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30198900 | s2ag/train | v2 | 2018-01-23T22:50:04.275Z | 2011-01-01T00:00:00.000Z | Techniques for high-efficiency outphasing power amplifiers
A trade-off between linearity and efficiency exists in conventional power amplifiers (PAs). The outphase amplifying concept overcomes this trade-off by enabling the use of high efficiency, non-linear power amplifiers for linear amplification. However, the efficiency improvement is limited by the efficiency of the output power combiner. This thesis investigates techniques to overcome this efficiency limit while maintaining sufficient linearity. Two techniques are proposed. The first technique is called the outphasing energy recovery amplifier (OPERA), which recovers the normally wasted power back to the power supply and utilizes a resistance compression network for improved linearity. A 48-MHz, 20-W prototype OPERA system was built which demonstrates more than 2x higher efficiency than the standard outphasing system for a 16-QAM signal. The second technique to improve the efficiency of the outphasing system is asymmetric multilevel outphasing (AMO) modulation. In the AMO system, the amplitude for each of the two outphased PAs can switch independently among multiple discrete levels, significantly reducing the energy lost in the power combiner. Three different AMO prototypes were built, each of which demonstrate between 2x-3x efficiency improvement compared to the standard outphasing system. A 2.4-GHz, 500mW prototype made in a 65-nm CMOS process achieves an average system efficiency of 28.7% for a 20-MHz 64-QAM signal. To the author's best knowledge, this is the highest reported efficiency for a CMOS PA in the 2-2.7 GHz range for signal bandwidths greater than 10 MHz. Thesis Supervisor: Joel L. Dawson Title: Associate Professor |
158357150 | s2ag/train | v2 | 2019-05-20T13:05:15.035Z | 2018-06-09T00:00:00.000Z | The Effects of Perceived Barriers on Innovation Resistance of Hydrogen-Electric Motorcycles
As environmental awareness among the public gradually improves, it is predicted that the trend of green consumption will make green products enter the mainstream market. Hydrogen-electric motorcycles, with eco-friendly and energy-efficient characteristics, have great advantages for development. However, as a type of innovative product, hydrogen-electric motorcycles require further examination with regard to consumer acceptance and external variables of the products. In this study, consumer behavioral intention (BI) for the use of hydrogen-electric motorcycles and its influencing factors are discussed, using innovation resistance as the basis and environmental concern as the adjusting variable. Consumers’ willingness-to-pay (WTP) for hydrogen-electric motorcycles is estimated using the contingent valuation method (CVM). The results found that (1) perception barriers, viz. , usage barrier, value barrier, risk barrier, tradition barrier, and price barrier are statistically significant, whereas image barrier is not; (2) a high degree of environmental concern will reduce the consumers’ innovation resistance to the hydrogen-electric motorcycles; (3) up to 94.79% of the respondents of the designed questionnaire suggested that the promotion of hydrogen-electric motorcycles requires a subsidy of 21.9% of the total price from the government. The mean WTP of consumers for the purchase of hydrogen-electric motorcycles is 10–15% higher than that of traditional motorcycles. |
237366800 | s2ag/train | v2 | 2021-09-01T13:15:07.827Z | 2021-08-31T00:00:00.000Z | Keepin' it real about race in HCI
I opportunity for like-minded people to discuss how the lack of conversations about race had detrimental implications for both minoritized researchers and participants, as well as our research outcomes. More importantly, this workshop allowed us to begin to assemble practical recommendations for those in this space. As a collective, we collaboratively designed a series of zines to understand the following topics: race and design research, race and identity, reporting on race in research, racially inclusive research and design, and researchers’ positionality outside the community of focus. Culturally and historically, zines have served as a powerful outlet for content outside of the mainstream. Zines are significant because they offer the opportunity for connection, community, and networking among those interested in these topics. The participatory nature of the zine democratizes and progresses In 2020, several of us aimed to disrupt the status quo and begin conversations around race in research and what that meant for the HCI community. We sought to construct a haven for ourselves, our participants, and our research as people of color by adapting critical race theory to HCI [1]. We knew, however, we were not alone in our thoughts nor our experiences, so we set out to create a space for and build a community of individuals interested in not only discussing race but also grappling with better processes to implement radical change from individual to institutional levels. To extend our work, we held a workshop at CHI 2020 called “What’s Race Got to Do With It? Engaging Race in HCI” [2]. This workshop was by no means the solution to the racial problems that plague our research designs, methodologies, and academic and industry professions— or more broadly, the HCI community. Instead, it was an Keepin’ It Real About Race in HCI |
16880350 | s2ag/train | v2 | 2017-03-23T18:01:15.529Z | 2016-01-01T00:00:00.000Z | Persuasive System Design Analysis of Mobile Warning Apps for Citizens
Large-scale emergencies, such as hurricane Katrina in 2005 that also damaged large parts of New Orleans or the 2013 Central European flood, have shown the importance of an appropriate warning as well as instruction of the affected people on-site. Nowadays modern mobile devices are widely spread throughout the population in many parts of the world and apps are available for warning as well as giving advice, which have the advantage to reach citizens individually, i.e. based on their current location. However, disaster communication is prone to many kinds of biases and strong emotions such as fears, making it difficult to point the crowd in the intended direction. It is therefore all the more important that the messages are well chosen and presented to the users. Comments or feedback from the users about products or services i.e. in web stores, rating web services or app stores are a valuable source for an in-use requirement engineering. Within this paper, we will firstly analyze user comments about two of the most important mobile warning apps in Germany. Secondly, we will correlate the findings with the Persuasive System Design model as a method to design for the domain of emergency management. Based on our analysis we will discuss this approach, revealing that most importantly system trustworthiness and reliability suffer from malfunction of apps and inappropriate messages undermine a successful persuasion strategy. |
11853050 | s2ag/train | v2 | 2018-04-03T00:26:36.084Z | 1985-10-01T00:00:00.000Z | The effect of delayed function on long term survival of renal allografts.
The experience at a single center with 297 consecutive cadaver renal transplants over the past 12 years is reviewed with special attention to acute post-transplant ischemic renal injury (ATN). Sixty-seven patients received kidneys which failed to function immediately (22.5 per cent). Twenty-five (8.4 per cent) never showed any function (NF), and 42 (14.1 per cent) developed delayed function (ATN). The over-all incidence of this complication has exhibited a downward trend in the past 12 years and the possible reasons for this are discussed. The overall rate of patient survival and functional grafts observed for to 12 years by actuarial methods were found to be no different by statistical analysis (ATN versus IF). When patients were subgrouped according to quality of renal function attained by four months post-transplantation, ATN patients with good renal function (serum creatinine levels of less than 2 milligrams per deciliters) demonstrated similar patient and functional graft survival rates when compared with IF patients with similarly good renal function. Thirty-eight per cent of patients with ATN never achieved good renal function (serum creatinine levels of more than 2.0 milligrams per deciliters) and were compared with 8 per cent of IF patients who likewise never achieved good renal function. These two groups were also found to be statistically similar with regard to the rates of patient survival and functional grafts. Thus, it is likely that, although the presence of ATN may predispose a patient to a higher risk of never achieving good renal function, the eventual long term outlook is similar for patients with ATN and those with IF. The most important determining factor in terms of ultimate functional graft survival appears to be relative to the quality of renal function in the early post-transplantation period. |
13342400 | s2ag/train | v2 | 2014-10-01T00:00:00.000Z | 1999-09-05T00:00:00.000Z | Old movie restoration using rational spatial interpolators
The restoration of old movies using the newly developed rational functions filters is considered. After localization of the stationary and random defects, a spatial rational interpolator scheme is proposed to reconstruct the missing data. The experimental results demonstrate the usefulness of the rational interpolator in an application involving the restoration of defects in old movies. The resulting edges obtained using the proposed interpolator are free from blockiness and jaggedness. |
19457000 | s2ag/train | v2 | 2017-07-10T10:05:30.001Z | 2017-04-01T00:00:00.000Z | Extracting Real-World Observations from Microblog
Since a large number of users of various social networking services post what they observe around themselves, what is going on around the world can be known in real time by extracting such real-world observations. Especially, observations covering miscellaneous areas of interest are posted to Twitter as short text messages. Our goal is to extract such observations to better understand the current situations of the real world. Since the observations at specific locations are often described with words representing the observed locations or events, the locations or events all over the world can be discovered by finding such local words which are uniquely used at specific locations or times. Then, parts of their observations can be obtained by using the local words to define the semantics of each local word. Finally, the observations which do not contain the local words but are related to the locations or events can be extracted based on their semantic relevancy to each local word. |
249404350 | s2ag/train | v2 | 2022-06-07T14:28:11.806Z | 2022-06-01T00:00:00.000Z | Anesthetic Management of a Patient With Arterial Tortuosity Syndrome Undergoing Cerebral Revascularization Surgery—A Case Report
Arterial tortuosity syndrome is a rare hereditary autosomal recessive connective tissue disorder characterized by elongation and tortuosity of the large- and medium-sized arteries. We present the case of a 13-year old child with arterial tortuosity syndrome who underwent occipital encephaloduroarteriomyosynangiosis for posterior circulation insufficiency. The constellation of clinical features in our patient portended significant anesthetic concerns, including difficult airway due to craniofacial abnormalities, risk of stroke, and myocardial infarction due to intracerebral and coronary arterial tortuosity and stenosis. The pertinent anesthetic implications are summarized, and we describe the anesthetic technique and use of multimodal neuromonitoring relevant for the case. |
94195750 | s2ag/train | v2 | 2019-04-04T13:15:02.531Z | 2005-02-16T00:00:00.000Z | Surface property directed microchannel flows in biosensors
It is known that rapid mixing in biosensors is required; however, these sensors may use reagents having small diffusion coefficients and whose mixing time scale is longer than the chemical reaction or molecular event time scale. Thus, it is necessary to overcome the inherent diffusion limited mixing of laminar flow. Many techniques to enhance microfluidic mixing are under development such as slanted wells, shallow grooves, electrokinetic instability mixing and surface layers. In this work, enhanced mixing is explored using lattice Boltzmann simulation techniques of two and three dimensional microfluidic channels at low Reynolds numbers. Surface temperature variations and flow field slip and no-slip boundary conditions emulating hydrophobic and hydrophilic surfaces were applied. The combined effect of wall temperature and surface property distributions presents a new way to manipulate microchannel flow fields. The momentum and thermal lattice Boltzmann equations were coupled via a body force term in the momentum equation. Also, a two dimensional, binary fluid model was incorporated. The results show how various wall temperature distributions, subjected to various velocity wall boundary conditions, can be either beneficial or counter productive to obtain uniform flow temperature profiles in, for example, PCR applications. The addition of the binary fluid model demonstrates the effects of both wall temperature and wall velocity boundary conditions. |
27156800 | s2ag/train | v2 | 2018-04-03T00:52:26.943Z | 2001-02-19T00:00:00.000Z | Multiple zonal projections of the basilar pontine nuclei to the cerebellar cortex of the rat
This study revealed a sagittal zonal pattern of projections to the cerebellar cortex after hydraulic or iontophoretic injections of anterograde tracers (tritiated leucine, wheat germ agglutinin‐horseradish peroxidase, or biotinylated dextrane amine) in the basilar pontine nuclei of Wistar rats. The zonal pattern of projection was observed only after injections of small size, whereas large injections labeled diffusely wide areas of the cerebellar cortex, masking the zonal projection because the fusion of contiguous stripes. Diverging projections to discrete sets of sagittal stripes in the two sides of the cerebellar cortex arose from single injections. The stripes of fiber terminals were sharply delimited on both sides by areas, interstripes, either virtually void of labeling or with a much lower density of labeling. Thus, the areas of the cerebellar cortex were parceled in sets of sagittal compartments, stripes and interstripes, by the pontine projections. Up to five compartments (three stripes and two interstripes) were observed in the paraflocculus, in the copula pyramidis, and in vermal lobule IX. Up to nine compartments (five stripes and four interstripes) were found in the crus I, the lobulus simplex, the paramedian lobule, and vermal lobules VI–VIII. Up to seven compartments (four stripes and three interstripes) were found in the crus II. Single injections into the basilar pontine nuclei usually labeled symmetric areas of the cerebellar cortex, which, in some cases, showed similar number of stripes. When this was not the case, the stripes were usually more numerous in the contralateral than in the ipsilateral side. All areas of the cerebellar cortex were projected upon, with zonation patterns from different regions of the basilar pontine nuclei. The projections of the basilar pontine nuclei to the cerebellar cortex were arranged according to a fixed pattern specific for each cortical area, independently of the number of stripes labeled within. The mean width of the stripes visualized in the single cortical areas of different rats was similar, despite the different size of the injections. The length of the stripes ranged widely in the various areas of different rats. The data collected in this study are consistent with the idea that all the mossy afferents to the cerebellar cortex are arranged with a zonal pattern. J. Comp. Neurol. 430:471–484, 2001. © 2001 Wiley‐Liss, Inc. |
32413000 | s2ag/train | v2 | 2017-05-23T19:21:06.216Z | 2017-02-06T00:00:00.000Z | ReflectFX: In-Band Full-Duplex Wireless Communication by Means of Reflected Power
In this paper, we introduce a new full-duplex wireless communication system, named ReflectFX, that relies on backscatter modulation. This paper offers a new concept for two-way wireless communication: rather than avoiding self-interference as in half-duplex, or combatting self-interference as in conventional full-duplex, nodes will re-use the received interfering radio-carrier waves to transfer information. The electromagnetic waves are modulated and reflected by the same antenna that receives them. We consider two nodes, a base-station and an end-user, that wish to exchange data over a wireless Rayleigh fading channel with additive white Gaussian noise. With ReflectFX, the end-user receives a self-interference free signal. We improve the transmission range of ReflectFX by adding negative resistance to the end-user load. We derive an expression for the overall achievable throughput and ergodic capacity of ReflectFX. Simulation results show that ReflectFX outperforms both conventional full-duplex and half-duplex. |
32752800 | s2ag/train | v2 | 2018-04-03T02:12:44.318Z | 1999-05-01T00:00:00.000Z | Micronutrients Measurement Quality Assurance Program: helping participants use interlaboratory comparison exercise results to improve their long-term measurement performance.
Over the past decade, the Micronutrients Measurement Quality Assurance Program (M2QAP) at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) has administered nearly 40 interlaboratory comparison exercises devoted to fat-soluble vitamin-related analytes in human serum. While M2QAP studies have been used to help certify reference materials and to document the performance of analytical systems, the primary focus of the M2QAP has been, and remains, the improvement of among-participant measurement comparability for target analytes. Recent analysis of historical measurement performance indicated the most efficient mechanism for further improving measurement comparability among participants is the improvement of long-term (months to years) comparability within each laboratory. The summary reports for the M2QAP studies are being redesigned to provide more chemist-friendly analyses of participant performance, dissecting systematic and random components of measurement incomparability as functions of analyte level and time. This report documents the semantic and graphical tools developed to help interlaboratory-comparison-exercise participants interpret their own measurement performance. |
6258210 | s2ag/train | v2 | 2018-04-03T03:29:02.960Z | 2015-09-01T00:00:00.000Z | Impact of obesity on outcomes after definitive dose‐escalated intensity‐modulated radiotherapy for localized prostate cancer
Previous publications have demonstrated conflicting results regarding body mass index (BMI) and prostate cancer (CaP) outcomes after definitive radiotherapy (RT) before the dose escalation era. The goal of the current study was to determine whether increasing BMI was associated with outcomes in men with localized CaP who were treated with dose‐escalated RT. |
145320110 | s2ag/train | v2 | 2019-05-06T14:06:20.584Z | 2010-11-18T00:00:00.000Z | The Politicization of Religion: Political Catholicism and Political Islam in Comparative Perspective
While religious politics have been a widely discussed topic in the social sciences in recent decades, few studies develop general explanations based on systematic and detailed comparative analysis. This article seeks to explain when and how successful religious parties rise. To that end, I comparatively analyze the politicization of German Catholicism in the second half of the nineteenth century (1848—1878) and Turkish Islam in the post-1970 period (1970—2002) and briefly examine the negative case of nineteenth-century German Protestantism. According to the theory of revival-reaction-politicization I propose, successful religious parties rise when major religious revivals confront social counter-mobilization and state repression, provided that existing political parties do not effectively represent religious defense. The study's findings challenge the pervasive tendency to treat Christian and Islamic politics as incommensurable. |
52079910 | s2ag/train | v2 | 2018-08-26T21:42:57.102Z | 2018-10-12T00:00:00.000Z | Tree water balance drives temperate forest responses to drought.
Intensifying drought is increasingly linked to global forest diebacks. Improved understanding of drought impacts on individual trees has provided limited insight into drought vulnerability in part because tree moisture access and depletion is difficult to quantify. In forests, moisture reservoir depletion occurs through water use by the trees themselves. Here, we show that drought impacts on tree fitness and demographic performance can be predicted by tracking the moisture reservoir available to trees as a mass balance, estimated in a hierarchical state-space framework. We apply this model to multiple seasonal droughts with tree transpiration measurements to demonstrate how species and size differences modulate moisture availability across landscapes. The depletion of individual moisture reservoirs can be tracked over the course of droughts and linked to biomass growth and reproductive output. This mass balance approach can predict individual moisture deficit, tree demographic performance, and drought vulnerability throughout forest stands based on measurements from a sample of trees. |
122239610 | s2ag/train | v2 | 2019-04-19T13:08:30.081Z | 2009-01-20T00:00:00.000Z | Phase State Analysis of Nickel Silicides in Complementary Metal–Oxide–Semiconductor Device Using Plasmon Energy Map
Phase states of nickel silicides in a complementary metal–oxide–semiconductor (CMOS) device were investigated using energy-filtering transmission electron microscopy (EF-TEM). Differences in plasmon energy at each location of the device were identified in two dimensions using a plasmon energy map to analyze the phase states of nickel silicides. We determined that the near side of polycrystalline silicon (poly-Si) corresponds to the NiSi phase in the gate electrode and that the contact corresponds to the NiSi2 phase, although determining the different phase states of nickel silicides using the contrast of a TEM image was difficult. |
189927070 | s2ag/train | v2 | 2019-06-18T13:42:30.841Z | 2019-05-27T00:00:00.000Z | Attention in Software Maintenance: An Eye Tracking Study
In software projects, people often continue working on programs that others created. This is especially the case in agile development. Therefore, developers often need to understand unfamiliar code in order to expand, change, fix or review it. Navigating through code and searching for relevant information requires a lot of developer time. This paper introduces an approach to use eye tracking to record and transfer developers' attention during software maintenance. We visualize the recorded data with heatmaps and display switches between Java classes by coloring filenames. These attention representations aim to help developers finding and navigating to relevant code sections faster. We conducted an eye tracking experiment to investigate whether these attention visualizations help developers during software maintenance. The results show that both representations helped some of the participants for orientation and code finding purposes. The heatmaps slightly decreased the cognitive load as well. However, most participants, especially the more experienced ones, rated the attention visualizations as barely helpful or not helpful. Instead, the representations increased their visual effort, reduced the code's clarity and made the overall understanding of the program's functionality, as well as finding relevant areas, more difficult. By testing this specific implementation of the approach of attention transfer, we gained important lessons learned and provide several improvement suggestions. |
229482820 | s2ag/train | v2 | 2020-12-27T11:15:10.381Z | 2020-11-01T00:00:00.000Z | PP11 Evaluating the differences in cognitive load and emotional states during simulated paediatric scenarios both with and without a preparation phase
Background In situ simulation has gained popularity in recent years. Different models exist for it’s delivery. At one end, staff may be subjected to spontaneous un-announced emergencies to test both human factors and local systems. At the other end, staff may be introduced gradually to a simulation with time to prepare. Clearly their experiences will vary. Objective To evaluate the cognitive load and emotional state of learners participating in both ‘hot’ (without warning) and ‘cold’ (with warning) in situ simulations in the setting of a paediatric emergency department. Method A standardized scenario was designed with time allowed for preparation before the scenario began. An opportunistic sample of staff were selected for this during morning handover in the paediatric A&E department. For comparison, staff whilst mid-shift underwent simulated emergencies in the same department with no preparation time or prior warning. Feedback was anonymously collected afterwards using validated scales for emotional state and cognitive load. Findings A total of 100 multidisciplinary staff participated. Participants who had no prior warning reported feeling less nervous and more alert. Cognitive load was more demanding but this on average was not excessive. Conclusion The emotional state and cognitive load of in situ simulation participants are influenced by whether or not there is prior warning. Future scenario design should take this into consideration. |
160182820 | s2ag/train | v2 | 2019-05-22T13:30:37.835Z | 2008-10-29T00:00:00.000Z | Collocations in Swedish Dictionaries and Dictionary Research
Two investigations are undertaken in this study. First, the coverage of collocates of the (base) noun hopp (‘hope’) in Swedish dictionaries is studied. The dictionaries are of three kinds; specialized construction dictionaries, general defi ning dictionaries, and one bilingual dictionary. Second, the coverage in three of the dictionaries (one of each kind) of a sample of about 30 collocations is investigated. It turns out that the dictionaries, in general, demonstrate relatively good coverage. From some points of view, older Swedish dictionaries are better than recent corresponding ones. Further, it is generally held that, in dictionaries intended for text production, collocations should be treated in the base entries. This holds true in a majority of cases in the Swedish production dictionaries, but there are several exceptions. It seems reasonable to conclude that modern lexicographic collocation theory has not had enough impact on recent Swedish lexicography. |
212424720 | s2ag/train | v2 | 2020-02-16T09:46:47.813Z | 2020-01-10T00:00:00.000Z | The Effect of pin geometry on the mechanical property of Aluminium 6061-alumina composite made by friction stir welding
Today in addition to join by friction stir welding, the composite fabrication process is also performed simultaneously. The main purpose of the present research is to investigate the effect of pin geometry on the property of Aluminum 6061alumina nanocomposite created by friction stir welding. For this purpose friction stir welding was carried out by selecting five types of pin geometries on Aluminum 6061 in which Al2O3 particles were deposited and the samples were examined by tensile and hardness tests, optical and electron microscope. Samples were investigated by tensile and hardness test, optical and electronic microscopy. Regular hexagonal pins due to having six smooth face and impulsive movement during rotation, caused a good perturbation which resulted in maximum tensile strength and elongation percentage of 198 MPa and 10.25 and minimum grain size of 13.3 micron, respectively. In the sample welded by a * یکینورتکلا تسپ ،لوئسم هدنسیون : [email protected] نا ا یراک و یروان و مو ع D ow nl oa de d fr om jw st i.i ut .a c. ir at 2 1: 54 IR S T o n T hu rs da y M ar ch 5 th 2 02 0 یسابلب دیجم و ییاضر دادرهم رشن ، ی ه روانف و مولع ي راکشوج ي ا ی ،نار لاس مجنپ هرامش ، 2 ، ناتسمز و زییاپ 1398 هحفص ، 88 77 78 threaded cylindrical pin due to non-impact during rotation, inappropriate flow of reinforcing particles and its accumulation at perturbation the lowest tensile strength and elongation percentage of 133.5 MPa and 1.95%, respectively, were observed. |
13806620 | s2ag/train | v2 | 2018-04-03T01:09:49.815Z | 1979-04-01T00:00:00.000Z | Sympathetic control of lower esophageal sphincter function in the cat. Action of direct cervical and splanchnic nerve stimulation.
The purpose of this study was to determine the effect of direct stimulation of the sympathetic nerves on the lower esophageal sphincter (LES) in the anesthetized cat. Neither unilateral nor bilateral cervical sympathectomy, or splanchnicectomy significantly modified basal LES pressure in animals with intact vagi, or animals having undergone bilateral cervical vagotomy. Electrical stimulation of the cut, peripheral, cervical sympathetic trunk increased mean arterial blood pressure, but had no effect on LES pressure or LES relaxation as induced by vagal stimulation. Stimulation of the central end of the cervical sympathetic trunk had no effect on LES pressure. Stimulation of the central end of the cut splanchnic nerve produced a decrease in LES pressure with a maximal response of 69.1+/-16.0% (mean+/-SEM). This inhibitory response was not modified by either propranolol or bilateral cervical vagotomy. Stimulation of the peripheral end of the cut, greater splanchnic nerve gave an increase in LES pressure with a maximal response of 38.2+/-7.19 mm Hg. Guanethidine, in the presence or absence of the adrenal glands, significantly augmented this excitatory response. This response was also slightly increased by phentolamine alone at 10 V, 1 Hz, but was not altered by propranolol. The excitatory response was completely antagonized by atropine or by trimethaphan camsylate. Stimulation of the peripheral end of the splanchnic nerve inhibited LES relaxation as induced by vagal stimulation. The results of this study suggest that: (a) the LES in the cat is not affected by either central or peripheral stimulation of the cervical sympathetic trunk; (b) the central portion of the splanchnic nerve carries an afferent inhibitory response to the LES through yet unknown pathways; (c) the peripheral splanchnic nerve carries an atropine-sensitive excitatory response to the LES; and (d) the splanchnic nerves may modulate LES relaxation as induced by vagal stimulation. |
17136920 | s2ag/train | v2 | 2015-03-27T18:11:09.000Z | 2012-01-01T00:00:00.000Z | Coast redwood responses to pruning
A large-scale pruning study was established in the winter of 1999 to 2000 at seven different sites on Green Diamond Resource Company forestlands in Humboldt County. The objective of this study was to determine the effects of pruning on increment, epicormic sprouting, stem taper, heartwood formation, and bear damage on these young trees. Pruning treatments varied pruning severity and were usually applied in conjunction with thinning treatments. Trees were assessed six years after pruning. Basal area increment decreased with increasing pruning severity but results were inconsistent from one study site to another. Height increment was unaffected by pruning. Six-year volume increment results resembled those for basal area increment: heavier pruning sometimes resulted in lower increment. Additionally, the negative effects of pruning on tree increment were probably short-lived in redwood because of the fast growth rates of this species. The number of epicormic sprouts was generally unaffected by pruning severity with the notable exception of the most severe pruning treatments. By year six, the number of sprouts was no different in the unpruned treatments than in most pruned treatments. The exception was the severe crown removal that left only approximately 15 percent residual live crown length. Epicormic sprouting does not appear to be a deterrent to pruning in redwood. Tree stem taper was also unaffected by pruning severity. Heartwood formation was expected to increase with pruning severity. However, no effects were evident in these data. Apparently, the greater heartwood expected in more severely pruned treatments was obscured by the same factors that minimized treatment effects on increment: in the six years following treatment, the pruned trees had rebuilt crown foliage and required similar sapwood for water transport as unpruned trees. Bear damage was observed at four of the seven study sites and was severe in several plots. However, no trends were evident relative to pruning treatment. In summary, pruning that leaves residual crown lengths of 40 to 60 percent should result in minimal levels of epicormic sprouting and no effects on tree increment. |
148941670 | s2ag/train | v2 | 2019-05-11T13:04:22.888Z | 2017-06-26T00:00:00.000Z | Aesthetics of protest: an examination of the photojournalistic approach to protest imagery
Images of protests and demonstrations are crucial to both social movements and protesters who wish to communicate their identity and their messages to wider audiences. However, the photographing of such political events by press photographers is a complex process. The current analysis focuses on questions of aesthetics surrounding issues of visuality regarding protests and demonstrations. Based on empirical data from 17 semi-structured in-depth interviews with Greek photojournalists, this article examines what is photographed during a protest and how this is affected by the photojournalists’ aesthetic criteria. Drawing on scholarly work on photojournalism (Ritchin and Åker) and photography (Sontag), the author discusses how, in addition to the presumption of the principle of recording reality, photojournalists’ practice is also infused with subjective language and influenced by art photographers’ techniques. Therefore, the main argument of this article is that the employment of hybridized photography practices by photojournalists can have an impact upon their visual decisions with regard to what and how is photographed during a protest. The product of such practices is usually high quality, captivating images with apparent affective qualities. |
214603420 | s2ag/train | v2 | 2019-08-19T10:15:38.215Z | 2018-07-29T00:00:00.000Z | Equilibrium Analysis: Two Austrian Views
I compare two views of the equilibrium concept: one from F. A. Hayek and the other from Fritz Machlup. I argue that Machlup’s equilibrium concept is price-theoretic, that is, it is a tool of problem-based, comparative static analysis. In contrast, Hayek’s equilibrium concept approximates the social order observed in reality. While the Hayekian equilibrium is an explanandum, the Machlupian equilibrium forms a part of the explanans. Further, Hayek’s approach is more descriptivist than problem-based. I argue that the two equilibrium concepts are not mutually exclusive alternatives. In particular, the adequacy of the Machlupian equilibrium for price-theoretic analysis is unrelated to the adequacy of the Hayekian equilibrium for analyzing the social order. In fact, I show that the two types of analysis can be seen as complementary. I conclude that the main issue is not to decide whether the equilibrium concept is useful in general but to determine the proper sphere of application of a particular equilibrium concept. |
22983320 | s2ag/train | v2 | 2018-04-03T01:51:14.124Z | 1983-12-01T00:00:00.000Z | Comparative bioavailability of two carbamazepine tablets.
The comparative bioavailability of two commercial carbamazepine tablets (Finlepsin and Tegretol) was investigated. In a single-dose study in eight healthy volunteers and in a multiple-dose study in five epileptic patients carbamazepine absorption from both drug products was shown to have the same extent and reliability. Despite a somewhat increased rate of absorption in Finlepsin, as regards the fit of the drug level in the therapeutic range under chronic treatment conditions, there was no difference between the two preparations. On the basis of these results we conclude that Finlepsin and Tegretol are bioequivalent drug products. |
182356920 | s2ag/train | v2 | 2019-06-07T23:04:31.649Z | 2019-05-23T00:00:00.000Z | Legal and clinical issues regarding the pro se defendant: Guidance for practitioners and policy makers.
Defendants who attempt to represent themselves, or proceed pro se, make up less than 1% of felony cases. However, when the issue of competency to proceed pro se arises, it can present interesting questions and challenges not only for the defendant, but also for others involved with the trial process. In Indiana v. Edwards (2008), the U.S. Supreme Court permitted states to impose a higher standard of competency for defendants who wish to proceed to trial without an attorney than for defendants who stand trial with representation. States have responded by adopting a patchwork of different, and often vague, competency standards. The current paper describes states’ differing responses to Edwards, courts’ efforts to ensure the constitutionality of those standards, and extant research on the legal standards and guidelines that should apply to forensic evaluators. Drawing upon this body of law and commentary, this article distills principles to guide evaluations of defendants’ pro se competency. To facilitate discussion, this article utilizes three case studies involving defendants with severe mental illness, antisocial personality disorder, and communication impediments unrelated to mental illness. The analysis of these case studies illustrates the application of guiding principles and demonstrates how to distinguish impairments relevant to pro se competence from those that may be legally irrelevant yet still present significant fairness or efficiency concerns. |
38189620 | s2ag/train | v2 | 2018-04-03T04:12:55.510Z | 2007-01-01T00:00:00.000Z | Development of the Adelaide Driving Self-Efficacy Scale
Objective: To describe the development of the Adelaide Driving Self-Efficacy Scale (ADSES) and to report on its reliability and validity. Methods: A set of 12 driving behaviours, developed through literature review, clinical experience and expert review, were rated for self-efficacy using a Likert scale. Internal consistency was investigated using a Cronbach's alpha coefficient and construct validity by comparing ADSES scores of stroke and non-stroke drivers. Criterion-related validity was examined by comparing ADSES scores with the result on a standardized on-road assessment. Setting: A rehabilitation hospital in Adelaide, South Australia. Participants: Staff from the hospital and stroke patients from the rehabilitation unit. Data from a non-stroke sample (n -/ 79) and stroke patients (n -/ 81) were used to test internal consistency and construct validity. A separate group of 45 people recommended for a driving assessment, of whom 34 were stroke patients, were used to test criterion validity. Results: Cronbach's alpha coefficient was 0.98, indicating high internal consistency. The non-stroke and stroke groups showed significant differences in ADSES scores (t(158)-/ 5.5, P B < 0.05), demonstrating construct validity. Differences in ADSES scores for those participants who passed or failed the on-road assessment were significant for both the entire driving assessment group (t(43)-/ 3.2, P B < 0.05) and the stroke subgroup (t(43)-/ 3.2, P B < 0.05), indicating criterion validity. Conclusion: The ADSES has demonstrated internal consistency and construct validity with the stroke and non-stroke population. The scale demonstrated criterion validity in its relationship with outcome of an on-road driving assessment. It appears to be a reliable and valid measure of driving self-efficacy. |
26746370 | s2ag/train | v2 | 2018-04-03T00:49:44.461Z | 1983-09-01T00:00:00.000Z | Plasmid visualization and nif gene location in nitrogen-fixing Azospirillum strains
A modified gel electrophoresis technique provided a reproducible way of detecting and isolating plasmids with molecular weights ranging from 12 X 10(6) to 370 X 10(6) for Azospirillum species. Analysis with the nifHD region of Rhizobium trifolii showed that the Azospirillum nif genes were chromosomally located in all eight strains investigated and not on endogenous plasmids. |
18002720 | s2ag/train | v2 | 2014-10-01T00:00:00.000Z | 2008-01-01T00:00:00.000Z | Land and Poverty in Reforming East Asia Martin Ravallion and Dominique van de Walle Lessons from Vietnam ’ s agrarian reforms
B OTH CHINa and vietnam have made enormous progress in the fight against poverty, and the evidence suggests that rural economic growth has played a large role in this success. Using each country’s own definition of poverty, with a constant real poverty line over time, China’s poverty rate fell from more than 50 percent in 1981 to about 20 percent in 1991 and 5 percent in 2005. In vietnam, poverty fell from almost 60 percent to 20 percent during 1993–2004. land is the most important non-labor asset in any developing rural economy. The institutions determining how land is used are thus at the core of efforts to fight poverty. China and vietnam both have had major land reform programs. This article examines the role these major agrarian reforms played in the subsequent progress against poverty and searches for lessons for the future. We also look at what China might learn from vietnam’s different path in its land policies and what other countries can learn from these star performers. lessons include the importance of the agricultural sector in the early stages of a pro-poor growth process, the potential role of market-oriented reforms in absolute poverty reduction, and the need to address pressures spurring rising inequality as reforms get under way. |
43717320 | s2ag/train | v2 | 2018-04-03T05:41:10.201Z | 2011-11-01T00:00:00.000Z | Unusual manifestation of endometrioid adenocarcinoma arising from subserosal cystic adenomyosis of the uterus: emphasis on MRI and positron emission tomography CT findings.
There are several reports of adenocarcinoma developing within adenomyosis of the uterus, but imaging features of MRI, including diffusion-weighted imaging (DWI) and positron emission tomography (PET)-CT, have not been published. Herein we report a rare case of endometrioid adenocarcinoma arising from subserosal cystic adenomyosis to emphasise the unusual growth features, as well as the imaging findings of the tumour on MRI and PET-CT. |
6901970 | s2ag/train | v2 | 2018-04-03T03:35:31.439Z | 1984-10-01T00:00:00.000Z | Superiority of supine bicycle over isometric handgrip exercise in the assessment of ischemic heart disease: An evaluation of left ventricular ejection fraction response using radionuclide angiography
Left ventricular ejection fraction (LVEF) response to supine bicycle and isometric handgrip exercise was evaluated in 15 patients with documented coronary artery disease (CAD) and stress‐induced ischemia using radionuclide angiography. For purposes of analysis, the patients were divided into two groups: group I (n=7) with single‐vessel disease and group II (n = 8) with multiple‐vessel disease including 3 with left main artery disease. The studies were repeated 18 days later at similar external workloads to assess reproducibility of both tests. LVEF response to bicycle exercise was different for the two groups. The change in LVEF from rest to peak exercise was +0.04±0.02 for group I and ‐0.07±0.04 for group II (p <.001). LVEP response to isometric handgrip exercise was not different between the two groups. The change from rest to end of handgrip exercise was ‐0.02+0.02 for group I and ‐0.05 ±0.02 for group II. The reproducibility of LVEF response to bicycle exercise at similar workloads on day 1 and day 19 was good (r=0.85) while it was poor for isometric handgrip testing (r=0.67). Our data demonstrate that radionuclide angio‐graphic measurement of LVEF response to supine bicycle exercise testing is superior to LVEF response to isometric handgrip testing in the evaluation of patients with CAD. |
245107370 | s2ag/train | v2 | 2021-12-12T17:18:34.124Z | 2021-07-30T00:00:00.000Z | Use of the PAQLQ Questionnaire and Spirometry to Assess the Control of Asthma in Adolescents
The objective: was to investigate the level of asthma control in adolescents using the PAQLQ questionnaire and spirometry.
Materials and methods. The study included 60 adolescents aged 12 to 18 years, patients with asthma, without clinical and functional signs of exacerbation. 43.4% of adolescents (26 people) had a controlled course, and 56.6% of children (34 people) had a partially controlled asthma.
Results. According to the results of bronchodilation tests 3 times more often showed a positive response when using a combined bronchodilator, compared with salbutamol (χ2y=4.37; p=0,04). The average increase in FEV1 was 1,4 times greater in children after the use of ipratropium bromide / fenoterol – 8,9±0,8%, compared with the results of the test using salbutamol – 6,2±0,6% (p<0,05).
After evaluating the results of spirometry, the proportion of children with incomplete asthma control was 63,3%. Detected 38,5% of patients with a total QOL PAQLQ <6 points in controlled asthma. After conducting a survey on the PAQLQ questionnaire and spirometric examination, the percentage of children with incomplete control of asthma increased 1,6 times from 43,3% to 73,3% (χ2=11,1; p<0,05).
Conclusion. Clinical monitoring is not always sufficient to properly assess the level of asthma control in adolescents. Consideration of several assessment methods makes it possible to more accurately determine the level of asthma control in a patient. |
252132170 | s2ag/train | v2 | 2022-09-09T16:03:12.669Z | 2022-09-07T00:00:00.000Z | Autocorrelation R2 on Mars
A purpose of the Interior Exploration Using Seismic Investigations, Geodesy and Heat Transport (InSight) mission is to reveal the Martian interior structure with seismic data. In this work, ambient noise autocorrelation of the continuously recorded vertical‐component seismic signals has extracted the Rayleigh waves that propagate around Mars for one cycle, R2. The Mars orbiting surface waves are observed at a lag time of ∼6,000 s in the stacked autocorrelation series filtered between 0.005 and 0.01 Hz. Synthetic seismograms from a set of radially concentric velocity models were computed to find the best‐fitting one as the starting model for a Monte Carlo inversion. The starting model was randomly perturbed iteratively to increase the correlation coefficients and reduce the absolute time shifts between the synthetic and observed R2. An S‐wave low‐velocity layer in the inverted velocity model extends to ∼400 km depth, consistent with Marsquake observations, geophysical inversion, and high‐pressure experiments. |
225702250 | s2ag/train | v2 | 2020-07-30T02:03:24.859Z | 2020-06-30T00:00:00.000Z | Are Green Investors Green-Inducing? A Demand System Approach
Despite the growing interest in green investing among academics and industry professionals alike, there is little consensus on whether it successfully incentivizes firms to adopt eco-friendly business practices. Using the equity holdings of institutional investors and the “demand system approach” to asset pricing, we provide evidence that institutional demand for greener stocks encourages firms to improve their environmental performances. Specifically, we devise and estimate a firm-level quantity, institutional pressure for greenness, that measures the price pressure a firm receives from its institutional owners. We find that this quantity has a positive and significant relationship with future improvement in a firm's environmental performance. Together with results from placebo tests, we conclude that green investors, those with high portfolio-level environment scores, are not necessarily green-inducing investors, those who encourage better environmental performance. Instead, green-inducing investors are institutions who contribute to higher institutional pressure, i.e. investors who are price-inelastic and display a positive portfolio tilt towards greener assets. |
6624100 | s2ag/train | v2 | 2015-06-10T20:56:49.000Z | 2014-01-01T00:00:00.000Z | Automatic Camera Calibration for Traffic Understanding
We propose a method for fully automatic calibration of traffic surveillance cameras. This method allows for calibration of the camera – including scale – without any user input, only from several minutes of input surveillance video. The targeted applications include speed measurement, measurement of vehicle dimensions, vehicle classification, etc. The first step of our approach is camera calibration by determining three vanishing points defining the stream of vehicles. The second step is construction of 3D bounding boxes of individual vehicles and their measurement up to scale. We propose to first construct the projection of the bounding boxes and then, by using the camera calibration obtained earlier, create their 3D representation. In the third step, we use the dimensions of the 3D bounding boxes for calibration of the scene scale. We collected a dataset with ground truth speed and distance measurements and evaluate our approach on it. The achieved mean accuracy of speed and distance measurement is below 2%. Our efficient C++ implementation runs in real time on a low-end processor (Core i3) with a safe margin even for full-HD videos. |
7915500 | s2ag/train | v2 | 2017-04-15T21:04:26.802Z | 2014-01-02T00:00:00.000Z | Targeting SOD1 reduces experimental non–small-cell lung cancer.
Approximately 85% of lung cancers are non–small-cell lung cancers (NSCLCs), which are often diagnosed at an advanced stage and associated with poor prognosis. Currently, there are very few therapies available for NSCLCs due to the recalcitrant nature of this cancer. Mutations that activate the small GTPase KRAS are found in 20% to 30% of NSCLCs. Here, we report that inhibition of superoxide dismutase 1 (SOD1) by the small molecule ATN-224 induced cell death in various NSCLC cells, including those harboring KRAS mutations. ATN-224–dependent SOD1 inhibition increased superoxide, which diminished enzyme activity of the antioxidant glutathione peroxidase, leading to an increase in intracellular hydrogen peroxide (H(2)O(2)) levels. We found that ATN-224–induced cell death was mediated through H(2)O(2)-dependent activation of P38 MAPK and that P38 activation led to a decrease in the antiapoptotic factor MCL1, which is often upregulated in NSCLC. Treatment with both ATN-224 and ABT-263, an inhibitor of the apoptosis regulators BCL2/BCLXL, augmented cell death. Furthermore, we demonstrate that ATN-224 reduced tumor burden in a mouse model of NSCLC. Our results indicate that antioxidant inhibition by ATN-224 has potential clinical applications as a single agent, or in combination with other drugs, for the treatment of patients with various forms of NSCLC, including KRAS-driven cancers. |
87237400 | s2ag/train | v2 | 2018-04-01T15:41:03.249Z | 2007-12-14T00:00:00.000Z | Stenelmis puberula Reitter (Coleoptera: Elmidae)—description of larva and its association with adults, using DNA sequences
The mature larva of Stenelmis puberula Reitter is described for the first time, based on material collected in north-eastern Slovakia (Central Europe). The conspecificity with associated adults was tested using sequences of one nuclear (5' end of 18S rRNA) and three mitochondrial gene fragments (two fragments covering almost the whole cytochrome oxidase c subunit I; and a fragment of cytochrome b) with a total of ca. 2600 bp. |
120037120 | s2ag/train | v2 | 2019-04-18T13:07:54.387Z | 2009-07-01T00:00:00.000Z | Light emitting diode excitation of Cr3+:Al2O3 as thermographic phosphor: experiments and measurement strategy
Light emitting diode (LED) excitation of thermographic phosphors for temperature measurements was investigated in the present work. A near-UV and a green LED excited the phosphorescence of sol–gel deposited chromium-doped alumina (Cr3+:Al2O3, ruby) on silicon in different experiments. The influence of the pulse length on signal intensity was measured and is discussed theoretically. From this, measurement strategies are recommended in order to obtain high signal levels. The temperature-dependent phosphorescence between room temperature and 800 K is compared to previously obtained laser excited phosphorescence. The phosphorescence decay time of the ruby films is found to be slightly dependent on the excitation pulse duration but neither on the excitation wavelength nor on the oxygen partial pressure in the atmosphere. In many situations the less expensive LED excitation appears to be a good alternative to the laser excitation methods. In addition, a strategy is proposed for measuring two-dimensional surface temperatures using two gated cameras; the validity was proven for pointwise measurements. |
15230270 | s2ag/train | v2 | 2016-12-07T04:48:31.560Z | 2015-05-01T00:00:00.000Z | Evolutionary Model Selection and Parameter Estimation for Protein-Protein Interaction Network Based on Differential Evolution Algorithm
Revealing the underlying evolutionary mechanism plays an important role in understanding protein interaction networks in the cell. While many evolutionary models have been proposed, the problem about applying these models to real network data, especially for differentiating which model can better describe evolutionary process for the observed network remains a challenge. The traditional way is to use a model with presumed parameters to generate a network, and then evaluate the fitness by summary statistics, which however cannot capture the complete network structures information and estimate parameter distribution. In this work, we developed a novel method based on Approximate Bayesian Computation and modified Differential Evolution algorithm (ABC-DEP) that is capable of conducting model selection and parameter estimation simultaneously and detecting the underlying evolutionary mechanisms for PPI networks more accurately. We tested our method for its power in differentiating models and estimating parameters on simulated data and found significant improvement in performance benchmark, as compared with a previous method. We further applied our method to real data of protein interaction networks in human and yeast. Our results show duplication attachment model as the predominant evolutionary mechanism for human PPI networks and Scale-Free model as the predominant mechanism for yeast PPI networks. |
29384850 | s2ag/train | v2 | 2018-04-03T01:22:51.298Z | 1989-01-01T00:00:00.000Z | [Anatomical and histological characteristics of proximal surfaces of abutment teeth].
When the guide planes are formed on the proximal surfaces of abutment teeth the part of enamel is removed. Thickness of enamel and inclination of tooth are the factors that limit the possible tooth reduction. In this report anatomical and histological characteristics of proximal surfaces of the abutment teeth are analysed. Thickness of the enamel has been measured using the optical microscope for 280 prepared teeth. Measurements were performed on four zones of tooth's proximal surfaces, on the different distances from the top of enamel edge. Undercut of 420 proximal surfaces of tooth have been determined by micro-analyser with accuracy of 0.05 mm. By comparing the mean values of enamel thickness, in occlusal thirds, and undercut of proximal surfaces, it is possible to conclude that the formed guide plane remains in the enamel even after the removing of all natural undercuts. |
140643950 | s2ag/train | v2 | 2018-11-07T12:58:39.307Z | 2012-12-03T00:00:00.000Z | Transformation: African People in the Western Cape: An Overview
This paper is based on data from interviews with a number of mostly Western Cape based companies and employees with the objective of understanding the barriers to the achievement of employment equity for African people. The research was initiated by businesses that have head offices in the Western Cape, or large regional presences, as they expressed serious concerns about the under-representation of African staff in management positions in their respective organisations. The participating organisations expressed a genuine interest in wanting to be informed by credible research on how to best address this concern, as the research team were provided upon request with easy access to Employment Equity documentation and the contact details of staff to approach for interviews. |
18446650 | s2ag/train | v2 | 2015-03-19T23:44:59.000Z | 2012-09-01T00:00:00.000Z | Living Within Conflicts: Risk of Violence and Livelihood Portfolios
This paper provides a comprehensive view of household responses to insecurity by examining chances along the extensive and intensive margins of livelihoods during a conflict. In particular, it examines how insecurity affects both the choice of activities and the composition of associated livestock and crop portfolios. Uniquely, I rely on a sample of over 690,000 rural households, accounting for 75 percent of all rural households in Northern Uganda. Overall, the analysis suggests that shifts in the composition and levels of assets are one of the primarily paths by which conflict-risk lowers welfare. |
22851800 | s2ag/train | v2 | 2018-04-03T05:45:40.397Z | 1978-10-01T00:00:00.000Z | Epstein‐barr virus in somatic cell hybrids between mouse cells and human nasopharyngeal carcinoma cells
Somatic cell hybrids between mouse cells and cells derived directly from NPC biopsies were produced in order to study the association of the Epstein‐Barr virus (EBV) genome and the expression of Epstein‐Barr nuclear antigen (EBNA) with the human chromosome(s). All attempts to correlate the presence of EBV‐DNA and the expression of EBNA with the presence of a particular human chromosome(s) showed that the segregation of EBV‐DNA or of EBNA and human chromosomes was dysconcordant. The data, therefore, suggest that in the hybrids studied the presence of EBA‐DNA is not determined by the presence of a specific human chromosome. |
86053400 | s2ag/train | v2 | 2019-03-30T13:06:45.679Z | 2005-06-01T00:00:00.000Z | Microarrays: The Technology, Analysis and Application
DNA microarray analysis represents one of the major advances leading to the development of functional genomics and proteomics. It involves the fabrication of DNA either by in situ or on‐chip photolithographic synthesis or by inkjet or microjet deposition, as microspots immobilized on the surface of miniaturized substrates like glass or membranes. The immobilized DNA molecules are then allowed to hybridize with labeled complementary DNA. The hybrid DNA so formed is read through scanning devices, such as fluorescence and radioactivity. Further, computational approaches, for example, normalization and clustering allow thousands of genetic parameters in a single experiment to be simultaneously analyzed. This review discusses the fundamental principles and data analysis of the microarray technology, while focusing on its application in gene expression analysis, genotyping for point mutation and diseases diagnostics. |
20359150 | s2ag/train | v2 | 2017-11-20T18:12:51.086Z | 2017-08-01T00:00:00.000Z | Homogenization of an array of resonators of the Helmholtz type
We present a homogenization method based on two scale matched asymptotic expansion techniques for arrays of Helmholtz resonators. In the resulting effective model, the array is replaced by a homogeneous and anisotropic medium accounting for the cavities of the resonators while jump conditions apply across a fictitious interface accounting for the necks of the resonators. We show that the model is able to describe accurately resonators open with necks at both extremities (termed two-sided) or open at a single extremity (termed one-sided). In these two cases, the effect of the array spacing is exemplified, which allows (i) to tune the resonance of perfect transmission in the former case and (ii) to realize perfect absorption in the later case. |
110393300 | s2ag/train | v2 | 2017-10-29T19:56:56.918Z | 2012-12-20T00:00:00.000Z | Bioelectrical impedance analysis (BIA): a proposal for standardization of the classical method in adults
The accuracy of BIA measurements is limited by different sources of error such as physical model, cross sectional area, ethnicity, body hydration, age and level of body fat among other variables. Equation for each population is required as they can produce overestimation when manufacturer's equations are used. The classical measurements hand to foot has shown better correlation against hydrodensitometry than foot to foot or hand to hand. However there is a lack for an accepted standard of BIA procedures. This is compounded when there is not a good report of the BIA study's methodology; hence the comparability between the results is poor and reduces the reliability of the method. Perhaps, standardization of methods would be the first step for BIA studies to move forward and subsequently improve its accuracy. Standardized procedures could also minimize the impact of these variables on studies results. The aim of this study was to propose a protocol as a checklist to standardize BIA procedures and produce comparable results from future studies performed with the classic hand-foot configuration in adults. |
47012410 | s2ag/train | v2 | 2018-06-21T16:08:09.103Z | 2018-06-07T00:00:00.000Z | Ectopic Lipid Deposition Is Associated With Insulin Resistance in Postmenopausal Women
Context
Menopause is associated with an increased incidence of insulin resistance and diabetes.
Objective
The aim of this study was to explore the lipid deposition in liver and skeletal muscle and investigate the association with insulin sensitivity in postmenopausal and premenopausal women.
Design and Setting
Single-center cross-sectional study of 55 healthy women between 45 and 60 years of age. We measured lipid deposition in the liver with magnetic resonance spectroscopy, intramuscular and intra-abdominal lipid deposition with MRI, body composition with a dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry scan, and insulin sensitivity with the composite Matsuda Index.
Outcome Measures
We studied the association between fat distribution, ectopic lipid deposition, and insulin sensitivity in pre- and postmenopausal women.
Results
Postmenopausal women had an increased lipid deposition in the liver [0.68% (0.44 to 0.99) vs 0.49% (0.38 to 0.64), P = 0.01] and skeletal muscle [3% (2 to 4) vs 2% (1 to 3), P = 0.001] and had a 28% lower Matsuda insulin sensitivity index during an oral glucose tolerance test (6.31 ± 3.48 vs 8.78 ± 4.67, P = 0.05) compared with premenopausal women. Total fat mass and leg fat mass were stronger predictors of ectopic lipid deposition, and visceral fat mass was a stronger predictor of both ectopic lipid deposition and insulin resistance in postmenopausal women compared with premenopausal women.
Conclusions
For a given subcutaneous and visceral fat depot size, postmenopausal women show increased ectopic lipid deposition and insulin resistance compared with premenopausal women. It is suggested that lipid deposition in liver and skeletal muscle may represent important mechanistic links between the changes in fat depots and the increased incidence of insulin resistance seen after menopause. |
220317560 | s2ag/train | v2 | 2019-08-17T04:10:06.361Z | 1993-08-01T00:00:00.000Z | Sponsorship of Sport by Tobacco and Alcohol Companies: a Review of the Issues
The self-interest of sports managers and players concerned with survival of their events, and of the media concerned with protecting advertising revenue, has resulted in little discussion on the appropriateness of tobacco and alcohol companies sponsoring sport. Three central factors in the controversy over permitting tobacco sponsorship of sport are discussed: (1) the obscuring of the connection between tobacco products and disease; (2) the enabling of companies to penetrate the youth market; and (3) the circumvention of the ban on cigarette advertising and promotion in broadcast media. The tobacco industry's case for sponsorship revolves around freedom of speech and the argument that its activities do not lead to increased smoking, only to brand switching. The central issue in alcohol company sponsorship is that it encourages alcohol addiction and abuse. |
1230960 | s2ag/train | v2 | 2017-05-29T01:17:38.064Z | 2010-07-15T00:00:00.000Z | Adult pancreatic acinar cells give rise to ducts but not endocrine cells in response to growth factor signaling
Studies in both humans and rodents have found that insulin+ cells appear within or near ducts of the adult pancreas, particularly following damage or disease, suggesting that these insulin+ cells arise de novo from ductal epithelium. We have found that insulin+ cells are continuous with duct cells in the epithelium that makes up the hyperplastic ducts of both chronic pancreatitis and pancreatic cancer in humans. Therefore, we tested the hypothesis that both hyperplastic ductal cells and their associated insulin+ cells arise from the same cell of origin. Using a mouse model that develops insulin+ cell-containing hyperplastic ducts in response to the growth factor TGFα, we performed genetic lineage tracing experiments to determine which cells gave rise to both hyperplastic ductal cells and duct-associated insulin+ cells. We found that hyperplastic ductal cells arose largely from acinar cells that changed their cell fate, or transdifferentiated, into ductal cells. However, insulin+ cells adjacent to acinar-derived ductal cells arose from pre-existing insulin+ cells, suggesting that islet endocrine cells can intercalate into hyperplastic ducts as they develop. We conclude that apparent pancreatic plasticity can result both from the ability of acinar cells to change fate and of endocrine cells to reorganize in association with duct structures. |
122687950 | s2ag/train | v2 | 2019-04-20T13:14:16.783Z | 2011-08-29T00:00:00.000Z | Submicron feature surface mapping interferometer for hard-to-access locations
This paper describes a compact, imaging Twyman-Green interferometer to measure small features such as corrosion pits, scratches and digs on hard to access objects such as assembled parts. The shoebox size interferometer was designed to guarantee proper orientation and working distance relative to the inspected section. The system also provides an extended acceptance angle to permit the collection at selected view points on a subject. We will describe the various image shifting techniques investigated as part of the prototype. All the components with the exception of power supplies were integrated into an enclosure. The interferometer has been demonstrated to provide sub-micron depth resolution and diffraction limited spatial resolution (a few microns). This paper will present the final performance achieved with the system and provide examples of applications. |
37965750 | s2ag/train | v2 | 2018-04-03T04:10:48.982Z | 1998-10-01T00:00:00.000Z | Regulating Angiogenesis: A New Therapeutic Strategy
Angiogenesis is the proliferation of endothelial and smooth muscle cells to form new blood vessels. Largely muted after adolescence, angiogenesis may be reignited by cancerous cells. Neoangiogenesis plays a primary role in tumor growth and metastases. Antiangiogenic therapy to limit and even reverse the growth of tumors are under investigation and showing promise. A derivative of fumagillin, TNP 470, is the first angiogenesis inhibitor to be given to humans. Surprisingly, several potent inhibitors are derived from tumors themselves. Researchers now recognize that stimulation of angiogenesis may have a place in the treatment of cardiovascular disease. Reestablishing blood flow to ischemic tissue through angiogenesis may provide a biologic “bypass” for patients with ischemic heart disease. The same applies to the treatment of peripheral vascular disease. |
21154900 | s2ag/train | v2 | 2018-04-03T01:12:18.470Z | 1999-01-01T00:00:00.000Z | [Effect of inhaled nitric oxide on the first 24 hours of assisted respiration in the critically ill child].
OBJECTIVE
Our aim was to analyze if inhaled nitric oxide (NO) allows a reduction in respiratory assistance during the first 24 hours of treatment of children with acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARD) and/or pulmonary hypertension (PHT).
PATIENTS AND METHODS
We studied 53 children with ARDS and/or PHT refractory to conventional therapy who were treated with inhaled nitric oxide at least 24 hours at 1.5 to 45 ppm. We compared respiratory assistance (peak pressure, PEEP and FiO2) and oxygenation parameters (PaO2/FiO2 ratio and oxygenation index) before and after 6 and 24 hours of treatment.
RESULTS
In 45 of 53 children NO improved oxygenation (increase of PaO2/FiO2 > 20%). At six hours of treatment the PaO2/FiO2 ratio increased 31 points, the oxygenation index diminished 4.5 points, and the FiO2 was decreased 11 points without significant changes in peak pressure and PEEP. At 24 hours the PaO2/FiO2 ratio was increased 4 points, the oxygenation index diminished 7.3 points and the FiO2 decreased 18 points in relationship to the initial parameters.
CONCLUSIONS
The effect of inhaled nitric oxide on oxygenation remains during the first 24 hours and permits a decrease in the FiO2. |
115299160 | s2ag/train | v2 | 2019-04-16T13:29:14.052Z | 2019-01-09T00:00:00.000Z | A pilot study of radon levels in certified passive house buildings
The international Passive House Standard delivers high thermal comfort based on the principles of excellent building fabric and balanced mechanical heat recovery ventilation. Considering that the typical person in industrial countries (such as the UK) spends ∼90% of their time indoors, there are surprisingly few academic studies on air quality in the home. Indoor air quality and the prevalence of overheating are attracting an increasing amount of research attention across Europe, but post occupancy monitoring of indoor radon concentrations is severely underrepresented, especially in Ireland and the UK. Radon is a naturally occurring radioactive gas and known carcinogen that presents a potential risk to occupier health. This pilot study investigates measured radon levels in certified Passive House buildings in Northern Ireland and presents an overview of technical radon prevention design options for new builds and mitigation measures for existing buildings. Initial findings indicate that buildings built to the Passive House Standard correspond with reduced indoor radon gas concentrations. Practical application : This Technical Note addresses an issue pertinent to the industry at this time. The growth of energy-efficient standards (such as Passive House) and common principles (such as increased airtightness levels and mechanical ventilation systems) has accelerated the need for research data on indoor radon concentrations. This research bridges the knowledge gap between the fields of indoor air quality (specifically radon), health, sustainability and the built environment. |
233362560 | s2ag/train | v2 | 2019-05-26T14:35:37.037Z | 2016-01-01T00:00:00.000Z | Women without Men: Single Mothers and Family Change in the New Russia
on an “institutional model of diff usion” (72), whether in the USSR or the USA. Andrei Bitov also approached the publication of his novel Pushkinskii dom [Pushkin House] strategically, attempting to guide some sections through censorship for publication in offi cial journals. Crucially, this made plausible the claim that the work had escaped into samizdat without the author’s knowledge. The samizdat mode of circulation and the assemblage form of the novel undermine the sense of stability and wholeness of the literary text, underlining the inherent instability of the unoffi cial text, a fact that Bitov could exploit to play on the boundaries between offi cial and unoffi cial culture. The instability of the text is particularly evident in the analysis of Erofeev’s MoskvaPetushki [Moscow Stations], where the author exploits the blend of written and oral language to draw the reader in and prompt creative responses. The oral character also refl ects the instability and spontaneity of unoffi cial literature, Venichka’s addresses to the reader recalling the direct links between readers generated by samizdat. Of particular interest is the way in which these novels express resistance to offi cial ideology and the “absurdity of life in the late Soviet era” (125), without necessarily acting as political statements. This comes to the fore in the conceptualization of samizdat as an “extra-Gutenberg” phenomenon, which made possible a dissidence that challenged the regime by exposing the artifi ciality of its centrally administered unity, creating a more “discontinuous fi eld of cultural production and circulation” (131). The theoretical adherence to the work of Pierre Bourdieu seeks “insights into the relations among an autonomous cultural fi eld and the larger social fi eld whose material exchanges and power relations it denies” (45). As a result, issues of cultural and symbolic capital, upon which samizdat texts frequently relied to achieve recognition, can be teased out, whereby the subtleties of the authors’ perceptions of their social position and potential for creativity and exchange come to the fore. Of particular interest in this regard is her discussion of the conversion of cultural capital between the Soviet and western spheres—samizdat novels relied on capital to achieve publication abroad, and the prestige of international publication validated these uncensored works and, by extension, their authors. This theoretical engagement prioritizes the dynamics among and between the offi cial and autonomous fi elds, calling into question the strict separation of the offi cial and unoffi cial and, consequently, between dissidence and orthodoxy. Indeed, Komaromi’s great achievement in this work is to show how the autonomous fi eld of samizdat was governed by and relied upon the offi cial fi eld, as a location for strategic game playing. More explication of the use of terminology would have been welcome; the ways in which the concepts of dissident, autonomous and uncensored literature might interact and diff er might raise further interesting questions. These detailed case studies avoid romanticizing and mythologizing the subject, however, instead raising intriguing questions and prompting the reader to reconsider received ideas of dissidence, autonomy and cultural production in the Soviet era. |
59888900 | s2ag/train | v2 | 2015-03-16T19:17:14.000Z | 2009-03-09T00:00:00.000Z | Musings about text redundancy and text compression
I muse about some “stringological” questions: Is it possible to encode and compress any given string in such a way that all redundancy is removed? And, if this not possible: How closely could we approximate the ideal aim? My little essay is naive in the sense that I have never studied “stringology” and coding theory properly – therefore also no literature references at the end of this paper. The sole purpose of this little sketch is to entertain my colleague Derrick Kourie at the occasion of his 60 birthday, for which I wish him all the best of happiness as well as many further years to come. 1. Preliminaries Let us try to compress strings of text in a fully reversible way, such that the result S’ = compress(S) can be undone to S = uncompress(S’) without loss of information and without any ambiguity. We need a text alphabet T, which is here (for the sake of intuition) the small Roman alphabet {a, b, ..., y, z}. To separate words and sentences from each other within a string, we need a blank space symbol e = “ “ as well as a period symbol π = “.” – these control tags however do not belong to the texts which we want to encode and compress, and they also occur in the code. Finally we also need a code alphabet C, which is here (for the sake of intuition) the set of natural numbers N {1, 2, 3, ...} – though any other alphabet, even T itself could be chosen. Definition. Let S be a text string consisting of a finite number of words (w є T*) which are separated from each other by occurrences of e or π. The weight of a word w (in S) is its length |w| multiplied with the number #(w) of its occurrences (i.e. repetitions, or frequency) in S. The weights of the word separator symbols e and π are defined as Null. ■ 2. Naive Method In the first phase of the procedure, we build a list of all words occurring in a given text, and we sort this list in a descending order by weight of the words. Searching and sorting all those words is certainly an expensive task from the perspective of complexity theory, however let us naively assume for now that we would get all such searching and sorting for free, as a birthday present from a friendly oracle demon :-) Example. S = “ich gehe spazieren. ich gehe in diese richtung.” The weights of the words in this text are calculated as follows: 2|ich|=6, 2|gehe|=8, 1|spazieren|=9, 1|in|=2, 1|diese|=5, 1|richtung|=8. Sorting the words from the highest weight to the lowest we get the following list: 1) spazieren // weight 9 2) richtung // weight 8 |
12427850 | s2ag/train | v2 | 2017-02-10T07:25:25.190Z | 2004-11-29T00:00:00.000Z | Performance analysis for optical wireless communication systems using subcarrier PSK intensity modulation through turbulent atmospheric channel
This paper compares the performance of on-off keying (OOK) modulation and subcarrier phase shift keying (PSK) modulation through an optical wireless channel. The bit error rate (BER) for a turbulent channel is derived for optical wireless communication systems employing OOK or subcarrier BPSK. A lower bound is derived for BER performance when fixed-threshold OOK is used. It is also shown that the BER performance of the optical wireless communication system, employing subcarrier PSK modulation, is more than 3 dB better than that of a compatible system employing fixed-threshold OOK modulation at BER=10/sup -6/ and with turbulence parameter /spl sigma/=0.1. When /spl sigma/ is 0.2 and fixed-threshold OOK is employed, the BER performance never falls down to 10/sup -4/. The BER performance degradation of optical wireless communication systems employing subcarrier BPSK between /spl sigma/=0.1 and /spl sigma/=0.2 is only 2.5 dB at BER=10/sup -6/. |
16785600 | s2ag/train | v2 | 2015-06-10T20:56:49.000Z | 2007-01-01T00:00:00.000Z | TREES WITH EQUAL RESTRAINED DOMINATION AND TOTAL RESTRAINED DOMINATION NUMBERS
For a graph G = (V,E), a set D ⊆ V (G) is a total restrained dominating set if it is a dominating set and both 〈D〉 and 〈V (G)−D〉 do not have isolated vertices. The cardinality of a minimum total restrained dominating set in G is the total restrained domination number. A set D ⊆ V (G) is a restrained dominating set if it is a dominating set and 〈V (G) − D〉 does not contain an isolated vertex. The cardinality of a minimum restrained dominating set in G is the restrained domination number. We characterize all trees for which total restrained and restrained domination numbers are equal. |
207941150 | s2ag/train | v2 | 2019-11-14T14:16:19.579Z | 2019-01-01T00:00:00.000Z | [Tracheal resection after prolonged stenting in surgery for cicatricial stenosis].
OBJECTIVE
To analyze early and delayed results of various variants of circular tracheal resection (CTR) with anastomosis, to determine the safest approach, dates and conditions of correction, features of postoperative period in patients after previous tracheal surgery.
MATERIAL AND METHODS
There were 831 patients with cicatricial tracheal stenosis. CTR was made in 330 (39.7%) patients. Most patients had previous prolonged ICU-stay. The patients were divided into 4 groups. Group 1 consisted of 61 (18.5%) patients after previous prolonged tracheal stenting. Group 2 included 45 (13.6%) patients who underwent circular tracheal resection with a functioning tracheostomy. Tracheostomy tube served as a stent in these patients. Group 3 enrolled 32 (9.7%) patients with previous staged reconstructive plastic surgeries on cranial segment of the respiratory tract. Tracheostomy or stent were absent in 192 (58.2%) patients who underwent circular tracheal resection at the first hospitalization. These patients were enrolled into the fourth (control) group. Favorable outcomes (without complications and mortality) were achieved in 85.5% (n=282) of patients. Postoperative complications occurred in 48 (14.5%) patients. Mortality rate was 0.6% (n=2). The greatest number of complications including anastomositis and restenosis was noted in patients after CTR and previous tracheoplasty with T-tube (n=8, 25%). The most common complication in patients after tracheal resection and previous stenting was anastomositis (14.7%). Long-term results depended on postoperative complications and methods of their correction. Recurrent stenosis occurred in 5 (1.5%) patients within the period of 3 months - 8 years. CTR after previous tracheoplasty with T-tube was carried out in 4 of these patients.
CONCLUSION
Tracheal resection after preliminary stenting or tracheostomy is quite safe and technically feasible. Stenting allows postponing radical surgery for correction of concomitant diseases and closure of tracheostomy as a focus of infection within the surgical approach and further tracheal anastomosis. Tracheal resection with simultaneous closure of tracheostomy results a higher rate of postoperative complications compared with preliminary stenting. |
30328460 | s2ag/train | v2 | 2017-08-27T10:03:58.762Z | 2011-02-01T00:00:00.000Z | Quercetin exerts a neuroprotective effect through inhibition of the iNOS/NO system and pro-inflammation gene expression in PC12 cells and in zebrafish.
Flavonoids have been reported to be potent antioxidants and beneficial in the treatment of oxidative stress-related diseases. Quercetin, a major flavonoid naturally occurring in plants, deserves attention because of its beneficial effects observed in various in vitro and in vivo neural damage models; however, the actions of quercetin are paradoxical. In an effort to confirm the neuroprotective effect of quercetin and to elucidate its mechanism of action, the neuroprotective effects of quercetin in PC12 cells and in zebrafish models were investigated. In this study, the selective dopaminergic neurotoxin 6-hydroxydopamine (6-OHDA), was used to induce neural damage in PC12 cells and zebrafish models. Pretreatment with quercetin offered neuroprotection against 6-OHDA-induced PC12 cell death. Moreover, quercetin could prevent 6-OHDA-induced PC12 cell apoptosis and 6-OHDA-stimulated dopaminergic neuron loss in zebrafish. Interestingly, quercetin was able to protect, but not rescue the dopaminergic neuron damage when zebrafish were treated with quercetin at different maturation stages of the blood brain barrier. A mechanistic study showed that quercetin could inhibit NO over-production and iNOS over-expression in PC12 cells and could down-regulate the over-expression of pro-inflammatory genes (e.g. IL-1ß, TNF-α and COX-2) in zebrafish, suggesting that these genes play a role in the neuroprotective effect of quercetin. The objective of this study was to provide a scientific rationale for the clinical use of quercetin, leading to its development as an effective therapeutic agent for the treatment of Parkinson's disease. |
11473060 | s2ag/train | v2 | 2017-02-13T23:32:15.851Z | 2011-05-10T00:00:00.000Z | Notice of RetractionThe Effects of HRT and MLSS on a Continuous Shortcut Nitrification and Denitrification Process
The effects of HRT and MLSS on nitrogen and phosphorus removal in a continuous shortcut nitrification-denitrification reactor are experimentally studied with artificial domestic sewage. The results show that when HRT is controlled at 8h, the sewage treatment efficiency is the highest and the accumulation rate of NO2--N reaches maximum. Too long or too short HRT is not conducive to stable treatment. It is also found that as MLSS raises to 5000mg/L, the release of anaerobic phosphorus, the uptake of anoxic phosphorus and the accumulation rate are all up to maximum. If MLSS is more than 5000mg/L, the accumulation rate of NO2--N will be decreased, leading to low removal rate of PO43-P duo to the secondary phosphorus release in anoxic zone. |
7961310 | s2ag/train | v2 | 2017-11-30T06:08:53.497Z | 2011-01-01T00:00:00.000Z | Accelerating the Sequence Annotation using Split Annotation with Active Learning
Active learning succeeds in reducing the size of labeled cor pus while maintaining the high accuracy. However, active learn ing requires several iterations of the tagger training, which w ill not be practical when the training of an iteration takes long tim e. In this paper, we propose to simplify the all-entity labelin g task by splitting the task into a set of single-entity labeling su btasks. After all entity types are labeled, we merge the data sets int o a all-entity corpus and train the final tagger using the merged s t. The proposed method achieved the competitive F1 to the multientity learning but required much less computational time o n the CoNLL chunking and named entity recognition data sets. |
212679910 | s2ag/train | v2 | 2020-02-06T09:09:30.891Z | 2020-02-01T00:00:00.000Z | Selective medical image encryption using DNA cryptography
ABSTRACT In the medical field, advanced techniques like e-health, smart health, and telemedicine applications are in use. These techniques transmit a digital medical image via open-source networks. The digital medical image contains confidential and sensitive information of patients. The transmitted digital medical images are used for diagnosis in the remote center. Hence, providing security and maintaining the confidentiality of the medical image is a major apprehension. In this paper, DNA cryptography and dual hyperchaotic map techniques are proposed to provide high-level security for a digital medical image. The digital medical images are very large in size and require more computational time. To reduce computational time, the selective digital medical image encryption algorithm is proposed. In the proposed cryptosystem, the permutation and diffusion process are performed on selected pixels of digital medical images. To construct theDNA structure for digital medical images, all DNA encoding rules based on the pixel position of the digital medical image are used. The cipher image is attained by using all DNA decoding rules based on the pixel value of the digital medical image. The proposed cryptosystem is resistant to different types of attacks. |
34946800 | s2ag/train | v2 | 2017-02-20T23:16:41.974Z | 2011-03-01T00:00:00.000Z | On Relay Assignment in Network-Coded Cooperative Systems
We consider in this paper relay assignment for cooperative systems with multiple two-way relay channels. The nodes corresponding to one two-way relay channel (henceforth referred to as pair) communicate with each other through a relay. The relays use network coding to simultaneously transmit the signals corresponding to the pairs they are assigned to. We propose two relay assignment schemes. One scheme considers all possible relay assignment permutations and selects the one that yields the best performance, and the other one considers only a subset of these permutations and selects the best one. The advantage of the latter is that it results in a significant reduction in computational complexity, in addition to making the analysis more tractable. We analyze the performance of these schemes over asymmetric independent Rayleigh fading channels. We also consider semi-symmetric and symmetric channels as special cases. We derive closed-form expressions for the end-to-end bit error rate performance for all scenarios and show that the full diversity order is achieved, which is the number of available relays. We present several examples to verify the theoretical results. |
81882200 | s2ag/train | v2 | 2019-03-18T14:04:41.627Z | 2018-11-26T00:00:00.000Z | Vaginal cuff dehiscence after total laparoscopic hysterectomy a case report and brief review of the literature
Vaginal cuff dehiscence (VCD) is a serious complication of total laparoscopic hysterectomy (TLH) or trachelectomy with high morbidity, as it can potentially lead to evisceration/bowel ischemia and sepsis. Authors present a case report of vaginal cuff dehiscence after laparoscopic trachelectomy. The patient reported post-coital onset of symptoms. She presented with acute abdomen and required urgent surgical intervention. In this case surgical management was dictated by the clinical manifestation. However, authors argue that conservative management is also an option for some of these patients and the decision regarding the management plan should be personalized according to the clinical presentation and the patient’s expectations. Emphasis should be given to avoid early onset of sexual activity during the immediate recovery period. Compared to women who underwent an abdominal or vaginal hysterectomy, those who had a laparoscopic procedure have less post-operative pain, shorter recovery period and often they are advised to return early to their normal habits and their work place. It is expected that this group of patients feel well enough to resume sexual activity soon after their procedure. Therefore, our counselling is of paramount importance as it should be highlighted that sexual intercourse is possibly the most common triggering event for VCD which a serious complication with severe morbidity is. The resumption should, therefore, follow medical consultation and be individualized according to co-morbidities which could affect healing, intraoperative findings and evaluation of the whole recovery progress. |
148793600 | s2ag/train | v2 | 2019-05-11T13:04:47.338Z | 2018-07-01T00:00:00.000Z | Moral Character Impression Formation Depends on the Valence Homogeneity of the Context
People quickly form impressions about moral character; for example, if people learn that someone cheated, they form a negative impression about that person’s character and expect that person to cheat in the future. Four studies show that the formation of such moral character impressions depends on the degree of valence homogeneity in the target’s context. We argue that this is the case because the degree of homogeneity in the context (the evaluative ecology) informs perceivers about the reliability of signals. Experiments 1 and 2 found that people form less strong impressions about moral character when a person’s behavior occurred in a heterogeneous context, that is, if unrelated positive and negative context information cooccurred. Experiment 3 demonstrated that nonmoral valence homogeneity produces similar effects. In Experiment 4, this effect also influenced strategic decisions in economic games. Together, these studies demonstrate the evaluative ecology plays a critical role in shaping moral character impressions. |
204807410 | s2ag/train | v2 | 2019-10-05T08:32:48.835Z | 2008-01-01T00:00:00.000Z | GAW-An Imaging Atmospheric Čerenkov Telescope with Large Field of View
GAW, acronym for Gamma Air Watch, is a Research and Developme nt experiment in the TeV range, whose main goal is to explore the feasibility of large field of view Imaging AtmospheričCerenkov Telescopes. GAW is an array of three relatively small telesc opes (2.13 m diameter) which differs from the existing and presently planned projects in two main feature s: the adoption of a refractive optics system as light collector and the use of single photoelectron countin g as detector working mode. The optics system allows to achieve a large field of view ( 24◦ × 24◦), suitable for surveys of large sky regions. The single photoelectron counting mode in comparison with the charge i ntegration mode improves the sensitivity by permitting also the reconstruction of events with a small nu mber of collecteďCerenkov photons. GAW, which is a collaboration effort of Research Institutes in It aly, Portugal and Spain, will be erected in the Calar Alto Observatory (Sierra de Los Filabres Andalucı́a , Spain), at 2150 m a.s.l.. The first telescope will be settled within Autumn 2007. This paper shows the main characteristics of the experiment and its expected performance. |
25767810 | s2ag/train | v2 | 2018-04-03T00:47:51.713Z | 2014-02-01T00:00:00.000Z | Rapid Eye Movement Sleep Behavior Disorder as an Outlier Detection Problem
Objective: Idiopathic rapid eye movement (REM) sleep behavior disorder is a strong early marker of Parkinson’s disease and is characterized by REM sleep without atonia and/or dream enactment. Because these measures are subject to individual interpretation, there is consequently need for quantitative methods to establish objective criteria. This study proposes a semiautomatic algorithm for the early detection of Parkinson’s disease. This is achieved by distinguishing between normal REM sleep and REM sleep without atonia by considering muscle activity as an outlier detection problem. Methods: Sixteen healthy control subjects, 16 subjects with idiopathic REM sleep behavior disorder, and 16 subjects with periodic limb movement disorder were enrolled. Different combinations of five surface electromyographic channels, including the EOG, were tested. A muscle activity score was automatically computed from manual scored REM sleep. This was accomplished by the use of subject-specific features combined with an outlier detector (one-class support vector machine classifier). Results: It was possible to correctly separate idiopathic REM sleep behavior disorder subjects from healthy control subjects and periodic limb movement subjects with an average validation area under the receiver operating characteristic curve of 0.993 when combining the anterior tibialis with submentalis. Additionally, it was possible to separate all subjects correctly when the final algorithm was tested on 12 unseen subjects. Conclusions: Detection of idiopathic REM sleep behavior disorder can be regarded as an outlier problem. Additionally, the EOG channels can be used to detect REM sleep without atonia and is discriminative better than the traditional submentalis. Furthermore, based on data and methodology, arousals and periodic limb movements did only have a minor influence on the quantification of the muscle activity. Analysis of muscle activity during nonrapid eye movement sleep may improve the separation even further. |
45074710 | s2ag/train | v2 | 2018-04-03T05:58:21.355Z | 1990-01-01T00:00:00.000Z | [Surgical results in post-traumatic hematomas of the posterior cranial fossa].
Posttraumatic intracranial hematomas of the posterior fossa are rare but severe complications of head injuries. In the period between 1970 and 1989 in the neurosurgical department of Landesnervenklinik Salzburg 28 patients were operated on posttraumatic hematomas of the posterior fossa. The prognosis of this type of injury is shown by the own results. |
239646760 | s2ag/train | v2 | 2021-09-24T15:08:53.015Z | 2021-08-31T00:00:00.000Z | Regulatory regulation of waste processing in Russia and abroad
The purpose of this article is to analyze the existing legal framework and law enforcement practice in Russia in the field of waste processing and compare it with the experience of countries that are successful in this area. A positive example of progressive legislation in this area will be illustrated by the Swedish waste recycling regulation. |
80669210 | s2ag/train | v2 | 2019-03-18T14:04:55.002Z | 2018-12-01T00:00:00.000Z | Radiotherapy plus hyperthermia is effective for painful bony metastases—optimal schedule unsettled
We thank van Rhoon and van Holthe for their interests and comments on our article of combined hyperthermia (HT) and radiation therapy (RT) for painful bony metastases (1). In our study, a significant pain improvement and duration of response was demonstrated by HT + RT. We emphasized the complete response (CR) rate at the third month than the accumulated CR rate within 3 months, because the palliative goal for the good performance patients should focus more on long-lasting response (2). Our analysis was indeed limited by small patient size (58 patients). However, timing of preset analysis and the rule of early termination were performed according to protocol and were mandated by the institutional review board and health regulatory authorities for clinical trials. |
14902900 | s2ag/train | v2 | 2017-02-11T03:17:24.351Z | 2006-05-16T00:00:00.000Z | Agents in ChinaGrid support platform
Grid computing is becoming more and more attractive for coordinating large-scale heterogeneous resource sharing and problem solving. From the viewpoint of decentralization and interoperability, we add agent layer based on ChinaGrid support platform (CGSP) system services. By describing these agent technologies in detail, we prove that agents can be implemented in WSRF specification as a Web service resource. It works well to extend the autonomy and interoperability for CGSP system |
10379650 | s2ag/train | v2 | 2017-08-17T03:14:19.289Z | 2008-01-23T00:00:00.000Z | Evolution of ecological specialization and venom of a predatory marine gastropod
Understanding the evolution of ecological specialization is important for making inferences about the origins of biodiversity. Members of the predatory, marine gastropod genus Conus exhibit a variety of diets and the ability to capture prey is linked to a venom comprised of peptide neurotoxins, termed conotoxins. We identified conotoxin transcripts from Conus leopardus, a species of Conus that uniquely preys exclusively on hemichordates, and compared its venom duct transcriptome to that of four other Conus species to determine whether a shift to a specialized diet is associated with changes in the venom composition of this species. We also examined the secondary structure of predicted amino acid sequences of conotoxin transcripts of C. leopardus to identify substitutions that may be linked to specialization on hemichordates. We identified seven distinct conotoxin sequences from C. leopardus that appear to represent transcripts of seven distinct loci. Expression levels and the diversity of conotoxins expressed by C. leopardus are considerably less than those of other Conus. Moreover, gene products of two transcripts exhibited unique secondary structures that have not been previously observed from other Conus. These results suggest that transition to a specialist diet is associated with reduction in the number of components expressed in venoms of Conus and that diverse venoms of Conus are maintained in species with a broad dietary width. |
28947250 | s2ag/train | v2 | 2017-10-27T13:15:18.371Z | 2006-11-01T00:00:00.000Z | Oxidative stress is progressively enhanced with advancing stages of CKD.
BACKGROUND
Oxidative stress appears to have a central role in the pathophysiological process of uremia and its complications, including cardiovascular disease. However, there is little evidence to suggest how early oxidative stress starts developing during the progression of chronic kidney disease (CKD). The aim of this study is to assess oxidative stress activity in a cross-sectional study of patients with CKD stages 1 to 4.
METHODS
Eighty-seven steady patients (47 men, 40 women) with a median age of 62 years (range, 28 to 84 years) and mean estimated glomerular filtration rate (eGFR) of 57 mL/min (0.95 mL/s) were studied. Levels of plasma 8-isoprostanes (8-epiPGF2a) and serum total antioxidant status (TAS) were used as markers of oxidative stress. 8-epiPGF2a levels were determined by using an enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay method, whereas a chromatometric method was used to determine TAS.
RESULTS
Plasma 8-epiPGF2a levels increased significantly as CKD stages advanced (P < 0.001). There was a highly significant inverse correlation between 8-epiPGF2a level and GFR (P < 0.01). Serum TAS levels also increased in a similar fashion (P < 0.009) and showed a significant inverse correlation with GFR (P < 0.01). 8-epiPGF2a and TAS levels showed a positive correlation (P < 0.05). Multiple regression analysis showed that the most significant predictor variable for 8-epiPGF2a level was eGFR, whereas the association between eGFR and TAS was affected strongly by confounding variables, mainly uric acid level.
CONCLUSION
Oxidative stress appears to increase as CKD progresses and correlates significantly with level of renal function. Increased TAS seems to be dependent on several confounding variables, including increased uric acid levels, and therefore does not seem to be a reliable method for assessing the antioxidant capacity of patients with CKD. These results suggest that larger studies using the correct markers to assess the timing and complex interplay of oxidative stress and other risk factors during the progression of CKD should be carried out. |
25471500 | s2ag/train | v2 | 2018-04-03T01:11:55.381Z | 2001-09-01T00:00:00.000Z | The neural inductive response of competent chick ectoblast decreases away from the host axis and correlates with an increased proliferative activity.
We have assessed the quality and quantity of the neural inductive response of the chick gastrula ectoblast located at increasing distancefrom the host axis. In a stage 4 gastrula, entire ectoblast exhibits neural competence. The quality of induced neural tissue shifts from deuterencephalic type in the area pellucida to archencephalic type in the area opaca and primitive medullary or palisade type atthe margin of overgrowth with a concomitant reduction in the number of induced neural cells. In contrast, the mitotic and 3H-TdR labelling frequencies in the competent ectoblast increase with increasing distance from the host axis and in a proportion inverse to the amount of induced neural tissue. It is suggested that the strong neural inductive response is correlated with low proliferative activity, or longer cell cycle time, of the competent ectoblast. |
195463450 | s2ag/train | v2 | 2019-06-26T15:21:48.329Z | 2019-06-03T00:00:00.000Z | AGRICULTURAL HOLDINGS AS BENEFICIARIES OF AREA AND OPERATIONAL PAYM ENTS FROM THE EUROPEAN
UNION IN POLAND IN THE PERIOD OF 2007-2013
The aim of the article was to assess the spatial diversity of payments of European Union assistance programmes implemented in the financial period of 2007-2013, which were directed to farms, as well as the assessment of the structure of these funds. It was shown that as much as PLN 121.2 billion – nearly 25.6% of the total – were distributed to the above-mentioned group of beneficiaries. The analysis was based on amounts of the obtained payments, including their division, as proposed by the authors, into area payments (dependent on the current subsidy rates per 1 ha of agricultural acreage) and operational payments (related to the implementation of specific aid measures within the CAP), with a breakdown into four absorption directions by the established groups of endogenous features of agriculture. A number of indicators and the cartogram method were used. The studies have demonstrated that the structure of these funds is dominated by area payments (77%), which are egalitarian, independent from the implementation of specific modernisation projects, applicable to all agricultural holdings and related to the agricultural acreage in good agricultural condition and the area of crops subject to the relevant payment. Besides the analysis of the spatial diversification of the above-mentioned payments by voivodships and counties, the research was guided towards the assessment of the relation between area and operational payments (Polish average 0.30), assuming that the share of the latter – given the impact of the EU funds – plays a decisive role in the modernisation of agriculture.
|
247064650 | s2ag/train | v2 | 2022-02-24T16:19:51.418Z | 2022-02-21T00:00:00.000Z | Assessing How Big Insurance Firms Report and Manage Carbon Emissions: A Case Study of Allianz
Carbon management is an important topic for investigation to ensure the accountability of firms in meeting Paris Agreement targets. Transparency and rigorous scrutiny are needed to keep industries on track to accomplish a reduction in greenhouse gas emissions. To maintain a healthy environment, and promote human and ecosystem health, it will be vital to limit global warming to below 2 °C. Allianz presents a good example of carbon management as they are a leading insurance firm that utilises the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) standards to report their greenhouse gas emissions. Allianz has promoted important initiatives such as the Net-Zero Climate Alliance and made an array of pledges that promote net-zero business operations by 2050. In 2020, Allianz reported greenhouse gas emissions equivalent to 384,178 tCO2, a 31% reduction in their emissions compared to 2019 figures. Procuring carbon credits is the main mechanism that Allianz has used to reduce their reportable emissions, as well as making investments into renewable energies—wind and solar. This study is limited by the information provided by Allianz and the accuracy in which they have reported their greenhouse gas emissions and emissions reductions. In the last reporting year, Allianz produced the greatest carbon emissions in the EU/USA insurance sector, producing 189,061 tCO2e more than their closest competitor. To achieve net-zero emissions, Allianz will need to increase their investment into carbon offsets and transition to 100% renewable energy use, while concurrently reducing their investment into coal and gas mining industries. This research gives an insight into the greenhouse gas emissions being produced by insurance/investment firms while also detailing the emissions reduction methods that are being employed. This study synthesises scientific literature with business reports to present a detailed account of industry carbon emissions, emissions reductions, and overall progress towards meeting net-zero pledges, in line with Paris Agreement targets. The recommendations made in this study are based on the information provided by Allianz and are designed to be within the scope of what would be possible for this firm. The aim of this study was to determine the actions and issues in the process of carbon management with a specific focus on Allianz. Key objectives of this research are: 1. To determine the net-zero pledges made by Allianz; 2. To determine the carbon emissions and emissions reductions made by Allianz compared to other firms in the sector; and 3. To determine how these emissions reductions have been achieved. |
253159460 | s2ag/train | v2 | 2022-10-28T06:19:31.974Z | 2022-10-26T00:00:00.000Z | Cybersecurity Challenges in Healthcare.
Cyber security attacks evidence has shown that many sectors and industries are still at an insufficient level of readiness to counter these threats, including healthcare organizations and the entire healthcare industry. The COVID-19 pandemic has additionally launched the issue of cyber protection of healthcare systems and connected medical and other devices as well as modern IT components, which are often the entry point for attackers against healthcare organizations. With the aim of a systematic approach to cyber security in healthcare organizations, this article comprehensively presents cyber risks and possible consequences of attacks in the context of healthcare organization services, as well as identifies the five most important cyber security challenges and provides recommendations for establishing protection mechanisms in line with best practices. |
165114970 | s2ag/train | v2 | 2019-05-26T14:36:18.820Z | 2017-01-02T00:00:00.000Z | The Shapira Scroll was an Authentic Dead Sea Scroll
Wilhelm Shapira astonished the European academic world in 1883 by offering for sale fifteen or sixteen leather fragments of an ancient Hebrew scroll containing parts of Deuteronomy, but in a version that deviated from the Masorah. The script of the scroll, known to us today as paleo-Hebrew, is an archaism of the pre-exilic Hebrew script. The sale offer was made to the British Museum and the asking price was one million British pounds. The British museum was willing to consider the offer and appointed Christian David Ginsburg to ascertain the authenticity of the scroll. Ginsburg analyzed the fragments of the Shapira scroll for almost three weeks but it was Charles Clermont-Ganneau, the renowned French scholar, who publicly announced on 21 August 1883 that the scroll is a forgery. On the following day, Ginsburg wrote to Bond, the director of the British Museum, that the manuscript is in fact a forgery. This article attempts to demonstrate that the Shapira scroll was an authentic manuscript by presenting circumstantial evidence in favour of the scroll. The evidence focuses upon physical characteristics of the scroll as well as upon paleographic aspects. |
30865420 | s2ag/train | v2 | 2017-02-13T23:00:46.816Z | 2010-11-01T00:00:00.000Z | Research on the Policy-Driven Self-Management Model in Satellite Network Management
In order to accomplish the automatic and intelligent management to the satellite network, this paper designs a policy-driven self-management model which integrates all network management function components by policy engine to manage the network. In the model, policy decision point receives soft-faulty events, conducts policy decision-making and sends the results to the corresponding management function components to solve the soft-faulty problems, which don’t need human intervention. Furthermore, this paper adopts a task decomposition mechanism to realize the policy-based collaboration management. Simulation results show that the self-management model improves the automaticity of the satellite network management. |
23387620 | s2ag/train | v2 | 2018-04-03T04:33:32.678Z | 2011-04-01T00:00:00.000Z | Significance of primary tumor volume and T-stage on prognosis in nasopharyngeal carcinoma treated with intensity-modulated radiation therapy.
OBJECTIVE
The aim of this study was to evaluate the effect of the primary tumor volume on prognosis in nasopharyngeal carcinoma treated with intensity-modulated radiation therapy.
METHODS
Between August 2003 and April 2005, 112 patients with Stage I-IVB nasopharyngeal carcinoma treated by intensity-modulated radiation therapy were included. Measurement of the primary tumor volume was based on contrast-enhanced computed tomography scans before treatment. A receiver operating characteristics curve was used to determine the best cut-off point of the primary tumor volume.
RESULTS
The mean primary tumor volume for 112 patients with nasopharyngeal carcinoma was 33.9 ± 28.7 ml. Within the framework of UICC T-staging, all patients were divided into four groups according to the primary tumor volume. We call it the volume stage (V1 <15.65 ml, V2 = 15.65-24.25 ml, V3 = 24.25-50.55 ml and V4 >50.55 ml). The 5-year overall survival rates for V1, V2, V3 and V4 were 88.5, 83.3, 82.4 and 54.5% (P = 0.014), respectively. The cumulative survival curves for V1, V2 and V3 were very close, but clearly separated from V4. In addition, Cox proportional hazards regression model analysis showed that a primary tumor volume >50 ml was an independent risk factor for radiotherapy (risk ratio = 3.485, P = 0.025).
CONCLUSIONS
This study demonstrated that the primary tumor volume had significantly impacted on the prognosis of patients with nasopharyngeal carcinoma. We proposed that the primary tumor volume should be considered as an additional stage indicator in the new revision of the clinical stage of nasopharyngeal carcinoma. |
78094170 | s2ag/train | v2 | 2019-03-16T13:02:36.837Z | 2019-05-01T00:00:00.000Z | Dihydroartemisinin, an antimalarial drug, induces absent in melanoma 2 inflammasome activation and autophagy in human hepatocellular carcinoma HepG2215 cells
As an effective antimalarial drug, Dihydroartemisinin (DHA) is readily isolated from the traditional Chinese medicine of Artemisia annua. DHA is not only an autophagy promoter but also a substance with strong antitumor efficiency. The relationship between autophagy and inflammasomes has been suggested in hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). However, there are few reports describing relationships between inflammasomes and autophagy in HCC therapy. The present study demonstrated that DHA suppressed cell proliferation in HepG2215 cells in a dose‐ and time‐dependent manner. The inhibitory activity is mediated by autophagy, in which reactive oxygen species (ROS) production induced nuclear and mitochondrial DNA damage. Then, DHA were first shown to promote AIM2/caspase‐1 inflammasome. Compared with the DHA group, the autophagy inhibitor 3‐MA significantly inhibited the expressions of activated Caspase‐1, a pyroptotic marker proteins. Meanwhile, repression of mTOR by rapamycin promoted autophagy and AIM2/caspase‐1 activation. The caspase‐1 inhibitor Z‐YVAD‐FMK also notably blocked autophagy cell death characterized by the downexpression of Beclin‐1 and LC3‐II. Additionally, the study demonstrated that DHA suppressed pseudopodium formation and cell mobility. Therefore, we first reveal a novel mechanism that DHA promotes AIM2/caspase‐1 inflammasome, which contributes to autophagy in HepG2215 cells. Moreover, nuclear and mitochondrial DNA damage was also involved in this process via ROS production. |
10392820 | s2ag/train | v2 | 2018-04-03T00:15:40.975Z | 2000-03-01T00:00:00.000Z | Pharmacokinetics of SCH 56592, a New Azole Broad-Spectrum Antifungal Agent, in Mice, Rats, Rabbits, Dogs, and Cynomolgus Monkeys
ABSTRACT SCH 56592 is a new broad-spectrum azole antifungal agent that is in phase 3 clinical trials for the treatment of serious systemic fungal infections. The pharmacokinetics of this drug candidate were evaluated following its intravenous (i.v.) or oral (p.o.) administration as a solution in hydroxypropyl-β-cyclodextrin (HPβCD) or oral administration as a suspension in 0.4% methylcellulose (MC) in studies involving mice, rats, rabbits, dogs, and cynomolgus monkeys. SCH 56592 was orally bioavailable in all species. The oral bioavailability was higher with the HPβCD solution (range, 52 to ∼100%) than from the MC suspension (range, 14 to 48%) and was higher in mice (∼100% [HPβCD] and 47% [MC]), rats (∼66% [HPβCD] and 48% [MC]), and dogs (72% [HPβCD] and 37% [MC]) than in monkeys (52% [HPβCD] and 14% [MC]). In rabbits, high concentrations in serum suggested good oral bioavailability with the MC suspension. The i.v. terminal-phase half-lives were 7 h in mice and rats, 15 h in dogs, and 23 h in monkeys. In rabbits, the oral half-life was 9 h. In species given increasing oral doses (mice, rats, and dogs), serum drug concentrations were dose related. Food produced a fourfold increase in serum drug concentrations in dogs. Multiple daily doses of 40 mg of SCH 56592/kg of body weight for eight consecutive days to fed dogs resulted in higher concentrations in serum, indicating accumulation upon multiple dosing, with an accumulation index of approximately 2.6. Concentrations above the MICs and minimum fungicidal concentrations for most organisms were observed at 24 h following a single oral dose in MC suspension in all five species studied (20 mg/kg for mice, rats, and rabbits and 10 mg/kg for dogs and monkeys), suggesting that once-daily administration of SCH 56592 in human subjects would be a therapeutically effective dosage regimen. |
15472260 | s2ag/train | v2 | 2014-10-01T00:00:00.000Z | 2008-01-01T00:00:00.000Z | Analyzing Afro-Cuban Rhythms using Rotation-Aware Clave Template Matching with Dynamic Programming
The majority of existing research in Music Information Retrieval (MIR) has focused on either popular or classical music and frequently makes assumptions that do not generalize to other music cultures. We use the term Computational Ethnomusicology (CE) to describe the use of computer tools to assist the analysis and understanding of musics from around the world. Although existing MIR techniques can serve as a good starting point for CE, the design of effective tools can benefit from incorporating domain-specific knowledge about the musical style and culture of interest. In this paper we describe our realization of this approach in the context of studying Afro-Cuban rhythm. More specifically we show how computer analysis can help us characterize and appreciate the complexities of tracking tempo and analyzing micro-timing in these particular music styles. A novel template-based method for tempo tracking in rhythmically complex Afro-Cuban music is proposed. Although our approach is domain-specific, we believe that the concepts and ideas used could also be used for studying other music cultures after some adaptation. |
211734110 | s2ag/train | v2 | 2020-04-29T08:05:04.191Z | 2019-10-17T00:00:00.000Z | Mutual Information-Driven Subject-Invariant and Class-Relevant Deep Representation Learning in BCI.
In recent years, deep learning-based feature representation methods have shown a promising impact on electroencephalography (EEG)-based brain-computer interface (BCI). Nonetheless, owing to high intra- and inter-subject variabilities, many studies on decoding EEG were designed in a subject-specific manner by using calibration samples, with no concern of its practical use, hampered by time-consuming steps and a large data requirement. To this end, recent studies adopted a transfer learning strategy, especially domain adaptation techniques. Among those, we have witnessed the potential of adversarial learning-based transfer learning in BCIs. In the meantime, it is known that adversarial learning-based domain adaptation methods are prone to negative transfer that disrupts learning generalized feature representations, applicable to diverse domains, for example, subjects or sessions in BCIs. In this article, we propose a novel framework that learns class-relevant and subject-invariant feature representations in an information-theoretic manner, without using adversarial learning. To be specific, we devise two operational components in a deep network that explicitly estimate mutual information between feature representations: 1) to decompose features in an intermediate layer into class-relevant and class-irrelevant ones and 2) to enrich class-discriminative feature representation. On two large EEG datasets, we validated the effectiveness of our proposed framework by comparing with several comparative methods in performance. Furthermore, we conducted rigorous analyses by performing an ablation study in regard to the components in our network, explaining our model's decision on input EEG signals via layer-wise relevance propagation, and visualizing the distribution of learned features via t-SNE. |
207758660 | s2ag/train | v2 | 2019-11-03T14:09:03.458Z | 2019-04-01T00:00:00.000Z | On the performance of ESPAR for spatial multiplexing in reception
The electronically steerable parasitic array radiator (ESPAR) has been proposed as an inexpensive device for spatial multiplexing in transmission via the so-called beamspace modulation. On the other hand, spatial multiplexing (SM) is well known to allow a linear increase of capacity in MIMO systems with the number of antennas under rich scattering, unlike its corresponding logarithmic increase via signal to noise ratio (SNR). When it comes to ESPAR in reception for SM, nonetheless, the issue at hand is the so-called SNR degradation due to oversampling. In particular, oversampling is required given that, although all parasitic elements can be simultaneously controlled, up to a single simultaneous sample can be conveyed in reception. The counter intuitive role of the oversampling rate when seen as the number of spatial samples and its negative impact on SNR is studied in the present paper. It is shown that, from a capacity perspective, the ideal number of spatial samples depends on both the SNR and channel conditions. Furthermore, an algorithm for capacity maximization over the set of reactive loads relying on the simultaneous perturbation stochastic approximation method (SPSA) is shown. Particularly, as an extension of previous work, such an algorithm converges to analog maximum ratio combining (A-MRC) when the oversampling rate is equal to one. |
170290660 | s2ag/train | v2 | 2016-11-30T08:43:22.317Z | 2015-12-14T00:00:00.000Z | The Self-Enclosing God: John Chrysostom and Ephrem Syrus on divine self-limitation as gift of love in Genesis 1-3
In this thesis I study four fourth-century patristic texts based on the creation and fall accounts in Genesis 1–3. Two of them are in Syriac, poetry and a commentary by Ephrem Syrus, and two are in Greek, two sets of sermons or homilies by John Chrysostom. I demonstrate through a close engagement with the texts in their original languages that Ephrem and Chrysostom read Genesis 1–3 through the interpretive lens of divine selflimitation in order to arrive at a deeper meaning of the text for their generation. In other words, their understanding that God freely chooses to limit Himself in Word and deed out of His saving love for us was a key factor in how they read their Bibles, understood its message and used it apologetically in their theologically fraught context. The research shows that the two authors, who can be taken as representative of the Eastern and Western Syrian church in the fourth century, used the doctrine of divine self-limitation to help them exegete the creation and fall accounts in a complex way that cannot be easily characterised according to the traditional fault lines of allegorical, typological or literalhistorical, while remaining within the discipline of a Nicene orthodoxy. I argue that the same interpretive lens of divine self-limitation can be used to great profit in our own generation by people of faith who want to read and apply the Bible to their lives without compromising their intellectual integrity. |
26796160 | s2ag/train | v2 | 2018-04-03T00:50:01.502Z | 2006-06-01T00:00:00.000Z | How Wild-Type TP53 Is Inactivated in Undifferentiated-Type Gastric Carcinomas: Analyses of Intratumoral Heterogeneity in Deletion and Mutation of TP53
Objective: In undifferentiated-type gastric carcinoma (UGC), inactivation of TP53 is infrequent at early stages and comparable to tubular adenocarcinomas (TUBs) at advanced stages. To clarify how TP53 inactivation relates to histogenesis of UGCs, we examined p53 alterations in multiple samples of individual UGCs. Methods: We used 27 UGCs including 12 mixed types with minor tubular component (TC) and 16 with a layered structure (LS), a histological remnant of incipient signet ring cell carcinoma (SIG). We examined p53 expression immunohistochemically and analyzed loss of heterozygosity (LOH) with four microsatellite markers within 17p13.1 in multiple microdissected samples. DNA sequence of mutation hot spots in TP53 was determined in representative samples of each tumor. Results: In the mixed-type UGCs, 5 and 1 of the 8 tumors without LS showed global and regional loss of wild-type TP53, respectively, through mutation and LOH, and one fourth of the tumors with LS showed the regional loss. In the tumors with the mutation, the mutation pattern was identical between TC and poorly differentiated major component. Conclusion: The inactivation of wild-type TP53 is an earlier event before dedifferentiation of TUB to mixed-type UGC, but is less frequent and a later event in a subset of mixed-type UGC deriving from SIG. |
6061050 | s2ag/train | v2 | 2016-10-31T15:45:48.767Z | 2012-08-10T00:00:00.000Z | Bergmann Glial AMPA Receptors Are Required for Fine Motor Coordination
Crucial Cerebellar Glial Cells The role of glial cells and their interaction with neurons in normal behavior is unclear. To address this question, Saab et al. (p. 749, published online 5 July) studied a special type of glial cell in the cerebellum. Conditional mutant mice were produced in which the two glutamate receptor subunits normally present in Bergmann glial cells were efficiently ablated in a temporally controlled manner. Glutamate signaling of the glial cells contributed to the structural and functional integrity of the cerebellar network. Bergmann glial cells also played a role in the “fine-tuning” of neuronal processing, which is crucial for the fast and precise control of complex motor behavior. Signaling by glial cells helps to preserve cerebellar neurons that control movements. The impact of glial neurotransmitter receptors in vivo is still elusive. In the cerebellum, Bergmann glial (BG) cells express α-amino-3-hydroxy-5-methyl-4-isoxazolepropionic acid (AMPA)–type glutamate receptors (AMPARs) composed exclusively of GluA1 and/or GluA4 subunits. With the use of conditional gene inactivation, we found that the majority of cerebellar GluA1/A4-type AMPARs are expressed in BG cells. In young mice, deletion of BG AMPARs resulted in retraction of glial appendages from Purkinje cell (PC) synapses, increased amplitude and duration of evoked PC currents, and a delayed formation of glutamatergic synapses. In adult mice, AMPAR inactivation also caused retraction of glial processes. The physiological and structural changes were accompanied by behavioral impairments in fine motor coordination. Thus, BG AMPARs are essential to optimize synaptic integration and cerebellar output function throughout life. |
39733760 | s2ag/train | v2 | 2017-10-21T13:39:42.670Z | 2008-06-07T00:00:00.000Z | Clinical features and management of primary biliary cirrhosis.
Primary biliary cirrhosis (PBC), which is characterised by progressive destruction of intrahepatic bile ducts, is not a rare disease since both prevalence and incidence are increasing during the last years mainly due to the improvement of case finding strategies. The prognosis of the disease has improved due to both the recognition of earlier and indolent cases, and to the wide use of ursodeoxycholic acid (UDCA). New indicators of prognosis are available that will be useful especially for the growing number of patients with less severe disease. Most patients are asymptomatic at presentation. Pruritus may represent the most distressing symptom and, when UDCA is ineffective, cholestyramine represents the mainstay of treatment. Complications of long-standing cholestasis may be clinically relevant only in very advanced stages. Available data on the effects of UDCA on clinically relevant end points clearly indicate that the drug is able to slow but not to halt the progression of the disease while, in advanced stages, the only therapeutic option remains liver transplantation. |
8823760 | s2ag/train | v2 | 2017-02-19T03:29:45.177Z | 2016-09-01T00:00:00.000Z | Ultra step-up DC-DC converter based on three windings coupled inductor
In this paper, an ultra-step-up DC-DC converter using a three-winding coupled inductor and a voltage multiplier cell are proposed to achieve high step-up voltage. The important advantages of the proposed converter are as: Only one active switch is required without extreme duty cycle that high voltage is attained, The voltage stress on the active switch and diodes are reduced by increasing the turns ratio of the secondary windings of the coupled inductor, and the energy of the leakage inductance of the coupled inductor is recycled by switched capacitor and directly transfers to the load. The operation principle and steady state analysis of continuous conduction mode are used to determine voltage gain and switch voltage stress. Also the extension of the proposed converter to attain more step-up voltage gain are presented. The simulation results are used to verify the performance and validity. |
211757300 | s2ag/train | v2 | 2019-10-17T09:04:51.942Z | 2019-10-13T00:00:00.000Z | Social activity of the company in the face of declining economic growth
Social investment is an important aspect of companies in Russia at the present stage. This leads to the task of evaluating the effectiveness of social investment strategies and the economic feasibility of implementing social investment projects. It also actualizes the problem of the advisability of disclosing information about the company’s activities to external stakeholders. The problem of social investment is becoming especially urgent in conditions of insufficient rates of economic growth and deterioration of the financial condition of many companies. The inconsistency of theoretical approaches and the results of practical research do not give an unambiguous answer to this question.The article considers the resource approach and the approach based on the theory of stakeholders. According to the theory of stakeholders, non-financial reports consider the source of reducing information asymmetry and harmonizing the interests of stakeholders. The dynamics of non-financial reporting by Russian companies is analyzed based on the data of the Register and the Library of non-financial reports of the Union of Industrialists and Entrepreneurs of Russia. The analyzes were carried out in a temporary and industry breakdown. The features of the formation of types of non-financial reporting by industry are revealed. The factors determining the interest in reducing information asymmetry taking into account industry specifics are identified. Data can be used to form a feedback relationship with stakeholders. |
189204900 | s2ag/train | v2 | 2019-06-13T13:21:07.777Z | 2015-10-01T00:00:00.000Z | Has the Performance of the Indian Organized Manufacturing Sector Improved?
Author is grateful to Prof. Jayati Ghosh for her constructive suggestions which have significantly improved the text at many places. The author express profound gratitude to Prof. C.P. Chandrasekhar, Prof. Abhijit Das, Dr Murali Kallummal, Shri Jitender Singh, Dr. Michael Gasiorek, Dr. Rashmi Banga, Mudit Jhamb, Anand Sharma and Aditi Gupta for providing valuable advice and feedbacks on the paper. ARTICLES / 9 |
135691350 | s2ag/train | v2 | 2019-04-28T13:12:15.009Z | 2011-07-01T00:00:00.000Z | Formation of ultrafine grained ferrite during thermomechanical treatment in microalloyed steel
Abstract In the present work, the formation of ultrafine grained ferrite has been studied by applying suitable thermomechanical treatment. A high amount of deformation (∼80%) at varying strain rates (0·01–10 s−1) was applied in the temperature range of Ar3 to Ac3 followed by water quenching. This treatment resulted in a two-phase ferrite–martensite microstructure as compared to fully martensite structure after quenching without deformation. The formation of ultrafine ferrite (⩽3 μm) during deformation was favourable at a lower temperature and a slower strain rate. A maximum ∼50% ferrite formed during deformation at 780°C with a strain rate of 0·01 s−1. Experimental rolling with a high strain (∼1·3) with finish rolling temperature just above Ar3 (∼750°C) resulted in fine ferrite–pearlite of ⩽3 μm, and the properties showed a high value of strength as compared to steels rolled in a conventional way. Dual phase microstructure (ferrite and martensite) was produced after partial austenisation to 780°C followed by quenching in water, and this resulted in an excellent combination of properties (high ultimate tensile strength, low yield strength/ultimate tensile strength, high elongation and high n values). |
196740800 | s2ag/train | v2 | 2018-04-03T04:19:43.536Z | 2011-03-07T00:00:00.000Z | Transformation of anionically activated trifluoromethyl groups to heterocycles under mild aqueous conditions.
The (hetero)aromatic trifluoromethyl group is present in many biologically active molecules and is generally considered to be chemically stable. In this paper, a convenient one-step synthesis of C-C linked aryl-heterocycles or heteroaryl-heterocycles in good to excellent yields via the reaction of anionically activated trifluoromethyl groups with amino nucleophiles containing a second NH, OH, or SH nucleophile in 1 N sodium hydroxide is reported. The method has high functional group tolerability and is potentially useful in parallel synthesis. |
24673750 | s2ag/train | v2 | 2018-04-03T04:39:29.687Z | 2010-03-24T00:00:00.000Z | Effect of Nerve-Sparing Radical Hysterectomy on Bladder Function Recovery and Quality of Life in Patients With Cervical Carcinoma
Objective: To investigate the bladder function recovery and quality of life (QOL) using nerve-sparing radical hysterectomy (NSRH) in treating early invasive cervical carcinoma. Methods: Subjects included patients who underwent radical hysterectomy by laparotomy for early-stage cervical carcinoma. Thirty-one patients were randomly assigned to 2 groups: group A, 15 patients who underwent NSRH; and group B, 16 patients who underwent classical radical hysterectomy. We observed the patients' general clinical information, surgical characteristics, postoperative vital signs, pathological findings, adjuvant therapies, and adverse effects. A urodynamic study was used to assess the bladder function. The patients' QOL was evaluated by Functional Assessment of Cervical Cancer Therapy (FACT-Cx). Results: Twenty-nine patients completed the study. No significant differences were found in age, body mass index, surgery characteristics, pathological findings, adjuvant therapies, and main adverse effects between the 2 groups (P > 0.05). The postoperative time of bladder function recovery in group A was obviously earlier than that in group B (P < 0.05). The urodynamic study showed that the extent of bladder function recovery in group A was better than that in group B (P < 0.05). The QOL in group A evaluated 1 year after operation was improved compared with that in group B (P < 0.05). The QOL analysis showed that group A did much better than group B in social and family life, emotional well-being, working status, and the symptom correlated with the operation (P < 0.05). No significant differences were found in basic bodily functions (P > 0.05). Conclusions: Nerve-sparing radical hysterectomy is a safe and reliable technique for early invasive cervical carcinoma. The postoperative bladder function recovery and the patients' QOL were improved after NSRH compared with the control group. Therefore, NSRH could be an alternative management to modify the classical surgery for cervical carcinoma with International Federation of Gynecology and Obstetrics stages IB1 to IIA. |
2112950 | s2ag/train | v2 | 2018-04-03T00:11:35.259Z | 2002-09-01T00:00:00.000Z | Population-based epidemiologic study of tinea pedis in Israeli children
Background. In recent years we have seen an increasing number of children in Israel with tinea pedis. Objective. To determine the prevalence of tinea pedis in 5- to 14-year-old schoolchildren in a comprehensive epidemiologic population-based study. Methods. A total of 1148 children, ages 5 to 14 years, from 7 schools with different socioeconomic backgrounds from the Jerusalem area were examined for the presence of tinea pedis. Scrapings from suspected lesions of fungal infection were sent to a mycologic laboratory for KOH microscopy and fungal identification. Information on the children’s background and predisposing factors (regarding living conditions, hygiene, etc.) were provided by means of questionnaires filled out by each child. Results. Of the 1148 children examined, 29.6% exhibited erythema and scaling, but only 6.9% of these were mycologically positive for tinea pedis. Trichophyton rubrum was the main causative agent (68%) of tinea pedis. The prevalence of tinea pedis increased with age, hyperhidrosis and particularly repeated foot washing (a 3.2 higher rate in children who washed their feet twice a day vs. those who did not wash daily). Conclusion. The prevalence of tinea pedis in children has increased in recent decades in Israel and should be considered in the differential diagnosis of dermatologic diseases affecting the feet. Washing habits have a significant effect on tinea pedis in children. |
388050 | s2ag/train | v2 | 2018-04-03T03:09:06.231Z | 2002-12-01T00:00:00.000Z | Coronary Artery Disease Risk Factors & Their Association with Physical Activity in Older Athletes
Objective To evaluate the effects of present-day physical activity on selected coronary artery disease (CAD) risk factors of older former athletes and to compare these selected risk factors with age-matched older non-athletes. Methods The selected CAD risk factors were compared among the active older athletes (n = 52; 45.9 ± 4.75 years), sedentary older athletes (n = 54; 47.2 ± 4.67 years), and sedentary older non-athletes (n = 56; 46.0 ± 5.26 years) of Calcutta and surroundings. CAD risk factors including anthropometric obesity parameters, blood lipids and blood pressure were measured. The present-day total physical activity of each individual was assessed by a questionnaire and estimated through the sum of energy expended during habitual, professional, recreational and conditioning physical activities, and sleeping time. The total physical activity was expressed as energy expended in mega joules per kilogram of body weight per week (MJ.kg−1.week−1). Maximal oxygen consumption (VO2 max) was assessed by maximal treadmill test. Body score distributions in each group were also calculated. Results The selected CAD risk factors differed significantly among the groups. The sedentary older athletes had significantly higher mean values in weight, BMI, body fat percentage, total cholesterol, low-density lipoprotein (LDL) cholesterol, triglycerides and ratio of total cholesterol to high-density lipoprotein cholesterol (total C/HDLC) than that of active older athletes and sedentary older non-athletes. A reverse trend was observed in the case of HDL cholesterol. On the other hand, the presently active older athletes had significantly favourable levels of most of the selected CAD risk factors than the sedentary older athletes and non-athletes. The present-day total physical activity had significant negative association with total cholesterol, ratio of total cholesterol to HDL cholesterol, LDL cholesterol, triglycerides, resting systolic blood pressure when controlling for the effects of age, body mass index and body fat percentages. So, it is confirmed from this analysis that the subjects in the present study who had a greater present-day total physical activity had favourable CAD risk factors. Conclusions The results of this study indicate that the risk for CAD or levels of selected CAD risk factors of former athletes after retirement from active sports were more related to the present-day physical activity i.e., higher total physical activity lowers the risk of coronary artery disease. |
29982850 | s2ag/train | v2 | 2018-04-03T01:33:40.222Z | 2009-12-04T00:00:00.000Z | Efficient, regioselective access to bicyclic imidazo[1,2-x]- heterocycles via gold- and base-promoted cyclization of 1-alkynylimidazoles.
Reactions of 1-alkynylimidazoles involving the formation of their 2-lithio derivatives followed by addition of aldehydes or ketones are presented. The method gives access to 1-alkynyl-2-(hydroxymethyl)imidazoles which undergo 6-endo-dig or 5-exo-dig cyclization under AuCl(3)- or base-catalyzed conditions to yield imidazo[1,2-c]oxazoles and imidazo[2,1-c][1,4]oxazine heterocycles. Under transition metal catalysis, the reaction occurs in a regiospecific manner, leading exclusively to the product of 6-endo-dig attack, whereas under basic conditions, the reaction takes place in a regioselective manner giving preferentially the product from 5-exo-dig attack. |
35949760 | s2ag/train | v2 | 2018-04-03T03:02:07.205Z | 2016-11-01T00:00:00.000Z | Forest and landscape restoration: Toward a shared vision and vocabulary.
Our species plays a unique role in the past, present, and future of life on Earth. As primates, we need to eat, drink, sleep, be protected from predators and the elements, socialize, and procreate. As humans, we have the potential to overcome cultural, geographic, social, technical, and political barriers to solve problems that threaten our planet and the diverse forms and styles of life it sustains. Half of the Earth’s surface area is now devoted to grazing land or cultivated crops; in this conversion, over half of the world’s forests have disappeared ( Kareiva et al., 2007 ). Much of this cleared land has lost or severely reduced its potential for agricultural production due to soil erosion or degradation ( Fig. 1 ). Although many forests demonstrate the capacity to recover spontaneously from catastrophic disturbances, cumulative changes in forests and other ecosystems, coupled with growing human populations, increasing per-capita rates of consumption, disease outbreaks, biodiversity loss, extreme climate changes, and sea-level rise now undermine our planetary life-support system ( Steff en et al., 2015 ). An urgent correction is needed to reverse the land degradation produced by these trends, return forest cover to barren lands, return productivity for growing food, fuel, and fi ber crops, and expand and restore damaged patches of remnant forests. Over 2 billion hectares (7,722,043 square miles) of dysfunctional land (formerly forest and mixed woodland) provide opportunities for forest landscape restoration ( Laestadius et al., 2011 ; Fig. 1 ). A massive global eff ort, the Bonn Challenge, has mobilized nations and subnational regions to restore 150 million ha of forest land by 2020 consistent with the principles of Forest and Landscape Restoration ( Bonn Challenge, 2011 ). Th e New York Declaration builds on this initiative to bring an additional 200 million ha into restoration by 2030 ( New York Declaration, 2014 ). Th ese global restoration initiatives advocate a regional landscape approach, incorporating large spatial extents with multiple ecosystem types and multiple forms of land ownership and governance, oft en in landscape mosaics where productive land uses are balanced with areas of different types of conserved or restored forests. A landscape-scale approach includes natural ecosystems, cultivated areas, and passively and actively restored areas enveloping villages, cities, and communities. Restoring and protecting small units of isolated forest ecosystems is not suffi cient to reduce biodiversity loss or mitigate climate change ( Chazdon et al., 2009 ). Working within landscapes widens the latitude for land-use trade-off s to be made in a way that balances the rights and needs of landowners and other stakeholders, including those that live and work there ( Sayer et al., 2013 ). Th e goal of forest landscape restoration is not to recreate original forest cover across the entire area, but rather to improve ecological integrity and enhance human well-being in deforested or degraded forest landscapes, including active agricultural landscapes ( Maginnis and Jackson, 2005 ). Forest and landscape restoration involves much more than planting trees. It is a collaborative and multisectorial, long-term process to create or recreate biologically rich forest landscapes, strengthen forestbased livelihoods, and sustainably manage tree cover within and outside forests for the benefi t of people and their future generations ( Laestadius et al., 2015 ; Sabogal et al., 2015 ). Restoring landscapes also provides more options for the persistence of populations of threatened and endangered species. Some conservationists have been reluctant to embrace forest restoration because they fear that recognizing the ability to restore forest ecosystems might be used as a justifi cation for continued exploitation and deforestation. Th e United Nations Convention on Biological Diversity has captured this view as follows: “Restoration is not a substitute to conservation, nor is it a conduit for allowing intentional destruction or unsustainable use” ( CBD, 2011 , p. 15). Landscape thinking resolves this confl ict. Restoration and conservation are integral and complementary activities that must go hand in hand within a landscape approach. Protecting existing forest areas and encouraging 1 Manuscript received 9 August 2016; revision accepted 15 September 2016. 2 Department of Ecology & Evolutionary Biology, University of Connecticut, Storrs, Connecticut 06269 USA; 3 International Institute for Sustainability, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil; 4 Tropical Forests and People Centre, University of the Sunshine Coast, Locked Bag 4, Maroochydore DC, Queensland, 4558 Australia; 5 World Resources Institute, Global Restoration Initiative, 10 G Street, NE Suite 800, Washington, D.C. 20002 USA; and 6 Laestadius Consulting LLC, Silver Spring, Maryland 20901 USA 7 Author correspondence (e-mail: [email protected]) doi:10.3732/ajb.1600294 O N T H E N AT U R E O F T H I N G S : E S S AY S New Ideas and Directions in Botany |
250223360 | s2ag/train | v2 | 2022-07-03T15:18:18.148Z | 2022-07-01T00:00:00.000Z | A Lubrication‐Based Solver for Shear‐Thinning Flow in Rough Fractures
The depth‐averaged (2D) lubrication theory is often adopted to simulate Newtonian flow in rough fractures. This approach, which is computationally much less expensive than using 3D CFD solvers, allows addressing large ensembles of stochastic fracture realizations. For creeping flow, the degree of approximation introduced is limited as long as the apertures vary relatively smoothly. We propose the first generalization of this approach addressing the flow of fluids whose rheology, described by the Ellis model, is shear‐thinning (ST) above a crossover shear stress and Newtonian (of viscosity μ0) below. The resulting nonlinear Reynolds equation for pressures is solved for a vast range of realistic rheological parameter values using a novel and specifically designed finite volume‐based numerical model. The spatial discretization takes inspiration from the graph p‐Laplacian to yield a symmetric Newton Jacobian, allowing for a highly efficient inexact implementation of the preconditioned conjugate gradient‐based Newton‐Krylov method. This is combined with a parameter continuation strategy to increase code robustness and ensure global convergence for flow indices as low as 0.1 with an excellent efficiency. This original solver is used to investigate realistic synthetic rough fracture geometries, which exhibits both self‐affinity and a correlation length. The results show that the ST rheology mitigates the effects of aperture heterogeneities, increasing fracture transmissivity by several orders of magnitudes as compared to the Newtonian flow of viscosity μ0 if the imposed macroscopic gradient is sufficiently large, and even rendering the rough fracture up to 10 times more permeable than a smooth fracture of identical mean aperture. |