and marine organisms. However, many of these estuaries now contain numerous exotic species, the ultimate impacts of which are unclear. In the Mobile-Tensaw Delta, located in the upper portion of Mobile Bay, Alabama (USA), Eurasian milfoil (Myriophyllum spicatum, hereafter referred to as Myriophyllum) is now the most dominant submerged macrophyte. Myriophyllum is a structurally-complex macrophyte with the potential to dramatically alter estuarine food webs through reduced encounter rates between predators and their prey and other mechanisms. Previously, we surveyed faunal communities using throw traps, trawls, cores, and suction sampling to compare milfoil assemblages with other native macrophytes to explore the interactive role of hydrology, diel periodicity, and macrophyte presence in influencing community structure. Here, we use this previously collected data to generate a preliminary food web analyses to determine if milfoil, due to its high complexity, creates a "trophic dead end" and limits higher trophic level production. We found the number of nodes, links, linkage density, and connectance to all be greater in milfoil than Vallisneria americana (hereafter referred to as Vallisneria), indicating that a diverse, productive, and highly connected food web exists in this invasive habitat. | 92577771 |
4,509,323 | A comparison study of topic modeling based literature analysis by using full texts and abstracts of scientific articles: a case of COVID-19 research PurposeHow to extract useful information from a very large volume of literature is a great challenge for librarians. Topic modeling technique, which is a machine learning algorithm to uncover latent thematic structures from large collections of documents, is a widespread approach in literature analysis, especially with the rapid growth of academic literature. In this paper, a comparison of topic modeling based literature analysis has been done using full texts and abstracts of articles.Design/methodology/approachThe authors conduct a comparison study of topic modeling on full-text paper and corresponding abstract to assess the influence of the different types of documents been used as input for topic modeling. In particular, the authors use the large volumes of COVID-19 research literature as a case study for topic modeling based literature analysis. The authors illustrate the research topics, research trends and topic similarity of COVID-19 research by using Latent Dirichlet allocation (LDA) and topic visualization method.FindingsThe authors found 14 research topics for COVID-19 research. The authors also found that the topic similarity between using full-text paper and corresponding abstract is higher when more documents are analyzed.Originality/valueFirst, this study contributes to the literature analysis approach. The comparison study can help us understand the influence of the different types of documents on the results of topic modeling analysis. Second, the authors present an overview of COVID-19 research by summarizing 14 research topics for it. This automated literature analysis can help specialists | 248676321 |
4,509,324 | in the health and medical domain or other people to quickly grasp the structured morphology of the current studies for COVID-19. | 248676321 |
4,509,325 | Racial and ethnic disparities in sexual risk behaviors and STDs during young men's transition to adulthood. CONTEXT Racial and ethnic health disparities are an important issue in the United States. The extent to which racial and ethnic differences in STDs among youth are related to differences in socioeconomic characteristics and risky sexual behaviors requires investigation. METHODS Data from three waves of the National Survey of Adolescent Males (1988, 1990-1991 and 1995) were used to examine 1,880 young men's history of STDs and their patterns and trajectories of sexual risk behavior during adolescence and early adulthood. Multinomial and logistic regression analyses were conducted to test whether racial and ethnic differences in STDs are due to the lower socioeconomic status and higher levels of risky sexual behavior among minority groups. RESULTS Young black men reported the highest rates of sexual risk and STDs at each wave and across waves. Compared with white men, black and Latino men had higher odds of maintaining high sexual risk and increasing sexual risk over time (odds ratios, 1.7-1.9). In multivariate analyses controlling for socioeconomic characteristics, black men were more likely than white men to have a history of STDs (3.2-5.0); disparities persisted in analyses controlling for level of risky sexual behavior. CONCLUSIONS Race and ethnicity continue to differentiate young black and Latino men from their white peers in terms of STDs. Prevention programs that target different racial and ethnic subgroups of adolescent men and address both individual- and contextual-level factors are needed to curb STD incidence. | 207269821 |
4,509,326 | Simulation of fatigue crack growth in welded joints This paper gives an overview on recent research results of the Darmstadt group inside a project called integral fracture mechanics based determination of the fatigue strength of weldments (IBESS). Purpose of this project is the fracture mechanics based simulation of Wöhler‐curves (S‐N‐curves) of welded joints. Part of this project is the investigation of initial defects and imperfections of welded joints. Metallographic and fractographic investigations have been done to derive a definition of an initial crack situation. Also investigations of the crack growth of multiple short cracks were performed on the basis of thermographic and fractographic studies. Another part of integral fracture mechanics based determination of the fatigue strength of weldments gives attention to the stability of the residual stress field in a welded joint due to the transient plastic deformation behaviour under cyclic loading. Numerical simulations using Döring's material model have been done to investigate the effect of a cyclic loading on a residual stress field in an uncracked and a cracked situation. | 110072371 |
4,509,327 | Occurrence of arsenic impurities in organoarsenics and animal feeds. Organoarsenics are widely used as excellent feed additives in animal production in the world. Roxarsone (ROX) and arsanilic acid (ASA) are two organoarsenics permitted to be used in China. We collected 146 animal feed samples to investigate the appearance of ROX, ASA, and potential metabolites, including 3-amino-4-hydroxyphenylarsonic acid (3-A-HPA), 4-hydroxyphenylarsonic acid (4-HPA), As(V), As(III), monomethylarsonic acid (MMA), and dimethylarsinic acid (DMA) in feeds. The stability of ROX in both ROX additives and animal feeds was also examined. The results show that 25.4% of the 146 animal feeds contained organoarsenics, with average contents of ROX and ASA as 7.0 and 21.2 mg of As/kg, respectively. Unexpectedly, As(III) and MMA frequently occurred as As impurities in feeds bearing organoarsenics, with higher contents than organoarsenics in some samples. 3-A-HPA, 4-HPA, and DMA were not detected in all samples. ROX and As impurities in both ROX additives and feeds stayed unchanged in the shelf life. It suggests that As impurities in animal feeds bearing organoarsenics should generate from the use of organoarsenics containing As impurities. This constitutes the first report of As impurities in organoarsenics. | 207208121 |
4,509,328 | On the synthesis of time‐varying LQG weights and noises along optimal control and state trajectories A general approach to control non-linear uncertain systems is to apply a pre-computed nominal optimal control, and use a pre-computed LQG compensator to generate control corrections from the on-line measured data. If the non-linear model, on which the optimal control and LQG compensator design is based, is of sufficient quality, and when the LQG compensator is designed appropriately, the closed-loop control system is approximately optimal. This paper contributes to the selection and computation of the time-varying LQG weighting and noise matrices, which determine the LQG compensator design. It is argued that the noise matrices may be taken time-invariant and diagonal. Three very important considerations concerning the selection of the time-varying LQG weighting matrices are turned into a concrete computational scheme. Thereby, the selection of the time-varying LQG weighting matrices is reduced to selecting three scalar design parameters, each one weighting one consideration. Although the three considerations seem straightforward they may oppose one another. Furthermore, they usually result in time-varying weighting matrices that are indefinite, rather than positive (semi) definite as required for the LQG design. The computational scheme presented in this paper addresses and resolves both problems. By two numerical examples the benefits of our optimal closed-loop control system design are demonstrated and evaluated using Monte Carlo simulation. | 18351071 |
4,509,329 | A new ground plane detection method based on continuous multi-frame images and hierarchical screening Aircraft is a kind of valuable military equipment and transportation, so using target detection technology to detect ground aircraft in the optical remote sensing image has important research and application value. Although some achievements have been made in the relevant research, how to realize fast and effective ground aircraft target detection is still a challenging task because of the complex background of remote sensing image, large scale change and small imaging size, etc. Aiming at the application scenarios of multi-frame imaging, such as embedded detection and tracking system, this thesis proposes an aircraft target detection scheme based on hierarchical screening, which can improve the detection speed and reduce false alarm. Firstly, by analyzing the background characteristics, a target candidate region extraction method based on gray variance is adopted, and the acceleration is realized by integrating graph and shared computation. Then, the haar-like features are extracted in the candidate regions, which are then classified by the cascade AdaBoost classifier. Afterwards, a union-find-sets algorithm is used to merge the redundancy detection results and evaluate the confidence. Finally, the inter-frame correlation information is used to remove the false alarm. And we carried out experimental verification and proved the effectiveness of the algorithm. | 211553821 |
4,509,330 | Herpes zoster ophthalmicus Varicella (chickenpox) is a common disease of childhood. When the Varicella zoster virus becomes reactived later in life, the disorder is termed herpes zoster. The lifetime risk of contracting a herpes zoster infection is 10–20% and can result in a multitude of local and systemic complications. When the eye is involved, the infection and sequelae may result in chronic pain, scaring, blindness and loss of the eye. We discuss the diagnosis and treatment of herpes zoster ophthalmicus and its complications. | 57580771 |
4,509,331 | AN RP-HPLC METHOD DEVELOPED FOR DETERMINATION OF BIFONAZOLE IN PHARMACEUTICAL FORMULATION A Validated RP-HPLC method has been developed for estimation of Bifonazole in bulk and pharmaceutical cream. The method was developed using C18 column (250×4.6 mm; 5µm) with a mobile phase consisting of methanol and 0.1 M sodium acetate in ratio of 70:30 at P H 3, flow rate of 1 ml/min with retention time found 6.54 min. Detection was carried out at 252 nm with UV detector. The developed method was evaluated for various system suitability parameters and validated for linearity, accuracy, precision, LOD, LOQ as per ICH guidelines. The proposed method can be used for the estimation Bifonazole in their pharmaceutical dosage forms and no interference of excipients found in developed method. | 32845071 |
4,509,332 | A study on setting of the fatigue limit of temporary dental implants A temporary dental implant is a medical device which is temporarily used to support a prosthesis such as an artificial tooth used for restoring patient's masticatory function during implant treatment. It is implanted in the oral cavity to substitute for the role of tooth. Due to the aging and westernization of current Korean society, the number of tooth extraction and implantation procedures is increasing, leading to an increase in the use and development of temporary dental implants. Because an implant performs a masticatory function in place of a tooth, a dynamic load is repeatedly put on the implant. Thus, the fatigue of implants is reported to be the most common causes of the fracture thereof. According to the investigation and analysis of the current domestic and international standards, the standard for fatigue of implant fixtures is not separately specified. Although a test method for measuring the fatigue is suggested in an ISO standard, it is a standard for permanent dental implants. Most of the test standards for Korean manufacturers and importers apply 250 N or more based on the guidance for the safety and performance evaluation of dental implants. Therefore, this study is intended to figure out the fatigue standard which can be applied to temporary dental implants when measuring the fatigue according to the test method suggested in the permanent dental implant standard. The results determined that suitable fatigue standards of temporary dental implants should be provided by each manufacturer rather than applying | 5355621 |
4,509,333 | 250 N. This study will be useful for the establishment of the fatigue standards and fatigue test methods of the manufacturers and importers of temporary dental implants. | 5355621 |
4,509,334 | A coupled knowledge based system for online economic dispatch of multiple fuel units in a thermal plant Economics and stability are two disjoint areas of power system operation that also require different parameters. Fundamental factors in the economic operation are combinatorial explosiveness, distributed nature of the system, and dominance of the human factors. A case where human factor is evidently dominant is due to the recent trend in thermal power stations to use natural gas from multiple gas fields to ensure reliability of service. Fuel cost characteristics change without knowledge of central dispatch office when the plant engineer shift the units from one fuel to the other. A mathematical model and an algorithm have been developed for online computation of these characteristics. Some elements in the economic dispatch of these units may take advantage from coupled expert systems. This paper discusses some of the issues that arise in the economic dispatch of these units and a prospective coupled knowledge-based model has been presented. | 25272471 |
4,509,335 | Automatic heart localization and radiographic index computation in chest x-rays This study proposes a novel automated method for cardiomegaly detection in chest X-rays (CXRs). The algo- rithm has two main stages: i) heart and lung region localization on CXRs, and ii) radiographic index extraction from the heart and lung boundaries. We employed a lung detection algorithm and extended it to automatically compute the heart boundaries. The typical models of heart and lung regions are learned using a public CXR dataset with boundary markings. The method estimates the location of these regions in candidate ('patient') CXR images by registering models to the patient CXR. For the radiographic index computation, we implemented the traditional and recently published indexes in the literature. The method is tested on a database with 250 abnormal, and 250 normal CXRs. The radiographic indexes are combined through a classifier, and the method successfully classifies the patients with cardiomegaly with a 0:77 accuracy, 0:77 sensitivity and 0:76 specificity. | 2106271 |
4,509,336 | Comorbid Medical Conditions in Friedreich Ataxia Friedreich ataxia is a progressive degenerative disease with neurologic and cardiac involvement. This study characterizes comorbid medical conditions in a large cohort of patients with Friedreich ataxia. Patient diagnoses were collected in a large natural history study of 641 subjects. Prevalence of diagnoses in the cohort with Friedreich ataxia was compared with prevalence in the population without Friedreich ataxia. Ten patients (1.6%) had inflammatory bowel disease, 3.5 times more common in this cohort of individuals with Friedreich ataxia than in the general population. Four subjects were growth hormone deficient, reflecting a prevalence in Friedreich ataxia that is 28 times greater than the general population. The present study identifies specific diagnoses not traditionally associated with Friedreich ataxia that are found at higher frequency in this disease. These associations could represent coincidence, shared genetic background, or potentially interactive disease mechanisms with Friedreich ataxia. | 27138171 |
4,509,337 | Information Monte Carlo localization algorithm for fusing distributed perception A distributed perception network is designed including environmental cameras and a laser sensor on the robot, and accordingly, an information Monte Carlo localization algorithm is proposed to fuse distributed perception. In the process of Monte Carlo localization, an efficient numerical method is employed to approximating the information utility in sensor selection. Consequently, the robot pose is updated according to the measurement from the optimal sensor node. Experimental results illustrate the validity of the method in solving problems of global localization and “kidnapped robot”. | 27071671 |
4,509,338 | Lock-free hybrid concurrency control strategy for mobile environment Concurrency control is one of the most important components of transaction management, which ensures the correctness of shared data items. Most of the existing concurrency control techniques use locking mechanism to achieve concurrency control, which leads to transaction starvation and deadlock. On the other hand, the non-locking techniques (i.e. optimistic and timestamp ordering) are associated with high abortion rate and excessive transaction restart. This paper presents a lock-free hybrid concurrency control strategy that combines the features of optimistic and timestamp-ordering strategies. The technique allows mobile devices to freely read data items and allowed to pre-commit while in disconnection mode, and latter propagate the pre-committed data during reconnection for global commitment. A designed hybrid concurrency simulator (HCsim) was used to evaluate the performance of the new scheme using transaction abortion rate and response time as performance metrics. Simulation results have shown that lock-free hybrid strategy outperform both optimistic and timestamp strategies in terms of minimizing the transaction abortion rate and response time. | 20528171 |
4,509,339 | Pharmacologic therapy in traumatic brain injury: update on experimental treatment strategies. Considerable effort has led to an increased interest in emerging preclinical and clinical data regarding the pathophysiological changes in the posttraumatic brain. It is widely believed that delayed cell damage and death contributes to behavioral impairment following traumatic brain injury. However, no drug therapy to attenuate this process is available at present, and the development of new therapeutic regimen is urgently warranted. This manuscript represents a compendium of recent preclinical work undertaken to evaluate new pharmacologic strategies in the experimental setting as a first step towards the development of a therapeutic armamentarium directed to improve functional recovery in head-injured patients. | 22112471 |
4,509,340 | Research experiences and social justice Stimulating and suppressing HIFs Cells respond and adapt to hypoxia (low oxygen) by activating the a subunits of the hypoxia-inducible factor (HIF) family of transcription factors. Daly et al. explored the protein modifications and binding partners for HIF-1a and HIF-2a. Their findings, which included a phosphorylated cysteine residue and interactions with mitochondrial proteins, indicate that the oxygen-dependent regulation of HIF activity is more complex than was previously appreciated. This dataset will help to delineate the selective regulation of these closely related isoforms in fine-tuning the cellular response to hypoxia. —LKF Sci. Signal. 14, eabf6685 (2021). | 236921821 |
4,509,341 | Data Mining Methods Used for Quality Management – a Bibliometric Analysis Nowadays, the most significant trend regarding Industry 4.0 in manufacturing appears to be smart factories. In Smart factories, manufacturing is mostly lead by robots with the use of a wide range of sensors, QR codes, etc. Factories can monitor all the manufacturing processes and store huge amounts of data. From this data, they can mine information that can be beneficial for a company’s revenues, costs, or product quality, which is mainly in our interest. In this state-of-the-art paper, we have performed bibliometric analysis and an extensive survey on recent developments in the field of Data mining techniques application in quality management in manufacturing. This study collected research papers, journal articles, and conference proceedings fromWeb of Science (WoS) for all history until 2019. A total of 372 papers from WoS were found. We also analyzed papers from the Scopus database from which we selected 660 papers. This paper summarizes the increasing structure of Data mining applications for quality management and provides a concise background overview of various Data mining techniques frequently used in the last 20 years. In the bibliometric analysis, different performance metrics are extracted, such as total papers, total citations, and citations per year. These metrics are analyzed within three main areas: Productivity, Sustainability and Index. Further, top of the most productive and highly cited authors, major subject areas, sources or journals, and countries are evaluated. A list of highly influential papers is also assessed. | 227189821 |
4,509,342 | Improved Indoor Localization System Using Statistical AP Selection Method Based on RSSI Nowadays, the demand for nursing care service has been increasing rapidly with the growth of aging population and presence of chronic diseases. To ease the problem of workforce shortage in healthcare facilities, a novel remote monitoring system is proposed based on wireless communication. The developed system applied collected Received signal strength indicator (RSSI) for acquiring the position of patients and the elderly. Several methods based on RSSI are usually used like maximum likelihood estimation and trilateration. However, accuracies of these methods are not ideal for localization due to abnormal RSSI value caused by random reflection or refraction of radio propagation. In this paper, statistical AP selection method is applied to achieve distribution situation of trilateration results. Then Centroid and Kernel Density Estimation method are utilized to obtain estimation points according to distribution of combination. The experimental result shows that the localization system is sufficient with the improved strategy on positioning. | 53020121 |
4,509,343 | Rebuilding trust between police & communities through procedural justice & reconciliation In many societies around the world, segments of the public strongly distrust legal and political authorities. Regardless of how the distrust arises, it lessens the possibilities for future social cohesion, democratic governance, and successful economic development—factors that define strong communities. How can authorities build trust amid a legacy of distrust? In this review, the authors focus on relations between the police and communities and draw on two psychological literatures that articulate evidence-informed trust-building strategies. One, the procedural justice approach, concentrates on the fair and respectful exercise of authority during everyday interactions between individuals. The other, reconciliation, involves gestures that are carried out at the community level with the expressed intention of addressing past injustice and that promise changes in an authority’s future relations with a community. This review concludes with policy recommendations, drawn from both literatures, describing a process of trust building that involves substantive improvements in procedural justice combined with reconciliatory gestures that signal a sincere intent to increase trust through service to communities. O’Brien, T. C., & Tyler, T. R. (2019). Rebuilding trust between police & communities through procedural justice & reconciliation. Behavioral Science & Policy, 5(1), 35–50. review | 214529971 |
4,509,344 | Deep Facial Action Unit Recognition and Intensity Estimation from Partially Labelled Data Research on facial action unit (AU) analysis typically require facial images that are labelled with those action units. While unlabelled facial images abound, labelling those images with action units or intensity is costly and time-consuming. Our approach makes it possible to analyze facial AUs when only some of the images have been labelled. We use many facial images to learn a deep framework that is able to take advantage of the facial representations. A restricted Boltzmann machine uses the available AU annotations to learn the AU label or intensity distribution. We train a support vector machine for AU recognition and a support vector regression for AU intensity estimation by maximizing the log likelihood of the AU mapping functions, taking into account the learned multiple AU distribution for all training data, while simultaneously diminishing errors between the predicted action units and ground-truth action unit occurrence or intensities for all labelled data. We perform experiments on two databases. The results demonstrate the superiority of a deep neural network for learning facial features, as well as the benefit of action unit label or intensity constraints for action unit occurrence recognition or intensity estimation in fully or semi-supervised scenarios. | 181541471 |
4,509,345 | An Interview with Paula Mclain, Author of The Paris Wife On 16 February 2012, Paula McLain, author of the bestselling novel The Paris Wife (2011) was the featured speaker in the Rollins College series, "Winter with the Writers." Hemingway scholar Gail Sinclair took the opportunity to interview McLain about her vivid fictionalization of Hemingway's marriage to Hadley Richardson and about the book's resounding success. | 162209271 |
4,509,346 | Ethical Considerations in Psychological Consultation to Critical Care Settings This chapter discusses the ethical and professional standards affecting psychologists who provide consultation as members of interdisciplinary treatment teams in critical care and intensive care settings. The authors describe the unique characteristics of critical and intensive care units and how they contribute to complex life and death decisions, which in turn can result in unique moral, ethical, and clinical psychological dilemmas. In particular, this chapter focuses on the ethical quandaries that are commonly faced by psychologists in these highly specialized medical settings, and provides a mechanism for resolving ethical conflicts when they occur. Case examples are provided, each of which illustrate one of the ten ethical standards listed in the American Psychological Association’s code of ethics. Lastly, a model for maintaining ethical situational awareness in psychological consultations in critical care settings is proposed to serve as a guide for psychologists as they navigate and ultimately resolve challenging ethical dilemmas. | 244397121 |
4,509,347 | Grafting of Conductive Polymers onto the Functionalized Carbon Nanotubes Abstract : Multi-walled carbon nanotubes (MWNTs) were functionalized and used as conducting bridge in the polyaniline (PANi) matrix. Since MWNTs are exceptional materials having many advantages as follows. The one is that they assumed to have good crystalline structure and thus, they are expected to show outstanding properties. The other is that they are considered as pseudo-one dimensional materials with high aspect ratio (length/diameter) and thus, they are expected to display low percolation threshold. To take advantages of those features, however, they have to be homogeneous dispersion into supporting matrices without damages such as side wall opening, breaking and turning amorphous carbons. Although many researchers have been studied on carbon nanotubes (CNTs) for two decades since their discovery, a remaining challenge is still homogeneous dispersion of CNTs into individual CNT. The most of investigators have explored the easiest ways to disperse CNTs by chemical oxidization in strong acids or physical breaking by sonication. Both approaches, however, destroy carbon frameworks resulting in loosing the outstanding properties of CNTs. The challenge in this proposal was covalent attachment of reactive functional groups onto the surface of MWNT with minimal damages. PNAi was able to graft onto the surface of functionalized MWNT. The resultant PANi grafted MWNT displayed significantly improved electrical properties. The results of proposed project has been presented in academic meetings and published in journals. They are listed below. The rest of portions are still pursuing and the results will be published to academic journals. | 136770121 |
4,509,348 | Performance measures for coupled digital phase-locked loops for the separation of co-channel signals Coupled digital phase-locked loops (CDPLLs), derived from extended Kalman filter theory, have been shown to suppress adjacent and cochannel interferers. The ability of these CDPLLs to separate cochannel signals is addressed. State observability criteria are defined and examined for nonlinear state observations which model phase modulation. These metrics can then be used to address signal separation and tracking behavior of CDPLLs.<<ETX>> | 110788871 |
4,509,349 | Accelerated Verification of Digital Devices Using VHDL As digital designs become more complex and increasingly include a processor on the chip, verification – and in particular the generation of testbenches – is becoming a bottleneck. This paper presents two aspects for improving the verification of microprocessors; program-less verification, and methods for handling large differences in abstraction level between a reference model and the actual design. Program-less verification is a type of pseudo random verification where the notion of a software program executing on the microprocessor has been abandoned. This removes some restrictions on the pseudo random data and instruction streams, and avoids limitations and bugs in software tools such as assemblers. A high level of abstraction is important when creating reference models,ion is important when creating reference models, since it reduces the risk for introducing errors in the reference, as well as the effort for coding it. However, the testbenches must then be able to cope with behavioural dif ferences due to phenomena such as prefetching, speculative execution etc. | 18539571 |
4,509,350 | OC-096 The delivery of high-risk emergency general surgery across the dr foster global comparators network: an examination of international outcomes Introduction The Dr Foster Global Comparators Network (GC) aims to improve quality in healthcare by promoting inter-hospital collaboration through sharing of outcome data and benchmarking standards. This study aims to utilise the GC database to establish whether geographical differences in outcomes exist following high-risk emergency general surgery (EGS) admissions, whilst determining if structural differences between healthcare systems can be linked to high-quality care. Method Discharge data for a cohort of EGS patients were collated using a pre-determined protocol. Hierarchical logistic regression analysis was performed to examine geographical and structural differences between GC hospitals. Results 69,490 patients, admitted to 23 centres across Australia, England and the USA with high-risk EGS diagnoses from 2007–2012 were identified. Outcomes including: seven/thirty-day mortality, readmission and length of stay were all superior in the USA. 19,082 patients (27%) underwent emergency abdominal surgery. No geographical differences in mortality were seen at seven-days in this subgroup. Thirty-day mortality (OR = 1.47) readmission (OR = 1.42) and length of stay (OR = 1.98) were all worse in the UK. Across this cohort, patient factors, (age, pathology and co-morbidity) were significantly associated with worse outcome as were structural factors including: low ITU bed ratios, high unit volume and inter-hospital transfers. Having dedicated EGS teams cleared of elective commitments with formalised handover of patients was associated with shorter length of stay. Conclusion Post-operative outcomes were similar at seven but not at thirty-days. This may be attributable to | 75803821 |
4,509,351 | better infrastructure and resource allocation towards EGS in the US. The costs associated with this healthcare gain were not measured. Disclosure of interest None Declared. | 75803821 |
4,509,352 | Thom Brooks's Project of a Systematic Reading of Hegel's Philosophy of Right Thom Brooks's Hegel's Political Philosophy: A Systematic Reading of the Philosophy of Right presents a very clear and methodologically self-conscious series of discussions of key topics within Hegel's classic text. As one might expect for a ‘systematic’ reading, the main body of Brooks's text commences with an opening chapter on Hegel's system. Then follow seven chapters, the topics of which (property, punishment, morality, family, law, monarchy, war) are encountered sequentially as one reads through the Philosophy of Right. Brooks's central claim is that too often Hegel's theories or views on any of these topics are misunderstood because of a tendency to isolate the relevant passages from the encompassing structure of the Philosophy of Right itself, and, in turn, from Hegel's system of philosophy as a whole, with its logical underpinnings. Brooks is clearly right in holding that Hegel had intended the Philosophy of Right to be read against the background of ‘the system’ and the ‘logic’ articulating it —nobody doubts that— but there is a further substantive issue here. Should contemporary readers heed Hegel's advice? Brooks's answer is emphatically in the affirmative, and what results is a series of illuminating discussions in which he makes a case for his own interpretations on the basis of systematic considerations, presented against a range of alternatives taken from the contemporary secondary literature, which is amply covered, often in the extensive endnotes to the book. | 160030121 |
4,509,353 | An experimental study on silver in the nervous system and on aspects of its general cellular toxicity. Exposure of foetal and adult rats to silver results in a long-lasting deposition of the metal in many structures of the nervous system. A brief anatomical description of the localization of silver deposits as they are visualized by autometallography is provided. The consequences of silver in the nervous system were evaluated by volumetric measurements on developing rat hippocampi which showed that silver induced a decrease in the total volume of hippocampal pyramidal cells. The toxicity of silver at the cellular level was studied in a test-system of cultured macrophages. High doses of silver caused coagulation necrosis, whereas lower concentrations resulted in a cytotoxic and possibly a cytostatic effect without affecting cell structure. The processing of silver which resulted in lysosomal accumulations was affected by the metal itself in a dose-dependent fashion (autointerference). Other basic macrophage functions (protein-production, phagocytosis, migration) were not affected by silver at concentrations which did not cause acute cell death. Biochemically, silver causes an increase in lipid peroxidation, which was evident only in liver tissue. Coagulation necrosis and, to some extent, long-term effects on cell viability could be reversed by inorganic selenium, which was tested as a detoxicant. On the other hand, pre-exposure of animals to selenium greatly enhanced the silver-induced lipid peroxidation. Furthermore, the co-exposure to silver and nickel resulted in a synergistically increased lipid peroxidation. | 12796321 |
4,509,354 | The fragility of empowerment: changing gender relations in a Zimbabwean resettlement area ABSTRACT This article examines the fragility of women's empowerment in Sovelele, a resettlement area established through Zimbabwe's Fast Track Land Reform programme. Compared to their lives before resettlement, married women have larger plots allocated to them by husbands, exercise a higher degree of control over surplus grain and experience more joint use of resources. Single women can more easily buy and hold land in their own right. Yet, these gains are fragile because they arise out of largely unintended and changing circumstances, including the spatial dynamics of resettlement, permit-based land tenure, limited market integration and labour shortage. While attention to the conditions underlying empowerment reveals its fragility, it is not equally fragile for all women. Some women's gains may prove more resilient than others because they rest upon a deeper renegotiation of gender relations. | 202295621 |
4,509,355 | Attenuation and permeability: high frequency crosswell tomography for imaging permeability structure of sediments Imaging the permeability within sediments and rocks is one of the important problems left to advance in geoacoustics and geophysics. The Hamilton attenuation data suggests it is possible. As a U.S.–Japan joint research project we have selected this important problem. Desired permeability and porosity of test sediments are achieved with a sophisticated technique of sediment deposition called laminar sedimentation. To minimize reflections from the tank walls a wave absorber was placed between the tank wall and sediments. Placing a second hydrophone well between the source well and the receiver well, bore hole losses were physically minimized so as to assure accurate measurements of attenuation. A broadband piezoelectric source and hydrophone arrays were used to propagate and receive high frequency M‐sequence acoustic waves. High resolution permeability images within various sediments are extracted from attenuation and velocity measured by high frequency (10 kHz to 80 kHz) acoustic cross‐well tomography expe... | 122266021 |
4,509,356 | A 16Gb 1.2V 3.2Gb/s/pin DDR4 SDRAM with improved power distribution and repair strategy Advances in silicon technology bring high-performance mobile devices and networks that connect people all over the world. In the meantime, data centers with high computational capabilities boost the prosperity of the social world. Emerging data centers keep requiring higher density memory, with higher data rates for processing large amounts of data. However, the implementation of high density DRAM is hindered by large chip area, causing degradation of the power distribution network (PDN) and higher yield losses due to the higher probability of die defects. This paper presents a 16Gb 3.2Gb/s/pin DDR4 SDRAM that features an improved PDN and a repair strategy. The PDN is reinforced by power pads with regulators in the middle of the bank area and a staggered power-up scheme for 3D stacked (3DS) DRAM. Yield is enhanced by introducing ECC for redundant cell operation and by developing an advanced built-in self-repair scheme that automatically corrects bit-errors at the application level. | 3864161 |
4,509,357 | Organizational Failure and Organizational Revitalization in the Relationship Between Government and Non Profit Organizations The economic literature on NPOs stands on four theoretical “legs”: Weisbrod’s conception of their emergence in response to differentiated preferences for collective goods; Hansmann’s theory of trust-signaling through the non-profit form; the economics of altruism and commitment; and the theory of ideological entrepreneurship. Salamon sought to augment and reframe these models so that they could address “voluntary failures” and collaboration between government and NPOs. A theory of NPO leadership is developed to explain how the capacity of NPO leaders to sustain stakeholder commitments may be affected by government stakeholdership and why organizational revitalization through collaborative partnerships with government agencies may require a more appreciative leadership style. | 157490411 |
4,509,358 | A simple apparatus for the freeze-drying of biological specimens preparatory to scanning electron microscopy. In this paper an apparatus is described which facilitates the freeze-drying of specimens prior to their examination by scanning electron microscopy (SEM). The apparatus has been constructed following the principle of a Dewar flask. It enables the operator to keep his SEM specimens free from contamination until immediately prior to coating and examination in the microscope. Examples of a human dental plaque and of a pure colony of Bacterionema matruchotii as prepared by this method are illustrated. | 27352861 |
4,509,359 | Influence of treatment with Ca(2+) antagonists on cerebral vasculature of spontaneously hypertensive rats. Hypertension is the main cause of stroke that represents the second most common cause of death in the industrialized world and a leading cause of inability of the elderly. Lowering blood pressure reduces cerebrovascular morbidity and mortality, but it is still controversial if blood pressure should be lowered in elderly individuals with concomitant cerebrovascular disease. The present study has analyzed comparatively the effect of treatment with the dihydropyridine-type Ca(2+) channel blockers lercanidipine, manidipine and nimodipine and with the non dihydropyridine-type vasodilator hydralazine on hypertension-dependent cerebrovascular changes in spontaneously hypertensive rats (SHR). Analysis included medium and small sized pial arteries and intracerebral arteries of frontal cortex, hippocampus, striatum, and cerebellum. In control SHR, systolic pressure (SBP) values were significantly higher in comparison with WKY rats. Pharmacological treatment significantly decreased SBP values, with nimodipine reducing only moderately SBP. In control SHR, thickening of arterial wall accompanied by luminal narrowing with consequent increase of the wall-to-lumen ratio occurred both in pial and intracerebral arteries. Dihydropyridine-type Ca(2+) antagonists and to a lesser extent hydralazine countered these morphological alterations. Lercanidipine displayed a particular activity on small sized intraparenchymal brain arteries, where it was more effective than other compounds tested. This activity of lercanidipine on small-sized intracerebral arteries might represent an interesting property for the treatment of hypertensive brain damage with concomitant ischemia. | 31294361 |
4,509,360 | (E)-5-(2-bromovinyl)-2'-deoxyuridine-5'-triphosphate as a DNA polymerase substrate. Time course of incorporation and the effect of 5'-triphosphate of the selective antiherpetic agent (E)-5-(2-bromovinyl)-2'-deoxyuridine (bv5dUTP) on the incorporation of dTTP and dATP into template-primers of different structure were studied in E. coli DNA polymerase I Klenow fragment enzyme-catalyzed reactions. bv5dUTP could substitute for dTTP depending on the structure of template-primer. E.g. into calf thymus DNA incorporation of bv5dUMP was around 80% of that of dTMP at 30 minutes of incubation. The analog has also inhibited dTMP incorporation, net DNA synthesis, however, was hardly affected. The substrate properties of the analog were studied with [2-14C]-labelled bv5dUTP. | 36207861 |
4,509,361 | The influence of patient expectations on learning experience. An expectation is an anticipation of something that may occur. The quality or state of an expectation is an expectancy which represents a predicted level of performance. In patient education, expectations must be defined by both caregiver and patient. When realistic, and clearly established before learning is undertaken, they can move patients towards success, and even influence decisions about self-care. When unrealistic or vague, expectations predispose patients to failure. What patients intend or expect to accomplish influences their responses. They may selectively focus on what has a personal meaning, and may even reject what is meaningless. Teachers must begin with the knowledge that patients have ideas and emotions which influence their expectations for learning. They must elicit these expectations, and become proficient at using them to guide a successful learning performance. | 30290911 |
4,509,362 | Revival of ancient marine dinoflagellates using molecular biostimulatio. The biological processes involved in the preservation, viability, and revival of long-term dormant dinoflagellate cysts buried in sediments remain unknown. Based on studies of plant seed physiology, we tested whether the revival of ancient cysts preserved in century-old sediments from the Bay of Brest (France) could be stimulated by melatonin and gibberellic acid, two molecules commonly used in seed priming. Dinoflagellates were revived from sediments dated to approximately 150 years ago (156 ± 27, 32 cm depth), extending the known record age of cyst viability previously established as around one century. A culture suspension of sediments mixed with melatonin and gibberellic acid solutions as biostimulants exhibited germination of 11 dinoflagellate taxa that could not be revived under controlled culture conditions. The biostimulants revived some dinoflagellates from century-old sediments, including the potentially toxic species Alexandrium minutum. The biostimulants showed positive effects on germination on even more ancient cysts, showing dose-dependent effects on the germination of Scrippsiella acuminata. Concentrations of 1, 10, and 100 µM melatonin and gibberellic acid promoted germination. In contrast, 1000 µM solutions, particularly for melatonin, drastically decreased germination, suggesting a potential noxious effect of high doses of these molecules on dinoflagellate revival. Our findings suggest that melatonin and gibberellic acid are involved in the stimulation of germination of dinoflagellate cysts. These biostimulants can be used to germinate long-term stored dinoflagellate cysts, which may promote studies of ancient strains in the resurrection ecology research field. | 217548861 |
4,509,363 | Improving a soldering process applying the dual response approach to a Taguchi's orthogonal array Taguchi methodology for robust parameter design has generated both extraordinary interest due to numerous successful applications and much debate due to some limitations such as shortcomings to measure variability with the signal to noise ratio. In Response Surface Methodology the dual response surface approach has been successfully applied as an alternative to Taguchi's approach. The dual response surface approach uses separate regression models to describe the behavior of the mean and the variance of the response. This article presents an application of Taguchi's robust parameter design to reduce the number of defectives in a solder process. The Taguchi methodology was used to find the appropriate settings for the robust parameters or factors. Then, looking to overcome the possible problems of the signal to noise ratio and trying to obtain a better solution, the dual response surface approach was applied to the same Taguchi's crossed array. | 24052361 |
4,509,364 | Robust Inventory Routing under Demand Uncertainty O ğ This paper introduces a robust inventory routing problem where a supplier distributes a single product to multiple customers facing dynamic uncertain demands over a finite discrete time horizon. The probability distribution of the uncertain demand at each customer is not fully specified. The only available information is that these demands are independent and symmetric random variables which can take some value from their support interval. The supplier is responsible for the inventory management of its customers, has sufficient inventory to replenish the customers, and distributes the product using a capacitated vehicle. Backlogging of the demand at customers is allowed. The problem is to determine the delivery quantities as well as the times and routes to the customers while ensuring feasibility regardless of the realized demands and minimizing the total cost composed of transportation, inventory holding and shortage costs. Using a robust optimization approach, we propose two robust mixed integer programming (MIP) formulations for the problem. We also propose a new MIP formulation for the deterministic (nominal) case of the problem. We implement these formulations within a branch-and-cut algorithm and report results on a set of instances adapted from the literature. | 16881261 |
4,509,365 | Alteration of the cell wall of Haemophilus influenzae type b by transformation with cloned DNA: association with attenuated virulence. A virulent strain of Haemophilus influenzae type b was used to construct a lambda library of chromosomal DNA in Charon 4, amplified in Escherichia coli. From this library a recombinant (I-69) phage was isolated that contained a 10.2-kilobase-pair fragment of DNA eliciting H. influenzae transformants whose colonies had a distinctive opaque phenotype. Compared with their H. influenzae parent strains the opaque I-69 transformants had two defined cell wall alterations: one in the lipopolysaccharide (greater mobility on sodium dodecyl sulfate-polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis) and one in the outer membrane proteins. The I-69 transformant of virulent type b strain Rd-/b+ had stable expression of type b capsule. In contrast to strain Rd-/b+, the Rd-/b+/I-69 transformant was serum sensitive in vitro and avirulent in vivo in rats. Thus the potential of H. influenzae type b organisms to cause invasive infection can be substantially attenuated by altering the expression of one or more genes that affect the cell wall composition. | 26104161 |
4,509,366 | Adaptive Spectral Optimization for Communication in the Presence of Crosstalk Digital Subscriber Line technology is a copper loop transmission technology that solves the bottleneck problem often associated with the last mile between network service providers and user of those services. DSL achieves broadband speeds over ordinary twisted-pair copper wire, an important trait as it eliminates the need for extensive and expensive infrastructure upgrades[4]. The electrical energy transmitted across copper wires as modulated signals, radiate energy into adjacent wires in the same cable binder, an effect known as crosstalk. Recently, optimal signaling techniques have been discovered, giving the best possible power distribution over frequency that minimizes crosstalk interference. Previous work has been done in a static environment, with a priori knowledge of other the environment. In most cases, this knowledge is not known. This paper investigates methods of adaptive spectral optimization, where the frequency spectra of DSL modems are continually adapting as their knowledge of their environment change. Of special importance is the fact that the adaptive technique does indeed converge to the optimal signal spectra. | 15949261 |
4,509,367 | Properties of enzymes. V. Catalase inhibition of glucose oxidase reaction. The radical produced aerobically in the glucose oxidase reaction reduces the oxidated cytochrome c. The extent of reduction depends on the concentrations of substrate (glucose) and enzyme. Superoxide dismutase purified from various sources does not inhibit the cytochrome c reduction, but catalase does, in proportion to its concentration. This inhibition, which might be utilized for quantitative catalase determinations, provides further evidence for the formation of H2O2 in the glucose oxidase reaction. | 5840461 |
4,509,368 | Structure of Indus Script The script of the Indus valley civilization has defied decipherment. Several attempts have been made in the past to decipher the script but there is no consensus about its content. The lack of definite knowledge about its structure makes it difficult to objectively evaluate any claim of decipherment. We have tried to fill this lacuna by analyzing the structure of the script using various computational techniques including machine learning and data mining. The focus of our study is to identify patterns in the Indus writing and explore its underlying logic without making any assumptions about its content. The methods identified in the study can also be used to analyse the structure of other undeciphered scripts. In the present paper we summarize our studies of the Indus script. | 198397161 |
4,509,369 | T cell mediated immunity after combination therapy with intralesional PV-10 and blockade of the PD-1/PD-L1 pathway in a murine melanoma model Intralesional (IL) injection of Rose Bengal (PV-10) induces regression of injected and uninjected lesions in several murine tumor models. In this study, we investigated the anti-tumor response of combining IL PV-10 with blockade of the PD-1 / PD-L1 pathway and the role of immune cell populations in eliciting this response. To investigate the role of T cell subsets in mediating an immune response, B16 or M05 melanoma-bearing mice received combination therapy as well as CD8+, CD4+, or CD25+ depleting antibodies. Tumor growth was measured. T cells were collected from spleens or tumors, and phenotype, activation markers, and reactivity were measured. Splenocytes from mice treated with combination therapy had increased OVA antigen-specific CD8+ T cells in M05-tumor-bearing mice. Depletion of CD4+ T cells or regulatory T cells (Tregs) in combination with IL PV-10 and anti-PD-1 antibody treatment resulted in an enhanced anti-tumor effect. Treatment with CD8+ depleting antibody abrogated anti-tumor immunity. These results support a clinical study for the safety and anti-tumor immune responses with combination therapy of IL PV-10 and PD-1/PD-L1 blockade. | 19097861 |
4,509,370 | Optimal Fiscal Policy When Migration Is Feasible Abstract This paper investigates how the feasibility of migration affects governments' optimal fiscal policies. We assume that households migrate toward economies where their welfare is higher, governments choose taxes and public expenditures to maximize a weighted sum of the households' welfare, welfare is increasing in public expenditures, and only distortionary labor income taxes are available. In isolated economies, the optimal fiscal policy implies that some households are net fiscal contributors, while other households are net fiscal beneficiaries. When households can migrate, however, governments compete for the households which are net fiscal contributors, and modify the fiscal policy in their favor, lowering their taxes and net fiscal contribution, and increasing their welfare. The magnitude of the effect increases with the sensitivity of migration to welfare. In the limiting case of free mobility, all households are zero net fiscal contributors. As to the patterns of migration, the model predicts that, with high migration costs, all households migrate toward the same high-productivity countries, which benefits low-productivity households, whereas with low migration costs, households with different productivities migrate toward different countries, which benefits high-productivity households. | 36474161 |
4,509,371 | Contextual Cues from Cancer Cells Govern CAF Heterogeneity Cancer cells function as primary architects of the tumor microenvironment. Yet, the molecular features of cancer cells that govern stromal cell phenotypes remain unclear. Here, we show that cancer-associated fibroblasts (CAFs) are distinguishable on the basis of gene expression signatures they acquire in co-culture with epithelial- or mesenchymal-like lung adenocarcinoma (LUAD) cells. High expression of the EMT activator ZEB1 endows LUAD cells with the capacity to activate a soluble factor exchange that leads to CAF reprogramming, to generate CAF-led invasive projections in multicellular aggregates, and to respond to pro-metastatic signals from CAFs in mice. Thus, ZEB1-expressing LUAD cells are positioned at the apex of a signaling hierarchy in the tumor microenvironment. | 235052511 |
4,509,372 | From Linguistic Patterns to Ontology Structures The aim of this paper is to contribute to the research on linguistic patterns focusing on the subclassOf relation for the semi-automatic construction of ontologies. Taking as a starting point those ontological structures corresponding to consensual modelling solutions, which are known as Ontology Design Patterns (ODPs), we identified the linguistic patterns that convey the relation captured in ODPs as Lexico-Syntactic Patterns (LSPs) and included them in an LSP-ODP pattern repository. LSPs will permit novice users the conversion of the domain field they want to model into an ontological structure. In the present contribution, the language of classification in Spanish is studied in order to collect the most common ways of verbally expressing the subclassOf relation. Then, the topology of the most common classification patterns is analysed to discover the type of ontological knowledge provided, i.e. which concept relation, and the two essential features in ontology knowledge: exhaustiveness and disjointness. | 11258611 |
4,509,373 | Laboratory and field studies of Macrocyclops albidus (Crustacea: Copepoda) for biological control of mosquitoes in artificial containers in a subtropical environment. The cyclopoid copepod Macrocyclops albidus (Jurine) was tested as a potential biological control agent of mosquitoes in laboratory microcosms, in controlled field conditions, and in a 22-mo field experiment using discarded tires. The predator was highly efficient in controlling mosquitoes in all three settings, reaching close to 90% reduction in larval survival under field conditions and exceeding the recommended predation rates for effective mosquito control in laboratory experiments. The predator was most effective on 1-4-d-old larvae. Alternate food and habitat structure significantly influenced the predation rates on mosquito larvae. Once established, the copepod was able to maintain reproducing populations in the field for the duration of the experiments. However, the predator failed to establish populations at four of the experimental field sites. Two of the failures can be attributed to characteristics of the individual tires, such as leaching chemicals, whereas the other two were probably due to site-specific factors. This copepod species is a promising candidate for control of mosquito larvae because it is a widespread and highly effective predator that is capable of establishing and maintaining populations under a wide variety of field conditions. Additionally, M. albidus is relatively easy to culture, maintain, and deliver to the target areas. | 22391761 |
4,509,374 | Neurogenic Myocardial Arrhythmias in Experimental Focal Epilepsy Summary: The potential for cardiac arrhythmia was studied in an experimental focal epilepsy induced in hemispherectomized rats by topical application of buffered penicillin G onto the thalamus. The epileptic burst triggered cardiac and hemodynamic responses, as simultaneously monitored by arterial pressure, and hypothalamic and heart activity. During interictal epileptic activity, the single burst triggered a short‐latency cardiac arrhythmia, characterized by sinus bradyarrhythmia and junctional rhythm, and lengthening of intervals between sphygmic waves with significant reduction of diastolic pressure. When the epileptic burst stopped, the cardiac activity resumed normal rhythm, and diastolic pressure returned to basal value. During ictal epileptic activity, the sinus and junctional bradyarrhythmic episodes lasted longer, and supraventricular extrasystoles, sinus arrest, and bigeminal ventricular extrasystoles were observed. Both systolic and diastolic pressures decreased from 120/85 to 100/65 mm Hg. The end of the ictal episode always marked resumption of normal cardiac rhythm and systemic pressure. Considering the absence of metabolic complications (blood‐gas analytic parameters and acid‐base balance being controlled) and the short latency of the cardiac and hemodynamic responses, it is suggested that during paroxysmal hypothalamic activity the observed cardiac arrhythmias and the hemodynamic modifications were neurogenic in origin. A role for cardiovascular alterations in sudden unexplained epileptic death is postulated. | 42047911 |
4,509,375 | Do Specialty Programs for Justice-Involved People With Mental Illness Exacerbate Stigma? Specialty mental health probation caseloads have shown promise in reducing recidivism for justice-involved people with mental illness. However, assignment to these caseloads may be stigmatizing due to labeling effects. We examined (1) whether assignment to specialty probation versus traditional probation is associated with greater internalized stigma among clients and (2) whether probation officers are the source of some of this stigmatization. As part of a multisite longitudinal study, 138 specialty probation clients and 148 similar clients from traditional probation rated their internalized stigma of mental illness, and officers rated their attitudes toward each of their supervisees. Specialty probation clients experienced more internalized stigma (d = .61) than traditional clients. Although both specialty and traditional officers held stigmatizing attitudes toward clients, only traditional officers’ attitudes were associated with clients’ internalized stigma. Probation officers from both types of agency may benefit from antistigma interventions to effectively work with clients with mental illness. | 221494111 |
4,509,376 | Salivary gland 99mTc-scintigraphy: a grading scale and correlation with major salivary gland flow rates. Sequential salivary gland scintigraphy with 99mTc-technetium pertechnetate (Tc-99) is a safe, minimally invasive test for study of major salivary glands. However, its relationship to salivary function has not been investigated in detail. We have investigated the relationship between major salivary gland flow rates and Tc-99 scans and developed a new rating scale using scans of a control group with normal salivary function. Salivary flow rates and Tc-99 scans were obtained from healthy, non-medicated subjects (n = 33) and from xerostomic patients (n = 22). There were significant differences between the groups for salivary flow rates and Tc-99 ratings. Significant correlations were found between salivary flow rates and Tc-99 ratings in the control and xerostomic groups. The Tc-99 rating scale proved reliable in assessing salivary dysfunction, and showed a high inter-examiner correlation. These results demonstrate the usefulness of salivary gland scintigraphy in assessing major salivary gland flow rates and the utility of a new rating scale. | 24224211 |
4,509,377 | A fluorescence high-temperature sensor based on fluorescence lifetime A kind of fluorescence optic-fiber temperature sensor is devised based on the alexandrite crystal. In this system, a new optic- fiber probe fabrication techniques is proposed. This system is particularly adapted to the temperature measurement in the range of room temperature to 650°C. During the cause of experimentation, using the PLD-PMTR (termed the Pulse Modulated Phase-locked detection with Two References) signal processing scheme. This temperature measurement method is proved to be effective and useful for its highly resolution and precision. It ensured the detected fluorescence signal to noise ratio was high enough to be measurable when the temperature is raised to 650°C. | 95474911 |
4,509,378 | Application of an Incomplete Landslide Inventory and One Class Classifier to Earthquake-Induced Landslide Susceptibility Mapping Rapid and effective evaluation of landslide susceptibility after earthquakes is critical for various applications, such as emergency rescue, land planning, and disaster prevention. Current research suffers from the lack of a complete landslide inventory and sample selection uncertainty issues. To solve these problems, this study presents a landslide susceptibility mapping model that integrates one-class support vector machine (OCSVM) and an incomplete landslide inventory, which was established with the aid of change detection from bi-temporal Landsat images. Wenchuan County is selected as the study area to test the performance of the proposed method. The proposed method is also compared with standard two-class SVM that selects a sample randomly. Experimental results show that OCSVM can achieve better performance than SVM when only an incomplete landslide inventory is available. The findings of this study can be applied to determine regional landslide susceptibility after earthquakes and provide an essential reference for emergency response. | 218494511 |
4,509,379 | Research on Influence of Rotation Center Eccentricity on Radial Force of Single-Blade Centrifugal Pump To estimate the influence of the rotation center eccentricity of the single-blade centrifugal pump impeller on the radial force on it, and to explore the effective radial force balance method, a single blade pump with a power of 2.2 kW is analyzed. The accuracy of Numerical Simulation Methods are verified by tests of external characteristics (under three rotation-speeds of 1470 r/min, 2000 r/min, and 2940 r/min) and pressure distributions. There are five models with different rotation center coordinates (model a with (0,1), model b with (−1,0), model c with (0,−1), model d with (1,0), and model e with (0,0.5)) which are analyzed. The results show that the radial force of model c and model d reduced by 8.1% and 9.8%, respectively, which means the offset of the center of the impeller to the positive direction of the x-axis and the negative direction of the y-axis can effectively reduce the radial force. At the eccentricity of the impeller (2,−2), the radial force under all operating conditions is reduced, most obviously at 1.0 Qd, which is about 17%. The study may prove helpful to designers and pump manufacturers to find a path forward for an optimal eccentricity to minimize the radial force. | 250715261 |
4,509,380 | For Safety-Critical Embedded Systems ? Embedded systems for safety-critical applications often i ntegrate multiple “functions” and must generally be fault-tolerant. Th ese requirements lead to a need for mechanisms and services that provide protection a gai st fault propagation and ease the construction of distributed fault-tolera nt applications. A number of bus architectures have been developed to satisfy this nee d. This paper reviews the requirements on these architectures, the mechanisms em ployed, and the services provided. Four representative architectures (SAFEb us, SPIDER, TTA, and FlexRay) are briefly described. | 15979211 |
4,509,381 | Toward New Biomaterials Polymers are widely used for a large range of medical devices used as biomaterials on a temporary, intermittent, and long-term basis. It is now well accepted that the initial rapid adsorption of proteins to polymeric surfaces affects the performance of these biomaterials. However, protein adsorption to a polymer surface can be modulated by an appropriate design of the interface. Extensive study has shown that these interactions can be minimized by coating with a highly hydrated layer (hydrogel), by grafting on the surface different biomolecules, or by creating domains with chemical functions (charges, hydrophilic groups). Our laboratory has investigated the latter approach over the past 2 decades, in particular the synthesis and the biological activities of polymers to improve the biocompatibility of blood-contacting devices. These soluble and insoluble polymers were obtained by chemical substitution of macromolecular chains with suitable groups able to develop specific interactions with biological components. Applied to compatibility with the blood and the immune systems, this concept has been extended to interactions of polymeric biomaterials with eukaryotic and prokaryotic cells. The design of new biomaterials with low bacterial attachment is thus under intensive study. After a brief overview of current trends in the surface modifications of biocompatible materials, we will describe how biospecific polymers can be obtained and review our recent results on the inhibition of bacterial adhesion using one type of functionalized polymer obtained by random substitution. This strategy, applied to existing or new materials, seems promising for the limitation of biomaterial-associated infections. | 39077961 |
4,509,382 | No transformation without reconciliation Two months ago I asked you for advice for new medical students.1 I’m still seeking it. Are these bright-eyed recruits being sold a career that has lost its magic? Is professionalism as we knew it dead, replaced by miserable clock watching? Medicine has much to be proud of in its evolving embrace of shared decision-making, acceptance of new technologies and willingness to tackle complex challenges posed by our ageing population and multimorbidity.2,3 Yet, when I speak with doctors of all ranks, from professors to junior doctors, whether in hospital specialties or primary care, there isn’t much that feels good. Reports are everywhere of low morale and disillusionment. The reports ring true with each conversation and anecdote. The NHS faces unprecedented financial challenges and spiralling demand for services, the implications of which are an impetus for spending cuts and service innovation. Following the discontent caused by the Health and Social Care Act, a restructuring that the profession largely opposed, instability has become established. People yearn stability. Financial considerations dominate minds that wish to be preoccupied with the health and welfare of patients. Until recent months, these unwelcome priorities primarily affected senior doctors. Now, with a government push for an ‘extended’ 24/7 service, junior doctors feel victimised, bullied into accepting a new contract and threatened with longer working hours for no more pay.4 There are two central issues. First, whether or not the government is steering the NHS in a sensible direction? It is a complex debate. Is the government responding pragmatically to a | 42501711 |
4,509,383 | crisis in service delivery? Or is there a grand design to dismantle the NHS? Whichever side you choose, the second issue is more straightforward. Any change is difficult, well-nigh impossible to introduce with an unwilling and demoralised workforce. If the government pits itself against consultants, general practitioners and junior doctors, how can the health service deliver satisfactory care to patients on a day-to-day basis, let alone contemplate fundamental reform? There can be no transformation with reconciliation. | 42501711 |
4,509,384 | The tragedy of the sustained growth rate formula continues into 2014: is there hope for repeal? A recent health care policy article describes the sustained growth rate (SGR) as a mythical sword of Damocles hanging over the physicians (1). The SGR formula is an approach to restrain the growth of Medicare spending on physician services. It threatens to impose a 24.4% decrease in the Medicare physician fee schedule on April 1, 2014, if not fixed. The Bipartisan Budget Act of 2013 (2), which was signed into law by President Obama on December 26, 2013, provided a reprieve for 3 months, delaying the cuts to April 1, 2014, included the pathway for SGR Reform Act of 2013. The Bipartisan Budget Act of 2013 establishing the federal budget targets for fiscal years 2014 and 2015 includes a number of provisions impacting Medicare and Medicaid programs (3). While the act provides a short-term reprieve from a looming Medicare physician fee schedule cut, it also extended Medicare provider payment cuts under existing sequestration authority for 2 years and it makes a variety of other policy changes. It is expected that the 3-month payment patch will give Congress time to repeal the SGR with a 0.5% increase for services provided. Congress has been focusing on permanent repeal of the dysfunctional SGR formula throughout 2013; however, it failed to happen in 2013. After numerous attempts to fix the physician payment system with multiple modifications which have been judged to be failures, in 1998, the physician payment updates were replaced by a new | 33704511 |
4,509,385 | mechanism – the SGR formula (4). The consequences of this formula have been problematic from soon after its enactment. The dual goals of policy makers in creating the SGR mechanism was to ensure adequate access to physician services and to control federal spending in a more predictable way than previous mechanisms allowed, continues to fail and create new problems each year. Recently, Wilensky (5) has described that the use of a relative-value scale with fees adjusted according to the SGR is inconsistent with a renewed interest in value creation in health care. She described that a fee schedule that reimburses physicians on the basis of billing for approximately 8,000 discrete service codes makes it very difficult to hold physicians responsible or accountable for the health outcomes of their patients or for the costs of treating them (5). In addition, the incentives that the SGR presents to the individual physician are incompatible with the formula’s objective of controlling aggregate physician spending. While the aggregate spending of all physicians’ drives the SGR, no one physician or physician group is large enough to affect aggregate spending. Thus, stellar performance can’t be rewarded and poor performance can’t be penalized at the level of the physician or the group associated with the good or bad behavior (5). An increase in the volume of services that are provided has accounted for most of the increases in physician spending over the past decade (Fig. 1) (5). While the Medicare Economic Index (MEI) increased moderately, spending for | 33704511 |
4,509,386 | Adverse reactions to oncologic drugs: spontaneous reporting and signal detection Oncology is one of the areas of medicine with the most active research being conducted on new drugs. New pharmacological entities frequently enter the clinical arena, and therefore, the safety profile of anticancer products deserves continuous monitoring. However, only very severe and (unusual) suspected adverse drug reactions (ADRs) are usually reported, since cancer patients develop ADRs very frequently and some practical selectivity must be used. Notably, a recent study was able to identify 76 serious ADRs reported in updated drug labels of oncologic drugs and 50% of them (n = 38) were potentially fatal. Of these, 49 and 58%, respectively, were not described in initial drug labels. The aims of this article are to provide an overview about spontaneous reporting of ADRs of oncologic drugs and to discuss the available methods to analyze the safety of anticancer drugs using databases of spontaneous ADR reporting. | 12060711 |
4,509,387 | Cytoplasmic estrogen receptor system of gilt uterus. Partial purification of component B labeled with [14C]iodoacetic acid. Analysis of the cytoplasmic estrogen receptor (ER) system of gilt uterus by protecting ER from proteolysis showed that the ER system of gilt uterus is similar to that of cow uterus described previously. There was only one native unit molecule [native "4S" ER (sedimentation coefficient, 4.5S; Stokes radius, 45 A; molecular weight, 82,000)] with specific affinity towards estradiol. This molecule was further designated as vero-ER. "8S" ER-forming factor [("8S"ER)-FF] (Stokes radius, 51 A) was separated from the cytosol under hypotonic (low salt) conditions, and this was further dissociated into component A ["5S" ER-forming factor, ("5S"ER)-FF] (Stokes radius, 37 A) and component B (Stokes radius, 18.5 A) in the presence of sodium thiocyanate. Vero-ER was proteolyzed in the absence of Ca2+ ion by a cytoplasmic protease into modified "4S" ER (sedimentation coefficient, 4.5S; Stokes radius, 35 A; molecular weight, 65,000) which was further designated as secto-ER. The constituents of the cytoplasmic ER system of cow and gilt uteri cross-reacted with each other to undergo similar molecular assembly as in their own systems. When analyzed for various uterine specimens, fluctuation of ("8S"ER)-FF-level (1-50 unit/g tissue) was more remarkable than that of ER-level (3-6 x (10(-12) mol/g tissue). Component B labeled with [14C]iodoacetic acid was purified over 1,500-fold. Mixture of vero-ER and component B labeled with [14C]iodoacetic acid formed "6S' ER with 14C-activities under hypotonic conditions. This clearly excluded the possibility that component B is a catalyzer of self-association (dimerization) of vero-ER. | 20941061 |
4,509,388 | Propagation Models for Body-Area Networks: A Survey and New Outlook This article is a review of wireless body-area network (BAN) channel models, with observations about the selection of the best channel model in terms of both first- and second-order statistics. Particular insight into the dominant factors that affect propagation for body-area networks is given. Important second-order statistical measures are discussed, where coherence times and fade durations are of particular interest. The IEEE 802.15.6 standard is used as a basis for the review, with observations and insights given about body-area networks. In this context, narrowband and ultra-wideband (UWB) models are summarized for different measurement environments and carrier frequencies. On-body, in-body, and off-body propagation models are discussed where appropriate. In general, lognormal fading or gamma fading models of the body-area network channel are most applicable. A goodness-of-fit criterion that directly trades off model error and complexity is presented, which gives a new outlook for channel modeling. By this new outlook it is demonstrated that through significant simplification of individual link propagation models for body-area networks, it is possible to combine link models with only a few parameters. Common misconceptions regarding the appropriateness of applying traditional path-loss measures to these short-range networks are then exposed. Finally, the use of relays, which is an option in IEEE 802.15.6, is shown to be important for maintaining reliability in various body-area-network propagation scenarios. | 8326561 |
4,509,389 | Development of antibodies to hepatitis B virus surface antigen in bone marrow transplant recipient following treatment with peripheral blood lymphocytes from immunized donors Bone marrow transplantation (BMT) recipients are immunosuppressed and are at risk for contracting severe infections. Recently, adoptive transfer of immunity against hepatitis B virus (HBV) was documented in BMT recipients receiving bone marrow from ‘naturally’ HBV‐infected individuals who recovered spontaneously, or those transplanted with bone marrow cells obtained from actively immunized donors. Furthermore, reconstitution of the immune system in a BMT recipient who was a hepatitis surface antigen (HBsAg)+/HBV DNA+ carrier with HBV immune bone marrow ceils led to clearance of the replicating virus, presumably through adoptive cell‐mediated immunotherapy. We report three cases of induction of immunity to HBV by selective adoptive transfer by i.v. injection of peripheral blood lymphocytes (PBL) obtained from BMT donors who were actively immunized against HBV after harvesting of bone marrow. Ail three BMT recipients developed anti‐HBs antibodies. In one BMT case in whom antibodies to HBsAg developed following adoptive transfer of immune PBL, a mild booster effect was documented in the BMT recipient upon immunization with a recombinant hepatitis B vaccine. The two remaining patients lost their antibodies to HBsAg in association with relapse of leukaemia. This immune manipulation may open the door to evaluation of adoptive transfer of immunity to HBV through selective transplantation of HBV immune lymphocytes in selected patients such as those with persistent HBV infection, as well as liver transplant recipients who require protection of the graft against HBV re‐infection. | 36488361 |
4,509,390 | Primary causes of neonatal deaths in a tertiary care hospital in Delhi: an autopsy study of 331 cases. Of a total of 755 neonates who died between 1972 and 1988, 331 (43.9%) were subjected to necropsy examination. The ranking of major primary causes of neonatal death was as follows: infections 27.2%, hyaline membrane disease 20.2%, congenital malformations 19.6%, perinatal anoxia 14.5%, immaturity 5.1% and birth trauma 2.7%. Over the years, the prevalence of infections as the cause of death has consistently declined. Compared with that in other contemporary Indian studies, the prevalence of hyaline membrane disease is higher and that of infections and perinatal anoxia relatively lower. | 37096111 |
4,509,391 | Mining Twitter using cloud computing Today Social Networks have an undeniable impact on how users communicate search and share data online. This data has opened up new venues of research on sociology. Unfortunately mining and analyzing this large amount of data can be a difficult task and expensive in terms of computational resources. With the advent of cloud computing, data mining and analysis can be made more accessible due to its cost-effective computational resources. | 15469461 |
4,509,392 | A mobile haptic interface mastering a mobile teleoperator As a novel approach to force-reflecting teleoperation of a mobile teleoperator (MTO), a mobile haptic interface (MHI) is presented. The MHI actively follows the locomotion of an operator, who is no longer bound to be stationary during interaction with a remote environment. Thus, operator locomotion can be used as input for locomotion control of the MTO while keeping the advantage of force-reflection. The paper introduces a new paradigm for the position control of a nonholonomic platform and a new approach for the coupling of display and teleoperator in a teleoperation setup. | 17650061 |
4,509,393 | Design of the prognostics and health management platform of high-speed railway traction power supply equipment Traction power supply system, as the only power source of high-speed railway, the safety and reliability of its equipment's operation are very important. The effective integration and usage of the operation data of traction power supply equipment has been a hot research topic during recent years. In order to improve the utility of equipment's operation data, it is necessary to build a comprehensive platform to store, organize, calculate and display the operation data and put the prognostic and health management (PHM) algorithms of the equipment into application. This paper introduces the system structure and function realization of the prognostics and health management platform for high-speed railway traction power supply equipment. The core part of the platform is the PHM software, it can show the equipment monitoring and detection information on the interface. Besides, by combining the algorithms for fault prediction, fault diagnosis, health assessment, reliability assessment, risk assessment and maintenance strategy decision-making, it can also show the results calculated according to the PHM algorithms. Thus fault detection and prediction, health diagnosis and evaluation, maintenance decision-making and optimization can be well achieved by making full use of the operation data. | 42309061 |
4,509,394 | dongSpace: a wide-area mixed reality multiplayer game system dongSpace is a wide area multiplayer interactive game system based on mixed reality technology. The system uses a head-mounted display to track user's posture, allowing user to perform a wide range of movement in more than 2,000 square meters of outdoor environments. The laptop that the user carries with him will render the game screen in real time. The computer performs computational rendering to provide high-definition, large-angle-of-view content display. The system also provides users with a hand-held simulation gun with tracking that can be used to shoot or interact with virtual environment objects. The system integrates display devices, tracking devices, interactive devices, computers and other devices, which breaks through the limitations of traditional MR systems. | 54434761 |
4,509,395 | The Association between Body Mass Index and Premenstrual Syndrom among Female High School Students in Padang Lawas, North Sumatera Background: Premenstrual syndrome (PMS) is a condition that affects a woman's emotions, physical health, and behavior during certain days of the mens-trual cycle, generally just before her menses. Earlier studies reported that both physical and mental premenstrual symptoms have significant negative impact on quality of life, assessed as ADL. This study aimed to asses the association between body mass index (BMI) and the risk of nutritional status with premenstrual syndrome (PMS) among females. Subjects and Method: This study was a cross sectional study conducted at Aliya MAS Robitotul Istiqamah, Padang Lawas, North Sumatera. A sample of 139 female high school students was selected for this study, consisting of 72 students with PMS and 67 students without PMS. The dependent variable was PMS. The independent variable was nutritional status as measured by BMI. Weight was measured by a scale, and height was measured by microtoise. Data on BMI were categorized into 2 groups: BMI <25 (coded 0) and BMI ≥ 25 (coded 1). The other data were collected by questionnaire. The data were analyzed by a logistic regression. Results: The risk of premenstrual syndrome in female students with BMI ≥ 25 was 7.73 times than counterparts with normal BMI (OR= 7.73; 95%CI= 3.56 to 16.78; p= 0.001). Conclusion: The risk of premenstrual syndrome in female students increases with high BMI. | 149923261 |
4,509,396 | The Enduring Usefulness of Erikson’s Concept of the Identity Crisis in the 21st Century: An Analysis of Student Mental Health Concerns ABSTRACT Identity: Youth and Crisis provides a compilation of Erikson’s most insightful observations of the various types of identity crisis and their impact. Although his general writings about identity fueled much empirical research, Erikson did not feel this research captured the complexities of the concept, and he remarked that its meaning was morphing in ways he never intended. Indeed, many of his explicit characterizations of the identity crisis have not been operationalized in most neo-Eriksonian frameworks. In this article, I reconstruct Erikson’s model of the identity crisis in its various forms and manifestations and then apply this model to the current “student mental health crisis.” Based on his warnings that the psychiatric model can inappropriately label certain crisis-related behaviors as disorders, I argue that he would have diagnosed many of the stress reactions reported by contemporary students as representing developmental difficulties associated with moderate to severe identity confusion created by person–context adjustments. | 149765361 |
4,509,397 | On the Analysis of Recent Music Some fifteen years ago, in a frequently cited article entitled "Analysis Today," Edward T. Cone addressed himself to the questions: "What is analysis, or what ought it to be?" "What are its purposes?" and "To what extent are traditional concepts and methods [of musical analysis] applicable to new music?"' Cone's answer to the final question, concerning the analysis of new music, turned out to be largely determined by his answer to the first, concerning what analysis ought to be. Defining analysis as an attempt to explain rather than merely describe music, he states his position as follows: "In order to explain how a given musical event should be heard, one must show why it occurs: what preceding events have made it necessary or appropriate, towards what later events its function is to lead?" Turning then to new music, he says that in those cases where the music reveals what he calls an "organic temporal unity," a unity perceptible "as one moment flows to the next, each contributing both to the forward motion and to the total effect"-or expressed in rhythmic terms, where one is able to hear a "structural downbeat"-then one is able to "proceed with analytic concepts in some way analogous to those of traditional rhythm and meter, phrase and cadence." In line with his conception of analysis as the elucidation of a sort of teleological organism, Cone concludes that analysis is no longer applicable to certain recent compositions, such as pieces that use chance procedures, those completely predetermined | 162189811 |
4,509,398 | by serial operations, or those | 162189811 |
4,509,399 | Contribution to the standardization of 3D measurements using a high-resolution PMD camera Three-dimensional image acquisition is still a growing field in optical metrology. Various methods are available to reconstruct an object’s three-dimensional surface. The five main types of 3D cameras are stereo cameras, triangulation (pattern or laser scanning), interferometry, light-field cameras and ToF (time-of-flight) cameras. PMD (photonic mixing device) cameras measure the time of light, and thus belong to the field of ToF cameras. Each camera type has fields of application for which it is particularly well suited. Even within PMD cameras, there is a distinction made between applications for indoor and outdoor use. Until today, there is no method to measure and characterize 3D cameras uniformly. Desirable would be a method, which is able to measure all types of cameras equally. With this work, we want to contribute to the standardization of 3D cameras. In this case, we use a PMD camera for outdoor applications with relatively large pixels. It is shown how to determine the spatial resolution of a PMD camera from both, the amplitude and the distance image. Further, a novel method is presented how to determine the resolution enhancement in an image via gradient image evaluation. Finally, a method is proposed which evaluates the quality of resolution enhancement, when no ground truth data is available. Both are particularly interesting for the use of super-resolution (SR) applications. | 140712461 |
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